UKD3: UK Dark Series Book 3

by Chris Harris

  “We’re friendly! Do not fire on us!” I yelled, trying to remain calm. “We mean you no harm, we’re just escaping with our families from the Black Death.” We were in a very exposed position and if they opened fire we’d be in serious trouble.

  The unknown and unseen man responded.

  “The Black Death! Do you think I’m stupid? Now, lower your weapons, lay them on the ground and back away from them, or we’ll open fire.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” I responded immediately, my heart beating fast. We’d been told never to lower our weapons; by doing so, it put you at an immediate disadvantage. If you’re following their instructions, you’re in their power. As soon as you lower your weapon, they’ve won.

  During training Paul had talked us through situations like this. If they were going to open fire, then invariably they would have done so by now, without warning. Although it might not seem that way now, the fact that we hadn’t complied and lowered our weapons, meant that we'd taken the advantage.

  The saying “the silence was deafening” seemed very apt at that moment.

  The disembodied voice came back with, I felt, a hint of desperation in it. “Do it now! Or else!”

  Suddenly, there was a second voice. “I say old chap. Sorry to interrupt you, but unless I’m very much mistaken, there’s only one of you, and my gun which, incidentally, is aimed right at your head at the moment, is a lot bigger than that pop gun you’re carrying. Now, please be so kind as to place your gun on the ground and step into the open.”

  At the sound of the familiar voice, relief rushed through my whole body. I could feel the others beginning to relax alongside me.

  A few muttered curses and rustling of bushes followed and then Harry’s voice could be heard again through the undergrowth.

  “It’s OK, everyone, he’s disarmed.”

  We maintained our positions, crouching on one knee with weapons raised, as the bushes swayed and a terrified looking man pushed his way through them. His arms were raised above his head and Harry was standing directly behind him, his weapon pointed at his back. He had the man’s shotgun slung over his shoulder.

  “Please!” he gasped, his face pale and sweaty, “just take whatever you want, but don’t hurt my …” He stopped, realising he had said too much.

  We had momentarily relaxed, but the realisation that there were others out there made us all raise our weapons again.

  He dropped to his knees.

  “Please don’t shoot, I beg you. It’s only my family back there. My wife and two children.”

  The poor man was absolutely petrified.

  Given how we looked, it was understandable. Most of us were wearing the military-issued clothing we’d been given over the past months, and were kitted out in tactical vests stuffed with extra magazines for the vicious looking assault rifles we carried. And of course, all our faces were completely covered with either gas masks or disposable paper ones.

  All in all, we must have looked very intimidating.

  Harry shouted at him, undeterred by his demeanour.

  “Where are they? Do they have any weapons?”

  Given our past experiences, we couldn’t afford to take anything at face value. You had to assume that everything and everyone was a threat until proved otherwise.

  The man pointed weakly back at the woods.

  “They’re hiding. They know only to come out when I call them and tell them it’s safe again.”

  I spoke up. Trying to keep my tone calm and neutral to defuse the tense situation.

  “Look, mate. If you’re genuine, then trust me, you have absolutely nothing to fear from us. But our families are down there.”

  I nodded down the hill towards the Land Rover and trailer.

  “I need to make sure it’s safe for them above all else. Please can you get your family to show themselves.”

  “How do I know I can trust you?” he asked, warily.

  “You don’t,” I said, with a shrug. “But what other choice do you have?”

  I watched him struggle to make sense of the situation, but he was too overwrought to see anything but the danger he thought he was in.

  “No way,” he said stubbornly, “just take what you want and leave. You’ll never find them, and I’ll die before I tell you where they are.”

  The man was doing what any of us would do. He was protecting his family at all costs.

  You had to admire him; he was terrified and he had seven guns pointing at him but he was still trying to keep his family safe.

  I had an idea.

  “Look pal, I don’t know how else to convince you that we’re genuine and we’re not a threat to you, but have you looked at who’s pointing a gun at your back?”

  With a confused and distrustful look on his face, still with his hands held high above his head, he twisted on his knees and risked a look at Harry, who was still standing behind him. Harry lifted his gas mask from his face and grinned at him before replacing it.

  The shock of recognition on his face was comical.

  “What the …” He stammered and stuttered some more, as his mouth tried to catch up with his racing brain.

  Harry slung his weapon over his shoulder and stepped forward, holding his hand out. The man fell back for a moment in confusion, then shook hands.

  Still shaking hands, because the man seemed incapable of letting go, Harry helped him up.

  “Sir, I assure you our intentions are peaceful. And we can do a lot to help you. Now, if we can just get your family from their hiding place, we can all have a mug of tea and get to know each other. I’m sure you have some interesting stories to tell.”

  The shock of recognising a member of the royal family, combined with Harry’s calm manner and soothing words, seemed to have completely disarmed the man.

  “Are we saved? Is it all over?” he stammered.

  Harry shook his head, “No, unfortunately it’s not over, sir, and as for being saved, as I think I mentioned before, we’re looking for shelter in your wood to escape the plague that’s sweeping through our community. It’s why we’re wearing the masks. So, I suppose you’ll be offering us sanctuary. But your family must be beside themselves with worry. Shall we go and get them?”

  Still too shocked to say anything, the man nodded, and led us into the woods.

  We followed him, staying in a tactical formation with our weapons ready. He seemed genuine enough, but we couldn’t take the chance of it being a trap.

  He still appeared too stunned to take it all in. He kept looking at all of us, particularly Harry of course, as we followed him between the trees. At last we entered a clearing which, by my estimation, must have been close to the centre of the woods, and he came to a halt next to a pile of dead leaves.

  He pointed at the leaves.

  “I built a bolt hole; there’s a trapdoor under the leaves.”

  “Do you need a hand?” I asked.

  He nodded and I stepped forward.

  “Toni,” he called out, “it’s OK, I’m opening the hatch now. There are some people with me but there’s no need to be scared.”

  There was a muffled but nervous sounding reply from the forest floor.

  The hatch wasn’t heavy. Sweeping the leaves aside, I grabbed one side of it as the man grabbed the other and we lifted it up and clear of the hole underneath.

  Three faces, blinking from the sudden increase in light, looked up at us. He wasn’t lying; the hidey-hole contained a woman and two children.

  The woman quickly passed the children up to her husband and after giving them both a quick hug, he reached down and helped his wife up and out of the hole.

  The four of them stood there, staring at us.

  I broke the ice.

  “Hi, I’m Tom, and these are my friends,” I said, indicating the others by my side. “I’m sorry if we gave you a scare but we didn’t know anyone was in these woods.”

  It occurred to me that the rest of our group were still waiting for us and had
no idea what was happening. They’d only witnessed our previous exchange from a distance and then the last they’d seen was us trooping off into the woods.

  “Pam and William, could you please go and get the others to come up. They must be going out of their minds. Tell them to get the car as close as possible; we can sort things out later.”

  As the two ran off to speak to the others, the four strangers continued to gape at us in silence. They seemed to be finding it difficult to believe we were real, although in fairness to them, they probably hadn’t had any contact with anyone for quite some time. The sudden appearance of dozens of intimidating people carrying weapons and wearing masks would be quite hard to process quickly.

  That said, they really needed to snap out of it. “Right, then,” I said briskly, “the rest of us will be arriving soon. Do you have a camp or base where it will be more comfortable to meet everyone and maybe get a brew going?”

  The man blinked a few times and managed to pull himself together.

  “Yes, yes of course. Let me show you to our camp.”

  We followed them a short distance until we came to another clearing.

  I was surprised to see an articulated lorry along one side of the clearing. There were also a number of structures fashioned out of branches and logs arranged around a central fire pit. A large tent had been pitched under a crude, but effective looking shelter, providing additional protection from the elements.

  Still looking a little dazed, the man pointed out some chairs arranged around the fire. A large tarpaulin had been suspended above them to provide shelter from the weather.

  “Please. Take a seat. I’m sorry we don’t have enough chairs.”

  “Not a problem. Sorry, in all the excitement we didn’t get to introduce ourselves properly. I’m Tom, as you know, and you obviously know Harry here. I won’t introduce everyone else yet, because it will all get confusing. There’ll be plenty of time for that later. What are your names?”

  “I’m Steve,” he said awkwardly, “Steve Bradley, and this is my wife Toni and my son Logan and daughter Sophie.”

  A loud whistle from somewhere in the woods interrupted us.

  Harry laughed. “They can’t find us; I’ll go and get them.” He turned and walked off in search of the others, disappearing quickly through the trees.

  Steve turned to his family, “Listen! You’re not going to believe who that is. That’s Prince Harry!”

  They looked back at him in astonishment. “No!” said Toni.

  “Yes, it is!” I said, laughing, “We’ll tell you our story later. You may not find some of it believable, but ...” I pointed in the direction that Harry had gone, “we do have the evidence to back it all up. I’m sorry if we seem a bit distracted. We had to leave our home and a lot of our friends and family behind this morning. Most of them are very sick and we’re not sure if they’ll survive or not.”

  I reached into a pocket, where I had some spare masks, and handed them to Steve.

  “It would be best if you put these on. One of us may be infected but not be showing symptoms.”

  Steve suddenly looked angry, and was about to say something when I stopped him.

  “Look I know what you’re about to say. In your situation, I’d probably feel the same, but we’ve all been examined by a doctor, and I can assure you we’re only keeping the masks on until we know we’re all clear. You’ll be completely safe, believe me. The masks are just a precaution.”

  By now the rest of our group was arriving, and as the family hurriedly put on their masks and stepped forward, our circle opened up to include them.

  “Everyone, this is Steve and Toni and their kids, Logan and Sophie.”

  The others nodded and smiled and I turned back to Steve.

  “Look, it may seem a bit late to ask, but I hope you won’t mind if we join you and set up camp in this wood. I’m sure with the supplies and resources we have to offer it would be of huge benefit to you.”

  Steve looked at his wife, who said nothing, then looked back at all of us. “Well, I suppose realistically I don’t have much choice in the matter, but as far as we’re concerned, you’re all welcome. We haven’t seen another soul for months and we sure could do with some help. I don’t want to go through another winter like the one we’ve just had.”

  Everyone looked relieved. This would be our new home for the foreseeable future.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Steve showed us the track he’d used to get the lorry into the woods. After we’d cleared it of the felled trees he’d used to block it, we drove the Land Rover and trailer into the clearing.

  Although we were impatient to exchange stories, we agreed to unload and set up first. First and foremost, we needed shelter.

  Chris and Harry took over. The plan initially was to set up hammocks under tarpaulin shelters. This was by far the easiest and quickest way to make sure everyone had somewhere warm and comfortable to sleep.

  Chris had taught us well, and in no time at all the tarpaulins were up and the hammocks were hung between suitable trees. The children greeted the prospect of sleeping under the stars with great excitement, but the mood among the adults was rather more subdued. We couldn’t help wondering what our people were going through back at the compound.

  The masks made any sort of physical work uncomfortable and slowed our pace considerably, but eventually most of the stuff we’d brought with us had been unloaded, and under Pete’s supervision, had been set up or stacked in orderly piles.

  While we carried out Chris’s instructions, Harry, whose primary concern was now security, checked out the woods and the surrounding area. He returned an hour later with a list of jobs he needed help with. He’d decided to build look-out posts at strategic places and create some defensible positions we could use if we were attacked. This would all take some doing, but the basics could be completed relatively quickly and then improved upon over time.

  Harry commandeered a few willing helpers and, gathering some equipment, they trudged off into the woods to make a start.

  Steve and his family were going out of their way to be helpful, and although we’d found out the hard way that it was not a good idea to trust strangers, before long we decided they were genuine enough and we felt that they would fit in well.

  We were about to call it a day, as we felt we’d accomplished enough to make us all comfortable and everyone was now emotionally and physically exhausted, when Pete turned up looking pale and serious.

  “William, can I have a word?” he said quietly, and we watched uneasily as he placed his hand on his shoulder and took him to one side. We all knew that William had been forced to leave the compound with his two oldest children while his youngest, Adam, had remained behind with his wife.

  Pete spoke too softly for us to hear but the message was clear. William let out a heart wrenching wail and fell to his knees, sobbing. His two older children, James and Heather, hung back miserably, tears streaming down their faces.

  Unable to bear the sight I turned to Becky, who was weeping quietly, and we held each other for comfort.

  We were all devastated by the news of Adam’s death, and those who had left people behind experienced renewed feelings of terror about what the future might hold for them.

  To make matters worse, Pete quietly explained that Jerry was expecting more deaths before too long. Despite all his efforts, there was little he could do for them medically. All he and his helpers could do was try to make the patients as comfortable as possible.

  Only Allan seemed to be holding his own. Perhaps he had acquired some natural immunity somehow. But the thought of him fighting was some consolation to us.

  Leaving William, James and Heather to deal with their pain as best they could, the rest of us, exhausted and drained, gathered quietly around the camp fire, which was now blazing cheerfully.

  Its light and warmth offered us some small comfort in the growing gloom.

  Toni had thoughtfully made a large pot of stew from her own
supplies to feed us all, and we queued up gratefully, clutching our mess tins. Then we returned to the fireside to eat, most of us lost in our own thoughts. William and his children joined us briefly for some food, managed a little, and then headed off sadly to their sleeping area.

  It didn’t take long to get the exhausted children off to sleep.

  Although we were all incredibly weary, most of us were reluctant to turn in. The knowledge that we were likely to receive more bad news in the morning weighed heavily on our minds. I suppose by putting off going to bed, we were hoping to delay the inevitable.

  And we also wanted to tell Steve and Toni our story and listen to theirs.

  I began, with several other people chipping in at opportune moments, and together we gave Steve and Toni an abridged version of everything that had happened to us so far, promising to fill them in on the details over the next few days.

  Having told our story to various people over time, it was now finely honed, and it wasn’t long before they were fully appraised of what had happened to us and what, to the best of our knowledge, had been happening in the wider world.

  They were horrified to learn of the expected death toll nationally, but somewhat cheered by the news that the majority of the survivors were working jointly with what was left of the government to try to rebuild.

  For the most part they listened without comment, asking a few pertinent questions here and there, but otherwise just absorbing all the information we were giving them.

  When we’d finished, Steve told us what had happened to them.

  Steve had been an owner/operator lorry driver. In other words, he’d owned his own lorry and hauled goods on a contract basis for several companies.

  The previous year, about a week before the event, he’d been overjoyed to receive out of the blue, a contract to start hauling goods for a company at what appeared to be fantastic rates. The company was also offering large bonuses for early acceptance and for any driver completing more runs than specified in the contract.