by Vance Huxley
“Two are only shotguns with a copper sleeve and fire pistol bullets.You saw one of those.The other two are single shot with salvagedrifle barrels,but none of them are as accurate as a real rifle.” Patty looked disappointed but the others were still keen.
“What about the other Mad Max weapons, the pistols?” Doll hefted the one on the table. “Are they lighter than this?”
“The two like that fire rifle ammo which makes them pistols with a massive kick.The other four pistols are single shot as well, but smaller calibre.In addition,there are the weapons we’ve accumulated. We have seventy-eightsemi-automatic pistols, half a dozen revolvers, four single shots like Finn’s and twenty-one shotguns.” Harold let the exclamations die down.”A lot of them came from the Mart fight, but we’ve fought off small groups and fined a few scroats. I’ve sold some well-worn or small calibre weapons now and then, and some weren’t fit for anything but spares.”
“That’s an arsenal.” Ru spoke quietly, almost whispering.
“Not quite, but probably as many as any other gang but Caddi. The Geeks may have more after what they’ll have scored when the General bounced, maybe not because a lot of those went into the water. Some of the others would be useless after being in that fire.” Harold picked up the big rifle round and tossed it up and down. “We’ll need every weapon if there’s an attack. The problem is the ammo and spare clips, not the weapons. We used up nearly every round at the Mart.If we had more propellant I could make up more ammo, but we still wouldn’t have spare clips. Unfortunately,we need a lot of other things as much as propellant, so if I concentrate on that the other gangs will realise I’ve got more guns than expected. They’ll put the prices up for starters. We also needcharcoal for Liz, as much as possible. At leastthe GOFSgave uspowder for the muskets, enough until we build more weapons.” Harold stopped, watching them all try to work out the pros and cons.
“So we’ll scare the shit out of any attacker with the first volley, but then it drops off.” Patty thought hard, then sat back and shrugged. “To hell with it Harold, get the propellant. Buy a lot before anyone has a chance to jack up the prices. They won’t know how many guns it’s for, will they?”
“She’s right.” Casper nodded, still eyeing up the big pistol. “Better that the gangs know we have plenty of ammo than having empty guns. We could always have people behind the shooters, refilling empty clips?”
“Better put two behind Bess.” This time she hit Matthew properly, but he just smiled.
“I’ll still need charcoal for making the Rambos, maces and...” Liz looked around the table trying to work out who knew what. “Harold?”
Harold shrugged, because all this group should know. “Some of you know we’ve been testing thin machetes, cutlasses, sabres or giant pointy needles. It’s time you all knew the sabres have been perfected, but not for sale. You also need to know about Wamil’s little secret as well.” He explained Wamil’s surprise. Patty put her sabre on the table for inspection.
“Can we keep the sabres in the old machete style sheaths so it isn’t obvious? I keep the iron bar in there as well so it’s hidden.” Patty weighed up Ru’s Rambo, and her own bar and sabre combination. “I’ll keep with these, not a Rambo. Or as well as, if we have enough? How about a smaller, ladylike mace as well?” The rest relaxed after all the doom and gloom stuff, laughing and making jokes about how Patty could hide all the extras.
The following discussion went around charcoal versus propellant, leaving Harold with the minor problem of prising either out of someone.Hopefully any new customers for gun repairs wouldn’t know about the local charges, and might even give up clips for pistols. The meeting broke up with Harold reminding everyone that this was all top secret. Even as the rest left, Tessa put the musket back together for the test tonight.
*
Tessa managed to keep quiet while Harold found a suitable place in the ruins. The three test shots sounded more like a cannon than most firearms,unless the listener had heard the real thing. Similar loud bangs had happened other nights when Harold tested musket repairs, so there shouldn’t be any additional curiosity from Caddi’s watchers. With work coming from three directions, even Caddi’s men never knew whose guns Harold tested.
The muskets all fired without any problem. Harold inspected the target doors with big white circles on them, and two of the crude iron sights with the white dot on the back were pretty good. Only one needed serious adjustment,because muskets would miss a barn anyway beyond fifty paces. Tessa’s excitement left her twitching after she hitone corner of the big white square of wood with the two-two rifle.
Tessa chattered rapidly but as quietly as possible all the way back, only shutting up when she turned on her glows to approach the guardhouse. Once inside the workroom, they put the muskets and rifle on the bench and Harold turned to Tessa. She punched the air and exclaimed “Yes!” Suddenly Harold had his arms full of Tessa and she had a full lip lock. Unfortunately, Harold was also excited, or maybe he’d fancied Tessa, sort of, for years.For whatever reason Harold kissed her back. They held it for long moments, too long for either to pretend they hadn’t, before the pair suddenly sprang apart. The light in here, bright so Harold could see the weapons, showed the shock on her face asa scarlet Tessa whirled and ran out of the door!
Damn! Harold sat down, stunned. He’d gone on and on about not buying Tessa for his woman, then he’d gone and grabbed her. Then again Harold hadn’t actually grabbed her. No, but he’d had a good firm hold of Tessa and had kissed her a lot harder and longer than friendly. What shook Harold was that Tessa had kissed back—or actually, she’d kissed him first. Did Tessa feel obligated? She kept saying everyone thought that’s what Harold brought her for, so why had she done that? Damn!
Harold worked the whole episode around and around his head, until he came to one definite conclusion. If it wasn’t for Mercedes playing silly sods with his head and hormones, Harold probably wouldn’t be as worried. After all he’d had a couple of mad moments with Liz and Patty, and the world didn’t end. But this had happened while he was getting into another woman’s pants, or would be if Mercedes wore any! Even worse, if he tried to give up on Mercedes it wouldn’t work. The bloody woman would smile, stick out her hip and he’d start flirting and playing grab-ass. Cripes didn’t even come close.
*
Harold wasn’t sure how long his brain had been buzzing round when a knock on the door roused him. “Come in.” He braced himself but Sharyn came in, smiling happily. Harold felt about six years old as Sharyn extracted Harold’s version of events, and then laughed at him! “It’s not funny. I’ve only just persuaded Tessa she wasn’t bought to, well, for exactly what just happened.”
“I’m laughing at you both. You are a pair of silly sods.” Sharyn shook her head in mock despair. “I knew she’d started toget interested inyou, soft lad. I half expected to wake up one morning and find that one of you had been sleepwalking.”
“That’s news to me. Anyway I don’t two-time.” Harold paused, then sighed. “I’m not actually one-timing.”
“Only because you can’t get Mercedes on her own. You do know that Tessa likes dangerous men, don’t you?”
Harold had a full scarlet blush now. Sharyn could always do this to him. “Well, not put like that.” She made Tessa sound like an adrenaline junky of some sort.
“Well she does, and Tessa knows now I’ve made her sit down and think about it. That’s probably why she ended up with Stones, butshe lost him wheneverythingwent to hell.You came back, but in the Mart youstillseemed like soft lad. Then you did the white knight bit.Tessa found out that soft lad has a Soldier Boy wild side, one that has all the local bad boys crapping themselves. She’s been reassessing you ever since, even if she’s never admitted it even to herself. I knew because her teasing ramped up, but you treat her like a china doll and you’ve got this thing going with Mercedes.” Sharyn laughed at Harold’s expression, or maybe the blush. “Tessa is back there complaining about your timing. If this
had happened a year ago she’d still be in here, finding out just how interested you were!”
“Cripes, Sharyn. There’s things a bloke doesn’t need to know, especially from his sister!”
Big sister smiled and patted Harold on the shoulder. “You need to know that Tessa isn’t mad at you, in fact she feels like a proper prat. She made a big thing about being bought supposedly for sex,and you’ve been falling over yourself to prove you didn’t. Despite that, and you already being taken, sort of, Tessa says her hormones took over.” Sharyn tried to stifle a giggle, but failed. “She got a bit wound-up about shooting a real rifle, and then you were stood there all handy-like.”
Harold shrugged and stood up. “I’ll move my stuff down here. Ow! No need for that!”
“I’ll clip the other ear if you come up with any more stupid suggestions. Tessa can accept she made a pass at a bloke at the wrong time, but if you move out she’ll feel responsible. At the moment, the lass is wondering how to set the clock back about an hour.” Sharyn giggled again, without any attempt at stopping it. “She reckons it might be worth a rerun once the dust settles.”
A baffled Harold stared at his sister. “What? When the dust settles? Oh. Mercedes?”
“Oh, Mercedes? Yes, Mercedes. Either you will or won’t get into her pants or the other way around. Then depending on the result, Tessa might decide she wants to try again sometime.” Sharyn’s look had a lot of mischief in it now.”Since she reckons you were definitely interested?”
Harold hesitated but he couldn’t honestly deny it. “She’s not exactly repulsive, you know,and yes, I already worked out I might not have fought too hard. You know, without the buying and Mercedes.”
“Well then, can you work with a woman without grabbing her if she gets near?” Sharyn looked a breath away from laughing again.
“Of course I bloody well can!”
“Don’t be so indignant. Some gang bosses can’t, you know.” Harold recognised that tone; Sharyn had switched to having fun. “So that’s settled, as long as you can accept bad timing and nobody’s fault. Tessa will be over here in a bit to get on with her job.”Harold nodded and hoped Sharyn had finished. “Tessa isn’t interested in a repeat just yet, maybe never. Can you deal with that?”
Enough was enough. “Stop it!”
“Cripes, Tessa is as screwed up as you are. Talk about pouring out hearts.” Sharyn ruffled Harold’s hair, making him feel about thirteen. “This one was free but another consultation will cost both of you, big time.” She left, still laughing, leaving Harold to wait as instructed.
He’d started wondering if Tessa had backed out, buteventually a slightly flushed, definitely cautious apprentice gun repairercame through the door. She looked at the floor and the table, embarrassed, and sort of hesitated for a few moments, debating.”Did Sharyn explain?”
“Yes, sort of. Look, I’m sorry.” Harold knew he sounded embarrassed as well.
“Cripes, I bloody well hope not! I thought you were enjoying it!” They both went a shade pinkerand looked away.
“Stop it!” Silence fell again until Harold couldn’t stand any more. “I’ve always liked you, but hadn’t thought of you like that, you know?”
“I know. Bitch, weapons, wars, bitch. Just my bad timing. I got a bit excited. Nobody let me shoot before!” Tessa giggled, then stifled it and glanced up. “Can we leave it for now?”
“Not if we keep talking about it.” Harold sighed, looking around the room instead of at Tessa. “I’ll try to carry on as usual if you do the same, because I don’t know what else to do.”
“Deal. Now tell me, did it damage any of the muskets?”
“It wasn’t that passionate!” Harold held up his hands in apology once they both stopped laughing. “Sorry. I don’t know because I haven’t checked them since the test. I’ve been sat here thinking of something else. We’d best split them down and have a look, but keep the bits of each one as a set.”
“Why, I thought they were interchangeable?” Tessa’s manner became brisker now they’d found a nice neutral subject.
“Maybe, but until we are sure about that, and how accurate they are, we won’t take chances.” Tessa nodded, then picked up a musket and used a marker to put one dot on each of the components before starting to strip the weapon.Harold and Tessa spent an hour discussing just weapons, while cleaning and checking the three muskets and working on other firearms. Talking through the problems and solutions calmed them, and the pair gradually relaxed again. They packed the marked sets of components in separate boxesafter dismantling the weapons. That wouldn’t fool anyone who truly suspected, but at a glance the parts would look like any other box of spares. After that, the pair finally finished listingall the Orchard Close weapons by ammunition type, and worked out how much of what calibre Orchard Close needed.
Eventually, both were yawning because it was well past midnight. The pair had managed to move past the kissing, right up to when they finished packing up. Tessa gave Harold a little smile. “Hmm, this is difficult. I’m supposed to forget earlier, but go out there looking as if we did.” She put her head to one side and looked at Harold with definite curiosity. “The bitch has never kissed you properly, has she?”
“Mercedes? Cripes, no! Just a quick peck,but not properly because that would really cause the shit to fly. Caddi would probably consider a proper snog breaking the Deal.”
“Why did you buy me, Harold?” Tessa wore a little smile because she’d already had two answers, too nice and a friend. Those were before the clinch.
Harold sighed becausethere was no point in going around it now. “I like you, too much to let the animals have you.”
A big smile broke on Tessa’s face. “With that, I think I can make sure they all know why we’ve been in here half the night.” She opened the door. “If I need a booster, I’ll remember that even if Mercedes gets into your pants, I got first dibs on the lip lock!” Tessa left Harold shaking his head and smiling.That was the teasing Tessa he’d always liked, which didn’t help just now. Harold still wore the smile when he left the workshop, so anyone wandering about this late would be convinced.
*
Harold needed a bit of space the following day, away from Tessa whostill looked a bit embarrassed at breakfast. He went out with the scavengers who were working over the new houses, and used the opportunity to look around the area. His bodyguards followed but gave him some space since Harold was obviously wrestling with something. After a quick check on what the scavengers were finding, Harold called by to talk to Roy and his men. The four experienced fighters were still bitter about having to retreat from the General,twice, but confessed to being boredwhile waiting for him to attack.They promised to stick to it anyway, because if the General came it would probably be across this water. Instead of going back to the scavengers, Harold decided to explore a bit. He followed the edge of the water towards the Geek border.
Working along the edge of the floodwater, exchanging greetings with the GOFS watchers now and then, Harold found a single railway track. It came out of the water and curved offbetween the houses, reminding Harold of what the Geeks had said about trailers. Hefollowed the railsin the general direction of their border. Sure enough,the track curved that way and disappeared under thefloodwaters thatfilled the railway cuttingalong the Geek border. Three huge flatbed rail wagons satclose to the edge of the water, all at odd angles,completelyderailed. Another stood nearby,still on the tracks.
Harold couldn’t see any rust on the beds so he thought they might bethick ply, which would be useful. He went closer to check, and saw the Geeks had been right about the size and weight of the trailers. One pair of wheels had come loose, rolled across the nearby road, and embedded itself in a car. The casual look at the end of the wagon without wheels turned into a stare, before a big smile broke over Harold’s face.
After spending another couple of hours helping the scavengers, Harold went back to Orchard Close with the first van load of plunder. As he arrived, the pickup
came bouncing out of the old caravan park, up the access road and around the side of Orchard Close. Out of sight of Caddi’s watchers, the caravan springs were heaved over the wall and carried away to Liz’s lair. Her extended lair now, as the adjacent garage had been cleared for the smith’s new stock.
Bethany met Harold to let him know Caddi’s watchers had tried to get a better look. “I told them that we had some target practice scheduled, and they were on the range.” She pointed across the rows of potatoes to the four man-shaped targets at the other end,all painted with Hot Rod logos.Harold just laughed, then thought about it and sent a messageasking Ru, Patty, and Emmy to bring the dead sniper’s rifle to the gates.
Instead of standing about waiting for them he followed the latest load of springs to Liz,finding her rubbing her hands together like a miser inspecting his gold stocks. Harold didn’t need to ask if they were suitable, her smile lit up the garage.Harold asked her to come and check on the scavengers tomorrow, keeping it as casual as he could.
Liz barely glanced away from her springs, just commenting that it would stop people collecting things she couldn’t use yet. Harold suffered another recital of how she should be able to melt the scrap steel and cast anything, because the Celts could. He butted in eventually to ask her to come early, so he could get back to muskets. At least that diverted Liz, while Harold explained about him checking, testing and checking until even Tessa had got bored with them. Once clear of the smith, Harold went off to sort out the Caddi spy deterrent, and test one potential shooter.
*
Harold took Patty, Ru and Emmy up into the bedroom of one of the guardhouses next to the gates,out of sight of the Army but with a clear view over the potatoes. The four man-sized targets were clearly visible attwo hundred metres, a good distance for amateurs. Patty tried the sniper’s rifle and, with the scope to help,showed off a bit with head shots. Harold offered her the rifle, instead of her Winchester, because it had plenty of ammo. As he’d expected, Patty dithered but settled for keeping her Winchester. All that lovely engraving made it a doubly unique weapon,if she could ever flaunt it.Emmytried the new rifle next, also hitting her target in the “eyes” with both rounds, but pointed out “her” 308 rifle seemed just as good. By now Ru had realised where this must be heading, and started to twitch.