Fighting Back (Battle Ground YA UK Dystopia Series Book 4) Read online

  Fighting Back

  Battle Ground #4

  Rachel Churcher

  www.tallerbooks.com

  CONTENTS

  FROM THE AUTHOR

  NOTES

  PROLOGUE

  Prologue

  JANUARY

  Targets

  Preparation

  Hurt

  Trouble

  Arrested

  News

  Safe

  Warning

  Contact

  Injury

  Idea

  Mistake

  Witness

  Bracken

  Communication

  Retaliation

  Hope

  Contrition

  Games

  Distraction

  Committee

  Morning

  Member

  Margaret

  Lonely

  Spy

  Leaving

  Revelations

  Choices

  Responsibility

  Complications

  Enemy

  Figurehead

  Employee

  Blessing

  Reaction

  Vote

  Franks

  Friends

  Headlines

  Casualties

  Helping

  Confession

  Nightmares

  Trigger

  London

  Ready

  NOTES

  VICTORY DAY

  Chapter 1 - Waiting

  Chapter 2 - Silent

  REVIEWS

  THE BATTLE GROUND SERIES

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Fighting Back: Battle Ground #4

  FROM THE AUTHOR

  Thank you for your interest in the Battle Ground series! If you’re new here, welcome.

  Here’s the part where I do something crazy, for an author. Here’s the part where I tell you not to read this book.

  Fighting Back is Book Four in the Battle Ground series. If you’ve read the earlier books, ignore me. Keep reading. You know the story, and you’re waiting to find out what happens next. But if you haven’t read the earlier books, go back and do that now, before you start Book Four.

  Jumping into the series with Fighting Back is like opening a book in the middle, and hoping you’ll figure out what’s going on. The Battle Ground series is one long story, from Book One through to Book Five, and you’ll need to know what happened to the characters before you meet Bex, just over the page.

  It might sound bossy, me telling you how to read my books, but here’s why it’s important. I rely on reviews to promote my books. I rely on readers leaving honest and thoughtful reviews on Amazon and Goodreads and Library Thing. That’s what encourages other people to pick up my books and read my stories.

  If you read Fighting Back without knowing what happened to my characters before the start of the book, the chances are that you’re going to leave me a bad review. This book references events that took place in Books One, Two, and Three, and without knowing what those events were, and how the characters felt about them, they won’t mean anything - and neither will the story.

  Bad reviews are bad for me, and bad for my writing. Good reviews help me to reach new readers, and that allows me to write more books.

  The good news is that it’s easy to find Battle Ground (Book One). You can buy a paperback copy, or download a Kindle edition, from Amazon - and it’s free on Kindle Unlimited. Just search ‘Rachel Churcher Battle Ground’ on your local Amazon site, and you’ll be reading the start of the story in no time.

  And when you’ve read Battle Ground, False Flag, and Darkest Hour, please pick this book up again and dive right in.

  Thank you for your patience. Bex and Ketty will be waiting for you.

  NOTES

  Margie’s name is pronounced with a hard ‘g’, like the ‘g’ in Margaret: Marg-ie, not Marj-ie.

  Leominster is a town in Herefordshire, UK. It is pronounced ‘Lem-ster’.

  PROLOGUE

  BEX

  JANUARY

  Prologue

  I'm not a terrorist. I don't want to hurt anyone. But this is our chance to fight back.

  I don't want this. I don't want violence and damage and death. I don’t want blood on my hands.

  I don’t want to kill anyone.

  But I don't think we have a choice.

  I need to save Mum. I need to save our friends.

  Everyone is waiting. I've told them what I think – what I want – and they've told me what we need.

  I don't like it. I don't want anything to do with it. But it's my chance to make a difference.

  It’s our chance to win.

  Slowly, I raise my hand, and add my vote to theirs.

  JANUARY

  (EIGHTEEN DAYS EARLIER)

  Targets

  BEX

  “Fire!”

  I pull the trigger on the rifle and send round after round into the silhouette in front of me. The cluster of bullet holes is tight, centred on the middle of the torso.

  “The most important thing is to make the shot. If you don’t shoot, you’ve already missed.” The instructor walks up and down behind us, stopping to correct our grip, or check our accuracy. “And if you miss, the soldier you’re facing will make the shot. You have to take them out before they can do the same to you.”

  I remember facing the barrel of Ketty’s gun on the coach, and Bracken’s as we drove out of camp, and I know she’s right. Wait for a moment, doubt yourself for a moment, and you won’t live to walk away. Take action, have confidence in your gun, and you stand a chance. I think of Jackson, lying in the road. Ketty, her knee ripped from under her by Dan’s bullet. We need to be braver than that. We need to win.

  “Cease fire! Let’s see how good you are.”

  I power my gun down and drop it to my side. The instructor powers up the machinery and my paper target moves slowly towards me over the length of the firing range.

  “Good, Bex. Very good.” She looks over my shoulder as I unclip the silhouette. My bullets have all hit the soldier, a neat circle of holes in the centre of his chest showing the damage I’ve done.

  I try not to think about Saunders, brought down by a single bullet. One day I might have to kill someone, and I need to be thinking about the firing range when I have to make that decision, not my murdered friend. I can’t hesitate. I can’t allow my memories of the bunker and the gatehouse to distract me. I close my eyes and push the image to the back of my mind.

  The instructor checks the magazine in my gun, and counts the bullets left inside. “Next time, concentrate on your speed. See if you can manage this level of accuracy with a higher rate of fire.” She puts her hand on my shoulder. “That’s good, though. Really good. Keep it up.”

  I nod, and try to smile. She clips up another silhouette and moves on to check Dan’s target.

  Amy puts her head round the partition. “How did you do?”

  “OK.” I hold up my sheet of paper. Amy whistles.

  “That’s terrifying, Bex! How do you do that?”

  Charlie leans out from her booth at the end of the row. “Show me?”

  I turn the paper towards her, and she shakes her head. “Glad I’m on your side, Bex.”

  We can do this. We’re getting the training, and we’re getting the support we need. We can fight against Ketty and Bracken and the others. We can save Mum and Margie and Dr Richards. We can take our country back. We can take our lives back.

  I close my eyes, and focus my anger and frustration. Anger at Ketty
for holding my Mum in a cell, and parading her on TV. Anger at Bracken for taking Margie and Dr Richards from me in the farmyard. Anger at the RTS, for taking us from our lives. Anger for Leominster and the bunker and the safe house.

  The instructor resets the targets, and the silhouette moves away from me. I watch as it stops at the far end of the shooting range.

  “Prepare!”

  I power up my gun, and lift it to my shoulder, lining up the sights with the target in front of me. The target is Ketty, and Jackson, and Bracken. The target is the government, and the soldiers they’ve sent after us. The target is Mum’s prison guards.

  I place my finger on the trigger and aim for the heart.

  “Fire!”

  *****

  “If I’m driving the getaway car, you’re firing out of the window, Bex.” Dan shakes his head. “Between us, I think we can get everyone out of danger. I’ll cause maximum disruption, and you take down anyone who comes after us. The government won’t stand a chance.”

  He grins, but the smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

  Charlie puts her tray down next to Dan and unloads her plate onto the table. She shakes her head. “I don’t want to see the damage you two could do. Not until we need it.”

  “We need to be ready.” It’s all I can think of to say.

  “I think the government is secretly thrilled that we’re all hiding in Scotland.” Dan sounds smug. “Less chance of running into us on a dark night. I bet they have nightmares about you.” He nods at me. “They certainly should.”

  “And you, Dan.” Charlie smiles. “You two are as bad as each other.”

  I’d love to laugh about this, but they’re not training us for fun. They’re training us so we can go home and fight back. My success on the shooting range could make the difference between life and death – not just for me, but for my friends as well. And Charlie’s right about Dan – his bullets were as accurate as mine.

  I finish my sandwich and check my watch.

  “Did Amy go to see Jake?”

  “They’re letting him have visitors?” Dan sounds incredulous.

  Charlie puts a finger to her lips. “Not officially.”

  I look past Charlie, to the table where our Liaison Officers are eating lunch together. Jake’s liaison is there, sitting with Gail and the others. I don’t think they’ve heard us.

  “I’ll find her. She’ll need some lunch before training this afternoon.”

  Dan nods, and Charlie gives me a smile as I stand up. I take my tray to the cleanup table and grab an extra packet of sandwiches from the serving hatch, pushing them into my fleece pocket as I walk out of the dining room.

  *****

  Amy isn’t in her room, and I wonder whether she’s still with Jake. When I track her down, she’s in the common room, curled up on the sofa.

  The room is dark – no one’s opened the curtains this morning – and I can hear her sobbing as I walk through the door.

  “Amy?”

  She sniffs, and brushes a hand through her hair, looking up at me. “Bex?”

  “Mind if I turn the lights on?”

  “OK.”

  We both wince as the room lights up. Her face is red and streaked with tears.

  “Mind if I sit down?”

  She shakes her head. I sit next to her on the sofa, cross legged, my back to the arm of the chair.

  “Sandwich?”

  She shakes her head, but takes the packet from me. “Thanks, Bex.”

  I keep my voice gentle. “Did you see him?”

  She nods. “Yeah. The guard let me in for a few minutes, while there was no one else around.”

  “How is he?”

  She looks at me. “He’s really angry, Bex. Really angry.”

  I shrug. “That’s not surprising.”

  “No, but he can’t see anyone else’s side. He’s angry at you, and he’s angry at the rest of us for sticking with you. He’s furious with the OIE. They said they’d keep him safe, and now he’s locked up, and he can’t see why. He thinks he should have the same rights as a Scottish Citizen, even though he’s on a temporary visa. He can’t see what he did wrong.”

  “Does he know about the raid in Newcastle?”

  She nods. “They told him. But he can’t understand that it was his fault. He blames the government, and he can’t see that giving away the location online is what led the soldiers to the safe house.” She shakes her head. “He just wants to be a normal, ordinary person again. He doesn’t want all this responsibility, and he doesn’t want people telling him what to do. He thinks it should be you they’re locking up, not him. He keeps talking about justice, and how it’s all so unfair.”

  She brushes tears away from her cheeks, and her voice drops to a whisper. “And he’s really angry with me.”

  I sit forward and hold out my hand. She takes it in hers.

  “I’m so sorry, Amy.”

  She nods. “He thinks I should be supporting him. He can’t understand why his oldest friend is letting this happen.”

  “It’s not as if there’s anything you can do, even if you wanted to.”

  “I know. But he doesn’t see it that way. I think he’d rather see me locked up as well, than know that I’m out here with you, training together.” She laughs, and squeezes my hand. “He hates the idea that we’re still friends.”

  I smile at her, and clasp her hand more tightly. “So what’s going to happen to him?”

  She shakes her head. “He doesn’t know yet. They won’t tell him.”

  “Are they getting him a tutor? Or someone to talk to?”

  “They tried.” She sighs. “He refused to listen. He’s not cooperating with the OIE at all.”

  “So he just has to wait.”

  She looks at me. “They’ll figure something out, won’t they? They won’t leave him in that room. They have to work out a way to help him.”

  I squeeze her hand again. “I hope so.”

  She looks at the ceiling and nods. “They have to. They got us out of Newcastle. All of us. They’ll find a way to work with him.” She puts her hands to her face and pushes away tears. “It’ll be OK. He’ll come round. He’ll see that he doesn’t have a choice.”

  I nod, and try to smile, but I don’t share her hope. Jake is gone. We’ve lost him, and he’s only here because the terms of our visas say we have to stay with the OIE – on site or escorted at all times. We’re refugees, we’re under the protection of the Opposition In Exile, and we don’t have the kind of freedom Jake is demanding. We’re lucky to be alive, and we’re lucky to have people looking out for us.

  We’d all like to go back to our lives. No one wants to be in exile, training for the fight when we return, but that’s where we are. No amount of wishing or anger will change that. Jake’s been through some terrible things, but so have the rest of us. He’s just reached the end of his ability to cope.

  We need to be there for him. We need to fight for him, as well as for ourselves. And we need to look after each other.

  “Come on. We’ll be late for training.” She nods, and rubs her face with her sleeve. “Go and clean up. I’ll wait.”

  We walk together to her room, and I sit on her bed while she washes her face and pulls on a clean sweater.

  “Ready?”

  She gives me a hug. “Ready.”

  *****

  It’s been a month. Four weeks since they announced Margie’s trial, and four weeks since Jake told the world where we’re hiding. Mum’s been on PIN, every night, and so has Margie. They’re building up to her trial as if it’s some kind of sick sporting event. They want everyone watching. They want us to be watching. They want us to know what they can do.

  We’ve spent the last month learning what we can do. Shooting, driving, combat training. The Scottish government has provided us with armour and rifles, like the ones we trained with at Camp Bishop – but this armour is black, to make us look like professional soldiers. We’ve got the best instructors, and a clas
s of four. Charlie’s doing some training with us, to make up our team, and we’re learning to work together. To fight, without Jake. Without Neesh and Caroline and everyone else we’ve come to rely on.

  The OIE has plans for us. They know we want to fight, and they’re willing to train us. We can’t fight yet, but we’re all working hard.

  When the time comes, we need to be ready.

  Preparation

  KETTY

  “We’ve got permission for the trial.”

  “Sir?”

  Bracken waves a sheet of paper at me over the desk. “Margaret Watson can meet her firing squad whenever we’re ready.” He looks at me. “We need to make this an unmissable event, Ketty. Can we do it?”

  I take the paper. A Trial Order, signed by Brigadier Lee.

  And just like that, I’m responsible for the trial of the year. I’m responsible for showing the terrorists that they can’t win. For showing Ellman and her gang what we can do – to her, and to her friends.

  For weeks of interrogations and TV slots. For making Margaret the star of her own execution.

  I look up, smiling. “Yes, Sir. I think we can.”

  *****

  The firing range is empty when I check in. The Private on duty hands me a box of bullets and a pair of ear defenders, and I make my way to the furthest booth. I clip a target to the track, and send it to the end of the range.

  I pull my gun from the holster on my belt, make sure it’s loaded, and line up the sights with the target. I breathe, slowly, and focus on the figure in front of me.

  Everything else is gone from my head. I can see the gun, and the silhouette.

  And I can feel the power.

  The handgun recoils after every shot, but I am in control. I focus on the target, and fire careful shots down the length of the range.