Realm of the Raiders Read online

  SAFE HAVEN:

  REALM OF THE RAIDERS

  CHRISTOPHER ARTINIAN

  Published by Headless RAM Publishing

  COPYRIGHT © 2017

  CHRISTOPHER ARTINIAN

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  For more information about Christopher Artinian including finding out about the next instalment in the Safe Haven series and future projects, please visit:

  www.christopherartinian.com

  https://www.facebook.com/safehaventrilogy

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  EPILOGUE

  Acknowledgements

  CHAPTER ONE

  The constant drizzle had all but extinguished the fires from the previous days. What had once been a thriving city was now a dismembered skeleton of charred buildings and abandoned vehicles. The realisation that all was lost had forced the masses from their terraces and high-rise castles to the battlefield of the streets, to flee.

  The Army protecting them had been called back to the capital to attempt one final stand against the RAMs, the reanimated corpses of those infected by the virus that had swept across the planet. The creatures were unrelenting; they had no purpose but to infect, to spread the virus. A bite, a scratch, a drop of blood: it was the beginning and the end.

  Oversized rats picked at the corpses strewn throughout the streets. They ignored the active RAMs for the time being, but once their food supply had dwindled, their new-found fearlessness and ferocity would lead them to tear the decaying flesh from those that moved as well.

  This was the new city. Monuments to capitalism and progress lay in ruins while the embodiments of hell roamed the streets. This was no longer a place to live, it was only a place to die. Man was not the alpha species any more.

  “They’re gone. We’ve lost them,” whispered the girl to the silent figure next to her. “We’re safe now.” They remained crouched in the doorway behind a battered shopping trolley. The bottom part of the door had been kicked in, the safety glass no match for looters desperate to steal the last packet of cigarettes, the last lighter, the last anything. “Come on, let’s go in. Can’t be any worse than out here.”

  The man stayed silent. He followed the girl through the hole in the door. Enough light came through the filthy windows to reveal ransacked shelving and trashed fittings. Not a place for commerce anymore, but a place for safety, even if just for a few hours. The RAMs wouldn’t look for them in here. Not without good cause.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked her companion.

  “I really don’t feel well,” he croaked. “I think it was that rat. As soon as it bit me I started to get pins and needles in my hand.” He lifted his arm into the dirty light to show her the swelling around the teeth marks. She looked away in revulsion.

  “We need antibiotics,” she said. “It’s going septic.”

  “I can’t go out there again. Not today. I’m tired. I need rest.” His throat was getting drier by the second. “I need a drink.”

  The girl pulled a bottle of cola from her shoulder bag. “Go steady with it. That’s all we’ve got left.”

  The man unscrewed the top. Each turn was an effort. He took a drink and handed it back to her.

  “We’ll stay here tonight and then find a pharmacy first thing tomorrow. Do you want something to eat?” she asked, rifling through her bag once again.

  “No. I want to close my eyes for a while,” he replied and curled up in a foetal position with his back to the sweet counter.

  The girl took out a bag of dried fruit and pushed a couple of handfuls into her mouth, pausing in mid-chew as another group of RAMs rushed by the shop front. She was fifteen, but savvy. She would get antibiotics for her companion tomorrow, and then they would get out of the city. She knew little about him other than he had lost everything too – and that he could drive. That was the main reason to stick with him. If they could find a working car on the outskirts of town, they could escape this nightmare.

  She sat for three hours watching the street, then the fear and trauma caught up with her. She looked across at her companion in the fading light. She pushed a wide shelf against the gap in the bottom of the door. It would serve as some sort of alarm if anything tried to get through.

  She was used to the white noise of terror now, and her brain gradually convinced her she was as safe in the corner of this newsagent as she was anywhere. She listened to the sound of her breathing and allowed its hypnotic rhythm to carry her into sleep.

  *

  She woke with a start. The moonlight illuminated enough of the small shop to reveal out-of-place shadows. The silhouette of her companion was no longer visible against the sweet counter and there was a figure standing at the window looking in. A shiver ran down her spine, then another as she realised it wasn’t on the outside looking in – it was on the inside, looking directly at her. As had become second nature, she thrust her hands into her pockets and withdrew a knife and a torch. In the same instant a familiar growl gurgled from the throat of the creature. It lurched towards her as if being woken from a nightmare and was on her before she could strike. A flash of light from the torch revealed the contorted mask that used to be the face of her companion. She sank the knife blade into the RAM’s stomach just as its teeth ripped the flesh of her neck, and she felt the emptiness of defeat; she felt the shame of being beaten; she felt the fear of what was to come. She felt... she felt... Then she didn’t feel any more.

  CHAPTER TWO

  There was a gentle knock on the door. Mike and Lucy looked at each other and laughed. When the passion of the previous night had consumed them, they had not thought about the aftermath. Everyone would find out at some point, but they would have preferred to tell them on their own terms and in their own time.

  “Fuck it, I don’t care who knows.” Mike found his boxer shorts, flung on his T-shirt and walked towards the door. Lucy leaned up in bed, covering herself with the quilt, and watched him as he strode across the room.

  The couple had known each other for just a few days, but they had shared a lifetime of experiences. Chance had thrown Lucy and Mike together. Together, they had battled for their lives. They had warred against man and beast to find safety, and without realising it, they had developed a bond that would never have existed in the world before.

  *

  Mike opened the hotel room door. Standing there with a bowl of steaming water was Jenny Martin, the wife of Councillor Keith Martin, one of the most important men in the small village of Candleton. The hotel had become a gathering point for village meetings. There was a small farming operation in its grounds and although life now was far from normal, the hotelier insisted on maintaining the highest standards. Some thought it a little eccentric, but nobody dared say it to her face. The hotel still had electricity, powered by a small wind turbine, and although hot water was no longer available through the taps, Jenny had a bowl of steaming water fresh off the hob delivered to each of her guests every morning. For a moment she thought she had got the wrong room but then she looked beyond Mike to the bed.

  She smiled mischievously. “Good morning, you two,” she said, walking past Mike and into the room. She put the bowl down on a chest of drawers and turned towards the bed. “I was going to ask if you had a good night’s sleep, but I’m guessing sleep wasn’t really a priority.” She smirked as she walked
back out.

  “Erm, Jenny—” Lucy began to speak, but the hotel owner cut her off.

  “Don’t worry, you don’t run a hotel as long as I have without keeping a few secrets about what goes on in the rooms. Breakfast will be in twenty minutes. I’m assuming both of you could do with a little sustenance.” She looked Mike up and down, gave Lucy a knowing wink and chuckled as she re-entered the hallway.

  Mike closed the door behind her and went across to retrieve the rest of his clothes from the floor.

  “What if it had been Emma or Samantha?” Lucy asked, smiling but concerned that Mike may have been acting a little brashly.

  “I don’t care. I’ve got nothing to hide. Last night was incredible and being with you felt more natural than being with anyone else I’ve ever been with. If anybody’s got an issue with that, then it’s their problem, not mine.” He buttoned up his jeans as he spoke.

  Lucy just smiled and watched him. Was it possible that amid all this turmoil, all this horror, she might finally have found a modicum of happiness?

  There was another knock on the door. This was more rapid, more urgent. Mike opened it expecting to see his sister Emma, or maybe Samantha, but it was Jenny again.

  “Lucy, one of my staff has just told me my niece is going into labour.” The normally cool hotel owner had a hint of panic in her voice. She had converted a wing of the hotel into a cottage hospital and their first patient was Jenny’s niece.

  Although she had transformed into an action heroine during the past few days, Lucy was first and foremost a doctor. Without a pause she flung back the quilt and began to get dressed.

  “Jenny, can you go get Samantha?” The hotelier disappeared. “Well, sweetie, looks like it’s back to reality.” She kissed him before submerging her head in the bowl of water in an attempt to wash away the alcohol-induced fuzziness from the night before.

  Mike left and walked across the corridor to his room. There was a bowl of hot water already waiting for him. He freshened up, changed his clothes and went to hunt down his siblings. When he entered their room he found that Tracey, a young woman they had rescued from a vicious gang, had already taken his younger brother and sister down to breakfast. Emma was clearly hung over and was splashing water over her face in the hope that it would help.

  Mike was on edge as he walked across to speak to her. “So, Lucy and I were talking last night and I don’t think it would be a bad idea if we stayed here rather than going back on the road.” He had struggled with this decision, because ever since leaving Leeds his mission had been to get them all to safety at his gran’s place up on the north-west coast of Scotland.

  Drops of water fell from Emma’s face as she reached for a towel to dry herself off. A self-satisfied smirk curled the corner of her lips.

  “Is that what they call it now? Talking?” She looked at her brother, the smirk turning to a cheeky grin. “The kids went in to wake you up first thing this morning and your bed hadn’t been touched. You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure the rest out.” He cringed a little. “I never told you, but a couple of years ago I had a fling with my editor. He was eighteen years older than me, but it was great while it lasted.”

  Mike breathed a sigh of relief. He had expected his sister to chastise him rather than support him.

  “Best sex I ever had, too,” she added, knowing full well it would make him shudder with embarrassment.

  “Okay, enough!” He laughed and kissed her on the forehead.

  “Come on, I’ve got to be allowed to tease you a bit, that’s what big sisters are for. Honestly though, Mike, I’m glad we’re staying. I don’t know how much more I could have taken out on the road.”

  “Well, maybe we can all find a little happiness here, sis. I think we deserve it, don’t you?”

  *

  When the pair arrived in the dining room, their friend Beth was already there. As Mike and Emma got closer, they could see she was having an animated conversation with Keith Martin. Beth and Keith came across to Mike and Emma as soon as they arrived.

  “Dad’s gone missing!” Beth said urgently.

  “Joseph’s missing?” Emma replied. “Since when?”

  “He’s been off colour for a couple of days and last night he came down with a fever. This morning when he woke up he was babbling about finding Peter. He left the house wearing nothing but his pyjamas. Mum is out of her mind with worry. We all are.”

  Mike grabbed a slice of dry toast, kissed Sammy and Jake on the head, poured a coffee from the filter jug and headed towards the door.

  “Where are you going?” Keith asked as Mike marched across the dining room.

  “Well, Joseph’s not in here, is he? I’m going to go look for him,” he replied.

  “He doesn’t hang around, your brother, does he?” Keith said, looking towards Emma.

  “That’s something he’ll never be accused of,” she replied.

  Beth ran out after him. He was already halfway down the main street when she caught up.

  “Uncle Daniel, Mum and Darren are already searching the south end of the village,” she said, slightly out of breath.

  “Well, we’d better check out the north then, hadn’t we?” he said, taking a drink from the mug of coffee he’d brought out with him.

  The pair of them walked to the north bridge and asked the soldiers on patrol if they had seen anything. The soldiers had already received a transmission from Darren, their corporal, advising them to be on the lookout, but so far Joseph had remained elusive.

  Mike and Beth decided to take the footpath east along the river bank. The rain was relentless and the water was beginning to rise. They searched the banks, and whenever there was a break in the hedgerow, they checked it out in the hope that they would stumble across a feverish, but still breathing, Joseph. There was a distance of one and a half miles between the north and south bridges and close to two miles between the furthest points east and west on the island village. It was not a huge place, but there was still quite a lot of ground to cover. By chance, Mike glanced across to the opposite side of the river and did a double take as he looked up the hill and into the trees. There was a young woman stumbling through the bracken, her body naked and bruised. Beth looked across, following Mike’s line of sight. At first all she saw were the hedges and trees rising up the murky hill, but then her eyes caught a flash of something else. Despite wanting to find her father more than anything, she knew she had to help. This woman was a complete stranger, but Beth knew her as she would know anybody who had suffered the same nightmarish ordeal as herself.

  “We’ll go back and tell the soldiers, and they’ll pick her up,” Mike said as he looked towards Beth.

  “If she sees the soldiers, she’ll run a mile, Mike. I need to go to her.”

  The pair headed back to the north bridge.

  *

  “It’s okay, there might be a couple of false alarms before these little guys are ready to come out.” Lucy smiled at the young mother-to-be whose apologetic look said what words didn’t need to. Lucy looked across to Samantha, who was still holding the patient’s hand. They shared a knowing grin. “I’m going to go get some chow. Do you want me to bring you something?” Samantha had been the nurse assigned to Lucy’s medical unit in Leeds and was now her oldest surviving friend.

  “Some coffee would be good.”

  Lucy nodded and left the makeshift delivery room. She entered the dining room and the smile that was threatening to tattoo itself on her face disappeared as she saw the worried looks on Keith and Emma’s faces.

  Emma walked up to her and gently guided her out of earshot of the children. “We can’t find Joseph,” she announced and then told the story surrounding his disappearance.

  Lucy was a good doctor; in fact, she was a great doctor. Many physicians couldn’t remember one patient from the next, but she possessed an almost photographic memory when it came to people’s maladies. As she heard the story unfold, she remembered that during the journey to Candlet
on, Joseph had complained about pins and needles in his leg. She hadn’t thought any more about it at the time. It was a common complaint after being cooped up in a car for a prolonged period. But now it struck her like a hammer blow. Scratch victims often complained about a “pins and needles” sensation around the area of their affliction, and a fevered delirium occurred in virtually every case, just before the victim fell into the final sleep. Joseph must have been scratched by a RAM the day they had gone back to the raiders’ house, the day they had been overrun by RAMs. Joseph was about to turn.

  Emma sat down beside her, worried as to why the colour had suddenly drained from Lucy’s face. At the same moment, the doors to the dining room swung open again. Beth had her arm around a young woman in a blanket. She coaxed her into the large dining area with soft, reassuring words. The young woman’s paranoid eyes darted around the room, looking for a trap in every corner.

  “Lucy!” Beth called to the doctor, who walked across and looked at both of them for any hint of an explanation.

  “Jenny, can you take this lady to one of the treatment rooms, please?” No sooner had Lucy asked than the young woman was tenderly guided away.

  By this time, Keith Martin had walked across. He was as curious to find out what was going on as the two women. Beth began to explain. “Mike and I saw her on the other side of the river while we were looking for Dad. We went across to her and at first she ran, but eventually I managed to convince her to come with me. She seemed petrified of Mike and the soldiers, so I can only guess what she’s been through. I tried to find out where she was from, but all she kept saying was, ‘They stopped at the reservoir and that’s when I escaped.’ I asked her who she was talking about, but she couldn’t say any more. She’s in shock.” Beth looked towards Keith. “Has there been any word from my uncle?” Keith just shook his head.

  “Where’s Mike now?” Lucy asked.

  “One of the soldiers overheard what the young woman said. He figured she was talking about Elsdon Reservoir, about eight miles north of here. The pair of them took a jeep and said they were going to check it out.” Beth turned to leave. “If anybody wants me I’m going up to the north bridge and heading west to check the river bank.”