Five More Days With The Dead (Lanherne Chronicles Book 2) (33 page)

‘It’s all we’ve ever known,’ she replied, trying to shrug her shoulders but not finding the room to move
. ‘I was just a child not much older than Anne when they came, so we had to adapt to a new way of life pretty quickly. Luckily, I had someone to look after me who knew how to fight and survive, but most weren’t so lucky. Look, it’s just a culture shock for you now, that’s all. You’ll get used to it, you’ll see.’

‘And what about the Dead?’ Steve asked
, ‘Do you get used to them too?’

‘Well, don’t get me wrong,’ she replied, trying to manoeuvre her bump into a more comfortable position
, ‘but for the most part they’re sort of more of an annoyance really, a deadly annoyance admittedly if things go wrong, but an annoyance none the less. You just have to know what you’re dealing with… you know, play by their rules… and once you understand them, they’re just like any other problem nowadays. You just deal with it and hope tomorrow’s going to be easier.’

‘My woman, the philosopher,
’ Imran whispered to Steve with a wink, as he reached over Anne to stroke the back of Liz’s head lovingly.

‘Snowing again,’ Phil said to himself rather than to anyone in particular
, ‘should make it easier to follow them.’

‘Great, as if it wasn’t cold enough in here as it is
,’ mumbled Jen, pulling her jacket tighter about herself.

‘Here,’ Leon said, struggling to take off his coat without poking one of his fellow travelling companions in the eye
, ‘take this. I’ve got a couple of thick jumpers underneath.’

‘No… I didn’t mean…’ Jen began to protest.

‘Honestly, it’s fine, so take it,’ Leon continued, finally pulling his arm out of the sleeve and handing it over to Jen.

‘Thanks
,’ she replied, pulling the coat over her shoulders.

‘Sorry about your brother,’ Leon said softly, while Jen slowly pulled the coat’s hood up over her head
. ‘Shit that it happened like that, you know?’

‘Yeah, real shitty,’ Jen replied quietly
. ‘Thanks.’ 

The young black man was a puzzle to Jen. Sure, he had that cocky, self-assuredness, big man attitude that instantly rubbed her up the wrong
way, but there was also something else in there, something that broke through all the pointless bravado to show the real man within and it irritated Jen slightly to realise she was starting to like what she saw.

‘How far ahead do you think they are?’ Imran asked Phil.

‘Probably a good few miles,’ he began glancing back at Imran, ‘but we’ll catch up to them this evening when they make camp.’

‘Whatever we’re going to do, we need to do it tonight,’ Steve added solemnly
. ‘It’ll be our only chance, since tomorrow they’ll reach the rendezvous point on the coast and if that happens, we’ll lose them.’

Imran looked back at Liz, his own worry mirrored there. They all knew some people would have to die tonight if they wanted to get back their friends. It was simply one of those ‘us or them’ situations and being totally outgunned as they were, it didn’t look like it was going to be easy for the Lanherne survivors to pull it off without losing one or more of their own  in the process.

‘Hey, we’ve not lost yet,’ said Steve, looking from one anxious face to the next, ‘and don’t forget we’ve got three aces in the hole.’

‘And what are they?’ asked Patrick, pushing back one of the spy hole covers.

‘Well, firstly, you’ve got the element of surprise,’ Steve began, ticking off the points on his fingers, ‘and you know how to get done what needs doing while the Dead are on your heels.’ 

‘And the other?’
asked Patrick, not at all assured by these first lifelines.

‘Me,’ Steve replied matter-of-factly
, ‘I know what and where the firepower will likely be positioned, how many will be on watch and what the rest of squad will be doing at any given time. With Intel like that on an enemy, the battles are already half won… believe me.’

‘
Okay,’ Patrick said still not convinced.

‘Look, have you got anything to write on?’ Steve continued, seeing his pep talk hadn’t really done the trick
. ‘I’ll draw you a probable layout of the camp. It’s pretty much the same each night and we can come up with some rough plans that can flesh out once we actually get there.’

‘Here,’ said Imran, pulling a scrap of paper from a pocket
, ‘show us what you’ve got, and I’ll want that paper back afterwards.’

‘Thanks
, but why?’ Steve replied, taking the paper and turning it over to see if it was something important.

‘Oh, you’ll find out soon enough the next time you need
to take a crap,’ Phil said chuckling to himself.

Steve looked from one face to the next, trying to work out if Phil was joking. He plainly wasn’t.

‘Oh, looks like I’ve got a lot to get used to,’ he eventually said, working a stubby pencil from his pocket.

‘Tip of the iceberg,
man,’ Leon said, smiling as he shook his head. ‘Tip of the iceberg.’

***

‘It’s snowing again,’ Matt said, looking up at the high oblong window that ran the length of the Med lab.

‘Heavy enough for us to stop early?’ Alice asked, following Matt’s stare.

‘No, Blackmore will want us to get as far as we can while there’s still light,’ Matt replied, turning to look at Alice. ‘He’ll want to get to the coast before nightfall tomorrow for the pick up.’

‘Oh, so I guess we just sit tight then
,’ she added, wincing slightly.

‘Are you alright?’ asked Dr Avery, moving from his seat to crouch down in front of her
. ‘Are you having labour pains?’

‘I don’t think so,’ she replied, shifting uncomfortably in her seat
. ‘He’s just in an awkward   position and I’m a bit hungry.’

‘Of course, you weren’t given anything to eat, were you?’ Dr Avery said, jumping up to go back to his desk.

‘It’s not much, I’m afraid,’ he said, handing her a packet of cheese-flavoured crackers. ‘All the food is stored in compartments under the Med lab and holding truck.’

‘This is a feast, believe me
,’ she replied, eagerly ripping open the packet to get to the crackers.

‘Sorry,’ she said through a mouthful of crumbs, looking from Matt to Dr Avery who
was watching her eat. ‘Did you want one?’

‘No, you’re fine,’ Mat said smiling
. ‘You obviously need them more than we do.’

‘Well, we might as well kill some time decanting these,’ Dr Avery said pulling over the box of Thiopental and an army issue water bottle
. ‘We’ll need to pry off the sealed caps carefully. Try not to spill any, because we’ll need every drop.’

For the few hours, Matt tried to make his large fingers do the intricate work of lifting off sections of the sealed
lids of the vials.

‘You seem better suited to this type of work than me, Doc
,’ Matt said comparing his pile of empty vials to that sitting in front of Dr Avery.

‘Well
…’ Dr Avery began, his words stopping mid-sentence as the Med lab suddenly came to a halt.

‘Looks like it’s show time
,’ said Alice, nervously catching Matt’s eye.

‘We’ll give it half an hour for camp to be set up and people to get where we expect them to be and then it’s all system go,’ Matt said looking at an anxious Dr Avery
. ‘You are going to be able to do this, aren’t you, Avery?’

‘The die is cast, as they say,’ Dr Avery replied, his words meeting only a blank look from Matt
. ‘That means I don’t have much choice… so yes, I can do this.’

T
wenty five minutes later and with the last of the Thiopental decanted into the flask wedged into one of the large pockets on Matt’s combat trousers, the two men stood by the door waiting for the last sounds of movement outside to die down.

‘Right, just go straight to the communications tent
. Blackmore’s bound to be there,’ Matt said, trying to calm Dr Avery down. ‘He’ll want to radio in our location and set up the evac for tomorrow. Give him the message from Dr Morris and get out. Say you’ve got to get back to help him or something.’

‘Will do,’ said Avery with a nod, his hand hovering on the door handle. 

‘Back in a minute,’ he said turning back to Alice to give her a not very convincing smile of reassurance.

Alice’s brittle smile matched Avery’s
, but before she could wish him luck, he had taken a deep breath and was already pushing open the door, with Matt fast on his heels.

‘Bye
,’ said Alice quietly to herself, as the Med lab door closed with a bang.

Taking a quick look about, Matt could see that the convoy had stopped in an area much like all the other places they had made camp before. From the faded sign still barely hanging on a post by the side of the road, Matt could see this had once been a miniature golf course
. Fun For All the Family said on the sign, but it was in the small car park that Blackmore decided to take refuge for the night. Not that there was much to distinguish the golf course from the car park now, both were overgrown, wild and covered in a thick layer of powdery snow. Only the absence of saplings, yet to work their way through the cracked concrete, made the presence of a car park known at all. Matt could see that two of the Jackals had already taken their watch position near the car park entrance, while the third was out of sight, presumably watching the approach from the old course itself. As always in the centre of this triad of firepower, the Med lab and holding truck had been parked. The Communication and NAAFI tents were close by and were surrounded by the dozen or so small individual sleeping tents of the squadron.

Not looking at Dr Avery, Matt casually pushed aside the flap of the NAAFI tent and went in. Inside there were two soldiers
sitting at a fold away table, already tucking into their MRE packs. As if it was the most natural thing in the world, Matt went over to the table piled with the MRE packs, a hot water urn and the large water container and began unscrewing the cap at the top. Standing on tiptoe, Matt could just about peer down into the water barrel, and seeing it was over half full, removed the water bottle from his hip pocket.

‘How’s your head?’
asked one of the soldiers, when he noticed Matt standing behind him.

Matt froze, his hands clutching the water bottle tightly and turned to the man who had spoken.

‘Oh, okay... got a banging headache but better than Dave… he’s not woken up yet,’ he replied, consciously putting the water bottle down to pick up an MRE. ‘Doc says I’ll be okay for duty tonight.’

‘You better fucking well be,’ the soldier said gruffly, turning back to his own meal
. ‘I ain’t freezing my arse off covering your watch.’

And that was that, camaraderie was in short supply these days and at that
moment, Matt was thankful it was so. Keeping a watchful eye on the two soldiers, Matt finally got the cap of his water bottle off and began to tip two thirds of the contents into the large plastic barrel. The remaining third, he emptied into the hot water urn. With the snow falling softly again outside, he knew the two soldiers who had already made up their MRE’s would make a hot drink before they bedded down for the night, so that only left the six men currently on watch in the Jackals to deal with. Matt knew they wouldn’t be off watch for at least four or five hours and that was time they simply didn’t have to waste. They had to be dealt with at the same time as all the others if they wanted any hope of escaping. Then with a flash of inspiration, Matt refilled his water bottle from the already doctored hot water urn and grabbed a handful of coffee sachets. Mixing up a strong brew and hoping the added Thiopental would go un-noticed, Matt left the tent and began making his rounds of the sentry Jackals, bringing with him the surely welcomed hot coffee for the soldiers on watch.

‘Phoenix, this is squadron Alpha-nine. Do you read
me? Over. Do you read me, Phoenix? Over,’ the communications officer said into the small microphone held near to his mouth.

‘Well?’ Sergeant Blackmore said, looking at the solider as if it was his fault they were receiving no answer from the island base.

‘Nothing yet, Sir,’ the man replied, removing his ear-piece. ‘The satellite’s orbit must be slowly decaying. This was our window yesterday and there’s still no contact from Alpha-eight at the power station.  I’ll keep trying though.’

‘Yes, you do that
,’ Sergeant Blackmore replied, bored of the man’s excuses.

‘Staff Sergeant Blackmore
,’ Dr Avery said, standing in the doorway of the tent.

As much as he hated to do it, Dr Avery saluted. He knew the man got off on making the doctors and scientist
s show him the respect he thought he deserved and Dr Avery knew now was not the time to rub Staff Sergeant Graham Blackmore the wrong way.

‘Yes, Dr Avery?’ Sergeant Blackmore replied, barely looking up from the printouts he held in his hand
. ‘What is it?’

Dr Avery was about to speak when Streiber and Hills, the SAS goons, entered the tent. Without even giving Dr Avery a glance, the two men gave sharp salutes to the Sergeant and stood
at attention.