‘Good point.’
‘How about you tell them that Riley heard soldiers walking past her window talking about how they were going to do us some serious harm?’ Luc says. ‘She panicked and came to fetch me.’
‘That would work,’ says Denzil. ‘Then you knocked out one of the soldiers and took me at gunpoint from my post at the checkpoint. I’ll tell them you tied me up in the back of your AV, but I untied my ankles and threw myself out the back of the moving vehicle. Sound believable to you?’
We half nod, half shake our heads, wearing doubtful expressions.
‘Well, it’ll have to do,’ Denzil says.
‘Maybe you could throw them off our scent,’ says Luc. ‘Tell them you saw us stop and pull off the road. That we’re driving cross-country in the other direction, heading back down south.’
‘Yeah, I can do that,’ Denzil replies. ‘Meantime, you stay put till dawn. By then I should’ve been able to draw them south, away from here. I’ll tell ‘em you’re probably heading back to Bournemouth, frightened out of your stupid minds.’
‘Hey!’ I say with mock indignance. ‘Are you sure there’s no other way? I don’t like to think of you going back there when you hate it so much.’
Denzil smiles and shakes his head. ‘We’re running out of time. It’s the only plan I can think of that’s got a chance of working. I need this guard job, so I need you to get out of here alive.’ He points at the jacket I’m wearing. ‘I’m gonna need that back.’
I shrug it off and hand it to him.
‘We have to make it look authentic,’ says Luc.
‘No holds barred then. My life depends on it.’
We bind his hands together with rope and give his ankles rope burns, so it looks as though they’ve been bound.
Denzil turns to Luc, ‘I’m relying on you to give me what you got.’
Luc takes a breath and punches Denzil hard on the mouth. I flinch. He’s bleeding from the lip, but he doesn’t make a sound.
Luc finds a jagged piece of metal from the warehouse floor and uses it to rip down one side of Denzil’s uniform. Luc rips the bottom of his shirt and makes a gag for Denzil’s mouth. Lastly, Denzil rolls in the dirt.
We stand awkwardly silent for a moment.
‘Thank you, Denzil,’ says Luc. ‘But you know you really don’t have to do this. We could all just make a run for it.’
‘Man, you didn’t just mess up my uniform and give me a fat lip for nothing. I’ve been with these sorry-ass soldiers for years now, a few weeks longer won’t hurt and then I can get to Bournemouth no problem. Anyway, didn’t you hear me before? I need you to escape so you can give me the job of highly paid guard with chunky Christmas bonus.’
‘The job’s definitely yours,’ Luc says. ‘Thanks, mate. Good luck. We‘ll see you soon.’ They shake hands and Luc presses some gold pieces into his hand. ‘To help you find your way back to us.’
I give Denzil a hug and kiss his cheek. He passes me the gag and I tie it around his mouth, mindful of the purple bruise and split lip.
He smiles, lifts up the garage door a fraction and rolls out into the dangerous night. All we can do now is sit and wait.
*
It’s quiet. Not once do we hear soldiers nearby. Hopefully Denzil has thrown them off our trail.
‘I'll sleep in the front, you take the back seat,’ offers Luc.
‘No way. You’re definitely taking the back seat, you're still recovering from your bang on the head.’ Luc doesn't think I notice each time he winces at the pain the raiders inflicted. ‘Anyway, you need a decent night’s sleep more than I do. I already had some kip back at the barracks.’
‘Riley, if you don't take the back seat, I'll sleep on the floor outside.’
‘Urrgh, you're such a gentleman,’ I huff, feeling guilty. But I know he will actually sleep on the floor if I don't do as I’m told, so I climb into the back seat and make myself comfortable.
‘Night, Luc.’
‘Night, Riley. Sleep well ... if you can.
‘Thanks.’
‘You did really well tonight, coming to get me in the mess hall. That was a horrible call to make, knowing whether or not to trust Denzil. I don't know what would've happened if we'd stayed.’
‘I'm sorry I was such a wimp before. Leaving you to go and eat with those hideous soldiers.’
‘It wasn’t your fault. You were ill.’
‘I’m still sorry.’
‘Well, it's a good thing you didn’t come otherwise we would’ve been stuck there. And it turned out fine, so don’t worry about it. I just hope Denzil’s alright.’
‘He saved us,’ I say. ‘And he didn’t even know us.’
The rest of the night is long and strangely lonely. Denzil has left a big gap. Luc and I had quickly gotten used to his company. I pray he’s going to be alright, that he’ll manage his escape to Bournemouth soon. We owe him our lives.
Luc and I chat about nothing until finally we manage to doze off for an hour or two.
Now early morning has crept up on us and I feel cold and stiff. I’m worrying about Denzil and wonder if he’s succeeded in fooling his colleagues.
It’s strange spending the night alone with Luc. I hope things will go back to normal between us. I hope our feelings for each other will subside and we can be friends again with no awkwardness. But that kiss keeps trying to replay itself over and over in my mind. It’s just the stress of the journey, I tell myself. That’s all it is. Nothing more.
I regret not asking Denzil sooner about Chambers. I should have got more answers. Now it’s beginning to look like a lost cause on all fronts. Last night was probably the end of the trail.
We’ve got no plans of action left. We’ve got no new leads to follow. Our prime goal was Century Barracks, relying on the soldiers to point us in the right direction. Now we’ve reached a dead end. We’ll have to keep going onwards to my grandparents’ house.
Maybe we can stop at settlements along the way and show Chambers’ picture to everyone we meet. After all, he’s rumoured to be somewhere in the West Country and we are heading west, so it’s possible someone might recognise him. But I don’t really believe this is going to get us anywhere. It’s hopeless.
I’m deflated. My bones are damp and I feel grubby and irritable. Watery sunlight filters through the trees and into the hole in the warehouse roof, but it isn’t enough to warm the chilly space. As well as everything else, I’m really conscious our parents will now be sick with worry. I’ve got to face it, this trip has been a hideous mistake causing nothing but grief and distress. I shiver for the millionth time and try to think of something to make me feel less miserable. But I’m on a real downer.
Luc has been rummaging around for ages in the front, trying to find something.
‘What are you looking for?’
He lifts his head and passes me a large bar of whole nut milk chocolate. ‘Breakfast? Half each?’ he grins.
‘Damn good idea,’ I say, a reluctant smile escaping at the thought of such decadence.
At seven o’clock we risk opening the garage door. The sunshine streams into the gloomy warehouse. The brightness, combined with a sugar rush from breakfast, does a lot to lighten my mood.
‘Wait here,’ says Luc. ‘I’m just going to have a little scout around and make sure there’s no one about.’
‘Can I come with you?’
‘Yeah, course.’
We crawl under the garage door and stand up, blinking and squinting in the light. The sun on my skin feels good and I stretch my body, catlike in the warmth. Then I turn around three hundred and sixty degrees to take in our surroundings. We’re standing in a sun-drenched clearing encircled by trees and bushes. The vine-covered warehouse has almost merged into the surrounding forest.
Last night’s storm has washed away our tyre tracks, so we head towards a gap in the foliage. We walk for only a few seconds before finding ourselves back on the narrow main road.
Ge
ntle birdsong permeates the air and a startled squirrel spirals up a tree next to me. It’s like we’re in a completely different place to the eerie ghost town we reluctantly entered last night. This morning we’ve awoken to the heat-hazed jungle of a lost civilisation. A dappled light plays through the trees and I half-expect to see fairies and goblins or perhaps a unicorn come trotting through the forest. Steam from last night’s rainstorm rises in soft billowing puffs from the drying land and the morning air smells fresh and loamy.
We stand for a minute, staring down along the track at the shimmering, half-ruined buildings that have sunk back into the soft earth.
‘I don’t think there’s anyone here, do you?’ says Luc.
‘Doesn’t look like it. But what if we start up the engine and someone hears?’
‘Mm.’ Luc pauses in thought. ‘The thing is, I don’t think it’s a good idea to hang around here for much longer. We’re too close to Warminster. They might come back when they don’t find us to the south.’
‘You’re right,’ I say. ‘Let’s just go. Come on.’
Luc gazes at me for a moment and then catches my infectious urgency. We run back to the AV, laughing hysterically and almost tripping ourselves up in the process. I’ve got that silly-scared feeling, like when Skye and I were young and Pa would pretend to be a bear, chasing us up the stairs and we’d scream and squeal in terror. Only this time, the terror is partially real. Well on my part, anyway.
We push up the warehouse door, jump into the AV, breathless with recklessness, and Luc starts up the engine. Bouncing back onto the track, we drive lightning fast out of Westbury, hearts pounding, hoping to God no one’s following us.
Chapter Thirty Five
Riley
*
One hour on the road and we start to relax and to believe we might have eluded the soldiers. Denzil has saved our lives and we’re indebted to him.
We drive through beautiful open countryside swathed in rolling hills of pale green, cinnamon and gold, textured like billowing raw silk. After our exhausting confrontations and escapes, I suddenly feel exhilarated and untouchable. The road widens out, smoother and less-potholed, so we fly over the tarmac at nearly forty miles-per-hour in some places, laughing at the freedom.
At this point, I think we both realise our mission is doomed to failure due to a complete lack of information. Also, if I’m totally honest, we’ve got no real plan for what we would do if we did happen to stumble across our fugitive, other than pull out a gun and shoot him, which now seems like another unrealistic piece of fantasizing.
After a majorly depressed start to the day, I quickly reconcile myself to the fact that there are too many elements beyond my control and the best I can do is to soak up this adventure to the full. Skye would understand that events have conspired to work against us. Perhaps it’s her, protecting us from crossing paths with this evil man. I know we won’t find him. Maybe I knew this all along, but refused to accept it.
In my new realistic frame of mind, I try to kid myself that what I feel for Luc is circumstantial lust – he’s the only person I’m with, so of course I’m attracted to him. There’s no one else to compare him with. But one glance across at him and I’m in freefall. I turn away and think instead of Skye, seeing her face in my mind.
We change places so Luc can have a break. I begin to enjoy the drive, gazing out of the window at the endless scenery. Bottle-green woodland pins down the edges of the landscape with not even a hint of autumn in the leaves yet.
Up ahead, I spot a small bright shape on the horizon and try to work out what it is. It doesn’t look like a helicopter and it’s too large and slow to be a bird. Soon it’s out of sight behind a distant hill. I dismiss it and don’t think it important enough to wake Luc who’s fallen asleep. Ten minutes later I see it again, only this time it’s much closer and I think I now know what it is.
‘Luc, look!’
He opens his eyes, on instant alert.
‘A hot air balloon!’ I say.
‘What? Where?’
‘There, over to your left. I saw it a while back, but I couldn’t work out what it was. It’s amazing.’
‘Mm,’ says Luc, stretching. ‘I hope it doesn’t get any closer.’
‘What do you mean? Why?’
‘Nothing, I’m just being paranoid. It’s just a balloon.’
But his paranoia is catching as half an hour later the balloon has drifted nearer and is travelling parallel to our route. It’s close enough for us to see its white and orange diamond pattern and we can also make out several figures standing in the basket.
‘Okay, I don’t like the look of that at all,’ says Luc. He reaches down into the footwell and takes out the binoculars. I pull over to the side of the road as he stares through the lenses, adjusting the focus.
‘There are two, three, four people in there, as far as I can make out. And they’ve got binoculars trained on us too.’
‘What?’ My heart speeds up and I hear the blood whooshing in my ears.
‘We need to hide,’ he says.
I look around. It’s a clear bright day and we’re travelling on probably the only road for miles around in a metallic grey vehicle that glints like a beacon in the sunshine. We may as well have plastered a big sign across our roof that reads ‘come and get us’.
‘Do you think it’s the army?’ I ask.
‘It would be a bit weird for the army to travel around in an orange balloon, but we can’t take any chances. I don’t want to hang around and find out.’
‘Me neither.’
‘Let’s find somewhere to hide and let’s do it quickly.’
‘We could drive back the way we came,’ I suggest. ‘They must have to go with the wind and they won’t be able to turn as quickly as we can. I saw a track about five minutes back there. Maybe there are some trees we could shelter under.’
‘Do it,’ he says.
I perform a clumsy seven point turn, sweating and apologising as I do so. Luc puts his hand on my arm and leaves it there.
‘You’re doing great. They’re probably nothing to do with us anyway. We’re just doing this to be on the safe side.’
‘Thanks, I’m okay. It’s just, after those raiders and Grey and the army and everything.’
‘I know.’ He leans over and kisses my cheek. Even in my terrified state, my heart beats double time for a whole new reason.
‘I’ll put the shockplates on this time, just in case.’ I turn to look at him and he holds my gaze. I look away first, a jumble of emotions coursing through me.
‘There!’ He points. I scan the middle distance and see the roof of an old barn.
‘Brilliant.’ Revving the engine, I nose the AV up a steep bank and through the trees. There, we find just what we’re searching for - a dilapidated grey stone barn surrounded by trees. It’s really just one wall and a roof with a couple of rusted supports at the front.
I park the AV under its concealing roof and turn off the engine. We sit in silence, listening to the faint ticking and clicking of the tired engine as it cools down.
Hunger distracts us from danger, so we spread the rug out on the grassy barn floor and feast on crackers with marmite and apples from a nearby tree. We pick some juicy blackberries from a hedgerow next to the barn and gorge ourselves silly on them, until our hands and tongues are stained purple.
Luc takes the binoculars and creeps back onto the road to search the sky for our floating friends. A minute later he returns.
‘I can’t see them.’
‘Do you think they’ve gone?’
‘I don’t know, but we should wait here for a bit, until we’re sure. They won’t be able to spot us from up there anyway.’
‘God, that was scary,’ I reply. ‘I was convinced they were after us.’
‘A hot air balloon can’t really compete with the AV. Let’s just chill here for a bit.’
We lie side by side on the rug in the cool shade of the open barn, listening to the wi
nd sweep through the long grass.
We don’t speak and my heart thumps in my chest. I can’t feel the ground beneath my body and yet, at the same time, it feels like I’m connected to the earth itself.
Luc’s hand is so close to mine that I feel the heat from his skin. And then he moves it the thousand miles required to hold my hand. I don’t know how long we lie here like this, just holding hands. It could be seconds or minutes or hours.
I want him to make a move, but at the same time I don’t.
‘Riley …’
‘Yeah?’ My voice comes out as a whisper.
‘What you said, before, about Skye. About us. Did you really mean it?’
‘Yes,’ I say. I let go of his hand and sit up, hugging my knees to my chest.
He sits up too and faces me, cross-legged. He reaches forward and tilts my chin up so I’m forced to look at him. His eyes are blue, his face is beautiful and I want nothing more than to lean forward and kiss him. But I can’t.
‘I love you, Riley.’
My heart fills up with a feeling I’ve never known before. I can’t believe he’s spoken those words.
‘Luc …’
‘It’s okay if you don’t feel the same way. I just had to tell you.’
‘It’s not that. It’s just … I would feel like a bad person if we took this further. Skye was my sister and she had feelings for you.’
‘Me and Skye would never have happened. I loved her like a sister. Nothing more.’
‘I know that. I do, but …’
Luc stands up and takes a breath. ‘I don’t want you to feel any pressure, Riley. Not after everything you’ve been through. That’s the last thing I want. I just need you to know that I could make you happy. We both loved Skye and she loved us. I don’t think it would be wrong.’
His words are seductive and I want so much to believe them.
‘I can’t,’ I say. Even though in my head I’m saying the words, ‘yes, yes, I love you too’.
He bows his head and walks away.
Luc is gone for a while, but I don’t go after him. I figure he needs to be alone. And although I think I’ve done the right thing, I also feel like a bitch for rejecting him. I admit to myself that I do love Luc and I know that we could be really happy together.
Skye wasn’t a jealous person. She was good and sweet and generous. She would be happy for us. I know she would. But something is still stopping me. As much as I want to be with him, I know my decision is the right one. I can’t betray Skye’s memory.