Page 48

They all got in the truck. Martina was muttering under her breath, but Steph couldn’t decipher what she was saying except for the occasional curse. Ashley turned the key in the ignition. Nothing. He did it again. Nothing again.

“What’s going on?”

Roger asked, his voice quite balanced. Steph watched Ashley turn his head towards Roger, tilting it slightly. There was an audible sigh from Roger.

“Well, go and fix it then!”

“I’m not a mechanic!”

Ashley replied.

“Well, neither am I!”

Roger held his ground, staring at Ashley. It seemed as if Ashley was going to show the same stubbornness, but after a couple of seconds, he submitted to the other and got out of the car to open the bonnet.

From where Steph was sitting, she couldn’t see Ashley anymore. Not with the open bonnet blocking the view. She let her eyes move in the direction of Martina sitting next to her. Martina’s eyes kept flicking from the open car bonnet to her door. Her hand hovered over her belt buckle.

Somewhere outside, there was a howl. The animal was still a way off from what Steph could tell, although she had no way of knowing how well the windows were muffling the sound.

It was warm in the truck. Comfortable. Steph became acutely aware of how tired she was in the silence. Her eyelids felt heavy. She let them close.

A loud bang outside broke her momentary rest. The bonnet was shaking in front of her. A few moments passed. The fiddling sound that had notified everyone to Ashley’s presence seemed to have stopped. Steph was not the only one to have noticed.

“Ashley?”

Roger called through the windscreen. Nothing. He knocked on the windscreen. “Ashley?”

There was no concern in his voice. It was as if everything that happened around him was nothing more than an amusing formality. Had he always been that way? Maybe that was why she had liked him. In a normal person, she supposed, a refusal to take life too seriously was endearing. However, in someone who held such power and moved in such shadowy circles it was somewhat unnerving.

Steph looked out of her window. Martina did the same, her hands no longer hovering over her buckle.

“Well, I can’t see anything, can you?”

Roger said, turning to Steph, ignoring Martina.

“No,”

Steph replied, undoing her seat belt to turn herself to look further back through her window.

“How strange,”

Roger replied jovially.

“Inconvenient really, but interestingly strange nonetheless.”

An indecisive silence fell. Steph became aware of her heartbeat starting to creep up as the blood pumped around her ears.

Suddenly, the car bonnet slammed shut. Steph jumped. The other two also snapped their heads forwards expecting to see the worst. They needn’t have worried: it was Ashley rubbing his head.

Steph watched as he meandered back to the driver’s door and got in, shutting the door and looking forward.

“Well?”

Roger asked.

“Well, I think I will be seeking compensation for a workplace concussion!”

Roger laughed.

“Don’t be daft; you know how poor our HR department is. The engine?”

“Dead!”

“Dead?”

“Battery acid everywhere. It’s cracked.”

“Cracked?”

“Yes, cracked! Shoddy parts used on this thing,”

Ashley said lightly thumping the steering wheel.

“Bollocks!”

Roger snorted.

“Nothing wrong with the parts used on this thing. It is the way it has been driven that’s caused it!”

Ashley raised a triumphant finger.

“Ah, but Kelvin was the last one to drive it!”

Roger opened his mouth to retort. Paused. Shut it and then said.

“That’s fair enough; he was always careless.”

Martina growled in the back. Roger ignored her.

“Plan B?”

Ashley asked.

Roger thought for a moment.

“We all need to get out of here for our own reasons. Personally, I think a northern direction would suit us best, Ashley. That’s where the others will be waiting – it is a shame they will be disappointed by the lack of an animal, assuming they didn’t cross Kelvin’s own men outside coming in to take the specimens away. I fear they won’t appreciate Martina as the real driving force behind it all – see how big a catch she is.”

“I’ll kill myself before I work for you!”

Martina snarled.

“No, you won’t,”

Roger replied dismissively.

“You’re far too much of a narcissist for such a thing. Besides, your scientific curiosity is as great as mine and I can give you what you need to explore current boundaries. Anyway, Steph, I suggest that when we get to the fencing and go our separate ways, you head back towards the village. I suppose that means a trip south first, Ashley. Perhaps that’s not an issue. I am sure someone will be awake to potential scenarios.”

Steph had heard Roger but was busy looking at Martina, curious as to how she would react to what Roger said. Her arms were folded and her eyes were still, but behind them the cogs were turning.

Steph turned back to Roger.

“And the wolves?”

“Not much we can do about them,”

Roger replied.

“We have Ashley though.”

“She seems to think these are some sort of super wolves and that I won’t be of much help,”

Ashley replied, scepticism dripping from his voice.

“If that is what Steph thinks, then I am inclined to trust her,”

Roger replied.

“I have seen enough out my window to know they have something about them. However, I was more suggesting that you would make the tastiest meal out of us all!”

“Why me?”

Ashley replied, allowing himself a smile.

“Simple; you are not as large as Baz, but you still have more muscle meat than either Steph or Martina, and you’re younger and therefore less tough to eat than me!”

Ashley chuckled as he opened the door and got out. Roger followed. Steph looked at Martina who narrowed her eyes. Sighing, Steph got out of the cab.

Steph walked with her knife out. She decided that, in the current circumstances, it made more sense to be prepared. Ashley went ahead with his rifle unslung, scanning left and right. Martina had picked up a stick. Steph noted that she kept sizing up both Roger’s and Ashley’s heads. She was pretty sure that Roger was aware of it, but as with most things his smile suggested that he found it mildly amusing.

They followed a direct route southeast. There was no clear path, so it involved navigating through shrubbery and up and down small slopes, but Roger insisted it was the most direct route to the outer fencing.

“Shouldn’t we head to a gate?”

Steph asked.

“I’m not sure we can scale an electric fence that has a voltage designed to subdue a one-ton bear.”

“You could be right,”

Roger replied.

“But if we are walking along the fence, we might see a conveniently placed tree and branch that could speed up our escape. If not, we simply follow it to the nearest gate. However, it appears to me, although correct me if I am wrong, most of the bigger predators don’t spend too much time by the fencing. It’s not the ideal place to hunt?”

Steph thought about it. She supposed he was right, from what she had seen.

“I guess that’s true. Although, nothing ever follows one rule perfectly; there is always a chance the wolves are there.”

“For sure,”

Roger replied.

“But that’s life, and we can deal with eventualities when they come up.”

This felt like a fair assessment.

Ahead of them, Ashley kept turning his head left and right whilst Roger kept a close eye on Martina. He had no weapon that Steph could see, but he kept a firm presence around her. Steph was so focused on watching this strange non-interaction, that she didn’t notice the figure lurking behind the trees. Neither did Ashley.

The shape of something bolted from its hiding place just feet from Ashley, sending him tumbling to the ground. Steph held back. Roger grabbed Martina’s arm, seemingly more concerned with what she might do than his own safety.

Everything happened so fast. Steph was acting before her brain could think how to act. She suddenly realised that her knife was raised and that she had taken a stride towards the two figures locked in combat on the floor, with Ashley starting to get the upper hand. Then Steph’s brain clicked into gear.

“Stop!”

she shouted.

“Just stop!”

The mass of grappling limbs seemed to slow itself until the two bodies untangled and got to their feet panting.

“Ah,”

said Roger, smiling.

“I assume it was probably you who fiddled with the car battery?”

Ahead of him, Davey turned a scowling eye. He was bruised and filthy. His right cheek had a large gash on it with dark dry blood caking the area underneath. His left arm hung limper than the right.

Steph couldn’t believe it. She didn’t know how it was possible. Roger, on the other hand, seemed perfectly at ease with the revelation.

“But why didn’t you simply steal the truck?” he asked.

Davey continued to look at him, his chest heaving. Then he looked at Ashley to check he was where he had left him. He too stood panting, a small cut beneath his right eye, his rifle somehow ten yards or so from where he stood. They had rolled some distance in each other’s unfriendly embrace.

“I couldn’t let you know I had survived otherwise you’d know I was coming.”

Roger nodded.

“And has everything gone as planned since?”

“Sort of. Although, I had hoped to knock this one off.”

He flicked his head in the direction of Ashley who derisively snorted with laughter.

“Ah, I see. Well, that is an inconvenience for you then. However, I’m sure your plan was based on what I’d call ‘old information’. I suspect that you’d find trying to ‘knock off’ Ashley now, to be quite a waste of everyone’s time.”

Davey frowned. He turned to Martina and then to Steph.

“What does he mean?”

What did Roger mean? Steph supposed he could mean a small number of things.

“Kelvin’s dead,”

Steph replied.

Davey’s facial expression slackened slightly as he digested the news. He looked from one face to another. Then he paused, frowning.

“Where’s Calum?”

“Dead,”

Steph replied.

“How?”

“Murdered… just like Kelvin.”

Davey turned his head towards Ashley, his upper lip rising into a snarl.

“He was not really the man he made himself out to be,”

Roger said, his voice full of appeal.

“Neither of them were, in fact. There is an awful lot that you don’t know, Davey.”

To Steph’s ear, Roger sounded sincere. Even so, Davey’s face continued to contort.

“You despicable little prick!”

he said, turning towards Ashley again.

“You’re probably the one who shot Michael!”

Ashley continued his look of malice.

“Michael deserved everything he got. So did Kelvin!”

Steph could see Davey’s fists clench. She watched as Davey took a couple of steps towards Ashley. Both men’s bodies tensed ready for the clash. Then, as suddenly as he had started moving – Roger’s half-hearted pleas for calm echoed around the space between the trees – Davey stopped.

Ashley sensed the momentary weakness and began to step forward. Davey began to step back, his shoulders beginning to slouch slightly as he let his chest deflate. Ashley barked out a laugh as he stepped forward again. Then his body arched backwards as something heavy and grey hammered him forward, onto the ground.

Steph reached forward to grab Davey’s arm, pulling him away. Her eyes spun left and right, expecting to see more figures appear from between the trees.

On the ground, Ashley writhed, desperately trying to fight off the massive wolf who bit into his forearm causing him to yell in pain and anger.

Martina, like Steph, had the sense not to run – she too was spinning her head left and right waiting to see where the next wolf would come from.

Roger, on the other hand, remained perfectly calm. Steph watched as he kept his eyes on Ashley rolling on the floor, now calling for help as the wolf lunged at his throat. All the time, Roger edged towards the fallen rifle.

Steph noticed that Davey did not pull himself from her grasp to answer the call for help. Either out of dislike for Ashley or simply because he was stunned into inactivity, she didn’t know. Together they watched as Roger slowly and deliberately kneeled so that his shot would be more horizontal and have less chance of accidentally hitting Ashley. He edged closer still, the wolf oblivious to his intentions.

There was a loud bang followed by a whimper. The force of the bullet lifted the wolf clean off its victim. For one brief second, the wolf tried to stand on shaking limbs. Then it collapsed, its breathing shallow.

Steph watched as Roger pointed the rifle at Martina who had been edging towards the nearest tree.

“No silly shenanigans from you, please.”

He then turned to look at Ashley on the floor; his face fell slightly.

“Oh dear.”

Releasing Davey’s arm, Steph ran to kneel by Ashley. His arms were torn, bloody and bruised. However, it was his wide eyes, pale face and the tear in his throat that really drew the attention. He was trying to speak but couldn’t. Blood was pumping from the wound in his neck.

Steph tried to stem the flow with her hands, but blood oozed from between her fingers. She looked at Ashley’s face. He was terrified. She took his hand.

Behind her, the sound of the wolf’s breathing had ceased. There was only the uncomfortable sound of Ashley’s rasping last breaths.

His hand weakened in Steph’s. His eyes still moved about pleadingly in his skull as if there was still a way out, that his fate was not yet sealed. Then he took one slightly longer breath and blood gurgled from his mouth. Then he choked and died.

There was silence amongst the others.