After it Happened Boxset: 1-6 Omnibus Edition, page 45
“I’m saying we were attacked. I believe this to be an airborne biological weapon. Possibly,” she said with resounding finality.
Dan’s mind swam with ideas and theories as he walked back to the farm. Joe had taken over watching the unconscious attacker. Dan had talked with Marie about what to do with him, not necessarily open to ideas other than putting him down. It was Leah who pointed out that he had been bound, blindfolded and mostly unconscious when they brought him back, and that he had only seen the inside of a shed while there.
Dan agreed that he didn’t need to die, but dumping him somewhere with a bullet hole in his leg would be worse than killing the man himself. He cleaned and dressed the wound, giving the man back his clothes and adding a bottle of antibiotic tablets. His hands were tied behind his back and he was blindfolded again before being put in the boot of Dan’s Discovery, then driven around for over twenty miles of aimless driving just to confuse him before he was taken back to where his dead friend sat in the wrecked car. He was handed the keys to the small vehicle Emma had been driving and told very firmly that if he was ever seen by them again, they would kill him.
The man drove south without looking back.
SCIENCE TRIP
Emma agreed to stay for a while and recover her strength, as her recent illness had left her weak. Marie called a council meeting that night and explained what had happened with Emma and what she had said afterwards.
The news of an attack using biological weapons being a possibility didn’t really affect any of them, which frustrated Dan.
“If this is a bioweapon, don’t you see the implications?” he asked the blank faces staring at him. “If we’ve been attacked by another country, ask yourselves why?”
Nobody spoke.
“What if it’s a precursor to invasion?” he suggested to them, finally getting some hint in their faces that they were beginning to grasp the point. “We have no idea if any other countries are affected by it; it could simply be that the island has been quarantined.”
“Slight problem with that theory,” offered Neil. “If there were still other people, other intact governments, out there in the world, then why haven’t we seen any aircraft?”
Dan thought about that one. He hadn’t seen anything in the sky that hadn’t evolved to fly in almost a year, not even a faint vapour trail. He assumed that if they were under quarantine, there would at least be some kind of reconnaissance flight higher up, or even a broadcast on the radio.
“Granted,” Dan said, “so the other possibilities are that we’ve been attacked and are going to see Chinese tanks or whoever heading down the driveway soon, or that the whole world is affected.”
“It doesn’t really matter what we think, though, does it?” said Chris quietly. “How are we going to know for sure?”
Dan took a breath and told them of the conversation he and Marie had had with their newest guest. “Emma wants to go to some lab in Scotland where they test stuff like this. She said she might be able to say whether the virus is synthetic or not.”
There was silence in the room as each considered the benefits.
“But what would the point be?” asked Chris again. “How will it affect us?”
“Honestly? I don’t know, but it may give us some answers. I think there’s no harm in helping her,” Dan said, waiting for the next question.
“Help her how?” said Marie.
“She’ll need a vehicle and supplies. I also think she should have an escort.” He left it there.
“Who?” said Marie, worrying what the answer would be.
“I don’t know yet,” said Dan carefully. “It would have to be a Ranger, obviously, and it would be their choice to go.” This meant that it would probably be him.
“Shall we bring the other Rangers in?” Marie enquired.
“Please let me speak to them first,” Dan replied. “Shall we meet tomorrow?”
~
He sat at the table in Ops, having asked Leah to shut the door. The door hadn’t been shut since the day they found the house.
Dan finished the explanation and let the silence hang heavy. The same questions were floated around the table, and they weighed the benefits and risks of the journey.
“It’s not like a cure is an issue; there’s very few of us left,” said Steve. “Knowing if it was deliberate or nature redressing some kind of imbalance is academic, surely?”
Lexi agreed – better to forget the past and concentrate on the future, she felt.
Still, something in the back of Dan’s mind wanted to know more about what had happened to them.
“Are none of you interested to know if it’s the same everywhere? What if we’re the only ones affected?” he asked them.
He sensed something from them, more nervous than apathetic.
“She wants to go, and I won’t stop her,” Dan said, “but she has a better chance of surviving the trip and bringing back answers if she has an escort. She didn’t even know she was being chased when we found her, for God’s sake!”
“I’d go, but you probably won’t let me,” Leah offered.
“Correct,” said Steve, “you’re not going. I will.” He looked directly at Dan and repeated himself. “I’ll go.”
“OK,” Dan said, seeing the relief on the faces of Lexi and Joe.
“Get me the location,” said Leah. “I’ll start looking at a route.”
They went to find Emma to tell her what they had decided. She accepted the news quietly, shaking Steve’s hand as they were formally introduced.
“I want to give you the best chance of making it there, so that’s why Steve is going to take you,” said Dan. “Also, I’d like you to do some training with us so that you know what to do in different situations. Chances are the journey north will be dangerous; without us, it’s highly unlikely you’ll make it there. Sorry to sound blunt, but it’s the truth.”
Emma accepted this and asked when they would leave. Steve said it would take a week to prepare properly.
Emma closed the laptop and stood, indicating her readiness to start straight away.
Steve led Emma off to begin survival 101 after Dan asked for the location of the facility. He gave this to Leah as he passed, taking Steve’s Defender to Neil’s workshop on the farm.
An oil-stained Neil looked up from where he was buried in the engine of a tractor, with the diminutive Ewan assisting in replacing whatever part had failed.
They greeted Dan warmly, giving the sense of being men happy in their work.
Dan told him what he wanted, making Neil’s brain spin with the possibilities and problems.
“Extra fuel tank up top,” he suggested, pointing to the roof rack. “I’ll have to strip the rear seats to make space for spare wheels and tools, but they’ll still have to travel fairly light.”
“Not a problem,” said Dan. “How long do you reckon?”
Neil thought for a while and said five days. Dan knew he meant three; he just wanted to look good getting it done ahead of time. He thanked him and walked back to the house with Ash.
THE MISSION
Steve had been thorough with Emma’s training. She was well equipped and he had given her basic weapon training with a pistol for worst-case self-defence situations. She packed and repacked her equipment until he was happy that she could save no more weight.
Neil had done well. Steve’s Defender had been thoroughly serviced and checked before the retrofitting had begun, and it now had a large heavy plastic reservoir tank on the roof rack. Neil’s estimate that it held enough fuel for another five hundred miles was probably generous, but he had included a hand pump to fill the two charged jerrycans fitted inside the rear door. The roof tank had a large opening on top which could be refilled with ease, and he had brimmed it with the slightly pink-tinged liquid from the agricultural tank.
Four spare wheels were strapped down behind the rear seats, with almost half of the boot space left for their equipment. He had even patched the bullet score mark above the windscreen.
Evidence of Leah’s interception marked the front bumper with minor dents and scratches, but having hit the soft skin of a car with the heavy steel bumper left nothing more than cosmetic damage.
He brought the heavy off-roader down to the house, sporting its nine wheels and almost thousand-mile fuel range.
Steve emerged carrying heavy bags. He was armed with his sidearm and M4 and had a vest stocked well with spare magazines. He also took an Mk14 and an additional handgun which was stashed in the glove compartment. Emma had been equipped with a ballistic vest and sturdy clothing. Both carried minimal personal equipment, with camp cots and sleeping bags to complement their small stove and box of tinned food. They took plenty of water, anticipating a few weeks away at worst.
Emma cleared her throat nervously. “Can I ask one more favour?” she asked the small assembled group.
Dan invited her to proceed.
“I have collected blood samples from the people I was underground with, after they showed signs of infection.” Her voice dropped into uncertainty before she took a breath and raised her head. “To be able to have other samples to test against, I need – I’d like if you would allow me to take samples from some of you,” she finished.
Awkward silence hung over the gathering until Dan took the lead and rolled up his left sleeve. “I’ll go first,” he announced, prompting half a dozen people to follow suit and file into the medical wing.
They left after breakfast with no ceremony, everyone acting as though it were a normal trip out to try and convince themselves.
Steve drove steadily, weaving the heavy Defender through the overgrown roads. In places, what used to be two wide lanes had become a single tunnel between the hedges grown wild in the spring. Leah had done well with their route; she had marked a series of roads snaking north with alternative loops in places. Their journey was engineered to avoid the major population centres and to keep off the motorways through the most built-up areas. It would not be a quick drive, but it should minimise the risks they had to take.
Steve found Emma to be a quiet, nervous girl. In truth, she was no girl, and close to finishing her doctorate, although still half his own age. He didn’t mind; he liked silence, and she didn’t have much to say for the first day. He didn’t feel the need to fill the void with unnecessary talking, and she didn’t ask questions. His job was to get them there, and she couldn’t help much with that. Her job was at the lab.
They moved onwards, Emma lost in her thoughts and theories and Steve concentrating on the road ahead.
ROADBLOCKS
Three times on the first day they had to double back and take alternative loops. It was easy enough to avoid the blockages, but after the third time, Steve’s impatience and tiredness got to him. He had been concentrating all day and they had barely made more than a hundred miles.
Emma was some help reading the maps, but she wasn’t a navigator by any means; she was more used to negotiating underground train maps than planning a route by car. He had to stop and check it himself a few times, conscious not to let his annoyance show through as he did so.
As the sun started to set, Steve called a stop to the day and cleared a small building on a higher patch of ground off the road. Emma had still barely said two words since they had left, not that he took offence to her manner. As Steve set up the camping cooker and began to erect his cot, she broke her silence and asked for help.
She caught her finger and swore loudly, dropping the half-made bed as she hopped around, holding her hand. Steve smiled at her misfortune.
“It’s not bloody funny!” she admonished him.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh. Here,” he replied, helping her put the square poles in the right order. He finished the bed easily and she sat on the taut canvas heavily, tired from a day sitting in a car concentrating.
“I had never even slept outside of a proper bed until the bunker,” she said, head in her hands as she rubbed her face.
“Never too old to experience something new,” Steve said, instantly regretting sounding so contrite. He busied himself heating the water for a hot drink as she got up and wandered around, looking at the old contents of the shelves in their temporary shelter.
“I wondered about this kind of thing for years,” she said distantly.
Steve had never heard her speak other than to ask or answer direct questions, so his interest was piqued by her sudden daydreaming. “About camping in a derelict shop with an ageing helicopter pilot?” he asked, attempting to lighten the mood.
“No,” she said, running a finger along the packets containing long-ago-spoiled food. “About what would happen with a virus or something like this. It was all numbers and theories: infectivity ratios, urban population versus rural survival rates, developing algorithms to predict the spread…” She trailed off as she walked slowly, bringing her back to her cot. “That kind of thing. I never once actually considered what it would have been like to survive day by day without modern comforts.” She stopped, fixing her gaze directly on him. “Without fast food and the Internet, most people would just fade away!” she said with a smile, bringing herself out of her daydream with levity to detract from her darker thoughts.
“They surely would,” agreed Steve, decanting hot water into two mugs and replacing it on the cooker to add packets of instant noodles.
The regular silence lowered its veil over them for the rest of the evening. They ate, they walked away quietly to tend to their own personal needs, and they lay in their cots after darkness settled with no conversation other than to wish each other a customary goodnight.
The next four days went by very similarly. Some days they made more distance, others far less. They found places of interest on the journey north, and Steve took the opportunity to top up his fuel despite not having had to use the large reserve tank on the roof yet. Emma offered to drive once, and Steve accepted to give his body a rest from the constant position behind the wheel.
She crunched the gears and her clutch control was so ineffective that Steve’s back hurt more in the passenger’s seat. Despite their lack of conversation, he felt comfortable enough in her company to offer his opinion about it.
“Do you actually know how to drive?” he asked after they nudged the kerb for no reason for the third time.
“Yes! I just haven’t been behind the wheel much since I learned how,” she admitted reluctantly.
He took back the controls as soon as it was polite to do so. He tried to explain that he wasn’t being chauvinistic about it, but was more worried for the fuel consumption and the possible damage to the car. The more he explained, the more he felt himself sinking into the hole he was digging. He gave up and they fell back into their normal quiet routine.
After six days and not a single soul seen, they crossed over the border into Scotland.
ROYAL VISIT
Pat thought long and hard about how to go about his business. He considered sending some of his boys in to be “rescued” by them, conjuring up elaborate plans of showing resistance with a gun battle so they were more inclined to trust his moles. He dismissed that; the accuracy and savagery of the shooting aimed at them when just one of them came still echoed in his thoughts.
Maybe just a straightforward visit? Stroll up and knock on the front door – a bit of civility cost nothing. His new chief scout had told him about two other vehicles like the one which had come to his land – he had to assume that meant another two armed similarly and just as dangerous. He didn’t have the hardware to counter that; true, he had lots of guns, but they were all hunting tools and not military-grade like those he had faced.
He didn’t want to risk a conflict with this group, as he had no idea how many of them there were, but he couldn’t allow their incursion to go unchallenged. Rules must be agreed and compensation paid.
“Load up, boys!” he shouted, sparking a series of flurried movements as the nearest of his subjects scrambled to their feet. “We’re going to visit the English!”
~
Dan gave up on trying to keep Leah off the front line. She was undoubtedly capable, but he still worried that she was far too young to go out alone. He was teaching her how to use the heavy-calibre battle rifle one morning – not that she required much instruction after Steve’s thorough lessons. She had mastered using the automatic carbine in a day, and followed suit with a suppressor and scope like Dan’s. Her M4 was painted in a dappled camouflage colour, and she cherished it more than she used to cherish her phone.
He realised how quickly he had become accustomed to seeing her armed. Before it happened, the thought of a child carrying guns was abhorrent to him – even more so because of his personal experiences – but seeing her emulate him was flattering, and he felt a genuine pride in her abilities. The scared little girl was long gone. In her place stood a fierce and fit young woman, the next generation of their leadership.
Dan had decided that if he was going to have to rely on her to cover him, he preferred it if she was firing either lots more or heavier rounds. They took turns firing five rounds each from the battle rifle into a large tree at about four hundred metres, and Leah matched his accuracy easily. At half that distance, she joked that she could draw a smiley face.
Engine noise pierced the edge of their hearing, rendering both of them quiet just as Ash sat up from where he lay flat, turning his head towards the source. The noise was wrong. It wasn’t the heavy metallic sounds of their own diesels, but the higher-pitched note of a petrol engine. More notes joined the first, until it sounded like a small swarm of bees were headed their way. They ran back to the house and as they neared the drive, Dan handed back the heavy rifle he had carried and silently pointed Leah up to one of the solar panel towers. He stood his ground in the middle of the drive fifty metres in front of the house and fired the ugly shotgun twice into the air.
Seconds later, Rich ran from the house with a rifle in hand; he dropped to one knee by the treeline to Dan’s left and asked what was going on.
