The Dust: Book Two - Pursuit (26 page)

‘We can go back to my den.’ Amber pointed to her makeshift shack. ‘They can’t reach me there, they try every night but I don’t let them in.’

Jake placed his daughter back on the grass. ‘We need to get back to daddy’s friends. It won’t take long I promise.’

‘As long as I can have a piggy back?’ Amber’s tear tracks ran through the grime on her cheeks.

Jake wiped them away with his hands and again kissed her head. ‘Hop on Barnacle, Daddy will look after you now.’

With that Amber jumped on her dad’s back and they made their way back out of Caldicot and back towards the Severn Bridge.

***

‘You need to stand up.’ Angel took her hand away from Yanto’s wound and it was saturated with blood. ‘Speak to me.’ She could see he was slipping in and out of consciousness; he was losing too much blood.

‘Angel we need to move out.’ It was Iris O'Neil who arrived with Lou Pepper and Naomi Hardcastle.

‘I’m not leaving Yanto.’ Angel snapped.

‘If you don’t then we are all finished.’ Iris said deadly serious.

‘How do you know that?’ Angel tried to stop the flow of blood from Yanto with an old sock she had found on the beach, it was useless.

‘They will take us away and exterminate us.’ Iris pointed at the figures on the hill watching them.

‘We don’t know who they are.’ Angel grabbed a hold of Iris’s arm. ‘They could save us.’

‘No!’ Iris shouted. ‘They will kill us. Roger has dealt with them.’ She paused and looked at Yanto, he only had minutes left. ‘There is nothing we can do here, let’s look after the children.’

Angel swallowed hard, deep down she knew was right. She turned to Yanto; this man had saved their lives, more than once. She shook her head and then kissed him on the forehead. ‘Goodnight my brave Welshman.’ She then wearily stood up. ‘Okay let’s go.’

Roger held the boy by the arm determined not to let him go. ‘Are you with him?’ He asked pointing at the body of Lonny Gold.

The boy said nothing, he was in a state of shock.

‘Do you want to harm us!’ Roger shouted this time and shook the boy’s arm.

Harry James shook his head, he still couldn’t talk, it was all too much.

‘He was a bad man.’ Lou Pepper shouted pointing at Harry James.

Roger turned around to find the four girls standing there; he could see Angel slowly shaking he head to confirm what Lou had said.

‘Shall we leave him here?’ He looked up to the figures in the distance standing on the ridge. ‘To them?’

‘Who are they?’ Iris asked.

‘The Pure Bloods.’

‘Pure Bloods?’ Angel too looked across at the party stood watching them.

‘They are a gang of people who believe that all this happened for a reason.’ Roger let the boys arm go. ‘They are led by a man who calls himself the Doyen. If they like you, and if is a big word then you can join them.’

‘And if you don’t want to join them?’ Angel kept her eye on the young boy who was listening to everything they were saying.

‘Then they kill you. It’s the Pure Blood way or no way at all.’

‘How do you know all this?’ Asked Naomi Hardcastle who had never met Roger before.

‘We haven’t got time to go into everything but they tried to kill me in Bath. They drive around the streets in a transit van gathering up survivors.’

‘Bloody hell.’ Iris shook her head. ‘As if we haven’t enough problems.

‘Exactly.’ Agreed Roger. ‘Then they put you to the ‘test’ and if you fail you are then eliminated.’

Iris shook her head, it all sounded pretty despicable. She then turned her attention to Harry James. ‘What are we going to do with him?’

‘Leave him here.’ Angel was adamant. ‘They were all scum.’ She looked down at Lonny Gold’s body with disdain. She wanted to spit on it but couldn’t gather up enough liquid in her dry mouth to achieve her goal.

‘We can’t do that.’ Iris appealed for the lad. ‘I could see some good in him, not much but there is some.’

‘I don’t want him coming with us.’ Shouted Lou.

‘I’m with you honey.’ Angel looked at Roger. She hoped he would remember the old alliance. Her, Jake, Roger and Lou. She hoped he would listen to her.

‘We need to leave now, they will be here soon.’ Roger grabbed the boy once again by the arm.’ We will decide what to do with him in a safer place.’

‘Then search him, I don’t’ trust him an inch.’ Angel was angry the little shit was still alive let alone that they had to save his ass. They had to leave poor Yanto to die on this god forsaken beach yet they would take this scumbag with them.

Roger searched Harry James but found nothing. With that they made their way back to the truck and to find another safe haven to wait for Jake in.

The bodies of Lonny Gold and Archibald Stanton were now left for the ‘Infected’ and the Seagulls to fight over.

***

‘Why are we waiting?’ Willoughby asked.

‘There are too many deranged still roaming across the beach.’ Hoskins lowered his binoculars. Only a handful have survived and they look in a sorry way.

‘Shall we hunt them down?’

‘No point.’ Hoskins rolled up a stick of chewing gum and placed in his mouth. ‘They won’t get far, we will come across them soon enough.’

Another man shaven head in crisp white overalls appeared in front of the two men. ‘Doyen, sir.’ He nodded his head in a quick bow.

‘What is it?’

‘The men are ready to go down and do a sweep of the beach.’

Hoskins hopped down off the rock he was stood on, Willoughby followed. ‘Same remit.’

‘Understood sir.’ The man went to turn away.

‘Any injured clothed people down there.’ He paused as they usually tried to save anyone that wasn’t infected. ‘Wipe them out.’

Willoughby looked at Hoskins with surprise. ‘But sir, we do usually have a duty of care.’

‘Not this time. Our resources are being stretched; we can’t afford any lame ducks.’ He looked back over to the shaven headed foot soldier. Like I said, any injured then kill them.’

‘Infected?’

Hoskins scratched away an itch from under his nose. ‘How many have we got now Willoughby?’

Willoughby let out a long sigh as he was trying to work it out. ‘We have about twelve locked at up at the camp and maybe another seventeen back in the lab at Taunton.’

‘Is that enough?’

‘Well, we can never really have enough.’ Willoughby was now guessing. ‘I mean we should always have spare bodies to test. Doctor Robert is the man to ask.’

‘If you can catch any.’ Hoskins said. ‘We can always use them.’

‘Thank you Doyen. The man again nodded and then ran off.

‘I don’t want all this testing to slow down our ultimate plan Willoughby.’ Hoskins walked with his number two back to the blacked out transit vans.

‘No Doyen, I promise you we are putting all our efforts into moving up country. Soon the deranged will be wiped out and this sacred land will be pure and unsullied once more.’

‘Good, very good. I don’t want anything to interfere with our plans. ‘

The two men then got into the transit and drove away back to the docks.

***

The sun was now dancing across the cliffs over Somerset when Jake arrived near the coast line with Amber on his back. They were both tired, physically and emotionally. Amber had told her daddy that grandad had gone mad and chased her through the loft.

The funny thing was he wasn’t wearing any clothes!

Those words from Amber had made her smile but it had broken Jake’s heart. He now felt like an orphan, both his parents were gone. That made his quest to find his daughter feel even more special. He hugged as they both sat on the grass and looked at the empty space was where the old Severn Bridge use to stand.

The second Severn crossing was now a blistering inferno too and there was no way they could use that bridge as a means of getting back to Angel and Yanto. He couldn’t wait to show his little
Barnacle
off to his friends. He only hoped they were still waiting for him safe and sound.

He had looked to see if there were any rowing boats left about as they made their way back to the estuary but they found none. He wasn’t sure if he would have used one anyway, not after his journey across earlier in the day.

‘Where are we going Daddy?’ Amber asked.

Jake held his daughter close and kissed her on the top of the head. ‘We are going to Devon.’

‘On a holiday?’ The little girl was excited.

‘Yes my darling, we are going on holiday.’

He then opened up his bag. ‘I have something for you.’ He gently said to his daughter.

‘What Daddy, what?’

Jake then placed the paperweight he had taken from his house into his daughter’s hand.

Amber’s face lit up. ‘Look Daddy.’ She then slid her hand into pocket and pulled the second paperweight. ‘I looked at it every night when I was hiding.’

Jake pulled her close and kissed the top of her head, a solitary tear fell from his eye, he had his little girl back.

As he looked across the water to the beaches on the other side he couldn’t work out how the hell he was going to get over to the other side. He also didn’t know if anyone would still be waiting. He thought about Angel, how he loved his Angel. He thought about Roger, his heart sank, poor Roger.

The two of them led on the grass and waited for the sun to rise and to bring a new day.

THE END

***

To be continued in Book Three