by Benson, Tom
A few murmurs soon turned into a hubbub which continued for a few minutes.
Bill waited patiently, knowing it would be more effective if he let everybody have their quiet discussions. “We weren’t sure if it were human movement or primates, but we weren’t unduly worried. As I said, some of the prints were unclear so, I went out myself for a look.”
“Bill,” Alan said, “surely if there were any human survivors out there they would make themselves known when they saw us working?”
“Not necessarily, mate. It would depend on their number and their physical and mental condition. As we can all appreciate, surviving an apocalypse could do strange things to the body. I can’t imagine how it would affect a person psychologically to survive in the wild and suffer from radiation sickness. Most people wouldn’t last long.”
Anne said, “Surely it couldn’t have been that mad woman who … who escaped out of the portal?”
“I considered that possibility, Anne, but I couldn’t imagine her still being around this area. When I went out and followed up with Flint, we found evidence that whoever was there has gone. It looks like there were two people and they lived in a cave to the north of the forest.”
“What makes you think they’ve gone?”
“The cave was booby-trapped and left in a way that tells me whoever the people were, they’ve moved on. I found marks that suggested they’d lived there for some time, possibly months, but the place was left uninhabitable. They would only do that if they didn’t intend to return.”
Jean said, “I’d be worried for the children, Bill, so how can we be confident?”
“I discussed this earlier with Sandy and Flint, and we’ve come up with a workable solution. Every day, one of the three of us will take someone else with us on patrol to the forest and along the inner edge. The patrols will not be done at the same time every day because regularity doesn’t pay off when patrolling—it must be seen as a random walk in the woodland.”
“The forest is out to the east, yeah,” Craig said. “What about other directions of approach?”
Bill smiled. “To the west, we can see clearly across the hillsides for about five miles, and there are only small areas of woodland. To the south, we have the mountainside and the vast expanse of Loch Awe. North, of course, would mean going up and over the mountain. Believe me, nobody is coming down there to visit us.” He paused. “Are we happy with that so far?”
Nodding heads and murmurs of thanks went around the room.
“We’ve already got work started on a broad open perimeter line which runs from high up the mountainside all the way down to the loch. You’ve been removing turf to make bricks for Marie’s building project, but you’ll have noticed it’s being taken to leave a wide path which will be treated as a sort of security garden. We’ll fill the broad line of earth with thistles and other thorny plants which Victoria recommends. A narrow piece of wood to use as a bridge or cover will be left in one area. We’ll place it where it will be easy for us to throw across our security strip when we want to visit the forest.”
Paul said, “We’ve lifted turf most of the way down to the loch, so we’re ready to start planting the thistles.”
“Thank you, Paul,” Bill said. “We’ve already put into practice the precaution of one person in the main work party being armed. This is something we’ll continue, not because we expect a horde of savages to come from the forest or across the loch but because we know there are predators freely roaming in the region.”
A general nodding of heads and murmurs of agreement were the response.
“Now, to Operation Long Haul,” he said and grinned. “It was gratifying last week to see eight volunteers for our biggest mission so far. We said that we will only send out a group of four and that has not changed. Our morning training sessions will continue this week and cease on Saturday. We’ll have a brief gathering on Saturday when we will decide who the team members will be. The leader has already been decided.”
A pin dropping in the cafeteria would have sounded like a clap of thunder.
“I’m honoured to report that I’ll be leading the group, and we had a vote to decide that role. Either Sandy or Flint would have been quite capable, but their particular skills will still be put to good use here. One of them will always be with any major work party on the mountainside, and it will be one of those guys who leads any random forays into the forest.”
Bill paused and looked around the room.
“Whoever else is on the team will be resting and not taking part in any project work on Saturday, and, of course, Sunday is a rest day. We’ll have our final training session with Calvin on Saturday and at midday we’ll announce the team, give you a summary of the mission and give you an opportunity to ask questions. I can confirm that the expedition is still scheduled to set out on Monday morning.”
The people in the room remained silent and attentive.
Calvin took the floor again. “All our routines and projects are working smoothly, so it remains for me to thank you for your attention and we’ll all get back together at noon on Saturday.”
.
Saturday 30th July
The final training session went well and a meeting of all concerned was set up in the cafeteria an hour later. Calvin was in attendance so that he could offer his view if needed on fitness if it were an issue in the final decision.
At noon, Calvin stood in front of the gathering in the cafeteria, waved for silence and grinned as he stepped aside.
Bill stood and looked around the room. “We had a group discussion earlier to decide who should be involved in Operation Long Haul. I also spent some time with others over the past couple of days reviewing our challenge.” He paused. “I can now tell you who the team members will be and I can give you a broad outline of our aims.”
There was silence in the large room, apart from breathing.
“Cherry will be the technician. Victoria will be our advisor on those things we’ll be able to eat to supplement the rations we can afford to carry. Jay-Dee will be our medical representative, but he’s also been chosen because he’s damned accurate with a rifle, and he’s a dab-hand with a fishing line.”
The low hum of quiet conversations started to build up again.
“Des and Tracey will be our mission backroom team in the Control Room. I’d like to thank Tina, Paul and Dawn for listing themselves as volunteers, and Tracey for taking part in the training to help us. Sandy and Flint didn’t want to be counted because they insisted that they were only doing it to help train others for going out into the wilderness. I think they backed down to save them the rigours of living rough.” He turned and smiled at the two younger men.
The rare sound of laughter echoed around the room, and the loudest came from the two soldiers.
“We’d all like to thank Calvin for his continued support in getting us ready.” He turned and nodded to his friend. “Now, what are we aiming to do with Operation Long Haul? Our primary objective is to reach Aviemore, which is one of the highest small towns in the northern part of the Cairngorms National Park. Our secondary objective, which is important and fairly obvious is to get back safely.”
A hand was raised.
“Yes, Craig?”
“How rough will it be, and how far is it, yeah?”
“As I said in the introductory briefing, we’re hoping to use any roadways still intact. We’ll also go cross-country over hilly areas. I’ve set up a detailed route, which Sandy and Flint have both checked over with me. It’s one hundred and twenty miles which will be arduous. This is why we wanted to push our volunteers in the early morning training sessions.”
Around the room, there were sharp intakes of breath.
“We’ve deliberated a lot on different aspects which is why we’ve not given specifics until now. If we can cover between fifteen and twenty miles per day, we’ll be doing well to reach Aviemore inside a week.” He paused. “We hope to locate and attempt to reset some transformers and sub-stations on
our route. Des believes that many will be damaged beyond repair, but the main cable route is split at the mini-installations. What that means is that there are junction boxes. A short cable terminates in a sub-station, but the main cable goes on to pass and join each installation in line. If one installation is beyond use, it doesn’t affect the others.”
Ramona raised a hand. “Are you hoping to establish electricity as you go north?”
Bill grinned. “I’m reading the map and riding shotgun, but I’m hoping Cherry, our resident Sparky will be able to establish electricity as we go north.”
A few people laughed, and notably, Cherry was one of them.
“Des and Tracey will be on regular shifts in the Control Room to watch out for anything going live along our route. We will not have verbal communication, but a little red light on one of the large panels will, in effect, be our way of showing how far we’ve reached. There is also an audible alarm. If things go well, we hope to illuminate several of those lights and have a few alarms buzzing in the Control Room.”
“Do you have other objectives?” Archie said.
“We’ll be mapping, or if you prefer re-mapping the route. We’ll note anything of importance which still exists, from a road to a town. Sightings of wildlife and thriving vegetation will be listed, and we will be watching for any signs of humanity. We’ll also create markers to guide us for our return journey and any future exploits.”
Louise raised a hand. “Do you believe there might be other survivors out there, Bill?”
“I do, Louise. I don’t care if it’s one person or one hundred. Now that we know it’s safe to be outside, we owe it to other survivors to try to make contact. However, as we must appreciate if there are any, they might choose to avoid us.”
Fiona was sitting near the front of the audience looking up at her partner. “If Des or Tracey can tell us how far you’ve reached by the little red lights, how will we know when you’re heading back to us?”
“Our solution isn’t rocket science,” Bill said and laughed, “but we’ve come up with a simple signal. Cherry will switch off a transformer, switch it back on, and repeat that sequence three times with a five-minute pause in between. The audible alarms in the Control Room that I mentioned previously mean that the duty engineer doesn’t have to rely on the lights alone.”
Marie said, “Will we have to visit the Control Room to see the group’s progress?”
“No, we’ll be setting up one of our maps in here against the main wall. The map will have our intended checkpoints highlighted before we go. As we reach them, a committee member will place a marker on the map to show our last known location. Des and Tracey will brief the committee, and they will brief everybody of progress by updating the map daily.”
Anne said, “How long will you stay there?”
Bill smiled. “That’s a very good question, Anne. We are allowing a week to get there, and obviously, a week to make the return trip. Since we don’t know what we’ll find, we don’t have an itinerary for our visit. A provisional idea is if there is anything left up there we’ll use our lights and buzzers method to signal the length of our stay. We will also use the same method to say that we’re on the way back.”
The meeting was concluded and Bill got his team together. He sat at a table with Cherry, Victoria and Jay-Dee.
“There’s no backing out now, guys,” Bill said and grinned. “I hope you’re all suitably excited.”
Cherry said, “I’m looking forward to our journey, Bill, but I hope being a non-swimmer won’t be a burden. Calvin did try to teach me down in the loch, but I’ve never been comfortable with swimming. There might be a loch or a river in the way.”
Victoria said, “You’ll be fine. We’re all in it together.”
“You’ve heard the phrase, Come hell or high water,” Jay-Dee murmured. “I think if we can survive hell, we can deal with high water.”
“Spoken like true team members,” Bill said.
16 - Operation Long Haul
Monday 1st August
Sandy and Flint were in the patio area testing and adjusting the backpacks on the four intrepid explorers. They’d assisted the team in the choices of what to pack, and importantly, what not to pack. Bill was well-versed in what he’d need for the journey. As he pointed out to the others, the best failsafe is to have a second opinion on every aspect of what they were carrying and where. He encouraged his team to unpack and repack their equipment a couple of times the day before and to ask the two soldiers about any last-minute concerns regarding what lay ahead.
Apart from carrying the minimum required, Sandy and Flint advised footwear, clothing and equipment being comfortable. They said it might be necessary to make adjustments when they’d travelled a while. Although every member of the community had been keen on brief trips where they’d be hiking with a pack, this would be different. On the Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning training sessions, everyone on the team had to wear a weighted backpack by way of rehearsal.
The walking would be for longer and possibly mainly on rough surfaces. Combined with this, they would all be carrying more weight than usual in their packs. To ensure they were able to handle a similar load, Bill had loaned his bergen to Cherry. Victoria had borrowed Sandy’s and Jay-Dee had Flint’s. Instead of his large bergen, Bill had adapted two regular backpacks to make into a single large load.
Sandy and Flint stood back to inspect the team from front and back, and top to bottom before they set off.
“You’re all looking good to go,” Sandy said, “oh, and Bill, remember what we said—no running until the second day.”
Only Bill, Sandy and Flint laughed at first. When the others joined in it helped relieve some of the tension.
“We’ll see you guys in a couple of weeks,” Bill said. “Keep busy and stay safe.” Bill glanced at his map and then left the patio, followed by Cherry, Victoria and Jay-Dee who was bringing up the rear and performing the role of Tail-end Charlie.
Bill, Sandy and Flint had first worked with Jay-Dee inside the installation using the inner road to demonstrate how he should perform out in the open. Then they conducted short rehearsals out on the mountainside. By the time he’d done a few practices, he had begun to appreciate that there was more to it than merely being the person at the back.
As he followed the contours of the mountain out to the east, Bill gradually worked down and around the mountainside so that it wasn’t a sudden descent which would jar the joints and cause discomfort. It was an hour into the first phase before the group began the long and slow circumnavigation of Auchcarn and then the team were skirting the perimeter of the forest and heading north.
Bill stopped at a rocky outcrop which was still at a high enough altitude to offer a view of the land they’d be walking through. “Can everybody see the hazy blue and green mountains with white peaks on the horizon?”
“Yes,” the others chorused as they unbuckled their bergens to give their backs a rest.
Cherry said, “It looks like a long way off.”
“It is a long way off,” Bill said, “and that’s how far we aim to go in the first two days.” He turned to see them staring into the distance. “As I said before, if we’re lucky there will be some roadways left which will make life a bit easier.”
Jay-Dee said, “Sandy told us we might be able to see the damaged bridge we’d be crossing.”
“If you look down into the valley to the east, or if you prefer to your right you’ll see where Loch Awe winds up and off to the right around a hill. It’s one of the points where it’s much broader than it used to be. Look at the bend and you’ll see what looks like pylons. Those are the remains of the rail bridge and a little farther is the broken road bridge. That area is also were three villages stood, but now they’re all under water.”
“Do we pass them?” Victoria said, still gazing a few miles away at the tiny speck which was the bridge.
“Yes,” Bill said, “when we cross the bridge we’ll be going between tw
o of the villages. If what the guys told us is still accurate we ought to make good time from there onwards as far as Clifton. That will be our first overnight stop, and it’s about ten miles from the bridge.”
When the small party had enjoyed a few sips of water and a fifteen-minute rest, they got ready to continue. They followed Bill in a gradual descent as he looked for the easiest route down the northern side of Auchcarn. It was two more hours before they got within sight of what had once been a popular route into the Highlands—the A85.
“If you look out to the right halfway across the loch, you’ll see a small object sticking out of the water—that’s the top of a church spire in Lochawe village.”
“Oh, my—” Victoria whispered.
Cherry said, “Do we know if the people had a chance to get away?”
“I prefer not to consider that sort of thing,” Jay-Dee murmured.
“I’m with you, mate,” Bill said. “I like to think that they all got out.”
It was another half hour before they arrived within clear sight of the broken bridge which Sandy had highlighted on the map.
Victoria said, “Bill. Those pylons leaning into the water on both sides—did you say that was a bridge?”
“Yes, that’s what’s left of the railway bridge. The foundations were probably cracked and gave way during an earth tremor. From conversations I’ve had with Harry, it sounds like the nuclear strikes many miles away might have caused earthquakes throughout the mountain ranges. The resulting damage coupled with the tsunami that followed then created the massive inland flooding. Hence, some lochs proliferated, as Loch Awe has done.”
The small group walked on until they arrived at a grassy pathway which led down to a tarmac road. The edges were overgrown, but a narrow strip of clear tarmac existed to either side of the evenly-spaced white line road markings. Walking became much easier on the flat and smooth surface.
