On Deadly Ground

  She kissed me. I sensed her faith in me. That I wouldn’t lose self-control and begin to batter her again as I’d done in the deserted farmhouse.

  We paused only long enough to drink and eat on that long trek. We passed more letter boxes. All had the same symbol sprayed on in silver paint: S>.

  On one post box not far from Paythorne village was a different symbol: [S].

  Stephen had told me that if I saw a symbol like that he would have left a message inside the box. I saw the door had been levered. Inside amongst uncollected mail singed brown by the heat lay a housebrick. Fastened by string to that, a single sheet of paper.

  The message I read brought beads of sweat to my forehead.

  Rick,

  You were right about the Grey Men. I’ve seen them with my own eyes!

  I’m so sorry I doubted you.

  The Grey Men are everywhere now. Yesterday one of the bastards killed Mr Fullwood. We buried him at the roadside. The ground is so hot. Sparks flew as we dug.

  I’m afraid they might panic the whole group into running in any direction, just so they can escape them. We are moving slowly. The little girl, Lee, is sick with a fever. We’re having to take turns in carrying her. Jesus is giving her medicine even as I write this.

  My God, isn’t this an awful world we have to walk through? Don’t you believe we’ve somehow made a wrong turning and ended up lost in Hell?

  Incidentally, Tesco made it back to the group this morning. He was hurt fighting a Grey, not badly, fortunately. So we know about Cindy Gullidge and Howard Sparkman. The pair were heroes. We will remember them.

  Take care, Kid K. Love, Stephen.

  Kate read the note. ‘It has yesterday’s date,’ she said, ‘we can’t be far now. What do you think happened to Mr Fullwood?’

  ‘Mr Fullwood was an old man. If he thought he saw a Grey it might have been enough to scare him literally to death.’

  She sighed. ‘We can’t waste any more time. We must reach them before they kill each other. Rick? What’s wrong?’

  ‘I’m worried about the little girl.’

  ‘Lee?’

  ‘In the note Stephen says Jesus is giving her medicine.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘So, I don’t trust Jesus one bit, do you?’

  ‘I don’t know, Rick. We’re going to have to start trusting someone. After all, he promised to put us on the ship and get us out of this Hell.’

  ‘He only promised that because he knew he needed our planes to ferry him and his people up here. Now he’s actually within a day or two’s walk from the rendezvous point on the coast do you still think he’ll keep his bargain?’

  She gave a watery smile. ‘I’m praying he will, Rick.’

  I sighed. ‘Let’s hope so. If he somehow reaches the ship first and leaves us behind,’ I jerked a thumb over my shoulder, ‘it means a long walk back to Fountains Moor. And I don’t fancy spending a winter there without food or adequate shelter, do you?’

  Chapter 122

  My name is Kate Robinson.

  We’ve not yet caught up with Stephen and the rest of the group. Rick still appears distrustful of the man called Jesus. He worries about what medicine the man is giving to the little girl; he worries also that Jesus and his own people might try and abandon us here when we reach the ship. I try and reassure Rick. We have our own people on board the ship now. Our people would try and prevent Jesus ordering the ship to leave without us.

  But if it should happen what would happen then?

  Clearly it would be suicide to walk all the way back through this desert to Fountains Moor. We’ve found no fresh water. We rely on the little left in our water bottles and we’re constantly thirsty now. Even though it is winter you feel the heat rising from the ground to hit you in the face as if you’ve opened an oven door. The dust clogs your nostrils; it burns your throat. Sometimes, the ground is literally too hot for us to sit down.

  We are still following the line of the old Roman road. Two thousand years ago Caesar’s legions marched along this route. Then they’d have seen lush pastures, forests, lakes, streams; and, in abundance, fish, birds, deer, rabbits, wild boar. Now there is nothing but black ash, holes in the ground that vent boiling water, or methane gas that flares off with an ear-skewering shriek. Lightning flashes; the rumble of thunder is continuous.

  There are human skeletons in the ash. A few minutes ago we passed twenty TVs or more lined out along the track. The plastic cases had softened in the heat, distorting and melting out of shape. For all the world it looked like something straight out of a Salvador Dali painting: deformed TVs sitting in the middle of a black desert that seems to stretch on into infinity.

  Rick is pulling on his backpack. It is time to move on.

  Chapter 123

  My name is Rick Kennedy.

  To the north-east of Lancaster I stopped and looked through the binoculars.

  Kate must have registered the look of surprise on my face. She asked, ‘What have you seen?’

  Take a look for yourself. Do you see it?’

  ‘My God,’ she breathed. ‘Green…I can see green.’

  She handed me the binoculars. ‘Some oasis, eh? Trees, grass, a lake. There’s even houses intact. Only one problem.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘People. It’s seething with them. Did you see the tents? There must be thousands of them.’

  Kate looked round nervously as if expecting starving people to jump out of the ashes around her.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ I told her. ‘We head to the south-west now.’

  ‘Thank God for that. Something tells me we’d be welcome for all the wrong reasons.’

  ‘You mean when they asked us for supper we’d be on the table, not just sitting to it?’

  ‘Something like that. Come on, that place is giving me the shivers.’

  I wasn’t unduly worried. That stretch of greenery following the course of a river was a good half-hour’s walk away. I don’t think the survivors camped out there would roam these black desertlands without good cause.

  We walked on. Mostly it was downhill now. I began to feel more upbeat. I could almost smell the sea. I knew it couldn’t be more than a day’s walk to the point where we’d meet the ship at Heysham.

  ‘See the calling card?’

  I nodded. Sprayed on silver paint on a post box was another S> symbol. He managed to move the people faster than I could have believed.

  God knew, we couldn’t be far behind him now.

  We weren’t. In fact ten minutes later we met the reception committee.

  ‘Long time no see, Mr Kennedy.’

  Jesus stood there in all his glory, dressed in a long black leather coat of the kind a raunchy version of Wyatt Earp might have worn; complementing that, black trousers and cowboy boots. Half a dozen of his tribe stood beside him dressed in their usual surreal mix of clothes complete with the long strips of silk, in brilliant yellows and oranges, tied to their elbows and legs. They fluttered in the hot dry air coming from hundreds of vents the size of rat holes in the ground.

  I let out a whoop. ‘Dean! Dean Skilton! I don’t believe it; my man, how are you?’ I ran forward to pump his hand.

  ‘How’s it hanging, Rick?’ He gave a dry smile and slapped my shoulder, knocking out a Hell of a lot of black dust that made both of us cough.

  ‘I reckon you two need a bath,’ Jesus said in his soft Liverpudlian tones.

  Victoria was there, too. She wore a long black skirt, black ankle boots that were eccentrically inappropriate for the terrain, and a black leather box jacket. I gave her a more restrained handshake than Dean’s. She seemed almost amused to see me and Kate still alive.

  ‘Hello, Rick. Hello Kate,’ she said in that voice that was always calm, unflustered.

  ‘Hi,’ Kate said politely. ‘Well, Dean, where are the others?’

  They went on ahead,’ Dean said.

  ‘They’ve reached the ship?’ I asked, surprised.

  ‘No
, not exactly.’

  ‘What do you mean: not exactly?’ I frowned.

  Jesus stroked his goatee. ‘They’ve reached a ship. A ship, mind…not THE ship.’

  ‘You’ve lost me,’ I said. ‘A ship? What do you mean?’

  Jesus smiled. ‘Don’t worry. They’re all safe. We’ve seen with our own eyes that this side of the country got hit pretty bad.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Among other things, tidal waves.’ He pointed west. ‘Just a couple of hours, walk in that direction there’s this dirty great warship, high and dry in the middle of the desert. It must have been washed there by one mother of a flood months ago. But all the flood water’s gone; it’s dry as Hell now. But the ship makes a great motel. We’ll take you there in a few minutes. But…’

  ‘But?’ I felt my heart sink. The tone of Jesus’s voice told me that BUT would be an almighty great BUT. The double-cross was coming and I saw it as clearly as if it was written across the sky in words of fire.

  ‘But what?’ I repeated looking from Dean to Jesus to Victoria.

  ‘But there’s a matter to be settled first,’ Jesus said, still in that soft purr.

  ‘And what’s that?’

  ‘A question of allegiance.’

  ‘I don’t follow.’

  ‘Come, come, Mr Kennedy. You must have realized that we couldn’t board our ship as two separate tribes with two separate leaders. One tribe must absorb the other…’ He stroked the goatee with the tattooed fingers that spelt out his old name, Gary. ‘One tribe must absorb the other. Or one tribe must destroy the other.’

  I spoke bitterly. ‘And you’ve decided you’re the one to lead us to the promised land?’

  ‘Naturally. Oh, don’t get me wrong. Your brother Stephen’s a nice man…too nice for his own good. He believes we can sail south, find an island, settle down and quietly grow corn and potatoes.’

  ‘But you’ve got other ideas?’

  ‘Of course. The survival of my group is paramount. We’re not going to rough it on a desert island. We’ll choose one with a population of a hundred or so, but when we reach it we won’t be going on shore as pathetic refugees, begging for a crust of bread. We’ll hit the beach as a conquering army.’

  ‘And you’ll kill all the men and take all the women?’

  Jesus smiled. ‘Something like that.’

  ‘And they called you Jesus,’ Kate said heavily. ‘You’re beginning to sound more like King Herod.’

  He smiled. ‘This is survival of the fittest, Kate.’

  I stabbed Dean a look. ‘Where do you stand in all this, Dean?’

  He stood back from me and pulled off his leather jacket. Around his arms were tied strips of orange silk. He pulled out another strip of silk a full three metres long from his jeans pocket and tied it around his head like a bandana; the ends of this piece of silk fluttered down to the backs of his knees.

  ‘So you’ve joined the others now,’ I said, nodding. ‘Figures.’

  ‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’

  ‘You know what I damn well mean,’ I said. ‘Whenever there was trouble at school you sided with the bullies, even when we were little kids.’

  ‘Rick, it so happens I believe Jesus here has got what it takes to get us through all this in one piece.’

  ‘And Stephen hasn’t?’

  ‘No. He’s nothing but a blow-dried video jock. He hasn’t got the guts to fight dirty for his community’s survival.’

  ‘You’re a shit, Skilton.’

  ‘Yeah, maybe I am. But it’s the shits that’re going to inherit the Earth.’

  ‘Go ahead.’ I waved to take in the burnt landscape. ‘Go ahead…it’s all fucking yours, Beanie boy.’

  Dean was getting mad. He pulled one of the pair of Beretta pistols from his belt.

  ‘But do you want to know something, Rick?’ he snarled. ‘Do you really want to fucking know something?’

  ‘Yeah, go on, what? You slept with your mummy until you were sixteen years old?’

  ‘Don’t push me, Rick. No…no, don’t turn away. You fucking well listen. If you were leader of the group I’d have stayed loyal to you.’

  ‘Well, I’m not. And I couldn’t be leader to save my life. We elected Stephen. And I’m staying loyal to him.’

  I looked at them standing there, guns in their hands. I’d noticed Jesus’s eyes narrow. He hadn’t liked it when Dean implied he wished I was leader.

  Victoria looked from Jesus and Dean then to Kate and me like she was watching tennis players slam balls back and forth. The poor bitch was plain nuts. She even smiled, amused by the whole thing.

  ‘Look, Rick,’ Dean said. ‘You can still join us. No one need get hurt.’

  ‘What happens to my brother?’

  ‘He’s welcome, too,’ Jesus said, smiling. ‘You’re all welcome…as long as you recognize who’s the boss.’ He pointed at his chest.

  Dean added. ‘You’ll need to undergo the initiation ceremony then you can join us.’

  ‘Initiation ceremony?’ I said. ‘Wait. Don’t tell me. It has something to do with cocks and arseholes, doesn’t it, Dean?’

  I’d hit a raw nerve.

  Dean screamed, aimed the pistol at me, pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.

  He’d forgotten to cock the gun.

  ‘Run!’ I shouted to Kate and pushed her. We ran hard.

  I heard shots; hot metal buzzed past my ear. Another shot, and I felt a tremendous thump in the centre of my back.

  Chapter 124

  Despite the concussion from the bullet hitting me in the centre of the back, I ran on.

  For a moment I thought there was nothing but flat earth in front of us. Then I saw a crater ahead. It was big enough to accommodate a car. I pushed Kate towards it.

  More gunshots crackled in the air.

  Kate was faster. She jumped into the crater.

  I was ten paces from it when the ground broke open beneath my feet. Sparks flew up into my face. I’d gone through the surface again where it had been baked hard by the heat, leaving a hollow beneath. I sank as far as my waist before my outstretched hands slammed against the surface crust, stopping me dropping any further. I kicked at nothing but scorching air beneath me.

  Another gunshot cracked. It slapped the ground to my right then ricocheted away.

  Desperately I hoisted myself out of the hole, then rolled the remaining couple of metres to the crater.

  Kate was already on her knees in the bottom, dragging her rifle from her bag.

  Another figure dropped beside me.

  ‘Victoria?’

  She sat back against the crater wall, brushing the dust from her arms ‘Did you really think I’d be disloyal to your brother, Rick?’ She gave a strange smile. ‘We are lovers, you know?’

  ‘Take the pistol,’ I told her. ‘Kate, you OK?’

  ‘You?’ she asked.

  ‘I think a bullet caught me in the back. Can’t feel anything.’

  ‘Turn round, let me check your—’

  ‘No time. Here they come!’

  They ran in a crouching position towards the crater. I leaned forward against the crater wall. My toes kicked into the dry earth to gain some kind of grip. I hoisted my rifle over the rim of the crater and let off a couple of wild shots.

  Kate fired three shots. They still ran towards us, returning fire. I’d really hit a raw nerve with Dean. He fired the pair of Berettas wildly, screaming how he’d cut off my balls.

  Victoria raised the revolver I’d given her, aimed, then squeezed off a single shot. One of Jesus’s men clutched his chest and went down flat on his face in a flurry of silk strips. He lay still.

  I panted. ‘Nice shooting, Victoria.’

  She looked at the gun almost in surprise, as if she hadn’t known what to expect from the thing.

  Immediately Jesus, Dean and the five remaining men threw themselves flat. I aimed the rifle.

  Damn, they should have been sitting ducks. But because the gr
ound rose then dipped slightly, they were actually out of sight behind the low mound of earth.

  ‘Anyone get a clear shot?’ I asked.

  ‘No,’ Kate said. ‘They’re just below the rise in the ground.’

  Victoria shook her head and began fiddling with the chamber of the revolver in that detached way she had as if switching off from reality.

  ‘Let me check your back,’ Kate said. ‘Where were you hit?’

  ‘Wait, I’ll keep watch on those bastards. There, can you see anything?’

  ‘Here, let me take off your backpack. Let’s see…stand still. There.’ She ran her hand across my back. ‘Nothing there. The bullet must have been stopped by the bag.’

  I watched the patch of land where those double-crossing bastards had gone to earth.

  ‘What’s happening?’ Kate asked.

  ‘Nothing yet. That shot of Victoria’s killed one of Jesus’s men. They’re obviously thinking strategy. They know they’ll lose a couple more men if they try and rush us. What’s that?’

  Kate held up my water bottle. ‘That’s what stopped the bullet.’

  ‘Shit. We’ve lost all the water?’

  ‘Yep. Not a drop left.’

  ‘Victoria, have you any?’

  ‘No,’ she said in a voice that was surprisingly sweet. ‘None at all.’

  ‘Hell…this doesn’t look good. It doesn’t look good at all.’

  ‘What are we going to do, Rick?’ Kate looked serious.

  ‘Well…’ I looked round the arid crater. ‘We’re stuck here for the time being.’ As if to confirm this one of Jesus’s men loosed off a couple of shotgun blasts in our direction. I ducked as pellets splashed dirt onto my head. ‘My guess is they’ll wait until dark.’

  ‘What then?’ Victoria asked with amazing naivety.

  Then, Victoria,’ I said with a sigh, ‘then they’ll rush the crater and kill us.’