He shook his head to clear it of the distracting thoughts and began to concentrate as he made his way down the sloping pedestrianised street, going from cover to cover, using the shop entrances as he went.
He’d left Dan back at the clothes shop, watching out of the upstairs window just in case anyone should come looking for them there. He doubted that they would though and if they did there would not be much that the others could do if they were discovered. Was that it, he thought. Was it because these people were so dependent on him? Was that why he felt the need to help them? Is that why he felt the need to be with them? And if so what did that say about him? He shook his head again. Forget it. He told himself. Concentrate. It is what it is!
He made his way down to the bottom of the street. At the bottom there was a large open area. The area led out onto a park and there were also some more shopping streets going up the hill on the other side. His sense of direction told him that the sea was just the other side of the park. That meant that he wasn’t far from the hotel that they had stayed in last night. He thought about going to get his pack, but reluctantly dismissed the idea. He needed to find food and water, and hopefully some medical stuff for Bill. He’d get that back to the others before risking going so close to where the action was earlier. He knew that he also needed a little time to rest and to eat something before he had to face any further action. He was really feeling the strain of the last few days. He felt weak and drained.
He slowly made his way up one of the other streets. Constantly scanning the area and eventually he found a small supermarket. He slipped quickly inside the dark interior of the shop but noticed at once that the place had been cleared out. It hadn’t been ransacked. It was just completely empty of any merchandise. The place had definitely been cleared by an organised group and he knew that it was most likely the same lot that had tried to take the girls earlier. He also knew that it would be a waste of time looking in any of the other shops. He would find them all empty. It was fast becoming obvious now that they were dealing with a large and well organised group who were living here in Bournemouth. It was also obvious that they would have to get out of town as quickly as possible. He would have to rethink his plans. With that in mind he decided that his best option was to go and retrieve his pack. They were going to need the stuff it carried. Here was another first for Nick. He wished that he had a mobile phone so that he could call the others and update them. He would now either have to make his way all the way back to where they were hiding to tell them. Which would increase his chances of them all getting caught, or he could go straight to get his pack which could possibly mean that he wouldn’t get back to them until late tonight. In which time they would begin to get worried, and maybe come out of hiding. Both weren’t brilliant options but he decided to trust in Beth’s logic and go for his pack.
Beth and the others began to really worry as their fifth day started to draw to a close. She had taken Dan’s place earlier so that he could get some rest and she had spent the last hour just praying that she would see Nick coming back up the street. She had absolutely no idea what they would do if he didn’t come back. Bill was in a lot of pain and she thought that he might have some broken ribs along with a whole bunch of other injuries. He could hardly stand now or move his right arm. The kids were getting more worried the longer Nick stayed out. The girls had managed to amuse themselves for a while, trying on clothes in the shop. Both of them had changed at least ten times. Coming over to where she was watching from to show her the outfits. In the end she had told them to go and choose some practical clothes and to put their trainers back on. The nicely worn in ones that they had been wearing when they left the house. After a quick nap, Dan had just moped about. She had tried to reassure them all that it would be fine. That Nick would be back any minute, but now she was having horrible doubts herself. Where was he?
Nick was stuck. Although it had taken him a while, he had managed to get back to the hotel where they had stayed last night with no problems. He had taken a circular route to avoid coming in from the same direction they had left in. Just in case anyone was watching the area. He had slipped into the hotel by the back entrance and then quickly went up to the top floor. He went around all the windows and checked outside in all directions. That was when he saw a blue range rover pull into the car park where the green Astra was parked.
He watched frowning as a tall man got out and went straight over to the old green car. Fuck it, he thought, as he realised that they would obviously know this area well. Well enough to notice an old green car that wasn’t there before. If only he had been a few minutes earlier. The tall man looked through the car’s windows and checked all the doors. Finding them all locked, he called over something to the driver then he went back and pulled out a metal bar from the back seat. Nick watched in a kind of sick trance as he smashed in the rear window, opened the door and pulled out his pack. He watched as his precious rucksack was heaved out of the car and thrown into the back of the range rover.
Nick had carried that rucksack and the equipment inside it for over four years. He knew every stitch on it. He knew every item inside it. With that pack Nick knew that he could survive anywhere in any climate, but there was more than that. Deep down inside the pack, right at the bottom, sealed inside a waterproof bag was where Nick kept his memories. He hadn’t opened that small bag, which contained just a few fading photographs in over a year. The memories they contained were painful ones but they were all he had left of his past life. A life that had begun to seem like a half forgotten dream. So he had kept them safe.
Nick forced himself not to be angry with Beth, she’d had no idea how important the pack was to him, but right now he wished that he had not gone down onto the road that day to help Dan. Because that was where it had all started to go wrong. For years he had just roamed alone. Skimming across life like a stone over water, he had just touched on the lives of others here and there. Never becoming involved and never forming any emotional attachments. Well it could all end here now, he thought, one way or another they were not taking that pack while he still breathed.
The tall man was just climbing back into the blue range rover when Nick heaved the small table through the window. The smashing glass would be heard by anyone in the area on the still evening air, but Nick had no other thought in his head than to get back what was his. The tall man looked up and watched bemused as the window on the top floor exploded and a small bedside table dropped down to smash into pieces on the ground about ten feet away from him. He backed off a little as a shower of glass followed it down, then he looked back up at the window curiously. He could see no one there.
Chapter twenty one
Evening was coming on and Andrew Wilkins was having what was probably the worst day in his whole life. He had met with Brett down in reception and they had called for his team to come down. Unfortunately Brett had insisted on using his green Defender Land Rover and the five men in his team had not been happy with having to sit squashed in on the side facing bench seats in the back. They had been even unhappier finding out that it was Brett who was now in charge of them. They couldn’t understand why and Andrew couldn’t tell them.
Brett had no kind of plan at all to catch the strangers. Not one that Andrew could see anyway. Brett himself was at the steering wheel and for over four hours now they had just been driving manically around the town looking for them. They had been back to the hotel once to fill up on diesel. It had been the only opportunity that they’d had in all that time to use the toilet facilities at the rear of the hotel, and get a drink and a bite to eat. They were now hot, tired and thoroughly pissed off. Andrew was beginning to think that David’s plan to manipulate Brett into fighting with this Nick fellow was not going to work. Mainly because with Brett in charge, he doubted they would ever find him.
‘If you don’t mind me saying so sergeant!’ Andrew had to shout to be heard over Brett’s continual cursing and ranting as he drove. Brett had also insisted everyone call him sergeant,
even Andrew. It would have been amusing if he hadn’t been so pissed off and tired. He was also seriously worried about crashing, as Brett threw the land rover around the tight turns of the town, barely avoiding everything in his path.
‘We’ll get those fuckers Wilkins!’ he shouted back, swinging the land rover around a stationary car and barely missing it.
Wilkins? Did he really believe this made up army bullshit?
‘I don’t think they’ll still be driving around the town!’ Andrew shouted again. ‘Do you think we could slow down a bit?’
‘What!’
‘I said can we slow down a bit now please?’ he repeated.
Brett just glanced over at him. ‘Fuckin’ pussy!’ he shouted. ‘Me and my old team do this all the time,’ he boasted.
‘Did this all the time!’ Andrew shouted back.
Brett suddenly jammed his foot down onto the brake pedal hard.
‘What the fuck did you just say?’ he asked ominously into the near silence. The men in the back were now busy trying to reseat themselves due to being thrown to the front by Brett’s mad breaking, but they were also listening to the two men in the front.
‘I said did this all the time,’ Andrew repeated for him. ‘They obviously can’t do it now because half of them are dead.’ He looked over at him calmly as Brett’s face began to go even redder and his eyes almost bulged from his head, but whatever Brett was going to explode with next was interrupted by the distant sound of breaking glass. Andrew turned left and looked out of the open window in the direction that the sound had come from.
‘That's from the pier! Or near it,’ Brett shouted as he rammed the vehicle into reverse. Andrew’s head was thrown forward then back and he was in serious danger of throwing up as Brett braked hard and swung the Land Rover down a street leading towards the pier. ‘Hold tight boys!’ Brett laughed. I think we’ve found them!’
Andrew had to laugh along with him then as he realised that this man really was insane.
After throwing the chair through the window Nick ran straight from the room. He moved as fast as he could, and that was extremely fast. He took the stairs down at three or four a time. His knives slapped against his legs, threatening to trip him at any moment but he made it to the bottom almost before the table did. He then kicked open the door and flew out into the car park. The tall bemused man out there quickly became a tall surprised man, but not quite quickly enough. Nick ran straight at him and leapt. His booted foot caught him just below the sternum and sunk into his solar plexus. Nick used the push back from the kick to spin and land facing the Land Rover driver.
Unfortunately the driver had been watching the whole thing and wanted nothing of it. He put his foot down hard on the accelerator and the car sped off, the doors slamming shut as it turned sharply out of the car park. Nick glanced back to the man he had kicked but he wasn’t moving. He was either unconscious or doing a very good job of pretending to be.
Nick took off, sprinting after the car. He saw it slow down up ahead to turn right at the corner so he ran across the front lawn to try and head it off, but he had no chance. The car sped away down the street and Nick sunk to his knees in the brown overgrown grass. He was gasping for breath as he watched everything he owned and cherished speed off down the street with the car.
Then he heard a huge crash and he was up on his feet again in a second. He looked down the street and it was his turn to be surprised. The blue Range Rover had driven straight into a green Land Rover coming the other way.
Andrew held tight to his seat and checked his seat belt. He felt really sorry for his men in the back as Brett drove at a frighteningly mad speed. Like most of them, he knew the area like the back of his own hand, so within minutes they were on the road that ran past the pier. Brett braked hard again, slowing right down to look over at the pier but there was nothing to be seen there.
‘Fuck it’s not there!’ Brett swore then rammed the jeep into first gear and accelerated away. He’d just about made it into third gear and the engine was screaming madly when they rounded a bend and went straight into a car coming in the other direction. There was the loudest noise that Andrew had ever heard and then everything went black.
Nick took off at speed, leaping a low wall and landing on the path, then he sprinted towards the crash. As he got closer he could see some movement from within both vehicles, but all he was interested in was his rucksack. He ran up to the blue Range Rover and pulled on the rear door handle. Nothing! It wouldn’t budge. He ran round to the other side and tried that one. It wouldn’t open either. Shit, he thought, then ran round to the driver’s door. He looked inside. The driver was squashed up against his seat by a huge white air bag that was just beginning to deflate. He looked around for something to break the window with but could see nothing useful. Shit, he thought again, then he glanced over at the other car and saw Brett climbing slowly out of the green Land Rover. This just keeps getting better, he thought. Blood was running down Brett’s face, but Nick could see that the double barrelled shotgun in his hands was rock steady.
‘Got you now you little fucker!’ he said.
Nick dropped to the ground behind the blue Range Rover just as Brett fired. The noise of the gun was deafening but the shot went over his head and he rolled towards the back of the car. As he reached it though he saw Brett’s legs coming around from the other side. Nick knew both ways to avoid being shot by a man with a gun. You had to be either too far away or too close. There was no time to get far away so he chose the second option. He leapt up just as Brett came into sight and he grabbed hold of the barrel of the shotgun. As Nick expected Brett’s finger tightened on the trigger and the gun fired its second shell harmlessly into the air. What Nick hadn’t expected was the speed of Brett’s reaction and his enormous strength. Brett immediately pulled the gun down hard and smashed the barrel straight onto the top of Nicks head. Nick dropped to the ground, stunned. He opened his eyes just in time to see the large boot that caught him right between them.
Andrew came round slowly, disorientated. Then quickly remembered where he was. There was no airbag in this vehicle but the seat belt had saved him. He heard groans coming from behind him and looked back, then he groaned himself at the pain coming from his neck.
‘Is everyone ok back there?’ He asked, dreading the answer.
‘I think I have a broken wrist mate,’ Joe told him.
‘I’ve hit my head but I feel ok,’ Gareth said.
‘I feel like shit! What the fuck happened?’ another one of his men shouted. Andrew was about to answer when the first gunshot sounded. It made him jump in his seat and wrench his neck again. It was only then that he realised that Brett wasn’t in the jeep.
‘Oh shit!’ he swore. ‘Could anyone who can, help the others please?’ he asked as he unclipped his seat belt, then he saw someone jump up from behind the blue vehicle and leap at Brett. The gun fired again and he flinched as he pushed his door open and climbed out. He quickly limped around the car but by the time he got there it was all over. Brett was standing there, blood was running down his face and another man was lying crumpled on the road at his feet.
‘Got the bastard!’ Brett smiled broadly.
It wasn’t much of a guess to suppose that the crumpled heap on the road was the infamous Nick. The best laid plans, Andrew thought. He knew that David wasn’t going to be very happy.
Kay was sitting with Beth now as she watched from the window, looking down at the dark street outside. ‘He’s not coming back is he mum?’
Beth sighed. ‘I don’t know darling.’ She then stood up, stretched and sighed again. They had all heard the gunshots earlier and Beth had struggled hard to keep the kids calm. Bill had slept through it but she hadn't woke him. He was too damaged to do anything anyway. Dan had been frantic. She had only just managed to stop him from rushing out.
‘What would you do Dan?’ she had asked him. ‘There were just the two shots and we don't know where they came from. Where would you go?’ He
had just shook his head and she had seen that he was about to burst into tears but he had sat back down. He hadn’t spoken to anyone since then. He was still sitting in a corner away from the others and Beth was worried about him. She knew the way he felt about Nick and how much the boy needed him. She cursed herself for bringing them all here.
The idea had seemed such a good one. Let’s go to Bournemouth, she remembered saying to the girls as she attempted to make the idea of leaving their house an exciting one for them. She had rationalised it to herself as well by telling herself that by heading south the climate would be better. Birds heading south for the winter had sprung to mind and a lot of other bullshit, but really she had been trying to not upset the girls. Well that hadn't worked out too brilliantly! From now on she resolved that she would make all of her decisions based on what was best for them and not just what would make them happy.
Kay stood up then and stretched and yawned. ‘Are we going to sleep here mum?’
‘I think we will have to darling.’ She looked over at Sammy. She was already curled up on the pile of clothes that they had been trying on earlier, and she was fast asleep. ‘I think Sammy has the right idea. It’s about all we can do right now.’ She stretched again and groaned. Her whole body ached. ‘Let’s all get comfortable and get some sleep. We’re all tired and we’ll do no good sitting here awake all night. Nick is probably on his way back to us right now.’
Nick woke to complete darkness. His head was aching badly and he found that he was unable to move. He seemed to be lying on a bed. His hands and feet had been tied so that he was spread eagled on his back. He pulled hard a few times but he couldn’t loosen the ropes. He then laid back and took a few deep breaths to calm himself. Why am I still alive? He wondered.
New World: Nick Smith Book one (Nick Smith Series 1) Page 14
