Chapter 10A

"Hey! Mister?" A young voice yelled at me as I sat on one of the stone steps at the front of the house, holding a large mug of tea. I looked up to see a small girl looking at me.

"How come you're still here? I thought everyone had gone by now."

"Nah, I'm still on airplane watch. When Bill & Harry goes, then I goes."

"Oh, okay, so what do you want?"

"I'm on airplane watch."

"Yes?"

In reply she pointed to the west. It took me a few moments to see what she was pointing at. Damn, she had good eyes.

"Sergeants!" I yelled at the top of my voice. "To me!"

I knew that whoever heard me would spread the word and then come running and sure enough, within a few seconds I could hear the sound of running feet as the sergeants that heard me came running. I pointed to the west as the young lookout had done.

"Holy shit!" muttered Amanda

I had to agree with her on that score. There, in the distance, a helicopter and a jet fighter were playing tag, although I doubt very much if either of them thought of it as a game.

"Can hear anything on the radio?" I asked. The two comms experts started playing with their hand equipment. I wait for them to answer.

"We've got a mayday on the standard distress frequency." Said Amanda after a few moments consultation with Priscilla, "and base to air chatter on another frequency." They had a few more moments of conversation. "We think the mayday is from the chopper."

I looked back at the two aircraft. To the uninformed it would seem like an unfair fight, but that is far from the truth.

Look, although a modern jet fighter is a fairly unstable aircraft compared to non-military craft, it has nothing on a helicopter. Airplanes are generally stable by nature and so a jet has to be deliberately designed to be unstable so that it can turn quickly at high speed, A helicopter, however, is naturally unstable as it consists of thousands of different forces none of which wanting anything to do with any of the others. So, the jet fighter has speed on it's side whilst the helicopter has manoeuvrability. Plus the fact that this pilot was hugging the ground ensuring that the jet fighter could only make short attack runs before having to pull up to avoid hitting the ground.

The other problem with a helicopter aside from its natural instability is that it is tiring to fly and the way that this pilot was flying was nothing short of exhausting. You constantly use both hands and both feet in a helicopter and your left hand is doing two things at once, and that's just to keep the chopper flying relatively level. That is why under normal circumstances, a helicopter pilot is only allowed to fly for a certain amount of time before being relieved.

"Can you put the mayday on a speaker?"

... day, mayday. Can anyone hear me. We are under attack and need help." A woman's voice pleaded. Amanda shut it off after a few moments.

"What about the other?" Priscilla fiddled with her radio.

"... I don't care what you have to do, they must not be allowed to get away. Remember the price for failure." A man's voice.

"Yes, Sir, I know, Sir. I'm doing my best." This was another woman.

I made a throat cutting gesture and the sound was cut off.

"Options?"

There was silence.

"Can we down a jet fighter with the weapons we have?"

"In theory yes, if the jet is close enough and not travelling too fast. The odds go up if it is heading directly towards the shooter." Ruth said and she ought to know being a sniper.

"Okay, get your rifles and head out into the field to the north of the house and get set. Amanda, call up the helicopter and ask them to lure the fighter over here. Coordinate with Priscilla who will monitor the fighter comms. If the jet doesn't cotton on to our transmission, advise the helicopter pilot that we need the just to make a head on approach to the field to the north where we will be waiting. Shooters, aim for the air intakes and pour as much lead into them as possible. Get to it!"

Following my own advice I jogged round to where we kept our arms and took my rifle and some shells and then jogged out to the field with the others.

"The pilot says that he will try."

"Okay, let's await developments."

We watched as the helicopter pilot jinked and ducked and moved that chopper all over creation to avoid the fire coming from the jet. I don't know that much about flying choppers but even I could see that this was an incredible pilot. Soon the helicopter pilot flew directly towards us and we watched as the jet lined up behind him. The jet flew closer and closer and the helicopter just flew straight on. Then, at the last possible moment the chopper slammed on the brakes. I could hear the turbine whine at full power as the pilot pulled the nose almost vertically up and to one side causing the forward speed to fall to nothing in mere seconds and the entire aircraft to move out of the line of fire. Then, before the chopper crashed to the ground the pilot pushed the nose down and the chopper just hovered. The jet was unable to stop in such a manner flew towards us pulling up out of the shallow dive.

We let fly as soon as the snipers gave us the word. I suspect that most of the shots we fired missed, but probably not many of the snipers. I could see bits of metal coming off the jet as it flew closer to us. Finally it flew over us. I thought that we had failed but just after it passed us there was a terrific bang and one of the engine disintegrated.

Everything happened so fast after that. I was just aware of the pilot ejecting and the jet plowing into the small hill 3km away from the house.

"Sid, take some sergeants with you and pick up that pilot. Be careful, ejecting is physically damaging. The rest of you come with me."

I heard Sid call out to me as he jogged away "Teach your Grandmother..."

We jogged over to where the helicopter had landed and arrived in time to see two women scramble out of the aircraft to be violently sick. Come to think of it, I'm not at all surprised. Nor was I surprised to see that the pilot was slumped in the seat in exhaustion. But I was surprised when three more women clambered gingerly out of the fuselage, two of them covered in vomit.

"Cover me." I ordered and went around to the pilot's side of the chopper. I carefully opened the door.

"Need a hand?"

The pilot raised his head and looked at me.

"Yeah, I guess I do."

I offered him my hand and helped him out.

"Nice flying." I commented. He looked at me for a moment.

"Nice shooting."

"I though so!" I said smugly to which he chuckled. Then he looked around to see where his passengers were. All five women were being tended to and being given water from the canteens that the sergeants habitually wore.

Despite his exhaustion, the pilot rushed over to the women, sank to his knees and tried his very best to hug them all. His efforts were not un-appreciated as the women tried their best to hug him back. And they babbled.

I know, I shouldn't say that, but they did. All talking at once about nothing in particular. After listening for a few moments I gather that they were thanking the pilot for saving their lives as well as telling him off for taking so many risks and for the uncomfortable ride. The pilot, I noticed, said nothing, just hugged and stroked and comforted where necessary.

Smart man,

"What happened to Sally?" The pilot stood up and spoke to me.

"If I knew who Sally was I might be able to answer."

"Sally is the pilot of the jet."

"She ejected. I've sent some people to find her."

"Don't hurt her, she didn't have any choice."

"Blackmail?"

"Yes, they have her children.

I turned to Amanda. "Call Sid and advise him that the pilot is not an enemy."

"They've already found her and are waiting for a stretcher to be brought to them."

"Is she hurt?" asked the pilot.

"No more than normal for an ejection, but Sid decided that bringing her in on a stretcher would prevent any more damage.

"Oh. Thank you." He turned back to me.

"My wives and I thank you for helping us. I wouldn't have lasted much longer against Sally."

"No problem. Why don't you come up to the house and get cleaned up. Then you can tell us why you were playing tag with a jet fighter."

We turned and made our way over to the Manor house.

"Should we be expecting any more visits from aircraft?" I asked as we approached the house.

"No, the jet and the helicopter were the only two they had that were in any condition to fly, and Sally and I are the only pilots."

"Okay, get cleaned up, the ladies will help your wives and we'll meet back in the kitchen where you will bring us up to date."

The pilot looked at me for a long moment, hearing the note of steel in my voice.

"That's probably a good idea."

The ladies all went off to do their thing and I had Tricky show the pilot where he could wash up. I told Tricky in Sign to keep an eye on him to ensure that he didn't go "Wandering". I went down to the kitchen and put on several kettles of water to boil and started making tea and coffee.

The pilot didn't take long to wash up and Tricky brought him down to the Kitchen. The women, well, they are women and we had a much longer wait for them to get sorted out. Yes, I know, I shouldn't say that either, even if it is true.

I handed a mug to the pilot and put a carafe of hot coffee on the table with milk and sugar. Then I sat down and waited for him to pour himself some of the coffee.

"So, tell me who you are." I said as I poured myself a coffee. "You probably already know something about us or you wouldn't have headed our way."

He took a sip of his coffee before replying.

"What I am, what we are, is refugees, although that's probably not what you want to know." He sighed and as he took a breath to continue the door opened and we were swamped with women. His five and at least five of ours came in and headed for the coffee pots. I guess that it took nearly ten minutes before they all had drinks and were seated. I said nothing, and continued to say nothing despite being questioned by just about all the women, until there was quiet.

I lifted my mug and gestured to the pilot indicating that he should continue.

"As you probably have realised, we're from the group that has been moving against you..." No sooner had he begun his story when he was interrupted.

"What group? Why are you moving against us, what have we done to you?" Sharon's voice was strident.

I looked at the pilot and put my finger to my lips telling him to say nothing further.

"Well, aren't you going to answer?"

I looked at Sharon, frankly I stared at her, not saying anything, while she ranted on. After a few accusatory comments she saw me staring at her and she ground to a halt. I continued to stare at her until she dropped her eyes to the tables and muttered "Sorry."

I gestured to the pilot to carry on.

"The group we are fleeing from is led by one man, a megalomaniac by any definition of the word. He wants to be an Emperor of the old style where his slightest whim becomes law. He and his friends, for want of a better word, started out small. They found a place to base themselves that could be easily defended and then assimilated everyone they could find by force. They were and still are brutal in their methods. I've no idea how many have died."

He took a mouthful of coffee before continuing.

"The first thing he did was to reinforce the security of the compound both inside and out. The area around the compound was cleared of trees and bushes for at least 100 metres. Two razor wire fences were built and watch towers built. The outside of the compound is rigged with mines and traps and all types of things that make it difficult, if not impossible to approach undetected."

He took a deep breath.

"The inside security consists of force, blackmail and murder. Refuse to do something and you are punished and the mildest punishemnt can be severe. Janice, show them."

One of his wives stood up, un-buttoned her shirt, slipped it off her shoulders and slowly turned around so that she could be seen from all angles. There were gasps from most of the women. Her torso, front and back were criss-crossed with ugly welts and scars.

"Her crime?" the pilot continued "She dropped the tray of coffees she was carrying to our 'superiors' when one of them, not looking where he was going, bumped into her. Some people were beaten like this, other women were raped, some had their throats cut."

He sighed.

"They rule by fear and enforce it with barbaric acts. There was only two bright spots as far as we were concerned, the community here and the one on the island. They were large enough to cause problems, we didn't have the manpower to attack you directly, and they gave us hope. So our beloved emperor decide that you also had to be assimilated. Spies were sent out to join the communities and to report back any weaknesses that they could find.

"Some of the people supporting Marcus were ex-military and they advised him that they needed to deal with the community here before attempting to take the island. There were no reports of organised resistance here whereas the islanders were developing ways and means to defend themselves. They were going to round this community up and then use them as cannon fodder in the attack on the island. Your ammunitions and defenses would be swamped by the sheer number of attackers and that would leave the island open to being taken over. There was to be some internal things going on, the spies were going to smuggle people onto the island to run sneak attacks on your blind side as the main force was attacking.

"Then one of my wives, Betty, was singled out for punishment. She'd done nothing, they just grabbed her at random and then beat and raped her. When they tired of that they let the dogs have her. The didn't feed the dogs for many days, so she was ripped apart and eaten. Out beloved emperor and his coterie thought that it was great entertainment.

"After that I decided that we had to get away. They didn't know about the other five being my wives, in fact the didn't know about Betty either, or they wouldn't have done that. They kept me under guard simply because there was no-one that they could use to keep me under control.

"We faked an illness. Evie sneaked some pills out of the infirmary that made me puke and shit. I took the first ones just after landing one day about two weeks ago and within seconds I was vomiting and shitting myself like I had the plague or something. I guess if anyone else had done that they would have been killed especially since I managed to puke all over two of the elite and shat all over their shoes."

He smiled to himself at the memory.

"But I was their only chopper pilot so they ordered the women to clean my up and put me in the infirmary. It was what we wanted since I could be fed and given drips to counter the body fluid loss and anytime that one of the elite came round to see me, well I'd take one of those pills and do it all again.

"We tapered the pills off after a few days so that it looked as though I was getting better, but the main thing was that they relaxed their guard on me. The hanger where the chopper and jet were kept was a few miles away from the compound and I was usually driven under full guard there and back when they needed me to fly. One of the guards would also fly with me and kept a gun on me at all times.