I stood at the bottom of the stairs listening to Rees move around up stairs, clearing the bedroom and the bathroom. I heard creaking at the top of the stairs and looked up to see Rees was standing looking down.
"Everything is clear up here, buddy. There isn't even any furniture up here, let alone bodies." He said.
"To be honest, I don't think that there have been anyone living here in years. It should be ok for us to crash here for the night without any problems." I replied.
He started down the stairs and I went through to the back of the house and outside. I went outside and waved the others to get out of the Land Rover. They climbed out and came over to where I was standing.
"I wouldn't call it the Ritz or anything like the cottage, but it should do for tonight. I think we should all set up in the front room that way we can stand guard easier. Just bring the basic gear we will need for tonight." I said
"Ok, we will get started on that Jay." Said Becky.
I walked over to the Land Rover and opened the passenger door and Ghost jumped down and ran into the long grass to do what dogs do best. (yup, shit where he wants to.) I sat on the lip of the foot well, with my back against the seat and sighed. Maddie heard the sigh from the back of the Land Rover, walked over and placed a soft hand on my shoulder.
"Are you feeling ok?" She asked.
"Not too bad, just wish I hadn't brought them to the cottage." I answered.
"That wasn't anything to do with you, that bitch Bet was the one that caused it all. Everyone here is behind all the choices you made, you were trying to help those people and they threw it back in your face." She replied.
“It doesn’t make me feel any better because I made a bad choice for us all and it didn’t work out. Anyway, lets get sorted and have some rest and food, we may be on the road for a while tomorrow. I doubt we will make Holy Island the way the roads have been, but you never know.” I said, standing up and taking her hand, I gave her a soft kiss and walked inside the house.
Maddie followed me inside and was about to close the door when Ghost shot through the opening and into the kitchen. That bloody dog is going to end up giving me a heart attack one of these days.
We closed the door and I managed to use a large cupboard door to wedge the door shut, because the kick Rees had given it, had launched part of the lock across the room and lodged it in the wall. That blokes legs were like steam pistons and the power he had in them cold be scary sometimes. Maddie walked through into the small front room, I followed to find everyone spreading out sleeping bags and creating sleeping areas for themselves. Rees entered from the hallway to the stairs and closed the door, he spread his sleeping bag along the door. That way, if anyone tried to enter through that door, they would have to either go through him or over him.
“Right I will take the first four hour watch if you could take the second Marc and Rees you take the last, that way we all get some sleep tonight. Rees I’ll do the driving first thing tomorrow that way you can get some shut eye in the car. Get some food in you guys and we can then try and get some sleep.”
Food and water were passed round and everyone sat and ate quietly. As usual, my loud mouth brother was the one to open his gob. “Mary, did you know that they all knew each other?”
Mary looked up from her can of Baked Beans and looked at Marc a short while before answering, “I had my suspicions about Bet and John, they seemed to argue like they were an old married couple but never put things together. Dave and Jamie turned up in that van with the two young girls a couple of days after Bet. They never seemed to talk with her and John, so I again it just didn’t register that they were related. I suppose the way those two always did what Bet wanted should have made me think more. But with things as they are I just wanted to survive.
The day you drove past, it was like all men to the pumps. They seemed to go into overdrive and I thought that they may have tried to kill you and take your stuff away. That Dave came up with the idea of using the van to block the road if you came back that way. When Jamie saw you coming it was like cats on a hot tin roof, they couldn’t move quick enough. Bet had gone with Jamie just in case she needed to control the situation, and it ended up being that way. Because Dave nearly shit his self when…. What do I call you Jay or Walker?” She asked.
I smiled slightly and said “Most friends call me Jay and the lads I was in the Army with called me Walker, so Jay would be fine.”
“Well, like I was saying Dave nearly shit his self when he saw Jay come out of the Land Rover carrying that assault rifle. I think when you told Bet there was no way you would give them any weapons, it put a spanner in the works. Then you told her about your sanctuary, she must have thought fast on her feet for her to be able to make another plan. I never actually saw her talking to anyone after we had found out about your injury. That being said, she sort of ruled the apartments like she was the queen or something.”
"Thanks for letting us know that Mary and we also appreciate that you wanted to come with us." I said.
She lowered her head and said in a quiet voice "I saw the way you and your friends had sorted out the cottage. And the way you were all looking out for each other. That’s what I wanted and the way that lot from the apartments were going on about things. I never wanted your group to think of me that way."
Sitting with my back to the wall I started eating my food and Maddie came to sit beside me. She rested her head on my shoulder and we sat together watching everyone settling down for the night. Rees watched Mary get comfortable on her side, whilst drinking her water. I saw something pass over my friend’s face and I couldn't place it because it was something I had never seen on his face. He placed his rifle next to him as he lay back and closed his eyes.
Shaking my head, I looked at Maddie to see that she was fast asleep. Gently moving out from under her I slowly lowered her down onto my sleeping bag. I went to stand in the kitchen looking out the back window at the slowly setting sun. After a short while all I could hear from the front room was heavy breathing. The kitchen window was covered in dirt and I could hardly see out over where we had parked the Land Rover.
During my time on lookout I moved from the kitchen to stand in the doorway every half hour so I could check on everyone. The second time I went to look in on them, I nearly burst out laughing. Marc had been lying on his back, snoring and Becky wasn't too happy about it, so she elbowed him in the ribs, which caused him to sit up, like someone had put electricity to his balls. He grumbled and lay back down on his side and was softly breathing as I turned back into the kitchen.
My time was up and nothing had happened so I went in and shook Marc awake. He grunted and turned to look at me like I had a second head.
"Your turn bud, remember you need to wake Rees up in about four hours." I said.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure he doesn't fall back asleep or fuck up." Said Becky, rolling over.
"You sure you want to help him Becky?" I said.
"Fuck you bud." Marc mumbled, rubbing his eyes.
I smiled and walked over and lay down next to Maddie on my sleeping bag. I put my head down on my arm and was asleep nearly straight away. No dreams came to me as I slept which to be honest was ok with me.
Chapter Eleven
My eyes opened and it was still dark and I had a feeling I.....no we were being watched. I stood and walked into the kitchen to see Rees looking out the back window into the darkness.
Turning, he said softly, "I was just going to come and get you Walker. There is something out there watching the house, I have a feeling it's a group of Reapers. I keep seeing a flash of yellow every once in a while."
"What do you think we should do?" I asked.
"What I wouldn't give for some kind of night vision. To be honest, they haven't come anywhere near the house. I just wish we could see them, if it was up to ten I would have said lets kick their arses. But there could be any amount of them out there, and with only having the two assault rifles I don’t like the idea of us going
outside to take them on."
"How long till sun up?" I asked.
He lifted his wrist and snapped the cover off his watch and said "Should be about an hour maybe less."
Looking out through the window I noticed that someone had wiped some of the dirt and grime off the window, and I could just make out the shape of the Land Rover in the dark.
"Think it might be a good idea if I stop up the rest of the night, just in case anything happens between now and first light." I said.
"Should we wake everyone else?" He asked.
"I think we can let them sleep, if we need to we can have them up and armed before the Reapers can get inside."
We looked out the window and watched the back of the house for another ten or twenty minutes, it was then that near what I thought was the back of the Land Rover. I saw two small yellow orbs appear then just as quickly they vanished. We didn't hear any keening or any other noises coming from outside. It was just silent except for the heavy breathing of our friends asleep in the other room. I walked to the door to look in and make sure everything was ok in there. That was when I saw the yellow eyes, trying to look in through the dirty front window into the front room.
“Rees, we have them at the front as well.” I whispered.
“Yeah, I thought they might come round that side. Are they trying anything?” he answered.
Looking at the eyes, they seemed to lock on to me and then just disappear.
“No, they just went away. What the fuck is going on?”
The last of the night seemed to slowly fade from black to the red and orange of pre dawn. We continued to watch for any sign of the Reapers, but nothing happened. When the sun was up in the cloudless blue sky, I went into the front room and slowly woke everyone. We all sat and ate some breakfast bars and drank some water. (what I would do for a cup of tea.)
After my breakfast (yeah, right calling that breakfast is like a Tofu burger the same as a Beef Burger.) I went to the back door and removed the cupboard door and stepped outside. There was nothing out of place the Land Rover sat there unmolested. Rees came out and looked about, we had a clear view for about twenty five meters before the high grass restricted any view.
“What happened last night Walker?” He asked.
“Not too sure it did look like they were checking us out. I’m just a little confused, because every time I have come across them, they attacked as soon as they saw us.”
“Yeah, they looked like they were scouting us out. But where have they gone now?”
“Not sure where they have gone, but I think we should be on the move soon, just in case. I’ll go get the Land Rover checked out can you get the guys packed up and ready to move?” I asked
He nodded and turned and walked back into the house and I walked over to the Land Rover. As I walked round to the other side of the Land Rover I noticed that there were footprints in the grass and dirt. Enough to trample the grass on this side for at least four or five feet. The funny thing was that the area flattened was just the length of the Land Rover and no more. It was like they had been using the Land Rover as a place to hide behind. After those five feet or so of trampled grass there was no indication of them. It was like they had just dropped out the sky and then were snatched back up the same way. I heard footsteps and turned to see Rees walking up behind me.
“Everyone should be ready to go in about ten minutes.” He said.
“Ok! What do you make of this Rees? Why trample all this down, but leave no other tracks? It just makes no sense.” I said.
“Walker dude, you’re thinking like a normal human. They might have just wanted to show that there is a lot more of them than us. Judging by the size of some of the prints, there were adults and children out here last night.”
Marc walked round the side of the Land Rover and looked around. “What’s all this? You been rolling around in the grass this morning Jay?” he said smiling.
“Marc, we had some visitors last night did you see anything when you were on look out?” asked Rees.
“Fuck, no mate, we didn’t see anything!”
“We?” I asked.
“Yeah, Becky said she couldn’t sleep so she stopped up with me for my shift.” He replied.
I just nodded and Rees looked at me, we both knew that it was usually the wrong thing to do in letting two people who are involved like Marc and Becky, do guard or look out duty together. It usually meant they spent more time looking into each others eyes than looking around. I was going to have to sort out some other way to cover the shifts on a night.
Becky and the girls came out with Ghost trailing behind them. They loaded the sleeping bags in the back of the Land Rover and climbed in, Marc went round and closed that back door as he got in. Ghost had one to the edge of the trampled grass and was sniffing the ground when he shook his head and sneezed. I smiled and walked to the drivers side door opened it and shouted for him. He ran about three steps when he skidded to a stop and turned his head, looking into the tall grass he growled and bared his teeth. Looking in the direction that he was looking I saw a pale gray head and yellow eyes just above the grass. As I watched the head lowered back into the grass and disappeared.
Shouting again for Ghost this time he slowly made his way across and jumped into the Land Rover. I climbed inside turned to Rees and asked “By any chance did you see that?”
“Yeah, it was there one second the next it was gone and it never disturbed the grass round it.” He replied.
“Think it might be a good idea to get a move on, don’t you?”
I started the Land Rover and backed out onto the road and continued on the empty roads heading east. We passed a few small villages and the route I had chosen helped to bypass a few of the larger towns. The ones where it couldn’t be helped, we did at a snails pace. We were all constantly aware of what was around us when we went through these. Once or twice, one or all of us saw the gray heads or bodies of Reapers, but we never got attacked.
We came to the junction with the east coast road and we now had to turn north. The only problem with that was the ten car pile up blocking the slip road. From the looks of things, a heavy goods vehicle had slammed into the side of some cars that had pulled out of the junction. The other vehicles had slammed into the back and sides of the heavy goods. One of them must have caught fire because the whole pile up looked to be one large charred mess. Tires had melted into the tarmac and here and there you could see that charred husks of people in their seats. The only thing that I had seen that was not a charred, blackened mess was a hand that was locked on to a steering wheel, why that hand had not burnt to a crisp was strange. Rees got out of the car and went for a scout round to see if we could find another way round.
A hand was gently placed on my shoulder, I turned my head slightly and saw it was Maddie. I took a hand from the steering wheel and placed it over hers. These little gestures that she made where the sort of things that I had been missing in my life and never realized till I had them. I didn’t want to lose them and I would end up fighting for her and for my extended family till I probably drew my last breath. We sat for another ten minutes before I saw Rees moving quickly toward the car. He stuck his thumb over his shoulder and held up his hand and closed it into a fist.
I stepped down from the car and pulled back on the charging handle on my rifle. Flicking the safety off and putting my rifle on single shot, I looked down my scope to see probably a dozen Reapers coming round and over the cars further down the road. I fired and my first round took the lead Reaper in the throat and nearly took its head off. The black blood sprayed back onto the Reapers coming behind it. My second shot wasn’t as good as my first and hit the Reaper in the upper left part of its chest. It did go down and I never saw it get back up, taking my time I managed to hit another two before Becky and Marc started shooting with the .22 rifles. We had managed to create a space between Rees and the Reapers of a good ten or fifteen feet. He must have thought this was enough because he turned, dropped to one knee and
started taking shots. I have to admit every shot he took, hit where he wanted and put the Reaper down. Rees must have been within about eight or nine feet from us, and as the Reapers closed in on him, they suddenly looked up and nearly as one turned and fled back through the cars and just disappeared.
Rees stood after a few minutes and turned to look at me with a puzzled look on his face. I just shrugged my shoulders and ejected my magazine and placed a fresh, full one into my rifle. He walked back to the car doing the same thing, but every few feet, he would turn and look down the road, toward where the fleeing Reapers had gone. The air was filled with the smell of fired rounds, and the last echoes of gunfire. Rees reached the passenger side and climbed in, I leaned inside and put my rifle in between the drivers seat and passenger seat, and climbed in to sit behind the wheel.
Looking out at the dead bodies, I was trying to understand what had happened. Last night we seemed to be surrounded by them and like today they just turned and ran away. What the hell was going on they seemed to be changing the way that they behaved. When all this first started, all they ever wanted to do was attack, kill and eat everything they could. Now twice in twenty fours hours they had changed the way they were doing things. The only thing that had me confused was they had no problem chasing Rees, but when they got to where they could see us, they just seemed to turn tail and run for it. I mean we had a lot of fire power and we were taking care of them, to be honest that had never bothered them before.
"There is a way through on to the southbound lane, we could head north on that side and if we come to any places we can't get past, we just change sides." said Rees, whilst I was woolgathering.
"Where did you see the Reapers?" I asked.
"They were clustered near and inside a large coach just past the southern slip roads."
"Do you think we are going to get into any trouble when we get there. If we move quickly enough, it shouldn't be a problem." He said.
Reapers Isle: TheParaplegic/Chronic Gamer Returns for the Second Book in his Reaper Series Page 7