Realm of the Raiders Read online

  “What?” he asked.

  “Where the hell was my present, Mike?” Her volume increased with each word. “My present should always come first. Then, if you’ve got time, and space in your rucksack, you can get one for your girlfriend.”

  Mike began to laugh. “What the hell was I going to get you? It’s not like I could take a couple of bags of M&Ms from the vending machine and gift-wrap them for you.”

  “They have M&Ms here in the building?”

  “Yeah, they’ve got all sorts in the machine around the corner.” He started getting to his feet.

  She pushed him over playfully. “You’re dead to me now, do you hear what I say? Dead to me,” she shouted as she ran off in search of chocolate.

  *

  The large mess hall had the same musty smell as the rest of the buildings on the base. A trickle of light bled through the dirt-encrusted windows but it did little to enhance the drab earth-tone walls with the occasional patch of chipped plaster. The people of Candleton talked in hushed tones as they sat around the plastic tables. Parents tried to comfort children who were frightened by the unfamiliar and oppressive surroundings. They were waiting for Shaw. He was going to give them the next half of the plan. They had escaped the raiders and the RAMs, they had arrived at this camp, but what was next?

  Beth, Annie, John, Tracey and Jenny all sat at the same table. The holdalls behind their chairs contained the meagre possessions they had managed to scramble together before fleeing. Humphrey sat silently by Jenny’s side, eagerly looking towards the door, waiting for his master to return.

  “Sweet dog,” said Tracey as she reached around the table to stroke Humphrey underneath his jowls.

  “Raj loved this dog. There is no way he would have given him up. That soldier, the lanky one they call Thomson said that Raj wanted him to go with us, but that doesn’t ring true. They rushed me away before I could even say goodbye to him and Talikha. Something’s not right about all this.” Jenny looked around the hall. A group of five soldiers were gathered around Thomson, listening to everything he said. Jenny’s eyes crossed to a table full of familiar faces from Candleton. They looked dejected, scared, already beaten. She looked down at the table and thought about Keith. She had loved Keith. they had had a turbulent marriage, and neither had been faithful, but both had reaped great rewards from their wedlock. They had enjoyed each other’s company, been grateful for each other’s counsel, and the last few years had been the best of their lives. Now it was all over. Jenny was fifty-two, still very attractive, but she was depending more and more on foundation to fill the cracks and hide the bags. She had decided to come here because this was where most people were heading and she liked being the centre of attention.

  After a brief flurry of excitement at Shaw’s arrival, the conversations came to a sudden halt as he walked officiously to the front of the large hall. He dragged two of the heavy plastic tables together then climbed onto them using a chair as a step.

  He looked around the faces of the villagers, not seeing a single grateful smile. They were tired, they were scared, but at least they were out of danger for the time being.

  “This has been a terrible twenty-four hours for all of us. I grant you, our surroundings are less than luxurious and we’ve got a lot of work ahead, but right now we’re safe and we’ve got enough provisions for several months.” A small murmur scurried around the hall at this news. “We’ll be taking a full inventory over the next few days to establish exactly how long these will last us. The base has a good supply of fresh water and the lake holds a few varieties of fish including some perch and bluegills. They’re not exactly going to provide us with a king’s feast, but they’ll supplement what we’ve got. I know there are farmers among you and we want to talk to you about turning some of the land around here into fields for crops. That’s obviously looking a bit longer term. There’s plenty for all of us to do in the short term. I’m going to be organising my men to patrol the base in rotating shifts. The bad news is, the only fuel we have left is what’s in our tanks. The priority is keeping the two armoured cars fuelled and making sure we’ve got a couple of sturdy vehicles available for when we go on supply runs. As far as cooking goes, we’re going to try and jerry-rig something outside so we can heat our food. The sleeping arrangements are pretty basic. This was a short-stay training camp, it wasn’t designed to house soldiers long-term, so there are three dormitories. There’s not going to be a lot of privacy, but I’m sure we can work around that while we’re getting settled.”

  Uncomfortable looks shot from face to face as they realised they were going to have to share accommodation. They had been neighbours and they had shared pews together in church, but they had never experienced this level of familiarity. Shaw saw the unease on many of the faces. “This will be relatively short term. As time goes on, I’m hoping we can find caravans and even some building materials so we can partition units in the dormitories. There are hard times ahead of us and I’m not going to sugar-coat it, but if we stick together, we’ll get through the hard times and hopefully build something better.” He paused and looked around the room. “Are there any questions?”

  For a short time there was quiet, then he was hit with a barrage of frightened questions . “What happens if we get attacked again?” “What happens if we run out of fuel before we get organised?” “How can we cultivate the fields without machinery and equipment?” “How much ammunition do we have?” “How many soldiers are left?” “Can’t we find a better place than this?” “What happens if we get sick?” Shaw was not prepared for so many questions – he had hoped the normally quiet villagers would remain quiet – but on finally hearing a question he could answer, he jumped at the opportunity. He put his hands up reassuringly, palms outwards, to try and calm everyone down.

  “Look, there are obviously a lot of questions. We’ll have a much better idea about most of them in a few days when we’re a bit more settled. But as far as getting sick goes, we have an infirmary on site. We took all the meds we could get our hands on from Candleton plus what was in the ambulance. We’ve also brought Dr Blair here. She’s treating Private Hughes, who as you know took a bullet in battle, but she’s confident he’s going to make a full recovery.”

  There was silence again for a moment and then Jenny spoke. “What the hell is Lucy doing here? Why isn’t she with Mike and the others?” Her tone was argumentative. Another murmur vibrated around the large room.

  “Dr Blair was conscripted to service like thousands of medical staff all over the country. Just because she decided she’d had enough didn’t mean she had a right to desert. We made the decision to bring her because there are over ninety of us here. Some elderly and in need of medical care, some sick.” Shaw felt uncomfortable, he had rehearsed these lines before and even he didn’t believe them, so what chance did he have of convincing others? “We gave Mike and his group more than their fair share of supplies, weapons and ammunition and they’ll be on their way to Scotland as I speak. But Dr Blair has a greater responsibility. If we’re going to rebuild here, we need all the advantages we can get. We’re still at war, people, and we have to make hard decisions that will work to the benefit of the majority, not the minority.”

  “So you kidnapped her?” said Jenny.

  “I think I was clear, Mrs Martin. Dr Blair was a conscript. We have simply assigned her to a new detail.” His face did not betray the frustration he felt inside.

  “And the others in her group just went along with this?” she asked, her hazel eyes narrowing with suspicion. Shaw didn’t reply. He just looked at her, almost apologetically. “I want to see her now,” she said angrily and got up to walk out.

  Shaw signalled to one of his men, who immediately blocked her exit. She looked back into the mess, at the faces of the villagers, then at the soldiers. “What is this? Are we all prisoners here? Are you forbidding me to go and see Lucy?”

  “I think we all need to take a breath, Mrs Martin. Nobody is being held prisoner. Remember,
this is a military base. There are rules to be observed, but nobody’s a captive. As I’ve said before, Lucy is a conscript and you’re welcome to see her, but right now she’s on duty. She’s in the infirmary giving urgent medical attention to one of my men and it’s not an appropriate time for her to have visitors.

  Jenny looked at the tall, wide soldier blocking her exit then back at Shaw. “This stinks. I mean this really stinks. You didn’t seem that bothered about desertion when you showed up in Candleton. If memory serves, your orders were to head to London, to help defend the capital, but you chose not to obey them. So what is this? You opt in and out to suit yourselves. What happens next? Do we become your conscripts? We’ll do your laundry, cook your meals, plant your crops. We can all be your conscripts, just like Lucy. Now you’d better tell this boy to get out of my way otherwise I’m going to kick him so hard in his bollocks that he’ll be gargling them for a month.”

  Shaw was hesitating. He had to prove himself to his men, but at the same time he couldn’t seem like a tyrant to the villagers. He was trying so hard to do the right thing, but it was already too late. By taking Lucy, he had done the wrong thing and everything from here on in was just going to compound that. He looked around at the villagers’ faces. Half were looking towards him, half were looking towards the door. He opened his mouth to speak but he had no idea what to say.

  “That’s enough!” yelled Thomson who had been standing with three other soldiers watching the events unfold. “Hooper,” he said to the huge soldier blocking Jenny’s way, “Take Mrs Martin to a holding cell until she’s calmed down.” The broad-shouldered troop manhandled Jenny out of the door. A gasp rose from the crowd and Beth half stood up in protest before thinking better of it.

  “This meeting is over,” said Thomson. “Make your way to the barracks, and we’ll meet again tomorrow when tempers are a bit less frayed.”

  Shaw gloomily climbed down from the table. A bigger disaster he could not have foreseen. The crowd gathered their belongings and filed out. No-one made eye contact with any of the soldiers as they departed. When the last one had gone, Thomson signalled for the other troops in the room to leave so just he and Shaw remained. “What the fuck was that?” growled Thomson.

  “She just caught me off guard, Tommo. We can’t seem like a bunch of thugs to these people or we’ll lose their respect.”

  “Respect? Respect? Who gives a flying fuck about their respect? This is all about survival, Shaw, or had you forgotten? They do what we say, when we fucking say it, and in return they’re kept safe and fed. That sounds like a fucking good deal to me. If these people were left to gangs of raiders, they’d be dead. If they were left to the RAMs, they’d be dead. If they were just left out there to fend for themselves, they’d be fucking dead.” He stood back and took a deep breath. “Look, you’re in charge because you think ahead. That stuff about growing crops and stuff like that, that’s good, that’s thinking about the future, that’s giving everybody hope. But everybody’s got to pull their weight. If we let things get out of hand now, we’re not going to stand a chance at getting any of that done.” He sat down on one of the plastic tables. “Listen, in a few months when we’ve got crops growing, maybe we manage to find some livestock somewhere, when we’ve got into a routine and people know what they’re doing and know where they stand, things will be a lot easier, but right now we need a leader who’s going to be rock solid, who’s going to get us to that position. Can you do that, Shaw? ’Cos if you can’t, you need to let us know now.” He looked towards his comrade’s troubled face and immediately knew the answer.

  Although Shaw’s lips replied “I can do that, Tommo,” the flicker of admiration Thomson had left for his friend extinguished. He would give him the benefit of his considerable doubt, but the first mistake Shaw made would be his last. Thomson would take command.

  *

  The sentry sat inside the infirmary doors with a small selection of old magazines piled beside his chair. His one instruction was to make sure Lucy didn’t try and escape. It was a cushy assignment for Carter. Even if she did try to make an escape, he was faster, fitter and stronger than her. She would not get away.

  Lucy sent up a silent prayer of thanks that the soldiers hadn’t found her oxycodone when they searched her. She popped one of the small tablets onto her tongue and knocked it back.

  “Lucy?” asked the croaky voice as Hughes’s eyes flickered open.

  Fear that she had been caught in the act soon dissipated as she realised that Hughes had no idea what was going on. “Hey, soldier,” she said. She rose from her uncomfortable brown plastic chair, placed the tablets back in her pocket, and gently took hold of his hand, looking down at him from her red-rimmed eyes. She smiled. Private Hughes was definitely one of the good guys. For selfish reasons as much as anything else, she wanted him to recover. He would make sure nothing bad happened to her while she was here.

  He slowly moved his head around, taking in the infirmary. His breathing was heavy and deliberate, as if each puff was a labour. Lucy gently tipped his head up and made him sip some cold water. He drank it gratefully then she placed his head back down on the pillow. “Where are we?”

  “We’re at an MOD base somewhere near Morecambe.” She wrapped a cuff around his arm just above the elbow and began pumping air into it.

  “I don’t understand. What are we doing here?” Lucy didn’t respond. She looked across to the guard, who was too busy reading his magazine to even notice that Hughes had come round. She took three readings from the blood pressure monitor and made a note in a small black book. Hughes grabbed Lucy’s wrist as she disassembled the machine. “What’s going on?”

  She looked towards him solemnly. “They kidnapped me.”

  Hughes smiled. She was obviously having some kind of joke with him. They had beaten the raiders back, they had won, and if the raiders had kidnapped her, what was he doing still alive? “No, seriously. What’s going on?” He turned his stiff neck towards her as she sat back down in her chair and sidled a little closer to the bed.

  “Shaw and the others decided I was too valuable, so they coshed Mike and took me. They’ve told me that my time will be split between here and a detention cell.” She wiped away the beginning of a fresh tear from her right eye.

  The smile disappeared as he realised this was no joke and that what Lucy was saying was true. He rolled his head back straight and stared at the ceiling in bewilderment. He heard Lucy sniff and he held out his hand. She clutched it gratefully. “Don’t worry, love, as soon as I’m back on my feet I’m going to get you to Mike,” he said, ending the sentence with a grunt as a spasm of pain ran through him. “Do us a favour, get Shaw will you?”

  Lucy smiled. Maybe there was still some hope left. “Sweetie, you’re not really in any condition to have any kind of confrontation.”

  “I just want to talk to him.”

  Lucy relinquished his hand and stood up to address the sentry. “Hey, you!” she said with as much venom as possible. “Private Hughes is awake, he’s asked to see Shaw.”

  “My shift change is in twenty minutes. I’ll let him know then.” Carter had strict orders not to leave his post and he hadn’t been furnished with a radio.

  “Okay, Einstein, in twenty minutes you can explain to Shaw that when Private Hughes was awake he wanted to speak to him, but now he’s unconscious again it might be another eight hours before they can have a conversation.”

  Carter flung his magazine to the floor and stood up, agitated. He marched across to where Lucy was standing and pushed her down onto the bed next to Hughes’s. “What the fuck are you doing, Ed?” asked Hughes hoarsely as the burly soldier removed a pair of handcuffs from his belt. Carter clipped one bracelet around Lucy’s left wrist and locked the other to the metal bed frame.

  “Ed?” said Lucy. “As in special ed?”

  The soldier looked down at her, fuming. He desperately wanted to slap her, but he forced himself to break his stare and look towards his fellow sold
ier. “Good to see you awake, Hughesy, I’ll go get Shaw. He wanted to be the first one to see you when you woke up.”

  Hughes tried to respond, but Carter marched out before anything else could be said.

  *

  There was a study corner in the library where four tables had been pushed together. Once, pupils from the local school would have been jostling for a chair. Now there was just Mike and the two male librarians, Richard and David, studying maps. Raj sidled across to them.

  “So, Mike, what’s your plan?”

  Eventually Mike broke his gaze from the map and looked towards Raj, at first not seeing him. Whatever was going on behind Mike’s eyes, it was not in the library. Mike blinked twice and then he was back.

  “Still working on it, Raj. We think we’ve figured out where the base is, given the information we had.” He circled a spot on the map.

  Raj looked down. “That’s quite a large area, Mike.” Nobody said anything for a while as all four of them continued to look at the map’s finer details. “It is very close to the sea.” Mike just nodded, as if that was of little if no relevance to the problem at hand. “It’s just that I have experience with boats. It seems to me that it would be harder for anyone to follow if we made our escape by sea rather than land.”

  Mike jolted upwards as if he had received an electric shock from the table. Suddenly the multitude of ideas that had been skipping around his brain gelled together into a single cohesive plan. He looked at Raj excitedly. “When you say you have experience with boats...”

  “I mean that when I was twelve our family went on holiday on my uncle’s motor cruiser and we’ve done that practically every year since.” He took a set of keys out of his pocket. There were two house keys, a car key and another that Mike didn’t recognise. “Only, now the motor cruiser belongs to me. I am fairly proficient in piloting the vessel, and in honesty, Talikha is a natural as well. All I’m saying is, if you wanted to use the sea to make your escape, then maybe I could be of some use.” He smiled politely.