Last Man Standing

by Vance Huxley

  Harold didn’t need to consider the answer to that. “Yes. Anybody can leave, but there might be restrictions on what they can take with them.”

  Patty laughed, so the Hot Rods turned towards her. “Most people run towards Orchard Close.” She sobered, glancing at her bandaged arm and then Harold’s bedroom. “It will need to be very bad here before anywhere out there is better.”

  “That could happen so I need confirmation that anyone can leave if they wish. If that’s the case, there will be an extra item to buy those who leave a decent stake.” Marge looked directly at Harold. “I mean more than the clothes they are standing in.”

  “We don’t do that and wouldn’t. Anyone who wanted to leave would take basic weapons and their personal possessions, but in your case the weapons might not be the quality you brought.” Harold wondered what else could top the weapons as a buy-in. “Exactly what they took might depend on what the item is?”

  “Probably enough for you to be generous.” Marge smiled confidently but didn’t explain. “Albert, take Harold and show him everything. You’d better get moving because it will be dawn in a few hours. We want the girls safely inside the walls by then.” Mack came to his feet and started towards the door, then stopped and looked at Harold. Harold waved him on. The woman was taking over!

  * * *

  Patty and Ru came with Harold as bodyguards, because females should help reassure the mystery women. Mack suggested Caddi’s Cadillac as the best vehicle for the job, with an SUV full of armed women following. About two miles down the road towards the Mansion, just inside Orchard Close’s new border, Mack directed Harold down some fairly rough roads. The rubble across the roads looked bad but turned out to be passable with care. After a mile of that, the vehicles pulled up outside a pair of tall but battered garage doors that apparently led nowhere. The building behind them had collapsed into a huge heap of rubble.

  “That rubble used ter be a block of flats. Underneath it is one of Caddi’s little secrets.” Mack sounded suspiciously like a kid about to pop a balloon, trying not to laugh before he surprised everyone. “We’ll ’ave ter open the doors.” They opened easily despite being twisted and rusty, but then a nervous voice called out to ask who it was? The nervous voice carried a shotgun, and looked about forty years old when he came out to greet Mack. The vehicles drove inside, down a ramp, and into an underground garage!

  Caddi’s secret turned out to be a garage full of people who were very pleased to see Mack. The fourteen cars plugged into wall sockets answered Harold’s curiosity about strange, quiet cars; they were all obviously electric or hybrid. “Are they charged up?”

  “Yer. Me, Cooper or Caddi kept ’em ready ter go. This is Caddi’s emergency escape. ’E reckoned if ’e ’ad ter get out, we could swamp an Army post with the rifles on ’is wall, an’ use the electric cars ter go along the bypass. Stick a couple of men in captured Army uniforms in the front one, ter bluff or wipe out any Army posts, then choose a spot ter surprise a gang. We’d ’ave ’ad the good weapons an’ captured Army rifles, an’ the enclave would never ’ave ’eard us comin’ in these cars.”

  “If he’d used them to do the same to us, one night when we weren’t expecting trouble, that might have worked.” If these cars came down from the bypass, with soldiers apparently in charge, Harold would have obeyed orders to open the gate.

  “No, ’e wouldn’t waste it on that. Like Charger said, Caddi were a real paranoid, allus thinkin’ ’e might ’ave ter run, so ’e kept this an’ another garage full of gear the other side of the Mansion. That one’s all big stuff. There’s three lorries, one wi’ ’ardened steel all over it like armour, an’ some SUVs an’ steel plated Trannies. There’s even an Army truck wi’ tracks, like in the war. ’E’d‘ve used ’em ter smash ’is way through some poor bugger’s front gate.”

  By now the doors were closed, so the car headlights were turned on because Mack said he needed the light. He took a big hammer from near the charging sockets before walking to the back wall. “This is ter buy a decent set o’ gear for anyone wantin’ ter leave.” It took four big swings to punch a hole, one large enough for the light to show what was in there.

  “Holy Mary, Mother of God.” That was Bethany, not usually religious but she had true reverence in her voice. They’d found Caddi’s fabled petrol tanker!

  “It’s full o’ diesel, ’Arry, and so is the littlun. Should buy someone a decent stake? Mebbe even a doctor?” The big man grinned at the expressions on everyone else’s faces, every single one because the refugees were just as shocked.

  It took a moment for Harold to recover enough to answer. “Too bloody true, but we can’t move it Mack. Someone would see it, and then every gang in the city would turn up.”

  The big man beckoned Harold closer to the hole and dropped his voice. “Marge thought if yer got somewhere ready, then we told the other gangs about the other garage?” Mack laughed now, a big belly laugh, but he kept his voice low when he spoke. “An’ about the other tanker in there?”

  Harold managed to get his mouth shut and reboot his brain. “Smart girl, your Marge. We’d better fill the hole back in, somehow.”

  “No, yer’ll want to take the littlun, just in case. It carries five ’undred gallons or near enough, Caddi said. It’s a trailer an’ ’is car will pull it a treat.” Mack gestured to the car he’d suggested they came in, Caddi’s Cadillac, and the towing ball on the back.

  Harold didn’t argue because there wasn’t time, and anyway he hadn’t any better ideas. More tools were stashed with the diesel tanker, so a score of men and women were soon smashing down more wall or throwing bricks aside and shovelling to widen the access. Ru turned Caddi’s motor round, backing up until the ball hitch dropped into place. Meanwhile the electric vehicles drove up the steep ramp to line up along the road outside.

  Eight diesel cars that brought refugees from the Mansion were left behind. Only three Mansion vehicles came, Charger’s Lexus and two transit minibuses. Charger wanted the Lexus, still bearing police markings even if the police electrics were trashed. One of the transits was Mack’s personal vehicle because he needed the extra space behind the wheel.

  The second minibus towed a big horse box with double wheels, but without room for a horse inside. The Murphies’ blacksmith, the farrier, had built a complete mini-forge inside the big, covered trailer. The rest of the refugees thought the forge had been brought as the buy-in for the women in the garage, because they didn’t know about the tanker. Harold worried about the new Hot Rod boss coming for the forge, rather than Mack and Charger or the guns. He didn’t have time to inspect the setup because people were pouring out of the garage doors and disappearing into vehicles. Ru stood by Caddi’s motor and the bowser, tapping her foot impatiently.

  The first hint of dawn coloured the low clouds when the last artistically thrown bricks landed in front of the firmly closed doors. The convoy drove without lights, but pushed on because Harold didn’t want to give hints about where he’d been. His head went round and round because of what Mack, or Marge, had said about buying a doctor. A mile away, and onto the cleared roads, the convoy lights came on and their speed went up. Now Harold worried most about someone seeing the bowser!

  In the end the Army no doubt saw the squat shape and guessed what it was. A section of perimeter wall, towards the bypass, lost the top layers of bricks while willing hands manhandled the bowser over on timbers, plywood and planks. The precious diesel disappeared into a hastily emptied garage while most of Orchard Close were still in bed and hopefully while any early risers were still having breakfast.

  Harold couldn’t get his head round it, but as soon as possible he had to talk to his lieutenants, his friends. That meant all those who helped and advised in the running of Orchard Close, because he couldn’t make this decision for them. Those who’d been awake all night went to get some sleep, so they’d be fresh for a mid-morning meeting. Harold caught a few hours rest after explaining to Sharyn and Tessa, then giving Mer
cedes the highlights.

  While Harold slept, a work party cleared the approaches to the wall at the bypass side of the gates. The area became a car park for the new fleet of vehicles, something Orchard Close hadn’t needed before. The new residents went off to the dance house. They’d be fed there and all sleep in the same house so none of them could spread secrets. The refugees were too relieved to object, after what had been a long, anxious wait in that garage. The newcomers were all probably asleep before Harold woke up and collected his late morning lip check.

  * * *

  The meeting filled Harold’s living room but wasn’t really formal. Hazel came with Alfie, despite her not being in charge of anything, because she appeared to be welded to his side since the attack. Liz came but seemed embarrassed, not at all her usual self since her murderous meltdown. She’d started to recover since Henry’s crossbow bolt came out. Most of the fighters present were wounded. Roy turned up wearing a sling and a dressing on his head where he’d been hit by a mace. Celine came to help him walk, even if he seemed steady enough. The whole room buzzed with conversation as those present tried to guess why they were here.

  The whole of Orchard Close had been buzzing with rumours about the arrival of Mack and his group, then all the young women. There were a few other rumours circulating, or maybe an eyewitness. “Did Caddi have that all along, a bowser full of diesel?” Alfie shook his head, astounded. “That’ll keep us going for ages.”

  “We don’t need the bowser, or petrol or diesel. Those are electric cars so even the hybrids will do at least twenty miles on battery power.” Ru smirked at the looks from anyone who hadn’t realised. “We’ve got twenty-three of them now, our own fleet, and they’re all pristine.” That stopped any other discussion for a short while. The electric cars fascinated everyone because of all the killings over fuel. Whole gangs clashed over a few gallons of diesel, while all the time Caddi sat there with a fleet of cars that didn’t need it.

  “Though the real reason for the meeting is same reason Caddi didn’t need electric cars. He had plenty of diesel, more than anyone ever realised.” Harold didn’t have chance to say much more because Doll butted in.

  “I went to have a look at that bowser. If it’s full it might last a year, two if we’re very careful. I bet that’s where rumours of Caddi’s petrol tankers came from.” She turned to Mack, hesitated and then went for it. “How many people will be coming to repossess it?”

  “Nobody. Me, Caddi and Cooper knew because, well, um….” Mack stopped, lost for words, but Marge patted his hand.

  “My Albert did what he had to, to keep me safe for four long years. The men who drove the vehicles and disguised the location are under the rubble nearby. A lot of other people have done terrible things to others so they could keep their own safe since the Crash.” Marge looked around the room, meeting every eye, daring them to give her Albert any grief.

  “I’m one of them.” Harold waited for someone to say he’d never murdered innocents in cold blood, but he’d shot into a crowd at the Mart. He might do so again if that’s what it took to keep the likes of Daisy alive. Despite the pause, nobody fancied being the first to cast the ‘I’m innocent’ stone. “The thing is, that bowser is nothing compared to the tanker hidden in the same garage.” He waited again until various people had expressed astonishment, to say the least. “Our problem is that we can’t keep it a secret, and if it comes here we can’t hide a lorry.”

  “I saw the tanker, and so did the guards who came with us.” Patty didn’t want to admit her Demons were less than perfect, but this secret was too big. “One of them will let it slip. The garage was also full of young women, who will be euphoric about escaping from the Mansion. Once they get in the pub and have a couple of beers?”

  “But we can’t just leave it there, not long enough to empty it a bit at a time.” Casper had already spotted the biggest problem. “There’d be a gang war. The diesel would end up as a big bonfire, but I’m more worried about half the city turning up on our doorstep armed to the teeth.”

  “There’s only one gang who could hide it. The Barbies have an underground car park. Even if someone guesses, no gang will try to storm Beth’s on a rumour.” A dozen suggestions came back, including emptying the tanker into five-gallon drums or sealing off a section of sewer and filling it with diesel. The sheer amount of fuel, thirty thousand litres, made most ideas impractical so the shouting eventually calmed down a little. Harold glanced at Marge. “The Barbies reckon they won’t part with their doctor for anything. I reckon that’s because they haven’t been offered enough. I’ll want the doctor here with most of their pharmacy, operating and advising Lenny, but that diesel should do it.”

  “They’ll never get it to Beth’s. One sighting of a tanker, any lorry, and there’ll be cars scouring the city.” He didn’t look happy about it, but Casper could still only see one outcome. “Then a gang fight and a bonfire, just like I said, or enough gangs will combine to storm Beth’s.”

  “But if the Barbies can spirit the whole thing away unseen, they’ll park it in their underground garage.” Before Harold could mention the diversion, Emmy held up her hand for attention.

  “That amount of diesel should also buy a safe place for anybody who wants to join the Barbies. A full gang buy-in.” She shrugged at the circle of silent, surprised faces. “We’ve just stopped Caddi, but sooner or later the General will try for either us, the Barbies, the GOFS or the Geeks. If we get hurt again, badly, we might not have enough people to keep going. I’d go under the wire, take my chances out there, but there’s plenty who would rather stay in the city.” She nodded towards Harold. “That’s always supposing you can manage to spirit a bloody great lorry through at least two gang territories.”

  “Piece of cake. You know the magician’s trick; make you look at the wrong hand?” He couldn’t resist. Harold paused, holding out one hand closed into a fist. Mack and Marge smiled, as did the few others who knew the punch line. Harold brought up his other hand and opened it, while moving the first one behind his back. “So while all the gangs are fighting over the other tanker on the far side of the Hot Rods?”

  The place exploded again as Mack gave details of the lorries and armoured vehicles, and where it all was. Emmy’s bombshell also took some discussing, but not much because she made sense. The details of who would go under the wire and who would join another gang could be thrashed out later if necessary, but everyone wanted a fall-back before something like Caddi’s attack happened again. Harold pushed for a fast decision as did some of the others, Ru more than most. According to Lenny, Wamil was fading. She definitely wouldn’t survive a trip to Beth’s.

  Rather than a long, involved discussion and negotiation, Harold suddenly found himself getting into his gang boss posh gear. Patty left to put on her bling, while Alfie promised to get the vehicles and guards organised for a trip to Beth’s. Harold stopped him on the way out, but looked at Hazel when he spoke. “So when are you going to make an honest women out of Hazel? You need someone to dust Betty’s place and all those other housewifely duties.” Alfie blushed but Hazel looked outraged. Harold spoke before she exploded. “I hope I get to give the bride away?”

  Watching that idea sink in, that he really wasn’t objecting to her getting a bloke, almost led to Harold laughing and spoiling the whole moment. Hazel turned to Alfie. “Alfie?”

  Harold pushed Alfie towards the door. “Get those guards organised quickly, because I recognise the signs. Hazel wants to bend your ear.” He turned away, managing to make it to his bedroom before laughing. Mercedes wanted to laugh as well once he explained, but daren’t. When Harold came back out, Tessa put the cherry on the cake. Hazel had already moved out of the girl club and into Betty’s, before the attack. She probably thought Harold had found out, especially after his first question. Harold had assumed it was the dusting comment that wound her up.

  * * *

  Harold needed something to lighten his mood as he gathered a small convoy for the
trip to Beth’s. He’d started worrying he’d be too late, or that Mercedes was inoperable, or the Barbies would refuse. Even driving the Cadillac didn’t keep him occupied because there wasn’t any traffic these days. Behind him Mack and Marge brought half a dozen bodyguards in Mack’s minibus, while Patty and her poser brigade followed as rearguard. Marge wanted to see the Barbies at home before suggesting the place as an alternative home for ‘her’ girls.

  The GOFS sentries watching the floodwaters waved, then did a double-take at the second vehicle and Mack behind the wheel. Harold expected a visit from Vulcan when he came back, to find out what was happening. The trick would be to only let the GOFS warchief know the bits he needed to know. The Barbie sentries stopped the convoy while one of them came forward very slowly to check out Mack’s minibus. She rapped on Harold’s window on the way back to her post. He wound it down, smiling at her sour look. “Surprise, surprise.”

  “Again. What do I need to tell the bosses?” She glanced back at the minibus, lowering her voice. “And who or what the hell is a Marge?”

  “That’s Mack’s missus, pre-Crash. He made a deal, to guard Caddi if she stayed safe.” Harold couldn’t help his smile growing, even if it wasn’t because of Mack. “I’ve brought a bigger surprise, but I’ll need to meet all three without guards in the room. Shoot before reading stuff. If we drive slow, do you reckon they’ll have worked something out?”

  “I’ve given up being surprised by anything you do, you mad bastard. What the fuck can’t the likes of Beetch know?” The Barbie rolled her eyes. “Above my pay grade, I suppose. Stay here while I ride back on a trail bike, because if it’s that secret I’d best not broadcast it.”

  The message to drive to Beth’s, nice and slow, came over the radio because that wasn’t a secret. The four cars that met Harold halfway might have been an escort, or because the Barbies wanted to check he really had brought Big Mack.

  Ken stood outside Beth’s, giving Mack, Marge and the minibus a long, curious look, before ambling over to the rearguard. She winked at Patty. “Has the Demon come to join up?”