Next morning the carnage was not unlike an earthquake, the orange cloud was gone now and to everyone’s utter disbelief the landscape surrounding the town had moved, with no outside contact with the rest of the world, people had to burn their dead, under the instructions of the new resident of Underwood, Sheriff Allan Herapath, the Vicar would say some meaningless words as the body’s burned and the judge would punish those that didn’t obey, he was kept very busy in the early days.

That day a new Underwood was born, but it was so different from the old.

Chapter 13

Delyn Brown the pretty 18 year old Welsh girl from Newport had only just passed her driving test, and the curly haired freckled face beauty was a bit nervous in driving over to Bristol, it was her friend “Judith’s” hen night, she was a bit annoyed not being able to have the two days of from the hairdressers where she worked, for now she would have to travel there on her own and meet the rest of her friends there, Bristol was a good night out and the hotel they were staying at had some good reviews on trip advisor and she had cheered up a bit when she managed to leave work 2 hours early, maybe by the time she gets there and meet the others they would not have had to much to drink, though she didn’t like the weather that was approaching and as she sat in her bedroom applying the final touches to her make-up, the heavens opened and pelted the bedroom window with the rain, she jumped streaking her mascara down her cheek,

‘shit, have to take a coat’ she thought, she looked out of the window, it was really pouring down, she didn’t fancy driving in the rain and she thought about a taxi, she checked her purse, there was no way she could afford that, she had the hotel to pay for and drinks, she would have to take it easy, she grabbed her coat, checked she had her id , she said goodbye to her mum, thankful that her father wasn’t home as she knew he would have told her not to go, she thought about waiting for him to come home and ask him to take her, but that would be leaving it to late, she kissed her mum got into her ford focus and started the engine, she looked up at the skies, it didn’t look good, she hoped it would pass over, or at least she would be driving away from it.

‘I’m a good driver’ she told herself, ‘I passed first time’

Delyn Brown drove off into the rain towards the Severn Bridge to Bristol, she had a hen night to go to, and she was so looking forward to it.

Tony Griffiths stood in his car lot, as he had done nearly every night since he built the car lot that wasn’t allowed to sell cars, he was probably the best predictor of the weather that Underwood had, he had enough experience having lived there all that time, it was the behaviour of the tree’s, the lie of the sun and the movement of the clouds that told him a storm would be coming, just 8 days after the last, he thought it might be a bit soon, and if it was a daytime storm then that wouldn’t do, but it looked as if it was a few hours yet before the storm came, based on past experiences, by then it would be dark, by then they may be able to see exactly what happens when the storms come, he felt the excitement building up inside him, something he hadn’t felt for years, at that time he didn’t care if he lived or died, as long as he tried, someone had to do something about this fucked up world he lived in.

He went into his work shop, checked the chains and padlocks, they would do fine, he walked the five minute walk to Hawthorne with the chains and padlocks in a holdall, his pace was fast, the adrenalin flowed.

Peter answered the door and saw Tony stood there, his heart went into his mouth.

‘I think its tonight’ said Tony ‘let’s go check the place and hide these somewhere’ he added as he held up his bag, he had a big grin on his face, Peter could tell he was enjoying this.

Peter just nodded, said his goodbyes to his wife and children and the two of them walked to the top of the town towards the army huts with a determination to succeed, failure was not an option, and they soon arrived to the place where Peter said he entered Underwood.

Delyn Brown lived just a mile from the M4 motorway and despite the torrential rain she got on it quite easily, she drove cautiously but it appeared that so was everyone else, the skies were a mass of grey and looked threatening, the dark skies seemed to go on forever, she hoped it was clearer in Bristol, her adrenalin was high but she wasn’t sure that was because she had never driven in conditions like she was experiencing, or the excitement of the evening ahead, she crawled along at a snail’s pace, she had phoned her friends telling them she would be late, she wished at least one of them had offered to stay and travel with her and was quite upset when they hadn’t, she couldn’t miss out on this, Judith was her best friend, she would be there no matter how late it got, that’s what best friends do.

The overhead signs were displaying “accident” the next exit was at the Coldra roundabout, she would get off there and connect to the Severn Bridge at Magor, it would be easy, she was reasonably familiar with the area, she would get there, no matter what.

Peter and Tony stood at the top of the estate, the chains and padlocks hidden deep inside a bush on the waste ground beside the old army huts, which were to their left, no one was going to go up there, especially with a storm brewing.

‘So you say the road to Underwood is behind these trees’ said Tony pointing straight ahead into the trees,

‘This is where we were picked up, whatever is the other side of those trees can’t change, the road was here, I’m sure of it’ he paused for thought, licked his lips and then bit his tongue, he looked around, Tony’s eyes followed the same direction as his,

‘So if someone’s going to come tonight, they’re going to come here’ said Tony, he tried to recall where the entrance road to Underwood was before it changed, but the landscape had changed so many times it just boiled his mind.

‘You got any better ideas’ asked Peter, secretly wishing he had, because Peter was now thinking this was more like a childish prank.

Tony had no better ideas, in fact he thought Peters theory was quite plausible, tonight was going to be a tester, like a stake out and if they saw an opportunity to break out then they would wait for another storm and take whoever they could with them, but first somehow they would have to maim the thing in the woods and hopefully halt the three warlords of Underwood, that’s where Tony came in, they both hoped it would be long and painful deaths.

As they walked back Peter noticed that Tony had grown quiet, he normally had so much to say for himself, his silence felt uneasy to Peter, he needed someone he could trust, if he couldn’t trust Tony then where the hell would he be, he began to have a feeling of being set up and that all the people in Underwood were just the same, they were just approaching the car lot when Peter felt he had to say something,

‘You’re not going to let me down on this are you Tony’ he asked, their eyes met and Tony gave a nervous grin, Peter didn’t like it, he recognise the grin for what it was, nervousness, it didn’t show a lot of trust, he began to feel worried.

‘I’ve got something to show you’ Tony answered and made his way into the car lot, Peter followed, not expecting the answer he got but it was better than the one he feared he was going to get.

Tony opened the workshop shutter and invited Peter in, Peter was surprised to see how big the workshop was, he had never really been inside and leading off the main workshop was two smaller rooms, he led Peter into one of the smaller rooms, which was full of bookcases with old car manuals on one and on the other side, was a workbench and shelves housing hundreds of tools, Tony grabbed one end of the bookcase, he nodded to Peter to do the same, they eased the bookcase away from the wall, underneath it, on the floor was a small trap door. Peter looked at Tony questionably, Tony never said a word, he just lifted the trap door, Peter could see a thin metal ladder leading down, it reminded him of a sewer, then he thought of the drains, maybe the drains were the answer, Tony nodded for him to go down,