Scavenger Hunt

by Barry Buckingham

  “See you around!” he said, dropping them off.

  They thanked him and walked through the gate. Bob and Dave watched as he drove off, they looked at each other and shook their heads.

  Once they were in, Lucy got the kettle on and they sat down.

  “To fallen friends," Bob said, raising his mug.

  ****

  The next day, Lucy let out a squeal. Bob and Dave rushed down the stairs, thinking the worst.

  "I've got some shopping to catch up on,” she smiled, holding up her new credit card. "Would you like anything?" she said, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

  "Just the usual for me!” Dave said, relieved.

  “And what might that usual be, Dave?”

  “You know, the usual for a single bloke like me: beer and a girlie mag,” he said, smiling at her. She shook her head and tutted as she walked out to her car.

  Hunstanton was bustling with summer holidaymakers. The funfairs were in full swing, and the penny arcades were shrilling their music to entice people in to spend their money. The prom was crowded with children eating ice creams and dads moaning that they just wanted to sit on the sand. The amphibious vehicle was taking on its first load of passengers for the day, whilst the donkeys were stretching their legs ready for the huddle of kids all eager to sit on their backs for the short journey across the sand.

  Lucy parked up near the prom and went down to the water line and walked along with her shoes off. She breathed in the salty sea air and smiled, shivering at the few people out swimming in the cold North Sea. She looked around at the people enjoying their day.

  She was thinking about Harry when she bumped into Mary. “Hi, Mary. How are you?”

  “Hi! You’re looking tanned, been somewhere hot?” she smiled, wrapping her arms around her, giving her a tight hug.

  “We popped over to the south of France for a bit of shopping, just a booze cruise for Christmas.”

  Mary smiled, “Fancy a coffee?”

  They linked arms and walked up to the prom, towards their favourite coffee shop.

  “It’s not just for the coffee," Mary smiled. "It's the cake as well, they make the most delicious Mississippi Mud pie. It’s orgasmic.”

  Lucy agreed, but said, “I prefer a real man for that line of work.”

  “Lucy!" Mary said, shocked. "You’re right though,” she winked.

  As they walked along chatting about their day, a young man, skinhead, tattoos, ring through his nose, black tight leather trousers and a scruffy T-shirt, zeroed in on them. He reeked of booze.

  "You got a cigarette, darling?"

  "I'm sorry," Mary said. "I don't smoke."

  The young man took this as an attack on his good nature, and said, “Ah ya stuck up bitch! Think you’re better than me do you? I could have any one of you two, so give me a fag.”

  Mary was shocked and scared, she started to pull back on Lucy’s arm, “Come on, Lucy. Let’s go back to my place for coffee instead!”

  Other people around were giving them a wide berth.

  “No!” She took Mary’s hand off her arm and faced the lad. She kicked him right between the legs. The noise his balls made when Lucy’s foot made contact, reminded her of the time she dropped half a dozen eggs on the floor at the local supermarket.

  The colour drained from his face instantly, his mouth opened wide and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. He folded up and sank to the floor, holding his crown jewels in his hands. Lucy, bent down and put her mouth close to his ear and whispered, “If I ever see you again, I’ll rip your shitty little head off! Understand?”

  The young lad nodded and promptly threw up all over his top.

  Lucy stood up, put Mary’s arm back on hers and carried on walking along the prom, much to Mary’s delight. When Lucy got home, she gave Dave his beers and girlie mag, and went and had a cup of tea.

  Don’t miss book II in the Hunted trilogy.

  MAN HUNT

  Read on for a sneak preview:

  1

  “What time is it, mate?”

  “Zero six thirty, on your feet, Dave. We’ve got work to do.”

  Dave sat up and twisted around on his bunk. He swung his legs over the edge and looked around the room. “This place stinks!” he thought, blinking and shaking his head.

  As he stretched, he glanced over at the window opposite, it had been boarded up. He smiled to himself as he thought about the night it had been smashed.

  One of the lads had found a ball in the mess and had taken it back to the bunk house, a game of five-a-side football had started up, resulting in the window getting broken.

  He grimaced as he thought about the trouble they'd gotten into over it. “What a night though!”

  A sliver of light had found its way through a split in the wood covering the window, it showed up all the dust floating around the dorm. As it cut across the floor and over the top of his bunk, it lit up the picture he'd stuck to the wall above his pit, lighting up Poppy’s face. He kissed his finger and touched it. Smiling to himself, he thought, “I’ll be home soon, darling.”

  He slid his trousers on, retrieved his boots from the floor, checking first to make sure nothing had crawled in overnight before pulling them on. Standing, he stretched and touched the low ceiling with his fingertips and thought about the day ahead. He ran his fingers through his hair, yawned and roughly rubbed his face. Sorting through his bag he pulled out a T-shirt and pulled it over his head, he then plonked himself back down on the edge of the bed and tied his boots before walking out to the mess for some breakfast.

  As he reached the door of the dorm the warning sirens sounded outside and someone shouted, “Incoming!” Dave froze for a second, then dropped to the floor and rolled towards the edge of the room. He put his hands under his body and closed his eyes, jamming his face into the skirting board for protection. A fraction of a second later there was a blinding flash of light, like the flash of a camera going off in his face, it was so intense, Dave actually thought he still had his eyes open! This was followed by a huge explosion that made his ears ring in pain, the heat making him flinch as it attacked his back. At the same time, the ground lifted everything up around him bringing the building down, pinning him to the floor.

  When everything had gone quiet, Dave tried to crawl his way out, but the weight increased on his body, crushing him!

  “Shit, it’s happening again,” he thought, as he struggled to get his breath.

  There was dust in his eyes and dirt in his ears. He could feel the grit on his teeth and taste the explosion every time he managed to swallow. He kept telling himself to stay calm and concentrate on breathing, but it felt like the life was being slowly pressed out of him. He lay there for what seemed an eternity, listening to bits of the building settling. He could hear the other guys from the room moaning, crying, shouting for help. Someone put their hand on his shoulder and started gently shaking him. They kept saying his name, softly repeating it over and over again.

  "Dave, Dave,” the voice said, sounding like Poppy. He jumped up with a start, his heart was beating so fast it felt like it was going to jump out of his chest. His whole body was soaked in sweat and he was trembling.

  He sat scanning the room, there was no one there. The night light he'd started to leave on when he went to bed shone with a low, red glow - making it look like a cheap whore house.

  Rubbing his face with his hands, he took a deep breath, it had been another nightmare, the second this week.

  He got up and changed into something dry, and went down to get a cup of tea. “Try to calm myself down a bit before going back to bed,” he thought. He was really making excuses not to go back to sleep.

  He looked at the clock, it showed 00:35. He couldn’t believe it, he'd only been in bed thirty minutes.

  Down in the kitchen, as Dave was filling the kettle, a small flash of light from the bottom of the garden caught his eye, but his head was starting to thump as a headache came on, so he put it down to his brain playing
tricks.

  Once he’d got his tea and a couple of paracetamol, he looked out the window again, but couldn’t see anything. He turned to go back upstairs, but as he looked at them, he knew going back up to bed could bring the nightmare back. He needed to sleep though, his head was really thumping, and laying down would help it go way.

  As He climbed back into his pit, he thought about Poppy and drifted off.

  About the author:

  Now being three quarters of my way through my third twelve year career, first one serving in the Royal Air Force, then running my own business as a driving instructor, and now working for Vivacity driving the mobile library, I decided it was time for me to put pen to paper and get the book out of me that, apparently, everyone has in them.

  I write in the military thriller genre, releasing my first book, Scavenger Hunt, back in 2012, as well as the supernatural genre. Since then I have had two more children that keep me very busy and fit.

  Have a look at my website: barrybuckinghambooks.com for the other books I have written.

  If you’ve enjoyed my work, please leave a review on the site that you purchased it from. All independent authors look forward to hearing about their books, the good ones and the bad!

  Here’s to my next.