UK Dark Trilogy

by Harris, Chris

  An hour later, with Becky and Stanley supporting me as my legs still felt unsteady, we all walked downstairs.

  As I entered the kitchen, to my utter embarrassment, everyone crowded round me clapping and cheering.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Touched by everyone’s genuine show of affection and concern for me, I motioned for them to be quiet, sat down gratefully on the proffered chair and accepted a cup of coffee from my sister, Jane. She gave me a fierce hug and a kiss on the cheek as she handed it to me.

  Realising that I was absolutely starving, and completely ignoring Jerry’s advice about not eating too much, I proceeded to wolf down everything that was put in front of me.

  Becky had already told me not to ask how she, Michelle and Kim had come to be rescued. She’d assured me that they’d all been rescued safely, but had insisted that it would be best if everyone involved was present when the story was told. The wait would be worth it. I managed to restrain myself and kept the conversation to “road business”.

  The house began to feel crowded as more people arrived. As Harry entered, he made straight for Kim and gave her a kiss on both cheeks before turning to me and shaking my hand.

  “Glad you’re OK, Tom”, he said, and I was touched by his sincerity. “You had us worried there! Your family’s putting the military to shame. First your wife who, by the way, commands more respect among the men than any beaten up old sergeant, and now you! Single-handedly leaping barricades, rescuing my men under fire and then leading the charge against the enemy …”

  Pausing for breath, he added, “Can you stop it, please, you’re making us look bad.”

  I laughed. “Thanks Harry. But I did get shot, you know!”

  He shrugged and grinned, “Occupational hazard when you run blindly at the enemy with nothing more than a strongly worded letter, I’m afraid. I never said it was the smartest thing to do; just the bravest.”

  “Well, with the greatest respect,” I countered, “I was trying to rescue my wife and therefore, being brave didn’t really come into it. Someone was hurting her and I just wanted to rip their heads off.”

  He glanced over at Kim and said quietly, “There’s no greater deed than rescuing the one you love.”

  Looking up at the same moment, Kim must have heard at least part of what he said, because she blushed, smiled at him and then looked away again.

  What had I missed in the five days I’d been unconscious?

  Allan, accompanied by Michelle, Bob, Russ and his wife Jo, closely followed by Chris Garland and Pete (brandishing his notepad as always), now squeezed into the kitchen, which was threatening to burst at the seams.

  Pete assumed control by raising his fingers to his mouth and emitting a shrill whistle.

  “Can we all quieten down for a moment please!” He paused, waiting for the volume to lower, before resuming.

  “If everyone could go and start their tasks for the day, please. Poor Tom here needs a moment with a few of us, because I believe he’ll need to be brought up to speed on what’s recently happened.”

  The room slowly emptied, as most of the adults went out to start work, and the children, somewhat more reluctantly, all trooped down the road to report for their morning lessons with Mary and Mandy.

  Unable to contain myself any longer, I burst out, “Can someone please just tell me what the hell happened? It’s killing me! Just bloody tell me, please!”

  Becky squeezed my hand in an attempt to calm me down.

  Harry looked round at us all and began.

  “Shall I start? If anyone wants to join in, then please, feel free to butt in.”

  This was his story.

  He’d been stationed at the other barricade when the first shots were fired. Following the agreed protocol, he’d stayed at his post and made sure that everyone was on full alert and ready for action. After a few minutes, having satisfied himself that his station was secure now that more residents had arrived to reinforce the defenders, and aware that gunfire was still erupting from the direction of the other barricade, he’d made his way over there.

  The place was in chaos.

  Nobody appeared to have any idea what was happening except that the gunfire had now ceased. Most people were crouching behind the barricades, trying to make sense of the situation, while the rest were furiously trying to administer first aid to Dave and the soldier. It soon became clear that they were beyond help.

  Reports of the sound of a vehicle engine and shouting from further up the road, only served to increase the confusion.

  Eventually, after a shouted exchange to establish that the two soldiers who could be seen sheltering behind the wall were friendly, and therefore safe to approach, Harry, Allan and Russ made their way up to them.

  The soldiers quickly pointed out where I was lying and Jerry was sent for. Once he’d ascertained that I was still alive, he sent for help and I was hastily carried back for urgent treatment.

  In the meantime, the two soldiers quickly explained what had happened.

  Once everyone had recovered from the shock of the attackers coming from among us, the planning began. Contact was made with Captain Berry, but this placed him in a difficult position. All his men were occupied in forming a cordon around the farmhouse, and he was worried that that any sudden activity might prematurely announce their presence, putting more lives in danger. However, realising the urgency of our situation, he quickly promised to dispatch any troops he could safely extricate from their current positions, back to us. Despite this, from our point of view it would still be several hours before they got to us. As Harry had been left with just five soldiers, one of whom was injured and another of whom was dead, we were more or less on our own.

  As things stood, one of the members of our small community had been killed and three others had been taken. They had to get them back, but the kidnappers had taken the last vehicle. The only other vehicles available were the lorries, which would be next to useless in such deep snow.

  The tracks made by the fleeing vehicle had left a clear trail, but on foot a rescue party would stand no chance. It was only when Jerry (who had arrived to give everyone an update on my condition) reminded everyone that I had a Land Rover sitting in my garage, that the plan began to take shape.

  Russ and one of the soldiers with mechanical experience immediately left to check it out. Shortly afterwards, they returned and confirmed that they’d found the parts I’d removed to disable it, and that it would take them about thirty minutes to re-attach them and get the vehicle started. This was better news.

  The rescue party was hastily assembled, consisting of Harry, Allan, Chris and two of the remaining soldiers.

  At the mention of Chris, I stopped Harry and said, “But Chris, your ankle? You didn’t have to do that. Someone else could have gone.”

  Chris grinned wryly, “Yes I know that. And trust me, there was no shortage of volunteers, but let’s face it, my knowledge of tracking and hunting’s a useful skill. They still weren’t happy about taking me, so I really had to apply the pressure to get them to agree. In the end, I laid it on a bit heavy about how I was single etc. so if something went wrong, then most of the others would be leaving behind widows and children, and I wouldn’t.”

  Pete clapped him on the back. “He can be very persuasive when he wants to be!”

  I nodded at Chris, and Harry continued.

  Once the Land Rover was in working order and fully fuelled, with a few extra jerrycans of fuel strapped to the roof rack, the five heavily armed rescuers set off.

  Back at the base, Colonel Moore had now been appraised of the situation, and had given orders for the drone that had been monitoring Captain Berry and his men to be redeployed to help our party find its quarry.

  As the Land Rover followed the tracks in the snow, which showed up clearly in the bright moonlight, constant three-way radio communication was maintained between the car, the base and the road. Everyone’s attention had shifted from the attack at the farmhouse to the rescu
e attempt.

  Inside the car, the mood was tense. The fact that Kim and Michelle had been taken must have been hard on Harry and Allan. I remembered my own furious struggle to get to Becky, and realised that it must have taken all their self-control not to drive as fast as possible to get to them. Instead, the party pressed on steadily. A tactical and cautious approach was needed now.

  The bright moonlight reflecting off the white blanket of snow made it unnecessary to use the headlights on the car. The rescue party moved on.

  After three agonisingly frustrating hours, the UAV operator reported that she’d picked up a heat signal from a vehicle ahead.

  It had to be them.

  After following the UAV operator’s directions until they got there, everyone stepped from the Land Rover and cautiously approached the armoured car, weapons at the ready.

  It was lying empty and abandoned in a ditch. Somehow the driver had managed to make a mistake, and had driven it straight into a deep ditch that ran parallel to the road.

  In spite of the vehicle’s four-wheel drive system and heavy duty off-road tyres, it had proved impossible to get it out of the ditch. The quagmire of snow and mud around the vehicle, churned up by spinning tyres, was a testament to their frantic efforts to do so.

  Footprints and drag marks led away across the fields. The armoured car’s engine was cool now so it had been there for a while, but Chris was reassuring. Even with a head start of several hours, it wouldn’t be possible for them to travel far in such conditions, especially if the women were not being cooperative. And yet the UAV, with all its high-tech equipment, could find no trace of them.

  All they could do was start tracking them on foot.

  Thankfully, the trail proved easy to follow. After a quick discussion, they concluded that the fleeing men probably weren’t expecting any pursuit, as they believed they’d stolen the only useable vehicle remaining to us. Encouraged by this thought, the rescuers picked up the pace, only exercising caution when approaching walls or hedges.

  Finally, they were rewarded by the sound of muffled shouts and screams in the distance. They picked up their speed even more, spurred on by the knowledge that they were close.

  The trail led to a barn standing in the middle of a field. After cautiously circling the building, they discovered that the only door into the building was closed. One of the soldiers crept forward, covered by everyone else, who held their weapons ready. It was locked or barred from the inside.

  The shouts from the men inside the building, and the screams and shouts of defiance from the three women, painted a clear picture of what the men were trying to do.

  There was barely any time to think. They had to find a way into the barn. The door looked sturdy so they rejected the idea of trying to barge through. The men inside could not be given an opportunity to do the women any more harm, or prepare to defend themselves. As far as they knew, all three were armed with shotguns or automatic weapons. They could not be allowed the time to use them.

  A frantic search revealed a loose corrugated sheet that had been used to repair a hole in one of the walls of the barn. Using a knife, the nails holding the sheet in place were quickly but quietly extracted and the sheet removed to reveal a hole large enough to crawl through.

  The scene inside, lit by a single propane lantern, was harrowing. The men had all three women pinned down, and were careless of how much they were hurting them.

  The women, scratched and bruised and their clothes torn, were furiously fighting to get away. Filled with rage, the rescuers launched their attack.

  Outnumbered and caught off guard, the would-be rapists didn’t stand a chance. Before long they were beaten unconscious and tied up on the floor.

  Harry paused in the telling of his story and looked a little uncomfortable, as if unsure about what to say next.

  I broke the silence, “What happened then?”

  Harry opened his mouth to say something, and then Michelle spoke up. Eyes shining with tears, but looking me straight in the eye, she said firmly, “I killed them!”

  The simple statement hung in the air for a moment, then she gathered herself and continued. “I made myself a promise that after what happened to us at St Agnes Road, no one would ever do that to me again.” She glanced at Kim at this point, “And I’ll do anything I can to stop it happening to anyone else. No one should have to go through that!”

  I closed my eyes, thinking about what might have happened to Becky.

  Wiping her eyes but lifting her head defiantly, she continued, “They were guilty. We saw them kill our people. I don’t think they planned to kidnap us; we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  I’m sure if we’d been men on the barricade, they would have just killed us there and then. But they took us by surprise, and before we knew it we’d been beaten and thrown into the back of a truck. Then they bound our arms and legs to stop us escaping.”

  She looked at Becky and Kim and her voice hardened, “No one else was involved. Our men left them tied up on the ground. I waited until everyone was outside, and then before anyone could stop me, I picked up one of their rifles and shot each of them in the head.”

  Allan put his arm around her in support and she responded by gently touching his arm, before saying quietly, “I’d do it again in an instant. We can’t rely on anyone else to administer justice for us and I wouldn’t want someone else to do my dirty work for me.”

  The room was silent for a moment, and then Pete cleared his throat and spoke up.

  “Michelle, we’re all a hundred percent behind you and what you did. We’re just sad that you had to do it. Everyone fully supports Colonel Moore’s new constitution.”

  Becky spoke for the first time. “If you hadn’t done it, I would have,” she said firmly. “Those bastards were pure evil. They could have satisfied themselves with just stealing the vehicle and some supplies, and then disappearing, and that would have been the end of it. Instead, they murdered poor Dave and Private Mclean for their weapons, and abducted us because we happened to be there.”

  People nodded in agreement. At this moment, Paul Berry walked into the room and the mood lifted a little. He apologised for his late arrival, explaining that he’d been on the radio to the base at Hereford. He took in the situation at a glance.

  “Michelle, if you hadn’t done it then, there would have been a queue, trust me,” he said. “And while their motives may not seem logical to us, it’s proved that we can’t trust anyone until we know them well enough. Because of their actions, we’ve had to change the policy and procedures we were putting in place at the base. The fact that those three men were in such close proximity to senior government officials and royalty has scared the hell out of our security people.”

  He looked round at us all and added, “Sorry, have I interrupted?”

  I shook my head. “No, not at all. I think they’ve covered everything I needed to know. Michelle, I can guarantee that no one will ever think badly of you for what you did. In my opinion, you’re one of the bravest women I know. Those bastards deserved to die, and you did it without hesitation or any expectation of someone else doing it.

  Right, Paul,” I said, turning to him expectantly. “Now you’re here, you can tell me about the attack on the farm.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Paul looked round at us all for a moment, as if deciding what to say. “Not much to report, really. The mission was a complete success. The missiles did their job, and most of the ones who were left alive were too shocked and disorientated to put up much resistance. A few of them tried to fight back, but they didn’t last long against the kind of firepower we had.”

  “Did you find out where they came from?” I asked.

  He nodded coldly, “Yes. We kept a few of them alive for a short while so they could be questioned.”

  It was as he’d suspected. A lot of them had come from the military prison at Colchester. Not long after the event, most of the prisoners had been released, as the prison
no longer had the resources to continue feeding and looking after them. But quite a few were deemed too dangerous to be let out and to their credit, the few remaining Military Provost staff had stayed on to guard them.

  At some point, a mistake had been made, and the prisoners had managed to escape and kill the guards. From that time, they’d embarked on a campaign of destruction and intimidation, killing and stealing from everyone they encountered. Their numbers had increased as “like-minded” degenerates were spared execution, (a fate handed out to most of the unfortunates they met) and opted to join them instead.

  Their plan was simple: they would move from group to group, attacking and destroying anyone who got in their way, and living off the captured supplies until they found somewhere suitable for a permanent base.

  “Did you get them all?” I asked.

  Paul nodded, “We believe so, yes. We counted over forty bodies and recovered a fair number of weapons and supplies from the building the missiles destroyed. No one could have got through the cordon we put up around the farmhouse. The threat they posed to the region has been permanently extinguished.”

  The conversation in the room descended into general chitchat for a while, until I recollected Paul’s comment about the change to policies and procedures at the Hereford base. As I asked about this the room hushed again, as people stopped to listen.

  “Well,” he said, “after the event, as you know, we were only allowing people we regarded as completely trustworthy on to the base to live among us. But after contact was made with you here and we discovered what fantastic progress you’d made, and realised that your achievements were putting the government’s efforts to shame … well, the meetings you had with the hierarchy made an enormous difference. So then we began to adopt a more outward-looking and proactive approach.”

  I nodded, wondering where this was going.

  “As I said before,” he continued, “the fact that those three men were living among us for a time and had close contact and even conversations with some very important people … well, it’s made a lot of people very nervous and led to a reassessment of the situation …”