Survivors
Chapter Fifty Two

The next big decision was whether to go back to the base to try and get some of the other equipment that had been left behind. This decision even though it was a big one was much easier and quicker to make, it was a resounding “NO!”. In the new base there were fifty or so laser rifles and a good mixture of other weapons. They carefully loaded all of the weapons into large ammunition boxes, then packed all round them with spare blankets and sheets to make sure that they wouldn’t rattle around too much and get damaged. In the end there were eighteen large boxes each weighing about 110kg each. When they were loaded Jack found it really difficult to pick the boxes up on his own. Joe thought this was really funny and would change into his favourite gorilla form and then tuck a box under each giant muscled arm. He’d then dance around in front of Jack with a strange apelike grin on his face making excited “ooohh, ooohh” noises. If this annoyed Jack he hid it well.

Their plan was to take the guns to the rendezvous point they’d picked out that was twenty five miles from the base. The guns were to be hidden the day before they sent the messages. That way if the HFS people did turn up they could be quickly loaded onto the helicopters. If the HFS didn’t turn up and the Aliens did it meant they could make a dash for the base to regroup before heading off to replace somewhere new to live.

The message would start with them transmitting JAWS in morse code then the rest of the information; date, time, location the number of helicopters to bring and finally Jack’s call sign “Deadeye” would all be transmitted using the Jaws book as the reference point.

“Why Deadeye?” asked Joe.

Jack looked acutely embarrassed. “It was to do with how good a shot I am with a rifle” he offered “I was the best shot on the island”.

“When we get there” said Luke teasingly “Do you fancy a challenge? Me against you, we’ll see who’s best!”

“Oh I think you’d beat me hands down” replied Jack “I’m a little short on superpowers”.

“If I promise I won’t use any, how about it?”

“We’ll see” replied Jack, not knowing whether Luke meant it or not “Let’s just get there first”.

So the plans were made and all they had to do now was to get everything together. Holly and Joe headed off to the library to replace a copy of Jaws while Luke went scouting around looking for safe places for them to hide once the messages were sent. Holly and Joe were only gone for just over a day before they returned to the base flushed with success.

“We found two copies” beamed Holly “So take your pick” she said to Jack.

He grinned at her and took both books.

“Well I’ll be” he said “It’s this one, it was definitely this one. I recognise the cover. Well done the pair of you”.

He beamed at them and Holly beamed back even more beamingly. Joe didn’t beam, he half scowled. He didn’t like it when Holly beamed when the beam wasn’t being beamed at him. What Luke had said to him had begun to niggle at the back of his mind. Holly had only met one man from the island and he had already begun to feel like he wasn’t the centre of her universe anymore. What was it going to feel like when she met fifty or a hundred and fifty new people, new boys, new men. How much to the edges of her life would he be pushed then? The euphoria he’d felt at replaceing the book instantly disappeared and he made an excuse to be on his own.

Holly and Jack set to work on coding the message using the book, while Joe moped around the base managing to make himself more and more miserable.

Luke didn’t arrive back at the base when he said he would. As each hour passed they began to grow more anxious. Time seemed to drag. Eventually Joe could stand it no longer, he insisted he was going to go and look for Luke.

“But you’ve no idea where you’re going” protested Holly.

“I can’t just sit here” insisted Joe “I’ve got to go and see if I can replace him”.

“No!” said Jack “It won’t do any good. It’s one of the first laws of battle that you never send more men after ones that are lost, until you have a really good idea about if they are actually lost, where they are lost and why they are lost”.

“But he’s my brother!” yelled Joe

“No!” said Jack emphatically.

“You can’t tell me what to do. Who the hell do you think you are, I’m not part of your bloody army” bellowed Joe jumping to his feet.

“But..” began Jack.

“No!” Interrupted Joe “I think Luke might have been right about you, perhaps we shouldn’t trust you, perhaps Luke was right about a lot of things!”

“Always am little brother”.

The three of them spun round. Standing in the doorway was Luke. He had crept in while everyone was arguing. His sudden and dramatic arrival broke the flow of the conversation, and for a while the argument was over, but not forgotten. Doubts had been lodged in Joe’s mind and they wouldn’t go away.