‘I don’t want to die!’ she screamed.
‘You should have fucking thought about that before you kidnapped our family, bitch. As for your grandad, that Sawnie Bean motherfucker had it coming.’
My last statement must have hit a nerve because a high-pitched war scream came from the farmhouse, followed by the sound of running feet.
As she came flying out of the door, covered in soot and visibly singed from the internal fire, Darren swung, baseball style, what looked like a spade, straight into her face.
Tallahassee would have been proud at the takedown. I giggled as Darren turned and shouted ‘four’, but then his eyes went wide as he looked past me.
I turned in a flash as a female deeda barrelled into me. We rolled over the haybales and ended up with her straddling me. It took all the strength I had, as I wrapped my fingers around her throat, to stop her from biting me.
In my peripheral vision I saw another deeda sprint by en route to Darren.
My strength started to wane as the incredibly strong dead person snapped and pulled at my arms. Luckily, I had the ghillie suit on and layers underneath, which were the only things protecting me from her raking hands.
Guess what? Time slowed. Now this Max Payne, bullet time, slowing shit was quite a good asset during combat but not so good if it stayed turned on while I was eaten alive.
How could we have let our guard down this way? With all the noise and light from the burning farmhouse, we should have known better.
As the last remnants of strength left my arms, the knowledge that Darren had his own problems the realisation that my imminent demise was about to happen washed over me. My thoughts didn’t turn to Jenna this time. They went to my new family, Andy, Bobby and Josh. If Darren went down too they’d be left, hog tied, to die a terrible death of thirst and starvation inside a filthy dog kennel.
Then my thoughts went to Darren. If he did survive this attack his first job would be to deal with me. This is what I felt most sad about. I knew him well enough to know he would dispatch a deeda Carter without much effort at all, but I also knew him well enough to know that it would kill him to do so. Yes, I’d only known the man a matter of days but the sum of those days equalled one hundred and twenty hours. Each of which was spent with him; fighting with him, laughing with him, surviving with him. Yes, this all sounds a lot gay and yes I am man enough to say I loved the guy. He was my brother. I’d have died for him and I knew he would for me. I also knew that deep down his mental state wasn’t what he projected outwardly. Something dear to him had been lost since the ZA started. I just regretted never taking the time to ask him and find out. Too busy wallowing in my own self-pity about Jenna and even more so when I found her and her belligerence towards me.
I inwardly kicked myself for letting her be my last thought before I died.
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and prepared for the tearing of flesh. I could smell the fetid stinking breath of the deeda as she was about to bite my face. This was it. The journey was over. I’d done quite well, to be fair.
A scurrying sound came from my right. I opened my eyes to see a missile launch at the deeda’s throat. Another missile launched and attached itself to the back of its neck. The weight of her released instantly as she was dragged away from me in a flurry of growling and gnashing.
I’d been saved. Saved again, by two furry missiles.
Rocket and Rosie had appeared from out of the darkness and literally pulled me from the jaws of death.
With the sudden realisation that I’d had a stay of execution I summoned the strength to get myself up off the ground and ran over to the dogs and their prey and ended the abomination with a swift hatchet strike to the head, making sure not to injure my saviours while doing so.
I quickly gave them both a head stroke and turned my attention to Darren. It came as no surprise to find him walking over to me with his gun up, strafing it from right to left.
‘Where the fuck did the dogs come from? I thought they were with Sarah?’ he asked as he gave them both a quick stroke.
‘Fuck knows mate. I just hope they’re OK.’
This was bad news. Had someone hijacked the Mastiff and mistakenly let the dogs leave? We’d have to wait to find out. Our first priority was completing the rescue mission.
‘Thought you were a definite goner there, pal. I had already chosen who was going to ride up front with me in the Mastiff.’
‘Thanks mate, but I thought Spud was staying at the castle? I’m sure if you radio him he might come running to sit shotgun with you.’
‘Ha! I told you, too good looking for me. Anyway, we’ve got to leave. Now. This shit show will have attracted every stinka for miles.’
I retrieved my kit, reloaded my weapon and then the dogs and I followed Darren around to the front of the burning house at a jog.
Darren went to work on the padlock on the kennels as I stood guard. The relief on the faces of the captives was truly palpable in the flickering red and orange firelight and sent a flood of emotion through me.
All of a sudden the dogs started their low growling warning of the imminent arrival of danger.
‘Hurry the fuck up mate. They’re comi... Oh shit.’
Approximately ten deedaz emerged from the darkness and sprinted towards us. The dogs stayed at my side, snarling and baring their teeth at the oncoming pack. There was absolutely no way I was going to take them all out with the gun set-up I had. One trigger pull, one bullet just wasn’t going to cut it. Darren still hadn’t trained me in full auto mode usage on the gun. We’d just never had the time.
He had, however, shown me the switch to flick and also told me the effects of barrel recoil when going full cyclic. The exhaust from the combustion of the exploding shell sends the barrel in an upward direction. So a gun on full auto can be very difficult to keep horizontal. Some guns come equipped with a muzzle brake which lessens the vertical movement somewhat. Unfortunately for me, Angelina didn’t possess this important attachment.
‘Fuck it,’ I thought. There was no other option so I flipped the switch and squeezed the trigger. Angelina turned into a wild animal. Within five bullets leaving her, she was firing above the heads of the deedaz. Fortuitously, the five bullets did take out the lead zombie. Usually this would be enough to trip up the ones behind. Not anymore. My heart sank as the rest of the deedaz deftly leapt over their fallen sibling.
‘Short controlled bursts into their legs Carter,’ I heard from behind me. I did as I was told and started blasting away knee caps like Josh and I had done the night before. The deedaz fell like wheat under a scythe. Teeth and skull hit the cobbled yard as they went down one by one.
The rattle of chain told me Darren had completed his task. Then I heard the sound of Andy’s voice as Darren removed the bright orange ball gag from his mouth. ‘You took your fucking time,’ he said, smiling as he went to help untie Bobby and Josh.
‘Blame Carter, he’s been rolling in the hay with some floozy.’
I shook my head and grinned as I vigilantly guarded the courtyard.
As soon as they exited the kennel we raced over to the Land Rover and piled in. It was a tight squeeze but we managed it. Darren drove, Bobby sat on Josh’s knee in the front and Andy and I squeezed in the back with the supplies. A dog each on our laps.
Instead of moving the white van at the entrance to the farm, Darren ploughed through a fence and drove across the bumpy fields in the direction we knew the Mastiff to be.
We pulled up alongside the gargantuan truck and climbed out. Sarah opened the passenger door of the tall vehicle and jumped down.
‘The dogs are gon... Oh, there they are. How the...? They went wild when all the noise started. I opened the window so I could listen to what was going on and they just jumped out. How they didn’t break something, I’ll never know. Are you guys alright? What happened?’ she asked.
‘We’ll explain when we’re sorted,’ Darren told her. ‘For now we need to get some food and rest. Everyone
get an MRE down first of all. Carter, Andy, you’re with me on the roof. Bring some blankets. We’re sleeping under the stars tonight. Sarah, Donna and Jenna, you can sleep in the back of the Mastiff, two of you on the seats one on the floor. Davy and Jason, you’re both in the Land Rover with the dogs. Put the seats back and get some sleep. Josh and Bobby, you’ve got the front of the Mastiff. Same again. Seats back and rest. It’s not going to be comfortable guys, but there’s nothing else for it. First light we move out and find somewhere better to rest for the day. Carter, bring the crossbow.’ And with that we all did as Darren asked.
Chapter Eight
The windless summer night was unnervingly quiet as we sat there on the roof.
‘Sorry guys,’ Andy said after a while.
‘For what?’ I asked.
‘For getting caught by those people. Instead of stopping when they waved me down, I should have ploughed right through the bastards.
‘Don’t be silly mate. The Land Rover isn’t bulletproof. There was nothing you could have done,’ Darren reassured him. ‘By the way, I kept your orange ball gag. It suited you,’ he added, breaking into a fit of giggles.
‘Fuck you!’ Andy replied with a grin.
‘Bring out the gimp!’ I sniggered, sending Darren over the edge.
‘Shhhh, you fucking idiots, the zeds will hear you,’ Andy warned, while tears of laughter glistened in his eyes, adding, ‘Someone will have to give me a hand getting the butt plug out though.’
It was times like these that made the ZA, dare I say it, enjoyable. Three men from astronomically different backgrounds and who would have never ever crossed paths in the old world, sitting on top of a military truck, in the middle of nowhere, after just slaughtering a family of cannibals, giggling uncontrollably in the dark.
It took a good while to regain our composure and when we did, we rock, paper, scissored for lookout duties. It was approaching midnight so the four and a half hours till dawn were divided into three one-and-a-half hour stints.
I won the honour of taking first watch. While Darren and Andy settled down to rest I loaded the crossbow and donned my NVGs. The time passed surprisingly quickly and before I knew it I was gently nudging Darren awake.
I was unconscious before my head touched the cold steel roof and I had a relatively good sleep, considering. I was woken once by a sudden twang but heard the whispering voice of Darren from the darkness. ‘Go back to sleep lover,’ he said. ‘Just had to deal with a nosey Parker.’
The next thing I knew it was dawn. I opened my eyes to a beautiful orange-purple sky.
I groggily sat up expecting to see Andy keeping watch. Instead I found one of the young boys. I remembered Darren calling them by their names the night before but I still didn’t know who was who. Was this Davy or Jason? Well, it was a fifty-fifty chance, so I went for it.
‘Morning Davy.’
‘I’m Jason,’ the young man replied.
Fucking hell. The phrase ‘tits in a barrel’ sprang to mind – I’m that unlucky that if I fell into one I’d still come out sucking my thumb.
‘Sorry Jason.’
‘Don’t worry about it. We’ve hardly had any time to be introduced properly.’
‘Where’s Darren and Andy?’
‘Darren is busy dragging a dead zombie into the woods. He skewered it with the crossbow through the night. Apparently it had been looking through the window of the 4x4 as we slept. Glad I didn’t wake up and see it. I’d have shat myself.’
‘Yeah, you and me both,’ I giggled.
I stood on the roof and scanned the area below. Jenna and her friend Donna were washing their hands and faces with wet wipes, while Sarah had a large map spread out on the bonnet of the defender.
Davy was standing guard next to the broken fence that Darren had flattened with the Mastiff the day before.
Andy, Bobby and Josh were in the process of boiling some water.
‘Hope that’s coffee you’re making?’
Everyone looked up at me with a smile. Well, everyone but Jenna and Donna. They just eyed me disdainfully. Anger welled up in my chest. Fuck them. I’d tried to have a talk with her back at Alnwick and she had nothing to say. Actually, she didn’t need to say anything. The look on her face said it all. It’s awful to say but I was beginning to wish I’d never found her. Mourning her memory felt much better than living with what she’d become. I decided there and then not to let her and her venomous friend get to me. If this was the way Jenna wanted it, then so be it. I wasn’t going to lower myself by getting upset about it and certainly wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of making a scene. Instead I gave them the finger and blew the most sarcastic raspberry I could muster. Orangutan Clyde style.
‘It’s nearly ready Carter,’ Bobby shouted up.
I climbed down from the roof and walked over to the three of them.
‘How’s things?’ I asked as I was handed a steaming mug of Java.
‘All good, thanks to you and Darren.’ Bobby said. ‘Were they really going to eat us?’
I didn’t know how to answer this. Bobby had been through so much but I decided honesty was the best way to go.
‘It looked that way. You and Josh were on the top of the specials list. Not so sure about your dad though. He’ll be all cartilage and gristle. Chewy would be the best way to describe him in the menu. They’d have had to slow cook him for a month or two.’
I was relived they saw the funny side of this and weren’t too scarred by the experience. We were all becoming numb to the foreboding sense of doom and danger that hung over us. The expectation that something deadly was around every corner was becoming the new norm. We just had to remember to keep our guard up at all times and not become complacent.
‘Is there a cup for me?’ came a voice from behind me.
I turned as Darren walked towards us, Rocket and Rosie shadowing him.
‘Oi fucker, they’re my dogs. You didn’t even want them.’
‘Yeah, and I take all that back. They’re totally awesome. We can share them.’
‘Hadaway and shite. They’re mine.’
The dogs ran to me, wagging their tails and jumped up as if they knew what the conversation was about. I rewarded them with baby talk and vigorous ruffles. ‘Stay away from him doggies, remember, he killed your first daddy.’
‘Knob!’ Darren uttered as he walked past us.
After breakfast we all stood around the bonnet of the Land Rover and studied the map.
‘OK, we’ve two choices,’ Darren told the gathering. ‘We look for somewhere local that’s safe and rest up for the day, or we push on through to the bothy.’
Jenna was the first one to speak. ‘Where exactly is this bothy? Is it next to anything?’
Why she’d want to know this was a mystery. Darren looked at me to enquire if I wanted to be the one to answer her. I replied with a nod in his direction signalling him to answer. I’d had enough of her and the mind games. Secretly I wanted her to be arsy with Darren. This in turn would initiate Darren into giving her a full-on dressing down. I think Darren wanted it too. He knew the torment I was going through with her.
‘The bothy is on the road to Kielder, Jenna. Around twenty miles away.’
‘Thank you, Darren,’ she answered with a syrupy sweetness.
I shook my head in wonder and avoided the temptation of giving her another raspberry finger.
Andy spoke next. ‘I know twenty miles is more like a hundred and twenty miles these days, but I think we should go for it. I haven’t slept properly in weeks anyway. I don’t get tired anymore.’
He was right. It was as if our bodies had adapted to the acute lack of rest. Anything more than four hours of sleep was considered a lie-in now.
‘Anyone disagree?’ Darren asked as he looked around the group. ‘OK then, we go for it.’
Darren sent everyone, other than myself and Andy, to get squared away and ready to leave.
We huddled around the map.
�
�We’ve two options. Option one, we drive west and use the quickest route to the bothy. The downside is it takes us through the largest town west of Alnwick.’ He pointed it out on the map, a town called Rothbury. ‘The upside is that after we’re through Rothbury there aren’t any more towns or villages we get to Bellingham, which is a stone’s throw away from our destination.
‘Option two, we turn south before we hit Rothbury and take the scenic route through numerous small villages and then strike west to Bellingham.
‘I don’t have to remind you of what could await in Rothbury. A large population could spell lots of stinkaz.’
Darren gave us a moment for it all to sink in and then looked to me for my thoughts on the matter.
‘The safest route is the scenic one. We can smash through small numbers of dead with the Mastiff. We don’t know how it would fair against a swarm or a herd. These fuckers are getting cleverer by the second, and more nimble.’
Darren and Andy nodded their heads in agreement. It was settled. The long way round!
‘And remind Josh his radio name is Slider,’ Darren called to Andy as we climbed into our vehicles and started the engines.
I was slightly surprised that Bobby climbed straight back in the Land Rover without any trepidation. The events of the previous day hadn’t compelled her to want to ride in the much safer Mastiff. I think deep down she knew we had her back, whatever happened.
Our vehicle would take point this time with Andy following closely behind.
Soon we passed the ambush site. The remnants of the farmhouse were still burning in the distance. The fields between us were peppered with lone deedaz making their way towards the smouldering ruins of the cannibals’ former home.
‘I was well impressed with the Sawnie Bean remark last night by the way mate. Sharp, apt and epic!’
‘Ha, I didn’t think you’d know what I was on about to be honest. I think she did, by the way she went full-on kamikaze mode.
For those of you who don’t know, Sawnie Bean was head of a clan in Scotland, sometime between the thirteenth and sixteenth century.
It's Grim Up North (Book 3): The Journey Page 8