“Medical supplies,” Aaron said.
Owain smiled. “Smart kids you’ve got here, Bill. Whoever controls the supplies controls the world.”
“But who would do that?”
“Someone who has always wanted more power but never got it. Someone high in government or the military. Someone who had some control in the old world and sees an opportunity to seize more of it in the future. I can’t give you a name. It might not even just be one man or woman. So long as they maintain their grip on the country’s food and water supplies, we’ll have no choice but to do what they say.”
It was a compelling reason for the military to do what they did, Katie thought. It might even be true.
“And that’s why they’re trying to kill you?” The tension eased from Bill’s clenched fists. “Because you stole from them?”
“That’s right. But there’s one commodity that’s always triumphed others, and that’s information. Knowledge. Usually, it’s the ones with the reins of power that have that. When they don’t, they use everything at their disposal to destroy those that have it. That’s why they want us dead. We know too much.” He shook his head. “And we stole a bunch of their supplies. That probably didn’t help either.”
Bill cast a look over his grandchildren and the others. “We won’t join you in your fight.”
“I understand. I couldn’t live with myself if they hunted you down and murdered you. At least, not without vengeance.”
“For that, at least, you have my thanks.” Bill stabbed a thick sausage of a finger in Owain’s face. “But do us a favour and don’t get us embroiled in your little political games any longer.”
“You have my word.” Owain pushed himself off his seat and extended his fist. “Are we cool?”
Bill fist bumped him. “We’re cool. So long as you can give us a lift back to the river.”
“The river? That’s one riddle we never managed to answer. Me and the ham radio boys have a pool going. Where are you headed?”
Bill looked from Owain to his kids. “Away from people like you.”
56
Tanya struggled to fit her great girth on the quad bike’s backseat and insisted it was the designer’s fault for making seats too small for the more curvy woman. Darryl had an even tougher time – he refused to get on.
“My mum always warned me about riding motorbikes,” he said.
“It’s not a motorbike,” Camden said, hopping on the back of his. “It’s a quad bike.”
“Same difference.”
Katie drew Bill to one side.
“We have to drop by the castle for Ella,” she said. “She’s not safe.”
Bill put his helmet on. “Ella will be fine.”
“How can you say that after what Geronimo did? He betrayed us. You want to leave her with him? No. We’ll go back and get her.”
“We’ll never get close enough.”
“Then we’ll die trying!”
Bill, momentarily taken aback by her outburst, placed a large hand on her shoulder. “Go for her if you want, but you’ll be going for her alone.”
Katie knew there was no chance of success by herself. He knew that too. “You’d send your only granddaughter out there to die?”
“I would respect your wishes.” Bill climbed onto the back of the quad bike. “Though, I would strongly advise taking action.”
“The same way you advised not to go to your own son’s funeral?”
Bill became noticeably still. He didn’t look back at her. “Geronimo won’t harm her. He may be a cad and a liar but he is not a murderer of little children. She will be safe there until – and if – we decide to return to get her.”
Bill tapped the driver’s shoulder and they bolted forward.
Katie was torn. Dare she trust her grandfather? The truth was, she wasn’t going to successfully rescue the little girl on her own anyway. And she sure wasn’t about to ask any of the others to risk their lives to help her.
She hopped onto the back of a quad bike. The driver took off and she had to hold on tight to him. She had until they passed the community’s gates to make her decision.
But whatever she did, she would be doing it alone.
57
Katie watched as the castle and its neighbouring community drew closer. The driver eased around the corners, taking them at speed, bringing her closer to Ella.
For the last time? Or to rescue her?
The gates drew up close and Katie felt the emotion rise in her chest. She raised a hand to tap the driver on the back to pull over…
And then lowered it again.
The gates came and went, and she looked over her shoulder at the castle perched on the hill, the soft glowing candles in the windows illuminating what appeared to be an idyllic location to live out the apocalypse.
She felt like a fraud. A betrayer. What kind of friend was she to leave a loved one behind in the hands of a traitor?
The kind of friend Ella had.
Goodbye, Ella.
Ahead on the next quad bike, her grandfather moved from looking at her to looking straight ahead. The old man always got what he wanted. And it was usually always what Katie didn’t want.
The quad bike slowed down at the riverside, arriving in time to see the captain of the boat relieving himself over the side.
His eyes widened at the sight of the quad bikes drawing up. He reached for a pistol resting on the roof of the boat’s cabin but couldn’t reach it without emptying his bladder first.
“Hold it right there, partner.” Owain clutched a regular sized pistol in his child-like hand.
The captain raised his free hand while the trail of urine dribbled to a stop with nerves. He tucked himself away and held up the second hand too.
“You’re taking us to Nottingham,” Bill said. “As fast as humanly possible.”
“Take the boat.” The captain fumbled in his pockets for the key to the transmission. He tossed it into the mud at Bill’s feet. “It’s yours.”
“I know it’s mine.” Bill scooped the key up. “And you’re mine too.”
The captain whimpered. “Please, sir. I have a wife and children. I have food to deliver to another community. If they don’t receive it–”
“They’ll receive it. Just so long as you do your job and get us to where we want to go. And put that thing away. When we need worms for bait, you can whip it out then.”
The captain looked down and noticed his little winkie had flopped out of his flies. He did up his trousers and hurried to prepare the boat for cast off. He must have been cursing himself for taking a slash and not leaving sooner.
“I see you haven’t lost your way with people,” Owain said. “As personable as always.”
“Why do I want to be personable? And end up like you?”
Owain chuckled. “As I said, as friendly as ever.” He braced his friend and slapped him heartily on the thigh. “You know, there’s an upside to being a bastard to everybody.”
“There are lots of upsides. Unwanted friends don’t get too close for a start.”
“The only one I see is this: Death will never come find you. Do you honestly think he wants to spend the journey time at your side?”
Bill cleared his throat. “At some point, he’ll have no choice. The fucker’s got to do his job the same as the rest of us.”
“True enough.”
Owain saluted and climbed back on his quad bike.
“Everybody on board,” Bill said. “I don’t want to spend one more second in this God forbidden county.”
They cast off within the next five minutes. The captain stared in the direction of his community, hoping for someone to come to his aide at the last minute. He whimpered and cast furtive glances at the water and the banks on either side.
“Don’t even think about it, chum,” Ronnie said.
The captain gulped and focused on keeping his course straight and true. Once he realised they weren’t going to slit his throat and immediately toss his us
eless body into the river, he relaxed, keeping his eyes on the river bends ahead.
As they took one final corner, Katie watched as the castle disappeared around a corner. Ella was well and truly on her own now. Who knew when she would get to see her again.
She stifled a yawn, curled up on the deck alongside Darryl, Hannah, and Jodie, and immediately fell asleep. In my dreams, she realised. She’ll always be in my dreams.
58
Laurie had no idea where the ambushers came from but he had a good idea who they were.
After they decimated what remained of their team, they took off on the quad bikes they’d been so desperately tracking at the beginning of this whole shitshow. Only then did it become obvious to Laurie who their ambushers were.
They were the real terrorists, the ones they should have been tracking this whole time. They operated with a ruthless efficiency he associated with such men.
Burgess consumed every red herring they found along the way and never gave up his pursuit of the innocent party.
Arrogance had its place, but it was certainly not in the face of all evidence.
Laurie moved amongst the wreckage and flaming UTVs. The ambush was a complete success from the aggressors’ perspective. They killed a bunch of soldiers and took every hostage alive.
The military got what they deserved.
Burgess made too many bad choices. There was only ever going to be one outcome. This was always going to happen.
Lying with his back against the truck wheels, a broken dishevelled mess, was their esteemed Captain Burgess. He wore three damp medals of blood where the bullets tore into him. One in either leg and one in his side. They appeared to have missed all his major organs.
Pity.
“That was some firefight, huh?” Burgess grimaced.
Laurie crouched beside him. “Yes, sir. It was.”
“We won’t be making that mistake again any time soon.” He coughed up a wad of blood. He must have taken another bullet somewhere at some point.
“I believe the men who attacked us were the real terrorists,” Laurie said.
“You’re still… still harping on with that tune?”
“Who else could they be, sir?”
“Another cell.”
Laurie’s shoulders fell. Despite everything they’d seen, the man still thought the innocents they tracked were the real terrorists. The man was delusional.
“Subordinate to the one we captured,” Burgess said. “They must have sent a message to this other cell when they got to the castle. I knew we should have attacked them when we had the chance. They knew exactly where we were going to be. There’s no other possible explanation.”
Except, there was another explanation. It existed only in Burgess’s mind. Laurie could see it in his eyes now. The contempt he had for him, his disloyal Lieutenant. He still thinks I’m a mole, that I somehow informed this other cell of where they were and what they were about to do.
“I don’t know how they did it but mark my words. They got the drop on us somehow. We… we made a mistake.”
“So, you finally admit it?” Laurie sighed with relief. “That’s good. I’m relieved you came to the right conclusion eventually–”
“We were too soft on them.” Burgess spat out a thick wad of blood. He lacked the leverage and it dribbled over his lips. “We should have questioned them on the riverbank. We should have taken matters into our own hands when we had them.”
“Sir…”
Laurie opened his mouth to speak but no words came. He said all the words he could during the past few days. Words that fell upon deaf, or ignorant, ears. Either way, the result was the same. Now the situation demanded action.
Dare he do what needed to be done?
“Help me to my feet and we’ll hunt down these terrorist scum once and for all,” Burgess said. “We shan’t fail a third time.”
“No. You’re right about that.”
He offered a hand to Burgess, who leaned forward. Laurie picked up a piece of scrap metal with a sharp point and let Burgess impale himself upon it. He slumped back as he grasped at the metal protruding from his chest.
“I’m sorry, sir. I can’t let you murder innocent people. You had your chance.”
“You… are relieved… of… duty…” His words came amidst slurping, hacking sounds.
“I know,” Laurie said. “But so are you.”
He pressed that sharp shard so deep he felt bone. Burgess’s eyes bulged and his hands clasped Laurie’s hands.
“You… You think… I’m the monster for doing the greater good?” he said. “You… You’re the monster, Lieutenant. Not me.”
Burgess slumped to one side and he was gone.
Laurie wiped his hands clean on Burgess’s uniform and stood up. He straightened his hair with his hands, took a deep breath and let it out.
“Medic!” he shouted.
The medic ran over and dropped to his knees beside Burgess.
“He’s taken fire and a shard of shrapnel to the chest,” Laurie said.
The medic checked the captain for vital signs before studying the shard of shrapnel with interest. No doubt the recency of the wound and the warm blood that still caked it were of interest to him.
“He’s gone,” he said.
He covered the man’s face, crossed himself and stood up.
“What are your orders now, sir?” the medic said.
The sound of heavy chugging engines made the half a dozen men at his command drop to their knees and take aim. It was a fair enough supposition to make – to think the terrorists had come back to finish off their job, but Laurie could tell from the deep throated gurgle of the engines that they were not quad bikes but UTVs like their own.
“The reinforcements have arrived,” Laurie said. “Use whatever UTVs we have still working. We’re going hunting.”
59
The river cruise was a surprisingly pleasant trip with the soft undulating current pulling them effortlessly through the water. Even the captain relaxed after a while and took to telling them about the history of the waterways and the countless trips he made over the years. After the EMP, his ability to sail up and down the rivers and estuaries became a valuable commodity. His family had never lived so well.
They travelled a lot faster than Katie expected too, chugging along quite happily with no one disturbing them or getting in their way. The waterways were the best way of travelling around – so long as you had the boat and the captain to navigate for you. The captain knew the waterways like the back of his hand and never hesitated about which way to head next.
They got bored with the protein bars they brought with them and took to cooking some of the cargo the captain had on board. He kept checking over their shoulders.
“I don’t mind you eating it,” he said. “I often tuck into it myself on occasion but I still have a delivery to make and if they notice there’s more than usual missing… It won’t end well for me.”
Bill shrugged. “We need to eat.”
That put an end to the conversation.
“My drop off point is just up ahead,” the captain said. “If I could make the delivery real fast, they’re less likely to grow suspicious.”
“Your boss will also know we escaped and took his boat,” Bill said. “He’ll have radioed ahead and told these people you do business with. If that’s the case, it’ll be a lot more dangerous for us to make your delivery than if we don’t. Go around them. We don’t want to be caught fighting on open water.”
The captain grumbled under his breath and stabbed his oil-stained cap up with a dirty thumb. He didn’t much like it but he was the captive now. No one cared what he thought.
Katie liked to look at Aaron. He was handsome and she spotted a tattoo she hadn’t seen before, that wound up the side of his neck and beneath his t-shirt. She wanted to see it all, what kind of design he chose for himself. Of course, that meant him removing his clothes, which in turn meant she would have to be there with him, n
aked, to see it.
The idea gave her giddy shivers. Only for artistic purposes, of course…
Her grandfather always managed to catch her grinning mischievously and took it upon himself to step between them or assigned one or both of them to duties on opposite ends of the boat. There were only so many tasks to complete on a small boat such as theirs, and it seemed that either Katie or Aaron performed eighty per cent of them. That fact hadn’t gone unnoticed by the others, who nudged their shoulders and shared a knowing wink.
By the time they reached their destination, they were all fully rested. The captain was pleased to get them off his ship – even if he pretended he was pleased to have given them a ride to their destination. He was all smiles and grins and friendliness as they stepped off the boat. His subtle attempts to get Bill to give him something for his trouble were met with silence. Finally, emboldened by desperation he said; “Geronimo is likely to punish me. I think I’m owed a favour. Food or water is fine.”
“We’re leaving you with your life,” Bill said. “You ought to be happy with that.”
The captain raised his chin. “I provide a high-quality service. I expect payment.”
He drastically underestimated the man he was dealing with.
Bill drew up so close to the captain that he could count the individual whiskers on his chin. “All right, here’s how I’ll reward you.”
The captain shook so violently his voice grew a stutter. “N-No n-need, s-sir.”
“Geronimo will likely punish you for putting up no resistance in taking us to where we wanted to go, so…” He produced a blade from nowhere like magic. “…I’ll give you a little cut so he’ll reward you for your bravery in standing up to us.”
The captain licked his lips and peered over grandfather’s shoulder at the others. “Uh, no. No. I don’t think that’s necessary.”
“Are you sure?” Bill said. “I have the blade right here. One swift swipe and it’ll all be over.”
Cut Off (Book 2): Cut Throat Page 19
