‘After receiving further evidence from Private Driver, we believe the epicenter to be roughly seven miles from Edinburgh. Blue and White Company will be leading the mission, from this point, with a four mile radius search zone. Due to the unusual shape of the area, other companies will provide support in a clockwise direction roughly two miles squared each. Please check your boundaries, and be confident with your search zone before you leave the camp. The complete area of search, will cover a total range of twenty miles. The convoy will drive to Preston via the M55, then onto the M6 where you will stay until the motorway turns into the A74, and you will take the A702 towards Edinburgh. This is a three hour journey, with no obstacles, however we do believe you will encounter problems, particularly around Lancaster, where reports suggest the motorway is impassable. You are not to engage with any of Torriero’s men, should you happen upon any, unless initiated by them. The wiping out of kuru is a sensitive subject, and must not be taken lightly. You have permission to use deadly force, but confirmation of each target must be confirmed before contact is made. Speak to your sergeant, with regards the tell tale signs of kuru, each soldier will be issued with a description, study it, know what you are looking for. All bodies of the dead must be burned, this is of paramount importance. Not just bodies, all sites, and camps must be wiped out. Any animals found to be feeding on the remains must also be destroyed, you will be equipped with a M202A1 Flamethrower to complete this task, one per vehicle. The terrain is largely open and hilly, with large areas of forest to navigate. There are also a few properties within the search zone, we believe them to be occupied, but as yet we have no confirmation, these properties must be searched. The conditions towards Edinburgh will be significantly worse than you are accustomed to, with storms, rain and snow blizzards. The air will also be thicker than you are used to, each vehicle will be carrying one, six point eight kilogram canister of oxygen. Tangerine and Royal Blues Companies will stay for a further eight weeks after the mission has been completed, to periodically sweep the area, and make sure nothing has been missed. I want confirmation this disease has been wiped out, before the mission can be considered a success. The camp has obtained twenty nine, two-way radios, protected from the effects of the EMP in a faraday cage at the Fleetwood Barracks. One will be issued to each vehicle, to be used on odd hours, using the frequency nine. The range of these machines is around thirty to forty miles, so should be sufficient taking into account the terrain. Hillsides can hamper transmission signals, so climb one of the many peaks Pentland Hills has to offer if you are struggling. Before I hand you over to your sergeants, are there any questions?’
A few arms went up, and General Morris went through them one at a time.
‘Do the radios-’
‘Identify yourself soldier.’
‘Private Williams sir, do the radios have any backup power?’
‘They come with two battery packs, both rechargeable using the vehicles electrical point. It is also possible to use the electrical plug to give power to the radio as you talk, if the batteries fail. The battery pack can be carried inside your rucksack, when you leave your vehicles, with the radio attached.’
‘Yes you’ said General Morris, pointing at the next soldier.
‘Second Lieutenant Burch. How long do you expect this mission to take, and how much food do we have?’
‘Each vehicle is carrying enough food and water for six soldiers, for seven days. However, we don’t expect the mission to go on beyond four days.’
General Morris pointed to the next soldier, who spoke up.
‘Sergeant Little. Are the vehicles carrying enough fuel to complete the mission?’
‘All vehicles have a full tank of diesel, and are carrying an extra tanks worth, the trip is a three hundred and ninety mile round trip, plus whatever is used while completing the mission, so yes there is enough.’
General Morris pointed at another solider, stood near the back of the room.
‘Sergeant Charles. Are we-’
‘Speak up Sergeant Charles.’
‘Sorry sir, are we expected to sleep out in the open? I’m concerned about the conditions we will be sleeping in, in such close proximity to an impact zone.’
‘I understand your concerns Sergeant Charles, we advise you sleep in your vehicle.’
There were noticeable groans from within the group of soldiers, before Sergeant Charles continued. ‘Have you tried to sleep inside a Viking? It ain’t easy.’
‘There are also properties all around that area, farms, towns, plenty of places to use.’
After the final question, General Morris stood aside, and let his sergeants run through the particulars of their mission with his own team. Sergeant Davis laid out a detailed map on the bonnet of our vehicle, and we made notes of areas of interest. Our search zone included two farms, mine and my neighbours, Scald Law Peak, the forest where Roy and I saw cannibalism, vast areas of open landscape and the outskirts of two small towns. Sergeant Davis folded up the map, and put it in the front passage door of the Viking. ‘Right soldiers’ shouted General Morris, rounding us all up again with a hand movement. ‘Just a final comment, before you leave. This mission needs to be completed swiftly and efficiently as you are required back here. A war is approaching that will effect us all, and you will play an important role in defeating the enemy. For now, let’s get rid of this disease, and make sure we destroy it at the core. Good luck.’
The men cheered, which I joined in with, even though I felt a bit like a fraud. We climbed aboard the Viking, as Sergeant Davis handed us each a sheet of paper titled ‘Key signs of kuru.’ It had a pencil drawing of a man, who looked more like the male from the good sex guide. There were five key signs: Trouble walking, increasingly poor coordination, slurred speech, muscle twitching and tremors, random laughing and/or crying. I folded up the sheet and put it in my pocket, when we see kuru we’ll know, I thought to myself. Sergeant Davis sat in the passenger seat and Murphy took the wheel. There was plenty of room for the rest of us, the vehicle was capable of seating more than it was taking. The Viking looks like a tank, sitting on two tracked vehicle units linked by a steering mechanism. It is a fully amphibious armoured all terrain vehicle, capable of hitting fifty miles per hour. Whether we are on the motorway, driving through the British countryside or needing to pass through a river, this vehicle is not going to let us down. We led the convoy, out of the stadium, past the hotel towards Security Base Delta. Officer Abbott waved us through while Officer Wilson opened the gate by the side of the tram. I looked back at the camp, and watched it disappear into the darkness, as we followed Preston New Road towards the M55. The further away from the coast we got, the more houses and buildings were occupied. People out on the streets would wave as our convoy drove past, I felt like a conquering soldier driving through a city he had helped liberate.
‘Two weeks ago, all this was under water’ said Sergeant Davis, turning around to speak to me.
‘Really’ I replied, looking out of the window at the devastation. The insides of shops and houses had been swept away, rotting wood everywhere and rusting vehicles smashed through shop windows. ‘The storms must have been torrential?’ I remarked, noticing Keane starting to smile. ‘It wasn’t rain that did this’ he snapped back at me. ‘It was a tsunami.’
‘A tsunami, in Great Britain? Did you see it?’
‘Yeah we saw it, those that didn’t are dead now. It set the camp back weeks, having to sort that shit out.’
‘You didn’t have to do fuck all’ laughed Sergeant Davis.
Keane sat back in his seat and sulked, as I looked out of my window. We were soon on the M55, driving on the wrong side of the motorway due to the abandoned vehicles in the left hand lane, probably caused by the traffic trying to get out of Blackpool on the morning of the attack. The view out of the window turned from industrial and urban, to open fields and countr
yside. Just outside Fleetwood, we had a tense moment as we drove past some of Torriero’s men, not just some, there were hundreds. We had to slow down because of stray vehicles in the road, when Murphy yelled ‘Wake up, Torriero’s men.’ Sergeant Davis quickly sent a radio message to the vehicles behind, if they had their radios on. In the field on our right, no more than one hundred yards away, was a large camp. There looked to be hundreds of tents, it resembled a music festival. There were men milling around outside, they looked at us, and we at them. Some were barely a stones throw away, near enough to see their weapons. The camp looked like it had been there some time, muddy walkways and litter everywhere. The convoy moved past without incident, and we could all breath a little easier. I think the experienced soldiers were concerned it was a good position for an ambush, possibly an IED. Sergeant Davis spoke to Camp Blue via the radio, reporting our sighting, as security was tightened to all approaches, and new spotters sent to observe the camp. The roundabout to get onto the M6 was still flooded with sea water, with cars overturned in piles, a proper traffic jam with no way around. It was the first opportunity to take the Viking off road, and Murphy manoeuvred the vehicle straight over a hedgerow and into the field opposite. Mud splashed up the side of the vehicle, streaking across the window. We drove parallel to the M6 for around a mile as the carriageway cleared, and then smashed through the wooden fence back onto the motorway. There were more stray cars near the main junction, but as we got further away from Preston, the roads somewhat cleared. There was a constant stream of ash falling from the sky, highlighted by the front headlights, through the windscreen it resembled a Christmas scene. The wet sludge and mud coming off the fields and road had started to cake the windows of the vehicle, to the point I couldn’t see out of them. I sunk down in my seat to try and have a doze, before Keane woke me up with some bad singing. ‘Lucille, please, come back where you belong. I been good to you, baby, please, don’t leave me alone.’ I turned away from him, but it continued. ‘Lucille, please, come back where you belong.’ He laughed at my attempts to ignore him, before he continued. ‘Hey noob, wake up I got something to ask you. The lads have been giving me a bit of stick, they think I’m not being very friendly. So on that note, I want to bring you into the group a bit more, help you bed in. As you are a member of Blue and White Company now, I thought I would let you join our betting ring.’ I turned to face him, fully expecting this to be another piss take, but prepared to go along with it. ‘This week’s bet revolves around you as it happens, ‘How long will Private Driver last before he is killed?’ He started laughing as he continued. ‘I have you to die before the days out, Sergeant Davis thinks you’ll do a bit better, five plus day’s. My money’s on you to be bitten by a zombie, and finished off by me. You get bit by one of those fuckers, and I will put you down, make no mistake.’
‘Are you as thick as you sound?’ I replied. ‘Or are you doing it to be funny? Only these are not zombies, this is not a film you dumb fuck. Sergeant Davis have you got any more of those kuru information leaflets, I think Keane needs to go back over it.’
Sergeant Davis screwed up a leaflet, and threw it at Keane, who sat back in his seat with a smug grin on his face.
‘I have a subject for next week’ I said, breaking the silence. ‘Who has the biggest ego but the smallest manhood in Blue and White Company?’
‘I’ll have a piece of that’ said Sergeant Davis.
‘Me too’ said Rhino, waving a tenner in the air.
‘You won’t last until next week’ Keane shouted, as I sat back down satisfied in the knowledge I’d given him some stick back. There was a short but strong storm, that pounded the car, cleaning all the dirt off the windows. We stayed on the M6 until we were a couple of miles away from Carnforth, where the traffic on both sides was gridlocked. We moved into the field on our right, and climbed the hill as it rose above Carnforth. I looked down at the traffic jam to our left, where the vehicles were gridlocked together. The centre of the pile up was clear except for the odd car, where they’d once been floating on top of the water, now ditched as the water decreased. Sat in a pool of their own rust and salt water, it was a strange sight now the water had all but gone. Towns people were working on the clear up of Carnforth, picking their way through the properties, throwing everything the water had wrecked outside in piles. Over the next few hours, we past Kendal, Penrith and then Carlisle, with little obstacle. The odd abandoned blockade, traffic jams and areas where the sea water was still draining. The Viking was making easy work of the different terrains it was asked to tackle, and we were soon approaching the junction where George and June’s farm was located. I could see through the windscreen, where the motorway manoeuvred around the property, hidden by the large trees. I searched the sky for a sign of smoke but there wasn’t any, we continued past and I bit my lip, wishing we could stop. But this was an official army mission, and not something I had the authority to alter. The weather had been threatening to rain for the last hour, and as the motorway turned into A74, it finally gave way. A storm rolled over with a torrential downpour, making it difficult to see where we were going. The darkness to the north east had grabbed everyone’s attention, it looked threatening and dangerous. ‘Bloody hell lads’ said Sergeant Davis, turning around to face us all. ‘Look at the fucking state of that.’
‘This is going to be intense’ laughed Little D.
The conditions seemed to excite everyone, including me a bit. I suppose it’s a different thing walking through it, fearing about the safety of your seven year old child. When we reached the A702 turn off, Sergeant Davis turned the two way radio on, and told the rest of the convoy we were about forty minutes away from our mission point. In those forty minutes, the conditions took a turn for the worse. The rain was lashing our vehicle, and the wind felt like it could pick us up. The darkness had arrived, and the ash clouds were growling. The Pentland Hills loomed into view ahead, and we followed the forest towards our rally point. The same forest that had been the scene of the tribe like cannibalism, and the reason I was here. We pulled up around two miles from Hillend, Sergeant Davis got out and spoke to the sergeant in the vehicle behind, and got on the radio to call the other vehicles. Ten minutes later, all the sergeants were gathered around our vehicle, finalising their approach for the next three days, and amount of time they believed it would take to complete the mission. The code word ‘kuru’ was decided between the companies, to make sure no situation arose where we were shooting at each other. Blue and White Company climbed out of the vehicle, as the rest of the companies moved out to their particular search zones. The air was noticeably thicker, and took everyone by surprise. It felt like someone had their hands around my throat and was gently squeezing. Rhino opened the back doors to the Viking, and pulled out some army rations. ‘First things first’ he said, handing us all a factory packed ration sachet. On the packet it stated ‘British Army twenty four hour ration packs, containing three main meals and snacks for a total of four thousand calories. To fully sustain one active soldier for twenty four hours while on operations.’
‘I cannot be putting myself in danger on an empty stomach’ laughed Rhino, as he handed Little D the final sachet.
‘I don’t understand how you enjoy this stuff’ said Little D, opening his packed. ‘Unless you warm it up, it tastes like shit.’
‘If it’s edible, I’ll eat it!’ Rhino replied, as he tucked in.
‘You’re the only man I have ever met who actually enjoys it’ joked Little D. I opened the first meal, an all day breakfast, and ate it. It tasted like cardboard, all washed down with a powdered electrolyte drink. A few boiled sweets came in the pack, and at least removed the taste of cardboard bacon from my mouth. I pulled my rucksack out of the back of the Viking, packed the remainder of the rations pack into it and fastened it on my back. I checked my rifle was locked and loaded, and pulled it over my shoulder. Rhino was stood at the back of the Viking, as Keane and Murphy helped h
im put the M202A1 Flamethrower on his back, he then gave it a burst to check it was working, golden flames leapt forward and then disappeared into the darkness. ‘Tactical lights on’ ordered Sergeant Davis, as the sky lit up with white beams. We only had one area to search this afternoon, we climbed over the wooden sty to our left, and onto my neighbour’s land, heading for Scald Law Peak. Buchanan’s Farm is large, nearly two hundred and sixty hectares. It incorporated Scald Law Peak and surrounding woodland. They have owned the farm a long time, since I was a boy, and were good friends with my parents, having helped each other on many occasions when problems arose, which they often did in the agricultural profession. But we had no idea who had the farm now. We lined up around ten metres away from each other, and moved forward in a perfect line, beams of light ahead, searching the landscape for any signs of movement. Visibility was poor, the darkness and fog drifting across the landscape making identification of anything problematic. The first body we found was already dead, with a bird picking at it. Little D shot it, and Rhino burned the lot. I could hear dogs in the distance, but they weren’t in our search zone, so we left them. But they will have to be dealt with at some point. The ground was slippy and muddy, our torch lights were glaring off the uneven surface. The search zone was largely open, and with no trees to protect us, the winds pushed us around. Our uniform was certainly better equipped to deal with the conditions though, but it couldn’t stop everything. We searched for a few hours, covering around a hundred and fifty hectares, with no sign until we started the incline of Scald Law Peak. Little D spotted something first, a couple of figures high up on the top. I thought they were trees at first, until there was some clear movement. Our line converged on their position, zeroing in on five men, sat on logs, around a long since dead fire. One man had absolutely no clothes on, I cannot emphasise enough how cold it was. These five men were the perfect first encounter with kuru for Blue and White Company, they bore all the hallmarks of the disease, and showed very little in the way of human behaviour. They spoke in riddles, like their brains were mush, and they didn’t understand what was happening. Sergeant Davis gave us the order to take them out, which the team did with ruthless efficiency. Our beams lit up their distorted faces, as we put them all down in a short burst of bullets. We piled them on top of the dead fire, which was littered with human bones, and Rhino torched them. From on top of Scald Law Peak, we could see flickering candle lights in the farm building. We walked down the other side of the hill, and spread our search line out again. As we got closer to the property, we had to avoid bodies, lying in the field around a hundred yards from the wall surrounding the building. Sergeant Davis and I continued to the property, as the other four searched the approach for bodies to burn. As we climbed over the dry stone wall, the front door swung open, and a man armed with a shotgun walked out. ‘Put down your weapon’ shouted Sergeant Davis, as the rest of Blue and White Company, sensing a situation quickly joined us. ‘You put yours down’ the man retorted. ‘This is my property and you are trespassing’
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