The shot from Rees’s pistol startled me and I spun round just as the last Reaper just seemed to fall forward onto its face. I looked down at the fallen Reaper’s head and it had a hole roughly the size of a tin can through the back of it. What little hair that was left on its head was matted with black blood, bone and brain. Carefully moving up to the crossroads I looked to the left and Rees covered the right. I didn’t see any Reapers heading from that direction, I looked over to Rees and he gestured that his side was also clear. I looked behind me to see if Derek had moved up, but he must have stayed put like I told him to. I went back to the corner and found him huddled on the floor with both hands on his ears, one hand still holding the pistol I had given him. Reaching out I gently took the pistol off him and put it back in my holster.
Then I knelt in front of him and said “Derek, we have to get going mate. I don’t know if all that shooting will bring more, but you have to get up and move.”
His head shook a little.
“Look, your family is relying on you to get this done. Remember, Christine and the girls want you to be there for them and not huddled in the dirt at an industrial park. Come on get up, you’ve managed to get them this far and we just have to go a little further.”
He looked up at me with red rimmed eyes and said “When you started shooting, I just started to cry.”
“Not every person is cut out to use guns and not every person are cut out to survive, but you are a person cut out to be a survivor. We will shoot you just helps us by keeping an eye out. That is if you don’t want to use a gun, does that sound fair?”
He nodded, so I took his arms and helped him stand. Together we walked round the corner and up to where Rees was waiting. He looked at me and then at Derek, he saw the red eyes and knew what had been happening. We jogged across the road to Derek’s car, as we got near he pulled his keys out of his pocket and pressed the door button. We heard a chirp and the indicator lights flashed to show us that the doors had unlocked.
Chapter Fifteen
Derek ran to the drivers door, dropped the fuel can and the hose to the floor. He grabbed and opened the door and climbed inside. Walking over to the car I looked inside at Derek, he turned the key and the dashboard light lit up. Well, at least he didn’t leave anything on to drain the battery. He looked up at me and said “It has about an eighth of a tank left.”
Rees came and stood beside me looking around.
“We knew that we had to get some fuel for this, but I didn’t think we would need much.” Said Rees.
“Yeah, I’m thinking that we probably need half a tank at least to get from here to the island.” I said.
I looked around where the car was parked, but didn’t see anything nearby to get fuel from.
“Right, this is probably the best idea. Rees you and I go looking for something that might have fuel in it. Derek you stay in the car. You’ll be fine with the door closed and locked, try and keep out of sight if you can. One other thing what does this thing use for fuel?”
“I never thought of that, it uses petrol. It had better miles to the gallon for town driving, that was one of the reasons we got it.” Said Derek.
“Ok, Derek get your head down and we will go find fuel. Hopefully we should be back soon.” I said.
He closed the door and slid down in the seat. Rees and I turned and looked up the way the car was pointing. I picked up the fuel can and tied the hose to my belt. I nodded up the road and we started walking, I slung my rifle on my back and pulled my pistol. In front was a row of units and at the end on the right we could see a pick up. You know, like the ones you see in America, that had become popular over here.
“That’s bound not to use petrol.” Said Rees.
“Let’s try the other way, there might be one down the other end of the units.” I said.
We turned and headed down the other way, got to the end and we found we could go left or right. We hit pay dirt and found four cars pulled up outside of a unit. We stood about twenty meters away, and listened for any kind of noise. Rees pointed that he was going to move over to the left and I should move over to the right. The cars were parked on my side so if I needed all I would have to do is drop and I would have the cars between myself and any problems. Rees went down to one knee so that he would have a more stable firing position. He would be covering me whilst I checked the cars for petrol.
The first car was a petrol so I crept up to the fuel cap and pulled it open. Pushing the hose in the hole until it hit the bottom of the tank. Put the fuel can on the floor and opened the cap. I sucked on the end of the hose until I thought I could feel the fuel coming and pushed it into the can. There was fuel in there and everything was going well, until I heard a shout and then the unmistakable sound of Rees’s rifle fire. Then the glass window of the car shattered and glass rained down on me.
Then there was a wang sound above my head and a hole appeared in the door near to me. Someone was shooting at us, I raised my head so I could peek over the rear of the car. Bad idea as the back window of the car shattered and I was covered in glass again, but I did see which direction the shots were coming from. A unit three down from where we were had a large window that was open and the shots came from inside. I lay on the floor near the rear tire and tried to see if there was enough clearance to shoot at the window. I could see the window, but to be honest, there was no way I could have taken a aimed shot.
I leaned back against the wheel and looked across at Rees, luckily where he was the shooter wasn’t going to be getting a good shot the angle was all wrong. He shouted across “I’ll lay some cover fire down there, you get a better shot ok?”
I nodded and started to move down to the bonnet of the car whilst staying behind the cover of the car. I got to the bonnet and stayed down, I nodded to Rees to start his cover. He raised his rifle and started shooting, I waited until his fourth or fifth shot and aimed over the bonnet at the window through the scope. I could just make out a shadow just inside the window and fired on where I thought was a center mass shot. We both heard a scream and then there was nothing, we had no shots coming from the unit.
I crossed over onto the side that Rees was on after picking up the fuel can and the hose. We worked our way down the units till we came to the one with the one window. Rees tried the handle and slowly opened the door making sure he stayed out of the opening. When we didn’t get shot we entered I went left and Rees went right. As soon as we entered we both heard the moans and cries coming from the office. The door was open and we both entered with our rifles raised, what greeted us, well lets just say it shocked me. It was a young man about twenty five or thereabouts. My shot had taken the rifle he had been using and broken it just in front of the trigger. The round must have then defected into his stomach and travelled downwards and out through his groin. From his stomach to his knees was covered with blood, and he was trying to keep pressure on his stomach. The thing was Rees and I knew he wouldn’t be alive much longer, he had turned a deathly pale and we both knew he was already dead.
Crouching down in front of him I asked “Why?”
He coughed and said “Dad, told me….” His eyes closed and he stopped breathing.
“I think we better get out of here Walker, I don’t like how he said his dad told him to.”
I stood, nodded and we left as quickly as we could, it took us roughly twenty minutes to get back to Derek’s car. We got there and saw that everything was ok and Derek was looking out of the windscreen. (so he hadn’t done a runner whilst we were gone.) I poured the fuel into the tank and Derek told me we had just over half a tank. That should be enough to get us to the island, now we just had to hope that tide was out when we got there. Rees was in the back seat and I got in the passenger side, I thought seeing as it was Dereks car he should drive.
Picking up the radio I keyed the talk button “Becky, you there?”
There was a pause, “Hey, Jay it’s Marc not Becky. You lot ok? We heard a lot of shooting!”
“Yeah,
we’re fine. Just ran into some Rearpers and then someone was taking pot shots at us. Don’t worry, no one is hurt, we should be at the entrance in the next five minutes. When we get there, we will go lead, can you and the women follow behind us.” I said to him.
“Yeah, how long till we get to the island?”
“To be honest from here I am not sure, but we should be there well before dark. The only problem is if the tide is in when we get to the causeway. We will have to find somewhere safe for the night. The next time the tide will be out will be tomorrow.”
We saw the Land Rover and we flashed our lights, then drove past them and they followed behind as we headed north.
“So we might not be able to get there today?” said Marc.
“I think we will be able to, it is a tidal causeway. So it happens twice a day and it hopefully won’t be too much of a problem. Anyway, lets sign off I want to save the batteries.”
“Okay will talk to you later unless something happens.”
The radio went silent and we drove on with the gray sky above, looking like rain. Travelling the east coast road was good and we managed to move quite quickly. I think that was mainly due to this road being really only a tourist traffic and local traffic road very little in the way of transporter traffic. That being said, we did have to drive in and out of a few stalled and broken down cars. There were also a couple of wrecks that we had to drive on the hard shoulder to miss. Again the lack of dead bodies and blood hinted that the bodies had been moved.
We came to the turn off that lead to the tidal causeway to Holy Island and pulled off the main road and down the causeway. It was only about three quarters of a mile long and we could see the island from the shore. There was a sign which had times that the tide came in and went out. Looking at the times we had about three quarters of an hour before the tide changed and we could cross. I was standing beside the Land Rover looking at the sign when a stupid idea crept into my head.
“Hey Rees, come here a minute.” I shouted.
He came out of the bushes zipping his fly up, “What’s the matter Walker?”
“What would happen if this sign fell down and disappeared?” I asked.
“Well, people wouldn’t know when the tides changed and so they wouldn’t know when to cross.” He said a smile creeping across his face.
“Do we have any rope in the Land Rover?”
“I am sure we have some in there somewhere.”
“Hmm, vandalism always makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Hook up the rope to the posts and then to the tow bar and lets pull it down.” I said.
“Not a problem.” And he went to find the rope.
(I wasn’t lying about vandalism, making me all warm and fuzzy inside. I do like it!)
I waited while Rees tied the rope to the posts and then to the tow bar on the Land Rover. He gave me the thumbs up and then climbed into the Land Rover and started the engine.
Everyone came over to see what was happening and Becky said “What’s Rees doing with the sign?”
“Think about this. We are about to make the island our home, and as you can see on the sign the causeway is only there for just over an hour and a half twice a day. Now let’s say you’re a bunch of hillbillies and you want our food and stuff. This sign tells them when they can cross and get it. So if there is no sign, then they won’t know when to cross. We will have to set a lookout on the other side to watch the causeway when the tide changes. But by doing this we will be the only ones that know when that will be.” I said grinning.
There was a groaning in the earth and then the sign was ripped from the ground.
“Ok, so what do we do with the sign now that you have pulled it up?” Becky asked.
“Well, I don’t have the answer for everything. I was just wanting to cause some vandalism.” I said still grinning.
“Men!” was all she said and walked with Maddie off grumbling.
“Dude, you do know how to upset my woman.” Said Marc.
From where Maddie and Becky were standing we heard “YOU’RE WOMAN, YOU’RE WOMAN, Marc get here now!” Becky nearly screamed.
Marc’s shoulders slumped and he dragged his feet as he walked over.
I started to laugh and then Maddie said “I don’t know what you’re laughing at you’re not getting any for a few days because of this, so you can wipe that smile off your face.”
I stopped laughing and Rees climbed out of the Land Rover and across to where I was standing and said “Ha Ha, Whipped!”
“Er…. Rees, please be aware that there is another woman here that can make your life just as bad.” Said Mary with a secret smile and walked over to stand with Becky and the others.
He looked at me puzzled and I just laughed even harder this time. It didn’t matter the look that Maddie cast me. I hadn’t felt this good in days.
“We have about half an hour before the tide changes and we can cross, let’s bury this sign, behind those bushes.” I said with my side hurting.
We grabbed the one spade we had and the sign and dragged it behind the bushes. I started to dig the hole for the sign and stopped when it was about two feet deep. Rees hauled the sign into the hole and we covered it over with the soil and sod. It didn’t look very good, but it was hidden behind the bushes. The weeds and grass should grow quickly to cover it.
Getting back to the road we could see the water, pulling away from the causeway. We all climbed into our cars and waited, the causeway was marked by posts stuck in the sand that we could see once the water pulled back. Driving slowly Rees headed across the causeway and toward Holy Island and the place we were hoping to call home. After five minutes we were pulling onto the island and followed the road around to the small village on the island. There were a few holiday cottages and cottages for people that lived here year round who helped to look after the castle. We came to the village and we could see by the blood on the road and a few broken doors. That the Reapers had been here as well. Moving through the village, we didn’t see any kind of movement or any sign that anyone was left alive here.
I pointed to the castle on the headland and headed toward it. The road went right up to a hard standing and there was a stepped path that leads up to the gate of the castle. Now for a castle you might think high walls with large turrets and all the stuff you saw as a kid in the movies. Well, there were high walls and the gateway did have turrets, but that was where the similarities ended. Inside the walls was what looked like a large stone building that was more fort looking than a castle.
I climbed out and walked up the path to the gate, it was slightly open. I reached down and pick the radio from my belt, key the button and said “Rees, Becky and Marc can you come up here the rest of you can you stay with the vehicles. Maddie make sure you have a shotgun and one of the rifles loaded.”
“Ok, Walker give us a few to get loaded up and we will be there.” Said Rees.
“Oh, and leave the radio with Maddie. Maddie if I tell you to leave, then you leave ok?”
“Ok, Jay, if that’s what you want.” Said Maddie and the radio clicked off.
(in women speak that means, fuck off I’ll do what I want when the time comes.)
Chapter Sixteen
I stood at the open gate, it was about ten, maybe twelve feet tall and solid oak with those big iron embossed nails in it. I couldn’t see the hinges or whatever it was hanging from, but what I could see was that when pushed closed, it would be recessed into the stone wall. With the stone wall stopping anyone from getting a finger or hand hold on any side of the door. Rees and the others came and stood next to me looking at the gate.
“Ok, well we are here, now we just have to clear this place and make sure we aren’t going to be surprised.” I said.
“What do you think? Myself and Marc and you and Becky?” said Rees.
I smiled “You sure you want to take Marc?”
“Ha fucking ha, you’re so funny Jay.” Said Marc.
“Actually, yes, I am sure I want to take Marc,
he did some good shooting when he had the pistol, and not being funny, but most of what we’ll be doing is room clearing.” Said Rees putting a hand on Marc’s shoulder.
Marc looked dumbfounded.
I shrugged and looked at Becky, who was beaming, she was so proud of Marc.
“Ok then lets get our gear sorted. Rees if you and Marc take the right side as we go in and then clear upstairs. Becky and I will go in on the left and clear downstairs. We work front to back and then group up to do the dungeon or underground storage that this place is bound to have. Is that ok with everyone?”
They nodded and Rees passed Marc the extra pistol and I took mine out of its holster and gave it to Becky. Rees and I split the magazines evenly between them. Becky had her shotgun strapped across her back and Marc had his Ninja sword. I pulled my charging handle on my rifle and patted my webbing to make sure I had extra mags. Rees had already checked his rifle and made sure he had a round ready in his pistol.
Once everyone said they were ready I pushed the gate open wide and went in, turning to the left as soon as I had got two feet inside. Becky followed straight away and I turned to see Rees and Marc come in to cover their side. The entrance way to the castle was cobbled and went up a short slope between the outer wall and the side of the actual fort building. Walking to the top of the slope we stood in a small courtyard, and in front were some wide steps leading to the large front door to the fort. From where we stood, there were no windows, low down and only one’s high up in the stone work. Keeping each other covered we started toward the door, we had covered roughly half the courtyard, when Rees said he saw movement at one of the windows.
I just nodded and continued to the door and tried to open it. It was not locked or barred and open easily, with no squeaks or groans. We went with the left, right approach at the entry to the fort itself. The only difference was that Rees went first, then Marc, myself and Becky went in after. The entrance hall was a large open space with a central staircase leading up to a balcony, there were large stain glass windows set high up that cast colored patterns on the floor. Along the walls were tapestries and flags hanging from posts set into the walls. To the left was an opening into another room, but on the only one opening on the right and that seemed to go down.
The Reaper Series (Book 2): Reapers Isle Page 10