After it Happened Boxset: 1-6 Omnibus Edition, page 66
“I’m sure we’re past all that kind of thing by now,” Mike said dismissively.
In truth, her protestations would have been better received if she hadn’t become a brooding, angry woman who seemed desperate to stamp her authority. She had cried wolf, and now the others wouldn’t listen to her.
“I’m telling you all right now this is a bad idea, and I don’t trust them,” she said, getting up and leaving the room.
TEMPORARY SANCTUARY
After a rough night spent anchored in the centre of the wide inlet, almost everyone was feeling some ill effect at being sleep-deprived and nauseous.
Dan had roused the group as the sun rose, breakfast was eaten, and they were underway before the glowing orb was fully visible on the horizon.
Very little talking and even less laughter was heard; they had all been worn out by the last few days. Dan knew they needed to get to land and regroup. He had checked on his teenage ninja first thing, finding her stiff, as the pain had travelled from her head to her neck. Kate had dosed her up well enough but firmly declared that she wasn’t fit for duty for a week. Both Dan and Leah took that to mean a couple of days at the most, but he carefully avoided any mention of an early recovery and told the girl to rest. Ash still snored against her leg, the sedative having worked well.
He climbed to the flight deck and asked his co-captains to take them out. For the second time they didn’t expect, they were going back out to sea. Hopefully for the last time.
Sailing towards the rising sun, they had to turn slightly north to get around the headland as they passed the bigger French coastal towns. Soon, land became visible in the far distance to their port side, the iconic slash of white belonging to the Dover cliffs sparking mixed emotions in many. Dan wondered if he declared that they had had enough fun and were going home, just how many would be happy with that.
He pushed it from his mind as the sea walls of Calais ferry port came into view. Cruising past, they saw a similar sight to the other large ports, with huge vessels slowly dying of neglect. He thought that the docks would be a goldmine for scavenging but could not afford the risks or the delay. Another hour saw them further along the coast and out of French waters. As Bruges approached, Dan consulted the map feverishly with Mitch to be sure they were planning to turn inland at the best place.
“I say we do it,” he said to the soldier. “Go inland here to Antwerp.”
“Sounds good to me!” replied Mitch.
NO CHANGE
Lizzie had been forced to resort to placing a feeding tube into Steve’s nose and down into his stomach. He’d been out too long to be without sustenance now, and she was painfully reminded of having to care for the terminally ill and elderly in her previous life.
Steve’s perpetual state of unconsciousness was becoming a worry to everyone. It had been almost a week and he hadn’t moved at all. She could still see no obvious reason for it. The head injury hadn’t seemed catastrophic; in fact, she doubted whether it had fractured his skull much at all. The internal bleeding hadn’t spread, as there was no swelling or livid bruising, plus if it had, she reasoned that he would probably be dead by now. The leg looked gruesome, but should heal.
She wasn’t so ignorant to what was happening to the group, despite spending nearly all her time in medical. She had checked out the two new arrivals. The two young men were declared to be in good physical condition despite being told they were found close to death from dehydration. Although the two were a couple of years apart in age, they were so similar that they could have passed for twins. The older of the two seemed to be their joint spokesperson, which she found odd, but she took their medical histories and gave them the stamp of approval.
Some disagreement between other council members left the question of their employment up in the air. It seemed that Lexi didn’t want them and was happy to try and half train some sort of militia to be called on at times of need. None of the candidates were particularly enthusiastic about it.
Andrew had employed the two under the umbrella of Logistics to be scouts, and orders were given that they be armed from their healthy stock of weaponry. The two now moved freely among the whole group, weapons on their hips, and were the cause of much excitement. Nobody new had been seen in a while.
She was too busy, too distracted, to think any more on their arrival and appointments.
When – if – Steve woke up, then he would surely know what to do with them and Lexi.
If.
WHERE IS BELGIUM, ANYWAY?
Leah’s question had many answers to it, some of those now utterly irrelevant.
“It’s a small country between France and the Netherlands where the European Union used to be,” Dan answered, hoping not to prompt too many follow-up questions from her.
“OK,” she said, obviously thinking, “but what do they do there?”
Neil stepped in to help, speaking from behind the controls of the boat. “They make beer, chocolate and waffles and have a very clean subway system,” he said.
“And it’s where people like to sign peace treaties and stuff,” added Mitch.
Leah thought about this for a moment. “Sounds… nice,” she said with her trademark inflection of cutting sarcasm before climbing back down to go back inside. She had been allowed to move to get some fresh air but was still obviously suffering some from the heavy blow to her head.
Dan was under strict orders from Kate that she wasn’t allowed out to play for another couple of days. Having never seen her subdued like she was, he planned to let her recover properly.
Following the land on their right, they left the Channel and followed an endless series of twists and turns as the inlet wound its ponderous way to the open water. Sticking to the centre of the wide stretch after their most recent experience of the continental survivors, they sailed serenely into the heart of Belgium as they avoided similar debris to what they had experienced in France.
By late afternoon, they were flanked on both sides by massive industrial docklands. A never-ending mass of concrete in every direction suddenly opened up to open areas of grass before industry closed in on them again.
Betraying his nervousness, Dan checked a map over and over until he called his opinion to Neil and Mitch.
“I reckon Antwerp will be about a mile ahead around the next bend,” he said, without his normal air of confidence. A sheltered port to their right, home to some slowly eroding fishing boats, caught his eye. “How about we swing over there and check that place out?”
Without acknowledgement, the boat swung to starboard, cautiously heading into the sheltered bay where a few trawlers sat abandoned. Dan pointed to an empty spot on a jetty with a long walkway leading to land. Mitch brought her in gently as Adam and Dan jumped ashore to secure Hope to the moorings.
Guns up, Dan and Adam stalked forward followed by Mitch. Dan would have felt more comfortable being backed up by a dog and a child; it was not that he didn’t have faith in the others, but more that he felt most secure with Leah and Ash, but as both of them were out of play, he had to have trust in others.
Dan made solid ground and went to one knee. Mitch fanned out to his left, pointing Adam to go right. Quickly, thoroughly and efficiently, they cleared the immediate surroundings of the dockyard and found nothing to suggest that anyone had been there for months. A green film covered all of the boats on dry land, with obvious signs of neglect everywhere. The three men regrouped and were joined by Neil, having instructed everyone else to stay on the boat. A glance back at the Hope showed a grumpy-looking Irishman standing staunch on the deck with his shotgun.
“Area looks clear,” said Dan to his almost entire military force. “Mitch, Adam, clear that building,” he said, indicating a large single-storey industrial unit. “Neil, with me.” He set off, flanked by the older man and intentionally setting a slower pace than he would have for his teenage assassin.
They cleared the perimeter, finding that they had been very fortunate in randomly choosing a secure compound to moor up in. Relaxing slightly, Dan went back to find the big building was an almost empty hangar. He deployed the other two to clear the three remaining buildings to their left while he and Neil cleared the two to the right.
When they all returned to report no signs of life, he lowered his carbine and took a full 360 perspective.
They were now the proud owners of their own fenced compound near Antwerp. Their incursion into the continent had been almost entirely unobstructed and unchallenged in the grand scheme of things. They had safely crossed the Channel.
The realisation hit Dan like a crashing wave and threatened to invoke something resembling feelings deep inside him. He had to force himself to remain calm and not fall to the earth, realising that the crossing had been far more dangerous than anyone had anticipated.
Now to business.
“Neil, get everyone off and into that building,” he said, indicating the single-storey warehouse which stood closest to the jetty. “When everyone is off, strip the boat of everything and start pumping the diesel into the jerrycans.” He turned to Mitch and Adam. “Go around the perimeter again and check for any vehicles inside this compound. After that, get the bikes ashore.”
He turned away to look inland as the men scurried away to their tasks. He heard shouts behind him as the orders to disembark for the final time were given. He even fancied he heard a shout of celebration to mark the end of their water adventures for the foreseeable future; he had to admit he felt the same.
They were in Europe, safely on the continent, and now they had to scavenge like experts.
DIFFERENCE OF OPINION
“No, it’s decided,” said Mike, holding up one hand to staunch Lexi’s flow of objections. “The lads will go and clear the place, then call in the Logistics team to fill up the wagons.”
She stood, fighting to contain her fury, and left the room.
Always, it had been the job of the Rangers to clear and search a location before Logistics cleared it. Always. Now, it seemed, because she objected to the appointment of two people she didn’t trust, they had completely circumvented her authority and armed them anyway. They were what? Logistic Rangers?
It was bullshit, she told them it was bullshit, and she was ignored.
She stormed into Ops, startling Rich, and fumed at him that Dan would never have been ignored like they had just done to her. If he had raised objections to anything, then she was pretty damn sure that he would be listened to and obeyed.
“I mean, he dragged someone out of here who he said was a bloody paedophile and he was never seen again!” she raged at the bewildered Marine. “Who questioned his authority then? Nobody.”
Rich averted his eyes in case he gave away some small notion that he had been totally complicit in the murder of said paedophile. Having heard the confessions himself, he had no doubt as to the man’s guilt. But still, they did just kill him on Dan’s say-so.
Luckily, Lexi was too angry to notice Rich’s expression and had carried on ranting.
“This is just what Penny tried to do ages ago; the Rangers are being cut out by the others because they don’t like the answer they were given.” She stopped and stared at him, waiting for an answer or some form of communication other than a blank look.
She received nothing.
“Fuck this,” she said, throwing her arms in the air before storming out of the office.
“Wait,” Rich said, investing the word with every bit of authority he used to possess. It was a voice which had cut through battlefields, which tore through recruits and silenced parade squares. It was the voice of a Royal Marine Corporal, and it stopped Lexi in her tracks.
She turned back to him, stunned.
“If you have a problem, then go and fix it. Don’t stand here bitching about what Dan would’ve done; go and do it yourself. You want people to respect your authority? Then earn that respect.”
With that, he turned away and left her open-mouthed in the doorway. He was right, of course. She knew she was acting the brat when she should have been emulating that calm authority which she missed so much.
She closed her mouth, turned back towards the dining room and strode in ready to tell them all what she thought.
DRY LAND
“I’m sure you’ll all be sad to abandon the boat,” Dan said to the group as they shuffled close to him, interrupting their business in preparing the warehouse for a brief stay.
“Abandon Hope all ye who enter here!” declared Neil in his best Shakespearean voice.
Silence shrouded the whole group as he realised the carelessness in his words.
“Get it? Abandon? Hope?” he tried with a smile, desperately attempting to rescue the joke. “No?” He hung his head and muttered, “Tough crowd.”
“No,” said Dan sarcastically, turning back to the others. “Anyway… We’ve got a secure compound here which we’ll use as a base for a few days to gather supplies and look for vehicles. Marie will sort out the tasks, and Neil will organise the rotas for keeping watch. Me and a couple of others will be making runs starting tomorrow to see what we can find.” He looked around the assembled faces. No questions arose. “Ladies and gentlemen, Bienvenue en Belgique!” he said loudly and in a terrible accent.
Not all of the group understood, but still a ragged cheer of success rippled around their temporary home. Dan jumped down from his podium and beamed at his group. Truth was, he was happy to have made it here. He scanned the room, his eyes falling on the temporarily fallen and debilitated from their sea crossing.
Ash was groggy and weak from barely eating for three days, Leah lay propped up half-asleep from her concussion, and Phil was curled up in a foetal position after a few days of being constantly sick, with Jimmy beside him looking no better. Despite the losses, which he assured himself weren’t permanent, they had left their island and got to the continent without tragedy and in some semblance of working order. He called that a win.
Predictably, Henry hovered with a cup of coffee for him which he accepted with as brief a thanks as was polite. The boy was starting to get on his nerves with his idolism. He was well built and strong for his age, but there was such an immaturity to him that it irked Dan. Thirteen-year-old Leah was more sensible and switched-on than most adults, so maybe he thought her achievements were making him judge the boy more harshly.
No. There was no room for tourists or baggage on this trip, and the lad had chosen to come despite being told he couldn’t. Dan would have to have a word in private with him soon and lay out his responsibilities very plainly.
Food was prepared, supplies were stacked and inventoried, the guard was set and they were safe on dry land. Dan finally allowed himself to relax.
He wandered through the group, talking to people as he wound his way among them, aiming for Leah. When he reached her, his heart sank. She did not look well. Her pale skin prickled with sweat and her eyes were closed tightly. She was surrounded by Marie, Kate and Sera, all of whom were tending to her in different ways. It was evident how badly the blow to the head had affected her. Sensing his own discomfort, Ash whined pitifully and pushed his huge head in between the women to nuzzle at the girl.
Dan saw a spark of her personality shine through then; despite the pain she was in, she still managed a crooked half-smile as she told the worried dog she had no food for him. He would’ve spoken to her, laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder or something to try and comfort her, only there was no room around her.
Instead, he reverted to the only other way he knew to fix a problem: direct action. His mind was made up as soon as he had seen her. As a group, they were in pretty rough shape after the last few days, and progress would just have to wait until they were all fully fit.
Snapping his fingers to summon Ash, he turned on his heel and walked speedily for the exit, almost knocking a grinning Henry to the floor, who was standing so close, and spilling the remaining coffee down both of them. Dan’s temper, affected by lack of sleep and worry for Leah, finally broke.
He swore loudly at the boy, shoving him in the chest and sending him sprawling backwards as he threw down the tin cup in a frustrated tantrum.
“Every bloody time I turn around, you’re in my face!” he yelled at him, too stressed and angry to realise he was terrifying him and others around them. As suddenly as the fury was on him, it evaporated, leaving only the hollow emptiness of unnecessary anger behind. Too tired to explain or apologise, he stepped around his unfortunate victim and left the building.
Stomping away to the jetty where the Hope was moored, he sat and dangled his feet from the walkway as he smoked. Ash lay down and watched him from as close as he could get while still remaining firmly on dry land.
Dan felt bad for his outburst. He felt bad for scaring the boy; as annoying as Henry could be, he didn’t deserve what had just happened. He reflected on the advice he had been given about bullies when he was a child and about the advice he had given schoolchildren when he had cause to speak to them as a police officer.
The concept of a bully acting out because of their own fear and insecurity was suddenly so apparently true to him that it almost hurt.
His miserable introspection was halted as Neil approached. Dan had no doubt that he had seen the incident inside but couldn’t bring himself to raise the subject out of embarrassment.
With a symphony of groans and cracking joints, Neil lowered himself to sit beside Dan. Silence hung for a few beats, no doubt as Neil decided the best way to say what he had come to say.
“I’m guessing we’ll want to stay here for a few days until everyone settles?” he said, reading Dan’s transparent thoughts.
“Yes,” Dan replied, staring into the green, scummy water of rocky shallows beneath his feet. “Double-check the perimeter is secure, twenty-four-seven lookouts. We’ll start ranging on the bikes tomorrow in pairs to find supplies and vehicles. Three, four days tops?”
