by Chris Harris
The idea was for everyone to move quietly into position and then wait for a quick short blast on a whistle to coordinate the start of the attack.
Speed and maximum aggression would then be the key to success.
Paul, Harry and I, accompanied by two other soldiers, would be responsible for taking Rick, Lucy, Mike and two other adults, all of whom were based in the main part of the hotel.
As requested, I was to be responsible for detaining Rick and Lucy. The spare soldiers would be responsible for securing them all with the rope and cable ties.
The hotel had a large function room and once this was secured, the prisoners would be brought there and guarded until the whole place had been taken, and order was restored.
With the familiar feeling of adrenaline surging through my veins, we set off down the hill to get into position.
As we crept through the hotel, I reflected that it might have been better if we had taken our shoes off. In the dead of night, our footsteps sounded unnaturally loud.
But just as I chose to ignore the loud beating of my heart, I pushed aside my worries. Using the light of the moon that was streaming through the windows, I found the door that led to the suite of rooms Rick and his family were using.
I waited for the signal.
Minutes passed like hours.
Not daring to look at my watch, I waited impatiently, ready to switch on my headtorch, burst into the room and exact revenge on the person who had hurt us all so badly all those months ago.
The shrill short whistle blast came, and even though I’d been expecting it, it made me jump.
I’d experimented with the door handle gently when I’d first got into position, so I knew the door was locked.
Aiming my best kick at the door, I hoped fervently that the lock was as flimsy as it looked.
As the door burst open with a crash, I could hear shouts and screams emanating from other rooms.
Running into the lounge area of the two-bedroom suite Rick had claimed for himself, I screamed, “Everybody stay still! No one move!”
Penny had given me a good description of the layout of the suite.
As I ran towards the master bedroom, the door began to open. Kicking it as hard as I could, I heard a high-pitched scream and the sound of someone falling backwards as the door rebounded off a body.
I recognised the slightly nasal tones as the person called out for Mike to come and help him.
I stepped round the door and into the room and my torch showed Rick, sprawled across the bed, with his hands over his face, trying desperately to stem the flow of blood from his nose. The door had clearly hit his face when I’d kicked it.
Shame, I thought sarcastically, and stepped forward.
Lucy was sitting up in bed, whimpering in fear. Realising that the light from my headtorch was effectively blinding them and they couldn’t see who was attacking them, I shouted at them to get off the bed and lie face down on the floor. It took a few kicks to get Rick to obey; he seemed to be finding it difficult to understand what was going on.
Looking at the mess I’d made of his nose I wondered if he had concussion, and then decided I didn’t care.
I heard another door open and one of their children stuck their head out. At a bellow from me the door slammed shut again and I heard them both shrieking in terror in their room.
I pushed the thought of them aside. We’d have to deal with them later. My main objective was sobbing with fear on the floor at my feet.
I watched in disgust as a pool of urine spread across the carpet. The Emperor had wet himself.
The soldier arrived and quickly tied their hands behind their backs.
Before getting them to stand, I quickly secured the door handles to the children’s room, more to keep them safe in one location than to imprison them.
It’s not easy to stand up when you’re lying face down on the floor, but after some shouts, threats and a couple of kicks of encouragement from me, they both managed it.
As they stood in front of me, snivelling and cowering, I couldn’t help myself. The rage that had been building in me all this time came boiling to the surface.
“This is for Ian, you bastard.” I stepped forward and punched him as hard as I could. The satisfaction it gave me made up for the sensation of bones cracking in my hand.
The blow knocked him over backwards. As he lay dazed on the floor, he realised what I had said.
Through his bleeding mouth he mumbled, “Who are you? Why are you doing this?”
Part of me was tempted to prolong the process but I knew there wasn’t any point. As far as I was concerned, he was already condemned for all his actions. It was about time he knew how much trouble he was in.
“It’s Tom, your old neighbour.”
I could see his brain ticking over, processing what I’d said and trying desperately to turn the situation to his advantage.
“Tom! Christ! Thank God you’re here!” he whined. “We’ve been prisoners here for months. What were you saying about Ian? I mean, I’m sorry I stole the car obviously. It was a moment of madness. I panicked. Look, we’ll straighten this all out. I guess there must be some misunderstanding. I’ll come back with you and I’ll make a full apology for everything and then we’ll carry on as before.”
I lost it again. Forgetting all about the pain in my hand, I punched him a second time.
“You absolute bastard!” I screamed, half in anger, half in pain this time. “Ian is dead! You ran him over. Don’t even try to deny it; plenty of people saw you do it. And if you think I’m going to believe anything else you tell me, DON’T BOTHER!
We’ve been watching you for days. We know exactly what you’ve been up to. Mel and Louise told us everything yesterday. Young Penny is sheltering in our OP in the woods, so your tame gorilla Mike can’t get hold of her.
The country’s got a plan for dealing with low life scum like you, and let me tell you, you’ve done more than enough to ensure you’ll receive the maximum penalty.”
He stared at me, his mouth opening and closing, and then fell to his knees.
“Please don’t! I can explain everything. It’s not my fault! I can’t go to prison, I just can’t.”
I laughed, which made him stop sobbing and look at me with a confused expression on his face.
“Prison? No Rick. We don’t have prisons anymore. For scum like you the death penalty’s been reintroduced.”
He looked at me in shocked silence.
Lucy started to scream.
I backed out of the room as the stench of his voiding bowels filled the air.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
I stood at a distance from them, bathing Rick and Lucy in the light of my headlamp. Their pathetic behaviour sickened me, so I stood silently, the glare from my headtorch keeping them blind and confused.
Shouts and screams echoed through the building and from outside. I strained my ears to try to work out what was going on.
From what I could make out, the shouts were all commands and the screams were pleas for help or to be set free. We seemed to have the situation under control, but I wouldn’t know for sure until someone arrived to escort the prisoners to the function room.
I shouted to Harry and Paul to check on their status. Harry replied that he was fine and was on his way to the function room with his prisoner. Then he’d be back to help.
Paul responded to say that Mike was being a bit “difficult”, and he would wait for backup before he moved him.
Harry and another soldier arrived to help me transfer Rick and Lucy. They were still immobilised by panic and it took the three of us to manhandle them down the stairs and deposit them on the floor of the function room.
After a quick count, they were all present apart from one. It had to be Mike.
Captain Digby was in the middle of the room, making sure there were enough guards and that they were sufficiently distributed to cover the twenty two sorry excuses for human beings who were currently occupying the space. No
ne of them was offering any resistance and most had lapsed into a sullen silence.
I walked over to him. “Captain Digby, I take it everything went as planned out there? Everything seems OK in here. Once we’ve got that big bugger Mike downstairs we’ll have a full house.”
He grinned. “Call me Diggers, all my friends do. Yes, it all went smoothly. The women did a fantastic job. They were all still drunk and didn’t have a clue what was happening until we had them secured, and by then it was too late for them to do anything.
Some of the women were a bit difficult to handle initially. A lot of them were screaming and hysterical, but the two who were helping you soon calmed them all down.”
“Yes, Mel and Louise,” I replied, looking round. “Where are they by the way? I just want to make sure they’re OK.”
Diggers nodded towards the main doors of the hotel, which were wide open. “I think they’re still outside.”
I turned and walked into the entrance hall just as Paul and three other soldiers were dragging a bellowing Mike down the stairs. He was fighting them every step of the way.
“Stop!” shouted Paul panting. “This is no good. We’ll have to hog tie him and carry him.” This was greeted by groans of disgust from the soldiers.
Ignoring them Paul said, “Get him on the floor now.”
Mike had his hands tied in front of him, but was being held by three hefty looking men while Paul held him from behind with his arm firmly around his neck. It would have been enough to secure a normal person.
He was standing on a half landing, fiercely resisting the attempts to get him to the floor. Without warning he hurled himself forward, straight down the final flight of stairs, taking his hapless guards with him. Instinctively, they all let go to try to save themselves. He rolled to his feet and with an incredible show of strength, broke the rope tying his hands together.
All this had taken place in a heartbeat. Massaging his wrists to get the feeling back, he took a good look round the room, trying to decide what to do next.
We all raised our weapons.
“Don’t shoot!”
Paul screamed the command, then bounded down the stairs and positioned himself between Mike and the only way out.
“Lower your weapons, everyone,” he said, his eyes never leaving Mike’s face, “it’s too crowded in here. No one else is getting hurt because of some low life piece of scum who thinks beating up women up makes him look hard. I’ve got news for you pal, real men don’t rape women.”
Mike reddened and shot him a look of cold, naked hatred.
“Yep – we’ve heard all about you, you sick bastard,” said Paul, quietly and deliberately. “Taking a fancy to young girls; bit of a pervert, aren’t you? Guess you’re not man enough to have a proper relationship?”
Looking around I could see what Paul was doing. He’d caused enough of a delay for every available soldier to move into position. Mike was surrounded. There was no way he was going to be able to fight everyone, but he was still big enough to hurt a lot of people before they managed to subdue him.
Slowly, calmly, Paul took a step towards him.
“Tell you what mate, if you want to prove how much of a man you are, why don’t you try and get past me? You’re going to die today anyway, so why not try and take me with you?”
A loud muttering started up, and a few of the men shouted in support of Paul. Then the room fell quiet again, and it was as if everyone had simultaneously held their breath. Mike scowled and took a good look round, then seemed to come to a decision. He knew his fate. He was surrounded by heavily armed men. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to get away.
He let out a roar and ran at Paul, spreading his arms to try to grab him in a bear hug.
Paul was quicker. He waited till he was almost on him, then calmly ducked under his outstretched arms and tapped his ankle as he passed, tripping him up.
We all watched intently, drawn into this violent display of power and control.
Mike intended to kill Paul and Paul intended to make him suffer for what he had done.
As Mike fell heavily, we let out a roar of approval. Our man had outsmarted the enemy.
The room crackled with primeval excitement.
Mike let out a thundering roar and struggled to his feet. Twice more he ran at Paul and each time he was effortlessly tripped up. Each time, Paul goaded him into getting back up on his feet.
On his next and final charge, Mike attempted to anticipate Paul’s sidestep, and jinked away at the last second, hoping to catch him out. Paul was ready for him. He stepped in and kicked him hard in the groin.
Mike crumpled to the ground, his high-pitched screams filling the room.
Paul shouted to be heard, “Gag him and tie him up properly this time.”
We all cheered. Paul hadn’t even broken a sweat and he had bested one of the biggest men I’d ever seen.
It was the kind of fight that would be talked about around the fire for years to come, with bragging rights for anyone who could say they were actually there.
The excitement over, Mike was carried out, his screams muffled by a rag stuffed into his mouth, and dumped in the function room along with all the other prisoners. Paul, after extricating himself from a throng of well-wishers, joined me and Harry and we walked outside. Someone had thrown more wood on to the fire and we could see that the women had been drawn to it like a beacon of hope.
They all seemed to be finding the sudden change in their fortunes hard to grasp. Mel and Louise were talking to them all and offering words of hope and encouragement.
Mel noticed us approach and walked straight up to Paul. Standing awkwardly before him she said, “Thank you. I saw what you did to Mike.”
She took his watch off her wrist and handed it back to him. On the verge of tears, she turned and walked back to the other women.
Paul stood and stared at her.
Harry and I exchanged smiles. To break the silence, Harry chipped in, “Better go and get Great Grandpapa’s watch back I suppose,” and strolled off, whistling.
The women were understandably all very emotional, but there was joy too. There wasn’t much we could do apart from offer them some words of comfort and support, but as they seemed much more impressed by what Harry had to say, I gave in and stood to one side. A few minutes later, I felt a tug at my sleeve.
It was Penny.
“I know you told me to stay in the woods,” she said anxiously, “but I could see everything was OK so I came down. I hope you don’t mind?”
I smiled at her, “Not at all, young lady. It’s perfectly safe here now, so you’ve done the right thing,”
She flushed with pleasure at my approval.
The first light of dawn was appearing on the eastern horizon. It was going to be a sunny day by the look of it.
Regardless of the weather, we had some serious business to take care of today.
It was time to convene a court and put the prisoners on trial for their lives.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Now that the prisoners were properly secured and under guard, the mood relaxed.
The hotel kitchens were still in reasonable working order, thanks to a large propane tank in the grounds. In no time at all, a few of the soldiers had been detailed to kitchen duty. Soon mugs of tea were being handed out and unidentifiable food, concocted from whatever was available, was being cooked in large frying pans and distributed.
We were all so ravenous it tasted delicious anyway.
Harry had intervened and ordered the women out of the kitchen. They’d lived in horrendous conditions for months and been worked like slaves. Now it was their turn to sit down and be waited on. This simple act of kindness on Harry’s part led to a few of them breaking down in tears again, but they soon recovered enough to enjoy what was given to them.
Although everyone was exhausted after a night without sleep, the general mood was buoyant.
Radio calls had been made, passing on the news that the mission
had been a success. Harry had even read out a short message of congratulation from the Queen; a novel experience for everyone.
For logistical reasons, the decision was taken to accommodate everyone overnight in the hotel.
A lot of details had to be agreed upon and arrangements needed to be made. There was very little of value at the hotel apart from an insignificant amount of food, which we quickly catalogued and sorted. The only weapons to speak of were shotguns, apart from a World War Two service revolver which had been found in Rick’s bedroom.
It was agreed that the shotguns and ammunition should be split between the two groups. Half would be kept by our community to add to our stores and half would be returned to the base for distribution as they saw fit.
The revolver mysteriously disappeared into someone’s rucksack.
I don’t know why, I just liked it.
As midday approached, the trial started.
The trial procedures we had developed had moved on over time, but one basic principle was still adhered to.
The senior officer present resided as judge, while a selection of others present acted as the jury.
No notes were taken and the defendant had one chance to answer the accusations the judge put to him, prior to the sentence being decided by a jury vote. A simple majority vote decided whether the defendant was innocent or guilty.
Life or death. A simple but tough choice.
If witnesses were available, they were given the opportunity to confirm or deny the accusations against the accused. If someone wished to defend the accused, they were given one chance to sway the jury.
It wasn’t a kangaroo court; it was simply the only workable solution we had been able to come up with in order to reach the right decision with limited resources.
Harry would reside as the judge and the jury would consist of twelve randomly selected soldiers.
I volunteered, along with all the women, to be called as witnesses.
One by one, the men who had followed Rick and caused so much suffering, were called forward to face the charges against them.