My Name is Stab

Chapter Twelve - Puppies of War

Sampson allowed the car to stall under a bridge a short way up the road - we wanted to make sure the Red Sleeves kept following us. He popped up the engine cover and the rest of us had to get out and stand around - trying to make sure we were seen.

Mike and some of the others were up on the bridge, though of course we didn't look at them, but Sampson exchanged a couple of words when he was hidden behind the engine cover. Everything seemed to be I completely under control.

Then I saw the Red Sleeves.

Whilst I had heard Laura talk about the number five hundred several times, it never really meant anything until I saw just how many people were following us. There were just too many of them. We were all going to die.

Laura immediately saw my reaction. I guess she was looking out for it. "Stab, look at me," she said.

It wasn't a request, it was a command. By now, I was getting into the habit of obeying the commands she gave.

"Do you trust me?" she asked.

I nodded. Somehow it was self evident.

"Do you think I'd put you in a position that I didn't think you'd survive?"

A shake of the head.

"I won't make promises because you can never make promises when you're going into combat but this plan should work. Trust me and do your job and we should all be fine."

Reluctantly I accepted. I didn't have any choice.

"OK, girls," Laura said. "Back in the Landy. We're moving out in about a minute."

Nobody mentioned the fact that she had just called James a girl.

The next half hour was unpleasant as we crept up the hill in front of that advancing army. Sampson kept doing funny things with the Land Rover - stopping it and making it bounce along and things. In the end, James and Sampson got out and started to push it. Whilst I knew this was all part of the plan, the feeling of struggling along in front of that huge army was terrifying. And the feeling was made even worse by the fact that the back of the Land Rover was piled high with empty boxes so we couldn't see what was going on. They could have been about to catch us any second.

At last we reached the top of the hill and started to roll down the other side. "OK, puppies!" Laura barked, "Time to get changed."

In a few moments, all the bright colours had disappeared to be replaced by military camouflage.

"Look this way," James instructed me. I'd been straining to look out of the window to see whether I could see the Red Sleeves on a corner. "I'm just going to put some camouflage colour on your face - take the shine off. Is that OK?"

I nodded my assent.

"Then close your eyes."

About ten tense minutes later, Laura turned round to look at us. "OK, puppies. Remember, as soon as we stop, you three start moving up the hill until you meet Mike. If you don't find him, rendezvous back at the farm. James has command. Stab, you stay with him and do what he says. Everyone clear?"

"Yes, Corp," James and Ashley answered so I did the same.

"And Stab, remember what I told you, a stationary target is much harder to spot than a moving one."

"There's Phil now," Sampson said from the driver's seat. His low rumbling voice seemed to spread an atmosphere of calm control. "Ten seconds... five..." Ashley started to open her door so I did the same. "Go. Take care out there."

"Good luck and trust your training," Laura barked as we leapt from the Land Rover and dived into the bracken that covered the moors.

Fortunately, by now the low crawl was very familiar. It felt as if, for the last couple of days, it was the only way Laura had let me move. I followed Ashley and James brought up the rear. We started to make our way up the hillside, along the side of a little valley.

After a couple of minutes of crawling, the command went out from James behind me, "Freeze!" I did as instructed and sank my face into the heather in the approved fashion as the Red Sleeve army passed along the road just behind us. Fortunately, by this time, we were well above them so we would be really tricky to spot.

Suddenly there was a volley of shots from the hillside above us. I knew Mike and his group were up there so presumably they were shooting at the Red Sleeve army. There were a couple of seconds of calm and then another round of shots.

Then a war seemed to start on the road below us.

"Red Sleeves coming this way," James said in a controlled voice. I could hear the slight movements as he prepared his weapon and turned to the right so I did the same.

A squad of about fifty Red Sleeves were making their way up the hillside. Presumably they resented the fact that Mike's group were taking pot shots at them and were trying to do something about it. Unfortunately, they had chosen our little valley to provide themselves with cover. They were going to pass very close to us.

I was somehow shocked to see that not all of their army were carrying guns. About half of them only had spears or swords.

When I had been with Deemo's gang, I had got into the habit of sort of half turning off my brain - carrying on with any sort of automatic job whilst the rest of me was absent. As the squad advanced up the valley, I did the same sort of thing: half my brain was watching the approaching soldiers with my finger just outside my shotgun's trigger guard, waiting for any sort of indication that we had been spotted and that we were about to die. The other half of my brain was watching me doing this and had decided that it didn't really mind if I did die. At least I would be doing it with a weapon in my hand and saving people who seemed to be worth saving.

The first of the Red Sleeves drew level with us and I had to force myself to keep breathing. Fortunately Laura had thought to warn me about this and I knew what to do: mouth open; calm, controlled breaths.

More of them passed. Amazing as it seemed, it looked as if their little army was going to pass within a couple of paces of us and we weren't going to be spotted.

But then one of the men in my sights noticed James. He gave a shout and started to raise his pistol towards him.

That was not going to happen. Nobody was going to hurt my James. Without any thought, I squeezed my trigger. The man was thrown back and he looked as if he was dead before he hit the ground.

But this brought the attention of the rest of the squad and they turned towards us. Half my brain watched in horrified fascination as the other half slipped into a steady rhythm: rack, aim, shoot; rack, aim, shoot; rack, aim, shoot.

But there were too many of them. We were all going to die.

Suddenly Laura was there, right next to us. Somehow, her commanding presence took control of the battlefield. I sort of wanted to watch, in awe of this spectacular woman. But I knew what she would want me to do so I kept firing.

But then she let out a sort of strangled groan. I turned to see that she had been run through with a spear.

I froze. I knew that we were all going to die.

Then the world was filled by an overwhelming chugging noise from the hillside above us. A wave of death passed through the Red Sleeves like waves washing away a sand castle at the sea-side.

Eventually the chugging stopped. There was silence. A strange, terrible, hollow silence. I just stared at Laura. The spear had gone completely through her body and out the other side and she was now half propped up on it.

It was all too much. I couldn't be expected to cope with this any more. I just couldn't.