Stepping aboard the frigate, he headed straight for the command centre where he knew Admiral Walker-Jones was waiting for him to report on the mission.
The room went silent as the blood-stained and exhausted young officer walked in. The admiral strode up to him and extended his hand, his own crumpled uniform and drawn features showing the strain of command he was feeling.
“Good work, Captain Digby,” he said simply.
Digby’s voice cracked as he replied, “I failed, Sir. Too many were lost and I blame myself…” He stopped talking as the admiral held up his hand.
“No, you did not, Captain. You succeeded in your mission and the losses you received, however regrettable, were a price we had to pay.” He looked at the pained expression on the young man’s face, softened his tone and placed his hand on his shoulder. “Captain, you led your people well, and your losses reduced the more experience you gained. The fact you are mourning those who fell speaks volumes about your ability to command, young man. You were given a difficult task and you overcame the odds and won.”
Digby looked him in the eye. “Sir. Thank you. But from the reports I’ve been given on those at Warwick Castle, they have not lost one of their number to zombies since this began and I thought we would do as well as them.” Anger rose in him. “Despite all the training we receive, civilians have done better than us and that is not right. We are here to serve and protect our fellow countrymen. I… I… I’m having a difficult time coping with that, Sir.”
The admiral smiled at his anguish. “I know, son. It’s a strange world we find ourselves in, but we are in it, so we must do the best we can. I think those civilians at the castle have a lot they can teach us. The vehicles they’ve converted sound very interesting and it’s definitely something we need to consider doing when we’re planning our assault on the mainland.”
His brow furrowed as more ideas raced through his head, then he turned to the others in the room. “Now, can we discuss moving the operation forward and clearing the rest of the islands? Our meteorologists are forecasting this weather will break soon and we need to get all our vessels, both naval and civilian, into safe anchorage. I have already ordered them to begin making their way here from the Solent and they will start arriving over the next few days. So time is of the essence.”
He indicated for Digby to approach the large table in the room and they began planning phase two. As the meeting progressed, the captain’s confidence in his ability grew, the experience he’d gained already showing in the input he made to the meeting, and the plan was soon agreed and preparations began once more.
He left to brief and prepare his exhausted troops for the next day’s job.
The smaller islands, as surveillance from both the helicopter and boats had shown, indicated far fewer of the undead on all of them, which was a relief to all. Complacency, though, was never considered. The mission plan was similar to the one they had just completed. They would land in force and sweep each island from end to end in one large group. The helicopter would once more provide overhead coverage and resupply.
For obvious safety purposes, only those involved in the assault would be allowed to set foot on dry land until the missions were deemed successful. An extra full and very careful sweep of all the islands would then be undertaken before the all clear was given. They’d found from experience that even from houses and streets that had already been cleared or checked, an occasional zombie would emerge from a previously undiscovered hiding place. No one wanted to consider the possibility of what would happen if the infection were allowed to spread if an undiscovered zombie bit someone.
Warwick Castle
“They’ll update us on the progress of the mission when they have more news, but they’re confidant of success over the next few days,” Steve ended his update for us from the fleet.
“What about the bunker?” I asked
He smiled and handed me back my telephone, which we’d used to take photos as we flew over it.
“They thank you for your efforts yesterday. I described what you saw, and they will think about it once they’ve consolidated their position. The ones inside the bunker have enough supplies for a month at least, so there’s no need to do anything rash for the time being.
They do want us to investigate the other sites, when the weather front they’re expecting soon has cleared. Until then, we are to carry on as we are, consolidating our position and gathering what we can for the future. The news that you contacted other survivors was greeted with great relief. If we’ve found some, then there must be others, and in a way, it justifies the eventual mission plan.”
“And what is that?” asked Becky, although she knew the answer.
Steve smiled at her and nodding his head in thanks at her for the prompt, replied, “To make the entire country zombie free, I imagine. Well it’d be a shame to go to all the effort if we were the only ones left, wouldn’t it? Otherwise, they may as well just get themselves comfortable where they are and have a long holiday. On one flight, you found another group, and as I just said, if there’s one, there must be others.”
He paused and looked at us all. “Once we’ve visited this group, I propose we actively begin searching for others by both land and air and offer help from the resources we’ve gathered, if they need it. Also, if we deem them suitable and their position is not safe, we bring them back here. To that end, we also need to continue gathering supplies and hopefully, more weapons. Not for us, but for those we meet.”
Shawn interrupted him, “But Steve, I may have a hangover this morning and have missed the point. And please correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t that what we’ve been doing pretty much since this whole thing started? So, what you are proposing is we carry on as we have been?”
After thinking about what Shawn had said for a moment, he replied, “Yes, of course it is. I think my head isn’t too clear this morning either.” He held his hands out in an expansive gesture. “What I propose is that we carry on as we have been until we hear differently. Is that okay with everyone?”
“Steve,” Maud said sharply, “I agree, but may I remind you that we are doing what we are doing, not because some high and mighty officer tells us to. We are doing it because all of us here are decent human beings and not like those who killed poor Daniel. If you hadn’t arrived, I can certainly assure you everyone here would be concentrating on extending the hand of help and friendship to any we came across. It may not be happening as quickly as it is now, but it would be.”
Steve looked genuinely shocked and then contrite at her comment. “S… sorry, Maud,” he stammered out his reply. “I know that, and I can assure you the fleet knows that too.”
Then he sat down and looked exasperated, saying, “Can someone take over, please? The way my head is, I’m only going to say something stupid again and drop myself in it some more.”
Maud stepped into the middle of the room and crossed her arms with determination. “Right then, young men. As you all look a little sorry for yourselves this morning, you can work off your hangovers by emptying the other lorries today. Tomorrow, we will go and reach out to those poor people at the farm.”
At the thought of physical exercise there was a general groaning from most who were hoping for an easy day recovering from last night’s celebrations, but Maud was not having any of it and continued.
“Looking at the state of most of you, I trust it will also be a lesson in overindulgence.” She clapped her hands. “Now come on, then or will I have to get angry at you?”
Rueful looks were exchanged, and we all stood up and trooped outside to begin our day.
By the end of the day, both lorries had been emptied and the fuel lorry parked a safe distance away from the castle. Apart from exhaustion, most of us were feeling better. More rooms had to be cleared and allocated to allow for the extra supplies and Maud, helped by a few others, had catalogued and itemised everything we’d unloaded. We clearly had a lot of food, but as we knew, there was no point if we could
gather more not to do so. After all, we didn’t know how many people we would need to feed in the future.
The atmosphere was a lot more subdued that night as we watched another ‘training video’ before those not on guard duty went to bed earlier than usual.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Bloody hell,” I moaned early the next morning as I carried another box of food up the ramp to put in the subfloor of the trailer. “We spent all day unloading it and now we seem to be carrying most of it back now.” I looked at Maud, who was standing by the trailer checking items on a list she’d drawn up. “I know,” I continued. “We don’t know if they’ll want to stay put or not.”
Woody, who was stacking shotguns and rifles in the same trailer, along with boxes of ammunition for them, whispered at me conspiratorially, “Sssh, mate. I think we’re still in trouble with Maud over last night. Let’s be good boys until we leave and then we can moan about it.”
We had planned to take three vehicles with us on the trip. The armoured car and tractor were included as always, but this time we decided to take Woody’s Land Rover to use as a scout vehicle if we needed it. It still had its machine gun mounted on it, as did the trailer. None of the vehicles had encountered anything they couldn’t deal with yet, so we were confident they were all suitable for the task ahead.
As soon as everything was stowed away securely, we joined the others, who were planning our route using a large map spread across the table in the dining room. Tracing my finger across the route, I could see Steve had planned it well. It zig-zagged across the countryside, missing a lot of towns and villages, all the time edging closer to the circle marking our eventual destination.
“What’s the distance, Steve?” I asked as I stood up from leaning over the map to allow another to study it.
“About fifty miles or so,” he replied. “Three hours at most, I reckon. But because we don’t know what help these people might need, I think we should plan for an overnight stay. If we don’t make it back today and as we’ll be out of communication range, it’ll stop everyone here worrying too much.”
Not being able to argue with any of the choices he’d made, I nodded my head and checked my watch. “Shall we get moving then?” I stated. “Everything’s loaded up and all the vehicles have been checked.” I changed my voice to a poor imitation of a woman. “And as Maud would say, the sooner we leave, the sooner we’ll be back.”
Everyone smirked, but then I noticed no one was looking at me, but at the door behind me.
I cringed and my shoulders sagged as I said weakly, “She’s right behind me, isn’t she?”
“She is,” came Maud’s voice from behind me. I turned and she was standing in the doorway with her arms crossed. Her eyes betrayed the stern look on her face, they were glinting with mirth.
Full of embarrassment, I shuffled past her and gave her a peck on the cheek, muttering an apology in her ear.
Walking up the ramp of the trailer, I was surprised to see Charles, the vicar, already onboard. He was wearing body armour over his robes and had a rifle held in his hands. He hadn’t previously been on any missions with us and was usually content with helping with the internal running of the castle and performing guard duty, along with looking after our spiritual wellbeing. His nightly prayers before dinner was served had quickly become a welcome tradition. They were more of a report on the day’s activities, giving thanks for not only surviving, but achieving the goals we’d set ourselves. Delivered with humour and style, they were a joy to listen to. Often, he could be seen offering council or just a friendly ear to anyone who wanted to talk with him as he cheerfully went about his business.
“Charles, what are you doing?” I asked him.
“I haven’t left the walls of the castle since we arrived,” he began, “and I feel the need to see how the world has changed since then. Also, this group we’re hoping to find might like to see a man of the cloth as well as you load of ruffians.” He smiled kindly at me. “My flock isn’t limited to just our group, it includes anyone who is still living through this dark pestilence that has befallen our beloved country, and it is my duty to offer my services to them all.”
Ian, who had walked up the ramp behind me, had heard his little speech and he spoke before I could reply. “As long as you don’t start singing Onward, Christian Soldiers, vicar, if you need to use your gun. I think that would be more than I could cope with. If only YouTube was still working, because that would get a gazillion hits.”
Charles laughed out loud at his comment. “Now that is a fine rousing hymn. It’s one of my favourites, in fact.” With a look of joy on his face, he raised it to the heavens and began singing it. Once the gates were open the convoy left, with all of us waving to those staying, and we joined in with him as we dragged up the words from memories of long ago attended school assemblies and church services.
Aside from needing to clear the road of the occasional vehicle, the journey went to plan. The not unexpected zombies were dealt with as they shambled into our path and their bodies marked our route home like a gruesome trail of breadcrumbs. Unfortunately, the high hedges and poor signposting on country roads occasionally made navigation difficult. When a mistake was made, forcing us to make a U-turn, the complaints and moans we all communicated to Shawn, who was leading the way, were as good-natured as they were abusive, indicating the high spirits we were all in.
The CB radios Shawn had installed in all the vehicles worked well, enabling us to communicate with the castle until the range got too great. Their range, though, was much greater than the handheld walkie talkies we had and for local work, they would be of great use.
“The farm should be up the track coming up on the right,” Louise eventually broadcast through the radio from her usual position beside Shawn in the cab of the tractor as we were driving along another narrow lane. Two minutes later, Shawn slowed down and cautiously turned the tractor onto an unmade road that led across some fields. With everyone on high alert, the small convoy followed, the vehicles rocking over the occasional pothole until from my position in the trailer, the farmhouse came into view.
The buildings looked different from the ground, but I knew it was a large place and from what I’d seen when flying overhead, it had been surrounded by a perimeter wall and the occupants looked to have barricaded all the entrances.
The armoured car pulled off the track and drew level with the tractor. Steve commanded us to stop a few hundred yards from the barricaded gate. Raising a pair of binoculars to my eyes, I could see some heads peering over the top of the wall looking back at us. One of the people I could see was holding a rifle.
“They look nervous,” I spoke out loud. “But then again, I suppose that’s to be expected.” I called across to Steve. “Use the loud hailer to tell them it’s us.”
Steve gave me the thumbs up. The speaker on the armoured car screeched as he turned it on and his amplified voice boomed across the countryside.
“Hello. You have nothing to fear. We’re the ones who flew over you a few days ago and we’re visiting, like we promised. We’ve brought food and other supplies for you, so could you open the gate and let us in, please?”
“Gates opening,” I called as I stared through the binoculars and saw two men, both with guns now slung over their shoulders, pushing the gates to the main farm open. Starting our engines, we slowly pulled forward.
The gates, I noticed as we drove through, had been heavily reinforced with wood and steel sheets. I nodded to myself with approval as I looked around the rest of the large yard, which from ground level seemed larger than I remembered from the air. It all looked secure. The height of the wall surrounding it had been raised using more sheeting and all the other entrance gates looked to be as reinforced as the one we’d driven through.
“These people seem to have got their shit together,” I said with an air of approval to Eddy, standing beside me. “It looks as if they’ve done a good job here.”
“They sure have,” he replied a
s he went to open the door on the trailer so we could deploy the ramp to walk down to meet them.
Four men, three women and three children aging from about five to mid-teens were standing together, gathered by the front door to the farmhouse, looking apprehensively at us as we climbed down. When Ian shuffled down wearing his full armour, I smiled as they all let out an audible gasp of shock. Ian, Jamie and Geoff had won the coin toss as to which knights would accompany us. For the safety of those back home at the castle, we wanted to leave a few of them behind just in case they were needed. They all wanted to go and so to save a long discussion about it, we settled it on the toss of a coin.
Steve and I got out of the front of the armoured car, and we walked up to them, smiling as I extended my hand, saying, “Yes, they do look at bit frightening, don’t they?” As I waved at the gathering knights, I added, “Trust me, under that armour they’re all the biggest softies you’ll meet and as daft as you like. I’m Tom, by the way,” I said, shaking the hand of the oldest man there, assuming he would most likely be their leader. “Pleased to meet you.”
The man, who looked to be in his sixties, shook my hand in return. His hands were coarse, probably from a lifetime of working the land. “Stuart. Stuart Brough,” he replied simply. He then shook Steve’s hand, eying his uniform as he did so. “Are you from the military?” he asked. His tone was not angry or curt but inquisitive.
Steve saluted as he replied, “Captain Steve Hammond. Yes, I am from the Army and my men and I are currently tasked to help protect these civilians,” he said, indicating to us.
This time, the man’s tone betrayed a touch of anger, “Well, where the hell have you been? My family and I have been trapped here since this began and we haven’t seen anyone at all, let alone anyone in authority, until those men approached us yesterday.”
Zombie Castle Series (Book 4): ZC Four Page 17
