They were all tired, tempers were fraying and mistakes were being made. Dan drove for three hours in a trance-like state, leading the convoy onwards until Jack asked irritably over the radio why they were travelling north.
In her exhaustion, Leah had called the wrong turn and nobody else had noticed. Dan fought down his overreaction, swallowed the tirade he was about to throw at her and reminded himself that the teenage girl beside him was just as tired as he was. Forget the protocol, he thought to himself, and he signalled a stop.
Unbidden, Leah climbed out of the big truck and stretched her muscles before hefting her rifle and climbing up to the roof to keep watch.
Dan walked along the exhausted convoy as his group climbed stiffly down from vehicles and tried to ease out their discomfort. Tired smiles greeted him as Ash trotted dutifully alongside, stopping at every third wheel to ensure it was adequately watered. As he reached the back of the convoy, he saw that Mitch and Adam had pulled their vehicle up a little way back and slewed it slightly across the tarmac as an obstacle to any pursuit. His purpose in seeking them out was to ask for a rearguard, but on reaching them, he saw both sitting on the roof of their vehicle facing south. Behind them, a small camp kettle was already brewing water.
A smile crept on to Dan’s face, despite his bone-weary somnolence: always trust in a soldier’s ability to find a hot drink. Deciding to leave them in peace, he turned and headed back to the others, satisfied that his best fighters were in place to protect them.
Everywhere he looked, he saw people at the point of exhaustion through travel, and these weren’t even the ones doing sentry duty or driving their sturdy convoy all over the continent. Just as the annoyance crept in, it was supplemented with a hint of repulsion as he saw Henry trotting towards him. Trying his hardest not to seem overtly annoyed at the boy’s presence, he waited for whatever doting token of adoration was about to be heaped on him.
On seeing the boy’s round face showing no signs of trying to impress him as he ran the short distance, the annoyance was turned into an immediate concern. Something was wrong.
“What is it?” Dan demanded of him angrily before the boy could even speak. The twenty-metre run had temporarily taken away his breath and Dan’s fear combined with tiredness threatened to bring on a rage that the boy did not deserve. Ignoring Henry’s attempts at jabbering through the information, he strode purposefully past him and towards the front of the convoy where the commotion had started.
When his own vehicle came into sight, his heart dropped, releasing that all-too-familiar sense of dread, the cold feeling of a sudden drop and the instant burn in his muscles as the adrenaline took immediate effect.
He saw Kate kneeling awkwardly in the back of the armoured vehicle as others clamoured to see what was happening. Dan’s worst fears were realised when he approached and heard the erstwhile paramedic’s voice.
“Marie!” she said loudly. “Open your eyes. Look at me!”
Not bothering to shout a warning, he barrelled his way through the small crowd gathering, prompting shouts of alarm and pain as at least one person was knocked to the floor.
“What’s wrong?” he growled at Kate as he reached the open door. She knew his aggression was the result of fear, his way of showing he had feelings other than being tired or hungry, but his inability to articulate grated on her. Like everyone, she was tired too and not in the mood to be barked at.
“I don’t bloody know yet,” she snapped at him savagely. “If you backed off, I might find out!”
Her incivility stopped him dead; he had barely heard her raise her voice in all the months he had known her. In other circumstances, he would have something to say; however, his fear left him dumbstruck. He reached in to put a hand on Marie’s head, feeling her travel-greasy hair was hot to the touch.
Kate slapped his hand away, no longer bothering to acknowledge the presence of anyone there but her patient, then shone a small light in her eyes before feeling for her pulse in the rudimentary way.
Ten seconds of silence reigned, like a coincidental holding of breath for everyone present, until she pulled back her hand and moved to undo the harness buckle that kept Marie slumped into the uncomfortable seat.
“Help me get her out,” Kate ordered. “She’s fainted and probably dehydrated too.”
The awkward and ungainly dance of moving an unconscious person seemed to take an eternity, but by the time Marie had been lifted clear of the truck, Dan turned to see that Neil – ever-reliable Neil – had organised an improvised stretcher with a sleeping bag on. She was gently laid on it, and to the quick-fire orders of Kate, she was lifted and carried away to the shade in the back of their largest truck.
Dan went to follow until Sera rounded on him in fury.
“No!” she snarled at him, jabbing a finger at his chest but serving only to jar her knuckle on the heavy ballistic vest he wore. Shaking away the pain she had just caused herself, she continued with her diatribe towards him, stepping forward as she spoke. “You want to help?” she said angrily, her voice rising as she spoke each word and staring at him through red-ringed eyes. “Then find us somewhere safe. Now. We can’t all live on the road like this, especially not Marie because, if you didn’t bloody realise, she is pregnant with your child.” Another push to his chest made him step back further in horror at the sudden onslaught. “And if that doesn’t make its way through your thick skull, then I might as well talk to HIM!”
With her last shouted word, she pointed to a confused and equally shocked Ash who, sensing that he was now due for the same treatment, was abandoned by what remained of his courage. Grumbling a noise somewhere between a half-hearted growl and a whimper, he stumbled awkwardly backwards to seek the safety behind Dan’s legs as though he could protect him from the relentless offensive.
Man and dog exchanged a look, then turned back to see their attacker storming angrily away. In her place came a quiet and placatory Neil who gently led him away.
Ash, sensing that they had survived an attack where their unrelenting duality had left so many foes vanquished, meekly followed as he threw one cautious glance backwards at Sera.
Neil stopped and rubbed his face, rough hands scratching on the long stubble on his cheeks. Like everyone, he was red-eyed and travel-weary to the point of exhaustion. Dan wasn’t in the mood for a lecture, or an impression, or any of Neil’s idiosyncrasies right then so he turned to follow Marie.
“Before you go, mate,” said Neil quietly. The low tone, the obvious lack of any humour and the sound of desperation made Dan turn back. “They’re right,” Neil said, stifling a yawn so big he had to wait seconds to finish his sentence. “We need to rest up somewhere. We can’t keep travelling like this or we’ll break.”
“I bloody know,” Dan said, snarling at him and speaking more harshly than he ever intended to and making Neil’s point clear in just three words. Dan softened, relaxed his shoulders and took a breath. His equipment cut into him; everywhere his clothes touched him itched. His fingernails were dirty and cracked and he hadn’t shaved in as long as he could remember. “I know,” he said again, more calmly. “I’ll figure it out but now I’m going to make sure she’s OK.”
He turned and walked away. Neil thought for a second that he saw his friend stagger slightly as he went and he didn’t even bother to call Ash to heel. The older man sighed in relief; having been volunteered by everyone to be the one who raised that very subject at the next opportunity, he had been saved the trouble by Marie. Neil turned his back to make the necessary preparations and make sure the million and four things he had to do were done, he cast an incredulous eye towards the patch of shade on the soft grass next to him.
Flat on his back, all four feet in the air and his tongue lolling out of one side of his mouth, Ash slept the deep, satisfied slumber of a dog with no concerns.
“Lucky bastard,” Neil muttered as he left, not wanting to wake him up.
NOT SO FOND FAREWELLS
“So why would it work
for us and not for them?” Paul asked for the third time in as many minutes. He wasn’t getting it.
“Because,” Chris explained patiently in a tone of voice bordering dangerously on the condescending, “we are going in one small vehicle and they had lots of people and big vehicles. That’s why they took a boat.”
The discussions of how they planned to get to the continent were taking too long to make. At every juncture, someone else had an opinion on how something should be done or what they would need to achieve it.
Lexi felt like she should take charge of it, like she had seen Dan do so many times: find a problem, ask what people thought, come up with a plan quickly and make it work. Only she knew with every cell in her body that she wasn’t Dan, nor right now did she want to be thinking about him.
Simon and Chris were very much on the same level, but then again, they came from very similar backgrounds. Melissa was annoyingly quiet throughout and offered little in the way of opinion or assistance and Paul, she sensed, was being deliberately obtuse to annoy Chris, who he felt had become a little too headstrong.
“Oh!” He feigned surprise at finally understanding the logic in the proposed plan. “So they couldn’t get through the tunnel but we can?”
“Yes!” snapped Chris, taking the baited hook.
Simon seemed to know how the ensuing conversation would end so he sat back with a small smile to watch.
“In that case,” Paul said, dropping the ignorant act, “perhaps you can explain about the pressures on ‘le chunnel’ after nearly a year and a half of neglect?”
Silence.
“Perhaps you know that the tunnels will be clear and we won’t find ourselves reversing nearly thirty miles when we reach a dead end in the pitch-black and have seventy-odd metres of sea above our heads and no maintenance schedule to make sure we’re not going to be crushed, or drowned or any other of the hundred bloody ways we could die doing this?” Paul’s voice had risen as he spoke and had reached a shout by the time his diatribe had finished.
Now, in the embarrassed silence that followed, Paul sat back down and offered a more relaxed opinion on their proposed path.
“The Eurotunnel is an engineering masterpiece. It’s one of only a few like it in the world and if we don’t find it already collapsing, in my opinion, then I don’t want to be that far underground when it does.”
He looked at everyone in turn, trying to bore his fears into them. Chris glared back, Melissa wasn’t even looking at him, Simon simply smiled, and Lexi met his gaze and held it.
“Have we not taken risks before?” she asked quietly.
Paul simply stared at her, unable to comprehend that she wasn’t supporting his argument.
“Pros and cons,” she said, looking around at the others. “Weigh up the risks against the benefits. If it’s still intact and if it’s clear, then we could be in France in the exact vehicle we need with all our supplies in what, an hour? Less?”
Paul, being the best person qualified to answer the question, cleared his throat. “Under ninety minutes,” he admitted grudgingly, “but there’s a bucket-load of ‘ifs’ there.”
“And if,” she went on, “we find it blocked or full of water, then we find another way. But if we have a chance to get through in one piece and not have to scavenge vehicles and food and supplies on the other side, then we need to take it.”
Simon still sat wearing an amused smile as he watched the play unfold. He knew there was a chance of a collapse, but he also knew how hard it would be to find a vehicle anywhere near as capable and well-quipped as the Land Rover Dan had given him. It was perfect for the journey they faced, other than it couldn’t float, and finding a replacement would be next to impossible.
“Sounds like a plan to me!” Simon said happily.
Exasperated, Paul sat back heavily and made no show of hiding his annoyance at their engineering ignorance. Chris stayed quiet after having been embarrassed by Paul’s rant and the subsequent argument.
“Then let’s do it,” Lexi said as she rose.
“I don’t want to go,” came a small voice. It came as no major surprise to Lexi but the others stared at Melissa in shock. Chris was the first to speak.
“Why?” he asked, fumbling for more words. It was clear to both Paul and Lexi that he liked Melissa being around him, and ever since Ana had turned away from Chris after the stillbirth, he had spent longer hours at the farm and subsequently more time with Melissa.
“Look at me!” she said tiredly and with a self-depreciating smile. “I’m no adventurer. I don’t like carrying a gun with me everywhere. I just want to be safe and sleep at night.”
She turned her smile towards Chris, telling those watching that she knew the real reason he wanted her to come.
“You could stay too, you know?” she said softly.
“No!” he said angrily, then let out a breath and seemed to shrink a little. “No,” he said again more gently. “I want to look Dan in the face and tell him everything. I want to describe the crash to him. I want him to know what it felt like to lose our home. If I can do that and come back, then I will.”
He picked up his rifle awkwardly and walked away.
Lexi and Paul followed at a respectable distance to talk to him, leaving Simon and Melissa alone.
“Why do you want to go?” she asked him in a subdued but curious tone.
Simon took a long breath to give him time to consider his answer. In truth, he found it too difficult to look people in the eyes when he alone of their loved ones returned from the expedition. His account of what had happened on the coast had holes, too many holes in fact, and he suspected that the rest of the group knew he was hiding something. That he was concealing a cold-blooded murder of one of their own, as traitorous and evil as he was, and that heavy burden was portrayed as secrecy.
He had lost their trust and had gained their suspicion, and that made for a lonely life.
He fixed the girl with a lopsided smile. “Nobody will miss me here,” he said sadly, “and I have a slate to wipe clean.”
AT ONE WITH NATURE
After the brief scare of Marie fainting and the desperately frayed nerves of everyone in their debilitated convoy, Dan reluctantly ceded to the demands of others to find a place to rest. Sera’s hostility was softened by Kate’s genuine plea that they could not continue as they were, and that was her medical opinion.
In truth, Dan took very little convincing that it was the right thing to do, but the questions of where and how long for were his major concerns.
To pick an unsafe or undependable position was to endanger the lives of everyone. To delay too long could jeopardise the lives of Marie and their baby.
Where they were would have to suffice for the night; another argument with Sera about moving Marie was an unwelcome prospect. Calling in Adam and Mitch to join Leah, Neil and himself, he laid out the proposal in the safety provided by Jack and Jimmy keeping watch at either end of the stationary convoy.
“We need a temporary site,” he announced in hushed tones away from inquisitive ears. “Somewhere for a week’s rest that can be defended.” He let that sink in as he arched his back and was rewarded with a sickening crack of compressed vertebrae. Ignoring the disgusted look on Leah’s face, he continued.
“At first light, I want you two,” he said, pointing at Mitch and Neil, “to take the bikes and find the nearest place.” The two men he chose were perfect for the task, as one would consider the group’s needs and comfort while the other would assess it from an attacker’s point of view.
Neither had any objections, and nobody had any questions. They were all simply too fatigued to care too much.
As the meeting ended and people went their separate ways, Leah followed Dan as he stiffly walked away the cramps in his muscles. Both sipped on hot coffee as they walked until Leah broke the silence.
“You should take it easy at your age,” she said innocently, intentionally poking the bear for her own amusement.
“And y
ou should be in school at your age,” he retorted, “so looks like neither will be happening.”
Fair enough, thought Leah, happy that she managed to force some humour out of him despite how lame it was.
Stopping to light a cigarette, he turned to the girl and assessed her. She was dirty, her hair was shiny with grease and he couldn’t be sure which one of them was emanating the unpleasant stale body odour. It was probably him, he reckoned.
Deciding that he should make some kind of “I’m proud of you speech”, he tried to find the words but nothing came. He settled on telling her to get some rest before she took over sentry duty before first light. With a nod, she turned to leave and he called her back.
“You’ve got something on your vest,” he said, pointing his index finger at her chest. Instinctively, she looked down only to be rewarded with the obvious and annoying finger poking her in the nose. Dan accompanied the gesture with a comedy “boop!” and earned himself a look somewhere between “Dad, you’re so embarrassing” and “do that again and I will cut you”.
Pleased that he had elicited some humour in her response, Dan smiled at her and watched her walk away. Smoking in satisfied silence, he checked his watch to calculate if he could grab a couple of hours’ sleep himself before he took over watch in the night.
~
At first light, both Dan and Leah, him at the rear and her at the head of the convoy, both readied themselves for action.
Sunset and sunrise, and the hour either side of both.
The times for peak alertness, ingrained in Dan from a young age and passed on through tradition to Leah, for any sentry duty at night. When the sun was fully clear, Dan relaxed slightly to see that Mitch had joined him in a defensive position some distance away from the vehicle.
The instinct was more thoroughly ingrained in Mitch than any of the others.
Nodding to him, Dan sat up to make himself slightly more comfortable as Mitch and Neil began to unload the loud and ungainly motorbikes from their straps on the side of the fuel tanker. They hadn’t used them for days at a time, and this was the first scouting mission they would be required for since Belgium. That seemed like weeks ago to Dan.
Sanctuary: After It Happened Book 5 Page 4
