Authors: David Moody
Autumn: Aftermath (27 page)
“I know.”
“So you don’t need to apologize. Okay?”
“Okay. Thanks.”
She watched him watching her. Poor dumb bugger didn’t have a clue what to say next. He could talk the talk when it mattered, boring everyone senseless with stories about his irrelevant fifteen minutes (more like fifteen seconds) of fame on TV last year, but he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the box by any means. Lorna knew that Ainsworth wanted her—she’d known it for ages. She also knew that he’d never expected to be having a conversation like this with her in a hundred years.
“Look,” she said, “I feel really bad. I want to make it up to you, but there are too many people in here. Do you think we could go somewhere else and talk?”
“Sure.”
“I think I got the wrong impression earlier.”
“I Do y gave you the wrong impression.”
“It’s just that it’s hard to know what to do for the best these days, isn’t it? And like you say, with everything that’s happened here today, everyone’s on a knife edge. The stakes are so much higher now, you know? You put a foot out of place or say the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time and…”
“I know,” Mark said. “I feel the same. Especially with Jas. It’s like I’m treading on eggshells all the time. Don’t say anything, but I’m starting to think he’s losing the plot.”
“He’s struggling, just like the rest of us,” Lorna agreed. “Hey, I kept a bottle of wine hidden away in the kitchen. It won’t help against the cold, but if you fancy a glass…?”
“Or two?”
“Or three?”
He moved toward her and she started back down the steps. She led him quickly across the courtyard, both of them frantically looking from side to side, checking no one else was around like a pair of kids sneaking out after being grounded by their parents. They stopped outside the café door.
“Have you still got the keys?” she asked. He rummaged in his trouser pockets and pulled out a bunch of keys. He started looking through them, holding up one at a time until he found the one which fitted the lock. Hands trembling with nervous excitement, he unlocked the door and pushed it open, then did the same with the door into the kitchen.
They’d barely got inside before she was on him. She shut the door behind her, then wrapped her arms around him and kissed him hard. Dumbstruck, for a moment he forgot how to react. It had been so long since he’d had any physical contact like this. The kiss took Lorna by surprise too, and for a few seconds she forgot herself. The warmth of holding another person close … the softness of their lips … the moisture and heat which passed between them … Basic pleasures had all but been completely neglected since the day everyone had died. How long had it been since either of them had felt anything like this?
“Bloody hell, Lorna,” he said in a momentary gap between her frantic kisses, barely able to control himself.
“Put something up at the window,” she told him. “We don’t want anyone looking in on us.”
He kissed her again, then reluctantly pulled away and did as she asked. He was hard and he adjusted himself, struggling to think straight, his belly burning with desire. He managed to block the narrow strip windows with dish cloths, chopping boards and empty boxes, doing all he could to cover up the gaps as quickly as possible.
“I wasn’t expecting this,” he said as he worked, suddenly feeling incredibly emotional but doing all he could not to show it. “I didn’t think you felt this way…”
“Funny how things work out,” she replied, leaning up against a stainless steel work unit and watching him. He looked ack over his shoulder as she undid the zip on the heavy winter coat she seemed to be permanently wearing these days. With no real heating anywhere in the castle other than the classroom, everyone wore as many layers of clothing as they could comfortably get on. She took off her coat and a sweatshirt, already struggling with the cold, then slowly started to undo the buttons on her shirt. Ainsworth couldn’t take his eyes off her. “Are you ready for that drink now?” she asked.
“Sure … thanks…”
Lorna moved forward and kissed him again, a gentle peck on his unshaven cheek this time. He felt her breasts brush against him and he thought he might be about to pass out from the sudden strength of the previously supressed emotions which washed over him. She turned her back on him and bent over. Was she being deliberately provocative for his benefit? He studied the curves of her body, buried for so long under all those layers. She reached down into a narrow gap between two work units where she and Caron had stashed several bottles of drink earlier in the week.
“Hope you like red,” she said.
“I’m not bothered,” Ainsworth replied quickly, a definite and unexpected vulnerability evident in his voice. Lorna wrapped the fingers of her outstretched hand around the neck of the closest bottle and gripped it tight.
Moving with sudden, unexpected speed, she stood up, swung around, and smacked him across the face. Ainsworth fell at her feet. She looked down at him sprawled out over the floor, and nudged him with her foot. Nothing. Whether she’d just knocked him out or killed him, she didn’t have time to care. She took his keys, locked him in the kitchen, then disappeared back out into the shadows.
40
Harte, who’d been waiting just outside th
e unguarded caravan for Lorna to return, saw that she was running back toward him. He immediately opened the door and began to usher the other people who’d been in there over to the truck. There was another seven of them crammed in there. Five emerged immediately and without question: Bob, Zoe, Phil Kent, Charlie Moorehouse, and Driver, quickly followed by young Aiden, holding on to Sue’s hand as they ran together across the gravel courtyard.
“There’s room for a couple of you up front with me,” Harry hissed at them as they reached the truck.
“Are they going to be all right in there?” Harte asked, watching as the last of them disappeared into the back.
“They’re going to have to be.”
“There are more people up in one of the other caravans,” Lorna explained. “I’m going to get them out.”
“I’ll go with her,” Harte told him. “Michael’s waiting up by the gate. He’ll open it as soon as you start the engine.”
* * *
Michael std by the gate, squinting into the gloom, trying to make sense of everything he couldn’t see. He pressed himself up against the wall, doing all he could to melt into the shadows. Once he was satisfied the coast was clear, he reached up and ran his hands across the heavy wooden barrier until he found the crossbar Harte had told him about. It didn’t seem to be secured at all—just resting in a pair of metal brackets, one at either end. After checking again that he wasn’t being watched, he lifted it up and moved it away. He then grabbed one of the ropes on either side of the gate and pulled it gently, just to see if it would open. The bottom of the gate moved slightly, scraping along the gravel. He cringed at the noise it made and froze again until he was sure he hadn’t been heard. Nothing. No sign of any movement. He looked back across the courtyard toward the caravans. The ends of the long white metal boxes were clearly visible in the moonlight, and he could just about see a couple of figures moving between them.
But then the fragile silence of the night was shattered.
A sudden burst of noise came from one of the buildings close to where he was standing: someone hammering on the door to be let out, screaming with anger. The door of another of the caravans flew open almost instantly, and several men sprinted out into the open, illuminated by the light flooding out from behind them. They ran toward the source of the noise. Michael stood his ground and remained perfectly still, watching as Lorna and Harte slipped into the open van.
* * *
“What’s going on?” Caron demanded as Harte shook her shoulder. “Harte, is that you? I thought you’d gone again…”
He dragged her up but she lolled back onto the sofa where she’d been sleeping, an empty bottle of wine rolling around on the floor below her. Howard, by contrast, was immediately up and ready.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“We’re going.”
“Where?”
“Day trip to Blackpool,” Harte answered sarcastically. “Where d’you think we’re going? This bloody island we’ve been hearing about, I hope.” He leaned out the door, hoping to see either Michael or the headlights of the truck, but he quickly pulled his head back in again when he saw Will Bayliss running across the courtyard from the direction of the gift shop, carrying Kieran’s rifle and pulling on his clothes. Melanie followed close behind, hoisting up her knickers.
Lorna had gone down to the far end of the caravan and had worked her way back up, checking the bedrooms and small bathroom for others. She’d found Shirley cowering in one of the bedrooms, no one else.
“This it?” she asked.
“Just me, Shirley, and Caron,” Howard replied. “Are you surprised? Don’t forget, Jas, Kieran, and Paul were in here. Funny how most folks preferred the van next door.”
* * *
The noise coming from the prefabricated rooms nearby and the excitement it had caused was enough to make Michael decide to change his plans. He’d managed to get both sides of the gate open without being noticed. A handful of corpses had attempted to stagger in, but the frost was gripping and they were so badly decayed that they only lasted a couple of paces before collapsing. In fact, he realized, their forward movement was due more to the fact the gate they’d been leaning up against had moved than anything else.
Michael started to run toward the caravan but then turned back and tucked himself in against the wall when an armed, half-dressed man he didn’t recognize thundered past.
Over in the farthest corner of the castle grounds, Harry sensed that something was wrong. He could see people crisscrossing the courtyard in the moonlight, but from here he couldn’t tell if Michael or Harte were among them.
“Anyone you recognize?” he said to Bob Wilkins who was sitting next to him in the front of the truck.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” Bob whispered, “but that looks like Kieran. He’s one of Jas’s lot.”
Harry waited a few seconds longer before deciding he had to move. He started the engine and accelerated out into the open, trying to get close enough to the caravans so that Harte and the others could make the quick short dash to safety. He could already see that the gates were open.
* * *
Shirley barged closer to the caravan door.
“Is that for us?” she asked, pushing past Howard and Harte when she saw the truck’s headlights approaching. Harte tried to grab her but she was too fast, slipping between them and running outside before stopping in front of the truck and waving her arms wildly. Harry slammed on the brakes and she ran around to the back where Sue was calling out to her. Lorna ran out to follow her but then ducked down and turned back when a gunshot rang out. In the emptiness of the night it sounded close but unnervingly directionless and she dived for cover, falling back into the caravan.
“We’ve got to run for it,” Harte said, helping her up. “We’ve got to get on that truck.”
Outside he could see Bayliss trying to head off the truck now, reloading the rifle as he marched toward it.
“Go!” Howard yelled, trying to push them all forward. “Just get out of here!”
Another gunshot echoed around the castle courtyard, this time hitting the front of the truck and smashing a headlamp. Howard tried to lead them out of the caravan but Kieran appeared and blocked him, pushing them all back inside. He was armed too.
“Stay here,” he warned, making sure they all saw his gun. “Don’t any of you move a bloody muscle.”
* * *
* * *
Lorna pressed her face against the caravan window and watched the truck’s taillights disappear from view. Behind her, Kieran blocked the door.
That’s it now
, she thought sadly.
We’re truly fucked.
41
“One of you get the gates closed,” Jas ord
ered as he tried to force the kitchen door open, “and put a fucking van in front of it to stop any other fucker getting out.”
Paul Field immediately jumped into action, keen to get away from Jas more than anything else. Melanie watched from a cautious distance as Jas shoulder-charged the door again and again. Inside the kitchen, Ainsworth tried to kick his way out in the gaps between Jas’s attempts to batter his way in. Eventually, between them, they’d done enough damage to the door to be able to get it open. Ainsworth staggered out into the café, as unsteady on his legs as any of the dead. Melanie shone a torch in his face and grimaced. He was badly bruised, one eye swollen shut. He dropped to his knees in front of Jas and spat out blood.
“What the hell happened to you?” Jas demanded. “Who did this?”
“Lorna,” he replied, barely able to speak her name.
Jas turned and glared at Melanie. “Find her.”
“But she’s probably gone—” Melanie started to say.
“They can’t have all got out. Get the rest of them rounded up.”
* * *
“So that all went well,” Kieran said. “Nice rescue attempt.”
“Fuck you,” Harte spat at him. “We got most people away.”
“But not all.”
“There’s still time,” Lorna said. “Jas can’t keep us locked up in here.”
“Seems to me like he’s going to try,” Kieran replied, looking through the window over Lorna’s shoulder. “See that? He’s got someone blocking the gate with a van.”
“Well, that’s us screwed then, isn’t it,” Howard moaned.
“Bullshit. You’re taking the piss,” Harte said quickly. Forgetting himself, he squared up to Kieran, who didn’t react.
“How do we know you’re not pulling a fast one on us?” asked Howard.
“You don’t. Now shut up and get out of sight. Someone’s coming.”
