Chapter 5: Winter, New people in the village

The following morning we all got up early to get ready for the trip to York. We had decided that Kelly would remain behind, and look after Shaun's three children. Shaun would then meet Jill.

The weather had turned milder again during the night; we seemed to have a few very cold days, and then a few milder ones, but I suspected that soon we would have no more mild spells until the spring.

Kelly and I had a last hug and a chat before we left. I reminded her she was now the deputy leader, and that with me away she might need to make decisions quickly, and that what ever she decided I would always support her, and I would never question her decisions publicly. United we stand divided we fall, that sort of thing.

Kelly and Kirsty rode with me to Shaun's house and as we reached it Kelly pushed her hand down her trousers and rubbed her pussy. She then brought it up to my nose and I could smell her womanly scent. "Just remember what is waiting for you at home," she said as her scent filled my nostrils. "Take care and come back safe. When will you be back?"

"I know we'll be gone one night, maybe two depending on what's been arranged in York."

We got out and joined Shaun in his front room. He gave his kids the standard talk about behaving for Kelly and we set off, waving to the little group standing outside his house. As we drove back through the village to start our journey, one or two other people were up and outside waving to us.

I had brought two shotguns along with us, I knew Shaun was a good shot, he had been keen on clay pigeon shooting before the collapse so I felt as if I had someone to watch my back.

We made good time across the Wolds, the roads were clear apart from a few drifts of snow which had not melted. We didn't have to stop and dig through any of these, the mud and snow tyres on the Land Rover pushed us through them.

We descended Garrowby Hill at nine o'clock, we had only been on the road for about an hour. I told Shaun I wanted to visit the address in Skirpenbeck, near Stamford Bridge, which I found in the pocket of the robber I shot on my way back last time. It was only a couple of miles from the main road. I found the house easily, it was set on its own a fair way from the village proper.

I knocked at the door but there was no answer. I was certain someone was in as there were signs of recent occupation.

Eventually I got the jewellery out of my pocket and called out to the occupants with a description of the items. The curtains moved and I held the items out where the person behind the curtain could see them. After a few minutes the window opened and a woman in her thirties leant out. "Where did you find them? How did you know they are mine?" I told her I had shot the two men who had attempted to rob me and found the jewellery and her address on them. She then came to the door and let us in.

I got her to tell me some identifying marks on the jewellery to prove they were definitely hers. I then found out what had happened. Three men had attacked her and her husband, robbed them at knife point and murdered her husband. Linda then explained that she had been living in fear ever since and was now cold, hungry and frightened.

"Would you come with us?" Shaun asked.

Linda didn't hesitate, "Yes, anything is better than living here on my own."

I looked at Shaun as he said "Linda, get some things together and join us in the Land Rover as quick as you can."

"We can't take every stray we find under our wings," I said as we went back to Land Rover. "What about Jill, is Linda to be her replacement?"

"No she isn't. She's that traumatised she'll be no help to anyone for a while. Anyway, you were the one who decided to see if you could reunite the jewellery with its owner."

OK, so I was partly to blame. I was also concerned at the mention of a third man, had I missed someone hiding in the hedges when the two men attacked me? Had he got away?

Linda came out and Shaun helped her into the back, she had a couple of hold alls. She didn't even bother to lock the front door. We left her house and got back onto the main road into York. Shaun sorted some biscuits out of a container and Linda ate them as if she hadn't eaten for a week. We found out later that was pretty close to the truth.

Twenty minutes later I pulled up outside Jill's house. As I got out she opened the front door. I pushed Shaun ahead of me and said, "This is Shaun, he has a proposal for you. I'll be back in a couple of hours. If I am not back by two o'clock I'll meet you at the rail museum."

I decided to visit the rail museum first, to see if anything was happening. It was a good job I did. The place was a hive of activity. There was the large loco and tender standing in the yard with smoke and steam coming from it. A small collection of carriages and trucks were coupled up behind it. There was an old sleeping car, a normal carriage, two open trucks full of coal, six parcel wagons and a couple of flat trucks. There was already a Land Rover lashed to one of the flat trucks. There was another engine and tender, reversed and coupled at the other end. Larry came to meet me.

He was grinning at my amazed expression as he shook my hand. "As you can, see we've been busy and you're early."

Katie was on the footplate of the lead engine and when she saw me she gave a toot on the whistle. Then Graham, the armourer, appeared and I did a double take; his son and wife waved at me from the window of the carriage. He came up to me, shook my hand and said, "Sorry to surprise you, you're a good organiser but you'd make a shit undercover operative. I wanted to see what you were up to so I followed you back here and got talking to Larry and Katie. They told me how you intended to go back to steam power. Anyway I've taken the liberty of getting all our stuff loaded into one of the wagons. We're ready when you are."

I then remembered Linda, she was still sitting in the Land Rover and I told Larry and Graham about her. Graham said, "I'll get Joan, my wife, to take care of her."

He waved to Joan who came over. I explained again and went with her to Land Rover. "This is Joan," I said to Linda, "she'll look after you." Linda said nothing but she got out and walked with Joan who took her into the carriage.

Shaun arrived with Jill, they came over to me and Shaun said, "Can I take the Land Rover and start moving Jill's things down?"

I asked Larry where Jill's things could go, and he said, "The front parcel wagon is only half full, and the back one is empty. There's plenty of space." So I told Shaun to start shifting Jills stuff.

I then said to Graham, "Do you know if there's any food in the market today? I have some silver money with me."

"We can look, but we need to be careful. There's been a cholera outbreak in Leeds, people are dropping like flies."

We excused ourselves and left the loading to Larry and Katie."We ought to bring Harry as well," I said to Graham. "If we do buy anything I don't want us to be robbed or followed."

"OK, good point. I'll go and fetch him."

While I was waiting for them Larry asked about Newsham, and if the residents had accepted my plans. I told him I was now their leader and that they had.

Graham reappeared with Harry, "How much have you got," he asked.

"Five hundred roubles of my own, maybe a few more."

"There were some large sacks of flour this morning," said Harry. "They were a hundred roubles each."

"I also have some money from other villagers if there is flour to be had." I actually had 1200 roubles on me.

We got to the market and the flour seller was still there. He had two hand carts, one loaded with five, fifty-six pound bags, the other with six bags. He was selling from an open bag at five roubles a pound. I approached the seller, a large man in his thirties, and asked him if he would make a deal for the whole lot.

He was Polish, he spoke heavily accented but perfect English. He explained that he was living with his heavily pregnant wife in an old warehouse about a mile away. He was a long distance lorry driver, and got caught when fuel became unobtainable about three months ago. Thieves drained the fuel out of his truck one night leaving him and his wife stranded...

"I have another twelve tons of flour in the trailer I was hauling when I got stranded. I was going to meet my brother who was living near Scarborough. When I last saw him he was trying to arrange a place on a small boat to take us over to Holland so that we can get home but I need three thousand roubles for the trip. I have over one thousand already so if you could give me another two thousand you can have all of the flour, apart from our needs for a few months."

I looked at Graham and Harry, their look told me that we all thought that this was an answer to a prayer.

We quickly arranged to go to the warehouse and meet Peiter's wife, Anna. We went back past the rail museum and I stopped and told every one of our 'find'. I soon had two thousand roubles and an offer of transport to Seamer, just outside Scarborough, for Peiter and Anna. My concern now was time, it was three o'clock already, how we were going to get the flour out of the trailer, which was like a large tanker.

In the end I called everyone together. "As most of you know, I am now the leader of Grindale. Graham is in charge of security, what he says goes." I then handed over to him.

"We need to leave here tonight if we can," said Graham. "Another night will start to attract attention. I'll organise a watch system. Once we leave York I am not expecting any trouble, there have been no trains now for nearly six months, and no one will be expecting people to be using the railways. I have also checked the map, and the track doesn't follow any of the main roads which will also be to our advantage"

I then spoke to Larry and Peiter about the truck. The thieves had cut the fuel lines with bolt cutters so repairing it wouldn't be easy even if we could find some fuel. I thought we could use the Land Rover in low gear to drag the whole rig into the museum yard as it was a level run of about a mile. We would then worry about what to do with it.

I then said to Larry and Katie, "You need to fathom out a way of getting the flour onto our train, either in the trailer or offloaded." I got the feeling Katie wasn't good at taking orders but I didn't get involved, Time was precious and we needed to get Peiter's trailer.

We found that the small compressor on my Land Rover would get enough air into the truck's brake system to release the brakes, this took about half an hour. The Land Rover in low range and first gear was able to tow the whole rig on the level with no difficulty. We made slow but steady progress. Thank God there were no hills on the way. Anna, who looked like a balloon ready to burst, rode in the cab with Peiter. They loaded their few possessions into the cab. They had only come to the UK for a two week trip, about three months ago, on one of the last ferries to run.

We arrived back in the yard at about five-thirty. Larry had been busy and had rigged up a ramp onto the empty flat truck. The idea was to load the trailer onto the flat truck and then remove the wheels to reduce the height so that it would pass under bridges. It would then be lashed in place.

Katie had thrown a strop when Graham asked her to ensure that the footplate was manned at all times. She didn't take orders easily.

I went to find her, I wanted this cleared up quickly, we needed Larry and Katie, but Katie had to realise she was part of a team, I didn't think Larry would be a problem however.

I tackled her and she started off with an attitude. I reminded her that I was the leader, and that Graham was in charge of security. He had my backing and support and she WOULD defer to him on security matters, in the same way that she was an expert on steam engines and we would defer to her knowledge on these matters. But I was in overall charge at all times.

I got the standard, 'woman in a man's world, ' speech and I said, "There is no man's world now, it's survive or die! Anyway our deputy leader is a woman, my partner." I didn't tell Katie how old Kelly was as I felt that would open another argument, however Katie calmed down and accepted the situation.

I then started talking to her about our journey. "Graham wants us to leave York as soon as we're ready ... We'll stop for the night once we're out in the country."

"We took the train out towards Scarborough yesterday," said Katie. "We went about five miles out of York without encountering any problems."

"Graham will ride the footplate with you, he'll advise you about a suitable place to stop."

"But I need a fireman!"

"He can heave wood as well as anyone else."

I then asked about firing the engine on wood.

"I got a good boiler pressure up," she said, "but we used a lot more wood than if we had been running on coal. And if we hit any gradients I think the pressure might drop back quicker than on coal. I got the train up to about thirty miles an hour on the way back to York yesterday, but when running on rusty and possibly damaged track we don't want to exceed twenty miles an hour or so anyway. Also we'll have steam available to heat the carriage and sleeping car, they're out of the museum and are steam heated."

Everything was now coming together. Larry was well on the way to getting the flour filled trailer loaded on the flat truck using hand powered winches. I then had an idea, and went in search of Katie again.

As a kid I remember seeing a rail mounted steam crane and I asked Katie if she knew where there was one. She told me there was one right there in the museum but it hadn't been used for years. We went and had a look at it. Katie thought that all the major components were there but it hadn't run since it was withdrawn from service fifty years ago. We decided it was too much work to take it with us, but we may return for it one day.

We finally got everything loaded and everyone on board. Katie was on the front footplate with Graham. The engine at the rear was in steam as well, and Larry was on that footplate. Everyone else was in the carriages and were making their sleeping berths ready for the night ahead.

Harry then came to see me, he was upset, and I asked what was wrong. He said that he couldn't find his girlfriend. She was from Leeds and had been living with Harry for two months but had left with her father two days before my first visit. She was supposed to return four days later with the rest of her family as they had planned on joining with Graham and Joan in moving to the country. Even walking they should be able to cover the distance in two days each way.

He wanted to go on one last check to their house, to see if she had turned up with her family. I didn't have a problem with another family now we had all the flour, so I told him to take his bike and check, he had to be back in one hour. He said he had left a note for her and wanted to know, what he should now write about his final destination. I thought about it and I said that I didn't want our final destination revealed. He said they had a code that they had used when talking sex on CB radios, so I told him to give our location in code.

I also wanted to talk to Graham about radios.

Harry returned about forty minutes later with a thin, rather skanky looking girl on his bike cross bar. He was smiling from ear to ear, however she looked frightened.

I had already taken some more flak from Katie about delaying our departure. She had to load more wood into the tender. Well, she told Larry to do it!

I went over meet Harry and his girl, Harry introduced me to Emma. Close up, she was attractive but a bit tarty looking. She looked absolutely worn out.

I helped them into the carriage. Everyone crowded around Emma and Joan took charge. I went to find Katie and Graham. We could finally set off.

We had a bit of shunting to do, we had to travel north for about half a mile, before reversing back through York station to get on to the Scarborough line leaving York and travelling roughly north-east. Between them, Larry and Katie managed this quickly and without incident, and at about nine o'clock we were finally moving out of York. I was in the carriage with everyone else, it was pitch black outside, and Emma was telling her story.

She had walked with her father to their house in Leeds, just off the York road. An horrific scene greeted them when they got there. Her mother, elder sister and younger brother had succumbed to some disease. Her father went completely off his head and drank himself senseless on a bottle of whiskey which was hidden in the cupboard. Emma was left on her own after he passed out. She said she couldn't face being in the house on her own and went to her aunt's house which about a mile away. When she got there the 'disease' had also affected them. Her aunt was still alive but very weak and she told Emma to get out and never come back. Aunt Abby thought the disease was cholera.

According to her aunt, nearly every family in their neighbourhood had been affected, there were very few survivors.

Emma went to find her dad, who was already ill when she returned to her house, and she said "I just panicked and started walking"

I asked about water, as I knew cholera was water born, and Emma said, "The tap water was on at home when dad left but was off when we got back."

I guessed the treatment works had failed before the pumps stopped and contaminated water had got into the water mains.

Emma also told us about the troubles in the inner city areas and this backed up Kelly's stories. I asked if she met anyone as she left Leeds and she said, "Not a soul." My own opinion was that there had been a massive number of deaths in the cities but I said nothing.

Emma then walked back to York and arrived at Graham and Joan's house, tired and hungry. She found Harry's note, in code, and started walking back into town. She was heading towards the rail museum when Harry spotted her.

The train slowed down and squealed to a stop. It was now lighter as the moon was up and we were in the middle of open farmland. Graham came into the carriage and said, "Harry, you take the first watch, I'll take the second, Mark, you take the third. Harry, who do you want to buddy with?"

"I'd say Emma but she's knackered. Would anyone like to volunteer?"

Shaun said he would partner Harry, and Joan said she would watch with her husband. I asked Katie if she would watch with me as she would need to re-light the fire on the engine and, to my surprise, she said she would.

Jill and Shaun had already christened one of the sleeping berths, I think they thought we couldn't hear, but the cries of, "Harder!" and, "Come on, get it up me!" carried through into the next carriage. Everyone smiled.

As Shaun left with Harry I asked him how it was going with Jill, more out of politeness than anything else, I had heard them after all.