Interrupted Journey

Chapter 3 - Mike

There was sudden burst of activity from within the house and I had the impression that we were being inspected. The door opened and then Mike's head appeared from around the side.

Mike was quite short but packed plenty of muscle in his compact frame. Since leaving the army he had grown a black bushy beard and above this his eyes were sparkling. "Morning," he said. "I was wondering when you two were going to turn up."

Mike led us into the kitchen. "You know Laura and Jimbo, don't you?" he said, nodding to the others, both of whom I recognised, from the shop and from his notorious parties. They, too, were in military camouflage.

"Sit yourselves down," Laura said. We found ourselves in the middle of a bustle of activity as the three of them worked around us. It looked as if they were preparing to leave.

James and I collapsed into chairs at the kitchen table.

"Are you hungry?" she asked.

"Yes, Ma'am," James answered and I had to smile. Though not particularly tall or conspicuously powerfully built, there was something about Laura's presence that demanded respect. She busied herself at a camp stove that had been set up on one of the worktops.

Jimbo stepped over bearing two mugs of tea. He was of medium height and had a wiry frame that seemed to radiate compact power and endurance. His eyes sparkled and I had rarely seen him without a smile on his face.

I nodded my thanks and sipped cautiously at the tea. As I suspected, it was teeth tinglingly strong and I heard James gasp when he tried to drink it.

As two bowls of porridge appeared in front of us, Mike strolled casually over, hooked a chair out with a foot and sat down backwards on it with his elbows resting on the back rest. "What can I do for you?" he asked.

"A couple of things, first of all, do you have any idea what's going on?"

"Most of the electronics seems to have gone up in smoke but you're the electronics wizard - you tell me! I had a radio in a special box and it seems to have survived..."

"Faraday cage," I said quietly but he ignored me.

"... but when I powered it up last night there was nothing but static."

"That's not good," I said, "not even a carrier?"

"Not a thing," he answered.

"That's really bad," I told him with a sigh. "That means it's not just a local thing. Doesn't change anything for now, though."

"What are your plans?" Mike asked.

"We've got to get home as quickly as possible to collect Lizzie," I told him. "But even with this baby," I nodded at the rifle, "I think we need to stay off the roads as much as possible. Do you have a map we could have?"

"Sure. You'll need to come on down to the shop with us. There are another couple of bits and pieces we can let you have too."

I hesitated. "It's not that I'm not grateful," I said at last, "but we really need to get going...."

"You're worried about Lizzie and want to get back as quickly as possible."

"It's going to be at least another two days," I answered with the worry I had been suppressing creeping into my voice. "Even if we..." I trailed off. Mike wasn't listening. He was staring into space, deep in thought.

"OK," he said after several seconds. "There are a couple of problems: first James is knackered. He's just going to slow you down. He needs to stay here."

I glanced across at the lad who had fallen asleep with his head on the table and nodded.

"Secondly, you're not going on your own. Laura, you're OK to manage things here and at the shop, aren't you?" It wasn't really a question

"Of course." And that wasn't really an answer.

"Then I'll be coming with you. And lastly," he carried on without giving me a chance to interrupt, "we'll be much quicker by bike. We stock paratrooper bikes at the shop so we can grab one of those for you."

"I don't know what to say," I managed to stammer at last.

"'Thank you' is sort of traditional," Jimbo commented from the corner where he was wrapped around his own mug of tea.

"Mary's kid's in trouble. We're there. It's what we do," Laura said in an unemotional, flat tone. She was a woman of few words but those she used tended to be to the point.

"No, I mean, how do you manage to see things so clearly?"

"It's why we were paid the big bucks in the army!" Mike answered with a dry laugh. "OK, folks, we're moving out in ten! I told the staff I'd see them at the shop first thing."

"You know which end of that thing to point at the bad guys?" Laura asked me, nodding at my rifle.

"Do I get two guesses?" I answered.

"Mary taught him to shoot so he's safe and more or less competent," Mike told her.

"I'm out of practice, though, and the thing's been hidden in the back of the car for years so I don't know what sort of state it's in."

"Give it here," Laura said, taking the rifle from my hands. She started to clean and adjust it with practiced competence.

Nine minutes later she gave me back the rifle then went over to James.

"Come on then, sleeping beauty," she said, gently waking him with a hand on his shoulder. "Time to move out."

When he was awake enough to listen, I told him Mike's suggestions. He didn't much like the idea of being left behind but he could see it made sense.

"Are you good to give us a hand down at the shop this morning?" Laura asked him. "You can rest up this afternoon."

James nodded then got to his feet and stretched as Mike collected his bike.

The trip along the suburban streets and into town was uneventful. This was not surprising as six people moving in obvious military formation with two rifles attract an awful lot of uneventful - particularly when one of them looks like Samson. We gathered in front of the shop and, as Mike unlocked the door, Laura borrowed my rifle.

Then the door was thrown open and she and Samson exploded into the building as if they expected armed resistance. Within a couple of seconds, the shout of 'clear' came back. Mike ushered the rest of us in then followed as Samson took up an unobtrusive position just inside the door, his eyes constantly scanning the street for signs of trouble.

Mike led me across to a rack and handed me some trousers and a pair of the new boots I had been admiring when I had been in the shop with James the day before.

"Put 'em on, then," he told me when I stood there with my mouth open.

"We're going to be traveling across rough country," he explained, "and if anything goes wrong, we could be stuck out there for a couple of days. We're both going to be using the best technical kit we've got."

"But I've no way of paying for this!" I answered as he handed me a camouflaged jacket.

"This place is going to be ransacked in the next couple of days by people looking for food," he explained. "We might as well take anything we can use."

"You sound remarkably calm about it."

"There's nothing we can do about it so why worry? It's just stuff. We're planning on moving anything we can use out to my place today."

As I changed, he collected a small pile of lightweight gear and, while James and I packed it into a rucksack, he went to the back of the shop and collected a small bag. Five minutes later and the extraordinary bicycle that had emerged from it was ready to ride.

By now all the staff had arrive so Mike and I went over to talk to them. Together we explained, as best we could, the situation and the possible implications for them. Mike also made them an offer. "If things are as bad as they look then a fair bit of our stock is going to come in very handy for you and your families. We're talking freeze dried food, stove fuel, water filters, that sort of stuff. The food, we'll split nine ways. Help yourselves to anything else, Let Laura know what you take and we can sort it out if this turns out to be a false alarm. When you're done, you can go on your way and... the best of luck to you all"

"Oh, Kat and Gary," he called as a crowd gathered round Laura.

"This is the very last thing!" he promised me as the two came over; neither of them looked much over eighteen.

"The two of you still living in that shared flat down in Priory Fields?" he asked.

They both nodded.

"That end of town is going to go bad very quickly," he warned them. "You got any plans?"

"I'd like to get back home but..." Kat began.

"Birmingham?"

She nodded.

"You don't want to go anywhere near the place," Mike told her. "It's going to go south there even quicker than here."

"How about you?"

"My folks aren't even home," Gary answered.

"I'd be much happier if the two of you moved in with us." Mike said.

"Are you sure?" the boy asked, though they both looked relieved.

"I wouldn't have made the offer if I wasn't," he answered with a smile. "Don't worry, there'll be plenty for you to do to earn your keep with your share of the household jobs plus a security watch."

The two briefly looked at each other and accepted the offer with thanks.

"OK," Mike said. "Sort out the details with Laura. We need to get going"

We collected our bikes and rucksacks and, after I had given James a quick hug, we were on our way.