Darren Wearmouth - First Activation

“It’s going to be a long drive, but yeah, I agree,” Lea said.

“What about the captain who went to Long Island? He could fly us to England,” Jack said.

“That’s a bit of a long shot isn’t it?” I replied. “We don’t even know if he has survived up to this point.”

“I was just thinking of options, if there is an area that has managed to avoid all of this, then I’d want to be there. The fact that it is home is an added bonus.”

“Do you think the area would have been overrun by killers from elsewhere?” Lea asked.

I didn’t think so. An area that didn’t suffer an activation might be damaged around the edges but not completely wiped out. The ‘kill one then kill yourself’ mentality was chilling and effective, but only with complete coverage. Perhaps if the brainwashing had convinced everyone just to carry on murdering, then it might have provided a little more of a contingency for failure. I explained my train of thought to Lea and Jack.

“The plan is still good if one of those transmitters can be dropped into Northern England. If not, it’s only one small area compared to the damage that has already been done,” Jack said.

There was no point speculating about what would happen in England. The best chance we had was to find out if any more activations were coming, and possibly stop them.

“Is there any way of trying to contact Northern England?” Lea asked. “Will the radio work at that distance? We could at least try to warn them.”

I hadn’t thought of that.

“Yes, it will. We can try and use some of the maritime distress frequencies and hope that somebody is listening.”

Jack and I hurried back in to the barn and went straight to the radio. Neither of us could remember the exact distress frequencies, but knew they were around the early four, six, and eight kHz range. I started turning the dial.

“What are you doing? Get off my radio,” Jerry shouted.

“Shut the fuck up,” Jack replied.

We listened in on various frequencies but were unable to hear anything that sounded promising. It quickly became apparent that this would be an incredibly time consuming process unless we had the right information at hand.

We kept searching for a few minutes but began to give up hope. It was now getting towards early evening and I wanted to leave the barn.

Lea poked her head through the barn door.

“Any luck, you two?”

“Nothing,” Jack replied. “It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack.”

“Let’s just go back to the house and bury Bernie, and then get on the road to Hermitage,” I said.

As we grabbed supplies from Jerry’s stockpile, he asked, “What are you going to do with me? You can’t leave me here.”

“You’re coming with us, if you don’t give us the addresses, I’ll shoot you,” I replied.

I was guessing that Jerry would go for option one, but he had another card to play.

“There’s something else you should know.”

Lea was still looking through the doors.

“Let’s just leave him here, I’m not sure I can stand being in the same vehicle as him on a long trip,” she said.

“He’s coming with us,” I replied and leaned over Jerry, “Spit it out then, this better be good.”

He looked up at me and smiled.

“Oh, it is, but I can’t tell you all of it. You’ll have to ask that fucking dyke by the door,” he said, looking towards Lea.

She stepped inside the barn and raised her Beretta towards Jerry.

Jerry’s revelation left me stunned. Jack, on the other hand, swung his rifle around towards Lea almost immediately.

“Drop your weapon, now,” he shouted.

Regaining control, I crouched down, picked up my weapon, and did the same. Lea lowered her Beretta and looked at the floor.

“Start talking, Lea,” I said firmly.

“He’s lying. Can’t you see he’s trying to get us to turn against each other?”

“No, I’m not. Let’s just say she’s in with Ron’s family.”

Jack still had his rifle pointing at Lea’s head.

“What’s he talking about?” Jack asked.

“I’ve no idea. Let’s get out of here and leave him.”

Lea had flown from Detroit on Friday, led us to the farm, and Jerry had been asking for her during the standoff outside the house. This started to feel like too much of a coincidence.

“They were asking for you at the house. Jerry said he would leave us alone if we handed you over,” I said.

“They were probably perverts. You’ve seen what Jerry is like, he—”

“That bitch was here at the farm last year. How did you find your way here?”

“You pinpointed this specific farm, Lea,” Jack said. “Are we supposed to believe that was a simple coincidence?”

“Hand over your Beretta now. We want to know everything,” I added.

“I haven’t been a danger to you so far, have I?”

“Bernie might not agree with that — if he were alive. Now hand it over.”

“Don’t trust that dyke an inch, she’s in this as deep as me,” Jerry said, almost triumphantly.

“If you call her that one more time, I’m going to blow your brains out. Why didn’t you say anything before?” I replied.

“She dates Ron’s niece. I didn’t want it getting back to him that I’d talked. If I gave her a pass, then she might have returned the favour. It seems I’ve nothing to lose now.”

“Why would I talk to Ron about an insignificant shit like you?” Lea hissed.

I turned and stared intently at her; Jack lowered his rifle and did the same.

“Guys, I can explain. I never meant for Bernie to get killed. I’ll tell you what I know; it’s not what you think.”

Lea placed her Beretta on the floor and kicked it towards me. I picked it up and put it on the table next to Jerry’s head.

“Don’t trust her, she’ll get us all killed,” he shouted.

“Shut up, you don’t get a say in anything,” Jack grunted.

“Do you know Ron?” I asked.

“She does, I’ve already told you…”

“Will you shut the fuck up for a minute? She can speak for herself,” I bellowed.

It was starting to feel like this situation was getting out of control.

“It’s true what he said about Martina,” Lea said.

“We want to know about Ron and the part you have played. Fuck Martina.”

“She does,” Jerry cackled.

I picked up the Beretta that was on the table, and smashed the grip into the side of Jerry’s head.

“I didn’t know any of this was going to happen. Please, hear me out for fucks sake.”

“If that Range Rover we shot up still drives,” I said to Jack, “can you bring it around to the barn doors so we can load it up with supplies? We can transfer them to the undamaged one still at the house.”

Jack grunted and disappeared out of the side door of the barn. I kept my eyes firmly on Lea who had sat down with her head in her hands.

“I just want to find out if Martina’s alive,” she quietly murmured.

“Wait for Jack. We both deserve to hear this.”

I was annoyed at how easily we had been led by Lea, and how much we had overlooked. We should have suspected Lea’s involvement as soon as we saw Jerry talking to the patrol. But we had been swept along with events and hadn’t stopped to question anything.

I had felt guilty because of white lies around our trap at the Elmhurst parking lot, even though our actions had been well intentioned. I had even apologised to her. Anger rose up inside me again so I guessed that Jack would be fuming. I wanted to know how much she had really manipulated us.

I heard the bullet ridden Range Rover rumble up towards the barn doors and stop. Jack walked back into the barn.