The Dust: Book Two - Pursuit Page 7

  Amber sat at the bottom of the large cross to catch her breath, she knew where she was going, she had seen it before when Daddy had taken her to the park. It was a small hut where the grounds keeper kept his lawn mower, Daddy had told her how when he was a young boy he would go there with his friend Jeremy and hide. He always said the key was on a piece of old string just under the wooden hut where there was a small gap. Amber knew that’s where she would hide until Daddy came to rescue her.

  First she had to get some food, she was hungry, Grandma had gone to get something to eat earlier but there was still no sign of her. Across the road lay a local supermarket, one window had been smashed, Amber moved a little closer to take a look. The shelves were empty and dusty, it was dark inside, there was only about one hour of sunlight left and even at her young age she knew it was now or never, no one would want to be outside after dark.

  Tip-toeing her way through the broken glass Amber slipped into the shop and stood just inside. Rotten apples were scattered across the floor and tins of soup lay dented with labels all torn as if someone or something had been trying to smash them open. Walking in a little further she could see the old fridge where all the bottles of soft drinks were kept, as she drew closer she could see some at the bottom all piled up. Gently pulling open the door open Amber grabbed one unscrewed it and gulped it down. As the liquid registered on her taste buds she went to spit it out but the refreshing liquid was too much for her dry throat to reject. She drunk the small bottle in one go and then pulled it down from her now replenished lips.

  ‘Err.’ She said rolling her eyes. ‘Ginger beer.’ Amber hated ginger beer but beggars couldn’t be choosers and she grabbed a plastic bag from the counter and filled it with another six bottles. Next she searched for some food, she went straight to where the crisps were usually kept but all that greeted her was an empty space. Above was the chocolate counter, again not one bar was left. Next to the cash register were the mints and there were plenty of packets left, Amber took every single one. Ginger beer and Polo mints, not her idea of a feast but it was better than nothing.

  As she turned to leave, the green door leading to the storeroom situated at the back of the shop burst open and the stand which held all the greeting cards flew into the air, Amber screamed. White envelopes skidded across the floor and then the fallen plastic stand was picked up and hurled across the counter. Amber screamed again, there, stood in the doorway a naked middle aged woman snarling and raking her bloodied hands across the shop wall. Amber recognised her as the woman that used to run the shop but couldn’t remember her name. Sniffing the air the crazed shopkeeper looked around, her shoulders twitching spasmodically, she couldn’t see from where the noise was coming from and it was driving her insane. Amber had squeezed herself around the side of the old fridge and it was only two quick steps and she would be out of the shop, she tried to move but fear had paralysed her.

  The shopkeeper let out a humongous roar and blood sprayed over the floor covering the crisp white envelopes. Amber put her hands over her ears, it was all getting too much and she had to physically stop herself from whimpering by moving her shaking hand from her ear to her mouth. Please Daddy, save me. How she wished to see his face now, to help her.

  Then a flash of black shot across the shop window and the light was momentarily eclipsed, Amber pressed herself even harder against the wall, what was that? She soon found out, the noise was horrendous as another naked body that of a teenage boy had leapt into the shop through the broken window and pounced onto the infected shopkeeper. Tins and shelving crashed down form the wall and plumes of dust rose from the shop floor, legs and arms became entwined and the sound of flesh being torn from the bone and the ensuing cries filled the air.

  Amber knew this was her one and only chance, as soon as one of them was dead the other would come for her, she took a deep breath. Clutching her bag of soft drinks and mints she summoned up all the courage she had and flew from the side of the fridge. She glanced for a split second at the fight that was taking place but all Amber could make out was blood and dust. Leaping out of the window she ran as fast as her little legs would take her up past the cenotaph and across the main road towards the playing fields, her destination the grounds man’s hut and for the time being a safe place to hide.

  Chapter Twelve

  Roger Clough watched carefully from the edge of the window inside the village hall. The truck had been parked up for a few minutes but no one had appeared.

  ‘Who is it?’ Lou Pepper asked.

  Roger placed his finger on his lips to quieten the little girl. ‘I don’t know?’ He whispered.

  ‘Is it Angel?’ Lou also whispered back, Roger shook his head.

  The driver’s door of the old army truck then slowly opened and a man jumped out, Roger hadn’t seen him before but he looked a ‘wrong 'un’. From the other side of the truck two lads came into vision, Roger’s heart skipped a beat, he recognised them, it was the two hoodlums from Hexham. What the hell were they doing here? Surely this was too much of a coincidence, Roger couldn’t make sense of it. This part of the country was too open and too sparse for them just to ‘bump into each other’.

  Lou poked her head above the window sill to take a look, curiosity had gotten the better of her. She wished she had never looked, as the face that confronted her made her shoot straight back to the floor. ‘That’s h-h-h-him.’ She stuttered like the scared little girl she was.

  ‘Pardon?’ Roger hadn’t noticed Lou sneaking a look and wondered what she was going on about.

  ‘The nasty man, that’s him.’ She had her arms wrapped around her chest comforting herself. ‘He was the horrible one that me and Angel ran from.’

  Roger looked down at Lou and then back up at the curly haired man now opening up the back of the truck. It wasn’t a coincidence, he was tracking them down.

  ‘Please make him go away.’ Lou stared to cry. ‘I don’t want to back with him.’

  Roger crouched down by the side of the little girl. ‘I promise you I won’t let him anywhere near you, okay?’

  Lou nodded slowly and then clung to Roger.

  ‘I need to take another look.’ He prized the little girl away gently and stroked the top of her head. ‘We may have to move, I need to see what they are up to, okay?’ He spoke slowly and surely so Lou could understand, he could see she was quite distressed.

  ‘Okay.’ Lou whispered. ‘But please be quick.’

  Roger could now see women dismounting the truck one by one, he could see a young girl helping another down to the road. The two boys were flanking the older man and one of them seemed to be holding what looked like a shotgun. One of the woman, very slim and pale skinned with lank shoulder length hair walked away from the group and was pointing at the man in the middle, she seemed to be shouting.

  ***

  Iris O’Neil watched on as the skinny woman with narrow eyes walked over to Gold and his two lap dogs. What the hell was she doing? She was going to get them all killed.

  ‘You’re a disgrace.’ The woman shouted. ‘You can’t just keep us all prisoner, you can’t just rape whoever you see fit.’

  Sarah Hardcastle was still deeply traumatised after what had happened up in the barn, her daughter Naomi was trying to help her but she just felt cold and numb. She could hear the shouting going on in front of her and could see a woman waving her arms about in anger but she couldn’t work out exactly what was going on. She felt another hand on her shoulder.

  ‘Are you okay my dear?’ Iris asked. ‘You don’t need all this. Come over here with me.’ She then led Sarah and Naomi through the other women and to the back of the group out of harm’s way.

  ‘You are despicable.’ The thin woman continued to berate Lonny Gold. ‘You are supposed to help us, protect us but you are worse than evil.’ She took another step towards Lonny and Archie stared to laugh. Harry James looked over at him, he could see it in his eyes, Archie was enjoying it, he wanted a fight.

  Lonny Gold stood
firm, just stared at the slim woman moving ever closer. He could hear the rant spewing from her poisonous mouth but the words didn’t register, she was just becoming an irritant, hell she was ugly anyway.

  Pulling the handgun from his belt he released the safety catch and without saying a word he let off two rounds into the skinny woman’s face. She fell dead to the floor as if her legs had been taken away from her, the other women all screamed and scattered across the street.

  Harry James jumped at the sound of the two blasts and then realised the women were running. Archie had already gone chasing two of them down the street. ‘Stop or I will shoot you dead right here right now.’ He snapped the shotgun shut and blasted a round over their heads. The recoil nearly sent him back but he stood firm. ‘Fucking hell.’ He laughed at the top of his voice. ‘Did you see that?’ He looked over to locate Harry James.

  Lonny Gold fired a shot into the air and most of the women ducked for cover. ‘Get back over to the truck or I will start killing the young girls.’ He ordered.

  All of the women stood still, no one wanted anymore death. Iris held Sarah’s hand and looked at her.

  ‘Just keep down.’ They were crouched near the back of the truck. Naomi had her hands over her eyes as she couldn’t bear to look at the dead woman lying still in the middle of the road.

  Hannah was holding Alice close to her making sure she couldn’t see what was taking place, she glanced up at Iris who had lost most of the colour in her cheeks.

  Iris looked down at little Alice and then over to Naomi. ‘Oh my God, what the hell has happened to us all?’ She knew they needed to get away from this monster Lonny Gold but they couldn’t do it alone. She had heard of a woman and a little girl who had escaped a day or two before she had been picked up. Iris wondered if they were still alive or had the savages ripped them to pieces? The way things were going she fancied her chances better with the naked monsters rather than this clothed tattooed one.

  ‘Right you ungrateful bastards.’ Lonny Gold and the boys had now managed to get the women all back in one bedraggled group. ‘If anyone else wants to say anything to me then please feel free.’ He tucked the handgun back into his belt. He was met with silence. ‘That dead twat over there is a lesson to you all, don’t fuck with me or I will fuck you up.’ He then turned to Harry James. ‘Go and find somewhere to bed down for the night, try that hut over there.’ He pointed to the village hall at the end of the road.

  ***

  Jake took another swig of water from the canteen, his throat was still sore but he felt well enough to get back on the move.

  ‘Right buddy boy we need to make tracks. Soon this place will be crawling with naked flesh and unfortunately it’s not going to be the kind you would want to take advantage of.’ Yanto screwed the lid back onto the canteen and secured it to the saddle.

  ‘Are we going back for one of the vehicles?’ Angel asked, not thrilled at the prospect of returning to Wisteria Hall.

  ‘God no.’ Yanto mounted his big white stallion. ‘Can you two beauties ride?’

  ‘A horse?’ Jake replied.

  ‘Yes of course a bloody horse, I’m not going to return here with a couple of billy goats am I?’ He tightened the leather reigns in his huge hands and turned the mighty steed to face Angel.

  ‘Can I get more sense from you?’

  ‘Yes I can ride.’

  Yanto smiled. ‘I bet you can my little cariad.’

  ‘I can a bit.’ Jake piped up.

  ‘Well that’s good enough for me.’ He dug his heels in and moved to the opening at the edge of the woods. ‘Don’t move from here, I've saved both your arses once this evening so please my little beauties, stay here and keep quiet.’

  Yanto then shot off into the murkiness of the evening light.

  ‘Who the hell is he?’ Jake asked Angel.

  ‘His name is Ianto Theodore Whitehead.’

  ‘Bloody hell that’s a mouthful.’ Jake stood up.

  ‘I know, he said to just call him Yanto.’

  ‘Okaaay.’ Jake said slowly never hearing of such a nickname.

  ‘And what the fuck is a cariad?’ Angel asked offering Jake a smoke.

  ‘Now that I can help you with, I think it’s Welsh for beloved, or is it butterfly?’ He declined the cigarette.

  ‘So basically you don’t know.’ Angel lit her hands cupped hiding the naked flame mindful of attracting attention.

  ‘I have Welsh cousins and my parents moved just over the bridge to a little village called Caldicot.’

  ‘The bridge?’ Angel was confused.

  Jake laughed quietly. ‘The Severn Bridge. You northerners, please tell me you have heard of the Severn Bridge?’

  ‘Of course I have.’ Angel playfully punched his arm. ‘But call it that, calling it the bridge could mean any bridge in the country.’

  ‘Well that’s what it’s known as down my neck of the woods.’

  Both of them then sat in relative silence waiting for Yanto to return. Jake was reflective thinking of Wisteria Hall and the destruction they had left behind. Angel couldn’t get the image of the feet she had seen in the burning barn, had they belonged to Charles and Henry Rossiter?

  The two of them were united on one thought though, Roger and Lou Pepper. Angel was worried sick on how she was going to get back to her little girl. She couldn’t believe she was starting to think like that. A few weeks ago she was riddled with trust issues and in the main looked after herself, shunning anyone who needed anything from her, now she felt like a surrogate mother. Jake reached across and held her hand. He had sensed what was wrong.

  ‘She will be okay, Roger is a good man.’

  Angel smiled and squeezed Jake’s hand. They both continued to sit in silence.

  Their thoughts were broken by the sound of thudding hooves. Yanto had returned.

  ‘Come on you two jump aboard.’

  Jake and Angel left the woods and walked to the small clearing, there was Yanto sat on his mighty beast with a long leash and two horses with full tack trailing behind him.

  ‘I'll take the big black one.’ Jake jogged over.

  ‘Are you sure?’ Angel went to stop him. ‘That is a big horse.’

  Jake was a little put out. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Don’t forget I was a foster kid, a kid in the system of care. Some of the families were pretty shite that I stayed with but one thing is for certain, the system liked to put on weekends away for us orphans.’ Angel smiled. ‘I went riding every summer, I can handle a horse pretty well and you need to be experienced to ride this beauty.’ She patted the stallion on the nose.

  ‘That one is called Chive.’ Yanto said. ‘So please ladies hurry up and choose, you don’t want to be out here after dark and my camp is only fifteen minutes away.’

  Camp? Jake was even more intrigued by this giant Welshman. ‘Okay I will take the smaller chestnut one. What’s his name?’

  ‘Her name is Lola.’ Yanto smiled.

  ‘Does she drink champagne that tastes just like cherry cola?’ Jake asked nearly breaking into song. No one replied, so slightly upset that his humour had gone unnoticed he saddled up.

  What’s your horse called?’ Angel asked Yanto

  ‘Thunderchild, now let’s get the hell out of here.’ Yanto untied the leash and the three of them were on their way.

  ***

  ‘We have to move now, and fast.’ Roger dragged Lou Pepper up by the arm and they scuttled across the village hall to the back room where the toilet was situated.

  ‘Are we going to find Angel?’

  ‘Yes, something like that.’ Roger wasn’t really listening but he knew that if he didn’t get them both out of that building they most probably wouldn’t survive the outcome.

  The back door was locked, he tried it twice but it wasn’t going to budge.

  ‘Why don’t we go out the front door?’ Lou innocently asked.

  Roger didn’t answer, again he had heard her but thought it was best to keep
moving than explain that some murderous maniacs were just about to enter the building.

  ‘Up here.’ He had found a metal stair case behind what must have been the stage, he didn’t stop to check.

  ‘It’s quite high up there.’ Lou could see a door at the top.

  Roger tugged Lou to the top where they were confronted with a dirty grey fire door. A glass tube lay across the release catch and dangling from the door was a small hammer, he knew the drill.

  ‘What was that noise?’ Lou asked. She could hear voices from across the hall.

  ‘Lou.’ Roger crouched down beside her. ‘We have to be deadly silent, we don’t want them to hear us, okay?’

  Lou shut her mouth tight and nodded to Roger to show she understood.

  Roger could hear voices too, the boy sent to check out the village hall must have called the others over. There was no time to waste, he needed to smash the glass now before they got close enough to hear. He held the cold hammer in his hand and brought it down sharply on the thin tube shattering it instantly.

  ‘Did you hear that?’ Hannah looked at Naomi Hardcastle.

  Iris O'Neil had heard it too. ‘Breaking glass?’

  Hannah nodded.

  Lonny Gold hadn’t heard it but was stood right behind Iris listening to every word. ‘Archie, go and check out that noise, and take the gun.’

  Archie ran across the wooden floor towards the door which was situated at the back. He burst through it skidding across the polished oak, gun outstretched in front of him. His heart was beating fast; he hoped there was going to be something to shoot. He looked up towards the metal staircase and could see a shard of light seeping through.

  ‘Who’s there?’ Archie lowered his voice to make himself more intimidating.

  Nothing came back so one step at a time he carefully crept up the metal stairs his gun leading the way. As Archie got near the top he felt something crunch underfoot, he looked down, it was glass. As he jumped up to the doorway he could hear a bin being knocked over outside, he let off a warning shot.