Dan drove hard as Steve scanned the countryside. Ash nosed his now huge snout through the nap between their seats, and when Steve gave him a sideways look his tongue slashed out like a viper to drench his face with sticky dog drool.

Steve told Ash exactly how much he enjoyed it and was answered with a short growl. He leaned over closer to his window for the remainder of the journey.

They arrived there by lunchtime, drove straight through the gate and into the camp after a drive by check.

Dan navigated them between the buildings back to where he found the soldier. He told Steve the story on the way there, explaining that he had wished he could bury the man but had an unshakeable feeling that he was being watched.

He felt much better now he had a well-trained pair of eyes watching his back; not that Ash wasn't good backup, but he had yet to master using a carbine.

"That explains this exotic piece then?" Steve surmised, patting the rare short barrelled SPAS shotgun resting on the dash where it sat when it wasn't on Dan's back.

They got out of the discovery quickly as it stopped. 'Vehicles attract fire' he remembered being told repeatedly when he was younger.

They fanned out each side to find hard cover, scanning all round looking for any sign of danger. There was none, but neither of them fully relaxed.

"People probably know what this place is, and who was based here" Dan said.

"But I doubt they know where they keep the good stuff" Steve finished for him "there's more guns here than in West Africa"

"I'm happy with these ones" said Dan as he moved carefully forward, Ash stalking by his side "but more rounds and some heavier toys would be nice"

He followed Steve through buildings past where the soldiers' boots were still visible, eventually stopping by the unremarkable door of an unremarkable building.

The electronic keypad and swipe card system was long since rendered useless, but brute force was making a comeback. They spent some time using their 'master key' to cut a squareish hole in the thick layered metal, planning to use Neil's patented door opening piece. He hadn't yet named his invention, and Dan thought of dubbing it 'the swipecard'. He looked at the reinforced door, then at his still attractively unique Discovery. Not wanting to risk damaging it, he suggested that they find a disposable vehicle to use. They took a diesel jerrycan and starter pack on a hunt, both setting eyes on a large Unimog at the same time. Dan smiled; these things would go places which would embarrass their own fleet of Land Rovers.

"Yes please!" Steve said.

He tinkered with it for a while with no joy. They had to drag a generator from the vehicle workshop nearby and attach a long set of jump leads to the battery.

After spraying some flammable engine starter from an aerosol can into the air filter - a trick of Neil's - the huge Mercedes engine barked and struggled into renewed life.

They scanned around for evidence that the noise had alerted anyone, and when they felt comfortable turned back to their new addition.

Although technically the short wheel based version, this was basically a very capable off road militarised lorry. They checked it over, and it even had a weapon mount above the three-person cab. The back was like a large high sided skip, with sides thick enough to be safe from small arms fire. It was filthy, but it was a very good find.

"This is too God damned cool to leave behind" said Dan.

Steve grinned at him, "Don't you mean too valuable?"

"Yeah. That too" he replied "now let's get those tyres pumped up"

They used the generator to power a compressor, having found the tyre pressures indicated on a helpful sticker in the driver's door frame. There were two spares in the back, luckily. They would never have loaded them without a forklift.

Steve revved the huge engine, making Dan smile again. He slowly eased it towards the armoury door with the creaks and mechanical moans of being unused loud in the air.

It was backed up, and the heavy chain fixed to the towing hitch. On the other end was Neil's 'swipecard'; effectively a folding anchor made of heavy steel.

They posted it through and heard the loud metallic thud of it hitting the concrete floor below.

Dan hoped it would hold, as it was designed for slightly less resistance than reinforced steel.

Flashes of his training came back to him; "an expensive door lock is only as strong as the sixteen screws holding the hinges into the wood"

He hoped the chain was strong enough to do the job, as it wasn't wood screws he was trying to break here.

He gave Steve a thumbs up as he climbed into the cab of the Unimog, revving the engine and creeping forwards to take up the slack.

Dan ran clear, calling Ash away with him.

The chain clanked and created under the growing pressure, each knotted link snapping into place with enough force to sever a carelessly placed finger. Steve gunned the big diesel again and again, until the steel door gave its first sign of weakness. It buckled outwards slightly, at the same time as a large chunk of concrete fell away.

Steve knew what he was doing, and Dan doubted that anyone he knew had the same deft foot control as a helicopter pilot. He relaxed the pressure on the clutch slightly, allowing the pressure to ease on the door for a second before he lifted the pedal again, faster this time. More of the door surround fell away with each movement as Steve made each pull faster and harder than the last.

Eventually, with a noise like metallic thunder audible over the huge straining engine, the concrete split and the door fell away with a loud bang. The Unimog shot forward and bounced on its suspension, then stalled.

Steve tried to fire it up again, but it would only let out a wheezing noise as it refused to turn over.

He got out, full of sadness. Dan felt the same; he would've loved having the truck for a number of justifiable reasons.

Priorities.

They allowed the dust to settle before moving into the armoury. Dan had put Ash in the discovery with the windows open; he was likely to hurt himself on the rubble but could still sound a warning.

They tentatively entered, searching the dusty air with the bright torches mounted on their weapons.

"Clear" said Steve who had taken the lead. "Now, nothing silly like a fifty calibre; we need to find a few decent rifles and a boot full of seven six two"

The racks of weaponry in front of him were immense. Row upon row of different weapons, some modified and others stock. Dan took a large armful of Remington pump-action shotguns. Easy to use, reliable and capable of being used for hunting, blowing door hinges away or cutting bad people in half.

They searched, resisting the urge to take everything. There were so many weapons neither of them recognised, some bearing cyrillic or oriental markings.

A rack of rifles looked promising and Steve crowed at their success. He had found three new Mk14's, the American made Enhanced Battle Rifle with a full length rail and skeleton stocks. They were part painted in tan colouring over the black underneath.

These types of rifle had been popular for some time now; designed to bridge the gap between frontline and snipers. A kind of specialist middle ground killer. They fired a heavy calibre bullet from a ten or twenty round magazine on semi-automatic. Perfect for what they wanted, and lethal up to a kilometre away - if you were skilled enough to put the bullet in the right place. A true sniper took years to perfect the art of long-distance shooting, of studying the physics required to thread their metaphorical needles.

They searched every inch to look for ammunition for them, eventually only finding a few empty spare magazines.

Dan ran his eyes along the racks again, ignoring the weird, wonderful and exotic. He took another few M4's, all that remained in the rack, and put them with his stash of shotguns.

Steve called him through to another room which was decked out like a workshop with bench mounted tools along one side. There were suppressors and optics lined up, and Steve selected three of the bulbous telescopic sights which amplified light.

Small bipods, vertical and adjustable foregrips, shorter range sights like the holographic red dots on some of their other guns.

Steve grabbed everything he could, excitedly throwing all of it into boxes. Dan carried on until he found the next room stocked with various ammunition types. They filled his land rover with crates of heavy ammunition and shotgun cartridges. They filled the remaining space with 5.56, although they had lots of it at home it would run out eventually.

Steve came back in and saw that they still had a lot more ammunition to take, and no space to carry it. He ran back to the Unimog and desperately tried again to start it. He bucked it forwards in gear until it finally caught and started. Dan's joy was short lived, as it died again instantly and began to steam from under the bonnet.

"It's fucked" said Steve unhappily.

Dan stated that he was well aware of that, then looked at Steve and said "trailer!"

They walked back to the vehicle workshop and found a trailer. Its tyres were flat, and they had to drag it closer to pump them up using generator and compressor. They wheeled it back to the discovery and loaded all the boxes of ammunition they could find.

On the final sweep, Dan found a box of small suppressors, which he tried to attach to his Sig. They didn't fit, and he looked around the handguns for one that did, throwing everything he could find into boxes. They loaded every crate of ammunition they could find into the trailer until a bark from the land Rover snapped Dan's attention back to the present. He suddenly felt that similar sense of dread as he did last time. Unwilling to push their luck any further, he shouted to Steve "time to go!"

They drove towards home, eyes constantly scanning for danger.

Their CB was finally in range of the house when they crested high ground about fifteen miles out, getting Leah on the other end.

"You've been ages!" She moaned at them "People are starting to worry"

"Tell them we're fine, and we will be home soon" he said, driving onwards.


They had brought back so much ammunition that Dan lost most of his room to store it. He thought that maybe it was time he established an armoury in there and move to another bedroom. Maybe there was one near Marie's room.

He forced himself to think productively and not daydream; he had the workings of a plan and the tools to execute it. It needed some rehearsal and fine tuning, but a lot depended on what the opposition decided to do.

Neil had fitted the GPMG into the mount, and test fired fifty rounds in short bursts on the range. He showed Dan how he had fitted the metal truck back with rubber loops, allowing him to unclip them silently from inside. He had attached a pole to the front, so when he lifted it the whole cover flipped over backwards and exposed the machine gun.

Steve and Lexi had stripped and oiled the rifles, and each fired a further fifty rounds to sight their huge optics and practice. They were ready to go at four hundred metres, easily inside the range where the wind or atmosphere would be a serious issue for aiming. At that distance they would drop a human like they were water. Now came the big problem of convincing the council to endorse his plan as this was too big an issue to decide by himself.

He called a meeting, having spoken to James and some others in advance for support.

After dinner all departmental heads gathered at his request, and he laid out the groundwork.

"As you may know, the place where James and Ed were found is under the control of a man who calls himself 'Bronson'. I'm told the name stems from what he does to people who disagree with his methods. I won't bore you with second hand details of his atrocities, but with your permission I'd like to bring James in to share some of what he saw" Dan looked around the room receiving nods all round and the mood took a darker feel.

He called James loudly by name, and the nervous young man came in.

"Thank you, James" he said "You know why you're here, so please tell us what living conditions you suffered and what punishments were dished out by this Bronson"

James seemed nervous, but had been well coached in which bits to highlight.

"They kept us in metal shipping containers, in a circle so we couldn't get out unless they lowered the crane to us. That's how they got us out to work and how they put in food and water and the buckets for..." He trailed off.

"What work did they make you do?" Asked Dan.

"Fetching food for them, carrying things around, that was the men anyway" he replied.

"What do they make the women do?" Kate asked in a measured voice to control the anger of the obvious answer.

"Cook, clean, and....." James faltered.

"And what man, please speak up" said Penny, softening her snap with a reassuring smile.

"Bronson says his boys need entertaining. He uses the girls to entertain them. Some of them bring food and drink back to share with the others afterwards" he finished. Enough said on that point.

"The punishments. Tell us about the punishments" said Dan.

James' face creased slightly "They'll have punished the other because we ran. I don't know what he would have done but it won't have been nice. He made us all watch him cut out a man's tongue for shouting at him once. He made another man, a boy really, fight him because he stood up to him to protect a girl. He beat him to death in front of us."

"You say he fed and watered you? Was it enough?" asked Neil, secretly part of the plan to endorse the mission.

"No. Some people fought over it, saying they should have it. A few of those Bronson lifted out and made them guards. Ed got a few beatings for trying to make sure everyone got a share. When they saw he was big enough to take it they offered him a job carrying stuff for them. That's how he got me out with him to work where Lexi found us" he said.

"What about your living conditions? How many people are we talking about?" Asked Chris, also secretly onside thanks to Neil.

"There were over thirty of us to start with. Three people died in the winter. They got sick and never got better"

"No medical care?" Asked Kate, angrily.

"No. They thought it might be the bug that killed everyone and didn't let anyone out for a few days" James said sadly "one girl died of an asthma attack"

Nobody spoke, and Dan asked the council of they had any further questions for him. They didn't.

"Thanks James, could you please ask Leah to come in?" he said.

He left, and Leah entered full of confidence carrying a model of the area as described by James.

She laid it on the table and looked at Dan hopefully.

"Thanks, go enjoy your evening" he said, disappointing her with the dismissal. He didn't want her letting anything slip.

As the door closed he turned to the assembled heads and asked, "Are there any objections to a rescue mission at this point?" Nobody spoke; he was sure the objections would come thick and fast soon.

"This is the area James described" he began "as you can see it is heavily fortified and a stealth approach has been ruled out due to the geography. I propose to visit the camp and speak to the leader. If diplomacy fails, and let's be realistic here it probably will, a plan to remove the captives by force is available"

He looked at the council and received blank states from some, nods of encouragement from others.

"This is a big operation, and holds equally big risks. I want this to be a vote but I want everyone to be clear about why I want to do it. Humanity must prevail, and with that we must save people from a system that uses slavery and brutality for the benefit of the few." Dan said, launching into his prepared speech about doing the right thing.

"Two of my Rangers will be placed here and here" he said, indicating nearby buildings. "I will approach in a vehicle I have prepared for a confrontation" he left out Neil's involvement for now as agreed so he didn't seem complicit. Democracy was all well and good, but he liked to hedge his bets.

"Should they not release the prisoners, the snipers will deal with the guards in top of the containers. I will have to deal with the remaining hostiles coming from this building here" again pointing to a part of the model.

"How many are we talking about, mate?" asked Chris.

"Up to twenty. I plan to be there at dawn so they will all be inside and probably still drunk" Dan replied with some trepidation.

All part of the plan.

"Can you handle that many?" Neil asked, full of rehearsed concern.

"I'll have to, nobody else can work the machine gun" he said, easing into the sticky part of the plan.

"Snipers? Machine gun?" Said Penny "is it safe to assume that you plan to kill these guards and 'Bronson'?"

"Yes. I do. It's true that I'm the violent one here and sadly, that is my skill set. I can't grow things or make things or heal people, but I have used my abilities to keep every single one of you alive. I want to save these people, and I'm asking you all to allow me to take our Rangers and a few others to bring back thirty plus people who deserve better and to stop a tyrant before he is too powerful to deal with. What if we ignore this now, and next year he knocks on our door to take what he wants?"

"It's too dangerous" said Penny "your plan is obviously flawed as you will never have time to use the machine gun if they are watching you"

Neil cleared his throat. "Actually, I'm the only one here to have ever used one. I'll go with you"

"I can't let you do that" Dan began, but Neil cut him off harshly.

"I was using them when you were still in school, so don't tell me what you can and can't let me do" he said, keeping his face stern and staring Dan into submission.

"In that case, the plan will work much better and faster" Dan said with carefully feigned resignation.

He looked to Chris and Kate in turn.

"Yes" said Chris.

"Absolutely" said Kate.

Cara looked apprehensive, "I'm worried people, our people, will get killed" she said nervously.

"I agree" said Andrew with uncharacteristic confidence.

"I don't know. It seems very dangerous to have all the Rangers leave at once" said Jimmy, giving Penny some glimmer of support.

He moved to Penny.

"I'm concerned for the welfare of everyone. It's not just you risking your own life again; if you all go and get yourselves killed then what about everyone else?" She began "that said, I could not allow my conscience to rest knowing that we did nothing. You must promise that you will seek a diplomatic solution first though?"

"Trust me, I will. Are we all agreed then?"

They were.

Dan hid his smile and reminded himself to do some extra washing up for Cara and share a beer with Jimmy for playing their parts - if everyone supported him publicly then Penny would feel alone enough to argue against the plan in justifiably good conscience.


"Why is it called that?" Leah interrupted, for the third time since he started talking.

"Because we need to tread lightly, now stop talking over me or I'll tell Ash you're edible" he snarled. He loved that sarcastic little girl, but she really knew how to piss him off at times.

"Anyway! Thanks to everyone here for volunteering, as you know nobody will be forced to do this" Dan said as he addressed the assembled team.

Steve, Joe and Lexi at the front. Neil, Ian, James and Ed behind. Leah had nagged to be allowed to go, but Dan had flatly refused. He would be too busy to watch over her, as would the other Rangers. He had to compromise by allowing her to be armed when they went, under Chris' careful eye as he would be nominally in charge of house protection during the mission.

"You've all heard where we are going and why we are going there so I won't go over the whys and wherefores again except to say that our purpose is to rescue survivors being kept prisoner. We will be setting off long before dawn tomorrow to be in place by sunrise. Lexi and Steve know their insertion points, and will be providing cover throughout. Neil and I will be in the modified Land Rover, stopping short for him to get in the back.

Ian will drive the coach with Ed and James to reassure the people we are rescuing, and you will stop a couple of miles short under Joe's protection until called in via CB.

Reminder; there will be NO radio traffic until the threats are dealt with." He paused to make sure they got the point, repeating the instruction carefully, word for word, out of habit.

"I will drive to the site and talk to them. If it needs to go noisy, I will indicate for the snipers to open fire with a hand signal as agreed. Neil will then unveil his present and I will crawl under the Land Rover screaming and trying not to get shot" his joke got the nervous laugh it deserved.

"Snipers will stay in place until extraction, then fall back and regroup at the agreed site before we return home in convoy"

"Just in time for tea and medals" declared Wing Commander Neil.

Penny and the others had not been idle. Bedding and clothing packs had been prepared, and the second level dormitories were cleared and fresh bedding laid out. Cara had spent the two days since the meeting baking cakes and pastries as Nina maintained the commercial cooking side effectively.

Kate had laid out a triage area, and had a set of hospital scrubs ready for each of her team. Marie and Penny were standing by to welcome the new arrivals and organise them with all those not busy on the farms.

"Get some sleep, alarm clocks set for two a.m." he nodded dismissal to the group and turned to see Leah's face set in a stone mask of neutrality which she had adopted since being told to be quiet.

"What's the matter with you?" He asked.

Leah fixed him with an evilly fake smile, replying in a sweet voice "Nothing"

Dan didn't sleep, but that was fairly normal for him. Just after midnight he took Ash outside then went into Ops and loaded four of the new Remington shotguns which had been stored in his room. Chris would distribute these as he saw fit, and Dan trusted him to make the right choices.

He checked over all the equipment he was taking, but left the personal weapons of the other Rangers as he wouldn't like someone tampering with his; it messes with a person's chi.

He was restless and ready by one a.m., waiting for the others. They trickled down one by one in silence, but all were early. As they were preparing to go Leah stumbled in looking sleepy but carried two flasks of coffee. She must have got up early to boil the water. She gave one to Dan and kept the second for herself, making him wonder when she started drinking coffee. More bad parenting he assumed, but it's not like he got her an appropriate present for her birthday.

She pulled on her vest and took her Glock and carbine, checking both chambers and making sure they were safe before adding sugar to her drink. That was good; a sleepy teenager demonstrating weapon discipline when half asleep. He went to go and a grunt from her made him turn back. She walked over and tentatively put her arms around him, unsure of herself. He hugged her back, tighter and she simply said "see you later" then turned to switch on the CB to monitor their progress.

Dan led the convoy with Neil sat beside him. He had left Ash behind, not wanting to risk him being hit in the hail of bullets he anticipated or biting a refugee. They didn't speak, save to look behind and say that they still had their convoy.

Lexi and Steve followed, with Ian driving the coach stocked with food and water, and Joe behind. They took the route Lexi had followed, knowing it to be clear. Going at a steady speed so Ian could easily keep pace. They went like this for over three hours, until Dan pulled up at the point where Ian's coach and Joe would wait for word that it was safe to move up.

Dan drank a coffee and rehearsed exactly how he wanted it to go, then factored in what could go wrong. Lexi and Steve left after thirty minutes, creeping towards their posts on goggles to save using vehicle lights. He had insisted on radio silence in case the other group had a CB, and we're monitoring it. Slim chance, but his way avoided the slim chance that they would be the ones ambushed and not the other way around.

Another hour went by, and the sun started to creep into the horizon. His snipers should be in place by now. He felt good to have them there; he trusted them and both owed their lives to him.

He willed himself to be calm, and went over and over the variables. He finally admitted two things to himself; one, he had no intention of allowing this pack of bastards and their psycho leader to live, and two, he realised all the people with him trusted their own lives and that of the prisoners on his ability to wing it.

He looked at Neil, who looked as anxious as he felt inside. "We doing this?" He asked.

"Ten minutes" he replied, looking at the first rays of sun in the distance.

Ten minutes came and went in silence. Dan started the engine.

Neil quietly recited some part of a speech from Gladiator, before winking and climbing out. Noises from the back and a gentle double thump on the thin bulkhead between them let him know that he was ready.

"Show time" he said quietly to himself before setting off with his lights on full beam.


He arrived at the camp in a few minutes, seeing a dirty multi-coloured replica of Leah's white model. He rolled in slowly, saying through the bulkhead to Neil "thirty seconds!"

The muffled reply of "Roger" came back with a jaunty roll of the letter R.

Dan drove closer, just as the sun was up over his left shoulder. He saw a flurry of movement in top of the curious array of shipping containers then, as the low building to his right came into view, he skewed the nose of the land rover to the left to give Neil a better arc of fire.

He got out of the vehicle, wearing clothes that made him not look like himself; he had grey trousers on and a bright coloured t-shirt scavenged from the camping shop months ago.

He called a "hello" to the visible guard, and received a string of obscene abuse back. He tried the idiot approach, which annoyed him that people always found believable, and tried again.

Just his luck; Bronson was awake.

Dan was thrown for an instant. He recovered in time to assess the big man walking towards him. He had the inescapable look of an ex-pro heavyweight boxer, and hands big enough to choke the life out of a grown man.

He was intimidating before he saw him, but now Dan was properly scared and considered ordering his troops to open up immediately.

He gathered his nerves, and tried to play the idiot for a little while longer.

"Hello there!" He said cheerfully with a faked speech impediment "haven't seen anyone in days now. I'm Eric" he said, offering a hand. He didn't look like an Eric, and Bronson didn't accept the hand.

"What do you want, little man?" he growled. Not many people could say that to him with any degree of accuracy, but Bronson was right. The man was a monster.

Every second he waited, the sun climbed higher in the sky making the targets easier for his team. It also gave time for the other enemies inside to get organised. He decided to speed things along.

"I've heard you have people in there. I'd like to take them off your hands" he said, knowing that without the snipers and Neil he had just signed his own, and likely very painful, death warrant.

"You want to take them do you?" Bronson said in a voice dripping with dangerous menace.

"Then fucking take them, runt. Right now, or call for the fucking cavalry to come and save your arse because I will rip you to pieces"

"Ok, but I want you to bring your people out to watch me beat you. Fair fight, you and me" Dan replied, feigning a confidence he didn't possess in the slightest.

Bronson smiled at him. "You!" He shouted as he turned and pointed at a half drunk guard. "Everyone out here, now" he yelled, turning back to Dan with a smile.

Dan began some ludicrous looking stretches, and bounced on the spot like he was preparing for some Victorian bout. He killed maybe a half minute by doing this, hoping to get all the targets out into the killing ground.

As more men began to emerge from the building, Bronson could wait no longer and advanced to get his breakfast.

"I warn you, I'm armed!" Dan said suddenly, showing a demented smile, then pointed his finger at the beast like he held and imaginary gun.

Bronson stared at his finger for a second, looked at him directly and roared with laughter.

Steve lay prone, the crosshairs of his rifle's sight resting dead-centre on the huge man stood in front of his friend. Dan wasn't a big man, but he certainly wasn't small and he had a presence which couldn't be ignored. In his current company however, Dan was dwarfed. He watched intently, keeping his breathing slow and regulated as the monster suddenly laughed at Dan pointing his imaginary gun.

The corner of Steve's mouth curled slightly in smile before he let out his breath, held it again, and squeezed the trigger with the crosshairs still on Bronson's chest.

The impact rocked him, but miraculously he stayed on his feet. His mouth opened and closed twice, before he slowly turned and fell exposing the gaping hole in his back.

Bronson was dead; now for the rest of the snake.

Dan dived behind the Defender, going low for the opposite door to retrieve his equipment. Simultaneously, he heard the crack of Steve's first round, followed quickly by the zipping sounds of more bullets homing in on their targets. All he heard was zip, crack, zip, crack until a roar of challenge erupted from the back of his vehicle.

Neil heard the exchange. He heard the zip, followed by the sickening impact, then the report of the rifle reached his ears. He unclipped the last rubber straps holding the back down, then heaved the pole up and over to reveal his weapon. He roared as he did so, flung the heavy metal lid away and racked the long bolt of the gun with his left hand.

"I am the cavalry, bitches!" He yelled, then fired his first burst into three watery eyed enforcers running from the building.

Dan forced himself to be calm. Methodical. Without his kit, he was a hindrance. He pulled on his vest, tightened it, and then picked up his carbine. His mags were fully loaded, and he had a lucky bullet in the pipe ready.

He flicked the catch to automatic and ran away from the vehicle as he used it for cover. He climbed aboard the large crane sitting a few metres away, then ran up the extended arm to get on top of the containers. He dropped to one knee, and fired a series of short bursts at the confused guards who were stood exposed. One of these was winged; clipped in the upper arm. He spun almost gracefully, and fell the fifteen feet into the prison pen where he landed on his back with a thud. Dan fired three more bursts, once seeing his target snatched out of his scope as Lexi's - he assumed hers from the angle of the shot - bullet took him straight through the lower back and felled him instantly. He could hear the steady rhythm of carefully aimed shots coming from the snipers, interspersed with Neil's short bursts so as not to overheat the gun and risk a jam. He swore he could hear laughing from somewhere.

He moved along taking advantage of the top cover, before the shooting stopped.

Dan had to clear the building fast, before any slackers had the chance to organise themselves. He seated a fresh magazine and racked the gun, then turned the torch on to full, which was blinding in close quarters even in full daylight. He quickly went room to room, finding nothing until he reached the back of the building. He kicked open a door and advanced, seeing a man pull a girl to her feet by her hair. She couldn't have been much older than Leah. He started to issue a poorly planned threat to make this murderous intruder leave him alone, and died with four bullets in his head and neck.

Dan moved on, slinging the M4 on his back and drawing the stubby shotgun over his right shoulder as the stairwell was too tight for the carbine. He took the stairs quickly, bizarrely thinking how many times he would have heard 'BANG' clearing a house this fast before.

Fuck the lot of them; new manual. Speed was the key here.

The top of the stairs was suddenly filled with a man throwing a bomber jacket on before he froze seeing Dan. The man's blood sprayed on his face as his chest exploded from the heavy shot which sent his body flying backwards to tangle the legs of another running along the corridor. Dan almost fired again, but recognised the body shape of a young woman just in time.

He switched back to the M4 and cleared five other rooms, in the last being faced with what should be a difficult situation of a surrendering man.

One in the chest, one in the head.

He checked each room again, and found three women coming out from their hiding places.

He went back to the front door, and tied a red strip of cloth from his pocket onto the end of his hot carbine. The agreed signal for "It's me, please don't shoot me in the bloody head"

Neil called out to him, saying it was safe. He came out slowly, holding the rag high as he stepped through a pile of broken bodies in front of Neil's smoking barrel.

He turned to where the snipers would be and gave a thumbs up; the agreed signal for "Clear; stay on post and shoot anything unfriendly"

He safetied his weapons and went to Neil.

"Twelve!" Neil said, slapping the big gun and instantly regretting it for the mild burn.

"Three up there" he replied, pointing to the containers and trying not to think that they were bragging about ending human lives. He considered this for a second, and imagined that the girls inside probably weren't there by choice. "Four inside. One point blank with the SPAS" he finished.

Neil made a pained sucking sound, before delivering an extremely camp, "nasty pasty".

He climbed into the bullet holed driver's door, and found that of the few shots returned at them, only one had done serious damage. The radio was destroyed.

WHAT WERE YOU EXPECTING ….. GRATITUDE?

Neil offered to walk back to get the coach, but Dan told him to drive the Land Rover.

"Go steady" he warned, knowing that he would be full of adrenaline still.

He walked amongst the piled bodies, thrown down in grotesque poses by the heavy bullets. Now he had seen for himself what they had been doing he felt no remorse for attacking them, nor even for ambushing them as they had.

He saw that some carried weapons; bats and knives, a pickaxe handle, even a whip. These were slavers, not survivors. They were dressed and equipped more for taking on a zombie horde than anything else. They weren't survivors; they were tyrants.

He stopped above Bronson's shattered body and marvelled again at the size of the man. He probably would have been capable of ripping him to pieces.

He collected a few shotguns from the scattered bodies and three handguns from Bronson and another now unrecognisable man, thanks to the bullet in his face, checking their pockets for spare ammo. None of the other weapons were much good, and those he had were filthy and pitted through a lack of proper maintenance.

Movement in the doorway made him raise the carbine, and showed two girls in their teens huddled together. They stared at him with red eyes, waiting to see if he were to be their next master. As if to indicate that they would not resist him, one of them slipped the shoulder of her dirty top down to show the skin.

Dan nearly flipped, striding over to them with his weapons out of his hands.

"You don't need to do that. Ever again, not unless you choose to" the girls looked blankly at him. He gave up.

He stowed the revolvers he had recovered in his pockets, and looked at the semi-automatic as it didn't feel right. He dropped the magazine to find it filled with little yellow plastic balls.

The bastard had been terrorising these people using a BB gun.

A low groan came from a body to his right. Conscious that he was being watched, he put his back to the building and drew his knife without making a show of it. He found the man, a boy really, with two bullet wounds in his abdomen. Neither had hit anything vital, but he was assured of a long death as he bled out in agony. Dan pushed the knife into the side of his neck, twisted it a quarter turn allowing the blood to gush out to the ground, then removed the blade and cleaned it on his clothes.

As subtle as he had been about it, the two girls in the doorway had seen what he did. Neither showed any reaction as they were joined by another woman. Based on her lack of clothing, Dan guessed that she was the one he nearly cut in two at the top of the stairs.

He decided he should address the sounds of excited talking from inside the pen of containers. He climbed the crane again, standing on top of the containers. The sun was higher now, and the murmuring sound swelled as he stood in sight of them. He waited for a question to be asked of him, then remembered that these people had been punished for speaking up before. He would have to say something.

"I come from a group of survivors. We do not keep prisoners. Everyone has a say. Everyone is protected. Everyone is fed properly. We rescued two people and learned of this place, so we came to set you free"

Over sixty eyes were glued to him, but nobody said a word. He could hear engines coming and glanced behind to double check it was Neil and Ian. He saw the coach first, then the land rover in front as they crested the rise to approach him downhill.

He turned back to the dishevelled people in their pen.

"We have medical care waiting at home, and everyone is invited to join us. You would not be a prisoner there; we offer our help"

He was growing concerned that they all just stared at him, and turned to jump down before a small voice reached him.

"Did you kill them?" a woman asked.

"Yes" Dan said after a brief pause.

The woman's face dropped, her head and shoulders followed. Others seemed to take this news badly too, but the majority rejoiced.

He dropped down to see Neil coming forward ahead of the coach.

Dan approached him as he stopped.

"Think you can work that?" He asked, pointing at the crane.

"No, but I can probably drag one of these back instead" he said as he indicated the shipping containers in front of him. He went to find a chain.

Ian pulled up and maneuvered the coach into position like it was some aid mission to refugees. He supposed it was, in a way. He poked his head into the coach, climbing the first few stairs. Both James and Ed looked sick, whether that was from the bodies they stared at or being back in this place he couldn't say. They hadn't wasted their time; each seat of the coach had a blanket, bottle of water and energy bar and other snacks on.

Neil was rigging the chain he found at the crane to the towing hitch of his vehicle, having secured it to the corner of a container. He planned to drag it back at an angle which would put it flush against the one next to it and leave a gap where they could file out towards the coach.

Dan gave him the nod and the tyres bit into the rough concrete, hunkering the truck down on its springs. The container inched along, making a painful noise as it ground backwards leaving deep scores.

The gap opened enough for a person to get out, but nobody came. Wider still, enough for two and still nobody ran from their prison. Dan waved Neil to stop, then walked into the circular compound. Everywhere people hid, as others stood still in the open. He realised these people were more damaged than he expected.

"It's not a trick" he yelled at them "you are free and we are offering you shelter, food, medicine and protection" A few nervous people shuffled on their feet, before James and Ed came into view. People recognised them and another ripple of low talk went round.

James ran in, heading straight for a container and shouting a girl's name as he went. He came back out into the growing light, leading a young woman. The migration started slowly, as people followed those led by James and Ed. Then people jostled for position at the gap. He saw three people run as soon as they were out in the open.

He knew they didn't trust him, so he did not try to stop them. Good luck to them, he thought. He watched the girl James was leading as she stood over the broken body of Bronson, pure hatred in her eyes. She spat in his lifeless face.

People brought what meagre possessions they had, and filed onto the coach one by one. Some talked, most were silent. Dan walked around their prison, seeing the way they had been forced to live. He eventually set his eyes on the guard he had wounded and knocked into the pen. His head had been bashed in and was almost completely flat. What was most worrying though, was the empty holster at his waist.


Dan told the others about the missing gun. It concerned him deeply. He remembered training for hostage scenarios, where the hostage takers would hide themselves as victims. He had a terrible feeling that there was a wasp amongst the flies.

He walked along the coach, wanting to draw the Sig and search each person. They tore hungrily into the water and snacks, barely giving him a glance. Those who did look at him had eyes full of suspicion.

He didn't have time for this; their one-sided gun battle would have been audible for miles around.

"We've got to get moving" he said as he strode to the front.

He had to trust that everyone knew what to do, and led the coach back up the road past where they had waited. Joe had set up at the rendezvous point already. He watched the road ahead, as Neil got back on the big gun watching behind.

Dan walked along the aisle of the coach again, looking for any subtle hint that any of the passengers were hiding something. Like a gun.

It was useless; they all looked edgy and all but a few gave him looks that made him feel sick. They were waiting to see what tortures lay in wait from their new captors.

One man had the courage to speak up. "Where are you taking us?" He asked.

Dan spoke loudly for the benefit of the others.

"We're taking you to our home. You can have a hot shower, clean clothes and a warm bed. You'll have medical care and a proper meal"

Some regarded this news as too good to be true, and the mistrust was plain on their faces.

"What do we have to do?" Asked a woman.

"Nothing" said Dan "I hope you will want to stay and be a part of the group, but I promise you that you will not be captives. If you want to stay you can find work to do, but you should all gather your strength and get better first"

He hoped that they would trust him, any show of strength on his part would put him in the category of those who had imprisoned them.

Lexi arrived next, holding up four fingers to Neil in answer to a question Dan hadn't heard but easily guessed what they were talking about. That made twenty-three.

Steve drove up a short time after, Dan saw his lips mouth 'five' as he pulled up by Neil.

Twenty-seven, and only twenty-five bodies. Dan told himself the miscount was due to multiple people aiming at different targets. He was sure none survived, but without Ash or a team of forensic experts he would never know.

They formed up again, this time Dan took Lexi's Land Rover and went up front with Steve. The coach rode in the middle, then Joe and finally Lexi driving with Neil still manning the big gun.

Twice the rear-guard stopped and planned an ambush as the coach and lead vehicles went ahead slowly.

Dan tried the CB in Lexi's defender as they neared their home turf, finally getting through nearly twenty miles out.

They made it home in three hours, where the welcoming committee was ready.


The coach pulled up and the doors opened. Nobody came out. Dan jogged to the front door of the house as people were coming out, he stopped in front of them.

"They aren't the trusting type" he said "and I think one of them may have taken a gun from a guard. Everyone be careful and send for me if there is any trouble."

Kate went into the coach, wearing her old paramedic uniform for added reassurance.

"My name is Kate, and I am in charge of medical services. My team will see everyone to take care of you. There will be hot showers, clean clothes and food. Please follow me" she said, then turned away.

Slowly, people started to emerge cautiously after James led the girl and encouraged the others to follow them.

One by one the scared, ragged survivors filed towards the house. A conveyor belt system had been organised, where survivors gave their name to Karen who was established on a desk in the reception area. Others were stood by to issue clean underwear, trousers and tops, as well as a plastic bag containing basic toiletries and a towel.

James led the girl to Karen, still holding her hand. She was thin, dirty and had dark rings around her sunken eyes.

"What's your name, sweet?" Asked Karen kindly.

"Pip" she said in a small voice, wild eyes scanning desperately.

She gave her age and her former occupation, then shook her head when asked if she had any other skills. Kate led her straight into medical as soon as she was given some clean clothing.

As the pattern was established, so too the pace picked up. Their suspicions were slowly being eroded as the promises were made good.

Dan left Penny and the others hard at work sorting the new people into small groups where they were led to the bathrooms.

"Please keep the showers short for now, we don't want to run out of hot water" Carl said, as he took a group of three men upstairs.

Dan saw his Rangers loitering around their gunship with Neil.

He walked to them, as he didn't want a string of heavily armed troops walking past the traumatised intake.

He had let Ash out, keeping him very close despite his interest in all the new people who may feed him. He recognised Neil and bounded over, receiving some treats hidden in his leg pocket.

Dan lit a smoke and offered one to Lexi. He inhaled deeply, eyes closed and head upturned before letting it out slowly and blowing a plume of smoke over their heads.

"Fucking nice work, people" he said at last. He looked at Steve and asked him how his perspective went.

"Took some trouble getting in place to start with, had to move to a closer building and climb the stairs to the roof." He said "Perfect line of sight, and I had that big bastard in my scope with you ready for the signal. When it went loud I dropped three on the containers where they sat, then covered the windows as you went inside, taking a runner from the building after you went in"

Dan nodded approval, worrying that he had missed one when he went inside. Five for five, one hundred per cent.

He turned to Lexi.

"On target easy enough, but the height advantage wasn't enough to get an angle on you and Neil. I took four out as they came into view on the containers. One miss" she said.

Dan guessed that she had been the one to snatch his target from his scope, but figured this wasn't the time to argue over the hunting etiquette of whose bird it should've been.

Neil chimed in after. "I heard dozy bollocks here challenging the Sasquatch to a boxing match, and unclipped the back as quietly as I could." He said. "I saw the guy go down through a slot in the side, then jumped out of the cake like a stripper"

He feigned taking offence at the intentionally invited giggles.

"There were half a dozen stood around the big guy, waiting to see him kill someone. It was sick; like a playground bully with no teachers to run to" he got serious then "they went down before they had a chance to figure out what was happening. I took seven down in the first two bursts, then another five as they ran out. I didn't hear it but one bastard emptied a revolver at me. I saw him aiming as I was taking down a runner and saw the muzzle flashes. Look!" he said theatrically, and held his shirt out to the side.

"What?" Said Dan, looking for the point of his show.

Neil poked a finger through a small hole running though his top twice.

"It's a good job I'm thin!" He joked. With anyone else, Dan would worry that he was in shock and that the panic of nearly catching a bullet in the stomach would affect him. Not Neil; he genuinely found it funny.

"Good news is, Thunderbird Two here worked perfectly. Mike's rubber mounts were the key I reckon" Dan agreed. Without the big machine gun there would undoubtedly have been losses, probably himself.

"Good job you lot" he said. Before he could continue, Steve asked "what about you?"

He paused, then said "You saw it. I pulled up and that Bronson was the one to greet me. I played dumb, and offered to fight him for the survivors. I knew he wouldn't be able to resist the chance to show off and he sent someone to fetch his audience. Then Steve ended his reign and I grabbed my kit, taking three on top of the containers."

"What about inside?" Steve enquired gently.

"Four more. Stairs were very tight so I had to use the SPAS. One came at me on the top of the stairs and I hit him in the chest at close range. Damn near cut him in half."

The gruesomeness of this revelation hung heavy for a few seconds before Dan snapped himself out of it.

"Quiet as you can, guns into Ops and clean them. Neil, just stow the belts for the GPMG for now. And everyone keep sidearms on them until we're sure we haven't brought back anyone dangerous."

They took their leave, and he brought his own guns to his room where he cleaned them and locked them away, keeping the Sig. He left Ash in his room, now more of an ammo store than his quarters, and went to see how the high commission for refugees was faring.

He opened his door to the sight of Leah holding a cup of coffee to him, smiling. He accepted it, thanked her, and said she could put her guns away now. She seemed a little put out, so Dan explained that these people had been kept prisoner by armed guards and he didn't want to look like that was the case here. She understood.

He took his coffee to the dining hall, flanked by his eager apprentice, and saw lines of freshly washed people wearing a collection of new clothes, mostly prison tracksuits.

In hindsight, maybe not the best things to put them in but it would have to do for tonight.

Cara was greeting the new arrivals, explaining which way the impressive buffet went and invited them to get a plate and join the queue which led to Nina dishing up large helpings of pasta bake. Cara and her team had outdone themselves with the spread, which included a long table full of pastries and cakes. Andrew was probably having kittens somewhere over the amount of extra supplies they had used.

There were cans and bottles of sweet drinks, even cartons of cigarettes and lighters left out.

The people seemed more relaxed, and had even started to talk amongst themselves quietly. He felt a few cold looks from some, but joined the line for lunch. Three times he had to refuse being offered to jump ahead of those who clearly needed it more than him.

He sat with Leah aside from the others. None of them joined him until a freshly showered Pip sat down a few seats away. She hesitated, before summing up the courage to turn to Dan and offer their thanks. She seemed like she wanted to say more, but didn't.

"You're welcome, Pip. It's good to have you here safely" he said quite loudly, eager to show the others that he wasn't guarding them.

He could guess from her interaction with the former Bronson how she had earned her food previously.

This is what offended him the most about the way life had become after it happened; like the mad max twins and the country boys. Some people are just waiting for the bigger players to leave before they throw their weight around and take advantage of others. Sure they were surviving in their own way, but what good is the human race without humanity.


It took days for most of the thirty-one survivors to adapt to freedom. Some of them had been captives for months, others only a week or two. The brutality they had lived under was terrible, and he could only guess at the damage done.

The downside of this, was that they had effectively taken in thirty-one mouths to feed who were all weak, malnourished, injured and scared.

He knew he wouldn't be lucky enough to have found a couple of special forces reconnaissance soldiers, and the thought lingered on how many of those they had killed would have been offered positions as Rangers if they had been found here instead.

That led to the thought of how many of his own would have become enforcers if the scenario were different. He pushed that thought from his head. The answer was simple; none. None of his would act like that, not even to save their own. It wasn't right, and using violence was not the same as what had been done to these people. At least, that was the theory he swore by.

Slowly, they began to integrate. After a week, Maggie took ten of the new arrivals and taught them the basics of the gardening side. Another five accepted work on the farm for Chris. One group of eight kept very much to themselves, almost a split faction. Dan kept a close eye on those.

Pip insisted she earn her keep, and was outright refused by Kate as she found her in very poor health. She told them that she had been pregnant when it happened, and gave birth to a stillborn baby in their makeshift prison.

James hung around her like a moth, but Dan saw he was annoying her and sent him back to work with Pete. He slipped the old gamekeeper a half bottle of Johnny Walker red label and asked him to keep the man very busy and tired. Pete gave a conspiratorial wink, and true to his word had James out until very late netting rabbits, then up before dawn to deal with them. He kept him out hunting overnight at least once a week.

The ringleader of the separatist front approached Dan one day as he smoked. Ash didn't like the look of him and made that clear with a low growl. Dan told him to stay, and he lay on the ground never taking his eyes off his master as he walked away with the stranger.

His name was Martin. He was a thin, pinched looking man with a permanent scowl. He started with some insincere thanks for the hospitality, but he struck Dan as a man who hadn't unpacked his suitcase. He listened in silence; his Dad had always said to let the other person fill the silence and only speak when you had something important to say.

He stopped and turned to him. "I'm not a man to piss about as you have probably guessed. Make your point, please"

Martin straightened himself and asked permission for him and the other seven to leave.

"You don't need my permission, but you will need my help" Dan said. "Where do you plan to go?" He asked. Martin was clearly annoyed that he was being asked to tell this man his secrets, and said nothing.

"Let me guess" Dan said "you're either planning to hit the coast and take a boat, probably south for the continent, or you know of a place where you can set up by yourselves"

Martin looked uncomfortable and a little embarrassed. "South of France" he said finally. Dan took his time finishing his cigarette, then looked at him directly.

"I told you all that we were getting you out of there. We fed you, we fixed you, we clothed you" he explained "at no point did I say that any of you had to repay that, even though we risked the lives of everyone here to do so. I'm not rubbing it in, I'm stating facts" he finished.

Martin said nothing.

"Speak to your friends tonight, then find me after breakfast tomorrow. We'll help you plan your routes, your equipment, teach you some things you may not have learned and find you a vehicle" he turned away, leaving a shocked Martin nervously clutching the stolen gun in his coat pocket.

He let it go and wiped his sweaty palm on his leg, worried that it was too easy.

The following morning Dan emerged to take Ash outside. He hadn't even had a coffee before he went back inside to find Martin waiting for him. He held up a hand and asked for five minutes, visiting the toilets and the kitchen for a pot of coffee before he returned. He poured a cup for Martin, not bothering to ask if he took milk or sugar. All of his team drank black coffee, probably because he did, although he was sure Leah probably had a stash of sugar somewhere.

Martin was invited to explain their plan. They wanted to head for the south west coast, where one of his group had a sailing boat. They planned to get there, stock up, and sail for France where another of them had a Gite near the coast.

Dan asked what supplies he needed.

"A few days' food and water, nothing else" he replied.

"Maps?" he enquired.

"A road map would be helpful" he answered.

Dan stood and took a gulp of coffee before selecting an unused A3 sized road atlas book of the United Kingdom. He dropped it on the table in front of Martin and offered rucksacks and sleeping bags as well as some other basic equipment to see them to the coast. They should do that in three days easily.

Martin still looked at him suspiciously before blurting out "What's the catch?"

"No catch. None at all. If you want to go then good luck. I'll find a minibus or a pair of vehicles for you today to leave in the morning" Dan said.

"Honestly?" Martin said, his face pleading.

"Yes. Whilst we're on the subject of honesty" Dan said, backing a hunch "don't you think you'll need something better than the little handgun you've got?"

Martin's face told him he was right.

"Show it to me" Dan instructed him.

Martin reached into a pocket and carefully produced an ancient small calibre revolver. The thing would most likely fire, but you'd have to be holding it to someone's head to kill them. He checked the cylinder; four rounds; practically useless.

He made a judgment call.

"We have a rule here; nobody carries a gun unless trained and authorised. By me." He spun the gun gently around on the table.

"You'll get this back in the morning, along with a good pump action shotgun and spare ammunition. It's easy to use and maintain. You'll have a vehicle by then, you have my word"

Martin had been played into a corner, and he had little choice but to trust the man.

Leah wandered in shortly after to find Dan sat at the table with a pathetically small gun. She gave him a puzzled look and a greeting.

"Morning kid. Kit up; we're going to buy a car"


Dan took his Discovery, the now familiar three heads riding along looking out at the world.

They took spare fuel and a starter pack as they headed to the coach company where they found the rescue vehicle. Inside they practiced the building clearance in a real situation. Dan was very happy with her technique, but unsure if she had the maturity to make a challenge and maybe shoot someone if she had to.

They selected a sixteen seat minibus, and set about getting it started and fuelled. They used a cigarette lighter pump to inflate the tyres and left it running to settle the disused engine.

Dan asked Leah if she had a D1 category on her license. She was confused, and unhelpfully pointed out that she didn't have a driving license.

"Well, you're going to have to drive mine then." He nonchalantly declared. Her face slowly broke into her characteristic grin where she tried to hide how excited she was.

"You're ok with the automatic 'box now?" She was. She had been watching his movements as he drove for months.

"Yeah" she tried, as coolly as possible.

"You sure? Because the last time you tried you crashed into a forty grand convertible if you remember" he said, enjoying goading her.

She smiled sweetly "True. But now I know how to strip that weapon you're holding in the dark. People change"

He couldn't argue with her logic again.

He held the keys out to her, but held tight to them as she tried to pull them away. "Don't. Crash. It." He said firmly.

"If I do I'll get you a new one for your birthday. When is it by the way?" She asked innocently.

"Bugger off"

They set off back home, Dan driving the minibus up front with Ash riding in the passenger seat.

He looked in his rear view. There was a thirteen year-old driving a nearly sixty thousand pound three litre diesel off road car. If that wasn't bizarre enough, she was driving it well and carried two guns which she knew how to use.

The following morning came and went. The council had wholly agreed to allow the group to leave; the unanimous decision was that to prevent them would be to imprison them. They supported the minibus idea and they were given extra clothing as well as basic camping supplies. Dan had kept his word, and returned the tiny revolver to Martin. He had also included a stock Remington with no attachments and showed the group the basics of operating and cleaning it. He added a box of ammo; hunting cartridges but still quite a heavy load.

They left, and life moved on easily enough.


Penny called a council meeting that evening. She had been a rare sight amongst the occupants of the house in the last few days. For that matter, she had spent a lot of time in bed recently. She passed it off as just being a little under the weather, but refused all offers of help from Kate.

She saw her personal matters as exactly that; personal.

She was in a bad enough mood as it was, and the pains in her belly were crippling some days. She knew it was something serious, something that needed doctors and hospitals and expensive machinery to take scans that consultants would meet and discuss. She walked into the meeting with her own dark cloud hanging over her, and her feelings made themselves known a little too strongly.

"We have eight people here who are not contributing" she started, holding up a hand to stop the few protests she saw forming. "I know one of them is unwell after being pregnant, which is a passable excuse for part time employment, but that still leaves seven who are a drain" she went to continue, but was hit with a wave of pain from her stomach.

Kate took the opportunity to jump in before the rant started again.

"I'll stop you right there, Penny" she bit, acidly "the girl is malnourished and has been mistreated badly. It's a miracle she didn't die in labour and that's taken a toll on her body. She stays close to me and my team at all times, not negotiable, and as for the others, they are also physically very weak - I've got two in medical right now if you cared to check."

Penny winced, fought back a cry of pain, and sat down. Kate stood and continued.

"That leaves five frightened, damaged and abused people who aren't ready to work a chain gang for you, so you can..."

"Kate! Enough" snapped Dan, not because he disagreed but because he saw the pain hidden in Penny's eyes.

"What? You're on her side?" Kate asked angrily.

"No. Look at her!" he said as Penny stood with some difficulty and turned to leave the room.

Dan stood too, and only just made it in time to stop her from cracking her skull on the steps to the door.

Kate barged him aside to check her. Typical paramedic; she does everything she can to save a life regardless of what she thinks of the person.

She called her name, and was rewarded with a faint squeak through shallow breathing. Penny's eyes screwed shut and her body went into spasm as the pain overtook her again.

Kate looked at Dan with wide eyes, and said "trolley". He ran to medical, ignoring the worried looks from those he thundered past, returning with the ambulance stretcher and raising the panic levels further.

Penny was wheeled through, and the shouted names from Kate ended the free time of her team. Dan followed, and had the door shut in his face. He turned to the assembled crowd and tried to act blithe.

"It's ok everyone, just let them do their jobs" he said with a smile he was sure was as fake as a gold Rolex from a market stall.

He maintained the TV presenter face as he strode into the dining room to find the council still seated, bar two members.

"Meeting adjourned I think, folks. Unless anyone has anything else?" He said.

If they did, they had probably forgotten it now.


She guessed she was now the senior lab assistant, as there were no other candidates. She theorised with herself as she walked, reckoning that a cure was a little pointless now, but finding out the cause could be useful.

She spoke into her digital recorder again.

"Theory; what if the virus mutates? Could natural immunity be beaten in this way? Are there any other effects of exposure to those immune to the lethality?" She stopped recording, running the numbers through her head.

"Assuming a ninety to ninety-nine per cent non-immunity, based on available data, further mutation could be assumed to result in similar lethality, with an eventual population effect of point one per cent."

She paused, unsure if she should theorise further without a more senior scientist to check her work. She told herself she was the senior scientist, probably in the whole country. So she recorded what she believed.

"A viral mutation would effectively eradicate the population of the country without a rapid reaction to bring all surviving humans into a controlled breeding program. This would almost certainly require outside organization. If the virus has spread worldwide, which must be assumed based on the transmission being believed airborne, then planetary population by humans is unlikely within a generation."

Serious shit.

She walked on, looking for alternative transport to walking even though she had prepared herself by running on the treadmills every day.

"You're like a hamster on a wheel" the chief researcher used to say to her "maybe we should use you as a test subject" he laughed, thinking it was funny. He was a sexist, racist pervert. If things were normal she would have written a formal complaint to the university that employed him. As it wasn't, she had to tolerate his endless sick joke of waving a five pound note at her and asking for a happy ending.

Still, he was dead now, and she didn't mind one bit.

She walked on, planning to find a vehicle and enough supplies to get her on the way to the other site in Scotland. Their virology data would advance her theories one way or another.

Travel light and keep moving, she told herself. Avoid contact with others in case of viral mutation.


Penny was weak. The pain racked her in waves, taking her breath away. She wanted to tell someone. People say that sharing problems halves them.

Did that mean they believed that if she told someone then her cancer would shrink by half? Stupid thoughts by stupid people.

In the end she had to tell Kate. She had seen the scars. Being a paramedic she had learned to guess the surgery from the location and size of the operation scars.

"Penny" she said softly "when did you have the colonoscopy?"

She cried gently as she told the story of how the pains started, and the consultant had wanted to operate quickly. She had tried to refuse, saying that she was too busy at school to take months off to recover. The consultant had told her straight; no operation meant no chance of survival. She had the operation, leaving her deputy head in charge for nine weeks before she dragged herself back to work. She had put off the follow-up appointments, then it happened and there were no longer any doctors left to prescribe her course of chemotherapy. She was dying, and she knew it. She wept into Kate's arms until she fell asleep.

Miles away, Kyle also wept pitifully. He did so in silence so they didn't beat him again for being soft. They brought him out every so often, making him crawl like a dog with a lead around his neck. Soon, they said, soon he would lead them to his old home where they would take over what the others had built. Then they would give him a new kennel, they laughed. Kyle wished he was dead, but he lacked the courage to invite it from them or do it himself.


Penny asked to speak to Marie. She came straight away, thinking it was an emergency of conscience. She told her what she wanted of her, and asked her to promise to keep her word.

She called again for a council meeting that evening, a week after she had collapsed. She was helped into the room by Kate.

She thanked them for coming at short notice, and promised to keep the matter brief.

"I had bowel cancer last year. It was removed by operation but I believe it has returned and will now be the end of me soon" she looked at the assembled faces, registering shock and fear. Kate had clearly been good for her word on confidentiality.

"I fear I am of little use to everyone as I am, and it will only worsen for a short time until" she paused, swallowing "until I'm no longer with you"

Tears began to show on her cheeks, mirroring the silent crying from others around the table.

"It is my wish that my seat on the council be passed on to a worthy candidate, effective immediately. To that end I propose that Marie be considered for head of house. If any of you have an alternative suggestion, please make it now"

She tried to veil the tiredness she felt, but wanted nothing more than to lie down.

Nobody suggested another name as she looked at each face in turn.

"Very well. All those in favour?" She said, forcing a smile.

All the assembled raised a hand.

"My other wish is for people to start having babies" she said, throwing out a shock revelation. "Thank you for indulging me" she said with a smile, "now if you'll excuse me my doctor insists I rest"

Kate helped her from her chair as the council watched her walk slowly from the room.

One by one they rose and left without a word, deep in their own thoughts.


Dan went to Penny the next day at her request. He thought he should have brought a gift or something seeing as she was in hospital and terminally ill. He said as much to her and she dismissed his frivolity. She asked Kate to give them some privacy, which she did without a word.

"I wanted to speak to you, for my own peace of mind" she said weakly. She was propped up in bed and looked drawn. Pale.

"What do you want to know?" Dan asked, guessing what it was.

"Tell me about yourself. Who you were before, I mean" she asked.

"I think you know some of it" Dan said, stalling.

"I believe you were a military man. Maybe a policeman after that." She said with a smile.

Dan smiled back. "Right on both counts. I was a Royal Military Policeman, then I joined the regular police after I got out"

"Why did you leave?" she asked.

"Boredom." Said Dan honestly "I wanted a family and I didn't want my kids born and raised on some drab camp in Germany. I was sick of fighting with pissed up squaddies, so I left."

"And what then?" Penny urged, her smile wavering with a sudden pain.

"I started again from the bottom, which wasn't fun, but I got married and had two kids. Emily would be six now, and Michael would be four" a single tear dropped suddenly from his cheek, soundlessly hitting the sheets of the bed and soaking away to nothing. Penny gripped his hand reassuringly.

"They weren't with me when it happened, they were with their mother. None of them made it. I was too upset to bury them" Dan's head dropped and the tears flowed freely as he let go of the stress.

"You were separated?" Penny asked gently.

"Divorced. Long story" Dan said with a mirthless laugh, cuffing the tears away from his face.

"Will you make me a promise?" she urged him.

"What's that?" he replied.

"Speak to Marie" she said with a tremor of passion "she can help you"

Dan nodded, not entirely certain he would keep that promise.

"You had nobody else?" she asked.

"Parents. Didn't speak to them much because of the divorce and the stuff before. I think they blamed me. I had a girlfriend, we hadn't been together too long but she died too."

"What happened before?" she wanted to know.

"Oh, that is a long story" Dan answered.

"Tell me" she asked with a squeeze of his hand.

Dan told her. Told her everything. He told her of the guilt, the fear and pain of what he went through which led to the divorce and all the hurtful revelations that came with it.

When he looked up he saw that Penny had drifted off to sleep with the pain medication and the exhaustion of her illness. Part of him hoped he hadn't heard her; that she wasn't burdened by his secrets and his pain. He hadn't spoken about it for almost a year, but he did feel better to have shared it.

Dan stood, wiped his eyes and put back on the mask he hid behind every day and left quietly.


Penny died in her sleep ten days later, kept comfortable in medical with liberal pain medication. Dan suspected that Kate had helped speed things along with the morphine. He never mentioned it, but liked to think that she had and was grateful for it.

She was buried during a small ceremony, in a patch of woodland overlooking the lake where bluebells grew. Everyone sat through a sombre evening meal, before Dan broke out a few bottles and poured lots of glasses.

He stood on a low table in front of the television and raised his glass.

"To Penny" he said, holding his glass up as tears rolled down his cheeks. The assembled survivors, a true cooperative society as envisaged by the few he first brought together, echoed his words.

The following morning saw the mood no higher, and routine tasks were given out. Dan sent Lexi and Joe out together to gather all the 'how to' books they could find in a library not far away. Neil made a fuel run with Steve running protection, and a logistics team went with them to clear any more supplies still in date.

Mike had continued with the solar power project having requested the rest of the warehouse contents be brought back. Two scaffolding towers sat proudly in the space that now saw sunlight as Jay had cleared almost a dozen trees with the help of some of the newest recruits. Dan had never learned their names, other than Pip who grew healthier by the day. Pip had loved to read before, she said, and set herself up in the library where she read and sorted the books into order.

Mike and Carl were busy providing electricity to the farm, with further plans to do the same for the gardens. That included the cottage on the edge of the now blooming walled utopia.

Maggie and Cedric spent a lot of time there, having cleared it out piecemeal. Dan was invited to look at it when he stopped to see their progress one day. It was a lovely place with a large garden and three bedrooms. They had hot water there courtesy of the solid fuel burner, with electricity they would have power to the large shower in the wet room.

Their formal request to move there came in spring, and was agreed by the council. Before Dan could raise objections from a safety perspective, Marie asked if they were not overly and exposed without protection. Their firework alarm system was extended and a CB radio was to be installed in the house as well as the gardens itself. Dan also insisted that Cedric keep possession of a Remington shotgun and ammunition. These caveats satisfied, they moved in as soon as their solar panels and additional hot water tank were fitted.

They were probably the happiest people there. Even happier than Leah, who had become bored with endless training and no live deployments. Even after he had explained that, no matter how good she was, she wasn't going out alone until she was older. Dan's thoughts of getting her a short wheel based Defender were shelved for now despite him having recovered the right vehicle; he didn't want to risk a teenage strop where instead of going to her room and slamming the door to play loud music, she took a vehicle and automatic weapons.

In truth, her accuracy and range drills were second only to a few. She could spar well; removing knives from would-be attackers was easy for her. She was fit and strong, but still he couldn't allow himself to send a child out to fight on his orders. He loved her like she was his own child, which in a way she was, and his feelings of responsibility made him hold her back.

The farms and gardens were producing fresh meat, eggs and vegetables. Soon there would even be salad. In fact, the only department to be under strength was Ops. One of the refugees saved was very ill when he came to them, but when he healed he formally requested an interview with the 'OC Operations'. Dan showed the written application to Steve, who also recognised the military jargon for 'officer commanding'.

The man was sent for immediately, and Leah found him helping in the stores.

He knocked before entering, despite the door being open, and Dan stood with Steve as he said "Come in"

He extended his hand to the man who was stood rigidly to attention.

"At ease, man!" Said Steve, playing the second in charge perfectly.

The man relaxed a fraction, allowing his shoulders to drop an inch. He was tall, but very spare like he had been starved. Dan put him at about thirty, but the worry lines in his face could be betraying a younger man.

He hesitated, then went to shake Dan's hand displaying his own which was missing the two smallest fingers and part of the hand. Thick burn scars were visible on his right arm and at his neck.

Dan sat, inviting the man to do the same. Three cups of coffee were poured by Leah before she returned to her desk and tapped away at her laptop, pretending not to listen.

"What's your story, soldier" Dan said as he blew in his drink.

The man looked at him, realising he had completely given himself away.

"No Sir" he said, offended "I was a Royal Marine. Corporal"

"In that case" said Dan "accept my apologies, and call me Dan. At the most formal I accept 'Boss' from my lot"

"Ok Dan, I'm Richard. Rich if you like"

The Marine saw Steve looking at his hand "Helmand. Pyrotechnic IED. Got me sent home with two boxes that used to be my mates. Last man only survived because us three took the brunt of it"

Dan nodded, lost for empty words often used to pacify someone's sacrifice for a now utterly pointless loss. He had met a few people injured by improvised explosive devices, and knew that the scars ran so much deeper than the visible layer.

"After that?" Steve asked.

Rich sagged a little.

"Medical discharge. Six weeks counselling on the NHS for the PTSD. Then the booze. Wife left and took the money. Ended up homeless for a time."

"And then you were captured" Steve asked.

"Yes. Captured and beaten. I hurt one of them badly when they took me. They woke me." He said simply. Waking a soldier by surprise was one thing, startling a Royal Marine with PTSD was another entirely.

"Tell me about your time there" said Dan in an interested tone.

"I was sick a lot of the time. No booze. Made me bad for weeks." He offered. "I let myself down. In my day I could've taken that Bronson character."

Dan doubted him slightly on that.

"So." He said "How can I help?"

Marine Corporal Richard straightened in his seat, becoming more formal.

"Sir. I'd like to offer my service to you" he said.

"It's Dan" he said patiently "and I've got some concerns"

"I'm off the drink, that's the only good thing to come from that" he said forcefully. "I let myself down and I need to make up for it"

There was fire left in the man. Dan saw that and he wanted it, but not at the risk of others.

"Maybe so, but there are other issues you will need to address. Namely the PTSD; what if I gave you a gun and the first time you heard a bang it set you off?" He asked rhetorically before continuing "We have a counsellor, and you will see her twice a week until she gives me the clearance to give you active duty"

Richard nodded.

"You will also undergo physical training until you are fit - and I warn you she" he said pointing at Leah "will outrun and outgun you now. She's thirteen" Leah smiled as her pretence of being busy cracked. "Her mile and a half is down to nine minutes and her range scores are almost as high as mine."

"After that" Dan said "you will work from here manning the CB and cleaning weapons. You will be our quartermaster until we are both independently satisfied of your return to active duty status. So, tell me Marine; are you still interested?"

Without hesitation, Richard replied "Yes Sir'

"It's Dan, Boss to my lot at best" he repeated patiently.

"I'm in, Boss" he said, looking him directly in the eyes.

Dan offered his hand again "I'll let you know where to be then, Rich"


Like an excited boy, Dan went to find Marie. He felt a bit pathetic and exposed when he spoke to her, but this was a perfect excuse for some alone time.

He found her room door ajar, and knocked.

"Hello?' Came the voice from inside.

'It's Dan, are you busy?" he said, trying to sound casual.

"No, come in"

He walked in to find her sat on her bed reading a book. She pulled her glasses down her nose and regarded him warmly. They had seen more of each other since she joined the council, and he liked that.

"How can I help?" She asked. "You haven't shot someone again have you?"

"Funny" he said "No. I've just had a rather damaged Royal Marine ask to join and I need your help"

Marie put down her book and patted the bed next to him. He hesitated and she said "Do I smell?"

Dan blushed, and mumbled that she didn't. "Have you brought your wolf?" She asked mockingly. Ash seemed to betray him utterly with her and played the puppy when she called him.

"No. Just me" he said quietly.

"Well come in then"

He sat with her, and explained the meeting he had just had with Rich. He realised halfway through that she must know some of this already, and in better detail, but he carried on with his story to cover the fact that he was sat in bed with a woman he found irresistible but aloof.

"So, can you work with him twice a week for the PTSD and the alcohol issues?" He asked.

"Yes, but I want you to promise he won't have a gun until I say he's not likely to kill himself with it" she said.

"Agreed" replied Dan.

"Good. Now, where were you based?" She questioned him lightly, surprising him with a subject change.

He rose from the bed, concerned that he was being analysed. "Thanks for your help. I'll send Rich to you soon" he said from the doorway as he turned to escape.

"Hey!" she snapped "Come here and sit down"

With no idea why, he did as he was told.

"Now. I know you were in the job, so tell me the rest" she said as she closed her book and took off her glasses.

He told her some and she extracted the rest expertly. He didn't tell her everything though, he wasn't ready for that.

WHAT NEXT?

A week later Dan and Marie took a walk around the grounds of the house.

"It's not so much the PTSD" Marie explained "It's more survivor's guilt but hugely intensified"

"We've all got some of both, to a degree" he reasoned.

"True" she answered "but what most of us don't have is massive underlying trauma like Rich does. Think about it; he's maimed, he sees two friends die in front of him, his career is over. All of this after years of active service. That's just the beginning, he then goes into self-destruct and spirals into a completely different person"

"Hence the wife jumping ship, as they do" Dan interjected bitterly. Marie raised an eyebrow but let it slide, for now.

"Yes. He's alone and the only thing he has to do is replay the bad things over and over. I'm amazed he's still alive" she finished.

"So the question remains; will he get better?" Dan asked.

She thought for a few seconds, not about the answer but about the explanation.

"Yes. In actual fact, our situation may bring about an almost complete absence of symptoms given the right stimulus" she said. Rich was a unique story to start with, even before it happened. She firmly believed that he was a natural survivor; he'd been shot at, blown up, burned, crippled, abandoned, abused and beaten. Still he refused to give in and die.

She explained all this to him, and suggested that a gradual increase in responsibility for him alongside careful progress of talking therapy would give him a purpose.

"With duties, responsibilities and a reason to get up in the morning and be useful, he will get better quickly. As to the long term effectiveness of him as a soldier, I simply can't say yet"

Dan thought on what she had said. "So you agree that he should follow a daily routine of physical training and rehabilitation, then be given more responsibility in Ops without being armed and sent out?"

"Exactly" she said "I'd like to see him every other day. If all else fails, then repeating 'it's not your fault' at him will at least do some good"

"Ok then" said Dan, and walked along in silence next to her. He liked spending time near her, and selfishly used official reasons to capitalise on it.

Ash loped from the trees to his left, effortlessly sliding towards them. He nuzzled his huge head into Marie's crotch, making her squeal and tell him off for being a dirty bastard.

Dan smiled, keeping his thoughts private.

"So where do we go from here?" She asked wistfully, stopping to light another cigarette.

He did the same.

"We let Chris and the others do what they do; within a couple of years we should be almost self-sufficient. Andrew is happy enough with the stores, pending the arrival of another twenty-three people to feed. All in all, we're doing ok but we still need to stockpile as much as we can to survive half a dozen winters. I know it seems a bit childish, but I want to stockpile more weapons too; bullets won't last forever, so we either learn to make them - which is dangerous and difficult - or we have alternatives for the future."

He finished his small speech, and stood there in silence.

"That's cute" she said "but I meant us as in you and me, not us as in the whole group"

Heart thumping and colour rising in his cheeks, he didn't know what to say. She filled the silence for him, and kissed him lightly on the lips.

"One condition" she said seriously, drawing away "that beard's got to go!"


Spring was in full flow, and the farms and gardens were full of activity from breakfast until evening.

Lambs were born, which meant that Chris and Ana lived in a caravan they had towed up to the farm so that they were on hand to help the ewes give birth.

The gardens team under Cedric and Maggie had adopted a routine of planting new crops weekly, to try and ensure a steady supply of fresh food without wastage.

Scouting missions went out, with Dan and Steve taking Leah on a few to keep her boredom levels down. There was very little training left for her to do, and Steve suggested testing her E&E skills soon by seeing if she can make it home whilst they hunted her. He thought that was a good idea, but needed fine tuning as he didn't really want her to kill him by accident.

The pigs raised a difficult question, and Kerry's biology and genetics knowledge paid off. They marked their herd according to the family tree she had created. To ensure they didn't have inbred livestock, the piglets from last year were separated to keep a couple of boars ready for the breeding program, mixing the different breeds of pigs to create their own hybrid. Three generations were deemed enough to prevent any unwanted side effects, and the plan was checked over twice; they had enough variety to breed and sustain a herd for the future.

Luckily the bull was young and had plenty of years left in him. The future of the cows was dependent on finding another one at some point. Some joked that he had the best job of everyone there.

The egg collections had been stopped, and the chickens had become broody. Soon a multitude of fuzzy yellow chicks were running around making peeping noises. Ewan had reinforced the fences with extra layers of tight mesh then requested the help of the Rangers. Dan and Steve spent the night awake on the farm using their suppressed carbines with ambient light optics.

The following morning they proudly displayed the ranks of six dead foxes for the Welshman.

He was happy, and the carcasses were swiftly skinned and fed to the pigs before anyone more squeamish saw them.

Dan's freshly shaved face was noticed, but not commented on. He realised how lazy he had become having spent months just using a set of clippers to trim his whole head every few weeks.

He finally moved his room upstairs, after stubbing his toe for the last time on the boxes of ammunition stored in his draughty quarters. He gave up and moved into what was the Governor's office. The big desk was moved to a corner and the filing cabinets went into medical; there were still plenty of spare rooms as the offices had been cleared out. He moved his double bed in, and soon found that someone else was adding some more feminine touches occasionally.

He had given up his old room to be a proper armoury, using the cupboard in Ops as the store for the farming and hunting weapons. Rich had got himself into a routine, going for a run before breakfast. He had asked for a wetsuit and was taken on a scavenging run. He added a swim of the lake to his fitness regime which others had taken to copying. Within a few weeks he seemed much better, both physically and mentally. Dan decided to officially declare him recruited on a restricted basis. He spent his days sorting the armoury out as there were still bags of weaponry taken from various places that had not been sorted. Leah took him to their clothing stores and pointed him towards the black section.

Dan had asked him to show Leah all the weaponry and check her skills at cleaning and maintaining them. This served not only to keep her busy with a new skill, but on Dan's request he spoke freely when he could of the horrors he had seen during his service. He still wouldn't talk of the incident that took two people he knew like brothers and left him crippled, but his descriptions of dead Taliban were detailed enough to remove the romantic thoughts in her head about what she was training to be.

He watched them from the doorway one morning, sat at a bench with a rack of guns in front of them.

Rich pointed at one, and Leah recited the statistics.

"Heckler and Koch 416 carbine, police model which isn't automatic. Fires NATO five-five-six from a thirty round mag. Mags are interchangeable with the M4's."

Chris moved on to other weapons, receiving similar reports. When she hefted the full length Remington shotgun with a pistol grip, she looked ridiculous. Rich heard his small laugh and perked up.

"Boss. Didn't see you there" he said.

"I was just looking at Nikita here carrying an artillery piece" Dan replied, smiling at the girl.

She had been given the book, but he doubted she had read it yet. In reply she stuck her tongue out at him.

Rich stood, bringing a new weapon from a shelf across the room. "I thought you might be interested in this" he said handing it to Leah and nodding at her.

"Walther P99. Nine mil parabelum, semi auto, fourteen round mag" she parroted.

"In itself, nothing that special" said Rich with an echo of the professional soldier he once was "but it's the only weapon which fits these" he finished, twisting on a short suppressor to the end of the gun. He showed Dan an empty chamber and handed it over. It felt a little top heavy as he was used to the weight of the short Sig, but the suppressor was a very useful addition.

He turned it around, weighed it in his hands and checked the action. The gun felt good in his hands. Solid and chunky. "Any spare mags?" He asked.

"Thought you might like it" Rich said smiling, and produced two spares.

Dan loaded the weapon, keeping it pointed at the floor. It felt good. He put his Sig on the table and tried the Walther in the holster. It was a universal one, and needed a slight adjustment, but the nearly silent weapon fit ok.

"Nice." He said. "I'll take it!"

"You might want to take a look at these too then" said Rich as he gently tipped out a box of attachments and sorting through them before he found the stubby torch attachment to fit the gun. He offered Dan an extended magazine, but with the suppressor on the end and the mag sticking out the bottom be may as well be carrying the shotgun. He also took a holster designed to slip inside a belt which was custom made to fit the weapon.

Something casual for the weekends.

He left his Sig for cleaning and stowing, and took the new toy with him.

"Keep up the good work" he said as he left them "and grab Neil when you see him to ask about reinforcing these windows now I'm not sleeping down here"

"Oh, and Leah?" he said from outside the doorway.

"Yeah" she answered slowly, fearing that he was setting her up for a joke at her expense.

"Driving assessment tomorrow" he said before walking off to find Lou and trade for more needlework. She tweaked the holster perfectly to draw more from under his left arm than across his chest. He preferred that, and it left extra room for two more pouches; one to take a small notebook and pencil and the other the perfect size for a box of twenty and a lighter.

The world turned, the sun rose and fell, and progress was made.


A driving lesson from Dan was not a relaxing experience. He rattled on and on about gear changes and how to assess a bend and what to look out for and what certain things meant. He seemed to forget himself sometimes and told stories of car chases and spectacular crashes, but when she asked him more he clammed up. She guessed he used to have an exciting job before it happened, but he wouldn't tell her any more about it.

He made her talk him through checking the vehicle over first, explaining everything she should look for and the reasons why. Dan always drummed into her that she shouldn't just be able to perform a skill; she should understand why she was doing it.

"If you only know one way to do something then you're already out of options" she mimicked back to him during the time he had spent training her.

She gave a good run down of the vehicle; a Defender 90, in a deep metallic red colour with chunky tyres and a big bull-bar on the front. It wasn't modified like some of the others, but she had heavy tow ropes looped on both bumpers. She didn't know it was hers, and Steve had thought he was funny by sticking learner plates in the rear window.

She got in and depressed the clutch before starting the engine, going through all the checks she was taught. The first part of her assessment was done on the roads around the house and farm before she drove on to the gardens. Dan made her drive into the narrow sections between the greenhouses and polytunnels to practice her manoeuvring in cramped areas and she performed well.

He took her out onto faster roads and made her push the speed up. Her reactions and observations were good, but Dan still offered pointers for improvement. He forced himself to be quiet and objective. She saw obstructions and assessed them well, especially when Dan made her drag a car out of the way as though it was blocking the road. She connected the tow rope securely and reversed her Land Rover away under control.

He took her over rough terrain and watched her technique critically. He couldn't really fault her, but then she was just replicating what he had shown her.

She drove him back to the house after over an hour and Dan gave her the final test.

"Ok. Imagine you've got a flat tyre. Change the wheel" he said, pointing at the passenger side at the front.

Leah hesitated. She got the tyre wrench from inside the back door and tried to loosen the nuts on the spare wheel mounted high on the back door.

She struggled, eventually removing them but she couldn't lift the wheel down without risking damage to the wheel or herself.

It finally dawned on her that she wasn't physically capable of doing it, and she sagged with the failure.

Dan rested a hand on her shoulder kindly.

"Don't worry about it for now. We'll have to figure something out" he said.

Leah cuffed a tear away from her cheek and nodded. She went inside and Dan put the spare wheel back on, feeling bad for disappointing her. If she couldn't do the most basic repair then it wasn't safe for her to go out alone yet.


Dan felt bad for her. She had learnt so much and trained so hard only to be denied her independence because she was too small to change a wheel.

He couldn't, in good conscience, let her go out alone. What he could do is take her on a run and be her backup.

A food run was planned. They had to go much further afield now as they'd picked clean the supermarkets within a short radius of home. With the distance being longer the danger increased. Other than that it would be business as usual; two scavenging trucks and a Ranger escort.

Their target was on the outskirts of the city to their north, about as close to the fetid population centre as he dared go.

Jimmy and Mark were in one lorry, with Laura and one of the Bronson survivors in another. Dan's feelings of shallowness returned briefly as he again realised he didn't know half of the people who relied on him and his team for protection.

He told Leah that she was on the protection team for the operation, making her day but trying to sound casual about it so as not to be seen to be throwing her a sympathy party. He justified the additional firepower by making a point about the proximity to the city.

She loaded up her G36 and took three spare magazines. She tried to be casual about it too; hiding her excitement at a live deployment well. Right up until Dan threw her the keys to his discovery.

She drove well, leading the convoy north with the huge head of a slobbering dog over her left shoulder. Dan had to tell her to keep her speed down to take the pressure off the following heavy trucks. It took them almost an hour to reach the target and on instruction she drove slowly into the car park. No recent signs of activity were evident, so Dan called in the others to wait as they cleared the shop.

They forced open the sliding doors and stalked in, crouching low. Even Ash mimicked the search pose, dropping his body weight like a panther as he sniffed the ground. He was restless. He didn't like something he smelt. His low growl interspersed with a throaty whine which Dan hadn't heard before.

"What's the matter with you?" He asked the uneasy dog as they checked each aisle and finding the shop devoid of life.

Ash continued to whine and even let out an uncharacteristic bark. Dan wasn't impressed as he'd worked for hours on keeping Ash silent when on the job. His instincts were to trust the animal, but his eyes told him there was nothing there. Literally, no sign of human life at all.

He ignored his instincts and put him back in the Discovery after they had cleared the shop floor. They returned to do another sweep and found a fire exit wide open after they passed through the plastic curtains leading to the stock room.

Dan and Leah came back outside and called the others in to clear what was left. Only about a quarter of the contents were of use any more; the rest having spoiled way beyond salvage.

The four scavengers moved fast. Most bizarrely, Jimmy used a handful of pound coins to release trolleys for them to use. Why he didn't just cut them away with bolt croppers amused Dan greatly. Jimmy liked those small intricacies of life.

Ash barked again from the inside of the 4x4 and the muted sound made Dan turn.

"What's wrong with that bloody dog today?" He asked Leah. She shrugged and turned back to the shop.

Ash whined and scratched at the windows, unseen by the absent Dan. Movement in the car park made him turn and watch in sudden silence before his frantic barked started again. Dan came back out into the car park, striding angrily onwards the car and the ill-behaved animal.

A scream rang out from inside the shop. A scream of pain and fear. Somehow guttural and primeval. Ignoring his ballistic companion, he turned in his heel and sprinted for the entrance.