Tunnels 06 - Terminal

great shape.’
    ‘He’s not,’ Jiggs said, studying the portly leader. He guessed the man must be in his sixties, while a number of others appeared even older. Then there were some young bucks in the mob who clearly liked being armed. Jiggs could tell that from how they were holding their weapons, and he immediately began to worry about twitchy trigger fingers.
    ‘Okay, I’m coming out,’ Jiggs agreed, switching off the ignition and opening his door slowly. Then, with his assault rifle held high in one hand, he stepped out onto the road. He turned to Drake, who seemed to have recovered from his coughing fit. But as Drake emerged from behind the car door and finally raised his head, in each hand he had a Beretta pistol. Trying to ignore the pain from his wounded shoulder, Drake was aiming one pistol at the portly leader, while moving the other over the rest of the group.
    ‘Who are you lot?’ Drake demanded. ‘Because I feel as though I’ve just wandered onto the set of The Wicker Man . And I never liked the way that film ended.’
    ‘Very droll,’ the portly man replied. ‘We’re just people from this area, trying our best to stay alive. And every second we dilly-dally here makes that less likely. So I suggest we all put our weapons away,’ he ordered, casting an eye over the other men around him, who immediately complied. ‘And you should do the same,’ he said to Drake. ‘Then come with me to somewhere a little less exposed than this.’
    Catching Drake’s eye, Jiggs gave him a nod. Drake lowered his handguns, and then, with the portly leader walking between them, they left the road, following up a slightly inclined field.
    ‘You two soldiers? We’ve had quite a few army bods through here,’ the man asked, his eyes flicking from Drake to Jiggs. The man was wheezing from the exertion by the time they reached the top, and turned towards Drake. ‘And what’s the matter with you? Your breathing sounds as rough as mine. Asthma?’
    ‘No, radiation sickness,’ Drake gasped, his chest heaving as he broke into another coughing fit. It took him a moment to recover, then he asked, ‘You have to tell us what’s been happening recently.’ He frowned. ‘I mean, what’s with all the weapons? And why aren’t the mobile networks working?’
    ‘You really have no idea?’ the man asked with astonishment.
    ‘Assume we know nothing,’ Drake replied.
    The man drew in a wheezy breath before he began to speak. ‘The TV and newspapers reported that there were terrorist attacks when it first kicked off, and then it turned into something far worse.’ The man gave Drake a curious look, as if suddenly suspicious of him. ‘So you don’t know how it’s brought about the collapse of … of everything?’ he answered, groping for the right words. ‘You two been hiding in a hole or something?’ he asked.
    ‘You’re not far wrong,’ Drake told him, as the portly man waved them over to a copse of trees.
    ‘If you’ve missed out on all the fun and games while the country’s gone to rack and ruin, you might want to watch this,’ he said, pointing down the slope to where several of the younger men had remained with the car. They had the bonnet up, while another was playing out a cable from a drum. ‘Wereckon they’re highly sensitive to the vibrations engines give off. It draws them in from miles away.’
    ‘Draws who?’ Jiggs quickly asked.
    ‘The glass beasts – you’ll most likely see one for yourself in a jiffy.’
    ‘Glass beasts?’ Drake repeated in a croak.
    ‘We honestly don’t know what they are. There’s a group of them by the old airfield in West Raynham – if you drove close to it, you were damned lucky to get this far. But because you brought that car into our area, they’ll not be long in turning up, and we can’t have them nearby or we’ll be overrun like the other villages.’
    ‘But you said glass beasts – what exactly do you mean?’ Jiggs pressed him.
    ‘It’s hard to describe them,’ the man replied. ‘They drop out of the sky, and they sometimes come by water, but those ones look different,’ he replied. ‘However they arrive, it doesn’t matter; they’re all equally savage, and more of our people than I care to remember have been taken by them.’
    Drake and Jiggs met each other’s gaze. ‘Armagi?’ Drake said.
    ‘You know something about these beasts, then?’ the portly man put in.
    Drake was shaking his head. ‘Not much, but we had an inkling