Chapter Four
Intruders
The rain continued for the rest of the day, Susan finally sheltered herself in her house and set about preparing something for dinner. After looking through the different cupboards in the kitchen Susan finally decided to have something small and started to make some soup, however as she started to prepare her meal there was a knock at the door. Susan wondering who would be brave and stupid enough to wait outside in weather like this slowly wondered to the door and slowly opened it.
When Susan finally opened the front door she found that nobody was there, she quickly had a glance up and down the street but couldn't see anymore. But as she went to close the door she spotted a group of soldiers standing in the entrance to an alleyway across the street.
She could tell they were soldiers by the uniforms they were wearing, but she didn't understand why they were standing in an alleyway in the middle of Finchley in freezing rain. One by one the soldiers caught Susan looking at them; they just stared at her for a minute then slowly ventured down the alleyway and out of view.
Susan was a little confused at their behaviour but decided to forget it when she shivered from the cold weather and rain which was attacking the outside. Susan closed the door and returned to making her soup, which she ate quickly once she had made it. After she had finished eating she washed up her bowl and spoon and moved into the sitting room where she lit a fire and settled down in her father's old armchair and opened a book.
The book Susan had chosen turned out to be a romance novel which probably belonged to her mother; she attempted to read for about an hour before giving up. She hated romance novels because they were nothing like real life, in real life there was never any heroic man who would fight everyone just to save the one person he loved she knew you rarely found men like that. She also disliked the way women were portrayed in those novels as they were always damsels in distress waiting for that one man to come and rescue them.
After putting the book down Susan wandered upstairs and looked into her brother's old room, it had been left exactly the way they left it. Their clothes still in the wardrobes and some on the floor, the beds still unmade as though they only just left but Susan knew her brothers were not coming back same as her sister and her parents they were gone forever. She went to her parent's bedroom where she had been sleeping for the past three years, it was odd sleeping in the room that used to be her parents but it seemed like it carried their presence within it.
Susan undressed and put on a white nightie; she slid underneath the covers and attempted to fall into the beautiful world of sleep. However as she slowly closed her eyes she suddenly heard a loud bang from downstairs, she got of bed and opened the bedroom door quietly to see if she could hear anymore noises from downstairs. She heard the back door banging shut from the kitchen and immediately Susan thought there was somebody in the house.
She crept from the bedroom as quietly as she could and reached around the door to her brother's room and grabbed Edmund's old cricket bat. She then slowly moved down the stairs one at a time, she strained her ears for anymore sounds but all she could hear was the back door banging shut.
Susan entered the kitchen with the cricket bat held high ready to strike the intruder, but there was nobody there the back door was open and was being blown open and then closed again by the ferocious wind outside. Susan sighed at the back door and slowly put the cricket bat down; she still thought it was strange for the back door to be open as she was sure she had locked it before she went to bed.
"Susan you idiot, your forgetting everything now" she muttered to herself
She locked the back door and made sure it was probably locked and then made her way back up to her bedroom. She thought she heard something in the sitting room as she passed but after she stopped and listened for another sound she heard nothing and continued on upstairs.
Susan put the cricket bat back in her brother's room and went back into her room. She turned the light on in her room and quickly looked out the window to see if she could see anyone out there but she saw nobody as it was still raining heavily outside.
She went to close the curtains however when she did she saw in the window a reflection of a man standing behind her. Her look of shock showed she had seen him and he grabbed her with rough hands and threw her to the floor.
Susan managed to look up and saw that the man was one of those soldiers from earlier, she crawled to her dresser and tried to pull herself up but the soldier stopped this attempt by kicking her in the ribs hard. Susan again collapsed to the floor coughing and holding her ribs.
As Susan rolled around on the floor she noticed that a golf club laid underneath the bed, she recognised it as her father's when he used to play golf with his friends at the club. The soldier aimed another kick at her which connected hard with Susan's stomach; she coughed again and rolled around as the man just laughed.
Susan managed to grab the golf club and with all her might she pulled it from underneath the bed and swung hard at the man's knee. It connected with his knee and he fell to the floor shouting in agony, Susan managed to get up and ran from the bedroom however as she opened the door she was met by another soldier in the doorway.
"Where do you think you're going"? He demanded
Susan tried to swing the golf club at him but he easily caught and tugged it from her grasp. He then broke the club over his knee and threw them into the hallway. He then turned back to Susan and smiled, he moved towards her and out of desperation Susan swung her fist at him but like the golf club he caught it easily and slapped her round the face causing her to hit the floor.
"Come on what else you got"? The man asked laughing
Susan managed to get back to her feet, however the soldier grabbed her again but she kneed him in the groin making him fall to the floor. She jumped over him and ran out into the hallway, however as she ran to the stairs she found another soldier blocking her way.
"Your going nowhere" he said smiling as she stopped dead, the other soldiers from the bedroom came limping out of the bedroom and Susan had to quickly make a decision. She ran at full speed and jumped into the soldier in front of her causing both of them to tumble down the stairs.
She managed to get up once they had landed and tried making her way to the back door but found another soldier standing in the kitchen; she turned back to the front door and saw the soldier that fell down the stairs trying to get up by using the front door to pull himself onto his feet.
Susan ran into the sitting room and was followed by two more soldiers, she picked up a glass ornament from the mantelpiece and smashed it on one of the soldier's head however the other one grabbed her by the shoulder and threw her into the bookcase causing many of the books to fall on her and the bookcase to wobble.
The soldier grabbed her by the throat and lifted her roughly back to her feet, he then had a tight grip on her arm and dragged her back into the hallway.
"I've got her let's go" He shouted to the other soldiers in the house.
The other soldiers all managed to make their way towards them; some now had injuries after Susan managed to fight some of them. The one who she hit with the glass ornament suddenly came up from behind grabbed her by the shoulder spun her around and smacked her in the face.
"Enough, he wants her alive" The lead soldier shouted
"I'm not killing her am I, just getting some payback" the other one argued
Susan was on the floor, she spat the blood out of her mouth onto the floor. She was then pulled back to her feet and started being dragged towards the front door; the soldier who was dragging her opened the door to reveal that it was still raining outside. Susan however tried one last break for freedom
She elbowed the soldier in the stomach causing him to let go of her, she then ran out of the house and into the street. She started screaming for help as the soldiers all gave chase, however nobody could hear her screams everybody in the street was in bed and the heavy pounding of the rain and the ferocity of the wind was stopping her voice from being heard by any of her neighbours.
She tried to outrun the soldiers but it was no use, the lead soldier was gaining on her quick. Susan dashed across the road but the soldier dived and tackled her by the legs, Susan went flying forward and smasher her head against the kerb. Susan could feel warm blood dripping from her head she tried crawling away but the other soldiers had caught up and were all laughing at her and stalking her like hungry predators.
Susan still kept trying to crawl; she would not give up without a fight. The soldier who held her legs kept pulling her back towards him, Susan carried on screaming for help but the wind and rain was still drowning out all other sounds. Susan made one last effort to crawl and her hand reached forward and came in contact with something leathery.
Susan looked forward and saw that her hand now rested on a black leather shoe, the other soldiers had stopped laughing and were silent. Susan slowly looked up from the shoe and saw the man in the black coat and black hat standing before her, however this time she was able to look into underneath the hat and saw emerald green eyes shining underneath it.
The man looked down at her and then looked at the soldiers in front of him; he stepped in front of Susan and just stood there in front of the soldiers like he was waiting for it. The soldiers looked at each other confused before one of them suddenly swung his fist towards the man who easily blocked it and then swung his own fist which connected with the soldier's face causing him to hit the floor.
Another soldier ran forward and swung his fist at the man, but he easily ducked it delivered a punch to the soldier's stomach and then hit him again in the face sending him to the floor. The man then removed his coat and his hat and stood in the rain wearing nothing but a shirt and trousers ready to fight.
The soldiers all lunged at the man, he hit the first one but he was then hit by the second causing him to stumble back. He then ducked a punch from the third and threw a punch to the man's ribs and then kneed him in the face, another soldier kicked the man in the stomach causing to fall to his knees the soldier aimed another kick at his head but the man grabbed his leg and dislocated his knee causing him to fall to the ground in agony.
There were only four more soldiers left and each one of them charged towards the man, but Susan saw that this man was an amazing fighter he ducked and blocked all of the soldier's moves and hit back with many ones of his own which left all of the soldiers on the floor groaning in pain.
Susan's vision started to blur as the cut on her head was really starting to hurt, blood continued to fall from the wound. The last thing Susan saw was the man slowly approach her and saw those emerald green eyes in front of her before finally falling into darkness.
