Hurst by Robin Crumby (i read books .TXT) 📕

four doors opened wide, and very slowly Zed and Riley stepped away from the protection offered by the door. They squinted into the light, hands above their heads, trying to make out the silhouette of a person on top of the truck.

The rear passenger door opened and Stella jumped out with a big smile spreading across her face.

“Is that you, Stella? You have got to be kidding,” said the surprised voice on the megaphone.

Stella could barely contain her excitement, hopping from foot to foot.

“You made it back. I don’t believe it. We thought you were dead. Wait, where are the others? Are Tabs and Martha with you too?”

Stella shook her head. “They’re still at the hospital. They captured us a couple of weeks back. Four guys jumped us. These guys got me out and we came straight here.”

The searchlight powered down and for a moment the entrance plunged into semi-darkness again before some lower level sodium flood lights flickered on, bathing the group in a soft orange glow. The woman disappeared from view as she climbed down the back of the truck, squeezed through a small gap between the wall and the bumper and strode over to Stella. Standing a few feet apart she looked her up and down before throwing her arms round her. “It’s so good to see you. Welcome back, girl.” She slapped her a few times on the back for good measure. They did a little dance together, jumping up and down, clutching each other.

“Thanks, Mary. These are my friends. Joe, Zed, Riley, Mila and the little one there is Adele. They rescued me. I promised them shelter for the night.”

Mary strode over to the rest of the group and shook each of their hands. The warmth of her welcome cooled somewhat when it came to Zed and Joe. She looked them up and down and shook her head. “The boss ain’t gonna like you being here. Let’s leave that till the morning. Any friend of Stella’s is a friend of mine.”

She fished the keys to the truck out of her breast pocket and climbed into the cab to move it out of the way. Winding down the window, she shouted over the noise of the engine starting up. “I’ll meet you by the main entrance.”

The truck rolled a few yards back, just wide enough to allow the Land Rover through. Mary leaned out of the window and waved them through. Zed headed up the long gravel drive towards the main hotel building in front of them.

Two figures stood warming their hands in the cold night air, rifles slung over their shoulders. One wore a long winter coat and a beanie hat, with leggings and trainers. The other had a Russian-style fur hat with flaps covering her ears. It was nearing the end of their shift and they both looked chilled to the bone. It was still very early. They paced around, stamping their feet, waiting for the Hurst group to unload their rucksacks.

“Let’s get you inside before we all freeze to death,” said the girl in the fur hat. “Emily will find you a place to sleep for tonight.” She looked back at Zed with mild surprise, like she hadn’t seen a man in a long time. “You’ll need to surrender those weapons.”

Inside they stood next to the reception desk lit by a large kerosene lamp, waiting to be patted down. When it was Riley’s turn, the sheer volume of knives secreted about her person raised eyebrows. For the first time in as long as she could remember she felt naked without a weapon, other than a small blade hidden behind her belt buckle.

Stella led the group through the hotel, holding high a Tilley lantern to light their way to an extravagantly furnished drawing room hung with gilded framed paintings showing Victorian watercolour scenes. Zed collapsed on the nearest leather sofa and swung his legs up, not even bothering to unlace his boots. He was dead on his feet.

Stella handed Riley the lantern together with a pile of folded grey blankets. “I’ll see you all in the morning for breakfast.”

“Are you not staying with us?” asked Adele.

“Not tonight. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. You’ll be fine here. Sleep well,” said Stella, before turning to leave, locking the door behind her.

Riley shrugged. Perhaps it was just a precaution to stop them roaming the hotel in the night. She draped a blanket over Zed who was already snoring, his mouth open, and bedded down for the night in an armchair. She pulled the blanket up around her chin and was asleep within seconds.

Chapter Twenty-seven

Riley was the first awake. She watched the others sleeping, enjoying the silence and the sunshine streaming through the window. Mila looked so peaceful, curled up in a ball in the corner. Riley’s attention flicked back to Zed, his forehead damp with perspiration. With a sharp intake of breath, Adele sat up, her eyes wild.

“Bad dream?” asked Riley.

“Every night, I have the same dream,” replied Adele, blushing as if this was an admission of weakness. “I always wake up just as I’m about to find out what happens.”

“How frustrating. What’s the dream about?”

“In my dream I can fly, soaring above a city, reaching out to touch the clouds. I swoop down just above the rooftops, skimming the grass, dancing in the air. Then all these people start coming out of the houses. Families and children pointing up at me, laughing. It’s like all their prayers have been answered. But then this fire starts burning me up from inside and I’m being pulled towards a black hole in the sky. I have no way of stopping it.” There was a pained look on Adele’s face as if she was still troubled by the vivid images intruding into her waking thoughts. “What do you think it means?”

“Dreams are funny things.” Riley shrugged. “They’re your subconscious mind making sense of what’s been going on, replaying images, sounds, things that troubled you. Remember, you’ve seen a lot of weird stuff for someone so young. Your time in the hospital, the drugs they were giving you, maybe even what happened to your family during the outbreak. Heck, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. We all have bad dreams from time to time.”

There was a momentary look of alarm as Adele hunted for something that was no longer in her pocket. Searching around her in the folds of the blanket, she found a treasured memento of home and family. She clutched the key ring in the shape of a rabbit’s foot to her breast, closing her eyes and mouthing a few words in gratitude, before inserting it deep into a jean pocket for safe keeping. Riley looked over at Zed who was still dead to the world, but the others were stirring, yawning and stretching, taking in their unfamiliar surroundings.

Looking outside, a flower bed ran directly beneath the window. Pink roses brushed against the lower half of the glass. There was a red dawn, scattered clouds hurrying across the horizon. Was red sky a good or bad omen? Riley could never remember.

There was a quick-fire rap at the door. Adele was there first. She rattled the round brass handle but found it locked. Stella’s voice from the outside sounded flustered and told them to stay put while she ran back to grab the key from reception. The white panelled door swung inwards to reveal Stella standing there, smiling. She picked Adele up off the floor and hugged her tightly while apologising to the group for locking them in overnight. The sisters who ran the place were very particular about their rules, she explained.

Stella showed them to a large bathroom on the ground floor where there was a chemical toilet, buckets of fresh water from the stream and towels that were clean if not exactly fluffy by hotel standards. The Hurst group took it in turns to wash, relaxed in each other’s company. Joe averted his gaze as Mila stripped to her underwear. Riley unwrapped a bar of lavender soap, releasing the sweet smell from its waxy cover, stopping to inhale the fragrance. It had been some time since she’d smelled anything so delicious.

When they all had finished scrubbing their hands and faces, Riley dressed in the same clothes, stiff and scratchy against her skin. They trooped back out into the hallway where Stella was waiting to take them to the main dining room. There, they found almost a hundred people eating their breakfast, tightly packed together at tables set for four or eight diners. Something seemed odd to Riley as they squeezed between chairs. All the eyes in the room followed their progress.

The room fell quickly silent. One person dropped a knife clattering onto the floor, but didn’t reach to pick it up, a look of surprise frozen on her face. They seemed to be staring at Zed and Joe in particular. Riley was puzzled. Had they not seen strangers before?

Stella knocked at a door with a frosted glass panel that led into a private dining room. Warm sunlight bathed this end of the hall which looked out over orderly, well-maintained flower beds bordering freshly mowed lawns.

On the opposite side of the table facing the door they found the Mother Superior Stella had warned them about. The description was spot on. She was a formidable woman with a handsome face, that some might say was a little too masculine, long and angular. The sister reminded Riley of Princess Anne. At either side sat two nuns, studying each of them carefully. Sister Theodora was conservatively dressed in a spotless black habit and white wimple. She held her head high, peering through glasses perched on the end of her nose. Her thin, almost colourless, lips were expressionless as she waited for the group to settle. Riley noticed clear intelligent blue eyes that would once have been striking. She found herself staring at a wart on the Mother Superior’s forehead.

“Thank you, Stella. That will be all.”

Stella paused as if she had expected to stay with her new friends. She smiled weakly at the group, did an odd sort of curtsy and left.

“Please have a seat.” She gestured to the six seats facing her. “Do help yourself to coffee.” She slowly stretched out her hand to extend their hospitality to the new arrivals. “There is milk, flatbread, apples and pears too.”

She waited for them to take their seats before continuing. “Stella tells me we owe you a debt of gratitude for returning her to us. For that we thank you. As I’m sure you can imagine, we are not accustomed to receiving strangers in the dead of night.”

She watched in silence as the group gave in to their hunger. They devoured the flat bread and fruit, their first meal in nearly twenty-four hours. When there was nothing left, they slumped back in their chairs, satiated. Joe wiped his face with a frayed sleeve where juice and milk had dribbled down his chin into the folds of his neck.

Sister Theodora leaned forward, demanding their full attention. “Now I want to be perfectly clear. In these unusual circumstances, we have bent our rules to give you food and accommodation before you head back to Hurst Castle. Stella of course stays with us.”

Zed frowned at Riley, puzzled by her choice of words. “That’s up to Stella, don’t you think?”

The sister ignored Zed and continued to address Riley. “The rest of you ladies are most welcome to stay. You will find that we are mostly self-sufficient.” She smiled her best, most welcoming smile. “The local stream provides us with unlimited drinking water. We have a small generator for electric lights in the winter. As for food, we grow our own vegetables and have cows, chicken and sheep. We even have a swimming pool we fill in the summer. Here at the Chewton Glen, our residents are free from the worst excesses of man and the evil he has brought upon us.”

Riley blinked,