UK Dark Trilogy

by Harris, Chris

  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 FOUR

  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 he
r 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.

  We settled back down to continue our surveillance and wait for the reinforcements to arrive and during that time, we got to know Penny a little better. She was from Bristol and her story had a familiar ring.

  When the event had happened, her parents had opted to stay at home until the food had run out, hoping and trusting that the government would soon have everything working again. Once the food had gone, and with it, any hope of help arriving, they had joined the growing throng of refugees leaving the city. They had sought shelter at an army-run refugee camp, and experienced worsening conditions and the breakdown of society that was happening at every level.

  The distributed rations had become smaller and smaller until finally a fight had broken out, and an attempt had been made to take control of the food supplies by force. The soldiers had opened fire and hundreds of people had been killed in the ensuing chaos. The camp had fallen apart after that and in spite of the approaching winter, and the lack of food and shelter, most people had been forced to move on.

  Penny and her parents had managed to find shelter in an old dilapidated barn in a remote part of the countryside. Slowly starving to death, they tried their best to scavenge what food they could find. In desperation, Penny’s father wandered further each day, battling his way through the freezing weather until one day, he didn’t return.

  Penny wept as she described how she and her mother had huddled together helplessly, waiting for him to come back. After about a week, they decided to set out and look for him. They knew they would die if they stayed and if they found him, hopefully they might also find somewhere better.

  For two days, they walked and walked, desperate to find any traces of him.

  Finally, they stumbled down a lane, soaked to the skin and weak from lack of food, and were surprised to see a Land Rover appearing around a bend.

  The Land Rover headed straight towards them and then slowed down to a halt. For a moment, their hopes were raised, but then Mike stepped out of the car and stood there, staring at them.

  Penny’s mother sensed immediately that they were in danger and grabbed her daughter by the arm. They tried to make a break for it across a field, but they were both malnourished and exhausted. Mike and his men had no trouble catching up with them.

  Mike took one look at her mother and said, “This one’s too old.” Then he nodded at Penny, “Bring her. I like them young. If we feed her up a bit, she’ll be right up my street.”

  As Penny was bundled into the back of the car, her ears filled with her mother’s screams, and she knew she was desperately fighting to get to her daughter.

  The men laughed and taunted the poor woman, as she tried to push through them to reach her. Then she raked her fingers down Mike’s cheek and drew blood, and he yelled in pain.

  As Penny looked on helplessly, Mike had taken a baseball bat out of the car and beaten her mother to death. Screaming obscenities at her as she lay dying, her movements getting weaker by the second, he continued to rain blows down on her as her blood stained the snow around her crimson. Even after she was dead, he continued for some minutes, spittle running down his chin in his rage.

  Penny had been brought back shivering and paralysed with shock and terror. Mike had pushed her towards Mel with instructions to feed her up, stop her crying and to let him know when she was ready for him.

  Harry and I sat there, unable to speak. I thought about my own daughter. And I thought about what I would like to do to Mike.

  From the very first day, all the women had gone out of their way to be kind to her. Apart from Lucy of course.

  She knew about sex and she knew what Mike wanted to do to her, and of course she was terrified.

  It was clear from what she said, that in spite of everything they were going through, Penny’s arrival had given the older women a sense of purpose. It was almost as if she became a kind of mascot for them. If they could save one poor innocent girl, then it made their own suffering a little easier to bear.

  She told us how Mel was constantly steering Mike’s attention away from her, doing everything she could to delay the moment when he decided he would take her. Penny had known that day would come soon and had sensed his growing impatience. The tears streamed down her face and she thanked us over and over for saving her.

  When she was a little calmer, we tried to change the subject to more cheerful topics. In spite of the trauma she had been through, she was sweet and funny and the time passed quickly as we talked quietly and kept watch. In between noting the arrival of the various groups, as dusk began to fall, we told her funny stories about the road occupants she would soon be meeting.

  From Mel and Louise, we knew precisely how many men were at the hotel, so we were able to account for all of them as they arrived.

  Once they were all present, the same routine took place as before.

  The loot was handed over for Rick to inspect, and Lucy noted everything down in her book. Then everyone dispersed back to their quarters. We made a careful note of where each of them went.

  Paul had made a sketch of the target building and taken notes of everyone’s locations. Hopefully this would give us an advantage when we entered the site.

  The soldiers who were due to arrive would not have seen the building in daylight hours, and therefore they would be wholly reliant on Paul’s hand-drawn plan to get up to speed on the mission.

  As before, pallets were stacked and soon the fire was blazing away.

  Mel and Louise were playing their parts. We watched as they kept bringing out more bottles and we could see from their gestures that they were encouraging them all to drink up.

  Few men need much encouragement to drink up. Had they been a little more sober, they might have wondered why the women were given them so much attention, but alcohol slows down the brain as well as reactions, and they lapped it all up. When the dinner bell sounded, the cheer could be heard from ou
r OP. As we watched them troop into the building, Paul held his hand to the headset in his ear, in the universal “I’m receiving a message” signal.

  Looking at us he said, “They’re at the edge of the wood, I’ll go and guide them in.”

  He slipped out of the rear of the OP and disappeared silently into the night.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  Before long, we heard footsteps approaching, crunching and crackling through the woods. Noise travels well at night, but we were confident our quarry wouldn’t hear anything.

  Paul crawled in, closely followed by a second man.

  “Can I introduce you to Captain Digby? He’s leading the SAS detachment and is in overall command of all the men who have arrived.”

  “Diggers! How the devil are you?” interrupted Harry.

  “Oh! Sorry. I forgot you two know each other. It’s been a while since we were at the base together. In fact, it seems like a lifetime ago.”

  Captain Digby saluted Harry and then shook hands with us both.

  Paul continued.

  “You two keep watch, and I’ll take Captain Digby and his men to the other side of the wood. I’ll talk them through the mission and show them all the plan of the site I’ve drawn up. Then we’ll come back and give everyone the chance to get their eyes on the target.”

  As Harry and I were both in agreement with this, they left the OP without delay. Soon after, quiet voices and footsteps could be heard, receding into the distance.

  Sudden movement at the hotel drew our attention. Meal time was clearly over because men were drifting out to sit around the fire.

  The party mood was still prevailing and they were all continually swigging from bottles. As before, Louise and Mel were valiantly laughing with them, and handing them fresh bottles as soon as the empty ones were tossed into the fire.

  The good news was: all twenty three men appeared to be present. Even Rick appeared briefly, bringing more bottles with him, and handing them out like a benevolent leader.