The Reaper Series (Book 2): Reapers Isle

by Justin Gowland

  Chapter Nineteen

  That was when I heard the clicking of Ghost’s toe nails as he came into the café.

  “Hello dipshit, where have you been?” I said, scratching behind his ears.

  There was some of the canned meat left and I put it in a bowl, which I put on the floor with a bowl full of water. He went at it with gusto, looking up every now and again. Probably think that I was going to take it away from him, considering how little he had eaten lately, I didn’t blame him.

  Marc yawned on the other side of the table and Becky came to stand behind him and rubbed his shoulders.

  “Thinking we are going to head off to bed now ourselves if that’s ok?” She said.

  “Yeah, of course. Get yourselves off, we’ve been on the go quite a bit that last few days. So a good nights sleep will do everyone good. Night guys!” I said.

  Marc stood up and Becky gave Maddie a kiss on the cheek and said good night, they went up the stairs and I could hear their door close.

  I stood up and walked through the gift shop and stood in the doorway, looking out into the night. The sky was black and the stars shone like diamonds on black velvet. There were a few wispy clouds that every now and then covered the moon. I just stood there looking up and not really thinking of anything, when I felt two arms circle my waist and Maddie’s head rest on my back.

  “A penny for your thoughts.” She said.

  “Nothing really jumps out at me babe. The only thing that does is that I think Rees has the hots of Mary.” I said.

  “You mean that you have just figured that out now! She has done nothing but ask questions about him from the day you brought her and the Hillbilles to the cottage.” She said laughing.

  “Oh god! He’s in for a rough time then. Rees has never been what you might call a ladies man. He was always awkward round women, when we were in the Army. The men he could handle, but put a woman in front of him he would get a cotton mouth and not be able to talk. It was funny to watch, a big bloke like him laid low by the smallest of women.” I said laughing.

  “Do you think Mary will have to chase after him?”

  “Well babe, let’s put it this way, She will more than likely have to do most the running, if she starts by asking him to train her in shooting, that would be her way in.”

  “I’ll have a chat with her tomorrow. You’re going to have to take Simon aside tomorrow and have a word with him.”

  “What’s he done?”

  “Oh, it’s nothing he has done. It’s what Derek and Christine’s girls might do, they were both looking at him like he was a nice side of beef.”

  “Side of beef?”

  “Predatory. Those two girls have no other boys to try and snag, they are both at that age where hormones come into play as well, so to be on the safe side have a word with him. Or we more than likely have screaming girls twenty four hours a day.”

  “Bugger, I hadn’t thought of that.”

  “It’s ok babe, I’ll keep you straight. Now would you like to take me to bed?”

  Now I am no good at picking up signals from teenage girls, but adults no problem. I closed the door to the gift shop and we walked through the café, picking up the last lantern and went upstairs.

  Later, after we had done what adults do, (alright, we had rampant throw the covers off the bed sex.) I was holding Maddie in my arms and her head was on my chest.

  “Jay, are you happy with what we have? I mean you and me!” She asked.

  “Maddie, I couldn’t be happier than when I am with you.” I replied.

  “That’s good.” With saying that she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

  Now I had to try and figure out what the fuck she meant by that cryptic question and answer.

  I started to feel tired and tomorrow was going to probably be a long one, what with trying to sort out what needed to be done and how. My eyes felt heavy and I closed them, the blackness of sleep pulling me down.

  The forest clearing was there again, but this time it was different. I was sitting and I had the Reaper Mathleic stood to the side and we were watching the edge of the clearing.

  “Where are they Mathleic?” Came the guttural question.

  “They should be here soon Majesty.” Came his reply, with him not even turning round.

  “Humph!”

  After what seemed like an hour, but was more probably fifteen minutes, three Reapers appeared at the edge of the trees. They slowly walked toward where the Queen was seated and one by one they knelt in front of her.

  “The Queen would know what you have seen.” Said Mathleic in his deep guttural voice.

  The one on the left looked up, it’s yellow eye’s flashing in the moonlight. It spoke in the same guttural language “We have lost the scent your Majesty, in a place where we found some of our dead. There were poisonous smells and we could not find them after they had gone there.”

  “Mathleic kill him, he says nothing of use.” The Queen said.

  Mathleic moved like a gray blur, then the air was full of shining black beads of blood. He had moved so fast that I never saw the slash that slit the Reaper’s throat. The other two Reapers had not even looked up or moved when their pack mate was killed. Mathleic was back stood beside the Queen again like he hadn’t even moved.

  “I would know what you know?” said Mathleic.

  The Reaper in the center lifted her head and said “Your Majesty what was said is true, but what the other did not say was that there was another trail, but it did not smell like the other. It went to a human settlement a day and nights travel away. When we got there we were chased away by men with sticks that flashed light and made noise.”

  “Tunaic, you have done well and your Queen feels favour on you. You are now your pack chief, find a younger for the loss of this other.” Said Mathleic, pushing the corpse with his foot.

  “Tunaic, take this other and dispose of it with the rights.” Said the Queen. And the Queen sat in silence until the two Reapers had dragged the corpse into the woods and out of sight.

  “Mathleic, do you think that the one I want is in that settlement?” the Queen asked.

  “If what you have spoke of is true of the one you are after then maybe.” He replied.

  Two gray arms appeared at the edge of my sight and the two claws on the end, clicked together, much like someone tapping their fingers together.

  ‘Jay, I will find you.’ Was the alien thought that came to me.

  I sat up covered with a thin covering of sweat, I was breathing hard as well. Maddie was lying on her side, snoring fast asleep. I lay back down and rolled over to my side facing her back. Now I knew that the other dream I had wasn’t a nightmare. In the morning after the meeting and when I had the chance I needed to talk with Rees. I mean one dream like that with my name being mentioned but two. I snuggled up closer to Maddie and tried to drop off to sleep, but sleep didn’t come straight away.

  The morning came with Maddie’s arm lying across my chest, with her lightly snoring. I lay with the feeling of comfort from her body. I closed my eyes and thought of the dream or whatever it was that I had last night. Did it worry me? I didn’t think so, but to be on the safe side I needed to have a chat with Rees some time today. If any of it was true then at least these Reapers were looking in the wrong place.

  I felt Maddie move beside me and she opened her eyes and smiled at me.

  “Morning, sleepyhead.” I said.

  “Morning.” She said with a large yawn.

  “How did you sleep?” I asked.

  “I slept like a log, it was great to have a good night’s sleep.”

  “Good, because today is more than likely going to be a busy one. Are you up for having a chat about our food situation?” I asked

  “Well, I was hoping for a repeat of last night if truth be told.” She said with a smile and she climbed on top to straddle me. (oh! What the hell, in for a penny, in for a pound.)

  After another horizontal jogging session, I lay on the bed
as she was pulling on her clothes. Maddie turned to look at me and I lay on my side a wiggled my hips suggestively.

  She just laughed and said “Now come on that just looks so wrong.”

  “So it’s ok for a woman to do this sort of thing, but not a man?” I said feeling a little hurt.

  “Jay, that looks just wrong end of.” She said.

  “Now that just hurts my feelings.”

  “Don’t worry babe, if you’re a good boy, maybe we can have a repeat of last night or this morning.” She said smiling. “Anyway you have got to get your butt out of bed, because like you said we have a busy day.”

  I sighed and rolled to the edge of the bed and sat up, legs dangling over the side.

  “You, do know I am the supposed big shot round here don’t you?” I said.

  “Yeah, well mister big shot we need to get sorted, this island of ours is only going to have so much supply wise. So get your skinny arse out of bed and lets get sorted.”

  I stood up and looked down at my lower half and turned it this way and that, saying “My arse is not skinny!”

  “Just get ready Jay.” She said laughing and walked out.

  I picked up the baby wipes and started to give myself a rub down. All the while eyeing the shower in the corner, thinking we have to find that if we can get the generator going would it power the shower? Wadding up the used baby wipes I put them in a plastic bag and tied the top. That’s another thing to think about, what do we do with our rubbish? God, so many things to think about and plan for.

  I pulled on some jeans and a blue rugby shirt, picking up my boots and rifle I walked out into the living room of the apartment. Sitting on the couch thinking of all the things that we would need to talk about was starting to way heavy on my mind. I tie my boot laces and standing, stamped my feet to settle my boots. Putting my combat jacket on I walked to the door carrying my rifle and picked up my webbing from the hook near the door and left the apartment.

  Heading down the stairs to the café, I could hear voices talking and laughing. I saw nearly everyone was sitting having drinks and there was a large pot of what looked like porridge on the counter with bowls beside it.

  “Morning Jay! I thought Maddie could do with a rest this morning from cooking so Mary and I Made the porridge. I know it isn’t a great breakfast, but we didn’t know what to make. I hope you didn’t mind?” Said Christine.

  “Morning Christine and everyone. First off, no I don’t mind and second I think Maddie and I were grateful for the extra time in bed, so don’t worry about it.” I replied.

  I went to the counter got myself a bowl of the porridge and emptied two of the small packets of sugar you can get, on the top. (what can I say I like sweet things.)

  I sat down at the table next to Rees and said “Dude, when we get a minute I need to have a chat.”

  He turned and looked at me “Yeah, of course.”

  “Ok guys, is everyone here?” I asked.

  Derek put his hand up and said “The girls and that boy Simon are still in their rooms I think, did you want them here?”

  “First of all Derek, please don’t put your hand up I feel like a fucking teacher. Second, I think they should be alright where they are. I will want to talk to Simon, but Rees and I can do that later today. Ok, this morning we need to have a chat about things people are willing to do with regards running the castle. The first thing is that we need to sort out is who is willing to run the kitchen and control the food supplies. Now Maddie has been doing most of it before we got here and with Christine’s help made that great feast last night. So who would like to do that?”

  “Well, I roughly know what we have in the kitchen and am quite happy to carry on running it. The only thing I can see being a problem was last night, making that dinner, I really did need Christine’s help.” Said Maddie.

  “I would be happy to help in the kitchen.” Said Christine.

  “Ok, that settles the kitchen. Mary is there anything that you feel you want to do?” I asked.

  Mary looked up and said “If I could be trained on the guns I would be happy to help out that way.”

  “That was going to be one of the things I was going to bring up, but might as well talk about it now seeing as it was brought up. I think that all the adults be trained up on the weapons, at the very least a pistol. I am thinking the courtyard area in front of the castle doors as the range. Rees and I will have to prepare the area first, but once it is done, we will start lessons.”

  “Jay, I would like a hand setting up the garden. I think until the range is set up Mary and the girls could help me do that!” Said Becky.

  “Is that ok with you Mary?” I asked.

  She just nodded her head, we were going to have to try and get her to be less quiet.

  “Ok, that leaves me, Marc, Rees, Derek and Simon. Oh, and don’t forget my useless mutt of a dog.”

  “Er… Jay I can help build the range. Was always good with tools. All I need is a rough design of what you need.” Said Derek.

  “That’s cool Derek. Ok, Marc, Rees and I with the help of Simon will do a scout of the island, and bring any supplies of materials to the castle. That ok?” I said.

  There was to usual nods and replies from everyone round the table.

  “Right, if everyone wants to have their food and stuff. Nobody is going to be put under pressure today, just take your time and relax, we made it here now and for the time being we are safe. Rees, Marc, Simon and I can have a look out into the village sometime later today. If we say before lunch, that should give Simon enough sleep. Rees, we also need to sort out an armory to put the weapons in. I think that the store room in the other kitchen, but we will need to be able to lock it. It might be an idea to go have a look after we have eaten.” I said.

  “That’s, cool Walker let’s eat and then have a walk over there and look at the door.”

  With that, we ate our porridge and a kind hearted person put a cup of tea in front of me.

  Chapter Twenty

  Everyone broke up after breakfast and went off to start the day. Rees and I walked over to the castle to have a look at the pantry door to see how hard it would be to place a lock on the door.

  “Ok, Walker spill, what’s got your pants in twist?” Said Rees.

  “Remember the other day the dream I had?” I said.

  “Yeah, the one where you were the Queen of the Reapers, now if I was a psychologist, I would say you had some kind of problem.” He said with a short laugh.

  “Well, I had another one last night, but different.” I said

  That stopped his laughter.

  Continuing I said, “I was in the same clearing, but this time just the Queen and her helper. Then these other Reapers came and said that they couldn’t track someone. I think you can guess who that was from the last time.”

  “What the fuck is going on buddy? This is some kind of SciFi bullshit. So how did you feel, I mean afterwards?”

  “Alright, I think. I mean Maddie was in bed with me and I didn’t feel the need to hurt her or anything. I only felt my love for her.”

  Walked down the steps and into the kitchen and to the corner where the pantry was.

  “So you said that they couldn’t track you?” He said.

  “Yeah, they said that they couldn’t get my scent because of the industrial units and that. They did get a scent of someone leaving there and they followed it, but got attacked, by someone with guns. They think I am there with those people.”

  “Sounds like we are in the clear then.”

  “For the moment buddy, but what happens when we need to go to the mainland to get food and supplies?”

  “Walker, we can cross that bridge when we come to it. Let’s get this armory sorted and then we can have a little look into the village. I might have an idea who to get supplies and not leave a trace of your scent. Let’s see what is on the island first before we think about any mainland problems.”

  “Ok, dude.”

  The door to
the pantry was the same as nearly all the ones in the castle, a large oaken door with big iron bolts in it. It closed into a recess carved into the stone work around the door. There was a sliding bolt that went into the stone work at about hip height. We both agreed that this was probably the best place in the castle to place our armory. The only problem that either of us could see was being able to lock it more securely. This was something that we were going to have to think about. At the moment the armory was in Rees’s room, it was not like he minded. Again, his room was unlocked all the time so completely unsecure.

  Walking out the front doors to the castle we saw the small courtyard area in front. The full distance from one end to the other was roughly thirty meters and it was about ten meters across. The problem we would have here would be a suitable backstop, yeah the stonework would stop the rounds, but they would also cause them to ricochet all over.

  “Rees, we need to think of a backstop and even then I think space will only be good enough for pistol practice. We’re going to need somewhere to get some rifle practice done and get some more rifles.” I said.

  “I was thinking about that and if we could set up targets outside the walls we could shoot from the top of the wall.” He replied.

  “Smart fucker.” I said grinning.

  I left Rees to trying and figure out how to set up the pistol range and went looking for Simon.

  The entrance hall was quiet and the light from the stain glass, cast patches of color everywhere. I walked up that central staircase and along the gallery into the hallway. There were doors spaced evenly on one side of the hallway. The first two of the doors were open and I could tell that no one had claimed them. Each had a large four poster bed and wooden wardrobe which were probably the same size as a car standing on its end.

  The next door was closed and I opened it and knew at once that it was where Rees had chosen to sleep in the corner of the room were that remaining weapons stacked neatly. On a dresser in the opposite corner were the boxes of rounds for all the guns we had. I pulled the door closed and walked further down the corridor to a junction and the hallway split in two directions, one side headed to the front and the other towards the rear. The one that headed toward the front had only one doorway and I headed that way first.