At least Freddie could take orders. Tell him to turn left and he would turn left. Tell him to climb a ladder and he would (Matteo hoped) climb a ladder. With Ben, you could never be sure. Ben was in a much worse state than Freddie. Sometimes you could say something to him and he’d smile and reply “Yes” and you couldn’t be sure whether he’d understood a single word that you’d said. Oh well, it was too late to worry about that now. Ben, Freddie and Matteo sat in Matteo’s chalet, waiting. That’s all there was to do. Wait.
*
Geoff was breathless when he arrived. Bobby the dog was even more breathless; he’d been the one doing all the running.
“Was there a problem?”
They were standing in the foyer of the King’s Building. Geoff could barely make out Jonathan in the darkness. “No,” he said, “No problem.”
Through the glass doors they could see the line of chalets across the road, illuminated by the lamps fixed to their walls.
“The power’s still on,” said Leila.
“I can see that,” said Geoff.
“Well, then…”
“Did you managed to switch the fuel supply?” Jonathan asked.
“’course I did. Just like we planned.”
They stared out gloomily into the darkness.
“It’s not working, is it?” said Leila, “Maybe the generator can run off petrol just as well as it can run off diesel.”
“I don’t think so,” said Jonathan, “But how do we know that the man who did the delivery actually delivered petrol? Maybe he didn’t.”
Geoff stroked Bobby’s head. “So you’re saying that all this planning was for nothing? You do realise I could have got my head blown off messing around in the dark by them fuel tanks, don’t you! If I’d know that, I wouldn’t have…”
And then lights went off.
*
“What’s happening?” Freddie cried, “It’s gone dark.”
Matteo flicked the switch on his pen-torch. “It’s OK, Freddie. That’s our signal. We have to go now.”
“Go where?”
“I told you. We’re going to go outside. You’ll see Sebastian again.”
“Sebastian?”
“Your friend?”
“Sebastian…”
Ben looked up – “I’m not going.”
“You have to come, Ben. You know that. I explained.”
“I’m not going.”
Matteo grabbed Ben by the arm, tried to encourage him to stand up. Ben pulled his arm back, sat on the floor and hugged his knees to his chest. “I’m not going.”
“Oh hell,” said Matteo, “What do we do now?”
*
“Where’ve you been?” Jonathan snapped.
“Sorry, there was a bit of a problem.”
“Where’s Ben?”
“That was the problem.”
Jonathan and Matteo faced one another looking like two boxers before the big fight. Jonathan wasn’t prone to losing his temper but on this occasion he was prepared to make an exception.
Leila, sensing that trouble was brewing, stepped between the two men. “Now, now, boys, this is hardly the time to have an argument. Apart from anything else, raised voices might attract attention and that, I venture to suggest, is the last thing you should be doing.”
Jonathan stepped back, closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. He was tense, on edge. The simple fact of the matter is that he was scared. Leila was right. Whatever had happened, arguing would only make it worse.
“I’m sorry,” said Matteo, “he just wouldn’t come. That’s all there is to it.”
“OK, well I guess that’s just too bad. We’ll just have to go without him and worry about the consequences later.”
“Shouldn’t we be moving now?” said Leila.
There was the sound of feet pounding along the road outside. They withdraw into the darkness of the King’s Building foyer and watched as half a dozen soldiers went running in the direction of the main gate.
“That’s our next problem,” Sebastian said, “With the power off, you can bet that the guards will be looking for whoever sabotaged the generator.”
“You reckon they’ll have worked out it was sabotage?” said Leila, “They might think it’s a mechanical fault. Mightn’t they?”
“Not after the watchtower guard saw Geoff messing around where he shouldn’t have been.”
“So what do we do now?” Leila asked.
“It’s up to Sebastian,” said Matteo, “He promised to make a diversion.”
“Oh, that’s good.”
“Only he wasn’t sure how.”
“That’s not so good.”
Then there was the sound of a massive explosion.
“I’m guessing,” said Jonathan, “that may be the diversion?”
The Great Escape
Suddenly everything was happening at once. Sebastian, Leila, Matteo, Freddie and Geoff dashed out of the King’s Building. and ran across the road that divided the Camp. They were vaguely aware of some kind of commotion far away to their left down by the main gate but they didn’t have the time or the inclination to stop and watch. They ran through the darkness towards the First Aid Room just twenty yards or so away. Leila carried the coil of rope. Geoff and Sebastian carried the wooden decorators’ planks. Matteo trailed at the rear because he was in charge of Freddie. And Freddie couldn’t be made aware of the need for speed. Bobby the dog trotted along behind.
Jonathan went straight to the rear of the First Aid room where the ladder lay in the long, weed-infested grass. The ladder was in two ten-foot sections. He and Matteo picked up one section each, fixed the top section to the bottom one, using some hooks and grooves, so that they now had a twenty-foot ladder: plenty high enough to get them onto the flat roof of the First Aid Room.
Sebastian went up the ladder first. His heart was pounding wildly. He realised that the moment he put his head above the level of the flat roof he would be an easy target. Any one of the soldiers might see him, take aim and fire. On any other night, he would have been picked off within seconds because the roof would have been illuminated by the lights of the Camp and the spotlights in the watchtowers. Even in the darkness the watchtower sentries could probably get a good aim if they were using night-vision gear. Sebastian’s only hope was that they wouldn’t see him because they would have no reason to be watching the roof of the First Aid Room.
There were some more explosions down beyond the front gate. Sebastian had the impression that the main focus of activity was in that direction. “Pass up the planks,” he said.
Matteo took the end of one plank, climbed a few steps up the ladder and, with the help of Geoff who was pushing at the other end, they managed to get first one plank and then the second one onto the flat roof. Leila came next, carrying the loop of rope over her shoulder. Then came Freddie. Matteo came behind him, holding on in case he should fall, while Leila reached down and helped Freddie to clamber onto the roof.
Finally Geoff got onto the ladder. He took one step up then he went straight back down again. “What’s the matter?” Jonathan called, as quietly as he could.
“Nothing.”
Then he saw what the problem was. Geoff was trying to hold the dog, Bobby, in the crook of an arm, which left him just one free hand to pull himself and the dog up the ladder.
“Leave the dog,” Leila hissed.
Geoff didn’t answer. He was on the ladder again. The dog wasn’t very big. But he was plenty big enough to make climbing up a ladder a difficult task while holding him.
“For God’s sake,” Jonathan said, “Leave Bobby there, Geoff. We’ll find some way of getting him out later.” He felt guilty even as he said it. Once they were outside the Camp there was no way they could come back for the dog.
But Geoff refused to give up. He held Bobby tightly in his arms. Then he had another try at climbing the ladder. Somehow, he managed to pull himself up, one rung at a time, using his free hand; then he used the hand of the
arm that was holding the dog to grip the ladder just long enough to move his free hand up another rung. In this halting way, he finally managed to get both himself and the dog onto the flat roof.
There were sounds of activity everywhere. Feet running. Orders being shouted, cars revving. Another explosion towards the main gate. Then the sound of automatic gunfire. The sense of panic, the feeling of danger, was electric.
Once onto the roof they worked fast to push the two decorators’ planks so that one end of each plank was supported by the edge of the roof while the other end rested on top of the perimeter railings. For a second, Jonathan felt sure that the planks wouldn’t be long enough. But they were – just. The plan was for Matteo to go first. He would take the coil of rope, attach it to the railings and throw down the rest of the rope so that it hung down to the ground on the far side. Then he’d climb down the rope and wait for each of the others to follow.
Matteo crouched on his hands and knees and moved cautiously to the very edge of the roof. He took hold of the end of a plank and shuffled out onto it. The plank wobbled and bent slightly under his weight as he crawled across it, away from the roof. That was when he realised how high up he was. Hanging over free space in almost total darkness with nothing but a couple of rickety old planks between him and the concrete below, it seemed an awfully long way to fall. Even so, he forced himself to continued shuffling forward, inch by inch, until he had arrived at the top of the railings. Now all he had to do was attach the rope to the railings and…
Attach it? Attach it with what? The rope was made of a dense braided material. It was far too stiff and thick to tie into a knot. At one end of the rope there was a pre-formed loop. Presumably that loop fitted snuggly over specially-made supports in the gym. The railings were notably lacking in any such supports. There were spikes on top of the railings but they were curved downwards to prevent anyone climbing up over them. If Matteo were to slide the loop over a spike, the rope would fall off. What could he do? Shuffle back across the planks, tell his friends that the escape plan was off? No, that was not an option. This was a one-off event. If they failed tonight, they would never have another chance.
Suddenly the answer came to him. There was a horizontal bar running across the tops of the railings, just below the curved spikes. He would be able to secure the rope by winding it around two of the spikes, above the horizontal bar. Then he would be able to thread the free end of the rope through the loop at the other end of the rope. That would anchor it in place. Having done that, he’d be able to lower the free end to the ground. That is what he did. And within a couple of minutes he had the rope secured.
He threw the free end of the rope over the outside of the railings. It didn’t reach all the way to the ground. The loop he’d made to secure it to the railings had used up more of the rope’s length than he’d expected. Well, too bad. They’d just have to shin down as far as they could and then jump the rest of the way.
He turned around and made a hand signal to Jonathan to show that he was ready to make the descent. He was struck by the fact that, even though there was no moon and the night was pitch black, he could see Jonathan as a dark silhouette faintly outlined by a ghostly shimmer of light. He could see the others too. And in the distance he could dimly see the shapes of the chalets and other buildings. Then he realised why. The soldiers had arranged their vehicles – their cars, trucks and armoured vehicles – along the length of the road that ran through the Camp. They were using the headlights to provide light.
Once again the sharp rattle of gunfire broke through the still night air. Matteo hoped that Sebastian’s diversion (whatever it might be) was a success but he dreaded that it might be a disaster. He tried to put that possibility out of his mind. He had his own problems to deal with. He edged himself over the end of the plank, grabbing the hanging rope as he went. Soon he was on the outer side of the railings, hanging onto the rope, working his way down, trying to cling onto the rope with his legs and take his weight with his arms. He realised how unfit he was, how weak he felt. At any moment he might lose his grip and go tumbling to the ground. But somehow he managed to lower himself to the full extent of the rope. But still he was hanging in mid-air. He didn’t know how far below him the ground was. It was too dark to see. He prepared to brace himself, take a rolling break-fall if necessary, hoping that he didn’t break any bones when he hit the round. He counted to himself: three…two…one…go! He released his grip. And fell… all of three inches. The lack of a hard impact jarred him. He’d prepared himself for a long fall and when it didn’t happen, it shook him up worse than if he’d fallen six feet.
Moments later, he could see that someone else was descending. It was Freddie. He could hear him muttering to himself, “Down and down and down into a ditch, down and down and down into a ditch…”
When Freddie was a few feet from the ground, Matteo reached up and grabbed his waist. “Let go, Freddie,” he said, “I’ve got you.” Freddie let go of the rope and Matteo lowered him gently to the ground. Then came Leila and then came Jonathan. Finally there was Geoff. He wouldn’t come without the blasted dog. “For God’s sake,” Leila said in a hoarse whisper that Geoff, leaning over the plank above, could barely hear, “leave the bloody dog, can’t you!”
But Geoff wouldn’t. He had somehow carried the dog across the walkway that they’d made from the planks but now he didn’t know how to get the dog down. He couldn’t shin down the rope with the dog in his arms. And he couldn’t throw the dog. There would be almost no chance that someone would be able to catch him in the pitch darkness and if the dog fell from that height he would surely be injured or even killed.
“Leila’s right,” Jonathan said, and once again he felt like a traitor, “You can’t bring the dog. He’ll have to take his chances.”
Up above, on the planks, Geoff was doing something. They could just about see him dimly outlined by the overspill from the vehicle headlights. It looked as though he was taking his clothes off!
“What the hell!” Jonathan said, “Geoff! Hurry up, there’s not much time…”
They saw that Geoff had started to lower himself over the edge of the plank. He grabbed one of the overhanging spikes at the top of the railings. Then he wrapped his legs around the rope and held onto it with his free hand. Finally, he took the other hand off the spike that it had been holding. Geoff slipped. The dangling end of the rope lashed wildly. The dog squealed. Geoff slipped two feet down the rope then steadied himself. “I’m all right, I’m coming down now. Don’t worry.”
“He’s got the damn’ dog,” said Leila.
“How the heck did he…?”
They watched him lower himself steadily down the rope, hand over hand, legs gripping with all their might. A couple of times he seemed to lose his grip and slipped slightly before he managed to grab on harder and stop his descent. Then finally he was at the end of the rope.
“Let go,” Jonathan told him, “You’re almost there now.”
Geoff let go and fell the few remaining inches to the ground. “There,” he said, “I told you there was no problem.”
Jonathan switched on his penlight torch.
“What the…!”
Geoff was standing there in his underpants. He had taken off his jeans and tied the legs around his waist. Tied up inside the jeans was Bobby the dog, looking like an overgrown, hairy baby in a papoose. The dog beamed at them, panting and seeming to smile.
“That,” said Jonathan, “is the most stupid thing I have ever seen.”
“You’ve got to admit it was quite clever, though,” said Matteo.
“Yes, well never mind all that,” added Leila, “In case you’d forgotten we are now desperadoes on the run from a large number of not-very-friendly people with very big guns. Might I suggest that we don’t hang around here having a polite natter but get on with the more serious business of getting ourselves away from here with the greatest possible urgency.”
“The Sandy Dunes Ice Cream Emporium,” said Matteo.
“What?” said everyone else (with the exception of Bobby, who said “Woof!”).
“It’s where we are supposed to meet the Gang Of Five.”
“Who?” said everyone else (with the exception of Bobby, who had nothing to say on the matter).
“Ah, didn’t I tell you?” said Matteo.
“You didn’t,” said Jonathan, “So where exactly is this Sandy Dunes Ice Cream Emporium?”
“Ah…”
“What do you mean, ‘ah’?”
“Well, that’s just the point. I forgot to ask. I suppose it must be near some sandy dunes. Wouldn’t you think?”
They glanced along the beach. In the darkness they could only see the vaguest of shapes along the beach but they got a distinct impression that those shapes formed dunes and that those dunes were sandy. The beach was nothing but sandy dunes. They stretched away from miles in either direction.
“Then again,” said Matteo, “the Sandy Dunes Ice Cream Emporium could be in town, I suppose. Its name doesn’t necessarily describe its precise geographical location.”
“Hmmm…” said Leila, “So what you are saying is we’re well and truly stuffed.”
“Knickerbocker Glory,” said Freddie. They ignored him.
“So where do we go now, then?” said Geoff?
“God knows,” said Jonathan.
“Knickerbocker Glory,” said Freddie. They ignored him again.
“We’d better get moving,” said Matteo, “Once they realise there’s been a breakout, there’ll be soldiers everywhere.”
“Knickerbocker Glory,” said Freddie. This time they didn’t ignore him.
Knickerbocker Glory
Some people believe the Knickerbocker Glory to be one of the towering heights of British cuisine. Others dismiss it as one of the most disgusting forms of junk food ever invented. Freddie was of the former opinion. The very thought of a Knickerbocker Glory made his eyes glaze over and his mouth fill with saliva. It would be impossible to be sure what thoughts were going through his head at that moment but it would be reasonable to surmise that they might have involved childhood memories of hot summer days sitting at a table with a long spoon clasped in one hand and a tall, conical glass holding the Knickerbocker Glory clasped firmly in the other hand. The best Knickerbocker Glories are made from dairy vanilla ice cream with a mixture of whipped cream, raspberry purée and crushed nuts sprinkled on top.
The Exodus Plague | Book 2 | Imprisoned Page 19