Shelter by Dave Hutchinson

Author:Dave Hutchinson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Rebellion Publishing Ltd

IT WAS, WHEN he thought about it later, an act of quite considerable bravado. He’d known these paths and roads and fields and woods all his life – had played in them with Max when they were boys – but now the landscape seemed fraught with danger as he rode slowly down the path towards the Taylor farm in the drizzle.

As he came round the last bend, he saw dozens of people patrolling on top of the wall around the Taylor compound and for a moment he faltered. He drew the horse to a halt and sat there looking at the gate, the clusters of heads peering over the parapet at him. There was still time to turn and go home. He might make it.

Instead, he clucked his tongue and shook the reins and the horse plodded contentedly up to the gate.

“Taylors!” he called.

Patrick, Max’s eldest, looked down at him. “Go home, Harry.”

“I want to talk to your mother,” he said.

“Not going to happen. Go home before I shoot you.” And he lifted a crossbow to his shoulder.

“I’m not armed,” Harry said. He shrugged out of his long coat, sat there in the drizzle in his pullover and jeans.

“I don’t care, Harry. You’re not coming in here.”

“Let him in,” called a voice from the other side of the wall, down in the yard.

Patrick turned and looked down. “No.”

“He’s come here, on his own and unarmed,” said the voice. “Don’t you know how much balls that takes? Let him in, let’s hear what he has to say. While we still can.”

For a moment, Harry had a dizzying sense that the past few days had not happened, that he was here again to collect Rob’s body. He wondered if any of this could have been avoided if he’d done things differently.

Patrick leaned over the wall and looked in both directions. Then he nodded down into the yard, and after a few moments the gate slid open, just far enough for Harry to walk the horse through. Where he faced a semicircle of heavily-armed people. He noted crossbows and longbows and shotguns and various pieces of edged and serrated agricultural equipment. The gate clanked shut behind him.

The semicircle opened, and John Race stepped through and took the horse’s bridle. “Harry,” he said.

“I’m here to talk to Rose, John. I don’t want any trouble.”

“I think things have gone way beyond that. Get down; we’ll look after the horse.”

Harry dismounted. “Can I put my coat back on?”

Patrick came down a set of stairs built against the inside of the wall. He patted Harry down, then took his coat from where it was draped over the horse’s neck and inspected the pockets. He threw it at Harry and earned a look of rebuke from John. He beckoned Harry.

“You’ve got guts, I will give you that,” he said, as they walked across the compound.

“I didn’t see there was much choice,” Harry said, shrugging into his coat and pulling up the hood. “Where’s Rose?”

“She’s with Max. I can’t let you see her, Harry.

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