Our only hope is people like you. People who, against all the odds, have survived, and with skill and determination, have built something special. There must be others like you out there. People who have formed similar communities, and would be willing to help. Yes, there are still people out there, as we discovered yesterday, who would rather resort to violence and intimidation, but they will no longer be tolerated. There are no courts and we don’t have the resources to put them on trial and therefore …” he paused, “Martial Law has been declared.”
An audible gasp went round the room and people began to ask questions.
In response, he held up his hands, “NO! It’s not what you think. The military is not taking over. We still have a sovereign and a government. Good people, such as yourselves, have nothing to fear. You all have an essential role to play in our plans to rebuild the country. It’s in our interest to help to protect you if we can.
That said, if we do encounter anyone who’s still intent on causing suffering and pain, there’ll be no jury or trial. We just don’t have the time. If anyone fights us, they will be destroyed.”
Holding his hands up again to ask for quiet, he continued,
“I study history and I can guess what some of you are thinking. I know we won’t always get it right. Mistakes will be made. If we come across a group like yours, who have no harmful intentions, but choose not to trust us or don’t want to get involved, they’ll be left alone. That will be their choice. We have no intention of forcing our will on anyone who doesn’t want to be involved.
That said, we are hoping to prove to them that they would be better off working with us. Contact would be maintained, but no help offered. If they want to be left alone, they will be. But they’ll get no practical help from us.
We have a basic ideology for our country. Some are calling it the first written constitution. The three main principles are:
1.If you want to contribute and help to rebuild our country, you’ll receive whatever help our resources are able to offer.
2.If you want to be left alone, that’s fine. But you’ll receive no help in any form. If you want to be on your own, you will be completely alone.
3.If you fight against the system, either by direct opposition to us, or against any community or individual that is helping and contributing to our cause, you will be wiped out.
On the basis of these three simple rules, we hope the country will be able to rebuild itself.
UK Dark predicted everything that has happened so far and has set out basic guidelines to assist us all in the future. It states that six months after the event, once the majority of people have succumbed to disease and starvation, the most capable and resourceful ones will be left.
The ‘bad apples’ will have been weeded out, but through the somewhat heartless process of natural selection. The people remaining will be exactly the kind of people needed to start over again.”
He spread his arms and indicated to all of us standing in front of him.
“To every one of you now, and without irony, I say, ‘your country needs you’.”
Pausing, he held up his hand to quieten us down. “Let me tell you about the facility, and what it contains. The base, as I’ve said before, is probably one of the Government’s best kept secrets. I’d never heard of it before, not even a rumour, until the day I received my orders.
It’s located in Herefordshire, but it doesn’t appear on any map. It’s disguised as a huge farm and actually operates as one, both arable and livestock. As a matter of fact it’s always made a nice profit for the Ministry of Defence.
But hidden on the farm, in cleverly designed outbuildings, underground bunkers and even an old converted mine system, is a vast network of store rooms, office blocks, living accommodation and everything required to sustain a large population for a long period of time. A true product of the vast overspend on the arms race,” he added wryly.
The base was, he explained, designed to be resistant to all forms of attack, be it nuclear, chemical or whatever. Its defences were subtle and cleverly designed. The whole base had only a few points of entry and the perimeter, through an ingenious combination of ditches, hedges and fences, was well hidden from prying eyes. It was very difficult to gain access.
“The farmer acts as an outstanding, if slightly eccentric member of the local community and does an excellent job of distracting any attention away from the place, so most recent visitors have been from outside of the area.
We’re still following strict protocol, so no one apart from the security patrols, the farmer and a few farm workers are allowed above ground.
The perimeter is patrolled by soldiers dressed as farm workers and carrying concealed weapons. The whole base is covered by cameras and sensors, which still work, as they were designed to withstand the effects of an EMP.
The few people who have found us have been picked up by our security details as soon as they’ve breached the outer perimeter. If they look innocent enough, say they’re a family in search of food, they’re monitored carefully, but are allowed to get close to the main buildings, where they’re met by our friendly farmer and ‘interviewed’. If they’re local, he gives them some food and sends then on their way.
If they’re from outside the area and are genuine refugees, they’re offered food in exchange for working on the farm where, after further careful monitoring to corroborate their stories, a decision is made by a panel of randomly selected base residents about whether to let them into the main facility or send them on their way.
Most have been allowed to join us. Anyone breaching the perimeter with hostile intentions, is eliminated immediately. There are no second chances.
I know it sounds unbelievable. When I first arrived I was astounded by the place. All the other rumours and leaks about cold war bunkers, had all been red herrings.
I believe there was one up for sale a few years ago, which was supposedly intended to house four thousand people for up to three months. That was just a badly built decoy designed to ‘take the scent away’ from where we are.
“The reason it’s still in existence, is that it hardly costs anything to maintain. It doesn’t have a large maintenance crew and is just locked up, awaiting activation. Also, I don’t think anyone wanted to make the decision to close it, and be the person everyone would blame if it was still needed, and they had shut it down on their watch.
It was designed to hold a functioning government in the event of a whole variety of attacks or natural disasters occurring. If the country was invaded, the base’s secret location would enable leadership to continue for as long as it remained hidden.
The base now houses key members of the Government, including the leaders of most of the main parties and their families.
There are also a few members of the Royal Family, a whole raft of advisors and ministers with their families, and of course, a sizeable detachment of soldiers along with their families. And we’re not anywhere near capacity.
“The inclusion of families was important. Everyone on the base has an important role to play and let’s face it, you’re unlikely to be effective if you’re worrying about your loved ones all the time. How could we expect the military to stay and help guard us all, if we hadn’t looked after their families?
The one thing UK Dark didn’t look into in any depth was how we would function as a very small society, ranging from the eighteen year old wife of a Private from a council estate in Birmingham, to senior members of the Royal Family!” He smiled and added, “A lot of social barriers and expectations are being knocked down and rebuilt.
No matter who you are, the food comes from the base kitchen and is served cafeteria style. There are no executive dining rooms for the elite. If you want food, you queue up to get it. There were a few awkward moments at first but I’m happy to say that everyone adapted and got on with it. They were all sensible enough to realise that we are all in it together and we all have a part to play.
For example, that same eightee
n year old happens to be a qualified child minder. She’s now caring for quite a few important people’s children, and enabling them to carry on with their work.”
We were all hooked on his every word. You could have heard a pin drop, as nobody wanted to miss anything he was saying.
“According to the UK Dark scenario, once the population has stabilised, we can start helping the survivors to live in this new world of ours.
Yes, we do have a lot of equipment stored. In fact it seems that every time a new vehicle type or machine was ordered by the military, at least one or two of them found their way into our stores. Unfortunately, we still don’t have anywhere near what is required, and even though we do have access to the strategic fuel reserves, until we’re able to start refining more, we only have finite resources, which must be husbanded for priority requirements.
Our world has suddenly been thrown back to a time where each family will need to learn how to grow enough food for themselves. Holidays will be a thing of the past. Every day will be a constant battle for survival, where one failed crop could mean the difference between life and death.
Horse power will become the new mode of transport. Motorways will lie unused and abandoned, a waste of valuable farmland. Most people’s lives will probably shrink to within a radius of a few miles from where they live. Not by choice, but by necessity.
The initial task we face is education. People will have to be made to understand that no help will arrive. They will have to learn how to survive. We can’t hold everybody’s hand. We can only offer help and advice initially, and then hope that they will share that knowledge to help others.
The supplies that we and everyone else may have stored, your own included, will only last so long.
If you want to eat in the long term, you will have to grow, hunt or nurture your food. If you want new tools or clothes, you will have to learn how to make them.
OK, there will be years and years’ worth of goods, such as hand tools and clothes available, just from scavenging, but eventually they will run out.
We’ll need to re-learn the skills, so that in time we can begin manufacturing the goods that we require. It may be possible at some point, if we can overcome the obvious power supply issues, to get certain factories up and running again.
But all that is in the future. The immediate problem we face is survival. We need to become as self-sufficient as possible and you all have a big part to play in that. Your community will, I think, become the model for what needs to be done. We all have a lot to learn from each other before we can start rebuilding.
Thank you, and may God bless Great Britain.”
For a while there was silence before we realised he’d finished then, as one, we all started to clap and cheer loudly.
It went on for quite some time.
CHAPTER TEN
After the applause had died down, Jon and his officers came and joined us for a while. Still patiently answering all our questions, he told us he wanted to introduce us to a number of government figures he’d brought with him.
Allan, Pete and I followed him over to a small group of men dressed in military issue uniforms. I’d noticed them before and had even spoken to a few of them briefly, thinking at the time that they didn’t look like soldiers.
Jon introduced us. They were all high-level government advisors and reported directly to the prime minister. They apologised for their uniforms, explaining that Jon had insisted on everyone on the expedition wearing one, so that no individual would stand out as a target.
For the sake of clarity and to avoid any misunderstanding, they asked us if we would start from the beginning, giving them a tour of the whole place and then answering any questions they might have so that they could gain an understanding of how we functioned. They wanted to see if what we had achieved here, could be used as a model for other communities. They were also hoping that their recovery proposals could be used in our situation. In other words they wanted to create a basic plan that could be followed - a blueprint for survival.
Of course we agreed, so the rest of the day was taken up with showing them around and answering their questions. They were particularly impressed by Russ’s inventions and what he had achieved just by using the materials that were closest to hand.
The Beast and the water filtration and delivery system had been Russ’s main achievements to date, but he was also working on a lighting system, using solar and wind power to charge batteries.
He was still trying to perfect the batteries, but was confident that he would be able to resolve the few issues he was having and that the entire system would be ready soon.
One of the advisors had a scientific and research and development background, and he and Russ spent the rest of the day huddled in Russ’s workshop going over the plans Russ had for various projects. We left them to enjoy their “bromance” and the rest of us continued with the tour.
The following day we planned to take them for a walk around the area, so that they could experience first-hand, what an empty city full of abandoned houses and dead bodies looked and felt like. They were keen to experience a scavenging operation and to understand the difficulties people without enough food were facing on a daily basis. It would also be a good opportunity to introduce them to the other groups of survivors we knew in the local area.
Although the weather was much colder now, with temperatures dropping to more normal levels for late December, the mood on the road was still happy and buoyant. And why not? It seemed to most people that our future was now assured. We had made contact with, and met what remained of our government and they wanted us to work with them to help the survivors. We had the obvious advantage of Jerry’s personal connection with his brother, the base commander. Surely this would guarantee us a certain level of help in the future? There was a general feeling of optimism among us, a feeling that we’d “made it”.
I talked about this with Pete, Allan and Jon. I was aware that we had years and years of continual hard work ahead of us to ensure our survival, and at the moment we were being guarded not just by our own people, but by members of our armed forces. We had army cooks in the kitchen, helping us to provide a continual supply of hot food. It all seemed very “nice”, but perhaps a little false.
We decided not to ruin the mood by reminding everyone about the millions of people out there who, without help, would be facing certain death in the near future. Everyone knew it, but there was no point in dwelling on it. After all, we all had friends and family out there and were powerless to help them. Jon had run through the statistics with us on the predicted death toll.
It was the stuff of nightmares, with the severity of the predictions depending on the average daily temperature. The one thing that Jon hadn’t previously mentioned was the likely result of a city full of rotting corpses. He explained this to us now and we knew that when the temperatures rose we would be facing a horrendous few months.
At the end of the day, just before dinner, Allan and I were invited to witness the questioning of the prisoner from the day before. Harry accompanied us to the police station.
We weren’t sure what to expect when we arrived. Would they be waterboarding him? Would they be torturing him to get him to talk?
When we walked into the room and found him sitting at a desk with a cup of coffee in his hand, I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or disappointed. He looked as if he was having a friendly chat with a mate. Grinning, Harry whispered into my ear,
“We slipped him something. It helps loosen the tongue, and seeing as all the human rights lawyers have disappeared, we thought we’d use it.”
We listened in fascination as the skilled interviewer got all the information he needed from the man.
The gang was based near Redditch (a town about ten miles south of Birmingham) and was led by a man called Gumin, a local drug dealer and petty gangster.
When the EMP had hit, he’d had the presence of mind to take control of a food distribution warehouse on an industrial
estate on the edge of the town.
“He uses food as power,” the prisoner explained. “If you want your family to eat, you have to do what he wants. They rule over everyone with a rod of iron. Rapes are common place and if you upset one of them, you and your entire family are beaten or killed. Life is cheap and there are always more people to fill the spaces left.”
Gumin had been sending out scavenging parties to expand his territory and eliminate any threats to the little kingdom he was creating. He rarely needed to send more than one of his men out with a scavenging party, because if someone tried to run away or disobeyed an order, their family would be killed. It was a cruel but effective way of ensuring compliance.
He had access to an enormous quantity of drugs, both illegal and prescription, and had forced many people into addiction as another means of keeping control.
As most of the people remaining in Redditch had recently been killed or captured, Gumin was now sending out parties further afield to take control of a larger area and find more supplies and victims.
The interviewer pushed the man further. How had they found our location, and why had they thought that attacking us would be a good idea?
The prisoner’s answer convinced us that, at the very least, this Gumin guy was a psychopath.
He told us that one of their scouts had come across the convoy when it was regrouping at the motorway junction. He had followed it to our location, returned to the scavenging group and led them here. He had known at the time that it would be stupid to attack us, but according to Gumin’s rules you didn’t retreat from anybody. If you did, you were branded a coward and immediately put to death along with your entire family. There were always people willing to take your place as one of “the inner circle”, with all the benefits that came with it.
According to Gumin, everyone was replaceable. Therefore the prisoner had had no option but to try to take something from us. He would have been killed if he’d returned empty handed, so he’d had nothing to lose.
UK Dark Trilogy Page 23