And shouting. Always shouting.
He could see that the museum kids weren’t too happy about Blue’s announcement. Some of them were clustered round him, having a go.
Shouting.
Blue stared them down until they fell quiet again. Then he pointed at Caspar lying on a pew.
‘All right then,’ he said. ‘You pick him up and dump him in one of your stupid trolleys and we’ll wheel him out there, yeah? How long do you think he’ll last? As I get it from talking to Einstein last night, where we’re headed ain’t so far away. So I’m going to take a small group of experienced fighters rather than dragging all you museum noobs along. You’ll only get in the way and slow us down. You are gonna stay here and barricade yourselves in, yeah? No way any grown-ups can get in.’ Blue showed no emotions at all, neither happy nor sad. He was just stating how things were.
‘You’ll be a lot safer than out there on the streets with us. You can look after Caspar. Make sure he’s all right. If any of you got a better idea let’s have it.’
Nobody said anything.
‘OK. For now, we’re leaving behind the trolleys too.’
Einstein made to protest, but Blue cut him dead with a look.
‘Once you’ve found what you’re looking for we’ll carry it here if we can. Otherwise we leave it, come back for the trolleys and everyone else. By then we’ll know what it’s like out there. No one got any problem with that …? Good.’
Blue looked at Einstein. ‘I guess you need to come with us. Who else?’
‘Only really Emily.’
‘Who’s Emily?’
‘I am.’ A blonde girl who looked to be about fourteen stepped forward. ‘I’m Einstein’s assistant. Emily Winter.’
‘Emily can help me choose what we need to pick up,’ said Einstein.
‘Anyone else?’
‘Jackson, I suppose, if we’re taking the best fighters.’
‘Good. It’s decided then.’
A small voice piped up. ‘What about me?’
It was Lettis. She went up to Blue, carrying her big book. Ollie smiled. She was a plucky kid.
‘I’ll need to be there,’ she said.
‘No way, babe,’ said Blue, and he shook his head.
‘But I have to come with you. I have to write about it. I have to be there and witness it with my own eyes.’ Lettis was red-faced, almost crying.
‘Who says?’ Blue asked.
‘Chris Marker. The librarian. He told me I have to bear witness to events.’
‘You’ve witnessed enough,’ said Ollie, walking over to her. ‘We’ll tell you all about it later on.’ He put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. ‘As Blue says, we won’t be long. We’ll probably be back by lunchtime.’
‘But finding the stuff, the drugs and chemicals and things, that’s the most important part of the story,’ said Lettis. ‘I can’t miss that.’
‘I’ll write everything down, OK?’ said Ollie. ‘I know how important it is to you.’
‘No …’
‘Uh-uh.’
Ollie cut her off. Squatted down to her level and looked into her face.
‘It’s too dangerous, Lettis. We don’t want any more of you to get hurt. Don’t argue. OK? You do what I say.’
‘OK.’
‘Good girl. Now I want you to promise me something, Lettis.’
‘What?’
‘That when we go you don’t open these doors. OK? Not for anything. Nobody goes outside. You understand?’
‘All right.’
‘You only open them for us. When we get back. Will you promise me that?’
‘I promise.’
Twenty minutes later a smaller war party left the church: Ollie with his missile team, Big Mick and Blue and the rest of the Morrisons crew, as well as Achilleus and Paddy. Of the museum kids only Einstein, Emily and Jackson were coming along on this leg. They’d left behind nine kids.
Ollie felt much happier with this set-up. They could go faster and he wouldn’t have to worry about protecting anyone else – except maybe Einstein and Emily. That was manageable. He fell in beside Jackson, who was loping along, her spear over her shoulder.
‘Can you make it your job to look after those two,’ he said, nodding at the ‘scientists’.
‘If you like,’ said Jackson.
‘Any fighting and I don’t want to be worrying about them.’
‘No problem. Emily can look after herself pretty well. Einstein – who knows?’
She smiled at Ollie, which softened her severe-looking face a little.
Ollie smiled back. With any luck, today was going to be easier than yesterday. It was only two, maybe three miles to the Promithios site. It should take them less than an hour to get there.
They walked through the trees and into the park. The grass had grown long and was filled with tall weeds. Ollie ran his hand across the top of the lush growth, stroking the seeds at the ends of the stalks. It tickled in a pleasant way. Reminded him that he was alive. And then he remembered coming through Regent’s Park in the night, how the diseased apes had hidden in the long grass, waiting to ambush them.
He tensed as a startled brown bird flapped noisily up in front of him and hauled itself away, its wings rattling, flying low over the grass. Ollie laughed.
No bad things. Not today. Not in the bright sun.
A few metres away, sheltering under the trees, three sickos were lying on the ground. They were so filthy and encrusted with dirt that they blended perfectly with their surroundings. Only their eyes showed white. One of them rolled and managed to struggle up into a seated position, looking out over the top of some bracken. It had taken a great deal of effort as he had no arms. They had both rotted away. It made his head look unnaturally large.
He looked at his two companions. They were his hands and arms. The three of them worked together, their minds melded into one. They exchanged looks. Should they follow the walkers?
No. Stay here.
They were hungry, but they would wait. Not go crawling out into the burning sun. Not go chasing after the group of fighters who were steadily walking away from them. Not when there was other prey. Closer. Weaker. They’d smelt the fresh blood and sent out the call. Others of their kind were nearby, coming closer, ready to help. They were singing to each other. Their song of death.
34
Big Mick didn’t like the countryside. Never had. He liked houses and wide roads, cars, offices, shops. They were familiar to him. Home. Not trees and grass and dirt. It didn’t look right and it didn’t smell right. He’d grown up in London. Felt safe among houses. He understood buildings. They had a use. Even if they were full of grown-ups these days.
This was different. He didn’t know what to expect. There was no order to it. Things just growing everywhere. A mess. Confusing. He’d spent all his life in the streets around Holloway, apart from occasional trips down Oxford Street to look at the shops, and one disastrous holiday in Suffolk. He’d never forgotten that. He’d made a new friend at primary school, a boy called Charlie Piper, and when Mick was ten Charlie’s family had asked him if he wanted to go on holiday with them to their caravan park in the countryside. Mick hadn’t been sure, but his parents said he should go.
Worst week of his life.
All right, perhaps not as bad as the week when his mum got sick and killed his dad, but up until then it had been the worst, and he still felt wobbly when he thought about it. It had been wet and uncomfortable and there was mud everywhere. He’d been terrified of the noises at night, owls and foxes and probably wolves by the sound of it. And worst of all was the boredom. There’d been nothing to do. No TV, no games console, no shops to look at, no corners to hang out on. That was the worst thing about the countryside – no corners.
They’d had picnics on the beach in the rain and the sand had got in his food. They’d gone for walks in the woods and Mick had walked into a tree and poked his eye. He still had a little scar.
Yeah. It had
been well bad. Mick had been bored and scared and had missed his mum and dad and his proper, normal food.
He’d stopped being friends with Charlie Piper after that. And it was the first and last time he’d been to the countryside.
Until today.
Although, now he thought about it, he could see they weren’t really in the country, just a big park. There were houses up ahead and streets. He chilled. They were getting back to civilization.
‘Are we still in London?’ he asked Blue, who was walking just ahead of him.
‘Dunno.’ Blue looked around. ‘It’s London airport, innit, Heathrow? And the tube goes there, so I suppose we’re in London. Or right on the edge.’
‘I wish we were back in Holloway.’
‘You homesick, big man?’
‘Yeah, a bit.’
‘That is moist, man. You’re our top fighter, Mick. Don’t want you wimping out on me.’
‘I ain’t wimping out, Blue. I’m just saying we was doing all right back in Holloway.’
‘Maybe yes, maybe no,’ said Blue. ‘Was getting harder and harder to find food. In some ways they got a good thing going down at the museum.’
‘We gonna stay there?’
‘Dunno, mate. We’ll see, we’ll see. I’ll tell you, though, Mick, whatever happens, when we get back to the museum we ain’t going anywhere for a bare long time. We are staying put and resting up.’
‘Sounds like a plan.’
‘I’m glad you like it, blood, cos it’s the only one I got.’
They were approaching the edge of the park and Mick could see houses through the trees.
‘You reckon there’s gonna be grown-ups out this way?’ he asked.
‘What do you think?’
‘I think we’ve had an easy start today, but it’s gonna get worse.’
‘It always gets worse,’ said Blue.
‘Yeah. That’s the one thing you can be sure of.’ Mick laughed.
It was quiet when they broke through the line of trees and got out on to the road. There was a row of old-fashioned-looking houses, those ones with fake wooden beams in the walls. They were dark, the windows broken, some of the doors hanging open. Dead and deserted. Cars covered in dirt and dust and bird shit stood on flat tyres.
Soon they came to a good wide road and Mick felt happier. This was an ugly part of town, made for cars rather than people, with lots of small businesses and offices. Didn’t bother Mick, though. It was familiar. The Holloway Road had been pretty butters, with its crappy shops and takeaway food joints.
They’d been walking for about fifteen minutes when they saw their first grown-up. A mother. Standing in an overgrown front garden, staring up at the sky, her arms straight out in front of her, as if reaching for something. They almost walked right past her. It was Mick who spotted her and he swore. The others stopped, made ready for a fight.
‘Leave it,’ said Blue. ‘She ain’t going nowhere. Look at her, she’s like one of them stupid living statues you used to get down Covent Garden.’
‘Are you saying we just ignore it?’ said Einstein. He obviously wanted to get a closer look, but was too scared. ‘Why’s it out in the sunlight like that? You can see her face is burnt.’
He was right. As well as being deformed by the usual growths and swellings, the mother’s skin was blistered and peeling. In fact, as Mick looked at her, he thought he could see her face sort of seething and boiling and twitching. He took a step closer. Maybe her brain had been completely eaten away? Maybe she was like a shell. Nothing inside. If you hit her head it might just crumple …
‘Leave it,’ Blue repeated and carried on walking. The others could do nothing but follow, glancing back over their shoulders at the mother just standing there. Even when they had left her well behind Mick felt a sort of prickle in the back of his neck. He knew she was still there behind him and one thing he’d learnt in the last year was that you never turned your back on a grown-up. It just felt wrong, to leave her there. It was bad luck.
They saw two more grown-ups in the same poses and each time Blue made them hurry past.
‘If they ain’t attacking us we ain’t attacking them. Waste of time.’
Mick was itching, though. He wanted to lash out at something. Wanted to hit something. He carried a big wooden club and had a long knife at his belt. Sometimes the only thing that made him feel OK was to break something. Shake things up.
And then, when they arrived at the Promithios site, he realized he was going to get the chance.
The place was crawling with grown-ups.
35
Their route had taken them to the east of the airport into an area of small businesses, warehouses and factories. There were several car repairers mixed up with companies that had made all sorts of things – windows, swimming-pool pumps, kitchen cabinets, cardboard boxes – as well as places that had serviced the airport and airlines, like caterers and cleaners. Promithios Biomedical was on a slightly grander and more modern complex called a ‘Corporate Park’, which seemed to be mostly made up of big, ugly, windowless buildings clad in metal and concrete. It sat behind a black metal fence, with a gatehouse and big sliding gates, and that’s where the grown-ups were clustered. Maybe twenty of them, out in the sun, scrabbling like mad dogs to get past the fence and inside.
As soon as he saw them, Blue ordered the war party to stop, and they hunkered down behind some parked cars.
‘We could find another way in,’ said Einstein. ‘I mean, we’re going to have to climb over the fence, whatever.’
‘Yeah,’ said Blue. ‘But if we’re going to shift the gear out we’ll need to get rid of that lot. I don’t want to be worrying about them all the time we’re inside.’
‘You’re sure it’s safe to attack them?’ asked Einstein.
‘Course it’s not safe,’ Blue scoffed. ‘But it’s still the best bet. I’d feel bare happy if we could kick them off the bus. Then we could try and get the gates open; gonna be easier all round if we do that.’
‘They don’t look too handy,’ said Mick. ‘They’re a pretty sick bunch.’
Ollie looked at the grown-ups. They were on the young side. None of them looked much older than thirty. But the disease hadn’t been kind to them. Most of them were missing body parts. One or two had lost so much of their flesh and skin that they looked like living skeletons. Others were fat and bloated, swollen, lumpy and mushy-looking.
‘We need to kill them all,’ said Blue matter-of-factly.
‘All right, all right.’ Einstein was going weirdly hyper, like he couldn’t wait to lay into the grown-ups. Ollie hoped he wouldn’t try to get to the front of the attack. He sidled over to Blue and spoke quietly to him.
‘We got to keep the noobs out of the fight,’ he said.
‘Yeah.’ Blue nodded and sucked his teeth. Then he made a decision.
‘Einstein, you and Emily and Jackson stay back here with Ollie’s team. Keep watch for any other grown-ups who might come up on us from behind.’
‘We can fight,’ said Einstein.
‘Jackson, maybe, but you other two we need unharmed, or else this whole mission has been one big waste of time. And don’t go getting in the way of Ollie.’
‘I’m telling you, we can fight,’ said Einstein.
‘No, you can’t,’ said Blue in a way that told Einstein it was the end of the conversation.
Achilleus pulled his best spear out of the golf-bag and gave Paddy a little shove, sending him stumbling into Einstein.
‘Look after this one as well,’ he said to Ollie, and Paddy knew better than to argue.
‘I don’t want to have to carry me own weapons back,’ Achilleus added, weighing the spear in his hand.
‘Ollie, you know the beef,’ said Blue. ‘Keep spamming them pus-bags and once you’ve softened them up watch our backs.’
‘Sure.’ Ollie wasn’t too happy about babysitting Einstein. His whole idea had been to be responsible only for his small missile unit, but he could se
e the sense in Blue’s plan.
The kids quickly formed up into a battle line: Achilleus on the right with Blue; Mick on the left; Ollie in the centre; Einstein, Jackson, Emily and Paddy safely behind them.
When Ollie’s team was ready they let fly. Two slingshots and two javelins flew through the air and whacked into the backs of the grown-ups clustered by the gates, and, as four of them went down, the others turned to see what was happening. Ollie had time to fire off another shot, but then had to pull his squad back as the grown-ups advanced surprisingly quickly, teeth bared, claw-like fingers groping the air. They were desperate for food, sent crazy by the sunlight, unafraid of any danger.
Ollie dropped in behind the advancing fighters and checked that Einstein and the others were holding their position.
‘I should be up front,’ said Jackson.
‘You’ll get your chance,’ said Ollie. ‘Don’t worry.’
‘I want to show Achilleus what I can do.’
‘Save it,’ said Ollie.
The rest of the kids slammed into the grown-ups, knocking down the front rank and forcing them back against the fence. Those who carried longer spears used them to keep the grown-ups at bay while the rest darted in with clubs and knives and shorter spears.
Ollie spotted a father breaking away and trying to escape. He quickly fitted a steel ball to his sling, pulled it back and felt the satisfying snap and twang as he let go. The steel shot smacked into the back of the fleeing father’s neck and knocked him flat.
‘Nice shot,’ said Jackson, and she whistled. The last of the grown-ups tried to run now, but they were hunted down and Jackson couldn’t resist steaming over and taking one down with her own spear, expertly pinning him in the side. She grinned at Achilleus, looking for his approval, but he hadn’t even noticed. He walked straight over to Paddy, checked he was all right, and then handed over his spear to be cleaned.
All of the grown-ups lay dead or dying, the road covered with their blood. Blue and Mick were walking among them, finishing them off.