Interrupted Journey

Chapter 5 - The Caravan

As autumn turned to winter, the number of people roaming the countryside decreased sharply. We hadn't seen anyone for weeks now and there had been no attacks since the end of October. I wasn't even completely convinced that we needed to bother manning the guard posts - but I realised I would probably think differently if I wasn't freezing my backside off in a chilly hole in the ground on a damp hillside.

The observation post was a two man sized hole below the crest of a small rise, on the far side of the main road, across from the bridge. It had a commanding view both up and down the valley and anyone who made the mistake of shooting at our main guard post from the road junction below us would regret it for a very short time.

The OP had been much improved since the first weeks when it had been dug. It was no longer just a hole in the ground. It was now a hole in the ground with a tarpaulin and brushwood cover with adequate drainage and a couple of established exit route in case anyone should try to attack us. While the cover was quite effective at sheltering us from proper rain, it was less effective against the continuous drizzle that we were currently enjoying. The stuff seemed to seep into your bones.

I wriggled my fingers and tried to avoid thinking about food. We were down to two small meals - for those of us on active duty. It simply wasn't enough and we knew there was worse to come. Some of the vegetables were not going to make it through the winter so we were going to be really hungry by the start of April.

I was thinking that, this time last year, I would have been very happy with the new lean, fit me and my thoughts drifted back to the pizza shop where it had all started... pizza!

To pull my mind away from food I took out the binoculars and scanned first down then up the valley. I don't know why I bothered scanning up the valley. People hardly ever came from up there.

There was movement on the road! I alerted Laura and had another look. There was a significant group - more than ten people - and they were traveling quite openly. I handed the binoculars to her and prepared to tell the main guard post.

We had developed a simple but effective way of communicating with them - coloured sheets of paper that could be hung so that they could be seen from across the river but not from the road below

Green flag: we have a message... there was normally a short wait until somebody across the road noticed.

Green flag: we see you have a message - they only showed this for a few seconds. They knew we were watching.

Blue flag... people coming.

Green flag... acknowledge.

Roman Numeral 'XX' flag - they could read it easily in spite of the drizzle. They had their binoculars on us.

Green flag... acknowledge.

Red flag... end of message.

Red flag... end of message acknowledged

We could vaguely make out the hornets' nest we had stirred up on the other side as the bell was rung to trigger the ready reserve. For a group this size, we would probably have a third unit on standby too. The first wave of reinforcements arrived at the guard post within a couple of minutes and went to their prepared fighting positions.

We watched nervously as the group drew closer. They were pulling some sort of wagon.

Then Laura, who was watching the group through the magnifying sights of her rifle began to swear. This was quite shocking as she was normally quite careful with her language. When I saw her finger starting to move towards the trigger, I put my hand on her shoulder.

"What's up?" I asked.

"You'll see in a second," she answered. She was almost trembling with anger and her finger was inside the trigger guard.