The Dust: Book Two - Pursuit (22 page)

‘Kill the fucking horses!’ He bellowed at his two lapdogs.

‘No, you can’t do that.’ Naomi Hardcastle screamed back at him.

‘This is what happens when people disobey me.’ He then took his pistol and shot the smallest horse between the eyes. It fell to its knees silently and then rolled over on its side, dead.

‘Jesus.’ Even Archie was surprised by his mentor’s actions.

‘Have you gone mad?’ Janine Davidson yelled at him. ‘ They have done nothing to you.’

Lonny Gold then shot another horse before walking over to the group of women and grabbing Davidson by the hair. ‘What did you say?’

Davidson screamed out in pain and tried to lash out at Gold but he punched her in the nose and she fell to the floor.

‘Leave her alone.’ Another woman shouted.

‘This is what happens when you disobey me.’ He dragged Davidson across the mud to the two dead horses. ‘Strip her off!’ He shouted at Archie.

‘Boss?’

‘Fucking strip her off or you will be the next to take a bullet.’ He then shot the third and final horse between the eyes and it too dropped down dead.

The women started screaming so Gold then shot above their heads. ‘Shut the fuck up.’

‘Boss do we really need to do this, I mean shouldn’t we be chasing the others?’ Harry James swallowed hard knowing what might come.

Lonny Gold turned and pointed the gun at Archie. ‘If you don’t strip her off in in ten seconds then I will kill you both.’ He turned to look at Harry. ‘Speak again and you will die, horribly.’

Archie leant forward and tried to pull Janine Davidson’s top up and over her head but she retaliated with a punch to the side of his face.

‘You bitch.’ Archie kicked her in the ribs and she fell backwards. He straddled her and ripped her top up. ‘Well fucking help me.’ He growled at Harry James.

Harry froze, he didn’t like this, he knew it was wrong and he didn’t want any part in it.

‘Help him.’ Gold shouted waving the pistol back in Harry’s face.

Harry looked at the gun and then looked at the woman on the floor bleeding from her nose from where Archie had just slapped her, she was screaming out.

‘Help me!’ Archie shouted now ripping her bra up to reveal her breasts.

Harry James felt sick but it was either help or be killed. He pulled the top over Davidson’s head and ripped the bra from her shoulders.

‘Fucking bitch.’ Archie slapped her in the face once more and then spat at her.

Harry wanted to smack Archie so hard and help the poor defenceless woman but he knew he would be shot as soon as he touched him. He closed his eyes,
why wasn’t he stronger?

‘Stop this, please stop this.’ Sarah Hardcastle pleaded with Gold as the women watched on in horror.

‘Do you want to be next?’ Gold pointed the pistol at her.

‘Leave her alone, please.’ Another teenage girl cried from the back of the small group.

‘You will all learn from this.’ He snapped and the laughed out loud. ‘It’s a lesson in loyalty.’

Archie now pulled Janine Davidson’s jeans and pants down in one go. ‘Oh boss this one doesn’t believe in trimming.’ He laughed as he pulled away the second leg.

‘Please, please I beg you let me go.’ She was now crying hysterically at Harry James who was holding her arms. ‘Please, I haven’t done anything to you.’

Harry had to look away the liquid in his throat rising nearly making him vomit.

‘She’s stripped boss.’ Archie called out proudly. ‘Not bad either.’ He smiled back down at the sobbing woman.

Lonny Gold unbuckled his belt and slid it through the loops of his jeans.

‘Oh yes boss, are you going to teach her a lesson?’ Archie sniggered. ‘Make her know who the Daddy is?’

Janine Davidson now naked and humiliated looked over to the advancing Gold who had his belt in his hand. ‘Please, let me go, I don’t deserve this.’ Her tear stained pale cheeks were now red and sore. ‘Oh God don’t hurt me, please I beg you.’

‘Shall I open her up for you boss?’ Archie was chomping at the bit and loving every minute of this sick game. He felt like a king, he was in control and the women would do whatever he wanted. For once in his life they were scared of him, he remembered how the girls would laugh at him before the dust fell. Well now he was the one laughing at them and he was excited by this new way of life, sexually excited.

‘No.’ Gold threw his belt at Harry James. ‘She should be so lucky.’ He grinned at the broken woman and gave her a wink. ‘Today gentlemen we are going to have ourselves a hanging.’

‘What?’ Archie was a little disappointed.

‘What?’ Harry James looked at Lonny Gold and then the woman he was still pinning to the ground. He couldn’t quite believe what Gold had said. ‘We are going to hang her?’

Janine Davidson started to wriggle and push trying to break free from her captures. ‘No, no please, leave me alone.’ She hysterically screamed and pleaded for mercy.

‘String her up on the lamppost.’ Gold turned to the small group of women now cowering by the lorry. He then shouted. ‘Hang her till she dies.’

‘No!’ Sarah Hardcastle called out. ‘Please leave her alone.'

Gold just smiled.

Archie and Harry James pulled Janine Davidson to her feet and strapped the belt around her neck. She kicked and bit and screamed lashing out with the nails at Harry’s face. Archie punched her in the face and she passed out for a few seconds and then was only semi-conscious. The two boys then hauled her up and Archie managed to hook the buckle around one of the foot pegs.

‘Stop this now.’ A young woman who had only been picked up three days before in Much Marcle broke ranks and ran at Lonny Gold.

Without hesitation he pointed his pistol at her and shot her dead. She fell in the mud only a few feet from him, nobody in the group had even asked what her name was.

‘Anyone else?’ He growled at the now screaming group of women. ‘Anyone else want to taste some lead?’

The shot rang out and the semi-conscious Janine Davidson came around to feel her neck being pulled as the two boys took up the slack.

‘Noooooo!’ She howled and then gurgled.

‘Let go of her.’ Gold yelled at Archie and Harry James.

Archie instantly let go but Harry James couldn’t. He didn’t want to be a party of this pointless murder.

‘Let go Harry James.’ Gold walked towards the boy who continued to struggle with woman’s weight. ‘If you don’t let go I will shoot you and she will die anyway. It’s your choice.’

‘Let go you fucking idiot.’ Archie shouted.

‘One, two…’ Gold started to count but before he could get to three Harry James let go and Janine Davidson was left hanging.

Harry James moved away, he couldn’t look.

Archie stood underneath the hanging naked body watching her as she kicked out a few times and then after about fifteen seconds she stopped, Janine Davidson was dead.

‘I wouldn’t stay there son.’ Gold told Archie.

‘Why?’ he asked but Gold didn’t reply but Archie moved anyway. A few seconds’ later fecal matter and urine ran down the dead woman’s leg and spilt onto the floor below.

‘Oh I see.’ Archie nodded.

Gold laughed. ‘Our first hanging boys, most certainly won’t be our last.’ He then lit another cigarette.

***

‘Stop, stop the truck.’ Yanto grabbed Iris O'Neil’s arm.

‘Why what’s wrong.’ She brought the vehicle to a halt.

‘Somethings wrong.’ He grabbed the binoculars and jumped out of the cab.

The others looked at each other and then Jake decided to follow him. When he reached Yanto he was lying over the bonnet of an old Audi pointing his binoculars to where they had left the horses about a mile up the dual carriageway. He was shaking his head.

‘What’s going on?’ Jake crouched down beside him.

Yanto shook his head and handed Jake the lenses. ‘Poor Thunderchild.’

Jake refocused and then the full horror hit him. All three horses were lying dead on the floor and swinging in the afternoon breeze a naked woman was hanging by a belt from a telegraph pole.

‘Do you think she was infected?’

‘I can’t tell.’ Yanto answered. ‘You think she killed the horses?’

‘Well I have seen a lot of crazy shit over the last month so I wouldn’t rule anything out.’ Jake couldn’t stop looking at the face of the dead woman.

‘You think she shot the horses and then hung herself?’ Yanto wasn’t convinced.

‘I can’t see anyone else.’ Jake shifted his gaze from the dead woman to the surrounding area.

‘Have the horses been eaten?’

Jake looked carefully. ‘No.’

‘Can you see a gun?’ Yanto asked.

Jake looked around but it was too far away to spot such a small item. ‘It’s hard to tell.’

‘Did you leave a belt in your belongings?’

‘No.’ Jake was now concluding a third party may have been involved.

‘Neither did I, and that’s a mighty thick belt, a man’s belt.’

Jake quickly scanned further afield and then noticed a green canvas canopy through the tree’s on the side of the road. ‘I think I have spotted them.’ He handed the binoculars back to Yanto and directed him in the right direction.

‘It’s a lorry, and there a people sat in the cab overlooking our horses and the dead woman.’ Yanto shook his head. ‘It’s a trap.’

‘It must be that Lonny Gold guy.’ Jake turned around to make sure all was well with the girls in the truck. ‘He’s still pursuing Angel and Lou Pepper.’

‘Jesus Boyo what’s his problem, just let it go.’ Yanto swallowed hard as he looked at Thunderchild once more lying motionless on the grass.

‘It’s this whole new world, it’s fucked up.’ Jake was now getting edgy and wanted to get back to Angel and Lou.

‘Straight to the bridge?’ Yanto stood up.

‘I think it’s best.’ Jake started to walk back to the truck.

‘I wouldn’t mention this mind Butty Bach. No need to worry them unduly.’

Jake wasn’t sure, he didn’t want to keep secrets from Angel. ‘Keep it from the youngsters agreed, I’m telling Angel though.’

Yanto shrugged. ‘Your call.’

Jake had resumed driving duties and now the truck was starting its journey on the M4 down to the second Severn crossing. As they reached the brow of the hill the motorway then dropped down and the full view of South Wales and the two bridges opened up before them.

It wasn’t like anything Jake and Yanto had ever seen before.

‘Oh my God fathers.’ Iris O'Neil held her hand to her mouth.

‘Kids stay in the back.’ Angel made sure Alice and Lou couldn’t see what carnage lay ahead.

Jake sat silent just holding the wheel and dabbing the accelerator as they coasted down the hill.

‘I don’t know where to look.’ Yanto piped up. ‘It’s like driving into Hell.’

Jake shook his head, he had driven down this road a thousand times and always loved the fact that he was going to see his Mother and Father but what he saw today at this precise moment in time made his heart sink.

The old Severn Bridge was completely ablaze with thick black smoke bellowing from the two giant H structures. The newer second Severn crossing was covered in naked bodies crawling all over it like thousands of demented ants. Bodies were falling from every direction and the usual murky tidal water below was now a sea of crimson. Yanto was right; it was if they were descending into the pit of Hades.

Jake had parked the truck on the flat ground about half a mile from the second bridge. He wanted to do a recognisance mission a before they decided what to do next.

He walked over to Angel who was chatting to Hannah. ‘I’m going to get a little closer to bridge to see what the options are, Yanto is coming too.’

‘You are leaving me here?’ Angel wasn’t happy.

‘I thought it was the natural thing to do.’ Jake zipped up his jacket.

‘It’s just like having Roger back.’ Angel stopped talking as soon as his name registered in her head. ‘Shit sorry, you know what I mean.’

‘What’s up?’ Yanto strolled over sliding his sword into its scabbard.

‘You two off again leaving the women behind.’ Angel snapped.

‘Now hold your horses my Cariad.’ Yanto held up his hands. ‘If you want to go then please be my guest. I can stay here and hold the fort with my little French Fry and Half Pint.

She looked at Yanto, maybe he wasn’t as chauvinistic as Roger. ‘Okay excellent, give me five minutes to get my bow and my coat.’

‘Thanks mate.’ Jake smiled at Yanto and then looked at the floor.

‘No need to thank me, I don’t want to go anywhere near that damn bridge, its suicide.’ Yanto handed him his sword. ‘Take care and make sure you come back in one piece.’

‘We’re only going to take a look.’ Jake slid the sword in his belt.

‘Listen Boyo, there are thousands of them on that bridge so odds are there a few hundred or so on or around the beach, just be careful.’

‘I will, cheers mate.’ Jake looked over his shoulder at the smoke filled sky, Hell awaited.

Angel went to move forward but Jake held her back. ‘That’s close enough.’

They were now both a few hundred yards off the beach to the left of the second crossing. All around them was noise, the noise of the infected, hollering and screaming, the noise of naked bodies crashing into the estuary below. The banging of metal pipes onto the bridge like a disjointed steel band where the deranged were trying to smash the bridge to bits. The worst noise of all was the groaning of the half dead bodies being washed up onto the bloodied shore, limbs missing and bones sticking through their paper thin skin.

‘Are you seriously going to try and get over to there?’ Angel motioned across the water to the coast of Wales.

‘I have no option, I must.’ However bad the situation looked Jake knew he had to reach Amber.

‘How?’

This was the exact thought that was also troubling Jake. There was no way he could use the two bridges. One was on fire and the other would be suicide, he would be torn to pieces in seconds.

‘I could try and wade at low tide,’

‘That’s madness.’ Angel wasn’t having any of it. ‘You be swept away before you got anywhere near halfway.’

Jake agreed, thinking out aloud needed to stop.

‘If you had a boat then, well it would be a start.’ Angel looked down the estuary for signs of any craft.