Aymun and his men shifted anxiously, and the British soldiers did the same in reply. Fingers slid towards triggers as everybody waited to see what would happen next.
“I have been fair,” said Aymun. “You help me so I help you, but if we are still enemies, then say so.”
Ellis flapped his arms. “Of course we are still enemies. You’re members of the blasted ISN. What would my superiors do if I shook hands with members of an enemy rebel force?”
“Your sergeant wish to shake my hand,” said Aymun. “He is better man than you. He see. He see what is.”
Ellis frowned. “What do you mean, ‘what is?’”
“I mean we all must be as one to fight new enemy. Mankind must be an army. You do not understand. You are fool.”
Ellis pointed his finger. “I am no fool.”
Aymun sighed and turned his back. “You are fool. I leave, fool.”
Ellis pulled out his handgun and pointed it at the back of Aymun’s head. “You stop right there. You are my prisoner.”
Aymun’s two soldiers raised their AK47s and pointed them at Ellis. The British army raised their L85s in reply. A standoff ensued.
Tony threw up both hands and stood between the two groups. The ISN were out-gunned two to one, but they would take a couple of British soldiers down with them before they bit the dust. That couldn’t happen.
“Lieutenant Ellis,” Tony shouted, “the only priority right now is getting the men to safety. There is precedent for working with the enemy in times of exceptional circumstances, and I believe what happened at the border more than qualifies as exceptional. Over a dozen of Aymun’s men are dead. Command will consider our mission a victory, but we will be needed for the days ahead—all of us. We cannot afford to get involved in another fire fight. The ISN are considered an illegally occupying force, but we are not officially engaged in a war with them. Therefore, they are not strictly our enemies. We can work together peacefully as allies.”
Ellis continued pointing his gun at Aymun, but his hand trembled. After several seconds, he lowered the weapon and placed it by his side. Everybody sighed with relief—even Aymun.
“Everybody at ease,” Tony shouted. “Aymun, that means your men too.”
Aymun nodded and muttered something in Arabic. His two men lowered their AK47s.
Ellis was shaking his head and staring down at the ground. “I apologise. This heat… so little water. I am not in my right mind.”
Tony groaned inside. Their only officer was hinting at his own incompetency and giving mixed messages to his men about whether they were working with the ISN or not. Things would not go well if Ellis didn’t get a handle on things and let everybody know where they stood.
To his credit, Aymun did not linger on the animosity. He smiled at his British colleagues and said, “We must cross river now, yes? Very tired and all must rest.”
Tony went to pat the man on the back, but worried about offending him, so he returned the smile and nodded.
They went across the river in three shifts, taking almost an hour in total. The journey was wobbly, and they all got wet, but the night had not yet cooled, and they were all glad of the moist chill.
On the other side, they formed up beneath the glowing moon and got going again. As the temperature descended, they dug into their packs and retrieved their jackets. It would be freezing within an hour or two.
Fortunately, an hour was all it took for Aymun to locate his supply cache. They encountered an outcropping of boulders at a place where the green, fertile river plain changed back to the hard-packed, featureless dirt of the desert. Aymun led them all up the stony hill and waited for them at the top. Tony had his rifle raised, ready for an ambush, but once again, he was glad to find that Aymun had kept his word. It was all there.
The outcropping of boulders was wide and hollow inside, like an inverted cave with the entrance above rather than besides. It was large enough for every one of them to climb inside, and they all gasped in amazement when Aymun lit a gas lamp and placed it at the centre of the room. Stacked up against the walls were numerous rifles and crates of ammunition. There were also piles of clothes and tins of food, along with can openers. Several bedrolls and sheets were bundled up in the corner, and it was pure luxury after what they had just walked through.
“Take whatever you wish,” said Aymun, “but please do not touch the Quran. It must not come into contact with ground or be touched by…”
Tony noticed the pedestal in the corner with the holy book placed reverently atop it and nodded. “We understand, Aymun. Thank you.”
Ellis looked around. “This is much appreciated, Aymun. I wonder, could I… could I trouble you for…”
Tony caught his superior officer just as he was about to hit the ground. He eased Ellis down onto one of the blankets and propped him up. “Get some water,” he shouted.
Aymun pulled a bottle of water from the pile of supplies and hurried over with it. Tony took it and helped Ellis take a swig. “There you go, sir, drink up.”
“Oh, thank you, Staff Sergeant. I-I’m afraid I came over rather lightheaded.”
“It has been hard journey for us all,” said Aymun. “We rest tonight, get strength. Hardest part of trip tomorrow, will take several days to reach Turkish border.”
Tony looked at Ellis’s grey face and wondered if he could make the journey. The men needed an officer, but Ellis was weak and inexperienced, too recently out of Officer’s Training to possess the grit required to keep going when his muscles begged him to stop. This was still just an exercise to him; he didn’t understand the stakes.
Tony took a swig of the water, then gave the remains to Ellis. The men stood around anxiously, so he gave them something to do. “Hydrate, urinate, then get your heads down, lads. We have a lot of walking to do in the morning.”
So everyone settled down inside the hidden ISN cave on the edge of the Syrian Desert. Despite the tension inside each of them, tiredness won out easily and they were all asleep within minutes. Tony waited until last to close his eyes.
Tony awoke in darkness wondering where he was. He heard rustling, felt the air move.
Then came an explosion.
His hand was on his rifle, and he leapt to his feet. His eyes adjusted enough to see shadows, but it wasn’t until someone lit a lamp that he could see properly. By that time, everyone was scurrying to their feet blindly, bumping into walls as they tried to wake up. Ellis was last to his feet, and didn’t seem to realise that he should have been the first.
“What the blazes was that?”
“I don’t know,” Tony admitted. He looked at Aymun accusingly. “What’s going on?”
The Syrian shook his head. “I do not know.”
Another explosion.
“He’s set us up,” said Ellis, pointing his finger. “His men are coming for us.”
Tony studied the cave, saw no one missing. “If that’s true, then who’s fighting outside right now?”
“It is not my men,” Aymun protested. His foot struck something, and he looked down at it. It was the Quran, knocked from the pedestal when everybody had been stumbling to their feet in panic. Aymun went to pick it up, but Tony saw something that made him raise his rifle.
“Wait! Step away from that, Aymun.”
Aymun looked at him pleadingly. “It is holy book. Must not be on ground.”
Tony snarled, shoved Aymun away. “This isn’t a fucking holy book.”
Keeping his rifle on the Syrian, he knelt down and flipped the pages. There was no printed scripture, but instead, handwriting, maps, and numbers—messages scrawled in Arabic. The ink from the most recent messages was still wet.
Tony glared at Aymun. “You’re not the only one who knows about this place, are you? The ISN leave each other messages here. What have you written?”
Aymun stayed silent, so Tony pointed his rifle in the Syrian’s face. The British soldiers backed him up by pointing their own rifles.
“What a fuck party,”
muttered Private Harris.
Tony moved the muzzle of his rifle closer to Aymun’s face. “What did it say?”
Aymun swallowed, but didn’t look away for a second. “I write that we head north, west of Ash Shaddadi. Rescue is needed.”
“I told you he would betray us,” Ellis shouted.
“I say we shove a wee grenade up his arse,” said Corporal Rose.
Tony glared at Aymun, looking into the man’s dark brown eyes, and prepared to pull the trigger. “You’re a liar. Where is your honour?”
Aymun placed his hands in the air, a placating gesture. “I plan no bloodshed, only rescue. Your captain want to take us prisoner, even after accepting our help. I lead you to safety and escape in night. That was plan.”
Tony delayed pulling the trigger. “How can I believe you?”
“Because is truth. You understand, Sergeant. We are no longer enemies. Something has come to destroy all. We are brothers now and must fight. My men will need me and yours will need you. I was going to lead you to safety, then escape. I swear it by Allah.”
Another explosion.
Tony kept eye contact with Aymun despite the loose stones falling from the ceiling and into his collar. “You swear by Allah that you aren’t betraying us, that the fighting outside isn’t you?”
“Yes, I swear it by Allah.”
“Staff Sergeant, I command you to take this man prisoner,” demanded Ellis.
Tony turned to his captain and sighed. “We have to trust him, sir. There’s too much at stake to go off half-cocked.”
“I have just given you an order.”
“I won’t follow it. Not until I know for sure that he betrayed us.”
“Then you are under arrest for failure to obey a rightful order.” Ellis turned to the nearest British soldier, who was Private Harris. “Harris, please place Staff Sergeant Cross under arrest.”
“Fuck you, sir.”
Ellis spun on his subordinate with more fire in his eyes than Tony had ever seen in the man. It seemed like a breach in manners was the thing that finally lit his fire. “I beg your pardon, Private? I have given you an order and strongly suggest you follow it.”
Harris lifted his chin and showed no sign of backing down. “With all due respect, sir, I don’t believe you’re fit to give orders. I will do whatever Staff Sergeant Cross commands until we reach the Turkish border.”
Tony considered what was happening. There were few offences more serious in the British Army than mutiny, but as Aymun constantly said: Things had changed when that gate had opened in the desert. Hard choices needed to be made.
Ellis looked around at his remaining men. “Place Sergeant Cross and Private Harris under arrest. That is an order. Disobey me, and you’ll all be court-martialled.”
Nobody moved a finger. The men’s expressions were steely—dangerous. Ellis grew more and more frustrated, growing red in the face, his lower lip quivering.
Aymun was next to speak. “My men believe that a leader should be chosen by his men. You are no leader, Lieutenant—just a fool.”
Ellis spun around in a rage and pulled his handgun up and pointed it at Aymun’s face.
Bang!
The sound echoed off the cave walls.
Captain Ellis turned to face Tony, who had raised his rifle and fired before he even knew what he had been doing. A pinprick of blood bloomed on Ellis’s chest, just to the left of his heart. “Staff Sergeant…?”
The officer dropped to his knees with disbelief in his eyes. Tony reached out to grab him, but reconsidered and let the man fall to the ground where he landed on his back, gave a few quick gasps, and then died.
“Fuckin’ ell,” Tony muttered to himself, trying not to let himself panic. “Jesus fuck fuck fuckin’ ‘ell.”
He’d just shot his commanding officer. They’d throw the book at him—the whole soddin’ library. But what choice had he had? If Aymun had been telling the truth, then allowing Ellis to kill him would have been a mistake. Ellis had no cause to execute the man.
If Aymun really had betrayed them, then Tony had just made the biggest balls up of his life. Please, please, please, let Aymun be on the up and up.
Tony turned to his men to gauge their reactions. A bunch of boys, all of them frightened, all of them tired, but there was something else to them as well. They were hardened. They were veterans. Not one of them seemed to judge him for what had just happened. They were his men.
Tony cleared his throat and said, “Anybody who has a problem with what I just did is free to report me once we’re back at a friendly base. Until then I’m going to get you out of this fucking desert and to safety. Stick with me until then.”
“I’m with you, Sergeant,” said Private Harris.
“Me too,” said Corporal Rose.
Soon, every man had agreed to follow Tony, and he found himself in a situation he had never been in before: Solo command.
Aymun moved towards Tony and offered his hand. “Thank you, Sergeant.”
“I thought you didn’t shake hands.”
“I shake hand of man I respect. You are leader, like me. Let us lead together until peace finds us, be it in this life or the next.”
Another explosion.
Tony sighed. “This isn’t an ambush.”
“No ambush.”
“Well then, if that racket isn’t to do with you, we better take a look.”
Aymun nodded. “We must.”
They climbed out of the hidden cave entrance and stood atop the boulders. What they saw in the distance shocked them.
Harris groaned. “It was so fucking dark last night that we never even noticed it. Another one of them gates right under our bloody noses.”
“For fecks sake,” said Corporal Rose.
About a mile away, another gate rose above the desert, monsters pouring out of it. The explosions were coming from a group of militia fighting back against the demons.
“Those are my people,” Aymun said.
Tony glanced at him. “ISN?”
“No, Sergeant. Not ISN, just Syrians. They must have been attacked but now fight back to defend themselves. These are the people I fight for. They are brave, and we must help them.”
“Then we will,” said Tony, realising there was no longer any option to make for the border when the enemy were right here. If you ran away in war, you lost.
Aymun gave Tony a kiss on both cheeks. “We fight together, as brothers, ready to take Allah’s test.”
Tony turned to his men. “Okay, lads. You know the drill. There’s enough weaponry in this cave to make a real dent in the bastards this time, and we’ll be the ones springing out of nowhere on them. Those people fighting are civvies, and they’re doing a bang up job. Are we going to let them take all the victory for themselves?”
“Fuck no,” said Harris.
“No way no how,” Rose added.
“Whatever is coming through those gates is here to destroy us, to end our way of life. They want to murder our families, kill our children, and slaughter our women. They came from some ‘orrible bleedin’ ‘ell we probably can’t even imagine, and they want to take what is ours. Are we gunna let ‘em?”
The men shouted a resounding “NO!”
“Then let’s send the fuckers back where they belong.”
Cheers all around. They were going off to war, and they were ready to kick arse.
~Mina Magar~
Slough, Berkshire
They left the city of London burning behind them. After the initial attack on Oxford Street, the enemy Army had systematically torn through the city, before backing off to regroup. They waited for the Army to congregate, and then attacked again from all sides. Hyde Park had been a massacre, and Corporal Martin had got a similar report about the Greenwich Park camp. What remained of the British Armed Forces was now regrouping at Colchester barracks to lick their wounds.
Mina watched Heathrow Airport slide by on her left as they sped down the M4 motorway. The thick clusters of s
hops, factories, and houses faded away behind them as they entered the parklands on the way to Slough. A vast golf course lay to Mina’s right, still lit by enormous floodlights. The time on the jeep’s dashboard read 4:00. She wondered if people were hiding out in that hotel. In fact, how many people were still alive, cowering in their homes or grouping together at places like the golf club? If everybody fought back, all at once, would they have a chance? Corporal Martin seemed to think so, and she was beginning to agree. The Army could not win this war—that had become clear back at Hyde Park—so the only chance mankind had was if the entire population became an army. Every man, woman, and child.
Both Corporal Martin and David had been making endless calls during the last thirty minutes as they fled the city. The staff of the Slough Echo had locked themselves in the offices, updating the website and posting on the larger newsgroups. At first, they had worked feverishly on this morning’s papers, but had abandoned it when it became clear that there would be no paperboys working tomorrow. Now they sought to get information to people through the Web. They had used the information given to them by David and were informing people about what they were up against. The black stones had opened gates, and the legions of Hell walked through them. That was the headline.
Alice had screamed after her brother for a while, but had since gone quiet, staring out of the window and saying nothing. What had happened to Kyle affected everyone, even those who’d only just met him. He’d been a child. A brave boy looking after his kid sister. Mina thought about how many other children were dead.
She took them off the motorway and entered the outskirts of Slough through Ditton Park. The sun had risen, and she was surprised to see people walking their dogs.
“They know something’s coming,” said David. “It’s their attempt to enjoy the normalcy while they still can. Denial can be a powerful thing.”
But the denial wasn’t true everywhere. Police patrolled the centre of Slough, which looked like it had been turned upside down by a whirlwind. Litter choked every gutter, and any shop windows not covered by shutters were now smashed. Mina remembered the 2011 riots and saw little difference. People become intrinsically antisocial in times of crisis. When something bad came their way, they thought only of themselves. People were rioting when they should have been coming together. During World War II, entire peoples came together to support their countries, now people fought their countries even as their countries fought for them. Times had changed. The enemy’s attack had come at the worst time possible.
Hell On Earth Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 16
