‘Don’t move a muscle!’ a woman’s voice said behind us. ‘This shotgun maybe old but it works fine. Now, it’s time for you to move on and don’t come back.’
‘We’re sorry. We’re just looking for somewhere to stay for the night,’ I said, shocked that we’d been so easily out-manoeuvred.
‘So instead of knocking on the door you thought you’d break in, armed to the teeth? This isn’t a hotel any more. There’s no room for you here. Get out.’ Her voice was becoming angrier.
‘Look, we’ve just had a run-in back at Rothbury and ...’
‘You’re from Rothbury?’ she asked with murderous intent in her voice.
‘No, we’re not from there. We were driving through and were attacked.’
‘By that fat fuck and his cronies?’
‘Yeah, we barely managed to get out alive.’
‘Did you kill him?’
‘No, but he won’t be holding any more sermons for a while.’
‘That’s good to hear.’ And just like that, the anger left her voice. ‘You can turn around, I’m not going to hurt you.’
We did as we were told, keeping our hands well away from our weapons. She stood, silhouetted in front of the window with the afternoon sun shining through. Our eyes soon adjusted to the glare and slowly began to make out her features. I heard a quick sharp inhale of air from Darren as she walked towards us. She was beautiful. Mid-thirties, long strawberry blonde hair, with a chiselled jawline and bright green eyes. Freckles dotted her nose and cheeks.
I looked across at Darren and was sure I saw fucking love hearts floating around his gormless face. He was totally entranced, but in a flash he snapped out of it, shook his head slightly and stood there with a face full of guilt and shame. I know now why he acted that way but back then I really hadn’t put two and two together.
‘My name is Diana.’
After we introduced ourselves we opened the back door and showed everyone in. We left the dogs in the Mastiff for the time being until everyone was in and squared away. Andy and the boys started bringing in the sleeping bags and MREs we’d need. The girls made themselves comfortable in the lounge area of the hotel bar and started ripping open some of the packaged meals.
Diana beckoned for Darren and I to follow her. We went up to the first floor and down the corridor to a bedroom. When she opened the door a baby’s cooing and babbling could be heard.
‘This is Leianne,’ Diana bent down to pick the child up from a makeshift cot, made from a large linen basket. ‘She’s the reason we had to leave Rothbury.’
Diana went on to tell us her story. She’d lived in Rothbury since birth. She adored the place. The community. The fresh air. Her family.
She studied at Leeds University to become a teacher and inevitably ended up returning to her home town where she secured a job at Alnwick high school teaching English. She had been there ever since.
She married in her mid-twenties but separated from her husband three years ago. A year later she fell in love with a doctor from Newcastle. A year after that, she fell pregnant.
Diana and the doctor had already planned to wed and had booked and paid for everything before they got the happy news she was with child. The due date and the wedding date clashed so instead of bringing the wedding forward they planned to do it when Leianne was a little older. That was, until the night the dead arrived.
Of course, the doctor was paged immediately when reports started coming in about hundreds of injured, infected people. He left and headed for his practice in Newcastle and never returned.
As I’d suspected with remote towns and villages, the dead didn’t start to arrive until a few days after the event. By which time the townsfolk had come up with a plan of defence. Cragside.
The high-walled estate was the perfect place to defend. Access to the estate could only be attained by the road we’d just fought for our lives on. Trenches were dug and cattle grids were pilfered from the local farmsteads. Lookout hides were built strategically around the area to warn of any dead approaching and, with a population of just over two thousand, the new community had ample volunteers to man these posts and patrol the vast estate.
It was a week into the apocalypse when Father Doherty started voicing his views. At first only a small handful of his regular church attendees stood beside him as he spewed his religious vomit at the daily town meetings. By the end of the second week the majority of the town had come to believe that the priest was right. That this was the end of days and they were all about to be judged by the Lord almighty.
Doherty soon overthrew the democratic council and took power for himself. Every one of the townsfolk were vetted and interviewed by the psychotic priest’s underlings.
One day Diana was sent for.
‘It has come to my attention that you have a child and are unmarried,’ the fat sweating priest stated as he looked down at some notes on the large table he sat behind.
‘Yes Father,’ Diana replied nervously.
‘Why?’ he asked, still looking down at his papers.
‘Leanne’s father and I were planning to marry later this year. When she’s a little older.’
The priest harrumphed sarcastically at this.
‘And where is this “father” now, may I ask?’
‘He was called away to his medical practice in the city when the zombies came.’
‘DEMONS,’ he bellowed, finally making eye contact with Diana.
‘Sorry, when the demons came.’
‘Well, this isn’t very good at all. What will the Lord think when he arrives and we have a sinner in our midst?’
Diana stood there not knowing what to say to such a remark.
‘It will be frowned upon, that’s what! This cannot come to pass!’ He stood up and put both hands on the table. ‘This must be rectified,’ He said greasily. ‘Do you understand?’
Diana understood perfectly. If she wanted to stay she’d have to let Jabba the Trump squirm on top of her. It took all she had not to retch at this thought and, like a pro, she kept her poker face on and nodded subserviently.
She was shown back to her tent and told to wait for an invite to dinner that very evening. Of course, she never received the invite. She waited till Leianne was sleeping, wrapped her up in what looked like dirty laundry, went down to the lake with pretence of going to wash said laundry and slipped away. After her escape she made it back to her home and collected everything she thought she’d need to survive. She’d been on her own ever since.
‘You walked here? Through a land of the living dead? With a crying baby? Alone?’
‘Yep.’
‘And I thought I had it hard living with Darren.’
Darren smiled and said, ‘Very impressive Diana. Not a lot of people could have done what you did.’
‘Yeah, I suppose. After a few days I did think about going back and just doing what he wanted. At least we’d have been safe, ish. But the thought of seeing that lard arse naked dispelled any doubts I had. Bleugh. Could you imagine?’
‘Don’t,’ I said. ‘I’ve enough horrific images burnt into my mind.’
Darren got up and said, ‘Come on, let’s go and see what’s cooking.’
‘You’ve got food?’ Diana asked as she scooped Leianne into her arms and followed us downstairs.
‘Oh yes,’ Darren replied. ‘Carter, can you go and bring the dogs in?’
‘You’ve got dogs too?’ She asked excitedly.
‘Yeah, you want to come and meet them?’
‘Definitely!’
Diana’s family had been big animal lovers when she was small but when her parents passed away a few years ago her uncle took her dog and two cats to live on his farm. Diana thought it unfair to keep them with the hours she worked.
I opened the door of the Mastiff and Rocket and Rosie jumped down and smothered me with affection, that is, until they spotted Diana with Leianne in her arms. I was amazed at how gentle they were when Diana came down to their level to show them t
o Leianne.
‘Come on, let’s go get some dinner.’
The dogs went wild at hearing this, but I was surprised that when they entered the building they didn’t follow the delicious smells that were coming from the main room. Instead, they shot off upstairs. Darren saw this, picked up Dot and followed them, with me not far behind.
When we arrived at the top of the stairs we saw that Rocket and Rosie were slowly and systematically checking and clearing every room. When they were done with the first floor they did exactly the same with the ground floor and then went and sat next to the fireplace patiently and politely waiting for food.
‘Give them extra,’ was all Darren said as he stood in awe of what they had just done.
‘Good call,’ Darren said to me when he saw my smug face. ‘Very good call.’
The sun had set when we finished eating. I’d been so hungry I’d failed to notice that Darren had slipped from the room. Jenna and Donna too.
‘Where’s Darren?’ I asked.
‘Dunno, he went out a few minutes ago,’ Davy said.
I told the dogs to stay and quickly donned my weapons and NVGs and went to look for him. I climbed the stairs first of all and checked the guest rooms, but came up blank so decided to look out of the window to view the parking area. No Darren there either. However, I did see Jenna looking terribly suspicious, climbing down from the Mastiff. I was about to run down confront her about what she was up to when I heard a noise from above me. I quickly drew Angelina and pointed her at the ceiling. Had the dead learned how to climb? Or worse, had we been followed by nefarious religious types and were about to be stormed? I looked out of the window again but could see nothing that rang alarm bells.
I slowly crept back into the corridor and scanned the area. My sights fell upon on a loft hatch in the ceiling at the far end of the hall. A metal ladder was screwed to the wall for access.
My heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest. All I could hear was the pumping of blood around my body. It wasn’t fear I was feeling as such, or excitement. It was something in between. I just couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It was a mix of trepidation and elation and when I felt this way the whole world was in high definition and every sound was crisp and rich. I felt totally alive.
As stealthily as I could I crept towards the hatch and ladder, rifle tucked into my shoulder.
I was directly underneath it when it opened and I was a millisecond away from blasting the head that appeared through the hole.
‘You took yer fucking time,’ Darren said.
‘Fuck mate, I nearly shot you there.’
‘Neh mate, I’ve trained you too well for you to go and do something like that. All the sneaking up on you was done for a reason. Up you come.’
Of course! All that Kato/inspector Clouseau shit he’d been doing had been sharpening my reactions and training me without me knowing. Mr Miyagi style.
I climbed up the ladder and followed Darren to the far northeast corner of the roof.
‘What are doing up here and why did you sneak off?’
Darren picked up some sort of TV aerial, folded it and stuffed it in his bag.
‘You’ve been talking to him, haven’t you?’
‘I’m sorry darling.’
‘You two-timing bastard!’
Darren giggled.
‘What did he say? Any news?’ I asked.
‘Do you want the bad news or the bad news?’
‘Hmm,’ I pondered. ‘Give me the bad news first.’
‘Gippa’s looking for us.’
‘Now give me the bad news?’
‘It’s a long story, but the top and bottom of it was, Spud told him we’d travelled north.’
‘Well that’s good isn’t it.’
‘Gippa is still heading west. Spud said that Gippa turned up about an hour ago with two pickup trucks. Twelve men altogether. And he was certain of our route. He told Spud after he’d dealt with us he’d be going back to the castle to burn it to the ground because he’d lied.’
‘Oh my god! This is terrible news!’ I slapped my hands to my cheeks. ‘How the fuck will you cope without Spud?’
‘Piss off mate, this is serious. He has knowledge of us and our plans and he’s less than half a day behind us.’
A cold feeling of dread suddenly gripped me with its icy claws. I didn’t want to admit it out loud. Jenna. Had this Stockholm syndrome happened to her? Had she secretly been sending messages back to Gippa? Was this the reason why she’d been such a twat? Because we’d taken her away from her murderous ‘spouse’?
‘What’s up?’ Darren asked when he saw I was about to blow a gasket.
‘There’s a radio in that fucking Dora the Explorer bag.’
‘Eh?’
‘She’s in contact with fucking Gippa!’
‘Who? Jenna? No way. Wait. Really?’
‘I’ve just seen her sneaking out of the Mastiff. She’s probably just told him where we are. She’s not pissed off with me, she’s pissed because in her mind we’ve kidnapped her from her precious fucking boyfriend. Stockholm syndrome or not. I’m going to kill the fucking bitch!’
‘Woah, calm down. We don’t know for sure and we can’t go around accusing people. Especially not tonight. That last thing we want is for drama and then someone walking out. We’re in the middle of nowhere. We keep this close to our chest and never take our eyes off her. If we find out for certain, we deal with it then. Not now. Do you understand Carter?’
The fury I felt at this betrayal stopped me from answering Darren. I felt a hand on my shoulder.
‘Ray, this is the best plan. We play it clever. Trust me mate and promise you won’t say anything.’
I relaxed a little when I heard the pleading in his voice.
‘I’m sorry bud. I promise. But what if she’s just told him where we are?’
‘Carter, it’s taken us a day to get here. It’s night time. Maybe we’ll get lucky and Father Doherty takes them out. The only info Jenna has of this place is the hotel’s name and Siri, Jeeves and Alexa are dead, so no asking them anymore.
‘We double the guard tonight. One senior member and one junior. We also posted a guard in the sleeping area, keeping an eye on Jenna. We can’t ask any of the people we saved from Gippa’s compound. It has to be one of us or Diana. I do trust Josh but we need to keep our cards close to our chest.’
‘I don’t think Bobby will be pleased about keeping things from Josh. I think they’ve got something going on.’
‘Well, she’ll just have to deal with it. She’s a clever girl. She’ll understand. Also, we need to find out for certain if Gippa is tracing our footsteps or not, so the journey to the bothy will have to wait. We find somewhere nearby to park up and then stake this place out for the day and see if he turns up.’
We climbed back down into the hotel and made our way to the ground floor.
Everyone was sitting around a large dining table listening to music and chatting. I sat down at the table opposite Jenna. She immediately looked away sheepishly. I couldn’t help myself.
‘Where did you both get to?’
Everyone around the table looked at me and then at Jenna and Donna when they realised it was them I was referring to.
Donna stuttered, ‘Who? Me?’ Then defiantly, ‘What’s it got to do with you?’
Darren looked at me, slowly shaking his head.
‘It’s everything to do with me. We need to know where everyone is at all times. The last thing we need is for people wandering off outside, leaving the doors open, when there are fucking dead people walking the roads.’
‘I’m not fucking stupid, Ray,’ she said, making sure to spit my name out with condescension. ‘I know how to shut a fucking door. If you must know Jenna and I went outside for a piss. I’ll keep it in mind to ask your permission next time. Maybe you’d like to come and watch?’
My anger overflowed at this blatant lie and I stood up, ready to unleash a tirade of expletives at the har
d-faced cow.
‘That’s enough Carter,’ Darren commanded angrily. Most likely because the promise I’d made on the roof about everything I wouldn’t do had quickly been broken.
I begrudgingly sat back down, trying my damnedest to keep my emotions in check. Darren told everyone what was happening security-wise and asked to speak to Diana alone. My job was to have a quiet word with Andy to explain the situation and for him to pass on the info to Bobby.
Jason and I were given the first guard duty on the roof, which went by surprisingly fast with having someone to talk to, and soon we were relieved by Andy and Josh.
As we sneaked into the sleeping area I noticed Diana sitting in the corner on a rocking chair with Leianne in her arms. She gave me a knowing wink as I climbed into my sleeping bag.
Chapter Ten
I awoke the next day to a flurry of activity, once again being the last one to wake up. As I lay there willing myself to peel back the sleeping bag, the drama and the revelation I’d had the night before came flooding back. Jenna was a spy. And so was her stony-faced sidekick. Both feeding information back to Jenna’s murdering boyfriend. Selling us out and condemning us all. How could I have been so blind? So weak? And there was I, thinking she carried that fucking bag everywhere out of sentiment for us. That it meant something to her and reminded her of happier times. When all along it held a fucking two-way radio.
I’d been a fool. Wasting all that time, night after night, wondering if she was safe. Mourning her.
I had to get a hold of that bag. But how? She never really took it off. If it was up to me I’d just storm over and rip it off her back. I had bought it after all. This was a bad idea though, and I’d promised Darren we’d play it his way. He knew best after all. We’d soon find out. Once Gippa turned up at the hotel, we’d know for sure.
I finally unzipped myself from the sleeping bag and walked over to the fireplace. Somebody had made a pot of coffee so I helped myself.
‘You’re getting fucking lazier,’ Darren said as he walked into the room.
It's Grim Up North (Book 3): The Journey Page 10
