Walking to the front I sat on a pew and put my head in my hands, I must have sat like that for a while because I heard a noise from the back of the small church and Rees said “Oh man!”
“Yeah, this is probably the most fucked up thing I have seen yet. A man of the cloth lost his faith and ended taking these people with him.” I said.
“Come on let’s cut them down and get them covered.” Rees said.
It took us an hour or more to cut them down and cover the bodies. We worked in silence and tried to be as careful with the bodies as much as we could. When we were done, we closed the door to the church. I had the intention to come back at a later time and either bury the dead or to burn it to the ground. I mean I couldn’t think of a more haunted building.
We walked down to the shop and went inside. Simon’s corpse was still where it had fallen. Rees and I took each end and carried it outside and dumped it on the pavement. We started to look at the food on the shelves and pulled off our packs and started to load up on the canned and dried goods. I made note of there being a couple of large dry dog food bags near the counter. Was I going to have to lug one of them back to the castle? (Not fucking likely, I’ll get Rees to bring the Juke down.)
We had just finished filling our packs when we heard engines coming. I looked at Rees and he nodded and ran to the other side of the road and knelt in the doorway of a house and I went to the doorway of the shop and knelt down. This way we would have a cross fire and wouldn’t end up shooting each other. I watched the end of the street where it turned in between the houses. I checked to make sure I had a round in my chamber and the safety was turned off. Aiming at the corner you could probably see the reaction on my face when the Land Rover came round the corner followed by a small car. I stood and waved and Becky flashed her lights and pulled to a stop beside the shop. It was only when we were certain that it was our team that Rees appeared from the doorway across the road.
I could see Becky and Mary in the front and Christine holding on to a large box in the back like her life depended on it. Mary wound the window down and I asked “Where’s Marc?”
“Oh, he’s in the car behind us with a couple of new people that we rescued from a small shop.” She said.
I leaned out to look at the car behind them and I could see my idiot brother sat in the passenger seat next to a middle aged man. I could see a shape sat slumped behind Marc. From what I could see it was a young man, but because of it starting to get dark I couldn’t make out much.
“Can you guys take our packs and a couple of bags of dog food back to the castle?” I asked.
“Not a problem.” She said.
Rees and I loaded our packs and we put all the bags of dog food in the back of the Land Rover and waved them off.
We stood watching those head toward the castle and Rees said “You know another bloke won’t hurt.”
“Yep! Let’s get back and if we take our time, we won’t have to help with the unloading.” I said smiling.
“That’s why you let them take everything and didn’t get a lift back!” He said.
“Watch and learn young padawan, watch and learn” I said and started my slow walk back to the castle.
Rees just shook his head and followed.
As we walked the sky got darker and the stars started to appear. I looked up and wondered how long, if at all the human race might recover from this. Mind you saying that, with me being who I am who wants to live forever. Mainly because, and this may come as a shock, I don’t ever want to die. I have this small fear of death and at the best of times, it gnaws at me and at the worst of times I can be paralyzed by it. Now you’re thinking all the time I put myself in danger and I have this bloody great elephant in the room. Yeah, well you see I have this other side to me that just won’t let anyone I know or love get hurt. Hence, I suck it up and get on with the job at hand.
We got to the castle just as Marc and Becky were taking the last of the supplies up the steps.
“That doesn’t surprise me, you two turning up when all the work is done. Yer fuckers!” shouted Marc.
Rees and I looked at each other and at the same time flipped him off. Becky just laughed and kept on walking up the steps. We followed up and when we got to the top closed the gate and with great hardship (yeah, right!) lifted the bar up into the recesses in the wall. With the gate locked we clicked the safety’s back on and walked up the slope to the small courtyard. When we had to stop and do a double take. Derek had not only managed to get the framework done for the small arms range, but had also managed to fill the backstop with soil.
“I have to admit that when that man says he will do something he does it.” I said.
“That he does mate.” Rees said nodding.
We walked through the castle and out the back into the open courtyard. I saw people moving around in the café and gift shop, so we headed over and walked inside. All the fixtures and fittings that were in the gift shop had gone and in one corner was a desk with a computer on it. In the center of the room was what looked like the couch and chairs from the apartment upstairs? But the thing that caught our attention was the fifty inch flat screen TV, Xbox one, PS4 and assorted games. That Derek’s two girls and the young man that I had seen in the car were going through. I walked into the café to see everyone starting to sit down for the evening meal. Rees pushed past and went to sit next to Mary and looked about for Maddie. Becky stood up and waved at the man I had seen driving the car over. He was about five feet eight, quite stocky, shoulder length gray hair and a short black going gray beard. He was wearing Black Sabbath tshirt, jeans and black boots.
“Jay, this is Jacob and the young lad here is his son Chris.”
I turned to see the young man come in to stand beside his dad, he must have come up to his dad’s shoulder and was skinny. He had dark brown, almost black hair, slightly pockmarked skin and a thin face. He wasn’t stocky like his father, but skinny, he was wearing jeans, a yellow tshirt and trainers.
I turned to hold out my hand and said “Hi, nice to meet you!”
He took my hand with a warm and friendly grip, “Thank you for everything. If your friends hadn’t turned up when they did, I don’t know what would have happened to us.”
“Jay, I am going to get cleaned up and after you talk to Jacob, I tell you what happened today.” Becky said.
“Ok, will talk to you later on.” I said.
I lead Jacob and his son to some seats near to the stairs and asked them to sit down.
“So Becky found you both?” I asked.
“Yeah, we had been working our way up from Newcastle and got stuck in the shop they found us in. We had those things banging on the door to the stockroom for the last three days. It was only by chance that the door was to a food store.”
“So what made you move up from Newcastle?”
“I have, well suppose I had a caravan up at Haggerston Castle. We were heading that way and needed to get some supplies so we stopped at the shop. There was nothing or anyone nearby so we went in and started to collect things. It was quiet and well Chris had started to take things out to the car. He rushed back in and said that he had heard something.”
“Let me guess a kind of keening noise?” I asked.
“Yeah, that’s it mister.” Chris said.
“It’s Jay and not mister, go on Jacob.” I replied.
“Well, we had heard that noise and knew that it had something to do with them things so we ran to the back of the shop to try and hide. But we must have heard us or something and they followed us inside. We only managed to get the door closed when the first slammed into the door. After that we were stuck there till Becky and her group found us in there.”
“That noise you heard was the noise they make when they hunt. The other thing is they have a good sense of smell so it probably wasn’t just the noise you made that brought them to you.” I said.
“You look like you have all been here for a long time.” Jacob said.
I laughed “
You would think by the way things look, but no we have only been here a short while a few days or so. It’s just we have some very good people that we have managed to gather as we moved up this way.”
I went on for the next ten or twenty minutes telling Jacob and his son about how we had fled from Peterlee to the cottage and then got chased out of there by the Hillbillies. With us ending up here at the castle and the little run in with the psycho Simon.
“Jesus, you haven’t stopped have you?” Jacob said.
“Well, like my big friend over there says...” I pointed at Rees “we aren’t moving on from here. This is home now, we have a secure place and it can be defended if needs be.” I said.
“Well, if you don’t mind could an old fart and his son stay?” He asked.
“If you weren’t welcome Jacob, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Becky would have helped you out of your jam and left you to your own devices.” I replied.
He reached over the table and shook my hand again and said “Thank you.”
“Ok just go and get some food and a hot drink for you and your boy.” I said standing.
Walking into the kitchen I saw Maddie stood at a chopping board cutting something up. I walked over and wrapped my arms around her waist; lifting her hair away from her neck I kissed it gently.
“Hi babe, you have a good day?” She asked leaning back into me.
“Not bad the island hasn’t got any Reapers as far as Rees and I could find.” I replied.
“That’s great did you get some food for Ghost?”
“Yeah the store had three big bags that should last a couple of weeks.” I replied.
“Did you get to talk to the new people? Becky says they are good folks, but I wanted to hear what you had to say.”
“Jacob and his son Chris seem to be nice enough, only time will tell what kind of people they are.” I said.
“Well, get out of here I am cooking and dinner should be ready in about ten minutes.” She said.
I gave her a parting kiss and walked back out into the café. Rees was having a deep conversation with Mary and I could see her smile every now and again. That made me smile; I had never seen Rees chase after a woman so much. Mind you, to tell the truth this might have been the first time since I have known him that he has actively done it. Usually you would see him with a different woman each week in the clubs when we were in the Army. But now looking at him and the way he looked at Mary, apart from her being the only single female old enough. I think he may have fallen for her; I would have to talk to Maddie she would know. I mean after all she is our mother of sorts and the soul of the group.
Chapter Three
I went to the urns and got my usual tea and sat down to watch people talk and started to feel a sense of community. Derek came in with Christine they looked round the room and Derek saw me and headed over with Christine in tow.
“Hi Jay, is Maddie still making dinner?” She asked.
“Yeah, she’s still in there.” I replied.
“I’ll go give her a hand.” With that she gave Derek a small peck on the cheek and went into the kitchen.
“Is it ok to sit down?” Derek asked.
“Help yourself. Derek, I was surprised to see how much of the pistol range you got done!” I said.
He pulled out a chair and sat down like he was exhausted and said “I did as much as I could today, and getting the soil for what do you call it, the backstop? That took the longest the rest is just a timber frame to hold it back.”
“Yes, it’s called a backstop. You didn’t have to rush getting set up so quickly.” I replied.
He lifted a hand to rub the side of his face and sighed.
“Look, Derek you should have taken your time we didn’t expect you to have anything finished for at least a few days. We don’t expect anyone to push themselves to the point of exhaustion. How about you take the day off tomorrow, sleep in and lounge round.” I said.
“Is that going to be a problem?” He said.
“Of course it isn’t going to be a problem. I am sure we can handle things without you for a day.” I said with a smile.
He nodded, got up and moved off to talk with Jacob and his son.
Marc came bounding down the stairs with a grin on his face with wet hair and Becky came down after him at a statelier pace. I did notice that she had her hair tied up and was still wet. I covered my mouth with my hand and smiled. (Yeah, dirty thoughts abound, but he is my brother and that’s just wrong.)
Becky came over and sat down in the chair that Derek had just left. She looked at me and said “So find anything today?”
I told her about the church and the bodies, her face went white and then you could see hardness in her eyes. I couldn’t blame her that was the second time since this all began that we saw something like that. It still didn’t make what happened any more palatable. In society we had gone to members of the cloth of guidance and when society collapsed and people went to them and asked for that guidance they led them in the wrong direction.
“So apart from that we checked on the boat that Simon had used, it’s grounded and the hull is probably fucked.” I said finishing off.
“Well, you know we had a good run and came back with more survivors, but I guess you want to know more than just that?” She said smiling.
“It would be nice.” I said.
“Funny. Anyway, we left here and managed to get across the causeway. There were a few wrecked and stalled cars on the way to Belford, but we made good time and got there fairly quickly. There was a garden shop on the outskirts that we had a look in for the netting I wanted. We couldn’t see anything from the Land Rover so we got out and checked the outside of the building and found nothing, but when we entered the smell was there. We split up to check the shop floor and found nothing out of the ordinary. I did find more seeds and the netting, but I suppose the smell was getting on Marc’s nerves and he went into the store room and came straight back out and threw up.
I went inside with Christine and left Mary trying to help Marc catch his breath. In the storage room there was a pile of dead bodies in the corner near the roller shutter door. There must have been about twenty or thirty bodies piled up. Some had been partially eaten; there was a puddle of dry brown blood that must have covered about half the floor. I have to admit that Christine held her own and waited till we were back outside before chucking up, I just let loose in there.
We grabbed the stuff we had collected and ran for the Land Rover. I and Christine did the girly thing and cried for about ten minutes. Jay there was kids in that pile as well as adults of all ages.” She stopped and shook her head before carrying on. (I couldn’t blame her that would have had me chucking up.)
“I think that is why we never see any bodies; the Reapers are stockpiling them as a food source. Any way we can talk about that later on.” I said.
“We left the garden center and headed into the town. Looking for the supplies we wanted, there was a Boots pharmacy so Mary and I went in. We waited just inside the doors to make sure we were alone, when we heard nothing we split up. I went for the over the counter medicines and Mary went to find some girl stuff and some razors and things for you men. I managed to get a lot of cough, cold and other simple things. Also got all the bandages that were on the shelves, knowing you we would need them.
I heard some scratching coming from the back of the shop and told Mary that I had everything that we needed for the minute and we backed out before anything could come at us.
When we left the Boots, Marc said that he could see an electronics place just down the road on the right hand side. Mary and I put our haul in the back of the Land Rover and I climbed in the front and we drove down the street. Stopping in front of the shop we could see that the door had been ripped from its hinges. Marc got out and said that he was going to check inside; up till now we had been lucky and not seen a single Reaper. I say that because my fool of a boyfriend tumbled out the shop with a child Reaper on his rucksack. I t
hink we were all shocked because it was a kid, I mean there has to be some, but to see one up close was disturbing. Next thing I know there is a blur of brown, a crack like a cricket bat hitting a ball and the kid is literally flying off Marc’s back. Christine is holding your cricket bat like she knew exactly what she was doing. Anyway the kid hit the front window of the shop and shattered the glass and managed to slice his neck in half. His head hung on by a shred of skin and muscle that black blood seemed to just pump out for his neck onto the pavement, as his body slumped down. It was just pitiful Jay, his skin was that pale gray and the hate in his eyes was scary. But the thing was he couldn’t have been more than five or six, that’s just wrong on all levels.” She sighed, and then carries on.
We got Marc off the floor and checked him over, his pack was shredded but he hadn’t got cut or bit. He said he was fine and that the little shit had been hiding behind the counter and he hadn’t seen him. Mary went inside with him and they came out with the TV and then went back for the other stuff. We thought that we had alerted the Reapers for at least a couple of miles and it might be a good idea to come home.
So we headed down the road and were about to turn round and come home when we saw the shop with two Reapers hanging about outside, making that keening sound, they do when they are hunting. It was Mary that said if they were so intent on what was inside the shop to ignore us then there must be survivors inside. I agreed, we parked about twenty meters away and climbed out. I was the only one with the rifle, Mary and Marc had shotguns and like I said Christine had your cricket bat. I said that I would take one of them out from the Land Rover and when the other came at us for either Marc or Mary to kill it. The first part went quite well, I managed to get off the shot and it took the Reaper in the throat and it went down. The other whipped its head round and came pelting toward us. Just as Mary was going to take her shot another came out the shop and went for Marc.
Mary fired and her shot hit the nearest Reaper in the stomach and groin and it went flying back. Marc had to move to the side and I thought it was so that he wouldn’t hit anyone. But Oh no! Your idiot brother pulls his sword, turns to the side with it raised. The Reaper leaps straight at him and Marc steps in, I couldn’t fucking believe what he did or how he did it, but he slashed downward faster than I could see and nearly cut the thing in half. Now that would have been great except the idiot didn’t move out the way of the falling Reaper and it fell on him.
Reapers Mist: Third in the Reaper Trilogy by Justin Gowland Page 2
