Chapter IV
Intruders
Whilst Brutus had been relaying his information to the trio. Two people; Bruce Reynolds, a well muscular, tanned man in his mid-twenties, who had recently escaped capture from Lord Boris’ fortress after the failure of the raid a few years previously, wearing a cloak and hood to cover his face, as he was a wanted man here, for working with the imperials as a translator, he crossed over the fence followed closely by Abi Rockwood a woman in her late teens, who bore a striking resemblance to Charlie, only with brown hair. As the unknowingly crossed the perimeter into Brutus’s lands, an alarm sounded nearby that damn near made the pair jump out of the skins with fright. Not only because of the sudden noise, but they also feared that the sound would carry and alert the dead.
“What the fuck was that.” Bruce said looking around for the source of the noise but couldn’t see anything. The only things man made element visible was a small wooden house on the northern horizon. “I knew we shouldn’t have cross that fence.” Abi looked up at this statement and laughed.
“You were the one who said we should come this way and will someone shut that fucking thing off!” Abi said shouting the last part into thin air and the noise did stop. Abi smiled to herself, thinking that it had been her command that had silenced the noise.
“What that mountain spooked me.” Bruce said looking back towards the black mountain just visible in the distance. Unbeknownst to him, it the same mountain Dmitri had gone into the previous year.
“Yeah, me too.” Abi said, before the sound of a twig snapping brought the two to their senses. They turn around and almost walk directly into Brutus in his bear form. Abi pulls out a small gun, before realising that the little piece of metal was likely to do fuck all against whatever the thing in front of them was. Another sound comes from their left as Dmitri, Barca, Jimmy and Charlie come above a small rise, their weapons raised, as Brutus turns back into a man again at the sight of the two people.
“Drop the gun miss.” Barca said holding his own. “You’re outnumbered. You too” He finished, pointing his gun at the hooded figure next to her. The woman looks around before holstering the gun. Brutus looking around at the scene turns back into his human from. As Jimmy moves forward.
“What’s your names?” Jimmy said aiming his rifle at the two.
“You don’t recognise me captain, lieutenant?” Bruce said lowering his hood to reveal the darkened face.
“Gods. Bruce, we thought you were dead.” Dmitri said walking up to the man, the last he had heard, the translator had been one of the missing after the raid, and most had presumed dead. Along with the others who had not returned. Barca only nodded in his astonishment, before remembering himself and turning to Abi.
“Your name miss?” Barca said aiming the gun at the teenager.
“Abi Rockwood.” Abi said at almost the same time as Bruce was introducing himself.
“What you doing on my land?” Brutus growled at the pair looking less than pleased at the sudden conversation.
“We got lost.” Abi said looking around. Charlie walks towards the newcomers, unlike the others her gun was no longer raised, before addressing Abi.
“What you doing here niece.” Charlie asked of the younger woman, the last time she had seen her, she had been no older than Nick, and they had not parted on the best of circumstances. It had been right after the funeral of Charlie’s brother and her sudden disappearance after the event had led to many in her family disowning her for leaving at that time and the relationships had never fully recovered with certain family members, including the one in front of her right now.
“Getting as far north as possible aunt.” Abi said. The two women hug then catching Dmitri completely by surprise.
“Wait what?” Dmitri said, he had never heard Charlie talk about her family before, he had guessed that was because she didn’t have one anymore, but he realised he had been wrong in that assumption.
“You’re in luck then, these people will be making the crossing in two days’ time, you can join up with them.” Brutus looked at the eastern and southern horizons before turning back to the group. “Now I must insist that you get to the house.” Brutus finished, he had not liked the look of the eastern horizon as it was far too dark for the time of day and year even with early winter now upon them.
The seven arrive back at the house to find Codsworth standing outside his gun at the ready, scanning the landscape he turned to see the others, as a strong breeze starts to come in from the east where black clouds also gather.
“Ah, good your back, what was the alarm about?” Codsworth asked looking at them before his gaze fixes on Bruce and Abi. As he does Codsworth, recognises Bruce and nods to the translator, who does not nod back, he guessed he deserved that, it was after all his raid that had led to him and so many others being left behind to an uncertain fate back at Boris’ fortress. He turns to Dmitri in order to inquire about Abi. “Who is she?” He asked looking confused. But it was Charlie who answered.
“We’ll explain indoors.” Charlie said walking into the house, wanting to get inside as quickly as possible before explaining it to everyone, rather than having to tell the story multiple times. As the rest follow her inside, Codsworth looks amazed before shrugging and entering the house himself.
“We leave here in two days’ time.” Dmitri said to the group at large, looking around the room at the faces, both shocked and in the case of Barca relieved, with him having made their feeling plain about wanting to get on the move as soon as possible. “I know we thought we’d be safe here, but that is no longer the case.” He finished.
“I thought we had a week?” Vernon asked, the old butler was speaking more for himself, he wasn’t as robust as he used to be and the dash from the grounded jet to this place had sapped most of his remain energy, and he had been counting on that week to recover that strength.
“I know.” Dmitri said looking around at the group. “We were hoping for more time. But the situation has now changed.” He finished.
“How.” Said Dave looking up from where he sat by the fireplace, he too looked tired, and Dmitri couldn’t blame him for his reluctance as unlike the rest, he had also been out in the wilderness whilst they had waited by the jet.
“Three black riders were spotted crossing the mountains behind us to the east, they could be on us at any moment.” Charlie answered, a murmur crept around the group at this.
“Then why are we still here?” Jack asked. “I mean if those things are on our trail then we should get out as fast as possible.” He finished.
“The winds are to strong lad, if we head up that pass right now, we’ll most like be thrown off.” Codsworth said, although he to agreed that they should high tail it out of this place as soon as possible, I simply wasn’t possible at the moment, although if the weather situation continued into tomorrow, then they would have to take that risk. Dmitri nodded his agreement.
“With any luck, we can be across the mountains within a fortnight.” Dmitri said, although considering how their luck had been the past few weeks, that wasn’t much of an optimistic comment. “And be on the other side of the mountains before winter can well and truly set in.” Dmitri finished looking around, for that was his main concern, as the one enemy they had no chance of beating was the weather.
“Rest up. We’re all going to need it.” Charlie said before sitting down leaning up against one of the wooden pillars and closing her eyes.
As the group began to make their preparations for the following day, Codsworth walked up to Bruce who did not meet his eye.
“Commander.” Bruce said, not looking at him.
“Bruce. I’m sorry about you getting left behind back when…” Codsworth started, but the translator only laughed coldly.
“Sorry about leaving me and the one hundred and twenty-six others behind at that place whilst you ran off like a coward.” Bruce said, finally looking up at the commander with nothing short of loathing in his eyes. “But you got away, didn’t you commander. You got to hold command again even with the absolute failure of your previous command.” He finished.
“Yes. Yes, I did. Nothing I can do will change what happened on that day. But we were betrayed. The Iron Company knew about the raid before it even happened.” Codsworth said and this did seem to take Bruce by surprise.
“How?” Bruce asked.
“Eugene. He was working for the enemy.” Codsworth said imploringly, he needed to get this through to Bruce, as if they were going to be traveling north together, he didn’t want to have to sleep with one eye open all night. “That’s how they knew we were coming, and why there was so little of The Iron Company inside the fortress when we attacked. They were waiting to ambush us outside on our retreat.” Codsworth finished hoping that the translator would understand. He was about to continue pleading when Dave walked up to Bruce.
“You’re the one that got left behind after the raid, weren’t you?” Dave asked. In that moment, Codsworth could have hit him. But to his surprise Bruce did not get lash out at this.
“That’s right.” Bruce said, whilst he didn’t seem angered, there was a curtness in his voice that told Dave that this better be good.
“Yeah. Well did you see a girl whilst you were there, about my age?” Dave asked, it had been the first time he had come across someone who didn’t make it out of the fortress, and he wanted to confirm if Mia was still alive. Codsworth had been dreading this from the moment he had recognised Bruce, the fact that Dave would ask about the girl. Bruce seemed to ponder the question for a moment, trying to recall his time spent as a captive inside the fortress, but he came up empty.
“Sorry kid. There were young people with me, but nobody your age.” Bruce said, and Dave’s look of excitement vanished from his face as he returned to his brothers.
“The betrayal I understand.” Bruce said returning to the matter at hand. “But why did you run. Why didn’t you stay and fight?” Bruce asked. This was the crooks of it, the commander he had been told about and served under, would never have abandoned the raiding force like he did at Boris’ fortress. Codsworth thought about this before the full recollection of the events that transpired there returned to him
“I was shot and was carried out. I nearly bled out on the way back to the camp.” Codsworth said, as he recalled how he had saved by Dmitri. “If I hadn’t then I would have most likely been caught like the rest.” Codsworth continued. He didn’t need to finish the sentence, as Bruce held out his hand, and whilst the commander was certain that they weren’t yet on friendly terms, he took it. Understanding how it must have looked to the soldiers who had been left behind, when their commander had seemingly fled. “Were there any others that escaped?” Codsworth asked, having those men in the north with them, would certainly make things a lot easier for the group.
“Yes. But I’m the only one that came this way. The rest fled south.” Bruce said, before taking his leave of the commander.
As Dave returned to the room, he and his brothers stayed in to get ready for the following day, another awaked reunion was taking place between aunt and niece. This one would be harder to solve as it was more personal, Charlie thought after overhearing what had been discussed between Codsworth and Bruce.
“Why did you leave?” Abi asked, and Charlie didn’t need to ask for further information.
“I had too, I couldn’t remain home after what had h-h-happened.” Charlie said, the stutter once again returning as it did when she talked about her past. She had tried to, but it had become too hard for her.
So, she had made the decision to leave, in order to get a completely fresh start away from the trauma. Only now she was having to face a physical embodiment of that trauma in the form of her niece. Despite the fact that they were of two different generation. The pair had been more like siblings.
“Why didn’t you come back though, why stay in that shit heap of a city?” Abi said, looking at her aunt as if she was the craziest person alive.
“I tried. A few months after it happened. I came back but couldn’t manage it. Seeing the city where Ed died.” Charlie said. “I needed to move on from that place.” She finished, hoping that her niece would understand.
“That’s fine. But what about the rest of us. The ones who couldn’t just move on.” Abi said. They had arrived at the heart of the matter. Not that Charlie had left, but the fact that her niece couldn’t.
“That decision wasn’t mine to make. If I could have taken you with me, I would have done.” Charlie said, knowing that it was the truth, although her sister would have killed her if she had done that. “You know that’s the truth, don’t you?” Charlie said, looking at her niece and pleading with her to understand.
Abi didn’t say anything to that, only turned around and left. Which if Abi was still the same person as she had been when Charlie left Docksmouth, was her way of grudgingly agreeing, although Charlie knew that they would be on speaking turns once more.
