Tamsin Beech Ch. 12: Windermere

"Uh, dobryy denʹ moi druzʹya," Leonid smiled his most winning smile, "sorry to bother you. I'm lost."

The Reiver hefted the fire axe, speaking in a gruff Glaswegian accent, "Russian fucker eh?"

"Da. Uh, yes. Touring your beautiful countryside."

The Reiver raised the axe to take a swing ...

BLAM!

... then dropped to his knees. The axe clattered to the ground as he fell face first onto the road.

BLAM!

Tamsin's second shot took out the driver as he forced open the Toyota's door.

"Spasibo. Thanks!" called Leonid. He reached down to snatch up his discarded AK12 to deal with the Humvee, just as a scarred paw grabbed his ankle and pulled his leg out from under him. He didn't know how, but the axe wielding Reiver was far from dead.

Seeing Leonid's situation, Tamsin realised he'd have to handle it by himself as she heard the Reiver Humvee squeal to a standstill somewhere out of sight. She guessed what was coming next, and threw herself out of the open passenger side door.

TAKATAKATAK!

Bullets peppered the driver's side, showering the footwell where she'd taken cover with glass as Tamsin rolled forward into Leonid's crater. Ignoring the gravel and debris stabbing painfully into her elbows and knees she slumped onto her back, breathing heavily.

Only yards away, Leonid and the big Reiver rolled on the ground, exchanging blows and each trying to get the upper hand. Close enough for Tamsin to take a shot but she couldn't risk hitting the Russian. On the Tigr's far side, she spotted two more Reivers clambering out of their stripped down Humvee.

"Shit," she cursed.

. . .

Through Pooley Bridge and along the banks of Ullswater, Yeonmi drove as if the gates of hell had opened behind her. In the forty odd years since Thanatos, the narrow road running alongside the lake had flooded time and time again, leaving an undulating landscape of dried mud and debris under the covering of snow.

Millions of tourists had once visited the region annually to climb the surrounding peaks or ride on a steamer up and down the picturesque lake, basking in the beauty of the region. All Yeonmi could see was slippery and treacherous terrain that might at any moment force the BTR-94 down into the icy cold waters.

Angus and Jag-eun Neugdae had thankfully calmed down a little. Perhaps realising that she had more important things to attend to. Yeonmi had no idea if the Reivers were still on her tail, but neither was she going to hang around to find out. The armoured personnel carrier tore through the ruined village of Glenridding at the base of the mighty Helvellyn range, and on into Patterdale - the road now flanked on both sides by crumbling drystone walls as the land began to steadily rise.

A red light blinked on the dashboard in front of her. The BTR-94's fuel had, within the space of a few minutes, dropped to a dangerously low level.

"Ssibal eul wihae! Ije mwo?" the vehicle had been loaded with diesel to last weeks - scavenged from car wrecks, garages and tankers across eastern Scotland. But Yeonmi would have to stop in order to refill the tank. Which didn't explain why the level was dropping at such an alarming rate.

The Reivers must have hit a fuel line. It was the only plausible explanation. She'd have to stop somewhere to make repairs. Dropping down through the gears she steered the BTR-94 through deepening snow around the snaking bends leading up to the high Kirkstone Pass ...

'WINDERMERE 6 MILES'.

. . .

PTOING!

An arrow twanged off the road surface inches from Tamsin's leg. She'd seen what Reiver weapons did at first hand. If the wound didn't kill you, the infection would. The barbarians made a point of coating arrowheads, spearheads and even bullets in their own putrid shit.

She winced, as not three yards away, Leonid's hulking Reiver opponent landed several crushing blows to his cheek. The Russian had the speed and stamina, but the Reiver more than made up for it with strength and sheer physical size. Tamsin simply had to do something.

Peering over the rim of the shallow crater she'd taken cover in, she spotted under their Tigr the legs of the approaching Reivers. Once the hostiles had rounded the front of their vehicle she'd been in plain sight. Tamsin clutched her Grach in a two-handed grip and let loose ...

BLAM-BLAM! BLAM!

Because of the awkwardnes of her position, only one round hit its intended target - blasting away the toes on one Reiver's foot. Then the other two bullets slammed into the fuel tank on the Humvee's underside.

KA-BOOM!

The vehicle leapt into the air amid a blistering orange fireball, taking the two Reivers with it. Tamsin shielded her head as glass and burning shards of metal rained down around her.

Distracted for just a split second, Leonid's opponent glanced up. Long enough for the tall Russian to snatch up the discarded fire axe and run the razor sharp blade across the Reiver's throat.

As the dying brute gurgled his last breaths, Leonid shoved him to one side to avoid being drenched in blood. He climbed unsteadily to his feet, clutching a hand to his bruised face.

"You okay?" asked Tamsin, concerned. Clouds of black smoke from the burning Humvee would be attracting attention soon. They needed to move.

With one eye already swelling closed, Leonid nodded, "I will be," he kicked the dying Reiver, "no thanks to this kusok der'ma."

Nervously scanning the road leading south for any sign of more Reivers, Tamsin climbed back into the Tigr and swept windscreen glass off the driver's seat, "Get in. If we hurry we can still catch Yeonmi."

Leonid grabbed his AK12, "She turned left. Off the slip road, towards the lake."

PART TWO: GATEWAY TO THE LAKE DISTRICT

With the armoured personnel carrier running on fumes, Yeonmi coasted the last half mile into Windermere as it was getting dark. She parked the BTR-94 in the narrow lane between two derelict guest houses off the main road - hoping that darkness would provide extra cover under which to effect repairs and evade her pursuers. And that the falling snow would cover the very conspicuous tracks the vehicle had made.

First off, she needed to attend to Jag-eun Neugdae and Angus. Both babies desperately needed changing and Yeonmi opened the rear hatch a crack for some badly needed ventilation - conscious that every sound they made would carry a long way in the silence.

Her swollen nipples were by now chafing with every movement. As she breast fed both infants, Yeonmi wondered what she was going to do next. She needed the transport, that much was certain. If the problem was something straightforward like a ruptured fuel line there might be something onboard she could fix it with. Otherwise it would mean scavenging around the town to see what she could come up with. Basic mechanical repairs had been touched on as part of her training, though with so few serviceable vehicles around she'd doubted the knowledge would ever be of any use.

She sang softly to her daughter and Tamsin Beech's son until they'd drifted off to sleep. Then rolled blankets into a doughnut shape on the APC's ridged metal floor and placed them both into it. The cabin of the BTR-94 would retain some heat, but not for long. Surely they'd be safe for just half an hour?

. . .

"Any idea where we are?" Tamsin asked, peering up at the massive fells silhouetted against the overcast sky around them. It was getting dark and the temperature dropping noticeably in the Tigr. Driving at any speed was impossible with half their windscreen missing and the road beside Ullswater in such a bad state of repair.

"I've no idea," Leonid cinched his hood tighter about his face, "we passed a sign saying Kirkstone something or other a few minutes ago. Mean anything to you?"

Tamsin shook her head. She wanted to scream with frustration. With no lights on the Tigr they were relying on the faint luminescence of the fresh snow to keep the vehicle on the road. But as still more began to fall, Leonid was having to get out every hundred yards or so to make sure they were actually still following the faint tracks of Yeonmi's stolen BTR-94.

There were turn offs leading to farms, private houses and fields - all overgrown or blocked with rubble. A 'T' junction led off past a disused quarry to who knew where. How the fuck were they going to find their son when they could barely even see the road?

. . .

It was indeed a ruptured fuel line. A Reiver bullet or ricochet had torn through it leaving the underside of the BTR-94 stinking of diesel. A simple fix with the right materials - a length of hose or plastic pipe would suffice with gaffer tape to hold it in place. None of which Yeonmi had been able to find in the vehicle. Provisions, blankets, basic medical supplies, fresh water and enough fuel to get her south. Even a funnel. But nothing as simple as what she needed.

So she'd zipped her MTP jacket up around her neck, checked the magazine of her Grach was more or less full - and after one last check on the sleeping babies, firmly closed the armoured personnel carrier's hatch and crept into Windermere's town centre. Hopefully she'd be gone no more than twenty or twenty five minutes.

Before Thanatos, it had been a town of over eight thousand, popular with tourists all year round owing to its proximity to the lake and local fells. Boats from the piers in nearby Bowness had sailed around the lake, calling at the villages of Ambleside or Lakeside for trips on the restored steam railway. All that was now gone. The quiet soughing of the wind through the bare branches of trees left to grow wild accompanied the squeaking sound of Yeonmi's booted feet on faintly glittering snow. Some wild animal - a fox perhaps, screeched off to her left up a side road. She heard nothing else.

"Igos-eun machi yulyeong ma-eul," Yeonmi murmured to herself.

It was indeed like a ghost town. One from which even the ghosts had long since fled. The once proud Windermere Hotel overlooking the town, had been partially destroyed by fire. In the darkness, Yeonmi could just about see some kind of wreckage embedded in the front of the building - she guessed maybe a helicopter. Faded signs pointed the way to the railway station, neighbouring towns like Kendal, villages like Staveley, all strangled with ivy at what may have once been a busy intersection.

Yeonmi turned right and headed downhill into the town, gun in hand. A garage or hardware store that hadn't been looted was all she needed.

Empty windows from which the wooden frames had long since rotted stared at her from both sides, like the blank eye sockets of a dozen charred skulls. Much of the town had been a conservation area - the houses all built from locally sourced slate using traditional methods, enhancing the area's chocolate box appeal. Yeonmi stumbled once or twice over rubble strewn across the road and effectively hidden under snow. And each time she froze, listening - wondering how far the sound might carry through the deserted streets. Yeonmi shivered. But only partly due to the cold. She could feel the tiny hairs at the back of her neck prickling. But why?

Then she spotted them. Widely spaced tracks crossing the path in front of her, as something had carelessly scuffed the ground and kicked up snow. She crouched down to examine them more closely. Each clear footprint appeared to be three or four times the size of her own gloved hand, each padded toe tipped with a lethal claw. Growing up onboard ships, Yeonmi had little knowledge of British wildlife. But she was aware that since Thanatos, many species had escaped zoos and safari parks to breed in the wild. She was pretty certain that somewhere in the town was a bear. And a big one at that.

"Ttong. Geuge nae ga piryo han jeonbu ya ..."

. . .

Tamsin irritably rubbed ice from her frozen eyelashes as she steered the Tigr at walking pace into the town of Windermere. Descending back down onto the main road from the high mountain pass of Kirkstone she'd almost lost control - desperate to catch up with Yeonmi and Angus but deliberately driving slowly in the worsening conditions. Skidding off the road and flipping the vehicle into a ditch would help no-one.

"I c-can't see any tracks Leo," she squinted ahead through the shattered windscreen. In their haste to get after Yeonmi, neither of them had thought to bring snow goggles, "I can b-barely see the road."

"According to the map there's a junction up ahead," Leonid said seriously, "we need to make a choice."

Tamsin punched the steering wheel, "F-FUCK! Why is nothing ever simple?"

Exhausted both physically and emotionally, Tamsin was close to tears. She'd wrongly assumed her days of speeding into danger around the devastated remains of the UK carrying a gun to be over. Leonid glanced around. Derelict buildings stood slumped against one another in the frozen darkness under a thin covering of fresh snow. A chill breeze brought the faint aroma of pine, rot and strangely enough ... diesel, "Stop the vehicle!"

"What the fuck for?" Tamsin looked askance, her face numb where it was exposed to the wind.

"Do it," Leonid pushed open the door and leapt out before the Tigr was even at a standstill, crouching down to sniff the air closer to the ground.

"Wh-what the fuck are you d-doing Leo? We don't have t-time for this shit!"

Leonid touched his fingertips to the road, his glove coming away coated with a greasy diesel smelling residue. Standing up, he thumbed off his AK12's safety and stepped towards the ruins of two guest houses close by. A dark shape had been wedged between them, leaving barely discernible tracks that were already becoming obscured by fresh snowfall. Straight metal edges of a Ukrainian built armoured personnel carrier contrasted with the snow muffled forms of eroded masonry and rotted timber.

With his heart pounding, Leonid called softly back over his shoulder to Tamsin, "We've found them."

Just like that. Tamsin gaped in disbelief at the stolen vehicle. She guessed that after evading all pursuit on the Penrith road, the North Korean had fled to Windermere to hide out until the coast was clear. Feeling a dozen different emotions all at once ranging from relief to vengeful fury, she scrambled out of the Tigr and moved towards the parked APC.

But Leonid grabbed her arm, "Wait," he hissed, "the last thing we want is a hostage situation. Let me go first."

Tamsin nodded in agreement.

But every fibre of her being, every scrap of maternal instinct urged her overwhelmingly to run to the carrier to check on her son. With shaking fingers, she drew her handgun ...

... then roughly shoved Leonid aside to scurry to the BTR-94's rear hatch. Wrenching it open with fumbling, numb fingers Tamsin stood to one side and called out, "Yeonmi! If you're in there drop your weapons. I just want my son."

Silence. Then a soft burbling like someone trying to blow a raspberry. Curious, Tamsin poked her head inside.

By the dim light of a solitary lantern hanging from a wall mounting, she peered around the wrapped parcels of food and stacked plastic containers of fuel and fresh water. Blankets had been arranged in a doughnut shape on the floor. In the middle of which, both dressed snugly in their sealskins, lay her son and Yeonmi's daughter Jag-eun Neugdae. Angus grinned and blew spit bubbles.

Tamsin clambered into the vehicle and swept up Angus in her arms, openly weeping tears of joy.

"Slava Bogu za eto," muttered Leonid from outside. Then, "is there any sign of Yeonmi?"

Tamsin shook her head, unable to speak as she clutched her son to her chest, as if they'd been separated for months rather than a mere two days.

"Is Angus alright?" Leonid peered cautiously around at the surrounding darkness. But other than their abandoned GAZ Tigr parked on the road there was no other sign of recent human activity.

Tamsin glanced up, smiling faintly, "He's fine. And ... so is Jag-eun Neugdae. She's asleep."

. . .

One second Yeonmi had been nervously scanning the ground for more bear tracks, down the middle of Windermere's main thoroughfare. The next she was instinctively ducking as an arrow thunked into the rotting door of a holiday letting agents beside her.

She dropped into a crouch, right hand gripping her Grach, left reaching into her jacket pocket - as at least a dozen figures stepped quietly out of doorways, side streets and from behind gutted vehicles in front of her. Layered up in furs against the biting cold, wearing their makeshift armour of salvaged car parts and thick pieces of rubber tyre, the Reivers had somehow managed to set an ambush. Yeonmi guessed they'd either heard or spotted the BTR-94 roll into town and simply lain in wait.

With a practiced flick of the wrist, Yeonmi flung two homemade shuriken at the two closest Reivers. She'd spent many evenings back at Fort George filing pieces of scrap metal into the razor sharp throwing stars but hadn't wanted any of Tamsin Beech's people seeing her test them.

So she was pleasantly surprised when both hit their intended targets. The two Reivers staggered back clutching at the shuriken - 'hidden hand blades', embedded in their throats.

"FUCKIN' BITCH!" bellowed the lead Reiver, "TAKE HER ALIVE!"

BLAM-BLAM!

Yeonmi blindly fired a couple of rounds as she turned to run. Taking on a Reiver raiding party alone would be suicide. And she had the two infants' welfare to think of. At least eight more Reivers were moving across the street back the way she'd come, blocking off her escape.

"Ani! Jebal, andwae!" Yeonmi cursed.

Surrounded, something heavy smashed down on her forearm. Yeonmi yelped as she imagined feeling something crack, her suddenly numb fingers letting the Grach fall to the ground. Then a booted foot savagely kicked the backs of her knees, knocking her to the ground.

A hand grabbed a hank of her long black hair and forced her head back as Yeonmi sensed rather than saw the Reivers' leader approach, "Ye've taken oot three o' my people, ye wee bitch ..."

Three? One of her shots had hit, then.

"... who the fuck are ye? And wha' are ye doin' here?" He was a scarred, shaven headed ogre of a man with one sightless, milky eye, wearing a stinking necklace of what appeared to be hundreds of shrivelled human nipples. Yeonmi scowled up at him - then promptly spat in his face, "Ne eommaneun seong-gileul ppal-a!"

Nipples wiped saliva from his cheek, "I didnae ken wha' ye said. But ye'll fuckin' regret it," he backhanded Yeonmi across the face, splitting her lip, then shouted orders at his companions, "Bring her. We'll finish skinnin' the bear. Then we'll start on her."

So the bear was already dead, thought Yeonmi. Lucky bear.

PART THREE: THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY ...

BLAM-BLAM!

Tamsin stiffened. Sitting upright on the BTR-94's ridged metal floor, she reflexively shielded her son with her own body, cradling his head against her, "What the fuck was that?"

"Gunshots," outside, Leonid had raised his AK12 to a firing position, "not too far away. From the town I'd guess. Stay here with Angus," he whispered, "I'll go take a look."

Tamsin's eyes blazed, "Like fuck you will. If it's Yeonmi, I owe the bitch for kidnapping our son."

"OUR son," added Leonid, "stay in the APC where it's safe."

Tamsin cocked her head to one side as she tied her red curls back in a rough ponytail, "What? Like a good little wife?"

Leonid shook his head, "I didn't mean it like that Tamz. You're more than capable. But Angus needs his mother. Besides, it could be more Reivers."

Tamsin gently laid baby Angus back down amongst the blankets next to Jag-eun Neugdae, and kissed his forehead. Then she turned - to level her Grach at Leonid's face, "Get out of my way Major Denisovich. Don't make me tell you twice."

"Bozhe moi," Leonid's eyes widened in disbelief, "Tamsin. We've found our son safe and well. Isn't that enough?"