Aftermath: The Complete Collection (Books 1 & 2)

by John Wilkinson

  Mercer arrived in a car, and we all climbed in. He drove us to the town hall, in the centre of the camp. We went through more security, and another area of housing. But these properties were big, expensive looking buildings, ones that would’ve cost a significant amount of money before the war. We had to go through security bollards before we reached the estate, everything about this area looked clean and comfortable, a luxury not afforded to many people anymore. Keenan later informed us that he lived on that estate, alongside Torriero’s most trusted and loyal men. They had kicked out all the residents, mainly elderly, and taken their homes. We went through a last set of security, and onto a small estate, housing around seven large official looking buildings, before pulling up outside one. We climbed out and had a look around, the buildings were impressive, with intricate stone work and huge bay windows. Most of them looked empty, but a few had security guards around them. The town hall had ten stone steps leading off the footpath, in between two large stone pillars. The grey stone walls looked damp, but recently cleaned of dirt and mould. Any windows missing, were boarded up with sheets of plywood, and tarpaulin that flapped in the wind. I noticed a large industrial skip, down the side alley, by the Town Hall. On closer inspection it was full of dirt, stones and rocks. Concrete slabs were placed across the top, broken into pieces, removed from somewhere recently. ‘Get back here’ shouted Keenan, ‘You only go where I tell you to.’

  We walked up the steps to the front doors, where we were checked for weapons again by security, before we entered the building. The inside was clean and well maintained, long corridors and high ceilings. The walls were covered in beautiful paintings and pieces of art, ornaments sat upon carved wooden furniture. Green and other colours were all around us, plants and flowers, vibrant and bursting with colour. I touched a flower petal as I past, which was plastic as I suspected, but they certainly brightened up the place. They must have raided every DIY shop within a twenty mile radius, to obtain this much greenery. Keenan took us along the corridor, with its worn decorative rug, and into the first room on our left. He told us to wait for Mr Torriero there, and shut the door behind himself. The room was a meeting / dining room, with a large dark brown wood table in the centre, and twelve wooden chairs. Rhino and Sergeant Davis sat down as I had a look around the room, that was kitted out as elaborately as the rest of the building. Along the left hand side, and following the back wall was a bookcase from floor to ceiling. There must have been a thousand books, rarely seen in yesterday’s digital age. I pulled a few books out, and blew the dust off them, they included: Last of the Mohicans, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels and all of Shakespeare’s back catalogue. True classics, but amongst which I found Mein Kampf, Hitlers penned book. There were other paintings on the walls, plastic floral displays, and expensive looking cutlery and dining sets. We waited in the meeting room for over forty minutes, wondering what was about to happen. What was Torriero going to look like? Act like? It was fascinating, however our patience was beginning to wear thin when the door swung open, and in strode Torriero, with Keenan following behind. ‘Gentlemen, sit down’ he said, as an old lady followed the pair in. She approached the table with a tray, and placed it in front of us. It consisted of a pot of tea, and five cups, with a selection of biscuits. We were all slightly taken aback by the elderly lady, which was not what we expected to see. She poured five cups of tea, as Keenan sat down on a chair by the door. She smiled at everyone, as she past the tea out, and then left, after a kind acknowledgment from Torriero. I wasn’t sure who she was, she looked a similar age to Torierro, and maybe had a slight look of him, but I could be seeing what I wanted to see.

  ‘Right, we might as well get straight to business’ said Torriero, sitting opposite us at the head of the table. He was an older man than I expected, maybe even in his seventies. He was a bit taller than me, maybe six two, with greasy neck length black hair, swept back off his balding head, and a full black beard, with grey sideburns and a grey streak below his nose and mouth. He spoke with a Scottish accent, but I could hear a poor attempt to cling to his Italian roots somewhere in his dialect. ‘I cannot lie, I’m very disappointed that no generals felt this meeting was important enough to grace it with their presence.’

  ‘I have been given full authority to negotiate on behalf of Camp Blue’ said Sergeant Davis.

  ‘That’s all well and good Officer-’

  ‘Sergeant Davis.’

  ‘That’s all well and good Sergeant Davis, but I feel it’s disrespectful, to say the least. I want you to be under no illusion, if these demands are not met, no agreement will be made today.’

  ‘What are you demands?’

  ‘They’re not my demands, they’re the creatures demands. Make no mistake, a war with the creatures will only end in the elimination of the human race.’

  ‘I don’t understand how you can be so sure about that? They have done fuck all on this planet.’

  ‘I have seen what they’ve done to other planets, and what will happen here.’

  ‘How have you seen it?’

  Torriero paused for a few seconds, before trying to answer Sergeant Davis.

  ‘The creatures have shown me, they have their ways.’

  ‘But how can you trust what they’ve told you? Taking their word.’

  ‘It’s not their word, they’ve shown me. Have you ever wondered why humans haven’t gone back to the moon? I few astronauts walk on it, it’s the most impressive feat humans have ever achieved, and then we stop, happy to float around on a piece of metal in space. NASA Astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, claimed he and other astronauts saw buildings on the dark side of the moon that were not built by us. There were aliens with spaceships far more superior than ours, using technology decades away from us. They are mining the planet, and have been doing for over eighty years, but they’ve nearly finished. When they’re done, they are heading to the nearest planet to plunder its resources, there is no way to escape the inevitable. They plan to mine earth, and when they have finished, there will be nothing left alive.’

  ‘Where does the need for females factor into this?’

  ‘They use them as a host, for their newborn, it’s that simple. Their species has existed millions of years longer than humans, but evolution has robbed them of a way to give birth without death for the female creature in child birth, and their species is close to extinction.’

  ‘So you are prepared to condemn all human females to a horrible, painful death?’

  ‘Everyone is going to die. You, me. We are all going to die.’

  ‘What about the lady that just brought the tea?’ I interrupted. ‘Is she a relation? Are you going to give her to the creatures?’

  ‘I’d rather not, she’s my sister. I suppose it depends if we’re short.’

  At that point, I realised it was futile trying to negotiate with this man, he is deluded and not about to back down, but we still had other discussion points.

  ‘To avoid war, what do you want?’ Sergeant Davis asked, trying to get the faltering negotiations back on track.

  ‘I want the females in your camp.’

  ‘You’re not going to have them.’

  ‘How many have you got?’

  ‘I’m not going to tell you that.’

  ‘I have three hundred females, I need three thousand.’

  ‘You are not going to have them’ repeated Sergeant Davis.

  ‘Then we will go to war. I don’t care if there’s a war, I will risk it to get what I want’ Torriero ranted, his voice becoming more angry.

  ‘We will give you food and water.’

  ‘Fuck you. Why come here if you won’t discuss this properly. Fuck your food and water, we don’t need it. I probably have more than you’ he shouted.

  ‘You must know, we cannot give you any females.’

  ‘Then you will all die in battle, everyone will die.’

  The door swung open and a guard entered, who spoke into Torriero’s ear. It sent him
into a storm of fury, swearing loudly and smashing his cup on the floor.

  ‘You attack us while we are in a meeting? This is completely unacceptable’ he screamed.

  ‘We haven’t attacked you.’

  ‘Who has then?’

  ‘I cannot comment on something I know nothing about. All I know is Camp Blue would not have attacked you, while this meeting was taking place.’

  ‘I need to think’ snapped Torriero, as he stood up and stormed out of room. Keenan followed him, closing the door behind. We were all worried how the talks were unfolding, the negotiations had taken over an hour, and we had got nowhere, Torriero seemed to have a screw loose. Sergeant Davis was very wary of him, and didn’t trust anything he said. He thought war was inevitable, and we should attack soon, giving them less time to prepare. We were ready for war, the longer we waited, the stronger they would become. We were made to wait another twenty minutes, before Torriero and Keenan returned, ready to continue. He seemed to have calmed down, and was ready to compromise, which I didn’t fully believe, with a much milder manner he continued.

  ‘Knowing what I have told you, what is it you want?’

  ‘To avoid war if possible’ Sergeant Davis replied. ‘We shouldn’t be fighting each other, we should be joining forces, and attacking the creatures?’

  ‘Attack what? Where are they? You don’t understand what you’re dealing with.’

  ‘They can be destroyed, everything can be destroyed. They cannot fight on this planet, or they would’ve done, it would be over, and they wouldn’t need you. If we can prove they can be beaten, will you listen?

  ‘I will position myself on the side that will win, whichever that is.’

  ‘Would you give us time to prove the creatures can be beaten?’

  ‘How long do you need?’

  ‘Two months, there’s no rush.’

  ‘You can have two weeks, I can put the creatures off that long, in preparation for war.’

  ‘Two weeks is not long, when orchestrating a battle, when you don’t fully understand the enemy.’

  ‘Ok, ok. I will give you three weeks, I need to produce results soon, but I will give you until after Christmas.’

  ‘Will you refrain from offering your females, until after the battle?’

  ‘Ok.’

  ‘Can I draw this up as a binding agreement?’

  ‘If you wish.’

  ‘Will you honour this treaty? People are suspicious this is not what you want.’

  ‘People?’

  ‘The generals.’

  ‘Well they weren’t concerned enough to turn up.’

  ‘You know why we couldn’t have three generals come to this meeting.’

  Sergeant Davis pulled some paperwork out of his jacket, and laid it out on the table. Torriero looked it over, and signed on the dotted line.

  ‘Now we must celebrate’ announced Torriero. ‘You can stay for a meal before we take you back to Camp. We will feast like kings, the best meal you’ve had since before the attack. He seemed happy and excited about the agreement, but I couldn’t completely trust him, knowing what I know about him, how ruthless he has been, trusting his word will take a leap of faith. Torriero disappeared after the meeting had been concluded, and Keenan took us for a tour of the headquarters. We were also introduced to a few more of Torriero’s senior men, working in the headquarters. Names I remember include Watt, Harper, Fox, Patel and Adams, all important figures in any possible battle. It was hard to gauge how big an operation he was running here, it looked big, but I wasn’t sure if he was making it look bigger than it was for our benefit. The most interesting room we were taken to was what Keenan described as ‘The War Room.’ It took up half the second floor, and saw the most amount of activity. There were photographs of Camp Blue pinned up on the walls, including security bases, look out points, and areas within the camp. Some photos looked like they’d been taken from within the camp, a possible infiltration, but then the information written on other photographs was completely wrong. On one it claimed a building was being used to house all the camps females, like they were cattle, when in reality all the females of Camp Blue were living with their respected families in the hotel. But even these photographs could have been planted for our benefit, to make us believe they didn’t know what was going on, we really couldn’t be sure. Back on the first floor, Keenan led us into the main hall, where we found most were already sat, waiting for their dinner. There was maybe fifty people in the large room, all talking, laughing and a drinking. The room was the most lavish in the building, with more paintings on the walls and a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling. There were five large rectangular tables, stretching horizontally from one side on the room to the other, with a walkway around them, by the walls. The tables were covered with white table cloths, and laid out with plates and cutlery. There were bottles of red and white wine with glasses in each place, which were already open on most tables, and were being enjoyed. We made our way to the left, around the tables towards the front, where Keenan showed us to our place. We were sat at the head table, that faced the room and other tables, with a two metre gap between them. Our table was slightly raised on a step, making us look even more on show. ‘We aren’t on the top table are we?’ I asked Keenan, as we approached our place. ‘You’re our guests’ said Torriero, standing up from his place at the centre of the table. ‘Sit yourselves down.’

  We took our places, and Sergeant Davis poured the wine. Keenan, noticing I didn’t take any wine, asked if I wanted anything else. I’ve never liked wine, everyone told me I would when I got older, but I never did. A couple of bottles of beer were brought over for me, ‘Lakeland Lager,’ wet and cold. There were nine of us sat at the main table, from right to left, Mercer, myself, Sergeant Davis, Rhino, Keenan, Torriero, Blake, and a couple of other men we had seen, but not been introduced to. Mercer mentioned the head chef from a michelin starred restaurant, ‘The Box Tree’ at Ilkley, had been convinced to come and work for Mr Torriero, and now runs the kitchen, so we should expect great things. When the first course came, it was a lovely mushroom and roasted chestnut risotto. More females appeared waiting on the room, which I found encouraging, not locked away and mistreated, although I got the feeling they were relatives of some in the room, from a few looks I saw. I finished off my starter as the main courses arrived, which consisted of pig shoulder, roasted for twelve hours, hand cut chunky chips, carrots and peas with a jug of gravy, that was passed around the table. The pig arrived on a large silver platter, with a carving knife and fork. The food was passed out and we all tucked in, it was indeed the nicest meal I had eaten since the attack. I chatted to Mercer, who was sat next to me, about how he had found himself working for Torriero. He looked a little younger than Keenan, but said he had been within Torriero’s group for over ten years. He had left school with no qualifications, and ended up a petty criminal, stealing enough food to live on the streets of Edinburgh. Torriero’s men had picked him up, and given him somewhere to stay. In return he would do little jobs for them, he worked his way up the organisation, describing it almost like a job. But it had cost him his relationship with his family, who had disowned him. He seemed remorseful for that, talking about his mum and dad with affection. When the poached pears in sauce arrived, I made the excuse I was full, but I’ve never liked pears either. I looked along the table at everyone’s plates, Sergeant Davis hadn’t been as hungry as Rhino, who had typically eaten everything. The rumble of voices came to a stop, as Torriero stood up from his seat, hitting his wine glass with a knife. ‘I would like to make a short speech’ he said, making his way around the table, and stepping down onto the main floor. He followed the table until he was facing us, put his glass and knife on the table, and turned to face his men. ‘I would like to thank Camp Blue for sending us three soldiers’ he continued. ‘So we could finalise an agreement that will see no further fighting until after Christmas. And that’s something to celebrate, don’t you agree?’

  The men che
ered, and banged their bottles on the table, until he calmed them down to continue. ‘But as you know I’ve told you all about my distrust of the army, and here is the reason why. I believe, in fact I know, this camp is being spied on, from someone sent by Camp Blue. The atmosphere took a sudden change, as his men started booing and hissing at us. It felt uncomfortable, and it wasn’t going to get any better.

  ‘Sergeant Davis’ continued Torriero. ‘It appears we have a spy in the room.’ He approached the table again, as the room behind him started chanting ‘I want you to identify him for me please’ shouted Torriero, over the increasing noise.

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ replied Sergeant Davis. Torriero pulled a hand gun out of his pocket, and shot Sergeant Davis through the head at point blank range. His body rocked back and then slumped forward, blood covering the wall behind us. Everything around me blurred as I went into shock, my eyesight drained from my head. I could hear muffled voices, and colour flashing around me. Suddenly I snapped back into the room, Rhino was standing up, having taken half the table with him. Torriero’s gun was pointing at his head, until he sat back down.

  ‘Now you know how serious I am?’

  Rhino nodded his head, having a quick glance at me, his eyes worried and twitchy.

  ‘I will ask you the same question, and I hope you think about your response carefully. Who is the Camp Blue spy?’

  Nervously Rhino answered, his voice breaking with emotion.

  ‘The identity of the spy was classified, the generals didn’t tell us who he was.’

  I turned my head away as a gunshot rang out, and I heard the distinctive sound of blood spraying against the wall, and his body hitting the floor.