Merryn shook Brian's hand and passed him a letter to deliver to an old friend on the Isle of Wight. "Good luck Brian! I'll come and see you next time they send me to the Isle. I get up there every now and again."
"I look forward to it." The man straightened up and looked over her shoulder. "Look after my boy eh?"
"You have my word." Merryn turned and walked away, flashing a smile at Tom as he walked down the jetty to join his father. She joined Mal at the shoreline and watched father and son say goodbye to each other.
"Sometimes you don't need to hear a conversation to know what's being said, do you?" said Mal as he wiped a tear from his eye. Brian had tears running down his cheeks as he embraced his son who said something that elicited a sad laugh from him. The older man stepped back, took a long look at his son, and clapped his hands on the lad's shoulders. Then he reached into his pocket for something. Tom held out his hand with a quizzical expression on his face, a look that changed to delight and he smiled properly for the first time since Merryn had met him.
"There's always a little hope for humanity somewhere, old friend," said Merryn, hugging Mal. "All we've got to do is try and give ourselves the space to find it."
Tom joined them as they waved off the sailboat with its crew. "He gave me grandad's old service mirror," he said, holding out his hand. "Pilots in the RAF used to carry a metal mirror in their shirt pocket so they could use it to signal others. Grandad's saved his life when a bullet bounced off it, look you can see the dent. I had no idea he still had it."
"Your father is a good man Tom, as are you. Are you ready for what comes next?"
"Yes, ma'am," said Tom seriously.
"Ma'am?" replied Merryn. "I don't warrant 'ma'am' status yet young 'un. Merryn is fine."
"Merryn it is," replied Tom with a shy grin. "May I come with you back to Plymouth. I'd like to be with the others. We work well together."
"I was hoping you'd say that. I suspect we need a buffer between Eddie and Andrew as well."
"That too. You'd think they were brother and sister the way they carry on."
"They'll work it out," said Mal. "I suspect it means they're in love and haven't quite worked out how to show it yet."
"You'll have to ignore the pocket philosopher here," said Merryn to Tom, "He spends too much time staring at screens and playing video games."
"What video games?" asked Tom, looking interested.
"Well," said Mal, rubbing his hands together briskly and smiling. "Why don't you come on down to the games room young Tom and we'll see if I can still remember how to play Mortal Kombat."
"He's going to beat you Mal," called Merryn as the two of them walked away discussing old console games.
Hope walked alongside her as she made her way back to the barracks. "What do you think we're going to find when we go back?" she asked as she linked arms with Merryn.
"I don't know Hope. But this time we're going to have a drone with us at least, so we can use it to scout ahead which should help a bit. That's usually Gareth's territory, but I get to use them too every now and again. I'm hoping we're going to find a few random walkers, the remnants of whatever gangs we've not already come across and maybe a good store of food and equipment, but you don't know until you get there. So many places got cleaned out in the first days and weeks of the infection when people went on the rampage and ransacked whatever they could, we don't usually know what's left. Knowing my luck we'll come across a warehouse full of nothing but dog food."
"You've eaten dog food?"
"I've eaten far worse than that."
"Like what?"
"Creamed spinach. Ask Mal, it's one of his pet hates. I'm going to get him a tin for Christmas."
Hope chuckled then stopped walking. "Can you teach me how to use a gun, Merryn. And a crossbow? Close combat I can do, and I'm not afraid of hand held weapons, but I've never used any projectile weapons and I want to make sure I'm better equipped. I don't want to end up running from men again. Or zombies for that matter."
Merryn looked Hope in the eyes noting the strength and determination there. "Of course. We have a bit of time and they do have a rather good shooting range here. Come with me."
~
Andrew sat at the front of the fishing boat, the salt spray tingling his skin as the boat chugged its way westwards along the Devon coast. Dawn was still a mere suggestion of light to the east, and calm seas had greeted them as they left the Exe estuary, the brown estuarine waters giving way to the blue-grey of the deeper coastal waters.
Their skipper, a taciturn white-bearded man called Dave had roused them before dawn, bustled them onto the boat, and had disembarked. Other members of the team were walking the deck or trying to catch some sleep in the hold below, but Andrew had had the prow to himself for some time.
A hand fell onto his shoulder and a mug of tea appeared. "Thanks Merryn. How much longer until we arrive?"
"Dave reckons about an hour, so we should hit the River Plym with the dawn and arrive at the docks as the sun's tipping over the hills. The wind's blowing inshore so it should carry us up the river with the tide as planned."
"Are you scared?" the lad asked. "I mean, it's kinda crazy what we're doing isn't it?"
"Yes, I'm scared. And yes, it's not the most sensible thing I've ever done. But I'm tired of running away from the deadheads. It's time to try and reclaim what's ours. And we can only do that if we're a part of something like this, a part of something larger. Stick with me, we'll be okay."
Tom had joined them while Merryn spoke and he looked out at the waves. "I'm scared too, but we've survived this long, and now we have company. This is where we need to be."
"Well said Tom," Merryn took a sip from the mug of tea in her hand. "Bloody good job the walkers don't like tea. I'm not looking forward to the day we run out."
"There's a tea plantation further down the coast in Cornwall somewhere isn't there?" said Andrew. "I'm sure it was something my mum drank."
"There is?" Merryn looked pleased. "Do you reckon we can convince Captain Summers we need to go and find that once this mission's done? We're British, can't do without a good cuppa and all that."
"Nothing wrong with coffee," noted Tom.
"Heathen," muttered Merryn.
The three of them chatted for a while and then Dave leaned out of the wheelhouse as the boat began to slow. "Sail up please lads," he said, and Tom and Andrew sprang into action as Dave killed the engine.
A short time later they edged their way up the Plym estuary, allowing the wind and tide to carry them upriver towards the docks. Merryn went below decks.
In the hold were twenty soldiers under the command of a Sergeant and Eddie who had curled up in one corner. She tapped the Sergeant on the shoulder. "Time to get ready Sarge, we're almost there."
"Noted Merryn, thank you." The man roused the rest of his squad and tapped Eddie on the shoulder. Her eyes snapped open and she rose to her feet, reaching for her rifle.
She and Merryn went up onto the deck together and the skipper steered them up the main channel, veering away at the last possible moment to coast up to the dock. As he nudged against the wharf, two soldiers leapt the gap carrying ropes and secured the boat fore and aft. Gangplanks were lowered and the team streamed off the boat, with several soldiers scouting ahead to check for hostiles.
Merryn signalled her team and they headed towards the gated area where Hope had been hiding. On silent feet, and avoiding the walkers, they made their way across the courtyard, into the building and up onto the roof. From there, they had a clear view of the city to the east of the docks and Merryn set down her pack. "Andrew, Eddie, could each of you take a corner of the building nearest the city please and keep watch. Hope, watch the deadheads below for any change in movement that might show we have human company. Tom, I need your eyes on the screen please."
As the others peeled off to their respective positions, Merryn set up the drone and a tablet, laid her map on the asphalt roof, and checked the controls. "Right little buzzer, off you go," she muttered.
With a soft whirr, the drone lifted from the roof of the building and Merryn moved it east. "Is the tablet recording Tom?"
"Yup, all good here. Recording on both drone and tablet, so we have a backup. Plenty of charge in both."
"Excellent. I checked the maps last night and there's an old fort on top of the hill in the park to the east of here. I'm going to check that first as I suspect one of our gangs may be holed up in there if it's somewhere defensible against our moaning friends below."
They watched the screen in silence as Merryn guided the drone above the tightly packed terraced houses of the docklands area. Everything was still, even the light wind that had pushed them up the river had died, and birdsong had stilled.
"It feels weird out here today," muttered Tom.
"Agreed," replied Merryn. "Something strange is going on, and..." she stopped talking and gasped as the fort came into sight, lifting the drone higher so they could get a better view. A pitched battle was in progress inside the fort, with two groups of men and women engaged in vicious hand-to-hand fighting. More people were scaling the steep bank up to the fort.
"It's all hand-held weapons and crossbows by the looks of it," said Tom, his voice low. "They don't want to attract any unwanted attention from any walkers. One group seems to be overwhelming the other one. Wait, what's that guy doing?"
A lone man had climbed onto one of the corner turrets of the old fort and had unlimbered what looked like a machine gun.
"Oh hell," muttered Merryn.