Interrupted Journey

Chapter 8 - Axis

Two days later, as the Red Sleeve army marched into Greendale, we were as ready as we were going to get. I was stationed at the footbridge and watched through binoculars as they started to loot the village though, of course, the most important thing they were looking for, food, had all gone months before.

Mike and his team had arrived a couple of hours earlier - startling me even though I had been waiting for them.

Suddenly the quiet of a world without technology was shattered by the shockingly loud noise of a Landy being started and repeatedly revved. The effect was like stirring an ants' nest with a stick.

Groups of invaders ran about as they tried to pin down the source of the noise. Laura did what she could to help. When they were ready to leave, seemingly in a last desperate act of defiance, she took her shotgun and aimed towards the advancing multitude.

That shot was a work of pure genius, drawing on every one of her years of experience of watching novices shooting badly. She twitched, she flinched, she shied and, though she had her back to me, I would have bet good money that she had her eyes closed when she took the shot. I don't know what the red sleeves made of it but I was impressed. Even if it had not been hopelessly out of range the barrel was jerked so high as to be almost backwards and the little shriek afterward just added to the whole. I wanted to applaud but, as we were supposed to be hiding, that would not have been appropriate.

With that encouragement, the army coalesced into a single unit and started to move towards the farm which, I noticed, was starting to smoke. As the Landy pulled away, the invading army started to give chase. Samson encouraged this by driving as if there were problems - over revving and kangarooing the car forwards.

They pulled a little way away from the pursuers but when they came to our footbridge, Samson allowed the Landy to stall. He popped up the engine cover and moved behind it.

"You there?" he asked in a controlled voice.

"All present and correct," Mike answered. "We're going to make our way up to the top now."

The 'weak and defenceless' women climbed out of the car and started to mill about, apparently aimlessly. I was struck by the teenage girl in a pink sweatshirt and matching beanie. By a process of elimination, I knew it had to be James but I could hardly recognise him. Somebody had even been coaching him in how to move like a girl.

As the invaders drew closer, Samson tried the engine again and this time, miraculously, it caught. They pulled away but it seemed to be stuck in first gear. The engine whined pitifully and the vehicle just didn't pick up speed. I held my breath. Would the invaders really be caught by this relatively straightforward ruse? If I had been in command, I would have sent a small, elite group to capture the Landy whilst the rest concentrated on looting the village

There didn't even seem to be any conscious command decision from the group; they just set off in pursuit. Maybe the target was too tempting; nobody wanted to let it get out of sight. Maybe the commanders feared that, if allowed to wander off on their own, the small, elite group wouldn't come back. Maybe Mike's sniping attacks had taken out some of the more important leaders. Maybe it wasn't really an army, after all; maybe it was just a mob!

With a quiet word from Mike, we set off up the track. We had to move almost bent double for a short distance until we were hidden from the road by the shape of the land. Then we set off at a run. We moved up the track, past the old farm, then onto the path up onto the moor.

At the track we turned right and headed back towards the road for a while before turning left to follow the side of the moor up towards the pass. Below us, we could see the Landy again, this time quite close to the burnt out husk of the supermarket delivery lorry that we had raided all those months before. It was stationary and the pursuers were still out of sight round a bend in the valley. I wanted to get down there, to try to look after those young people for whom I felt responsible, but I knew our best chance of success was to follow the plan.