UK Dark Trilogy

by Harris, Chris

  While we waited for Harry and Kim’s isolation period to end, life carried on at our temporary home.

  News of further deaths at home was now received with quiet acceptance. Given the appallingly high mortality rate, bad news was now to be expected. Every evening we raised a glass and shed a tear for someone who was no longer with us.

  The harsh reality of the life we now led and the amount of death we had already experienced had inured us to much of the pain.

  I felt blessed that none of my family had been affected. In fact, our household had been the only one to escape the disease. I had no idea why. Perhaps luck, or fate had had a hand in it. Who knows.

  The day came when, except for Allan, every member of our community who’d fallen sick had died and their bodies had been disposed of. As an extra precaution, the decision was taken to burn down the house that Jerry had been using as a hospital. We all agreed that this would be the best way of wiping out any final traces of the disease. And besides, no one relished the idea of returning to a house full of ghosts and bad memories.

  Jerry imposed a further week of isolation, to rule out any possibility that he or any of his exhausted carers might be carrying the bacteria. We were disappointed, but a few more days wouldn’t make much difference.

  The news from the base was no better. There had been no new cases since we’d last spoken, and they were cautiously optimistic about having it under control, but over fifty percent of the new arrivals had died along with a number of the original occupants. Despite this, the fact that they’d received an early warning from us meant that the death toll wasn’t as catastrophic as it might have been.

  The news from Balmoral couldn’t have been worse. I had the sad task of informing Harry that his father had succumbed to the disease. The rescue party sent to Balmoral had arrived to find that the entire household had been wiped out. The Prince of Wales was laid to rest alongside his wife and other family members in the grounds of their Scottish estate, with as much ceremony as the small party of soldiers could manage.

  Steve and his family had settled in easily and were readily accepted as part of our small community. After a few days, it felt as if they had always been with us.

  The medics at the base had worked hard on Gary to remove the shotgun pellets from his face and to repair as much of the damage as possible. Despite all their efforts, he had lost an eye and his face had been left horribly scarred, but he would recover.

  We had made one brief trip to the warehouse the day after we’d left, primarily to recover the weapons stored there. We didn’t want to take the chance that they might fall into the wrong hands.

  As far as we’d been able to tell, the men who had ambushed us had only had shotguns and we wanted to keep it that way. Had they possessed modern assault weapons when they attacked, the ending might have been rather different.

  With this in mind, we had taken the Land Rover and lost no time in getting there. Once we were inside, we followed Isaac’s directions to where they had been hidden, and before long we had collected every weapon we could find.

  We locked the building up as best we could and closed and secured the main gate.

  Back at the base, planning was now in its final stage for Colonel Moore and his team to empty the warehouse and transfer its contents back there. This was good news for Emma and her daughter, as they would be returning to the base on one of the lorries, so that they could be with Gary.

  Some of Moore’s staff had visited the warehouse in the past during their stay with us, so their familiarity with it made the planning relatively easy.

  The proposal was quite clever and would involve exposing as few people as possible to the risk of infection.

  A small contingent of soldiers would be based at the warehouse. Their initial priority would be to bury the occupants, partly out of respect but also for practical reasons.

  Most of the corpses were in the loading bay and they would have to be moved to allow passage for the forklifts and lifting equipment.

  The dead would be buried in a mass grave and the base chaplain would be in attendance to perform a burial service.

  Every lorry and vehicle capable of carrying goods would be used to make the runs between the base and the warehouse until the contents were finally cleared. To avoid any possibility of infection, the drivers would not be permitted to leave their vehicles while they were being loaded.

  It was estimated that this process would take two to three days.

  As soon as Gary was well enough, he and his family would return to us once the regular vehicle runs between the base and our compound had re-commenced.

  The men who had attacked were still a concern. Once the current situation had resolved itself and the remaining members of our community were together again, it would be necessary to find them and wipe them out. As things stood, we weren’t in a position to mount patrols to find them, but we were careful to avoid being taken by surprise again.

  The defensive positions we had built and the amount of firepower we had available to us would, ordinarily, be more than enough to protect us. But without people on lookout duty, they would be useless.

  As usual, Pete managed to put together a perfect rota which gave everyone some time with their families but ensured that someone was always on the lookout.

  Apart from the sadness that still weighed heavily on us for the people we had lost, that time we spent there could almost be described as a holiday. The weather was warm and the children spent whole days exploring and playing in the woods. Now that there were people constantly on lookout duty, we were happy enough to let them run free within the confines of the trees. It seemed unlikely that they would come to any harm. Saying that, when we managed to corral them up for meal times, there were always enough bruises and scrapes to send worried mothers running for the antiseptic cream and plasters.

  Aside from guard duty, the adult contingent had very little to do. We had ample food and, thanks to Russ, running water.

  His ingenuity never ceased to amaze us. He’d invented a very simple device that used the power of the flowing water to somehow pump it back up to us in the wood.

  It did need sterilising, but as firewood was in plentiful supply this was not a problem at all.

  Poor Russ. He kept trying to explain how it worked, but after about the fifth attempt we all agreed that it was magic, and if he had performed such sorcery in the Middle Ages, he would surely have been burned at the stake.

  By now we had dispensed with the health checks we’d put in place, as it was clear that no one had developed any symptoms and there was no danger. When not on guard duty or carrying out the light chores necessary to keep the camp functioning, we spent the days resting and chatting around the fire, which we kept burning constantly.

  Cooking had become a communal affair; more of an activity than a chore, because we all chipped in to help.

  It did take a day or two to adjust to this enforced rest.

  We were all used to constant activity and hard work, and just as it had always taken a few days to adapt to the pace of a summer holiday, it took us a while to get used to it. It was hard not to feel guilty about having so little to do, but we comforted ourselves with the knowledge that we’d worked virtually nonstop to survive for the past six months and there was little we could do about the current situation. We might as well enjoy it while it lasted.

  Three days later Harry, Kim, Isaac and Lottie were declared free of infection and re-joined us.

  We had been careful to prepare our own children and they readily and gently included them in the day’s activities. Before long Isaac was tearing around with the older kids and Lottie was having the time of her life playing imaginary games with the younger ones.

  Harry and Kim seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed their isolation and had clearly grown much closer.

  It struck me that despite her youth and her fresh-faced prettiness, Kim had a toughness and determination that wasn’t immediately apparent on meeting her. In spite
of everything she had been through prior to our rescuing her, she’d won the love of a handsome, young prince. The fact that he was also kind, brave and surprisingly down to earth was an added bonus.

  I smiled to myself and shook my head. In normal circumstances, the chances of their paths crossing and their falling in love would have been infinitesimal.

  Fate was a strange thing.

  They had formed strong bonds with Isaac and Lottie, and were adamant that they still wanted to help look after them and be involved in their lives. It came as no surprise to us to hear that the children suffered nightmares most nights. Kim could readily understand what they were going through and wanted to play a part in helping them to recover.

  As the day of our departure approached, we sorted through what we planned to take with us and what we would leave.

  Emma and Marcie finally received the news they had been longing for: a suitable vehicle had been made available to take them back to the base. Russ and I used the Land Rover to drop them off at the warehouse. We didn’t prolong our goodbyes, because we knew we would be seeing them again as soon as Gary was fit enough to travel.

  It wouldn’t be possible for us to take all the food. Steve still had an enormous quantity buried at various locations around the wood, so we decided to make a careful note of them and leave them in place. He had waterproofed the storage holes to the best of his ability, so we were confident that the contents would be preserved for a good while at least.

  After some discussion, we had decided to keep the campsite as a fall-back location in case we were forced to evacuate the compound again.

  It made sense. It was reasonably close to home, it was familiar to us and there would be food and equipment there if we needed it. In the worst-case scenario, we could just leave everything behind and head back to the woods, knowing that we would have enough there to enable us to survive.

  We gave careful consideration to the things we would leave, and how best to conceal them. Hopefully, the woods would remain undiscovered, but that could not be taken for granted, so we hid caches of camping and cooking equipment in various places around the woods.

  The weapons we had collected from the warehouse were also hidden in the woods. We removed the pins from the bolt carriers and hid them in another location so that even if someone did discover them, they would still be inoperable. The ammunition was also stored separately.

  Lastly, the lookout posts and defensive bunkers we had constructed were dismantled so that they couldn’t be used against us if anyone else took up occupation.

  If need be, it would not take long to reinstate them, and we camouflaged them as best we could in the hope that they wouldn’t be obvious to anyone else.

  As we left the woods early in the morning, we took a last look at the place that had been our sanctuary over the previous weeks.

  We were excited to be returning home, but our emotions were mixed.

  A third of the adults in our community and half of the children had died.

  The community we had created and were heading back to would never be the same. We had lost so much.

  But we had also made new friends.

  The road stretched out in front of us, and we settled our rucksacks on to our shoulders. We let the dogs run ahead, took our children’s hands and set out for home, with the much lighter Land Rover bringing up the rear.

  The pace was unusually fast; an indication of our desire to return home.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  The closer we got, the quieter we became.

  As one, we turned the final corner and entered the road. We had been in contact by radio so they were expecting us. As soon as they saw us the gates swung open.

  Jerry and Fiona were first through the gates. Sprinting towards us, they scooped Larry and Jack up in their arms and hugged them fiercely.

  Emotions ran high as family members embraced. This was first time they’d all had a chance to grieve together for the loss of a parent or worse, the loss of a child.

  Even Captain Berry, the “hard as nails” SAS captain, was wiping his eyes. While we had been mourning the dead at a distance, he had stayed on and witnessed the full horror of the plague, burying its victims both young and old.

  It was a while before anyone felt inclined to move to the kitchen area.

  When we got there the shrunken size of our community hit me forcibly. We sat down for our first meeting.

  Steve, Toni and their children were introduced to everyone and made to feel welcome.

  Predictably, Pete had already organised lodgings for them in a house he knew would have the space, and with people they got on with especially well.

  Allan was missing from the meeting. Although he was now recovering slowly, he was still bedridden. When I saw him I understood why. His fight with the plague had clearly been a close-run thing; he seemed to have shrunk to half his size and looked pale and drawn. He sat up in bed while Michelle held his hand. She looked exhausted from the effort of caring for him.

  This really brought it home to me. We had been told that Allan was doing OK and was responding to the antibiotics. If this was their version of “OK”, how bad had it been for the people who had died?

  The cooks soon got back into the swing of things and put together a special meal in the evening to celebrate the community becoming whole again. It also turned into a celebration of the lives we had lost, so that our last and hopefully enduring memories of them would raise some smiles as well as tears.

  Before he became too drunk to speak clearly, Pete announced he would be starting the rotas again in the morning, so that we could get back to normal.

  I volunteered to man one of the barricades to give some of the others a chance to let their hair down. About an hour into my shift the noise of footsteps made me turn. Harry and Paul were climbing up to join me.

  “We thought we’d keep you company,” said Harry, pulling his arm from behind his back and waving a bottle of whisky.

  “In that case, gents …” I shifted over to make space.

  Harry produced some mugs from his other pocket and poured three generous measures.

  We all sat in silence as we sipped the single malt from chipped mugs, enjoying the sensation of warmth as it spread through our bodies.

  “I think I know where the gang that attacked you are based,” said Paul matter-of-factly.

  Harry looked at him, “So that’s why you called me away from Kim. You want to plan another war!”

  “Well, not exactly. After you were attacked, Colonel Moore began searching for them using the UAVs. Not just for that reason. They also wanted to check on all the registered communities to see if they could find out how many had survived the plague.

  An air search isn’t the most accurate way of doing it, but they did find isolated pockets of survivors, so there must be more out there that we’ve missed. But by far the largest concentration of survivors was found just outside Alvechurch.”

  Harry responded by looking mystified.

  “It’s a small village about five miles away,” I explained, “it’s about halfway between here and Redditch.”

  Paul nodded. “They flew over them a few times to record as many images as possible because they didn’t much like what they saw.

  From what our analysts can work out, there’s a nomadic group that seems to be travelling in a convoy of old and vintage vehicles they’ve managed to get working.”

  He pulled his tablet computer from the rucksack he was carrying and pulled up a video clip. The image was clear and showed an old Land Rover pulling into a courtyard where a number of others were parked.

  I asked the obvious question.

  “Why were they on foot when they attacked us then?”

  “The only explanation we can come up with is that we can see no evidence of any fuel transporting capacity, so they probably scavenge it as they go and preserve it for essential travel. We suspect they patrol any area local to them on foot. The place where you were attacked and the war
ehouse aren’t far from them at all. We also think there are more of them than can fit into vehicles, so maybe the vehicles are reserved for the group’s leaders.”

  He paused, flicking to another picture on the screen.

  “Jerry saw this and thought he recognised him, but he couldn’t be sure as he’d only seen him briefly when he first arrived at the road.”

  I looked at the screen and gave a start.

  “Rick!”

  The image clearly showed a former neighbour who, along with Jim Cole, had stolen a Land Rover the day I’d first brought Jerry and his family to the road. The two men had bundled their families into the car and sped off.

  Another neighbour, Ian, had tried to stop him and had been run over and killed in the process.

  I stared at the still image of him, standing next to a car talking to some other men and anger welled up inside me.

  “Right. Tomorrow, we go there and we kill the bastard. After what he did to us and especially to Mary, I’m going to throttle him with my own hands.”

  We sat quietly for a while, sipping our whisky, then Harry spoke up.

  “Yes, we will, but we need to be careful. This man knows where we are, he knows we have, or at least had, supplies. The question is: why hasn’t he returned yet? Has he already spied on us and seen our defences?”

  “I don’t know,” I replied dejectedly.

  “Exactly! And that’s why until we do know the answers, we do nothing. Knowledge is the key, which is why we should all defer to Paul and let him come up with a plan, so we can find the answers. And THEN ...” he said, nodding decisively, “we can kill the bastard.”

  Paul held out his glass for a top-up.

  “I want to make sure everything is in order here first. A lot of things have been neglected over the past few weeks, and now that there are fewer of us, we need to make sure that we can manage everything here and cope with every eventuality. We can’t expect any help from the base for at least another week, unless there’s another emergency like you had with Gary, of course.