40.
Callum and Anna climbed out of the BMW and looked around. They'd last been here only a couple of days ago and so much had happened in those couple of days.
"You reckon we'll be kicked out again?" Callum asked.
"We better not." Anna said. "I'm getting tired of this shit."
Brendon walked over to them.
"Its nice to be back." He said, looking at the castle, which was hard to see in the moonlight.
"The shopping centre was nicer." Anna said.
"It might have been nicer," Brendon said. "But the castle isn't in flames."
"True." Anna said.
"We're missing a few people." Callum said worriedly, looking around.
"Who?" Brendon asked.
"I can't see Charlie," Callum said. "Jay, Clyde, Aaron, David or Jack."
"So there all dead?" Brendon asked, plainly, trying not to show emotion.
"They might not be." Callum said. "Jay, Clyde, Aaron and David were down by the bridge and there were no grownups there."
"What were they doing there?" Brendon asked.
"They were helping bring cars across the little foot bridge." Callum said. "The main bridge was blocked so that was the only way across."
"That little foot bridge collapsed." Brendon said.
"What?" Callum asked, surprised.
"How do you know?" Anna asked.
"Because I saw it was gone when we were crossing the main bridge." Brendon said.
"Shit." Anna said.
Terry limped over at this time, using his shotgun as a walking stick.
"What the fuck happened to you?" Brendon asked.
"I was shot by some fucker just before we got on the bridge." Terry said, looking at his foot, which was rapped in a towel.
"You better get the bullet out before you get an infection." Callum said.
"I don't think there's a bullet in it." Terry said. "There's two holes in my shoe and I was only shot once, so think it came out."
"That was lucky." Callum said.
"It was more than just lucky." Terry said. "It was a fucking miracle."
Suddenly, everyone went silent. The kids from CBS Secondary (Christian Boys School) who had kicked them out a couple of days earlier were filing out the main door, one hundred feet away from them. Even though they had lost the element of surprise, which they hadn't really tried to keep, there were only sixteen of them, against the twenty something of them, not including the kids who had been in David's group.
"Evening, fuckers." James said loudly, as he slowly but cockily walked around. "Remember us? We're the kids you kicked out yesterday. Yeah, we're back. I assume your surprised..."
"You see the one with rifle?" Terry painfully whispered to Callum. "That's the little shit who shot me with the tranquiliser dart."
"... Your gonna have to let us back in," He continued. "Or be ready for a fight, because we're not leaving without a fight."
Most of the kids raised there weapons.
"You see, we're stronger than you. We've got more kids, we've got better weapons, we've got..."
"He's doing some sort of evil monologue and it's fuckin' hilarious." Liza whispered to Terry. She'd just gotten out of the truck.
"If he was a battle scarred Russian with a long cut going from his forehead to chin in a generals uniform it might sound ok," Terry whispered back. "But he's a small, ginger fourteen year old that always gets voice cracks."
Liza giggled.
"...We can work together." James continued. "We could always use extra help. We could form an-"
James was cut off by a light popping sound, before being hit in the leg by a tranquilliser dart. James pulled the dart out. Within ten long seconds he started to sway and in another five he collapsed.
There was dead silence from both sides for another ten seconds before Harry aimed his assault rifle and fired at the kid with the tranquiliser gun. Harry, surprisingly, shot him in the forehead in the darkness and the kid fell over, dead.
There was more silence for another ten seconds. The leader of the CBS whispered something to someone beside him.
"Charge! " The leader of the CBS kids shouted. Him and the rest of the kids charged at James group.
Most of the people in James in group were shocked by how stupid these kids were, charging at the them with spears and clubs even though they had guns. They shot at the group, not wanting to be killed.
Out of all fifteen people left in the CBS group, only three realised they were fucked. Those three ducked as soon as they were being shot at. The rest of their group were torn to shreds within seconds.
"Well James was right," Jessica said. "We weren't leaving without a fight."
"Wouldn't really call it fight." Simon said. "It was more like a massacre."
42.
3 Weeks Later.
Callum and his scavenging group walked up the cobble road towards the castle. Callums small group consisted of him, Harry, Jessica, Brendon, Danny, Shane and someone called Stanley, who was one of the CBS kids who survived the massacre three weeks before.
The group had just been to high street, searching a few buildings for food. They also had another scavenging group that went out looking for batteries, electrical gadgets and stuff like that.
Callum's group had found a decent bit of food, but after seeing a rival group of kids, they decided to go back to castle.
"Simon, could you let us in." Callum asked when they reached the gate.
"Yeah, no problem." Simon said. He jumped down from the platform beside the entrance. He pulled out set of keys and unlocked the gate. The group trodded in.
"Who has the cans of gas?" Callum asked, as he slung his assault rifle over his shoulder. Jessica handed him one jerry can full of fuel and Danny gave two, which were two thirds full. He started to walk to the garage, near the other end of the castle grounds.
The castle grounds were huge. In front of the castle there was a massive field, about the equivelent size two or three football fields. After that field there was a path, connecting both sides of the castle grounds, after that there was an even bigger field, about the size of three or four football fields. There was little hill at the start of that field. Along the edges of the castle grounds there were more paths, there was a small-ish forrest to left of all this beside the river and there was an eight foot high wall surrounding the entire castle grounds. It was the perfect place to wait out an apocalypse.
The garage stood to the right of the hill, partly obscured by the few trees on that side. The garage was like a shed you'd find on a farm. It had concrete floor, the walls and roof were made of corrugated metal and it was about thirty feet tall. It had originally been used to store the tractors used to keep the park looking nice but those tractors were now parked on the gravel car park outside it.
Callum stepped into the garage.
"Lads, I got three more for you." Callum said loudly, leaving the jerry cans beside the office, which thay had built recently. It was mostly made out of plywood sheets and nails and there was a window shaped hole cut into the side of it. It had been built by Terry, Patrick and Taidgh, who spent most of there time here. They were in charge of keeping all the cars in order.
"Thanks Callum." Patrick said. He was lying under the BMW, which was up on a jack. Callum walked over to him.
"What's wrong with the car?" Callum asked.
"Nothings wrong with it." Patrick said. "But the oil filter is old. You're meant to change them every year and the one on the car right now was installed in September 2012, according to the date printed on it. I should probably change the oil in it as well, but we don't have any so what's in it will have to do."
"Alright." Callum nodded. He looked at the front of the car. The front bumper was heavily dented from three weeks earlier and no one had bothered to wash the blood of the front.
He walked over to Taidhg and Terry, who were under the bonnet of a early 2000's Citreon C6.
"What's wrong with this one?" Callum asked.
"The distributor is fucked in it." Terry said. "Do you remember when me, Taidgh and Patrick went out earlier?"
"Yeah." Callum said.
"When we were out there we brought in the Toyota that's out in the car park and we're using it as a parts car." Terry said. He shoved the last spark plug into the distributor.
"Taidgh, try fire it up." Terry said.
Taidgh sat into the drivers seat and turned the key. After a few cranks the Citreon started.
"Yes!" Terry and Taidgh both said in unison. Taidgh got out and they high fived each other.
"I don't know if you heard but James is setting up a proper dinner tonight." Callum said. "Roast chicken, potatoes and vegetables."
"Wheres he geting the chicken from?" Taidgh asked.
"We have chickens here." Callum said.
"Do we?" Taidgh asked, surprised. "Where?"
"Someone drained the fountain at the other side of the castle and we put them in there." Callum said.
"Oh, cool." Taidgh said, before closing the hood of the Citreon.
"What time did James say dinner was at?" Terry asked.
"I don't have a fuckin' clue." Callum said, looking at his watch. "It's six o'clock now, so it's probably soon."
"Alright, we'll go over to the castle when Patrick's done replacing the oil filter." Terry said.
"Ok, see ya then." Callum said, as he walked off.
"See ya." Terry said.
Taidgh walked over to Patrick, who was still under the car and knelt down beside him.
"Need any help?" He asked.
"No, I almost have it." Patrick grunted. Seconds later there was a loud clink as the oil filter fell to the ground. Patrick picked up the replacement oil filter and started to twist it in place.
"D'you think we'd need to dress up for this or what?" Terry asked from inside the office.
"I doubt it." Taidgh said. "No one has good clothes anymore. I don't think anyone here has a three piece tuxedo lying around."
Terry laughed. "I'll take my good sunglasses anyway." he said. He slipped on a pair of aviator sunglasses. They had gold-ish orange-ish colored lenses and they metal part was colored a more brighter gold. Terry really liked the look of them, especially when they were paired with his long brown hair. Callum used to have a simular haircut to him but a week or two ago he got someone to cut it short.
After Patrick finished with the car, he washed his hands and they set off to the castle.
It was very scenic. The trees swayed in the light breeze, as did the freshly cut grass and the sun hung low in the sky, creating a yellow orange glow. From where they were, you would easily forget the horrors that lay outside.
They walked through the main door. Micheal was the first person they saw.
"Do you know what time this dinner thing is at." Terry asked him.
"In half an hour, I think." Micheal said. "Nice sunglasses, by the way."
"Thanks, man." Terry said, happily.
Terry, Taidgh and Patrick walked into the main hall, where all the sofas and the piano was. Most people called it the sitting room though, because it was easier to say. A few kids were already in here. It was pretty obvious that people were ready for the "fancy" dinner. Though they weren't dressed in fancy clothes, they were in clean clothes, which wasnt common.
Terry walked over the "bar" that he had set up a week ago when he was bored. It was made of a long table and two glass cabinets, one containing cups and glasses and the other alcohol. Terry grabbed a glass, a bottle of gin and a can of coke. He poured two shots of gin into the glass before pouring the coke in.
"Terry." Liam called from the other side of the room. "Can you make me one too?"
"Yeah, no problem." Terry said. He quickly made another one gave to Liam.
"Thanks." Liam said as Terry walked off to sit beside Liza.
The room slowly filled up with more people until James came in telling people to go to the dining room.
43.
The dining room was at the other end of the castle. The tables were set up different to normal. On a normal day, the table would be in three long lines but today, the tables were in some sort off wierd style. They were pushed into groups of three to four tables, capable of holding between 12 and 14. People who had known each other before coming to the castle, or the "Pre Castle" group often sat together in their own groups and the rest of the kids, or "Post Castle" group sat in their own groups. There were more tables at the back of the room where the food was going to be left, so anyone could just walk up, grab a plate and take what they want. After ten more minutes, the food eventually did arrive and the kids went up, took what they wanted and sat back down.
The whole night was meant to be fun, to help people forget the hellish nightmare that lay outside and the people they had known, that now only existed in their memories. It seemed to work, as most of the kids seemed to be in a good mood.
"Do you think it would be safer or more dangerous over in Britain?" Simon asked the table, as chewed on a potatoe.
"What kind of fuckin' question is that?" Jessica asked. Simon shrugged.
"It would be safer here." Brendon said. "There's much less adults over here."
"But there's more children over there." Simon said.
"Which would mean there's more of chance one will stab you in the back over a packet of bourbon creams." Terry said, talking a drink out of his glass of gin and coke.
"Britain also has colder winters and warmer summers, making it harder to grow food or keep animals." Liza said.
"Britain also has nuclear power plants, and eventually," Liam said. "They'll decay and collapse, releasing that toxic shit into the air."
"So basically, what your all saying is fuck Britain." Simon said
"Yeah" Liam nodded, shoving a piece of chicken in his mouth.
Most people didn't talk that much, as they where to busy eating, but when the food was gone, people started to move into the "sitting room" to talk and get drinks.
Brendons band started to play music, as well. Over the last three weeks, people were eventually brought back to there old homes to pick personnel belongings and all that. Lia had picked up her bass and amp two weeks ago, Callum and Simon got there guitars a week ago and only four days ago, Jessica had forced Terry to drive her to her house in the BMW to pick up her drum kit. Terry didn't bother moving his piano over to the castle, as it was too heavy and there was already one here, anyway. They were playing their old set list from a couple of months ago. They already finished there second song, Jean Genie by David Bowie, and moved to there third song, Hot Stuff by Donna Summer. Jessica did vocals for that song.
As they played, James went around, looking for people. The whole dinner hadn't been for nothing. He planned to butter people up, make them feel good, maybe get a couple of the drunk, then ask them for a favour. Most people didn't like to go outside, and he wanted to get as much people as possible for his latest plan. He was planning to send as much people as possible to the North West of the city, around the CBS primary school. Beside the school was a long street full of bungalows, which from what he heard from the scavenging group, hadn't been looted. He'd talked to a couple of people who'd agreed to come along, but he was hoping to ask more.
He walked over to Liam, who was sitting on a sofa, chatting to a girl. She was one of the girls Lia and Terry had saved in the battle three weeks ago.
"Liam, my man." James said, cheerfully as he sat down beside them.
"What is it?" Liam asked, not impressed by how James had interupted them.
"I kinda need a favour." James said. "I want to send a lot of people out on this kind of scavenging hu-, expedition, you could call it, up to Stephens Street, near CBS primary and to the estate next to it and I was wondering, do you want to come along and give us a hand?"
Liam thought for a moment." I don't want to go, but I will go."
" Thanks." James said. "Appreciate it."
"Who the fuck was he?" The girl Liam was with asked, after James left.
"He apperantly runs the place." Liam said.
44.
Brendon walked up to Stephens Street, along with the two dozen others who were going with him. Callum was put in charge of the entire group and the amount of people James had managed to get to go with them was amazing. There was him, Callum, Jessica, Harry, Liam, Shane, Stanley, Fionn, who's right hand was still in a bandage, Anna, Danny, Simon, Liza, Terry, Taidgh, Patrick, David, Adrianna, Bethany, the girl Liam was with yesterday, Ryan, Saoirse, Richard, Aaron, Clyde and Leo, who, in the last three weeks, had been taught a little English. He'd been taught how to say hello, how to say help, grownups, other kids, I'm hurt and Clyde also taught him a couple of swear words, just for fun.
Each kid was wearing a back pack, which they were to fill full of food, batteries or anything else useful.
Brendon walked up to Callum and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Are we really searching through all these houses?" Brendon asked.
"Yup." Callum said, solemnly. "Every single one."
On this street, there was a row of bungalows. Callum stood up on the roof of a car.
"Listen up, fuckers." Callum said loudly. Everyone went quiet. "Were gonna be searching through all these houses. Then we'll stop at the CBS primary school and go home. That's about thirty or fourth houses. We can do it much quicker if I split you up into groups of five. Simon, Anna, Aaron, Richard and I will be one group. Liza, Terry, Saoirse, Clyde and Leo are the second group. Brendon, Harry, Patrick, Bethany and Shane are group three. Jessica, Taidgh, Liam, Adrianna and David are group four. Group five is Ryan, Stanley, Danny and Fionn, who will stay outside and keep gaurd. Don't spend two long in every house. Ten minutes maximum. Alright let's go."
Brendons group went to the first bungalow, which was painted white. Brendon went to try the door handle, to see if it was locked, but before he got to it, Harry had already fired a couple of shots into the door handle and lock. Chunks of metal and wood flew everywhere. One especially big chunk of metal tore a long gash on the side of Shane's neck. Shane cupped his hand over it as blood started to gush out of it.
"Harry, you fucking idiot!" Shane shouted.
"Sorry, man." Harry said.
They rushed in. Shane looked in the kitchen for a cloth, as the rest of them searched the other rooms. Brendon walked into the sitting room. It was pretty small. There was small white couch with a flower print design, a tall armchair with a simular design, a wooden coffee table, a small shelf, a fireplace and in the corner was an ancient CRT TV with a VHS player underneath it. On the book shelf, Brendon noticed an old Camcorder from the ninetys. There was couple of old tapes beside it. He put one tape in his pocket and the other one in the camcorder. He also noticed the charger plugged into the wall and he put it in his bag.
Brendon pressed the On/Off button and, surprisingly, it turned on. On the little screen, it said it had two hours of battery left. Brendon pressed the record button, walked into the next room, the bedroom, which had Harry in it and zoomed in awkwardly on his face.
"Get that weak shit outta here." Harry smile as he put his hand over the lense.
Brendon laughed as he turned off the camera. He shoved it in his bag and he helped Harry look through the bedroom. There was a massive wardrobe, a small cabinet, and a double bed. Inside the wardrobe was mostly clothes, but in the cabinet they found a sevral war medals, all dated 1944 and a grainy black and white picture of a young man in an army suit. Harry thought the war medals looked cool. He took two of them and pinned them to his cardigan.
Harry went to the kitchen as Brendon went the bathroom, wondering if there'd be any deodorant in there, or something simular, to help battle the smell back at the castle as none of them had taken a shower in over a month. He opened the door and as he walked in, something shut the door behind him. There was no window in here and he was plunged into complete darkness. Suddenly he was shoved against a wall by something, gripping him by the throat. As he battle to get free, he had no doubt that it was grownup, as he could smell it. It smelt like death.
He moved his hand down his side to grab his knife, which was attached to his belt. He tried to stab the grownup but missed. He tried again and got it in the ribs. He couldn't pull his knife back out in time as the grownup wriggled around. He then gave the grownup an almighty kick, which sent it hurtly into the wall opposite them. He lunged towards where he thought the door was, but didn't realize how close it was, smacking head first into it. Brendon blacked out and fell over.
Brendon awoke a few seconds later to the sound of shots being fired. He was then dragged out by the feet into the hallway.
"Are you alright?" Harry asked, kneeling down beside him.
"I'm fine." Brendon said, but as he got up, he suddenly got heavy headed. He fell against the wall before throwing up.
"Ew." He heard Bethany say.
Harry brought him into the sitting room, and continued to loot the house as Brendon lay down on the sofa. A few minutes later, they had looted anything worthwhile from the house, which was mostly food. Harry let Brendon lean on him as they walked.
Harry dumped Brendon with Ryan, Stanley, Danny and Fionn, who were on a car in the middle of the road, and moved to the next house. Harry, Patrick, Shane and Bethany walked to the next house. Harry fired a shot at the lock, making it come apart. They walked in.
"Grownups." Danny shouted, suddenly, standing up and holding his club ready. Ryan aimed his rifle at the steadily approaching grownups. Ryan had taken a trip to grandads house and found three more boxes of ammo for his rifle. As he pulled back on the bolt on his rifle, Fionn and Stanley stood up, ready with their weapons. The grownups had come from behind them and were coming up a small hill. There must've been at least seventy or eighty of them. Slowly, each group came out of a house, getting there weapons ready.
"Fall back." Callum shouted when everyone was out. "We'll run to CBS primary, take the next right, go around the grownups and go home. It's not worth fighting them."
The group of kids jogged down the street, with the grownups trailing twenty five meters behind.. But just before they got to the T junction outside of CBS primary, another smaller group of grownups came around the corner. There was about twenty of them.
Callum and his group stopped dead in their tracks.
"Fuck" He said. He pulled his assault rifle from over his shoulder.
"OK, new plan." He shouted at the group. "Fight. Anyone with a gun, aim for the bigger group. Everyone else, wipe out the smaller group."
He aimed his assault rifle and fired. After a full clip, he managed to kill seven. He pulled out another one, which had been sticking out awkwardly from his pocket, and loaded it into his gun as shots rung from all around him.
The main mass of grownups in front of him were fifteen meters in front of them now. They were still getting closer to them, despite being shot at continuously. Soon, though, the kids without any guns had finished off the small group of grownups and most were moving the main group. They attacked at the sides, not wanting to be caught by the gunfire. Within the next minute, most of the grownups were dead. The last couple tried to run away, but David happily ran after them and smacked the shit out of them with his hurl with some nails sticking out of it.
Now, most of the kids were crowding around Fionn, who was lying down on the road, amid the dead grownups. A grownup had bitten him on the arm and on the leg. He lay in pain as Simon poured a bottle of disinfectant on his cuts. Liza then bandaged them up.
Everyone had been so focused on Fionn, that no one had thought to keep a look out, in case anymore grownups or kids came. As Fionn was being helped up, Callum felt a crushing blow on the side of his head and he fell over, almost losing consciousness. He could see what was going on, but he didn't take it in. He wasn't able to. What he did manage to notice was that there were more than the original twenty four kids they started with.
After half a minute, he noticed his rifle lying beside him. He tried to reach for it but a kid with short black hair, dirty jeans with rips everywhere and an old parka jacket, once grey but now stained red with blood came up to him and stood on his arm as he pointed a gun at him. Callum didn't bother trying to fight against him. The kid then took some rope out of his pocket and started to tie him up.
He tried to make Callum stand up, but when Callum did stand up, he immediately lost consciousness.
45.
Callum woke up hours later. Judging by the lighting in the room, it must've been evening. He stared at the roof above him for a few minutes until he heard someone saw "Callum awake".
Terry and Leo walked up to Callum and looked at him.
"Are you okay?" Terry asked. He had a two and a half inch scar under his chin he looked like he'd been punched once or twice. Leo looked absalutly fine.
"Yeah, I think so." Callum said, trying to sit up. His head hurt when he sat up but it wasn't that bad. He looked around.
He was in a classroom. It must've been the junior infants or senior infants classroom, as the chairs and tables were comically small, especially campered to the teens. Callum was around five foot six, Terry was roughly an inch taller, Leo was a little smaller than Callum and even Fionn, who lay at the other side of the room, was too big for the chairs, despite being just five foot tall. Terrible paintings was also strewn across the wall, along with informational posters about how to use basic grammer and how to count. One frog, two lions, three bees, one of them read.
"Is Fionn doing okay?" Callum asked.
"No." Terry said solemnly. "He's got a horrible fever, he's pale and he's really fuckin' sweaty. Even if we do manage to get him back to Taylor at the castle, he stands little chance."
"He is fucked." Leo said, in his normal French accent. He understood only a little part of what Terry had said.
"Callum nodded. "Yeah." He said quietly.
He stood up and looked around.
"You think we can get out of here?" Callum asked.
"I hope." Terry said. "The door is locked but we're on the ground floor and we could easily break one of the windows with a chair."
"Yeah but then what?" Callum said. "The castle is a forty minute walk away and we have no weapons. Plus, it's turning nighttime and we'll want to get out of here soon."
At this moment, they heard the sound of keys jangling and the door being unlocked. The door opened and two kids stepped in. A boy and girl. Callum had seen the boy earlier, just before he lost consciousness. He was also carrying one of Callums assault rifles. He'd never seen the girl before.
The girl was also holding a bag, which she lay on the table at the end of the room.
"Your food." She said.
"Why the fuck are we here?" Callum asked.
"We can't have kids like you running crazy around these streets." The boy said.
"And you're good fighters, as well." The girl said. "We'll want you on our side."
"Shut up, Joanna." The boy said. "They'll never stick with us. The second we send them out scavenging they'll leg it back to their poxy little castle."
"How'd you know we came from the castle?" Terry asked.
"We talked to couple of your other friends." Joanna said.
"Apparently, you have quiet the set up there." The boy said. "And the weapons we took of you were amazing." He pointed at Callum. "You had two assault rifles on you and another six or seven of ye's had some other great guns."
He held up Callum assault rifle smugly.
"Where'd you get this kit?" He asked.
"Found 'em up my ass." Callum said harshley. He clearly wasn't happy about the whole situation.
"Those are some big words for someone with no weapon." The boy said.
"It's not like your gonna do anything with yours." Callum said. "You're to pussy to use it."
"I'd kill you any day." The boy said. "But your not worth the bullets."
Callum walked over to the boy, stopping three feet short and looked the boy in the eyes.
"Shoot me." He said cockily. "Shoot me, you pussy."
The boy had been expecting an argument, but not this.
"No problem" the Boy said. He aimed the assault rifle at Callum but, no matter how tough he seemed, he clearly didn't want to shoot a kid. He had some heart and Callum could take advantage of that. If he knew how.
"I'll make it easy for you." Callum said. He stepped closer to the kid. He grabbed the barrel of the assault rifle and brought it to the middle of his chest.
"Shoot me." He said, not breaking eye contact. "Bet you won't."
"Don't bother shooting him, Kyle." Joanna told the boy. "Mark will get so pissed at you."
Kyle looked at Joanna and then at Callum.
"You're lucky that cow is here to talk some sense into me." Kyle said, pointing at Joanna. "We'll be back in an hour to pick up the leftover scraps of your food."
Joanna looked pretty pissed about being called a cow but she didn't say anything.
Kyle and Joanna started to walk out the room.
"Running away like a little bitch." Callum said to Kyle. Kyle extended his arm and put up his middle finger.
"Ah, look at this hardy man." Callum taunted sarcastically. "Sticking up his middle finger, what a legend."
Kyle closed the door and they heard it lock.
"So basically," Terry said, sitting down. "You've destroyed any chance of us getting out safely for the next while."
"Yeah." Callum said.
"Nice." Terry smiled. "We'ed better make a plan to get out of here, then."
He walked over to what had been the teachers desk and grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen. He signalled for Leo and Fionn to come over and they crowded around a table. Most of the plan would be drawn as Leo understood little English and Callum, Terry and Fionn knew little French but eventually, a plan was written and they were ready. But would it work. They would soon find out.
