Aggy and the Dinos

Chapter 13

Aggy improved steadily. After four days she wobbled in to the kitchen to see Dean. She moved slowly, with stiff legs, and an exaggerated upper body movement, as her right eye was swollen shut. Her face was lopsided with the swelling, and her speech was slow and subdued, as if she was on the brink of falling asleep. She gave him a wonky grin.

"How are you?" She said, hugging him before sitting down awkwardly.

"Bit fucked up, really," he said, suddenly emotional at seeing her out of bed.

"Last week we were living at the farm house, with those people, and they are now dead. Now we live with another bunch of people, and I'm expected to be cheery and community driven." He slammed his knife down. Aggy looked at him, and there was a deep quality to her one open eye that spoke of the endless sea of sadness that all the human race now swam through. They were survivors, they could carry on because they had to, but after the dust had settled, and they washed the blood off their hands, there was only the fear, the promise of more violence, and the sheer insanity of reality. Dean felt he could break under the weight of it, but also knew that he couldn't let himself. How easy it would be to allow oneself to go insane, or take the sharp kitchen knife, now so out of place, and open a vein. But by the very fact that he had survived, where others had not, he had to carry of swimming, displaced in a tide of desperation.

John had asked Hasani for another man, so that they could go further afield for food, and for this he had chosen Glen. James hadn't liked the idea in the slightest – he protested that, as the senior huntsman, he ought to pick the party. Hasani had taken him to one side, and they spoke quietly for a long time. After that, there was peace. The three huntsmen had spent the day making longbows. Although it took a great deal of strength to use a long bow, it was a quicker and quieter way to kill than traps and guns.

John had briefed Glen on the nature of their companion. James was made to walk first out to the thicket, where they would cut the wood for their bows. John swept the ground with a stick as he walked, for he doubted that James would be good enough to warn them of any traps. He found none. They found a suitable tree, a strong ash, and he showed the men how to cut a strip suitable to their height. They had taken Geezer with them. The terrier kept a weather eye on the group; although he scampered around, occasionally chasing small woodland creatures, he frequently circled the men. John and Glen did not share Geezer's Dino felling talents with James. He wouldn't believe them anyway.

At night they slept in a great room in what felt like the centre of the building. There were windows, but they were kept boarded up. Various partitions had been erected, made of pallets or bits of material in order to create some privacy, but there wasn't much of this. Aggy was released from the hospital back to her friends, with instructions 'not to overdo it', and had got into the habit of not looking. Like everyone else, once she entered the sleeping area, she developed selective tunnel vision. People did not look at each other, and there was little conversation. At first the presence of all those people kept her awake, but after a while she was no longer aware of the sounds of people snoring, mumbling or moving about. Beds were made of whatever could be found. This usually meant the floor, using an arm as a pillow. All were used to being cold. Geezer's little body, quivering as he dreamt – probably of unmentionable slaughter – was the bit of heat she clung to. Sometimes John snaked an arm around her waist. Sometimes not. Where once Aggy would have found such a quantity of sleeping bodies abhorrent, with their assorted odours, they now comforted her. The group all slept close together, as the sleeping hall had organised itself into social groups. Hasani slept elsewhere. Probably under a big quilt, thought Aggy, as she tried to huddle further into her clothes.

She had not yet been made to take up a job in the colony – she was still easily tired, and had a tendency to go pale, and have to sit down – so she wandered about the place with her little dog. She enjoyed sitting in the kitchen with Dean. In turn, her presence there made Dean feel safer, and he was at his happiest when they were together, cooking up leftovers for soup and flicking dishcloths at each other.

If it wasn't too hot, which was not often, the tragic irony being that England was in the midst of its best summer for years, she went and sat with the huntsmen. James, when he was there, worked on sharpening knives or skinning whatever they had caught, and spoke little. The men were successful, and had made several fruitful trips. They always took Geezer with them, and returned as heroes, despite having seen very few Dinos.

It was one of those summer evenings, where the air feels warm and smooth. There was a light breeze, and the setting sun threw a soft pink tone over everything. All memory of ever being cold or frightened was banished. Aggy and John were the last two left at the shed, and in the midst of their cheerful conversation John failed to pay attention to where he was putting his feet, and fell arse over tit over the butt of a rifle. He landed heavily against the back wall, which collapsed, revealing a much larger, darker space behind. Grateful that the new discovery might at least prevent Aggy from laughing at him, John picked himself up. Geezer hopped over the fallen wall and trotted in confidently, sniffing the air. They followed him – Aggy propped the shed door open as wide as it would go to allow light into the secret room. Inside there were a great many hooks, from which hung straps of heavy leather, with iron buckles and tie rings. There may have been as many as two hundred hanging from the walls. In the middle of the space was a work bench, around which were scattered scraps of leather, tools and bits of rag. Draped over the bench was one of the metal joinings that also hung from the hooks. Next to the bench was a small portable forge and an old pair of bellows, accompanied by an anvil. John took one of the leather hangings down and spread it out. Then he held it up, and did some calculations.

"Time to go, Babydoll," he said to Aggy. She nodded. What they had found was a room full of harnesses. They were huge, and strong, and wrought with loops that could be linked with chains. It appeared that Hasani wanted to capture and then use Dinos, for whatever purpose. There was only one way that it could go.

"Fetch Dean and Glen. Do not worry about the others." She made a face at him.

"I mean it, sunflower, we can't take everyone. Do it now, I'll wait here for you."

After she had gone, John set about stealing all the weaponry they could carry. He bundled up rifles, and all the bullets, as well as enough knives for all of them to carry a few each. Then he settled down to wait.

Aggy and Geezer made their way towards the kitchen. She felt nervous, and conspicuous, as if all the colony were now watching her. A door opened on her right, and someone said her name. As she turned her arms were grabbed. Another man gave Geezer a mighty kick, sending the dog squealing into the door way that had opened. Aggy began to scream when a hand was placed over her mouth.

"Make a sound and I'll snap your neck." It was Hasani. She bit him, hard, but he twisted her head round so far that the pain blinded her. She could never have fought him off, even at her full strength. She was picked up and thrown over his shoulder like she was no more than a beach towel. Upside down, she began to feel faint and nauseous – Hasani was none too careful with her, and as they passed through a doorway he let her swing around so that she smashed her head on the frame. Then she knew no more.

In the kitchen, Dean heard Geezer begin to howl. It was a sound of pure fury, a sound that only a very angry small dog can make. He didn't even put down his chopping knife, but ran straight towards the sound. He arrived at the door at the same time as James. He noticed that James had come with a claw hammer, and it didn't take him long to put two and two together. Suddenly he was angry. Dean had been frightened plenty of times, annoyed more than a few, but being full of incandescent rage was still new to him. It rose, a wave of fury that reduced the man before him to nothing. He knew no fear as he looked at James, with his hammer and his evil grin, and charged him. A feral scream erupted from his mouth, and before James even raised the hammer to strike him, Dean rammed the knife into his stomach and twisted it. All James saw were Deans boots as he opened the door. Geezer, though he did a little dance for Dean to indicate that he was grateful, was not about to hang around. Despite being a dog, he had an excellent grasp of social politics, and therefore wasted no time in going to find John. Dean, having retrieved his knife, went with him.