‘Please man, please don’t kill me, I was just doing what I was told.’
‘Does Mr. Torriero know about this place?’ George asked, pointing his shotgun at his head.
‘I don’t know Mr. Torriero.’
George took a cup of boiling hot tea off the table and threw it in the guys face.
‘Arrrggghhh God help me please don’t, please, honestly I don’t know Mr. Torriero, I’m a nobody. Jack would deal with him.’
Was Jack the guy with the glasses?’
‘Yeah he would deal with our area, not me. I didn’t want to do this, they made me.’
‘How did you find this place?’
‘We stopped a couple of blokes on the motorway, Jack lost it and started torturing them, burning their faces on the trucks exhaust, they gave the place up shortly before he killed them. I had nothing to do with any of it, they have my family, they’re making me do it, I just wanna go home to my wife and....’
‘Shut up now I need to think’ George said, walking back into the kitchen. While Roy was watching the guy, I went and found my rucksack, pulled my Welrod out, and checked the magazine, which had one bullet left. I clipped it back in, put the safety on and tucked it in my pants.
‘Bring him outside’ shouted George, walking through the house, out of the front door and down the wooden stairs. Roy grabbed the man by the neck and frog marched him outside to some waste land at the side of the property were George was waiting with his shotgun. ‘Kneel him down there,’ he said, pointing at the floor in front of him.
‘Please, please I promise...’
‘Shut up and listen, the Lord our God will commit sentence upon you, not me. I just do his work and will reap his rewards when he sees fit. I want you to go back to Mr. Torriero and....’
‘You cannot let him go’ I interrupted, ‘I’m sorry but you just cannot trust him.’
The man on his knees started crying, ‘I’ve told you everything I know, I won’t bring anyone back here I promise, I’ll just say we never found the property.’
‘You’ll never be sure your safe again if you let him go, you cannot live with that constant fear’ I said.
‘I won’t talk, I told you. They killed my family too, please I’m begging you don’t kill me.’
‘A minute ago you said they had taken your family, now they’re dead? Which is it?’
‘Er, they did take them, then they killed them, I just want to find somewhere safe.’
The guys story was changing every time he opened his mouth, we couldn’t trust anything he said. George was struggling with the situation, I’m not sure if it was his God or his morals, but I had no such problem. I knew what had to happen, there was no other way, this was the world we were living in now. As I walked over to him, he was panicking, pleading with me. He grabbed my legs as I pulled back the bolt and placed the gun to his sweating forehead. He was looking up at me, crying, as I fired my last bullet, blood sprayed out of the exit wound as he collapsed onto the floor.
‘This place is comprised if anyone knows about its existence’ I said. ‘He had to die, there was no way around it.’
‘God has protected us this far’ replied George.
‘If we hadn’t been here today, I’m not sure what would have happened’ I replied. ‘You need more men and more weapons.’
‘The lord will...’
‘Not be able to protect an old man and a group of women against a gang of ruthless, armed men.’
‘He’s right George’ said Roy ‘Your faith is strong but this ain’t a fair world any more, you need to think rationally about it. Do you have a plan B? Should this place get discovered, do you know somewhere else you can take everyone?’
‘I have another place should I need it’ George responded. ‘But that journey itself would be too dangerous.’
Roy picked up a shovel that was leaning against one of the outhouses and started to dig a hole in the frozen ground for the bodies, while George and I went inside to move them. First we went down the stairs to the cellar, so George could tell the ladies what had happened. I picked up the man’s black rimmed glasses and folded them up, putting them in his pocket. I grabbed his arms and George held his feet, as we carried him outside and threw him on top of the other body. The other man was still pinned to the wall in the kitchen, I held him with my arm as I pulled the knife out of his neck, and let his body fall to the floor. We carried him outside and threw him into the hole Roy had dug, the other two bodies were thrown on top and we covered them with soil. When we got back into the house, the females were hard at work cleaning the blood up, after a couple of hours we were all sat in the living room like nothing had happened. Before I went to sleep, I did take some time to sit back and observe the house, and how it works. There was so many reasons to be optimistic, the house truly did work as a family, with everyone chipping in. But I’m not sure it’s the right place for Emma, I’m concerned about their security should something like this happen again. I do hope George doesn’t put to much reliance in his God, there’s nothing wrong with faith, so long as it doesn’t cloud his judgement.
CHAPTER SEVEN
14/11/2027 - Time 11:00
I must have fallen asleep sat in front of the fire last night, the warmth sending me off as I filled in my diary. I woke up in a bed, with no recollection of how I got there, Roy reported to me the same thing had happened to him, with his wounded hand treated and re-bandaged. My bed looked like it hadn’t been slept in, so comfortable I must have been, the covers had barely moved. I sat up and looked around the little room, there were some clothes in a neat pile on the floor, although they were not mine. There was a light blue bath towel on the edge of my bed, and a small leather Bible on the bedside table. I picked it up and opened it where its bookmark sat, there was a entry that took my eye, I will repeat it here as it seemed quite pertinent.
Matthew 23:3
“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.”
Sometimes I wish I could regain my faith, I’m just not sure it’s possible any more June and the ladies made Roy and myself a hot bath when we got up, something I thought I would never get the opportunity to enjoy again, I don’t think I ever truly appreciated the simplicity of a bath, but right then it felt amazing. I just lay there watching the heat rising off the water, my fingers beginning to prune. I could feel weeks of dirt and grime washing off my skin, my hair and my beard. By the end, the bath water was as black and dirty as the sky. Over breakfast Roy and I discussed what we would do today and agreed a day of recuperating was the best idea, we had suffered greatly over the past few days and we knew the conditions towards Edinburgh were only going to get worse.
14/11/2027 - Time 20:00
I’m writing today’s final diary entry before an early night in preparation for the last thirty mile walk tomorrow, hopefully completing the journey to my farm on the foot of the Pentland hills in the central belt. We will set off at nine a.m. for an eleven to twelve hour walk, the conditions are going to get harder but we will be as prepared as possible. After our bath this morning, I got my map from my rucksack and laid it out on the dining table, it was a bit damp and the edges were stuck together but it had held up well. I showed George the location of the creature’s body as accurately as possible and he marked it on his own map. I left mine open on the table to dry, I also pulled the hanky out of my bag containing the chip I cut out of the creatures head, George was fascinated with it, so I gave it him as a thank you for this hospitality. He told me he would drive us to the junction where the A702 leaves the M6 tomorrow morning, it’s only ten minutes by vehicle over the fields and he needed to go on a supplies run. After we were treated to another home cooked dinner, the whole household started work on improving the buildings security, the females started by removing all signs that June was living in the house, clothes, makeup, even her toothbrush. Everything was moved downstairs, where she will now sleep, it’s safer for her to be
completely removed from the house. From the front facing bedroom window, it’s possible to see anyone approaching from some distance away. You can never predicted when or where an attack might come, so it was agreed a watcher was needed full time. A roster was drawn up giving everyone the role in four hour shifts, using torch lights as a signal. Weapons were concealed in every room in the house, mainly knives taped under tables, beds, inside draws, this was mainly as a last resort but necessary none the less. At the back of the house, we backed an old tractor up against the cellar door, you could still get in and out but you would be required to crawl on your belly, and it hid the door from anyone approaching from outside. When we came to move the truck the men had arrived in, we realised we must have buried the keys with them, and we weren’t about to dig their bodies up. I lifted the hand break off and George, Roy and myself pushed it into the largest outhouse, and covered it with tarpaulin. In the afternoon, Roy and I wrapped up for the conditions, and went to the outer reaches of the farm to cut some fire wood, while George picked a chicken for the stew. A storm had felled nine trees along the south west side of the property, they had laid there for the past few weeks and needed cutting down so they could be dried out in one of the outhouses. Armed with an axe, we chopped them up and threw them onto the back of a trailer. When we approached the buildings, I took the torch out of my pocket and flashed it three times, finishing with one long one. The look out flashed back two long flashes, we loaded the logs into the north facing outhouse, there will be enough to last a few weeks, George told us they would need around a week to dry out. In the same room, our clothes were hung up alongside a weeks worth of women’s clothes drying on a washing line, strung from one side of the building to the other, after being washed yesterday while we slept. When we got back inside we were greeted to an amazing smell as soon as we opened the front door, the stew was boiling on the fire and the smells hit our nostrils as soon as we entered, nothing better after a hard days work. We all sat down in front of the fire and listened to a few stories from our house guests before the food was ready, George asked Roy what his plans were after we had found Emma. ‘To be honest, I haven’t given it much thought yet’ Roy explained. ‘We haven’t talked much about what’s going to happen when we get there, with the different situations that could arise.’
‘I’ve been that desperate to get there,’ I interrupted. ‘I haven’t thought about what I would do if she wasn’t there, I don’t really know what I would do. I don’t think I would be able to continue not knowing, it would be more merciful to find her dead, at least I would know.’
June came over to give me a hug, and said ‘You will find her Nathan, and when you do, you are welcome back here.’ I could hear other voices of agreement, this was as close to a home as I think I could ever find.
‘There will always be a place for you here’ said George, ‘We could do with some extra men, to help with security and the physical jobs.
‘But what are we doing to fight back?’ Roy asked, ‘I don’t want to just accept what’s happening here, I want to fight back. I cannot just sit around making broth while the fate of humanity is decided for us. Who is prepared to fight?’
‘We are all fighting’ George shouted.
‘I’m sorry George I mean you no disrespect, what you are doing is incredibly brave, but what I mean is an army, forming an army that can fight back, stop these creatures before its too late, who has got that kind of power?’
‘There’s no government or army left’ I said.
‘I know’ said Roy. ‘I’m just so fucking angry about...’
‘With all respect to what happened to your wife,’ interrupted George. ‘There are ladies present in the room, if you don’t mind toning the language down a bit.’
‘I’m sorry,’ replied Roy, looking around the room for some sympathy. ‘I’m just so angry at the creatures for taking my wife from me, I still cannot accept what’s happened. Why would any humans help these creatures? What kind of people are they? Why would anyone help orchestrate the demise of the human race?’
‘There’s some desperate people around’ replied George, ‘Each one with different motivations.’
‘I want to kill them all, I want to brutalize them like they brutalized Nancy. I want them to feel the pain they afflicted on others, before they die.’
‘It’s not a good idea to carry that much hatred around with you son, it will end up being your downfall.’
‘I don’t care about dying, what have I got left to live for? I want to take my revenge, and take out as many of them as I can.’
‘You need to find another way to vent that anger, I cannot have anything endangering what we’re trying to do here.’
‘I appreciate that George, I wouldn’t. It’s hard, I just cannot get a handle on anything any more I need something to focus on, I have spent my whole life concerned with the well-being of one person, and now they have been taken away from me, I don’t know what to do any more, I’m lost.’ Roy was quickly surrounded by a group of females, all wanting to comfort him. Right now, I cannot think that far into the future, all I’m focused on is finding out what happened to Emma.
15/11/2027 - time - 9:17
Sorry if this entry is a bit messy, I’m currently sat in the back of George’s truck heading towards the A702 junction, the bumpy terrain is making it hard for me to write. I’m reminded of childhood memories, riding around on the back of my dads tractor, thrown around as he ploughed the fields. The ash cloud cover is getting darker black the further north east I look, the direction we will soon be walking in. The temperature has plummeted, although as yet there’s no snow in the sky and the wind had dropped. The house had been woken in the early hours by a loud noise, the ground was shaking, and rumbling. We assumed it was an earthquake, and sat up to listen as the sounds slowly reduced to a low rumble, and continued for around ten minutes. I’m not sure what it was but I’ve never heard or felt anything quite like it before. Neither Roy, George or June knew what it was either, and all had been awoken by it. Before we set off, George and June replenished our water, lighter fluid and gave us enough food to last a few days. Our clothes had been washed and dried, and a new set of blankets and towels packed. My map had dried out, so I folded it back together and put it back in my rucksack. We left in good spirits, feeling as good as we have since all this happened, with a promise to return in a few days. The females gave us a real send off, I haven’t had that many kisses since my wedding day. I couldn’t speak to Roy as we made our way towards the drop off point, the sound of the old diesel engine was deafening, we just sat in silence looking out over the scorched land wondering how the day would pan out.
15/11/2027 - Time 22:30
Roy and I are taking shelter five hundred yards from the nuclear bomb shelter I constructed, in an old stone outhouse on the outskirts of next doors farm. My farm has been occupied by a group, I don’t know if they are Torriero’s men or just as worryingly, not. We are waiting until the early hours before we make an attempt to gain entry to the shelter, with men walking around the property, it’s presently too risky. I have absolutely no idea if Emma is in the shelter, or if she is even alive, but I’m becoming increasingly anxious to find out. It’s hard sitting this close to where she could be safely hidden, she could be asleep at this very moment. I had thought about this moment and what I would do, and think. I had convinced myself it would be better if she was dead, better for her, I couldn’t keep her safe in this world. But I was wrong, I want nothing more than her to be alive, it might be selfish but she has to be, or I will have no reason to be, the possibility she is alive is the only sane thing I have left to hang onto. As with all our time on the road, today’s journey was full of incident. As the truck came to a stop thirty yards from the junction, I jumped out of the back and Roy threw the rucksacks to me. I put them on the floor by my feet as Roy climbed down from the truck and George stepped out of the cab. He walked over to us handing me a metal flask ‘June made you some coffee’ he said. ‘It
should stay hot for most of your journey.’
‘That’s very kind’ I said, ‘We must thank you for your hospitality George, you have both been very kind, hopefully we will be able to repay you one day. Until then, I have left you the bottle of whiskey you had your eye on, it’s on your kitchen table.’
‘Thanks Nathan, you just get that little girl of yours, and bring her back here, you know where we are.’ I nodded and smiled. ‘God will protect you, believe in him and he will guide you.’ We hugged, said our good-byes and watched as his red truck continued north. I packed the flask into my rucksack and we headed off in the direction of the darkest clouds in the sky. We picked the right side of the road to follow again, mainly because it was practical, we didn’t have to cross any roads to follow it, but also because it felt more comfortable. For the first few miles the road followed a river to its left, which might have been tricky to navigate bending and twisting as it did. The first obstacle on our side was a different river that cut across our path, as we approached it I noticed a small, beautiful church on the other side. I had driven this road many times and never noticed it, sat proudly on the edge of the river. At first I was worried we would have to strip to cross the river, but fortunately there was a small concrete bridge across it further down. We crossed and headed back towards the church, after a few hours walking we were due a rest and it seemed as good a place as any. There was a car park located at the back of the church, empty apart from two cars parked next to each other, close to the church entrance. The tyres were down on all the wheels, the metal hubs sinking into the ash that covered the ground. We walked up to the cars from behind, and I looked through the back window of the nearest one, brushing off the layer of dust that caked the window. The seats had been put back to create a makeshift bed, the family inside were long since dead, curled up in their blankets, their black skin shrunk to their skulls like vacuum packed plastic. They could have died from one of many things, the cold, illness or just starvation. There were four bodies in all, maybe they thought the church was the safest place to seek refuge, the Lords door is always open, but on this occasion they were chained and padlocked. The second car had a further two bodies in a similar state of decomposition, maybe part of the same family. As the main church doors were locked, we walked around the side of the building to its huge stain glass windows, that were scattered across the floor, none of the churches windows were intact. We shouted through the window frame, and with no response, removed the rucksacks from our backs and threw them in. I climbed through the window first, after a boost from Roy, it was good to get out of the cold wind. The room we landed in was a store room, still full of church materials, it looked untouched, maybe nobody had felt confident looting from the home of our Lord. We walked through a hallway into the main body of the church, which opened out in front of us, the architecture was grand and beautiful. But all the windows had fallen through onto the pews and altar below, broken glass was everywhere, but again, the place looked untouched. It must have been the first time I had stepped inside a church since Jane died, her funeral had been a challenging time for me, and my faith. We carried our rucksacks through to the front pew and brushed the broken glass off with our arms. Roy got the flask out and poured a couple of coffees, that were still red hot. I smashed the legs off the bible stand, and threw them into a metal bin, and then poured some lighter fluid over and lit it, after a few minutes it started to burned nice and hot. Roy passed me a cup of hot coffee, which I warmed my frozen hands with, they thawed out over the next few minutes, regaining their feeling. We sat, for the most part, in silence, warming some of June’s home-made stew. For the second time in as many months I closed my eyes, bowed my head and prayed for my daughter, to a God I no longer believed in. I sat as close to the fire as I could handle, taking off my outer clothing and hanging them up on a pew to dry. After thirty minutes rest and recuperation, we wrapped back up, climbed back out of the window, and continued with our journey. The conditions outside had deteriorated while we ate, the wind was strong and there was black snow in the air, I wrapped a scarf around my face as we continued to follow the road. We heard what sounded like dogs barking for the first hour of walking, we never saw them, but they were there, somewhere off in the darkness. We past over a few small country roads before a large opening appeared to our right. The clearing was a golf course, which we walked over, the clubhouse looked like it had been left alone, which we also ignored preferring to keep moving. There was golf equipment abandoned on the fare way, clubs, balls, even a golf cart. When we reached the trees that covered the north east, I could see what looked like a deserted camp, with a still smoking fire, that could only have been vacated recently. There was food wrappers littering the floor, and the smell of burned meat. Roy shouted me over to the trees beyond the camp, were we made another grisly discovery. Tied to the base of a tree was the burned and beheaded remains of a body, the smell had been coming from there, it was foul, I put my hand over my scarf covered mouth and nose, the body was burned beyond any distinguishable features. On the tree behind there was another body in a similar state, and this one had a sign nailed to the tree above. I got close enough to the still smoking body to read ‘Carrier of kuru.’ Neither Roy or myself had heard of kuru, but we presumed it was some form of disease. We left the wooded area heading towards the small town ahead, while keeping the A702 in sight. Although some distance away, we could see something hanging from the lampposts at the entrance to the town of Bigger, and we weren’t surprised to discover they were bodies. There were five men hung from their necks, who looked to have been dead some time, their bodies battered by the conditions. Bigger was deserted, the conditions seemed worse than we had experienced lately, there were no windows intact, areas where fires had raged for days, only dying out when there was nothing left to burn. Everything had been scorched, buildings, land, there was no escaping the onslaught. We left Bigger and continued heading north west for the next six hours, across the most rural and punishing part of our journey, the incredible cold almost broke our spirit, but with a purpose, we pushed through. The air was becoming thicker and increasingly difficult to breath in, as though we were atop a mountain. I had to concentrate to keep my breathing regular, and not end up flustered and out of breath. The ground was flat and open for mile upon mile, the blustering winds barrelled across the open land. During those hours walking, a figure appeared ahead, out of the muggy distance. At first I couldn’t tell if it was a adult or a child, he couldn’t have been much over five foot, but as he got closer, his round demeanour gave him away as an old man. He was walking very slowly in our direction, struggling with the weight of his rucksack, that was almost as big as him. He was old, maybe in his eighties, he looked tired and dirty, he walked towards us for a few minutes and then sat down on his backside in the middle of the field, waiting for us to pass. His shrunken black eyes followed us until we were close enough to speak, ‘Are you okay?’ I asked. ‘Do you need any help?’
Aftermath: The Complete Collection (Books 1 & 2) Page 12