The Fight for Life

by S G Read

  ‘Remember we must stop them contacting the stadium after they know we are here.’ Ray whispered urgently.

  The others nodded and they moved on, quietly moving up a floor at a time.

  A voice spoke over the radio. ‘Are you there Bob?’

  The man watching out of the window picked it up. ‘Yes, where else would I be?’

  ‘We saw the lights go out. Generator again?’

  ‘Yes Walter, the bloody generator again! Might be the fuel again! I’ll get that bloody Pongo for getting diesel with shit in it!’

  ‘Let me know if you want any help?’ Walter replied.

  ‘If you don’t see the lights come back on you will know we need some help!’ Bob answered and put the radio down again.

  Outside the sun was just creeping over the horizon threatening to bathe the area with light once more. Outside the room four men waited for them to decide to send someone else down to sort out the problem.

  They patiently waited half an hour before inside one of the men scraped his chair back and stood up.

  ‘I’ll go and give Colin a hand so we can at least finish the card game.’ He announced and opened the door.

  He saw no one outside and hurried downstairs to his fate. On the same landing in exactly the same place an arm locked itself round his neck and the same knife did its deadly work. He was dumped on top of him mate in the empty room.

  Ray signalled three with his fingers to signify how many there were left inside. He held up his pistol to let them see he was putting his silencer on ready to go in. Two men had the job of going in and trying to kill them in an effort to make sure no one gave the alarm. Bob was Ray’s first target then the one sitting at the table nearest Bob. Peter was to take out the man nearest them and the man on the other side of the table just to make sure he died quickly. Ray stopped to look round the faces before him in the glow of the emergency lighting, nodded to them then started to count down on his fingers using the barrel of his gun to do it. When he reached two, he had to stop when a voice spoke over the radio inside the room. He did not think that then was a good time to burst in so he stopped counting and tried to signal an aborted count but they had all heard the radio and assumed it would be stopped.

  ‘What now?’ Bob asked.

  ‘Is Billy’s patrol with you we haven’t heard from him for a while?’ Walter asked.

  ‘I heard the QE2 Bridge were taking a woman with them tonight and Billy was going there to help them tame her.’ Bob answered.

  ‘Not that spitfire of a woman?’ Walter asked.

  ‘The spitfire was due for taming according to Patrick.’ Bob answered.

  ‘No wonder I haven’t heard from them then, how is the generator repair?’

  ‘Colin went down and Tubby has gone down to help him but no joy yet; by the time they get it working it will be daylight and we won’t need it!’

  It all went quiet inside and they all listened intently but there was no more noise inside. Ray looked round the faces again and started the countdown again. This time there was no interruption and he reached one. The hand on the door handle threw it open and the two men burst in, firing as they did so. Walter died where he stood and the man nearest them who was sitting did not move but the man who was last on the list dived for cover and grabbed his gun. Ray and Peter fired at him through the table he was using for cover. When they stopped firing they reloaded quickly, expecting him to leap up firing as he did so but nothing happened. Ray signalled for Peter to go to his left and he himself went to his right leaving two other men to take their positions in the doorway aiming where the man had dived. Ray saw his foot and took aim at it, then moved to see more. The man sensing what he was about to do twisted sideways and fired causing Ray to dive to one side. Peter stepped sideways and shot him dead.

  ‘Are you okay Ray.’ He asked keeping his eyes on the fallen man just in case.

  ‘Hurt my elbow when I dived out of the way but apart from that I’ll live.’ Ray answered. ‘Can you tell Dai to turn the generator back on Byron?’

  ‘Consider it done old boy.’ Byron answered and hurried away.

  Ray picked up the binoculars and scoured the area, he could see nothing unusual happening which was a good thing.

  ‘Peter you and Clem ride back and bring the others up to here, we wanted to be in place before first light but I think that is not likely to happen now so we go to plan two.’ Ray ordered.

  ‘Which is?’ Clem asked from the doorway.

  ‘We make our own route to where we want to park the coaches ready to move forward to where we are going to collect the women and children.’ Ray answered.

  ‘How do you mean?’ She asked.

  ‘If it is not safe to use the road we go across gardens or through car parks to get there.’ Ray answered.

  ‘Is that possible?’ Peter asked.

  ‘It is now we can direct them from here, on our radios, using our codes and the new frequency. They won’t know where we are if they are listening but I am hoping that they can use their maps and find a way without our help.’

  ‘If we hurry we might get someway while it is still dark enough!’ Clem declared.

  ‘Good point Clem, better to let them go direct to where they are to park than bring them here.’ Ray replied.

  ‘Come on Peter, I don’t think he is going to get up again now!’ Clem declared as Peter still had his gun pointing at the dead man.

  The lights came on and the monitors came back on.

  ‘Good, the stadium will think all is well up here and they are not looking for the patrol near the bridge which I think met trouble in the form of Jericho’s team.’ Ray said with satisfaction and watched Clem and Peter hurry away.

  Dai arrived soon after they went down.

  ‘They off to get the others Ray?’

  ‘Yes Dai.’

  ‘Running a bit late aren’t we?’

  ‘Yes Dai, we’ve gone to plan two.’

  ‘The direct route then?’

  ‘Yes don’t let any fence get in your way if you want to go that way.’

  ‘So what do we do?’

  ‘We watch and if they are going the wrong way, a way which might get them spotted we tell them in code.’

  ‘A bit dangerous that, isn’t it?’ Dai asked.

  ‘We have changed channels to try to make it hard for them to hear us but if they do they will know we aren’t in the sticks anymore I reckon.’

  They both watched out the window and saw the coaches and other vehicles including the ambulance go past. They were keeping to the back roads and keep to a route to make sure they had buildings between them and the stadium. Where there was no route they made one, one way or another. Sometimes by moving vehicles, others by driving through fences and across park land or gardens. At one point the watchers saw a patrol coming towards them and Ray just said ‘stop, patrol’ into the mike. They stopped and Ray hoped they had turned off their engines. They both watched unable to help from where they were, men slipped out of the vehicles and took up defensive positions. The patrol stopped at the end of the road only metres from where they were parked. They were there for ten minutes, enough time for several men to take up positions where they could take them out. One man from the patrol jumped out and went inside somewhere, when he came back out the patrol just drove away again. Ray watched them drive away towards the A4.

  ‘They are in for a shock.’ He said with a smile. Then said ‘go’ into the mike. The convoy started going again keeping to the same route.

  As it grew brighter he changed the night vision binoculars for normal ones. When the convoy finally parked at the agreed parking place he breathed a sigh of relief.

  ‘So far so good; call the others up Dai.’

  Dai shouted down the stairs and the other men came up to the control tower.

  ‘Okay you know what to do and when to do it.’ Dai said to the two men, who were there to take over from them. ‘If there is trouble we will collect you on the way out; if you are wat
ching, you will know when we are coming. It will either be in a hurry with the clan hot on our heels or we will have won and there will be no hurry for you to come to us for the trials.’

  The two men settled down to watch. The plan was tell them what was going on if it was something they needed to know, or just to watch out for patrols coming their way. Secretly they were hoping that at least one patrol would come up to see them. Ray and the rest hurried down to their bicycles and rode off after removing the picture from the camera downstairs, to make sure the two upstairs knew if they had visitors.

  It was easier to avoid being seen when they were on bikes; they cut corners and followed footpaths to keep out of sight until they arrived at the parking place. They saw lookouts as they approached and signalled to them to make sure they did not shoot them. The bikes were parked in a nearby house; it was all going to be on foot now. If they managed to get the women and children out they would have to walk from the stadium to here and get on a coach. Once all the women and children were safe the coaches would leave with armed men on each.

  By now the sun was up and shining brightly for this time of the year, they had to wait now and started to deal with the problem of hiding so many vehicles. Up the street there on the left there was a bus garage and they walked up to it, intent of breaking the lock and seeing how much room there was inside but they found the lock had already been forced.

  The mood changed and the men drew their weapons, not knowing what they would find when they opened the door. Again they readied themselves as Ray counted down; at one the opened the door and moved inside, spreading out like the fingers of the hand which counted, to make less of an easy target. Inside the door there was a large space flanked by busses. There were busses to the right as well and an office on the left but they saw no one.

  ‘Search the place.’ Dai ordered and his men went into search mode, each one covering the other to make sure there were no needless deaths.

  Ray and Dai stayed where they were and waited until the men returned.

  ‘No one about Dai.’ The leader of the searching group declared.

  ‘Good Alex, send a runner to get them to bring up both coaches we will get them both in here but that’s about all. Take a look in the other doors down the street to see if we can park the ambulance out of sight.’

  ‘Will do Dai. Come on you lot we have work to do.’

  The men who stayed opened the doors wide to allow the coaches inside; there was just enough room for both coaches to reverse inside and out of sight. After a few minutes the first coach drove up and reversed into the opening. It had to be manoeuvred twice to get it close enough to the office to allow the other coach to get in and the second time it scraped down the side of the office.

  ‘I can’t get it any closer!’ Peter declared.

  ‘Who is bringing the other one up?’ Dai asked.

  ‘Clem.’ Peter answered. ‘She drove it here, so I thought she was the best man for the job.’ Peter answered.

  ‘We will soon see.’ Dai answered and watched Clem drive up the road.

  She swung the coach round ready to reverse, moved it back to almost touching the other coach then pulled forward. The second time she reversed the coach straight into the gap.

  She could just get out of the door, after she had parked but Peter was better off as the office ended before it reached his door and he climbed out easily.

  ‘So much for parking them all in here.’ Ray complained. ‘I might have known that there would be busses in here and not parked somewhere with the driver dead.’

  ‘At least we got the two coaches in here boyo, it could have been worse: They are a bit harder to hide than cars!’ Dai replied.

  Alex returned. ‘We found a place for the ambulance but the rest will have to park on the street Dai.’

  ‘Okay Alex. If we park the cars on the pavement as close as the buildings on this side.’ Dai replied pointing to the right side of the street the same side the garage with the coaches were in. ‘Anyone coming along will have to drive past the end of the street and look this way to see them. If they do that we will have to take them out. Set up a watch and the rest have to keep inside and out of sight until the game starts. After that we will move out and start to try to get the women and children out.’

  ‘Will do Dai.’ He went out again to arrange everything.

  One by one the cars drove up and parked tight against the left hand wall. Some chose to park facing so that they could get out their door, others parked the other way round and climbed out the passenger door. When they were all parked they took up their positions. Ray and Dai went upstairs in the house on the corner of the little road they had parked in. It was a dead end road which was why it was chosen and the road it came off was also going nowhere. Anyone patrolling could drive into the start of the first street see all there was but not up the little side street, turn in a circle and go out again. They hoped that if anyone did come to have a look they would all do that and not see the parked cars, cars which were not there before. If they did go that far they would die very quickly.

  Ray looked out onto the street below and was pleased that it looked just as it did before they arrived. They had to wait and now they needed no over zealous patrols to come snooping round.

  Jericho and his men settled down to wait until dawn broke, what they did after it had they had yet to decide.

  ‘How do we know if they have taken the tower?’ Will asked where he was relaxing.

  ‘I have no idea.’ Jericho answered. ‘I do know that they are using a different frequency on the radio in case they need to direct the coaches, which is why we are listening to a radio which is just buzzing slightly.’

  An hour later they heard ‘stop, patrol’ on the radio, nothing more. Now they perked up a bit.

  ‘We can safely say we took the tower.’ Jericho said with a smile of satisfaction which was lost in the gloom.

  They heard ‘go’ soon after.

  ‘The convoy is on its way to the parking area.’ Jericho declared. ‘When it is light we will have a look round and carefully make our way closer to the stadium without taking any risks. For now we lie low and keep quiet.’

  ‘Quiet I like.’ Will replied.

  As they rested where they were the light slowly improved until the woman suddenly said ‘Terry?’

  The injured man looked up from where he lay. ‘Debora, Debora Lake?’

  ‘Yes. You look in a bad way Terry.’

  ‘You should see the other feller.’ Terry replied. ‘Have you seen Helena?’

  ‘Yes, she is in the same pool as me.’

  ‘Pool?’ Terry repeated.

  ‘You don’t want to know!’ Debora assured him. ‘Just remember anyone who tries in on with us, knows he is in for a hard time.’

  ‘So we saw.’ Jericho reflected.

  Debora smiled and they could see her smile. ‘My, it is good to be amongst a group of men where having sex with you is not their only thought.’

  ‘I may think it,’ Terry replied, ‘but you could crawl away faster than I could catch you.’

  ‘And you being a married man.’ Debora scolded.

  They settled down together and chatted quietly where Terry lay with his back against the parapet of the bridge. Will was feeling a little ashamed of himself for not giving Debora a gun to defend herself with but now did not seem the right time to right that wrong, he just lay back and listened to their talk.

  An hour passed before Will roused.

  ‘Going somewhere old man?’ Jericho asked.

  ‘I think the old man is going to see who is in the car which is approaching from the other side of the bridge.’ Barry answered.

  Jericho was on his feet in an instant.

  ‘It’ll be James.’ Will assured him. ‘Breaking his neck to make sure young Clem does not get her self into hot water.’

  Jericho looked at his watch. ‘He made good time if it is him.’

  Those that could move quickly took up position but
none of them raised their rifles as they did not expect the enemy to come from that side of the bridge.

  A sports car raced up the centre of the bridge and Will stepped out to greet the newcomer. The car screeched to a halt beside him.

  ‘I could have been the clan.’ James said out of the open window.

  ‘Not driving like that, in one of them.’ Will answered.

  ‘Do you like it? Otis chose it for me. He said it would get me here quick.’

  ‘Lovely car.’ Jericho declared from where he stood. ‘Now dump it, it takes to much juice.’

  ‘I know that I had to stop to fill it up on the way.’ James retorted. ‘Still it was nice to drive something like that just once. Where shall I put it?’

  ‘Under the bridge, over that side there is somewhere to park it.’ Jericho answered. ‘I suppose we can go now that you are here.’

  ‘Thanks for waiting.’ James answered and did what he was told to do.

  ‘Let’s get Terry into the back of the jeep he can get out more easily from that and they might just hesitate to fire, if it is one of their jeeps.’ Will said when James walked back from losing his sports car.

  ‘Especially if there is a woman in it as well!’ Debora added.

  ‘True enough.’ Will answered. ‘If you are willing to take the risk.’

  ‘Shooting me will be a lot better than what they have been doing to me, believe me you.’ Debora replied.

  They lifted Terry into the jeep complaining that he could climb in by himself and Debora climbed in next to him.

  ‘Don’t you worry, we’ll find her.’ She assured him.

  ‘Just let me shoot a few of the bastards.’ Terry replied patting his gun. ‘This one is still a virgin.’

  The rest climbed into their respective vehicles and drove off following the route which had been set out for them, in hopes that they would not run into a clan patrol on the way.

  Ray looked at his watch, still another hour before kick off! An engine noise made him look in the direction it was coming from and he saw a clan jeep speeding down towards them. All those on watch were well hidden but able to wipe them out if it was necessary. They too watched it approach. The jeep turned into the road which led to where they were and drove on. It reached the larger area where it could turn round and go back out easily and stopped. One man stood up and used his binoculars to look round the area he could see.