Behind them, in the cab, Max was barking loudly. All four guys looked nervous. ‘Hold on a second, lady…’ the man began, but Jane interrupted him again.
‘SHUT UP! We’re getting in the truck and driving away with our clothes. And we’ll come back whenever we want to; without your say-so. Now, if you don’t FUCK OFF right now I’m going to unload in your face!’
The four guys looked nervously at each other then back at the shotguns, and especially at the scary woman with the sawn-off. They backed away, turned round and walked back to the alley. Jamie went round to the cab, jumped in and started the engine. Jane waited until they were several yards down the alley then climbed into the cab and Jamie roared off down the hill. He looked across at Jane, who was red in the face. She puffed her cheeks out, let out a big breath and then burst out laughing.
‘Oh my God! That was probably the most exhilarating moment of my life! To see them looking scared of me… Wow! You were right last week when you said no one’s going to fuck with me if I was pointing a sawn-off at them! How did I sound?’
‘Scary – very scary! And where on earth did “I’m going to unload in your face” come from?’
She sniggered. ‘I remembered it from Pulp Fiction; do you remember Tim Roth says it to Samuel Jackson in the diner near the end? I thought it sounded appropriately menacing and cold-blooded!’
‘Well, it certainly did the trick!’ he said, and they both laughed. Max was beside himself with excitement, bouncing across the seat between them.
They left Battle at a more sedate pace and had a steady drive back to Bexhill, stopping off first at the two new sites where they’d laid snares that morning. They found one rabbit at the Down Road location and another one at the woods by the railway. They’d hoped for more, but were delighted to have two, anyway. They drove home and unloaded their things into the bungalow after parking the truck in the garage.
Once in the kitchen Jamie poured two whiskies and gave one to Jane; she downed it in one go and stood looking at him. She was still feeling exhilarated by the encounter and threw her arms around him, kissing him forcefully on the lips. He responded in kind and then they were grappling with each other’s clothes and heading for the bedroom.
Shared danger and life-threatening situations can be a great aphrodisiac, and this was certainly true in their case, but it was more than just that; they’d got to know each other well and become very close in a short space of time due to their circumstances. It was a life-affirming act: they were alive and almost everyone else was dead, and all their fear, grief, loneliness and gratitude at finding each other came out at that moment.
They lay for a long time afterwards holding each other, before getting dressed and going back to the kitchen to cook their evening meal from the left-over pheasant. Jamie opened a bottle of wine and they raised their glasses in a silent toast. Jane touched his arm affectionately and they smiled at each other.
Sixteen
Jane spent that night with Jamie in the bungalow, but in the weeks ahead would sleep mostly in her place; spending nights together whenever the mood took them. By late-morning on the Monday the bad weather was blowing over, with the sky beginning to clear from the west. While it was still raining early on, they prepared the rabbits they’d collected the previous evening and cooked one for preserving, saving the largest one for meals over the next two days. Max, as usual, was pleased to get the remains and ate them in the garden.
Jamie stripped down all four shotguns and cleaned them, more for practice than from necessity, as well as reading the manual for the hunting rifles and doing the same with them. Jane worked with him as she knew it was important that she could do the same, in the event that she was on her own and a gun jammed, for instance. When the weather cleared up they walked to the bottom of the garden and opened the gate to have some practice shots with the rifles. Jamie fetched a patio chair and an old cushion from the garage to rest on, and they selected posts on several groynes on the beach at increasing distances to shoot at.
Jamie fired the first shot and they got the shock of their lives; neither had been prepared for the loudness of a shot from a high velocity rifle, and their ears were ringing. It was far removed from the dull report of a shotgun, which itself was loud enough.
‘Bugger that!’ he said, and went back to the garage. He rummaged around in his tool boxes to find two pairs of ear defenders and gave a pair to Jane. Max, who had followed them, retreated after the first shot and lay down under the porch. They each fired several shots at the posts, increasing the distance each time up to about three hundred yards, and she proved to have a better eye than him. Satisfied that they knew what they were doing and could handle the rifles, they went back inside for lunch.
After they’d eaten they made ready to leave for Bill and Emma’s, via Sainsbury’s warehouse. They decided to take the BMW estate from Jane’s garage for a run, but first had to jump-start it from one of the trucks as the battery was low. They laid flat the rear seats to give a bigger load area, put in their bags and two shotguns, then Max jumped in and they headed off. Jane drove this time and she parked in the yard by the loading bay, leaving the engine running to charge the battery. Jamie walked around to the front, through the store to the warehouse and opened the doors.
Jane walked through to the store and went along the aisles picking feminine things for Emma along with sanitary pads, tampons and other hygiene products from what remained. On reflection, she realised that Sally might well be old enough to need them too, so she picked things for her as well. Meanwhile, in the warehouse Jamie was collecting boxes of whisky and brandy, along with cartons and crates of fizzy drinks, crisps, snacks and sweets; some of it for Bill and Emma and the rest for themselves. Jane wheeled her trolley through and they loaded everything into the car. She had also picked up some nice treats for Max and gave him a couple for being so patient. There was a lot of broken glass in the aisles that could cut his feet so they’d left him in the car.
It didn’t take long to get to Hooe and as they pulled into the yard they saw one of the roller shutters up and Bill working inside the barn. He didn’t recognise the car and came out with his shotgun, but put it down again when he saw it was them. He waved and came to greet them.
‘Well, this is a nice surprise,’ he smiled. ‘I didn’t expect to see you again so soon.’ He kissed Jane and shook hands with Jamie.
‘No, well, we decided to come back with some things for you as a thank-you for your kindness the other day,’ said Jane.
Bill waved it off, saying there was no need for that, and Jamie said ‘Well, we wanted to, anyway, and thought there were some things you might like. We both felt it was nice to be doing something for other people for a change, rather than just surviving every day and fending for ourselves.’
‘That’s good of you; thanks,’ replied Bill. The door to the house opened and Sally came bounding out: Max barked excitedly and jumped up at her and she gave him a big hug. Emma came out wiping her hands on her apron; she had evidently been baking. She hugged and kissed them both, saying how nice it was to see them, and invited them inside. Bill followed them in and they sat in the kitchen while Emma made tea. Jamie and Jane sat next to each other, with Bill and Emma on the other side of the table.
They sat chatting and Jamie told them about their encounter in Battle the day before, and how Jane had sent the young guys off with their tails between their legs at the barrel of a sawn-off. ‘You should have seen her,’ he said. ‘She could have been in a Quentin Tarantino film!’