Hyde had no choice but to listen to whatever spewed from his mouth. She propped herself up on her elbows, which proved awkward with the barrel of the gun still pressed against her skin. She glanced over at her opposite number, who was beginning to stir.
“Corporal, glad you could join us—how do you feel, boy?” Judd asked with the minutest hint of concern. “Do you think you can stay with me long enough to restrain Corporal Hyde?” Judd handed the dazed Corporal Stevens a length of rope that he had stuffed in the side pocket of his olive-green cargo trousers. Stevens’ reluctance was clear as he took the rope from Judd and inched his way up Hyde’s body. He pushed her back to the ground, straddling her as she struggled to keep her hands from her counterpart’s grasp. She could feel the adrenalin kicking in hard again as Stevens pulled her hands in front of her and began to tie them. The strength to retaliate swelled within her but before she could act, the so-called captain snapped, “Behind her back.”
Stevens flipped her onto her stomach and ripped her hands behind her back. Then, sitting across the tops of her legs to make sure she couldn’t move, he tied the rope tight around her wrists. The side of Hyde’s face was pressed into the dirt by Stevens’ heavy hand. He whispered in her ear. It was barely audible, but she thought he said, “Do as you are told and you won’t get hurt.”
Given the situation Hyde found herself in, it was sound advice. Her compliance was not only motivated by the tight ropes that bound her wrists but also the black eye of the rifle pointing at her face. Considering Judd’s malevolent eyes, she sensed he would use the gun without hesitation. A cold shiver ran down her spine as Stevens applied more pressure to the side of her head. All she could do was grit her teeth and wait.
For the second time in a week she had let her guard down and allowed herself to get captured. Was there no end to her stupidity? Once again, she was at the mercy of animals, and all she could do was wait as the uncertainty of her future hit home.
“Sit her up; I want her to look at me while I’m talking,” Judd ordered, clearly noticing that Hyde’s mind wasn’t focussed on his bullshit.
The corporal removed his hand from her head and pushed himself up using her spine for leverage.
“Get the fuck off me!” she cried out.
He clipped the side of Hyde’s head and flipped her over. She considered Stevens’ sallow and pitted face with disgust, then spat on him as he drew closer to her. With a sneer and a narrowing of the eyes, he slapped her hard across the left cheek, grabbed the lapels of her smock and pulled her upright, holding her firmly so she didn’t fall back down.
“Now that you have quite finished, are you ready to listen to what I have to say?” Judd questioned as he stared at her.
She could tell he was itching to gag her, but she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of rendering her completely helpless. “I’m listening,” she said, eyeing the captain. “Just don’t expect me to believe anything that comes out of your gob.”
Stevens shuffled alongside Hyde and wrapped his hand around her mouth from behind.
“No more talking,” he whispered in her ear. “Just listen.”
Hyde stared at the captain and waited for him to speak. She had no real interest in what he was about to say, but he continued anyway.
“Firstly, let me start by saying — you’re trespassing.” Judd sounded almost resentful. “This is our dugout.” He paused thoughtfully for a second or two before speaking again.
“You asked earlier, why we were here? It’s not through choice.” His manner began to change. He almost sounded regretful. “We lost everything during our mission, our equipment, most of our unit— everything.” Judd hung his head.
Hyde found herself feeling sympathy for him, knowing exactly where he was coming from. She tried to push her way through Stevens’ hand to say something, but he would not relinquish her mouth.
“Remove your hand,” Judd said calmly. “Let her speak.”
“I was part of a team sent here to look for survivors, but we found ourselves at the mercy of cavers—” Judd had risen his hand as a gesture to stop talking. She stopped immediately and just stared at him.
“You’re part of the second wave?” Judd asked curiously.
“Yes sir, I am,” she looked down. “Or should I say, I was.” Looking up again, she gazed at the captain through the glaze of tears that had welled up in her eyes. “I’m the only survivor of my unit, sir.”
Judd shuffled over to her and place a hand on her cheek, wiping away a solitary tear with his thumb. He turned to Stevens and gestured for him to untie her.
“I’m sorry I had to do that. It was just a precaution.” Hyde rubbed her wrists as the rope had cut into her skin. “I might rue my decision, but I really want to trust you, soldier. We are one and the same, you and I — both victims.”
Nodding in agreement, she thought about her own situation and the one the captain had described, they were indeed, one and the same.
“We need to stick together from now on.” Judd took hold of the bergen and began to open it. “What do you have by way of weaponry?”
Hyde took the bag from him and emptied out the contents.
“I have two Claymores and five clips of ammo for the SA80, sir.” She reluctantly laid everything out in front of him. His eyes widened, then he grinned with obvious satisfaction.
“These will do, corporal.” He placed his hand on hers. The heat of his touch radiated through her body as he gave her a look of reassurance. “We need to think about moving out soon.”
Judd shuffled backwards toward the tarpaulin door and peeked through a gap in the side. A spray of water hit his face.
“It’s raining. We’ll stay until it dies down.”
The captain turned away from the tarpaulin. “Corporal Hyde, I notice you have ration packs. Would you care to share them? Corporal Stevens and I haven’t eaten properly in days: scraps mainly.”
Hyde didn’t hesitate to reach into the bergen and pull out three corned beef hash foil ration packs and handed one to each of them.
“Thank you,” Judd said with a grateful nod.
“Yeah, thanks.” Stevens sounded indifferent.
~
After their meagre meal, the trio of soldiers sat and talked as they waited for the rain to ease. Thankfully, Hyde had made a good job of securing the tarp before the heavy stuff started to fall, as there was nothing worse than sitting around in the damp.
“Do you think we will ever find any real survivors out here?” she asked.
Judd glanced down at the floor and then back up at her. “Who knows, Hyde? Who knows?”
Corporal Stevens interjected. “We’ve been searching for weeks, but all we’ve found is death and destruction, not to mention a few encounters with cavers.”
“We lost the rest of our unit to the cavers, and if it weren’t for you, we would’ve been goners too,” Judd almost sounded grateful.
Stevens’ body language still screamed distrust. Hyde couldn’t help wondering if there was something else going on, something she was never going to be told. Suspicion laid heavily on her chest, making it hard to breathe. What if they are lying to me? Lulling me into a false sense of security?
She recalled the tenseness of a few hours ago, how she feared for her life. In hindsight, maybe pointing her rifle at Judd and forcing his hand hadn’t been such a good idea. She fully understood why he had to restrain her, remembering the frustration and mistrust that she felt for them. The same feelings they probably had for her at the time. But it was all in the past and no bridges had been burnt.
Trust grew gradually over the hours until the three were working on ways to get back to their barracks.
~
The rain finally eased off and the mid-morning sun began to filter through the cracks in the clouds. Hyde poked her head out of the tarpaulin, then gave her new colleagues a single nod. She gathered the bergen and refilled it with the rations, clips and claymores she had offloaded earlier.
“Hyde, where are your barracks?” Judd asked.
“London, sir, just beyond Buckingham Palace,” she answered. “Why do you ask?”
Judd said, “We need to get you back to your barracks safely.”
“What about you, sir? Where are your barracks? Maybe yours are closer?”
Judd scowled but didn’t answer. She didn’t push the issue. Maybe, there wasn’t a barracks for him to return to.
With that, they were ready to head toward the uncertainty of what lay ahead.
CHAPTER 5
The trio made it back through the gulch, remaining wary of their surroundings. To everyone’s relief, their journey was a smooth one. Hyde took the lead with the rifle, Corporal Stevens took the rear with the bagful of equipment. The two corporals were essentially their senior officer’s shields as protocol demanded. A veil of darkness swept over them as rain-filled clouds developed high above their heads.
Judd tapped Hyde on the shoulder. “There looks to be another storm brewing. I think we need to take cover for a while. Did I see more tarps in your bag?”
She glanced over her shoulder, her rifle firmly against her chest, and nodded in reply.
“Good, let’s find somewhere suitable to bed down.”
The wind had picked up, and there was a noticeable chill in the air. Hyde flung her rifle over her shoulder and buttoned her smock up to the top, burying her chin into it. Judd took the lead but she was still in charge of the SA80. Looking at the confidence radiating from the captain, she followed without question. Corporal Stevens sidled up beside her.
“Another two clicks then we’ll be out of the oncoming storm,” Judd informed them as he hurried forward. “There’s an uninhabited cave north of here.”
~
Judd inhaled deeply, arched his back and stopped dead in his tracks, holding up his right hand. Both Stevens and Hyde froze behind him. His left hand indicated a small cleft in the rock. Recalling her last encounter in a cave paralysed Hyde with fear. She froze to the spot.
“You have nothing to worry about, corporal, I can promise you that,” Judd assured her.
Hyde nodded and forced one foot in front of the other until she had entered the dark, cavernous void. The sound of whirling preceded a faint light as Judd activated a small wind-up torch. Dampness greeted the soldiers as they entered. The sound of running water grew louder the deeper into the cave they travelled. They entered a chamber filled with stalactites and stalagmites, and a small running spring. Upon seeing the beautiful fixtures, Hyde shuddered. What will kill me first? The cavers or the stalactites hanging above my head? Tremors set in her limbs, the rifle shook in her hands, as her fear took hold. The walls seemed to be caving in. Judd heard her accelerated, erratic breathing and turned around, shining the torch on her, so she couldn’t see the look of disapproval that was almost certainly etched on his face.
“Calm yourself,” he said, his voice steady but firm. “You are a soldier in the King’s army, conduct yourself as such.”
His tone and words helped bring her back from the brink. What would her father say if he saw her shaking like this? Mentally, she slapped herself several times across the face. It didn’t help that the wind-up torch emanated very little light.
“Sir, when are we going to stop?” Hyde asked, hating the slight tremor in her voice.
Something touched her shoulder and she jumped, almost firing her gun. Stevens grinned at her. “What’s the matter, Hyde? Afraid of the dark?”
Scowling, she pushed him away. ‘Fuck off, will you?’
He stumbled backwards, narrowly avoiding a protruding stalagmite.
“The pair of you, pack it in,” Judd said in an aggravated whisper. “You are supposed to be responsible adults—I suggest you start acting like it.”
Hyde felt like a naughty school girl getting a thorough telling off. A moment of silence ensued, then Judd spoke again, his voice calmer than before.
“We stop there for the night.” He pointed in a north-westerly direction before hurrying over to their temporary resting area. Both corporals followed.
~
The long day had taken its toll on the threesome. Eyes were getting heavy, and tempers were fraying. There was growing tension between Hyde and Stevens. The unbreakable silence that had manifested during their mealtime bothered her more than Stevens being an arse. No one attempted conversation, each was lost in their own thoughts. They simply ate, drank their iodine-treated water and avoided looking at each other.
The only thought swirling inside Hyde’s head was ‘Can I trust either of them?’ Even though Judd had made a good case for himself back at the dugout, something still wasn’t sitting right with her. She needed to bury her insecurities about them and rest. No longer able to keep her eyes open, she succumbed to sleep.
~
Stevens wandered over to the spring to get a drink, while Judd stared at Hyde writhing and moaning in her sleep. He looked upon her beautiful face contorting in despair, certain that a nightmare was tormenting her. Judd chose not to wake her. He much preferred to revel in her restlessness and waited with almost voracious anticipation for something to happen, maybe a scream to heighten his arousal.
Stevens came back, and perched his backside on a stalagmite stump and looked at the captain watching Hyde, a strange little smile playing on his face.
“What are we going to do with her, sir?” Stevens whispered.
Judd turned his head and threw a piercing, almost penetrating stare in the corporal’s direction. Stevens froze; his eyes widened in anticipation.
“We’re not going to do anything with her,” Judd whispered back. “We’re going to leave her here. She’s too much of a liability, I mean, look at her.”
Stevens turned to watch the show, but seemed to have no interest in whether she was having a nightmare or not. “Fuck this, I’m going to sleep,” Stevens mumbled as he slumped to the ground.
Judd said nothing as he remained in his trance-like state, gawking at Hyde.
Though Stevens slept, Judd hadn’t got a wink of sleep. He continued to watch Hyde’s pale face twist in a painful grimace under the weak golden light of the wind-up torch. He turned to Stevens and started to jostle him.
“Wake up. We need to go before she wakes,” he whispered, covering the corporal’s mouth with the palm of his hand to prevent him from making a sound. “Grab the bag and rifle.”
Eyes on Hyde, Stevens crept over to the bergen and grabbed it by the straps, then he reached over for the SA80, which was lying within inches of her body. Still trapped in her nightmare, she tossed and moaned. As soon as his fingers had the weapon he retreated; his dark eyes never leaving Hyde’s pale face. With everything in hand, he made his way back over to Judd and handed him the weapon before swinging the bergen on his shoulders. With no qualms about leaving Hyde alone, the two men exchanged a glance and silently made their way toward the exit of the cave, never once looking back.
~
Hyde woke up sweating, shaking and panic stricken as she waded out from the depths of her nightmare. She immediately embraced the darkness that enveloped her—a welcome reprieve from the tormented images her mind had conjured.
“Captain Judd? Stevens?” she whispered as she frantically groped around for her rifle. All her fingers found were small puddles of water and stones. Real panic set in when she felt her way towards where she’d last seen her bag. Her breathing became heavier, more erratic, as she realised it had been taken as well. Without her weapon, food or water, she was a sitting duck. Sweat pooled to the surface as a wave of tears began flowing freely. I’ve been shafted! I should’ve known better than to trust either of them!
Hard as it was, Hyde knew she had to move on. She needed to survive the day. She rose to her feet, her heart beating out of her chest, her nerves shattered. Picking up her smock as she went, she rubbed the tears of anger from her face and screamed, and her fury echoed throughout the cave.
For the first time since her encounter with cavers, she feared
what the future held. Crumbling to her knees, every regret, every ounce of pain and suffering, bubbled to the surface. She must’ve appeared so gullible to them, so stupid. She exhaled weakness and inhaled fortitude, leaving someone different kneeling alone in the encompassing darkness. There was no way she was letting them get away with it. With no weapons, all she could employ to exact revenge on those bastards was the hand-to-hand combat skills she’d learned during her fourteen weeks basic training at Pirbright. If she could kill them with her bare hands, she would do so without hesitation. But the prospect of starving to death in the forefront of her mind left the question: was it worth pursuing them?
CHAPTER 6
Hyde’s body began to convulse, and a new set of tears gushed from her eyes. A mixture of fear, anger and resentment washed over her as she thought about what Judd and Stevens had done. Visibility in the cave was almost down to zero, with only a faint trickle of light to guide the way. Feeling her way across the dirt, Catherine could only hope that the light led to an exit. The stalagmites and stalactites were a concern as she inched forward, her toes probing the ground as she went. The farther she travelled, the brighter the light became. A sense of relief countered her panic-stricken thoughts, allowing her to breathe.
The lighter it got, the quicker she moved. Much like the last time she’d been trapped in a cave, she longed to breathe crisp, clean air again. Next time, she was going to bloody well trust her instincts, both about people and caves. Her eyes widened in anticipation as the circle of light got big enough to walk through. This is it! The last few steps, and I’ll be free.
Relief finally came in the form of a soft, cold breeze. Eyes closed, she flung her head back and took a satisfying breath, then slowly let it escape her mouth. After absorbing the moment, she opened her eyes and began to assess her surroundings, trying to remember the direction from which she’d come. Her instinct told her East.
~
“Fuck! I’ve passed that bloody rock five times,” she growled under her breath. “I’m going around in fucking circles,” Without the compass, and with the sun hidden by clouds, it was useless. As frustration mounted, her chest felt heavier, her breathing became erratic. She was no closer to getting to safety than she’d been upon exiting the cave, and daylight was diminishing at an alarming rate. The early evening chill began to bite, giving her goose bumps all over.
Only the Few (Only The Few Book 1) Page 4
