Chapter 14: Scavenging In And Around York

When we awoke the next morning it was still grey but the rain of the previous day had finally given way to a slow drizzle. Graham was organising the unloading of the Landrover and trailer from the train. By eight o'clock we were ready for the fifteen mile drive to Catterick.

As we left the sun started to break through but it was one of those warm, humid days with high cloud. We made good time until we reached Scorton, which was about the halfway point. The road surface was quite broken in places but there were no major obstacles.

Then, as we left Scorton village and rounded a bend in the road where, according our maps, the road followed the river for half a mile or so, the road just finished, washed out by the winter floods. We retraced our steps and got onto the more minor roads. The problem then was that the verges were very overgrown and, on the narrow roads, we really couldn't see in front of us, so we were reduced to little more than walking pace. We did eventually make Catterick Bridge but not before a few tense moments when we found that the overgrown vegetation contained fallen branches and one fallen tree.

Catterick Bridge presented another problem, the bridge over the River Swale had been damaged; the road surface was destroyed and the masonry looked to have shifted. We decided not to chance it as there was an easy detour using the main A1. As we got on the A1 we spotted signs of habitation and investigated a tent like structure in the road. It had obviously been abandoned for weeks or months. Graham thought that it was put up by people trying to get above the flood waters, in which case there had been survivors in the area at the end of the winter.

We stopped for close on ten minutes and searched for any signs of life but the people who put up this structure had obviously moved on so we continued on our journey.

Graham had been based at Catterick before he left the army in 2012 and explained the layout. "It is a number of different sites really, with public roads between them. I want to start back at my old unit's headquarters and then, if we don't find anything of any use there, work outwards. If there was any organised activity at all here I would expect to see signs on this road. There are none so I think it is fair to assume that the place is deserted, but we must take care, there may be people who have moved in, and we can't be the first group to consider scavenging here for arms and ammunition."

As we got to the building which Graham said was his old HQ he told me to stop the Landrover. He then studied the building through binoculars. After about five minutes he handed me the binoculars and said, "What do you see?"

I looked and said, "Nothing!"

He turned to me and said, "Third window from the right, first floor..."

"Movement?" I replied.

"Yes, I think so. Just shadows, but there is something there."

As he spoke the window opened and a young man in a scruffy uniform looked out, went inside, and returned with a rifle.

'Oh shit!' was my first thought.

Graham said, "Give me the loud hailer."

I passed Graham the loud hailer and he shouted at the young man in the window, "RSM Wilton here, present yourselves for inspection and duty."

After he had switched the loud hailer off Graham grinned and whispered to me, "Worth a try."

The man had disappeared from the window, maybe that was a good sign.

About a minute later two men came out of the front of the building at a quick march, approached the Land rover, and saluted. One man then stepped forward and said, "Privates Totton and Wentworth, Sir."

Graham was now out of the Landrover and said, "At ease. Are there any senior officers here?"

"No sir. We've been here on our own since November. We got separated from our unit when it was evacuated south."

"How did you get separated?"

"Well sir, they set off without us." Private Totton was doing all the talking and Private Wentworth now looked distinctly uneasy.

"OK boys, let's go inside and talk. Mister and Misses Jennings, I assume you want to join us. Mr Milton, stay with the Land rover."

The two privates escorted us into the building. Graham kept up the pressure, "I want you to tell us how you came to be left here on your own."

Private Wentworth now spoke for the first time. "Come on Richard, we may as well tell the truth. I don't think they," pointing at us, "are proper army anyway."

Graham replied, "Young man, I could walk you round this building blindfold. The window that you spoke to me from was the commanding officer's office, and the last time I was here that was Colonel Houseman."

You could see the doubt flash across private Wentworth's face. Graham looked at them and said, in a gentler voice, "Look, I think we all know that everything's changed now, why don't you two boys tell us what you know, and we'll tell you what we know."

Private Totton, Richard, then started to tell the story.

They were attached to the last platoon in the area, it appeared that the remnants of the army were being withdrawn to London as the collapse became permanent and total in November last year. Our two soldiers, in common with the rest of the platoon, were helping themselves to MRE's from the stores and passing them on to local women in return for sexual favours. On the night in question these two had hooked up with a couple of women who had been more into the sex than many. After a night of passion they had collapsed into a deep and dreamless sleep, only to be woken at around nine in the morning by their temporary lovers. They were due back at six and when they finally returned, exhausted but happy at about ten, the rest of their platoon had already departed.

Graham asked what morale was like at the end and both soldiers said, "Not too bad considering. There were rumours that we were all going to be evacuated in Navy ships to the US but no one really knew anything and fuel was in short supply even for us. We were told we had to release the prisoners from Northallerton jail before we left the area, as there was no food and most of the prison officers had already left. A few of H platoon were keeping order there."

They went on to tell us that they waited for two days and at the end of the second day a group of bandits from the prison turned up in Catterick. They we only armed with knives and one shot gun, and even two privates were able to hold them off with their rifles. Then the first major blizzard hit and they only saw occasional people after that. They tried to use the radio equipment to contact any other army units but they had only been out of basic training three months when the final collapse began and they didn't really know how to use it. After their basic training they had been immediately allocated to food distribution and, as Richard put it, "That suited us as it gave us the opportunity for plenty of pussy."

Graham then turned to me and said, "OK, Mister Jennings, fill these two in on what's been happening."

"OK, I'm the leader of Newsham, the largest group of survivors in Yorkshire. By a quirk of geography and some good planning, we managed to survive the collapse with minimal losses, and we are now a self sufficient community of about sixty or so. We also have two other smaller communities nearby with whom we co-operate. Nick," I pointed him out, "is the leader of one of those communities. We have running water and limited electrical supplies, and we are using steam power both for transport and farming. We have some supplies of bio-diesel but we arrived in North Cowton, just north of Northallerton, on a steam train driven by a couple of steam buffs from York that we took in. We also have a surplus of women, I think eleven at the last count, and that's after quite a few families have taken on second wives."

I knew this last statement would win the day for us and, sure enough, both their eyes lit up.

After that they were like putty in our hands. They asked Graham, "Does the army still exist? Can we just leave?"

He replied, "I really don't know. I left the regular army in 2012 but came back as a reservist in August last year for two weeks, that's how I knew the CO's name."

I then made our position clear. "I've been elected by our community as leader and what I say goes, no argument. Misses Jennings, Kelly, is my principle wife and deputy leader. If you argue or fall out with either of us, you fall out with both of us. Before any outsiders can join our community permanently there has to be a vote, I don't see that as a problem, bearing in mind the imbalance between the sexes. You are welcome to join us but while you are with us you will be under my command."

Richard answered, I suspected for both of them. "We'd like to join you. It's been very, ahem ... lonely around here. Once we realised we were abandoned we went looking for the girls we spent that last night with but they had already moved on. The prisoner release was a disaster, they just swept everything and everybody in front of them. We should have just shot them all."

Graham then raised the question of the armoury.

Richard spoke again and I detected a note of cockiness in his voice, we would have to watch him. "I knew you were after something."

Graham said, "I know where the armoury is, let's all go and have a look." Graham took us through the building.

We all followed and our two erstwhile ex-soldiers were bringing up the rear, trying to keep up. As Graham approached a locked door he produced some keys and opened it, much to everyone's amazement. There was then a heavy steel inner door which he also opened. Richards cockiness evaporated.

He looked around and said, "OK, where are all the weapons?"

Richard said, "Oh they were all removed as the other platoons evacuated south. Our CO told us to make sure we didn't leave any weapons behind, but there was nothing we could do with the thousands of rounds of ammo. Apart from our personal weapons, a pistol and a rifle each, there's nothing else left."

Graham spent about five minutes examining some of the ammo cases and said to me, "Well, we won't be short of ammo for our rifles now, there must be close to two hundred thousand rounds here."

He opened a selection of boxes and found a case of grenades. There we also rounds for weapons which we didn't currently possess but he counted up and said, "There are close to a thousand boxes here, they weigh between twenty and twenty five pounds per box. That's close to ten tons but I suggest we remove the lot, I know it will mean a few journeys."

Kelly then turned to the two lads and said, "OK, if you two join us you'll need to work hard. You can start by loading the Landrover trailer with these."

They looked at Kelly for a minute, I thought they were going to say something, but they turned and went to fetch a four wheeled trolley which I had spotted on the way in. They then started to load the boxes on to it. I knew what Kelly was doing, stamping her authority.

I told them, "Come and fetch us when the trailer is full or you have loaded about seventy boxes."

Graham was still working his way down the boxes, looking at the contents of each one. I did a quick sum and said, "We'll be looking at at least twelve trips to shift this lot."

"I know, but it's a one off chance," said Graham. "We need to do it, we know the route now, and we could tow a second trailer although not very fast. I noticed some trailers in the grounds."

Nick said, "Shall I go and have a look, how will you tow it?"

"Fix a tow ball onto the rear cross member of our trailer. There were some Landrovers there with tow hitches as well. The biggest problem will be drilling the holes for the tow hitch."

"I take it there's no fuel left in the Landrovers."

By now the two soldiers had returned with the handcart and Graham asked, "Is there any fuel in the vehicles outside?"

"No, they drained every tank. They had us going around every vehicle removing every last bit of fuel, we even had to drain the fuel filters. We were told we only had just enough fuel to move all the remaining equipment and men south."

Graham then asked, "Are the green goddesses still here?"

Authors note: Green Goddesses are a small fire engine, based on a Bedford truck, built in large quantities during the 1950's. They have been used and maintained by the army over the years to assist when either the regular fire service is over stretched, or during several periods of strike action by fire fighters.

Richard looked puzzled. "Yes, I think so, they were always kept over at that old store behind the exercise yard."

"Let's go and see."

Graham set off and, again, we all followed. Graham turned back to the rest of us as we followed him and said, "They're the only vehicles that still run on petrol, the fuel wouldn't be any good for any of the current army vehicles, they're all diesel. Most of the green goddesses date from the mid 1950's, before diesel was the fuel of choice."

We found them in the building, in a line. Ten of them, dusty and untouched for years.

The fuel cap was off the first vehicle, and the jerry can that was to be used to drain the fuel into was still at the side of it. The squaddies draining the fuel obviously realised they were petrol and left them. They had taken the caps off two more, checked the fuel, and left. The tanks on the vehicles where the caps were left off had evaporated but there were seven more vehicles. The question was, could we get one started?

My Landrover had twin batteries, I had fitted them last year when thing started to go tits up, as I could use one battery to power accessories, and know that I still had a fully charged battery to start the vehicle. So we would have two fully charged twelve volt batteries to give us the twenty four volts we needed for these vehicles. I had also packed a generator and various power tools, as well as a battery charger, which was a multi-voltage one that I built myself years ago.

We could try charging the batteries first. We checked the fuel tanks, five appeared to be full, the other two had some fuel. Of the five with full tanks one had a flat tyre so I told everyone I would try and get the one nearest the door with a full tank started. We could then try and jump start the remaining three.

Graham said, "Start bringing the ammo boxes down here." I told Kelly to stay with me, I was being very protective of her now she was carrying my child and didn't want her carrying things. We fetched the Landrover in, our two soldiers had found keys to open the compound gates.

I then got to work on the first vehicle. I started the generator and hooked up my battery charger. The charging current was around fifteen amps at twenty four volts. That was a good sign, if there had been any shorted cells the current would have been higher. The carburettor's float chamber was dry but I found a priming button on the fuel pump. I got fuel through once I located the manual cut off valve on the fuel tank.

I then said that we should allow the batteries to charge for a good half hour and filled our generator from one of the other tanks.

After half an hour I tried to start the engine. It turned over but didn't catch. I used an old trick and poured a few drops of petrol into the air intake. I tried again. The engine sputtered and then petered out again.

I repeated it and the engine sputtered into life. It was running very roughly but it was running and, after a few minutes, it settled down to an even idle. I disconnected the charger. Meanwhile, Graham got stuck in with the angle grinder, removing the top of the water tank. We could then pack the space with boxes.

Within the hour we had four vehicles running and drove them outside to start loading them. The fuel tanks looked to hold about fifteen gallons, maybe more, but with a big six cylinder petrol engine I reckoned that even with a full tank we would not get more than a hundred and twenty miles from the tank full. Still, even with the detours, we should be able to do two return trips with each unit. I then stopped Graham from wrecking the tank on the fourth vehicle, I remembered my throw away comment, 'we don't have a fire brigade now'. We should be able to get all the ammo in the armoury onto three vehicles. And we could refill the tanks from the remaining vehicles when we left for the last time.

Everyone got stuck in but it still took us the best part of six hours to load nearly nine hundred boxes. It was now four o'clock and we had said we would be back for six. We pulled out of the exercise yard and slowly made our way back. Kelly drove our landrover; Nick, Graham and I took a green goddess each. Nick had never driven a large vehicle before and struggled with the steering and gears but we only did about twenty mph anyway.

When we got back we told the others of our day and our finds; no arms but a lot of ammunition and two soldiers. Richard had been getting on my nerves all day, he was too cocky and, as we got into the carriage, he took one look at Kat and said, "Is the nigger the bedwarmer? I hope she's a good fuck!" and sniggered. Everything went quiet. I think he realised he had said the wrong thing. I walked up to him and buried my fist in his stomach, hard. I think he was just expecting a verbal dressing down. I then dragged him up the carriage, opened the door, and threw him onto the embankment. I then jumped down, grabbed him, and called Graham down to give me a hand. We opened one of the covered vans and threw him into it. By now he had his breath back and was telling us he was sorry. I shut the door and dropped the bolt back through the handle, it couldn't be opened from inside.

I then went back inside to see what the atmosphere was like, tense would be the best way of describing it. I took Kelly's arm and said, "Where's Kat?"

"In the kitchen."

We went and found her. She was solemn but she said, "It's OK. He's a wanker but, being black, I've had to put up with a bit of abuse over the years and, with Simon being white, it was sometimes directed at him as well. Don't worry about, it and don't do anything stupid, I'm certain we can re-educate him."

His mate, Paul, came to speak to us and told us that Richard was always like that, and that he didn't mean any harm. I told him, "It's good that you stick up for your friend, we'll deal with him later. Don't worry, providing he shows some genuine remorse for his behaviour he'll still come back with us."

I had expected tears at least. Anyway, we sat down to our meal and everyone else seemed to be more worried about Kat than Kat was about the comments. When she had finished eating she said, "I think perhaps I should talk to him."

Kelly looked at me and I said, "OK, are you sure?"

"Yes I am. He's probably feeling really sorry for himself right now, and that's just the time to get him on our side ... permanently."

"Well, we'll watch your back."

So the three of us went to the parcel van. "Kat is here to talk to you," I shouted. "She's the black woman you insulted earlier."

I heard a much less cocky voice from the other side of the door. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset anyone."

"OK. I'm going to open the door and Kat will speak to you. If you try anything on, all three of us are armed and you'll not see your next birthday."

"I promise I won't. I spoke before I thought."

"OK."

With that I removed the bolt and swung the door open.

Richard was sitting against the wall, looking very sorry for himself.

"This is Kat, who also happens to be one of my wives."

Kat then said, "OK, leave this to me now."

She moved closer to the door and said, "Richard, I'm going to put that comment down to youthful exuberance after having been cooped up all winter. First of all, a little bit about us. We are all working hard to try and maintain a level of comfort which, two years ago, most people took for granted; enough to eat, clean water to drink, light, heat, a hot shower, basic things, but until you don't have them you don't realise just how much you are going to miss them. Mark and Kelly have organised the community, and taken on and defeated two groups of scumbags, one of those groups held me captive and raped me daily. There were twelve of us, Mark and Newsham took us in. People are having to grow up quickly. Will, Harry and Scott are all teenagers, younger than you, they have stepped up to the mark and all three are making important contributions to the village. There is no room for any yobbish behaviour or slacking.

I'm also the matchmaker, I decide who you get together with, you don't just go and pick a woman at random. I try and match people's abilities, or lack of them, taking into account your preferences. You will then be the start of a family unit. It's possible that the girl will already be pregnant, you will be expected to bring that child up as your own and provide your partner with love and affection. In other words you will have to be a real man."

Richard just sat there, looking stunned.

I looked at Kat, and she prompted Richard, "Well?"

"I'm sorry. Being in the army, and only just out of basic training, we actually didn't get given any responsibility and we tended to vent our frustration in other ways."

"OK, why don't you come back with me. We'll see if there's any food left, and you can start again."

It was a very sheepish Richard that climbed the steps back into the carriage. I noticed Kelly had left us, she had gone back to the carriage ahead of us, and as I opened the door I caught the tail end of her talking " ... so we give him another chance."

She then came to the door and grabbed Richard's hand to help him up. She then spoke to him in the vestibule, "Next time you make a comment like that I'll cane you in front of everyone. I've done it before. Now go in and think about what you need to do."

"I'll behave, Misses Jennings."

Richard came back in and we found him some bread and cold cut meat for his tea.

Graham, Kelly, Nick and I then sat around one of the tables and discussed our finds. We would return to Catterick the following day and see if there were any weapons, but Richard and Paul seemed fairly convinced that the departing units had taken all the weapons with them.

Graham then threw a thought in, "The RE's (Royal engineers) would have had explosives, we should see if there are any left."

Richard said that there were still around fifteen hundred MRE's in the stores, as well as other things such as tarps and ropes. We would take these, in fact we would probably clear the stores.

Maps were spread out and plans laid for the following day. I then went in search of Larry and Katie, I wanted to know if there would be any problems loading a green goddess on the flat wagon. Katie replied, "If it's put in the middle of the well wagon it'll be fine." This was good news, we had a fire engine.

We also started to plan our return journey, once we returned tomorrow afternoon we would head back south, pick up our pigs, and make for South Otterington where there was rumoured to be some vintage harvest equipment. A total journey of about twenty miles. Next stop was York where we wanted to salvage another steam engine, trucks and carriages if possible, as well as sections of track and the steam crane in the museum. We would leave York each night and stay just outside as it was easier to spot anyone approaching in open country.

We were all tired that night, Kelly and Kat decided Kirsty would sleep with them and I would spend the night with Karen.

We had some gentle loving and fell asleep quickly.

We started early the following morning and took Karen with us as she could drive the fourth Green Goddess.

Our stores loading at Graham's old HQ went as planned, there was quite a lot of useful stuff, and by eleven we had returned to the train with the first load. We left the fourth Green Goddess there for Larry and Katie to load, and returned to Catterick. We had the remaining stuff in the stores packed by two o'clock and went in search of the RE's stores.

Richard and Paul seemed to be with the program and Richard had dropped his cocky attitude of yesterday. While we were making for the RE stores he said to me, "Kat, is she really going to pick a girl for me?"

"Yep"

"I need to make it up to her or I think she'll pick a right minger."

"The good thing is, none of them are real mingers. Remember they were held captive by our 'friends' from Hull jail, they had only kept the best looking ones. I think you'd be best just treating Kat politely and start showing us all that you can fit in and step up to the mark. It won't be easy but if you get it right you could have a much better life than trying to survive on you own."

"I don't really have a problem with black people, I suppose I was just showing off yesterday. As soon as I'd said it I realised I'd put my foot in my mouth."

"Well, for a start the 'n' word is banned, Kat is black and doesn't mind being called black, in the same way as Karen is blonde, or fair, and Kelly is busty. Her brother's nickname is Blackie, his real name is Montgomery, but he prefers Blackie, he is the leader at Nafferton."

"OK, well I am sorry, and I'm amazed at what you're all trying to do. I will pull my weight and grow up, when I saw Harry and Scott this morning, working as hard as anyone, I realised what Kat meant."

"And Kat is going to pick your partner and yes, she'll probably be pregnant, and the pregnancies have resulted from rape. We have discussed things and getting the pregnant girls settled and living as a family is our first priority. The children may not have been conceived under ideal circumstances but we need those children to rebuild and the best way to help the mothers and their babies will be to have them living as family groups. There will be help and assistance from everyone in Newsham, especially with childcare. We'll never go back to the old way of things where single mums were dumped on a sink estate and their children left become the next generation of scumbags."

"But what about sex? If they've been raped won't they be off sex, I wouldn't blame them, after all."

"That's why Kat is our matchmaker. We have to make sure that every family 'works', she seems skilled at matching people up she'll take all that into account. If a girl is off men and sex she wouldn't pair her up with a nineteen year old man who has been living like a monk for six months."

Richard laughed and said, "OK, so she'll try and give us a head start by finding someone who I'll be compatible with."

"Yes she will, and she'll probably ask you some fairly personal questions. You must answer them truthfully, anything you tell her won't even reach my ears."

"OK, I will. It's all a lot to take in, and some women ... well they can be right bitches, they're all over you like a rash when they're courting you and then once they get you up the aisle they turn from Miss Loving and Sexy into Miss Bad Attitude. My brother married one!"

"That's why Kat is organising this. If she sees someone making mistakes or not pulling their weight, then she'll tell them and if they don't take notice of her Kelly and I will get involved. We will not tolerate abuse, verbal, physical or mental, from anyone, male or female, and everyone is expected to contribute to the community in whatever way they can. I also think that everyone's expectations have changed, in some ways things are much simpler now there are less choices. I'm confident that if you love and respect Kat's choice for you, that love and respect will be returned and you'll find you have a loving and sexy partner."

I know I was building up Kats abilities but, also, I had noticed since the collapse that women and men had changed a lot, people seemed to be looking for different things in each other.

Richard said, "Thanks for talking to me. In a sense we have been isolated for six months but I can see what you're trying to do and I'm sorry about yesterday. No hard feelings?"

We shook hands, I said, "No hard feelings." I knew we had got Richard on-side. I also realised that with a bit of help and guidance he had the makings of good leader. A plan formed in my mind to sort out the groups in Filey who were really not making any progress with setting up any long term survival strategy.

At the RE stores we found that someone had been there before us. However, there were still a number of cases of explosives, detonators and cord. I asked Graham about safety and he said, "All these explosives require a detonator to explode. I could set light to them and they would burn furiously, but they wouldn't explode." He then got a small piece of plastic explosive, took it outside and set fire to it. It went up with a whoosh but there was no explosion.

Again we loaded our finds. We now had one GG left unfilled, and Richard said, "Let me show you where that dump was, where outdated equipment was left. I bet they never got around to destroying it all before they left."

Richard took us to a locked compound but a pair of bolt cutters soon got us in. Initially it looked like piles of junk and in a way it was, but then Graham said, "OK, we need to get this lot loaded." I went to have a look at what he was pointing at, and there just appeared to be two bins of bits. I realised they were rifle parts and Graham said, "This looks like the SA80 graveyard, where any damaged rifles were dumped awaiting repair or destruction. If nothing else there will be spares for our SA80 rifles here."