the dimming of the light (Part 29)

Peter Hunter

as the blood sputtered from the exit wound in the Colonel's back around the four inches or so of arrow protruding with its broad-head covered in bright blood

I realised it was too good an arrow to waste to leave in the man's obscene body.

I fetched a pair of pliers from the garage then using them to grasp the shaft just in front of the arrowhead and using not inconsiderable force - I pulled the shaft all the way through the colonel's dead body, until I had extracted it

completely covered with fresh blood but still usable

After washing it in the lake only the fletching was damaged - wet and still compressed against the shaft by the process of being pulled through his body

But they would dry and then could be smoothed back into place

the arrow was as good as new

Without feeling the slightest remorse or emotion I returned to the house to be greeted in silence by Sharon and Chris. I could tell by their expressions their body language that they knew exactly what I had just done

and probably had worked out the reasons too but they had not particularly liked the Colonel shortly Chris left the house without saying anything

and we watched him drag the Colonel's body away to leave as food for the foxes, the badger and the rats

It may not have been very hygienic - but we were by now so hungry and weak that the effort of burial would have been wasteful

*

Thirty-six days since loosing all electrical power and excitement - we saw an aircraft about a thousand feet above us, heading in a westerly direction. From its marking it was a French military plane no doubt on a surveillance mission - but it indicated that normal life was carrying on in other countries.

We debated why others, other countries, did not mount an humanitarian rescue mission to Britain deciding that it was probably fear of disease and maybe an amazing reluctance to interfere

whatever the reasons help was not obviously at hand over five weeks without help

how many of us could be left?

(To be continued)

Peter Hunter 2012

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