by Chris Harris
I broke the ice by introducing us and confirming that, yes, it was Prince Harry they were staring at.
Mel and Louise were both blonde and good looking and I reflected wryly that Rick had always had an eye for the pretty women in our road (Becky had been no exception, although she’d always made it patently clear that she was unimpressed by him). Mel was the taller of the two, with a swimmer’s build (her strength had taken Paul by surprise, after all).
Her cheekbone showed some recent bruising and her lip was split and slightly swollen. She was clearly the one who’d fallen foul of Mike the previous night.
Louise was small and delicate. No wonder Harry had been able to subdue her so easily. I guessed that she was no more than eight stone and she looked about five foot three.
Once they’d recovered from the shock of encountering Harry, I gave them a quick summary of who we were, where we had come from and what had been happening countrywide.
Then came their story.
They had been with the group since just before the snows had set in, but had been told about its origins by the other women.
After leaving the road, Rick had quickly made alliances and formed a larger group, assuming control by claiming that he had been a senior government minister, who had managed to escape after the army had taken control.
He was a gifted storyteller and his story seemed plausible enough. Most of the people he had encountered had been hungry and confused and Rick, with his working car and his air of authority and assurance, had inspired enough confidence for people to want to follow him.
He had assured them that once order was restored, he would be welcomed back and would assume his rightful place, in the seat of power. By association of course, those who had helped him along the way and remained loyal to him, would be treated as heroes.
Until that time, he had no choice but to hide from the army, who had staged a coup and formed a military dictatorship.
Bizarre as that might sound, Rick could be very plausible. And these were desperate people.
Using an army of thugs, Rick had organised raids to “liberate supplies” from weaker groups in the area and had hit the jackpot when a small convoy of lorries was discovered, abandoned but still full of food, on a road in the middle of nowhere.
He had set himself up like a despotic emperor in a large country house in a remote part of Devon. Using the stolen Land Rover, they had sought out similar vehicles and played the part of the “government in hiding”.
Only the toughest, most violent men passed his “interviews” and were permitted to join the group, and it was an open secret (no doubt broadcast by Rick) that those who failed to pass were executed on the spot by his lieutenants. This, it was explained, was in the name of national security, to safeguard the secrecy of his location.
Fear kept everyone in line.
The men who were allowed to join him were all “believers” who could be manipulated through the web of lies he spun.
The women who were found, or who approached the group for help, were initially vetted by Rick’s wife, but the final say-so came from Rick. They were permitted to join if they fulfilled a set of criteria.
They had to be young and attractive to the men.
Children were not allowed; they were extra mouths to feed and a waste of valuable resources. They were also a distraction.
Every woman was clearly told what was expected of them. They were there for the men’s enjoyment and there were domestic chores to be carried out. If they refused on either count, they would be thrown out into the cold. If they agreed, they would receive food and shelter. It was as simple as that.
Louise broke down at this point. She explained that not a day went by when they didn’t feel ashamed of what they had settled for. And yet the only other option had been starving to death.
Harry spoke softly to them.
“No one will ever think that of you. The world’s changed and it’s brought out the very worst in people. We’ve seen some truly deplorable human behaviour. But what you did – well you needed to do it to survive and that’s all there is to it.
When we get you out of here, no one will judge you or make you feel ashamed about what you had to do. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. My own girlfriend, Kim, was in a similar situation before we rescued her. We’ll help you. It’s those bastards down there that are in the wrong, not you.”
Louise managed a smile, and Mel continued with their story.
Everything had changed when the plague had come. As soon as the first person had fallen ill, Rick had panicked. It had broken out first in one of the converted barns on the country estate they had taken over. The barns had been some distance away from the main house, so the infection hadn’t spread to begin with.
But Rick had comprehended the seriousness of the situation straightaway. He’d ordered an immediate evacuation. All the working vehicles had been loaded up with supplies, and he’d left everyone behind who’d had any contact with the disease.
The result was that most of the people in the community he had formed were left behind, and abandoned to their fates, while Rick, his family, his most trusted bodyguards and some of the women, had fled back to the Midlands.
I shook my head. Another example of Rick’s twisted moral compass.
I explained at this point, that although Rick had acted selfishly and thought only of saving himself, he had almost certainly saved all their lives.
Along the way, they had encountered other groups who had been struck by the plague, and Rick had soon realised the necessity of keeping as far away from humanity as possible. After a week of travelling along back roads, Rick had led them to the hotel they were currently occupying. He’d made sure of his men’s loyalty by promising them that he knew of a location in Birmingham that had food and more women for the taking.
He obviously meant us.
Paul, who by now had recovered enough to speak, or at least croak, asked them for details about the quantity and types of weapons they had. We were relieved to learn that our count had only been out by one and that as we’d suspected, all they had was shotguns.
Paul looked at the nearly empty baskets at their feet. (I’d hastily retrieved them in case anyone saw them abandoned and raised the alarm).
“We can’t have you going back empty-handed. I’ll fill these up for you and put some finishing touches to the plan I’ve got in mind. Could you bear with me for a few minutes, please, ladies?”
We all watched, while he grabbed the baskets and slid out of the back of the OP then half crawled out of sight into the woods.
Mel and Louise were full of questions and while we waited for Paul to return, we did our best to answer them all.
They were filled with elation at the thought that their ordeal might soon be over and they talked non-stop about how good it would be to feel safe again. They could scarcely believe that there were still some good people out there, people who wanted to help and not just take what others had.
Twenty minutes later Paul crawled back into the OP with the two baskets, which were now overflowing with leaves, berries and mushrooms.
“I want you two to take these back to the house and then tell whoever’s down there that there’s loads more, and that you need to come back again. I’ve got a few radio calls to make before I can finalise the plan, but we’ll need your help to make this work. Do you think you can do that?”
Louise nodded. “When Lucy sees all this I’m sure she’ll send us back. As I said, we’re almost out of food now and the scavenging parties aren’t finding much. Rick was relying on that warehouse he found and was livid when your army guys got there first.
The only thing they have got plenty of is booze. He found a storeroom full of it in the hotel and he’s stopping everyone from moaning about the lack of food by letting them get drunk every night. That’s why they’ve all been so volatile lately.
Lucy keeps a list of who collected the most food and rewards them with first choice of one of us. More
often than not we have to go with more than one of them a night. If we don’t, Mike beats us and Lucy holds back our food allocation. It’s how he keeps them all following him.”
Mel picked up her basket, wiping her eyes.
“Thank you, we’ll be back as soon as we can.”
She looked at Paul.
“I’m sorry I hurt you, I didn’t know I could do that. I only ever went to one self-defence class.”
He looked at her, and to my amusement, turned red with embarrassment.
“I’m glad you didn’t go to the second one,” he said, still sounding somewhat hoarse.
On impulse, she stepped forward and kissed him on the cheek.
As we watched them walk back to the hotel, I looked at Paul. He was staring after them with a strange expression on his face.
“Are you OK, mate?” I asked.
He blinked once, looked at us both and whispered, “I think I’ve found the woman I want to marry!”
Anyone passing by at that moment would have been deeply suspicious of the stifled snorts of laughter emanating from the vegetation.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Paul gave us a brief outline of the plan he had come up with.
More than thirty soldiers were now at the warehouse, either guarding it or helping to move the supplies. Once Rick’s observation party had set out back to the hotel, he hoped to get permission for about twenty of the soldiers, led by the detachment of SAS that had been sent to reinforce the defences, to make their way to our location in the woods.
If Mel and Louise agreed, he wanted them to get everyone as drunk as possible. Once they were either asleep or too drunk to matter, he would lead the attack. If it was done correctly, hopefully everyone would be bound and gagged before they knew what was happening to them.
Once again, a simple plan that, fingers crossed, should have a high chance of success.
Taking the radio to the far side of the woods to avoid being overheard from the hotel, he went to put his plan to Colonel Moore. Harry and I focused our binoculars on our objectives. We watched as Mel and Louise walked into the house carrying their baskets.
Twenty minutes later they re-emerged carrying empty baskets. This time they were accompanied by a young girl, also carrying a basket. The girl was walking between them, chatting happily and holding Mel’s hand.
Harry whispered, “Ten to one that’s the young girl Penny they were talking about earlier.”
“Not arguing with you there. I wonder why they’re bringing her as well.”
“Well, we’ll find out soon enough.”
They made their way slowly up the hill towards us, keeping up the pretence of foraging by occasionally stooping down to pick up a plant. I was impressed by how well they managed to disguise their approach.
About halfway up the hill to us, Mel stopped, crouched down next to the young girl and began to talk rapidly to her.
“They must be telling her about us.”
“Good,” I replied, “We don’t want her screaming blue murder when she sees us.”
As Mel spoke to her, the girl involuntarily jerked her head and looked in our direction. Mel used her hand to gently turn her head and we guessed that she was warning her not to give away our position.
They continued up the hill, carefully avoiding the OP, and entered the woods about fifty yards away from us. Five minutes later they crawled into our position. The young girl was wide-eyed with amazement.
“This is Penny,” said Mel, smiling.
“Are you coming to rescue us?” she asked in a sweet voice.
I answered gently, “Yes we are. We’re going to take you somewhere safe. You’ll have plenty of food and there’ll be kids your own age you can play with.” She burst into tears, threw herself at me and hugged me.
“Thank you! Thank you! I don’t like it here. I’ve been so scared,” she said, over and over.
Mel stroked her hair. “I had to bring her. Mike’s really getting out of hand and I can’t leave her on her own with him. He’s already started drinking and I found him trying to touch her. Louise told him to stop it and he backhanded her.” For the first time, I noticed a red mark on the side of Louise’s face. She hadn’t had it earlier.
“I told Lucy I needed her to help me gather more food and got her out of there before Mike could say anything.”
“Who is this Mike?” Harry asked.
She curled her lip in disgust. “He’s Rick’s right-hand man. He’s vicious. I think he used to belong to one of those right-wing neo-Nazi groups. He’s not all that bright, but Rick likes him because he agrees with everything he says and will do whatever he wants, no matter how horrible it is. He’s the biggest, strongest bloke in there, so no one’ll stand up to him.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Harry said, his voice cold, “I don’t think he’ll be around for much longer.” A small noise and a low hiss warned us of Paul’s imminent arrival. He slid into the OP, smiled at Penny then glanced at Mel and went bright red.
“It’s all agreed. Reinforcements from the warehouse will arrive tonight and once we’re in place, the plan will be executed.” He looked at Mel and Louise.
“That’s if you two ladies are able to assist us, of course.”
They spoke in unison, “We’ll do anything to get away from here.”
Paul outlined the plan for them and without hesitation they agreed to help.
Louise said grimly, “I’ll endure one more night of hell with those bastards if it means there’ll be an end to it. Trust me, I’ll get them all drunk and happy and give them a night they won’t forget. Just make them pay for what they’ve done.” She paused, then looked at us, “What will you do to them when you capture them?”
Harry told them about the rules we were trying to run the country by, and what happened to those who breached them.
She looked pensive. “I thought I’d never say this but, I don’t care if you hang them all from the nearest tree. No one should make another person suffer like they have us. We’re human beings but they’ve treated us like commodities. There’s no compassion, no respect and no love in this place. It’s all about power and control and cruelty.
I had a boyfriend before all this happened. We really loved each other. They killed him while one of them was raping me. They’re so stupid. It’s as if they think I’ve somehow forgotten! Every time one of them touches me or makes me have sex with him, I let them. I just try to imagine being somewhere else ...” she tailed off and her eyes filled with tears.
“I always knew I’d get my revenge and now you can make it happen. They didn’t have to do what they’ve done. They controlled the food and they had the power. They’re a bunch of sadists.”
Harry took her hand and squeezed it. “You’re one brave woman, Louise. Given time, you’ll heal, I can guarantee that. Wherever you decide to go after this, you’ll find good people who’ll want to help you.”
Mel looked at Paul. “We’d better be getting back soon. Lucy told us not to be too long, because they’ll need what we can find to feed everyone. Could you help me fill the baskets?” Paul nodded awkwardly, and the two of them slid out of the shelter together. While we were waiting for them to return, an idea occurred to me.
“Louise, do you think Penny could stay here with us? Would she be missed if she didn’t go back? It’s just that even though nothing should go wrong, we can’t guarantee that. I think it would be safer for her if she could stay here.”
“I was just thinking that myself,” she replied, frowning. “I’m sure we could manage it; it’s a big house, so we could just keep making up excuses about her being in another room or another part of the house. No one pays her much attention apart from Mike, so I’ll just have to help Mel keep him distracted.”
I knew the implications of what she was suggesting, and was touched by her courage. On impulse, I reached out and squeezed her shoulder in a pathetic attempt to offer some support. She smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
To begin
with, Penny wasn’t at all happy about being left behind with us, but drawing on the extensive experience I’d gained from raising my own children, I managed to win her trust and she agreed to stay.
In other words, I bribed her with sweets and chocolate.
By the time Mel and Paul had returned with three full baskets of foraged food, Penny was happily chatting to Louise and me and was positively brimming over with excitement about staying in the OP and waiting for more soldiers to arrive. The three baskets were loaded with leaves, berries, mushrooms and roots. Paul gave them both their final instructions.
Firstly, they agreed not to tell any of the other women what was happening. It would only take one wrong comment or some odd behaviour for suspicions to be aroused.
Secondly, he asked them to do their best to disable or at the very least hide, as many of the shotguns and cartridges as they could. The fewer they had available to them, the better.
He then spent several minutes describing the best way to disable a shotgun (by separating the barrel and the stock).
If everything went to plan, the attack would begin at around four in the morning. This was complicated by the fact that neither of them possessed a watch.
Unhesitatingly, Paul took off his wristwatch and handed it to Mel saying,
“Look after it please; it belonged to my father.”
Harry removed his, gave it to Louise and said with a smile, “Look after that one too; it was my great grandfather’s!”
Paul threw him a look of mock disgust and whispered, “Bloody show off.”
Louise, who looked positively horrified at the thought of holding a priceless antique watch that had belonged to King George VI, immediately thrust it back at Harry. He shook his head and grinned, telling her that it had survived a number of scrapes during its long life, so one more wouldn’t matter.
We wished them luck and watched as they exited the OP and took a more circuitous route back to the hotel, in the hope that no one would notice one of them being missing.