An engine started. It crunched and grated. Ben risked looking out from behind the tree and saw the hulk had started to move. It turned in the water, grinding the debris of their long boat beneath it. He wondered how many people were left aboard. He saw Aaron fire off a couple of final shots as the vessel retreated but, if they hit, they had little effect.
He watched with relief as the hulk disappeared around the corner and the adrenalin that had kept him upright so far started to leave his system. Suddenly he was aware of his left ankle that felt like it had been shattered into a million pieces, of his back which felt burned to a crisp and of his arm which burned with a fiery anger. When he turned and looked at the places where it hurt he saw that his shirt had been torn away and a piece of his skin was missing. It was just a flesh wound but he had been shot.
“You alright?” said Daniel as he emerged from the water. Aaron was further downstream, going to make sure his brother and Sol were okay.
He nodded. “I’ll live.”
“Come on then.”
He followed Daniel back to the others. Anthony and Scott were sitting up now, using pieces of cloth to dress their wounds. Kris stood a few feet away, looking back at the wreckage. No one needed to ask what had happened.
“We need to get these two some proper help,” said Aaron.
Ben nodded, he was exhausted and he didn’t know how far any of them could walk but if they could find somewhere safe to spend the night they might make it back to Sanctuary by the middle of tomorrow. He helped Sol to stand. He had been shot through the shoulder and a couple of bullets had skimmed his legs. Anthony was supported by Aaron and Daniel.
He started to walk back towards home, exhausted and disappointed but also, somewhat, relieved.
“Where are you going?” said Daniel.
He stopped. With an effort he turned around and saw that they were all ready to go but facing in the wrong direction. “Sanctuary is this way,” he said.
“I know,” said Daniel. “We can’t go to Sanctuary.”
There was no more than five metres separating him from the others but with Sol hanging from his shoulder and crushing his lungs, he felt as if he needed to shout. “Why not? What else can we do?”
“Who do you think just tried to kill us?” said Daniel.
He understood what Daniel was saying but it wouldn’t sink in. He shook his head. There was no way that had happened. He shook his head.
Daniel shrugged. “Go back if you want, see what kind of welcome you get.”
“Where are you going?” he said.
“We’ll find somewhere. Are you with us?”
He looked back along the river towards where he knew the village to be. It seemed like a long way to go by himself and what if Daniel was right? He remembered Aaron saying that he didn’t trust Nicholas and he wondered if he had reason for that.
Ben hesitated but in the end he decided to go with the others. If it turned out Daniel was wrong they could always turn back tomorrow. So they walked on, the six of them. One less than they started the journey with, two badly injured and one emotionally crippled. They walked on into a world he didn’t know.
8
Away from the river Ben felt uncomfortable. It wasn’t anything he could properly define, a general sense of unease that came from being too far away from the water.
They walked for most of the day, taking short but frequent breaks for the injured and those carrying them. Nobody felt much like talking, it seemed.
They trudged through mile after mile of anonymous fields. Daniel led the way and insisted that, once, there had been a path here that would lead them where they wanted to go.
Where Ben wanted to go was Sanctuary, back to Mary and the twins, but he tried not to think about that. He tried not to think about the hulk being sent by his own people; it was much easier to believe they had been pirates. The trouble was that, as far as he could see, the only reason not to think about them being from Sanctuary was that a part of him knew there was a very good chance they had been. Which also meant that the three men he had killed were most likely people he had seen before, possibly even people he knew well.
Fog settled over the fields as they walked and Ben found that without being able to feel the current of the river he could not tell that he was walking in a straight line. Sol was getting heavy on his shoulder, he had fallen into a fitful sleep and woke with a start every few minutes. The trees in the distance had disappeared behind a white screen. He could just about see the others ahead.
“We need to rest,” he called ahead. He was worried that Sol was slipping away. They had been walking for hours and he knew that if they had gone in the other direction they would be just as in the middle of nowhere as they were now, but they would be closer to home. Someone could have gone on ahead to get help.
They stopped where they were. The ground beneath them was hard and brittle. It snapped and cracked as they settled down. The fog acted as a kind of wall around them, they couldn’t see out and, hopefully, no one could see in. The only way he could tell it was still daylight was that the fog seemed to glow. He wondered if vamps could come out in the fog but decided he would rather not know.
Aaron helped him lay Sol on his back. His face was pale and ghostly. He moaned gently as he rocked from side to side. Ben watched Aaron and Daniel share a loaded glance and he knew it wasn’t good news for the boy.
“It doesn’t look good, does it?” he whispered, standing up next to Aaron.
Aaron shook his head. “He’s not going to make it.”
It felt as if there was something not being said, something important, but Ben couldn’t tell what. If he wasn’t there, he thought, the two other men would discuss it openly. It was because they didn’t trust him yet.
“We need to get to the village before dark,” said Aaron.
“He’s slowing us down,” said Daniel.
Then Ben knew what they weren’t saying. The boy was dead weight, or as good as. He wasn’t going to make it so why were they putting themselves at risk so that he could die somewhere other than this field.
“How’s Anthony?” said Ben, wondering if Aaron would feel he same if it was his brother in Sol’s position.
“He’s walking by himself,” he said.
Ben glanced back; Anthony was sitting on the floor beside Kris, who was just staring into the fog as if it held the answer to her problems. He did look better, he had some colour in his cheeks and didn’t appear to be in too much pain.
He looked at the faces of the other two men. They were settled on this, they weren’t asking his permission. He had never been under the illusion that he was in charge of this operation but he hadn’t thought there was such a strict hierarchy that they wouldn’t even discuss a thing like this.
Ben looked back at the boy. He didn’t deserve to die like this but then none of them did and if they took him with them then that was what would probably happen. He could have tried to talk Daniel and Aaron out of it, they almost seemed to want him to, but he wasn’t altogether sure that he wanted to.
“I’ll take Kris somewhere away,” he said.
At least they weren’t planning to leave him there in pain. A bullet through the temple and he would be dead instantly. In some ways maybe it was mercy, he wouldn’t be suffering anymore and the vamps wouldn’t get him.
He walked over to Kris who was still staring vacantly into the mist. She looked like a different person now, removed from her lover she was just a little girl again, not much older than Sol had been. He was not so innocent as to believe they would all survive the rest of the journey but he made a promise to himself that he would do everything he could to make sure Kris got home safely.