End of the Road

By Diem Burden

What is it about cops that we find so intriguing? Most people have strong views of the police, but how many of these views are based on evidence, and which are biased or stereotypes? What makes a person leave a perfectly normal life and join the police, putting themselves instantly into harms way, and suffering health issues that come with working a lifetime of shift-work, not to mention a messed-up social life?

This is the true, short story of just such a person who ended up spending 12 years at the sharp end of policing in the beautiful city of Cambridge in the UK.

It starts with a seemingly routine day in the life of young British soldier Diem Burden. His life is at a crossroads: his military career rapidly coming to an end with no idea of what to do post-army. With a new family to support, the pressure is mounting on him to find a way forward – and soon.

Returning back to camp after an idyllic day out, the squaddie is thrown into a horrifying tragedy which puts him to the test, as well as those around him. Later, whilst trying to cope with the trauma of that dreadful event, a seed is quietly planted which, with a slight bit of nurturing, leads Diem along a certain path.

Warning: Contains strong language and graphic descriptions of death and injury from the outset.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diem Burden
• Release date: May 6, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476268316

Diem Burden

Award-winning author Diem Burden (DM Burden) grew up the middle of five sons to a working class family in the north Midlands, UK. Childhood was extremely hard and money was scarce.From an early age, he showed an artistic talent in painting and drawing, so much so that one of his drawings mysteriously disappeared from his school foyer (last seen at the home of a teacher, allegedly...)Destined for art college, Diem grew so frustrated with further education that one day he got up and walked out of college, and joined the army for six years. After his military service, he became a police officer in Cambridge, UK. He left that job as a sergeant after 12 years walking the beat.By then, he was on his second marriage, and moved to Spain to teach English in 2002. He helped to set up a highly successful language school in Spain before semi-retiring in 2020 to focus on his new passion: writing.He published five short stories of his time as a cop in Cambridge, and wrote an additional (free) ebook available to people who sign up to his newsletter, which is a humorous look at his tough childhood, and perhaps implies he should never have become a cop all those years later!At the end of the year of Covid (2020), his life was rocked when he suddenly lost his eldest brother to cancer. His marriage ended at the same time and he found himself alone in Spain at 55 years of age.Over the next six months, Diem fell into a deep and dark depression, struggling to get out of bed most days. He just opted out of life, giving up on writing altogether.In mid-2021, a stranger walked into his local café and led him on a three-month journey he could never have expected: the ardent and highly opinionated atheist subsequently found Jesus, who changed his life around instantly.The story of that miracle is told in his book, Come to the Table.Now, unless God has any other plans for him, he is finishing his series of books (Get up and Walk) of his pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago in Spain, walking each stage with a different action plan with God.

Book preview

End of the Road

Part one of

THE ROZZERS

by

Diem Burden

LEGAL

Published by Shriven Books

Copyright 2012 © Diem Burden

Smashwords Edition

Copy-edited by Jan Marshall

Cover design © Jan Marshall

Soldier image © Vladimir Ivanov | Dreamstime.com

Police Officer image © Editorial | Dreamstime.com

Police Car image © Alan Mathews

Landscape image © Yorkman | Yaymicro.com

Sky image © Mykola Mazuryk | Dreamstime.com

All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author.

DISCLAIMER

This short story is based, in part, upon actual events and persons. I have tried to recreate events, locales and conversations from my memories of them. In order to maintain their anonymity in all instances, I have changed the names of individuals and places. I may have changed some identifying characteristics and details such as physical properties, occupations and places of residence, as well as other descriptive details. Some of the events and characters are also composites of several individual events or persons.

Throughout this book I generally refer to police officers in the male form. This is not meant as disrespect to the many female officers doing the same job: it is purely for ease of writing. I have nothing but admiration for all police officers, male and female, who do an amazing job fighting both the criminal, and the bureaucracy dumped on them from above.

CHAPTER ONE

The sun had dipped below the horizon. The sky turned a sharp orange as darkness spread out across the desolate plain. Overtaking us in the distance was the black outline of a familiar Gazelle helicopter as it flew back to the nearby Army Air Corps base.

I glimpsed a sign for Stonehenge, which marked the halfway point. We’d soon be back in camp, showered and dressed, and out in Andover town centre with its limited pubs, yet numerous girls.

As the alcohol took hold of hungry men drinking too quickly, the debate between Pizza and Donk over the advantages of computers versus plant equipment became more and more animated.

Pizza was the baby of the group – a young, funny lad of about eighteen years of age who had earned his nickname on account of his poor complexion, and had never once challenged it. That was the kind of guy he was.

Nah, said Donk. You dunna want none of that bollocks. Waste of bloody time, computers.

Hilariously, Donk was proud of being called Donk, which we all knew was short for donkey. Built like a horse, he naively believed he’d earned the moniker on account of the size of his penis. He hadn’t – it was because he had a very long face that vaguely resembled that of a donkey. We never had the heart to correct him.

Construction’s where the money’s at, Donk continued. With the qualifications you’ve got, just top ’em up with a trucker’s licence on your pre-release course. Get a top job anywhere in the world with those quals, mate.

What Donk was saying made perfect sense, and the free, month-long course given to all army leavers meant I could gain a qualification in almost anything I wanted. I had just twelve months to decide, and having to put my name down for a course was another reason I needed to make some decisions about my future, and soon.

A mate of mine took a course in London with computers, said Pizza, undaunted. Did the lot, he did, and got loads of certificates at the end.

"And became what? A bleedin’ secretary?" scoffed Donk.

He’s right though, Dave, said Cat. Like it or not, computers will be everywhere in the next few years. Could be useful to have computer skills – never know where it might lead.

Corporal ‘Cat’ Stevens was a newly qualified truck driver who had enthusiastically jumped at driving that day, although the unexpected beers (which I’ll come to shortly) had made him wish otherwise. Cat was my top drinking partner. Everybody liked Cat, and boy could he drink.

I sighed. "You’re probably right, Cat, but computers? I mean, what