Too Close To Home - Part 4

Part 4

Lining the edge of the car park were several large, wide, drab green trailers. Windowless and showing no features bar a narrow door, they were surrounded by five or six of the same dark blue range rovers we�d seen the previous day. I couldn�t see any signs of life though, which seemed to be more worrying at the time than had I seen movement.
I tried to edge over to the right, but finding myself slipping down onto the road I stopped. Just as well I did, I froze as to of the guys in suits stepped down from one of the trailers and headed across the car park. From the other side, two more figures appeared, dressed from head to toe in white protective suits and masks. They were pushing a bright yellow fifty gallon drum on a sack barrow of some sort. The two of them disappeared out of sight behind the trailer parked nearest the sluice gates and pump inlets, at which point I shivered uneasily. I didn�t want to think about what might have been in the drum.

I backed slowly away from the road, turning back through the trees to where I had left Amber waiting. The sudden crackle of radio chatter emanating from somewhere behind me however, froze me to the spot.
I couldn�t make out what was being said and was struggling to judge just how far away it was, the sound of my own heartbeat was deafening as it pounded in my chest. After another five minutes or so, which seemed to take forever, Amber suddenly appeared beside me. I hadn�t even hear her approaching, she�d been completely stealthy.

�Where are they?� I mouthed silently.

She pointed back over her left shoulder, �I think they�re heading for the car, there�s four of them I think,� she replied, her whisper barely audible. It was then that she caught a glimpse of the scene in the car park. Her jaw dropped.

�We have to get out of here, and quickly.� I said, chancing a whisper. I thought the situation through as clearly as I could under the circumstances. Considering out distance from town, we didn�t have many options should they find the car. And if they found the car, they�d be at the cabin in minutes. Or would they? My home address was my place back in town. The cabin was currently registered to a tourism company in Edinburgh my father had been dealing with. The rent was currently on hold these days as I used it myself, but I couldn�t think of a more immediate way they�d be able to directly tie it to my car. Was it safe to go back there? I checked my pockets, and upon finding my wallet and cell phone, I motioned to Amber, �Come on.�

:*:

We�d been hiking for over an hour, and I was beginning to lose my judgement over how far we�d gone so far. As expected, Amber had indeed turned out to be much fitter than myself. My calves and knees were throbbing dully in pain from the constant jarring as we made as best a bee-line as we could towards Inverness, whilst sticking to as much undergrowth and cover as possible.

I stopped and looked back the way we�d come, the storm clouds were still a good way off, but closer nonetheless. I just hoped we�d reach shelter before they arrived and opened up.

�I need a rest too,� said Amber. She sat down heavily on springy mound of grass.

�I was just checking the weather,� I said, catching up to where she�d stopped.

�Sure,� she replied, smiling.

I sat down across from her, �Okay, and my legs feel like they�re about to fall off. We should really keep moving as long as we can though, in all seriousness. We can be back in town in a few more hours at best.�

�And what are we going to do when we get there?� Amber looked through her jacket pockets, and eventually found a packet of Wrigley�s. She took a strip and threw me the packet.

I helped myself and passed it back. �It all depends on just what is happening there right now. It all hangs on the fact that the situation will have done one of three things. It�ll have gotten better, in which case we�re laughing. It�ll have stayed the same, in which case we�ll have to be bloody careful. Or it�ll have gotten worse, in which case� I haven�t a clue.�

We sat in silence for a while, before Amber spoke again, �Tom. What is it you think is going on? I mean really.�

I shook my head, �Amber. I�m just a network administrator, I�m not qualified to make that kind of judgement.�

�I think you�re wrong, I think we�re both in a perfect position to start making judgements. In fact, considering everything that�s happened, I think it�s required of us. Whilst you might not show it as much as I do, I think you�re probably just as freaked out by all this as I am, and I need to know what you think.�

Despite what I�d said, the hour long trek so far had give me ample time to make all the judgements I�d wanted, and try to work a plan together. I had one, I had to admit, but didn�t know if it was a sound one or not. �If you want me to be blatantly honest� I think that either the military or government are running some kind of test up there, putting something in the water and then monitoring the effects on the towns population. They�ve closed up all the routes in and out of town, going by those text messages I got, and right now they�re probably looking for us because they think we�ve caught them in the act.�

Amber didn�t look particularly surprised, her expression almost vacant, �Putting what in the water?� She said slowly.

I shook my head, �I don�t know, but back at the reservoir I saw men wearing the protective suits you saw yesterday. They were handling a drum of something, and the other guys in suits, they were there too.�

She nodded, �I saw the Range Rovers.�

�You read the text message like I did, Amber, it said people were getting sick.�

�And you think they�re responsible?� she pointed back the way we�d come.

I nodded. �What little evidence we�ve got suggests that.�

�So what do we do?�

I thought for a moment, wondering to myself again for the tenth time whether I was getting carried away in this next part of the plan. I remember saying it anyway, wanting to gauge Ambers� response. �Maybe seven or eight years ago, I used to visit this website, a discussion forum. I�m damned if I can remember the name of it, but they used to discuss conspiracy theories, government cover-ups, stuff like that. They had some pretty wild debates going, about things that, if they were proved to be true, would create hell among the public.� I thought back to some of the topics I�d read about back then, �Some very frightening suggestions were being branded about, and the scary thing was, they made sense.�

�Conspiracy theories?� said Amber quietly. �Tom, this is nuts.�

�Maybe. I�m willing to hear anything you�ve got to throw in at this stage. What do you think is going on?� I didn�t mean to sound so harsh, but I was getting tired, and like the topics on the website in years gone by, this was all beginning to make a frightening kind of sense.

Amber didn�t reply at first. She looked down and grabbed a handful of the long grass, shredding it and letting the pieces drift away in the wind. �I believe you Tom, or I believe that what you�ve said is possible. I didn�t mean it to sound like I didn�t.�

�I�m sorry, I�m getting tired.�

�So what about the website?� she asked.

�I was thinking. On our current course, we should come back onto the edge of town maybe only a mile from my office. The company I work for will have their external gateways shut down for the weekend, so I won�t be able to access the internet, but I should be able to send an email.�

�To who?�

�I can�t remember the name of the website, but I can remember the email address of someone who used to post there. We tell him what�s happening, and ask him to post our email on every damn forum he can find.�

�What good will that do?�

�It�ll eventually filter out across the net. People will be aware, we�ll have warned them.� As I spoke out loud, my plan was already beginning to wear thin at the edges.

�Tom, even if it does, how does that help us? For all we know right now they�ve got the town completely sealed off.�

�Hopefully the message will reach more mainstream sources, maybe the media, I don�t know. I can�t think of anything else we can do.�

After a long moment, Amber nodded. �It�s better than nothing. And besides, we might get back to town and find nothing�s happening, and we�ll have hiked all this way for nothing.�

We both stopped talking and froze. The wind buffeted the grass and heather surrounding us, making it difficult to hear anything as the air rushed by our ears. We both turned our heads back in the direction of the reservoir we�d left behind.

�Did you hear that?� I said quietly.

�I heard something,� replied Amber, �But I don�t know what it��

I held a finger up to my lips and strained to hear again, if only the wind would drop just for a moment. Despite the fact we were in the middle of nowhere and there wasn�t a thing around to actually generate noise, the sound of being out in the open was loud. Another minute passed by and neither of us moved, then, just as the wind did eventually drop for a second, we could both hear the unmistakable sound of dogs barking.
We both stood as quickly as our tired legs would let us and set off again, at a slightly quicker pace.

�Could just be the farmers� sheepdogs,� I breathed as we walked.

�Yeah,� replied Amber, glancing back over her shoulder, �Could be. But let�s not wait to find out.�

We didn�t stop again. Somehow hearing those dogs in the distance behind us, after seeing what we�d seen, was enough fuel for us to continue hiking across the rest of the open heather-covered moor lands without any more bouts of tiredness. Admittedly, discussing my plan out loud had gotten us both a little scared, but it didn�t matter, if fear kept us going, we�d use it willingly for the time being.
With the storm clouds still chasing us, we battled on for another two hours straight. We�d been in view of the last stretch of small hills that would lead us over onto the outskirts of Inverness for the last forty-five minutes, but they seemed to be taking forever to get any closer.
We didn�t speak again the rest of the way. We both knew what we were going to do, and we were too damn tired to waste any more energy on talking. Neither of us were hill-walkers, and neither of us were particularly active in any sport. We�d gotten lazy in life and it was now taking its toll.
Crossing down over a small stream that had carved its way through the hillside, we took as direct a route as possible up the last remaining incline. The hill was topped with a small collection of wind-burnt baby pine, which had managed to survive on the exposed landscape amongst a number of large rocky outcroppings. After what seemed like an age, we reached them, coming to a stop only when we saw the town.

Two helicopters could be seen and heard maybe a couple of miles from our position in the rocks. Neither of us could make out their colour or markings from that distance, but they were there nonetheless, and both looked to be circling somewhere near the retail park on the south side.
Looking down the last slope onto the suburbs of Holm Mains, it all seemed very quiet. Too quiet? There was no traffic, and no signs of any movement whatsoever, so we set off down through the rocky incline.

To be concluded...

Just the last one to go folks