Текст книги "The Fear"

Автор книги: Charlie Higson

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Текущая страница: 14 (всего у книги 27 страниц)

36

Just as DogNut and his crew were heading off back to the museum, another group of kids were setting off on their own expedition, a mile away to the east at Buckingham Palace.

The mood in the two parties could not have been more different. DogNut’s gang was in high spirits, coasting on a wave of bloodlust and sweet victory. They laughed and shouted as they re-enacted the death of the Collector. It was true that one or two of them, Courtney included, weren’t joining in, but most of them were behaving like conquering heroes returning home after a war.

In contrast, Jester’s group was quiet and miserable and fearful. They had no idea what might be waiting for them out there. They hadn’t met their monsters yet.

Jester himself was furious. As he walked out through the palace gates, he was ranting to Shadowman and waving his hands in the air.

‘Three!’ he protested, showing three fingers. ‘Three kids! What does David think I can do with three kids?’

‘We’ll be all right,’ Shadowman tried to reassure him.

‘No, seriously, Shadowman, what the hell does he think I’m gonna do with three bloody kids?’

‘What did he say exactly?’

‘Just a load of bullshit basically. As usual. Said he couldn’t spare anyone else, that he didn’t want to leave the palace undefended. The bastard couldn’t even spare me any of his bloody guards. I’d feel a lot happier with a couple of red blazers armed with rifles in my squad.’

Shadowman checked them out. Jester’s little group was armed with spears and knives. All except for Jester, who didn’t seem to have a weapon of any kind. Unless he had a knife in the leather satchel he’d slung over his shoulder.

‘It’s always the same with David,’ Jester went on. ‘He makes all these big promises, then when it comes to it he doesn’t give you half what you expected.’

‘He doesn’t like to risk putting his precious red guards in any danger, Jester,’ said Shadowman. ‘You should know that.’

‘What’s the point in having a trained army if you never let them fight in case you lose any of them? I don’t get it. Instead of sending his soldiers into battle he sends bloody civilians.’

‘Are they that bad?’

Jester lowered his voice and looked round to make sure that the three kids who were moping along behind them couldn’t hear any of their conversation.

‘He asked for volunteers. That’s all we got. Well, there were five of them originally, but two dropped out overnight. This lot weren’t exactly keen this morning, either. I begged David to give me some more, but he claimed he didn’t want to force anyone. They’re not completely useless, but they’re nothing like the best fighters at the palace. We should have had Pod and his toughest rugby players, not those three dopes.’

The three dopes in question – an older boy and girl, and another boy who looked about thirteen – were lagging further and further behind, dragging their feet and complaining to each other.

‘What are their names?’ asked Shadowman.

‘The couple are Tom and Kate, the little guy’s Alfie,’ said Jester. ‘He’s good company, but I’ve never seen him in a fight.’

‘Why did they volunteer if they didn’t want to come in the first place?’

‘David offered them extra food, special privileges. I doubt he’ll keep his promise, but … I don’t know. They probably mainly came because they were getting bored to death in the palace with nothing to do all day except work in the vegetable gardens. I don’t suppose any of them seriously thought through how dangerous this might be. Stuck in the palace behind those high walls you can easily forget what it’s like in the real world. The first sign of a fight they’ll probably run all the way home.’

‘Yeah, well, hopefully we won’t get into any fights,’ said Shadowman. ‘That isn’t the plan, is it?’

‘I guess not. The plan is simply to look for kids to recruit.’

‘Yes. Don’t worry, Jest. I’ll keep you out of trouble and maybe we’ll pick up enough kids along the way to return as a proper fighting unit. In the meantime, any sign of any strangers and we scarper.’

‘I don’t need to tell them that.’

‘You listen to me, OK?’ said Shadowman. ‘Do as I say. I’m used to this. I can spot the danger signs.’

‘Thanks. If you hadn’t agreed to come along, I think I’d have ditched the whole thing and told David he could go off recruiting himself. I can just see him in a royal bloody carriage swanning about, waving one hand out the window at his grateful subjects.’

The two of them laughed.

‘But seriously, Shadowman,’ Jester went on, ‘what are our chances of getting into trouble?’

‘I won’t lie, Magic-Man, it’s dangerous. The streets round here are generally pretty quiet during the day – there’s very few strangers about – but I don’t know what it’s going to be like the further we get from the palace … You scared?’

‘A little. You? D’you still get scared?’

‘All the time,’ said Shadowman. ‘And you know what? I sometimes think it’d be better if you didn’t parade about in that nasty coat of yours. It just reminds me of all the mates we’ve lost.’

Shadowman was referring to the patchwork coat that Jester always wore. He had cut a patch of material from the clothing of all the friends of his who had died since the disaster and sewed them on to it. There were forty patches, and while lately he was sewing on fewer and fewer patches, kids still died. If strangers didn’t get them, there was always illness and accidents.

‘It’s not supposed to remind you of their deaths,’ said Jester. ‘It’s supposed to remind you of their lives.’

There were patches representing Big-Man, Cool-Man and The Fox, as well as other kids who had holed up in the big house in Notting Hill with Jester and Shadowman after the disaster. When they’d been forced to leave, most had made it safely to Buckingham Palace, but some were only remembered by the patches on Jester’s coat.

‘Whatever,’ said Shadowman. ‘Living or dead, it still gives me the creeps, and I don’t want to end up as just another decoration for you.’

‘You?’ said Jester. ‘No chance. You’re a survivor. I reckon you’ll well outlive me.’ He turned round and looked at Kate and Tom and Alfie, who were plodding along about ten metres behind them, their weapons drooping in their hands. ‘Can’t say the same for those three, mind you.’

37

She waited for the children to go past. Squatting down by the window in the empty shop. Feeling the tension among the others. They were hungry and hurting. They wanted to rush out now. Fall on the children and tear them to pieces. But there had been hunters around earlier, and she couldn’t be sure where they were now. And if the hunters were close they would come with their spears and their knives and their clubs.

How she hated the hunters.

It hadn’t always been like this. At first it had been easy – children wandered the streets lost and confused. Lots of them. Weak and weaponless. Back then the ones like her had the upper hand. They feasted day and night. They got strong. But the children got strong too. The ones they couldn’t kill. They banded together. Moved into safe places. Learnt how to fight back. She had been forced to join up with others and work together as a pack or die. Every day there were fewer of them, though. Some were taken by the sickness, some starved to death, some were killed by the hunters.

She knew that soon she would have to move away from this area and find somewhere easier. Somewhere where plump little children didn’t have sharp blades and heavy clubs.

She adjusted her sunglasses. The sun was bright today, making it hard to think. And as she waited, trying to pull her thoughts into some sort of shape, the children moved further and further away. Before, they would have attacked without a thought, torn into them with teeth and claws. Not now. They were learning to wait. They had found a new lair, in a tube station, hidden from the hunters. But if they showed themselves, if they timed it wrong, they would be found out and attacked. More of them would die. She had to wait, find the right way to do it. There would be others. Other children. Other things to eat. Earlier this morning they had found a nice fat cat and that had helped. Their bellies were sore, though. They needed to eat again soon. Eat properly. Before too long their hunger would force them into the open; they would have no choice but to attack whoever came close.

Children, though. It had to be children.

The only thing that made the pain go away was the flesh of children.

One of the others stood, lurched towards the children, dribbling and shaking. She grunted and raised her knife. Showing her authority.

He backed away.

Not now. Not yet.

It was too dangerous to charge out into the open like the old days.

Wait until the time was right.

38

DogNut and Courtney were sitting with Brooke in what the kids at the museum called the Hall of Gods. It was the entranceway to the Earth Galleries, a section of the museum devoted to the planet, with exhibits about volcanoes and rocks and earthquakes.

Brooke had explained that the rest of the Earth Galleries were sealed off, but that the kids used this area as a meeting place. It was suitably grand. At the back a long escalator led up through a giant scrap-metal globe to the upper galleries. It hadn’t run since the power had all gone off soon after the disaster, but it still looked like a stairway to heaven. Lining the approach to the escalator were two rows of statues standing on plinths shaped like half globes. They depicted the advance of human knowledge, from superstition to science, starting with a figure of God the Creator. Opposite him was a statue of Atlas holding the world on his shoulders, then there was a Cyclops, a Medusa, and finally an astronaut standing across from a scientist at work with a microscope.

The walls that towered up several storeys on either side were black with silvery-white celestial maps painted on to them. Lit by flickering candlelight the whole place looked spooky and dramatic.

Chairs had been laid out facing the statues and that was where the three children sat.

‘So why does the King of the Geeks use this place for council meetings then?’ Courtney asked Brooke.

‘Dunno,’ said Brooke. ‘Maybe he just thinks it’s cool. Or maybe it’s to remind us of where we stand in the world. He wants to build two more statues, apparently, showing the future, one of a kid and one of a sicko.’

‘So what’s stopping him?’

‘We got a ton of nerds here, but we ain’t got any artists.’

‘True that,’ said DogNut, and he gave a dismissive laugh.

They had returned to the museum in triumph, telling their stories, bigging themselves up. And now they were waiting in the Hall of Gods for Justin, who wanted to show them the work he was doing at the museum. DogNut was sitting behind Brooke, leaning over on to the back of her chair so that his right elbow was pressing against her shoulder.

He probably thought he was being clever, not being so obvious as to sit right next to her. Courtney wondered why she’d bothered going on the hunt. DogNut hadn’t even noticed whether she was there or not. She should have stayed behind and caught up with Brooke, tried to re-establish their friendship. They’d been apart for a year and it was difficult to go back to how things had been, particularly because of how she felt about DogNut. She was pleased to see, though, that Brooke still acted totally offhand towards him, calling him Donut and taking the piss the whole time. She’d scoffed that it had taken so many of them to kill one grown-up. Not letting DogNut enjoy his triumph. That didn’t mean she didn’t fancy him, though. It was just her way.

Brooke was weird with guys. Like it was all a big cruel game. If they obviously liked her, she treated them like dirt, which only seemed to make them like her more. And if they didn’t like her, if they weren’t attracted by her killer looks, she’d do everything in her power to change their minds. It didn’t matter what she thought of them. She’d encourage guys she didn’t like just so they’d hang around her and make her feel like she was the most desirable thing in the world.

Courtney wished she had that power over boys. She watched DogNut with Brooke. He was so obvious. She almost felt a little bit sorry for him, so desperate to get Brooke to take an interest in him.

Right now he was fishing, asking Brooke a load of questions. It was clear he wanted to know whether Brooke was attached. He wouldn’t come right out and ask it, though, and Brooke was pretending not to know what he was really talking about, and not giving him the sort of answers he wanted.

In the end Courtney forced it.

‘So, you got a boyfriend here then, or not?’ she asked.

‘Might have.’ Brooke leant back in her seat. Nonchalant.

‘Yeah, but have you got one?’

‘No. Of course not.’

‘Result!’ DogNut grinned.

‘I don’t got one, I got loads,’ she said. ‘I am, like, the most popular girl here. Most of the rest of them are either nerds or mingers like Jackson.’

‘Jackson’s cool,’ said DogNut.

‘You think so?’ Brooke looked horrified.

‘Yeah, she’s well hard.’

‘Right, but would you go out with her?’

‘Does she even like boys?’

‘Far as I know, but none of them will go near her. They’re scared of her.’

‘She scares me,’ said Courtney.

‘So what about you then?’ Brooke asked Courtney. ‘You got a boyfriend?’

Courtney blushed. Tried to avoid looking at DogNut. Didn’t know what to say. In the end she just shrugged.

‘Courtney’s like Jackson,’ said DogNut. ‘All the guys are scared of her.’

‘You look better since you ain’t so fat,’ said Brooke.

‘Thanks.’ Courtney loaded the word with as much sarcasm as she could.

‘No, I mean it. You’re kind of hard-looking now, muscular, like an athlete. Looks good on you.’

Courtney blushed deeper. In truth she had no idea how she looked to other people. Then she got cross. Brooke had skilfully switched the focus of attention off herself and on to Courtney. She was being deliberately vague because she didn’t want to tell them the truth.

‘So you ain’t got, like, one special guy?’ said Courtney.

‘No. No one here’s really my type.’

Brooke’s type. Courtney knew all too well what type that was. She always went for the best-looking, most popular boy around. Didn’t care if she liked him or not, but it was important to her to be seen with the guy that all the other girls wanted. The top dog. But here that was difficult, because the guys in charge were all nerds and geeks. It was hard for Brooke to operate properly. Robbie was the closest thing to a football star, but there wasn’t much going for him. He was butters, and ever since DogNut had said he was weak and not really cut out to be a leader that was how Courtney thought about him. That left the field open for DogNut to make a move. Maybe his plan would work. And once he was king of the castle Brooke would want to be seen with him.

Unless Courtney could put a stop to it somehow …

‘You should visit the Tower with us,’ she said. ‘There’s lots of fit guys there.’

‘Maybe I will.’

‘The fittest guy from the Tower ain’t home right now,’ said DogNut. ‘He’s sitting right behind you, gyal.’

Brooke turned round theatrically and pretended to be looking for someone.

‘Move out the way, Donut,’ she said, ‘I can’t see him. Where is he?’

‘Ho, ho, ho,’ said DogNut. ‘Lol and all that. I’m all you need, babes. Show me someone here in Nerdville can compete with me!’

‘That’s why you’ve come here,’ said Courtney, smiling. ‘Admit it. You’re the halfway ugly guy in the country of full-on uggs. You know that back at the Tower you don’t stand a chance. The guys there make you look like nothing.’

‘Like who?’

‘Jordan Hordern.’

‘Freak.’

‘Tomoki.’

‘Boring.’

‘Ed …’

Courtney was pleased to see a spark light up in Brooke’s eyes when she said Ed’s name. There was still something there.

‘How is he?’ Brooke asked, trying to sound casual.

‘Cool,’ said Courtney. ‘He’s, like, second in command to Jordan Hordern. Everyone really likes him.’

‘Are you in love with him then?’ said DogNut, and he made some smoochy noises with his lips.

‘Me? No.’ Courtney’s voice shot up an octave.

‘Sounds like you are.’

‘No way.’

‘You should hear yourself, Courtney. You’re, like, “Oh, Ed’s so cool, Ed’s so buff, Ed’s such a leader of men, Ed’s got lovely shoes”.’

‘I like Ed,’ said Courtney.

‘Me too,’ said Brooke, and DogNut leapt in again.

‘Yeah, well, don’t get too excited,’ he said. ‘I asked him to come along on the expedition with us and he said no thanks, not interested in finding you, said you were like ancient history.’

Courtney had to turn away to hide the massive grin that she couldn’t keep off her face. He’d said just about the worst thing he could. DogNut was fun, she loved him, but sometimes he could be pretty dense. He didn’t understand Brooke at all. Telling her that a boy wasn’t interested in her meant that she’d do everything in her power to change his mind.

Ed was a challenge now.

There was nothing Brooke hated more than a boy not being interested in her. If DogNut had said that Ed spent his whole time writing poems about her and drawing her face on walls, she would have laughed at him and crossed him off her list.

DogNut’s own naked enthusiasm was all too clear to Brooke. She would play him and tease him and offer him the odd crumb until she’d ruined his life and then go off with someone else.

‘Yeah, well,’ she said. ‘Maybe I do need to come to the Tower with you and remind Ed just what he’s missing out on.’

‘Brooke,’ said DogNut, laying everything on the table in a pathetic last-ditch stand. ‘You don’t want to go there. I came all this way to find you. Me, I did that. Not Ed. Don’t that mean nothing to you?’

Brooke put on the sort of face you would make to a crying toddler and turned to give DogNut a playful kiss.

‘Oh, Donut, you’re so sweet. You’ll make somebody a lovely husband.’

‘There’s only one person I want to marry.’

Brooke stood up, bursting with mock excitement.

‘Oh, really, really … and I know just who it is!’

‘Yeah, right,’ said DogNut, leaning back in his chair and putting his hands behind his head.

‘It’s my girl, Courtney, isn’t it?’ Brooke cried.

‘Courtney?’ DogNut looked horrified. ‘You’re joking.’

‘Oh, thanks, great,’ said Courtney, who was still reeling from what Brooke had said. Red-faced, her cheeks burning, she jumped to her feet, not sure which of the two of them she was most angry with.

‘No, Courtney, Courtney,’ said DogNut, throwing up his hands. ‘I didn’t mean it like that. I love you to bits and all, but you’re like a mate, like my sister, you ain’t exactly …’

‘Ain’t exactly what?’

Courtney was going to start crying if she wasn’t careful and that would blow everything big time. All she could do was turn round, kick her chair out of the way and storm off between the statues.

‘I’ll leave you two alone together,’ she shouted as she got to the astronaut. ‘You can have a good laugh about me.’

‘No, no, Courtney, come on …’

‘You idiot,’ said Brooke once she was sure Courtney had gone.

‘What?’ said DogNut, looking hurt. ‘What have I done now?’

‘Can’t you see it?’

‘See what?’

‘You really are a dumb-ass. Dumbo Donut, as dumb as they come.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘That girl is nuts about you. You are all she thinks about.’

‘Courtney? No way … Not Courtney …’

‘I’m gonna go and see she’s all right,’ said Brooke. ‘I shouldn’t have said nothing. I couldn’t help it. Me and my big stupid mouth. You wait here for Justin. One guy who understands women even less than you do.’

Brooke followed Courtney back into the other part of the museum. DogNut got up and was about to go after her when Justin appeared, carrying a torch.

‘Sorry to keep you waiting,’ he said, ‘but I’ve been in meetings all morning.’

It was such a ridiculous thing for a fifteen-year-old kid to say that DogNut burst out laughing.

39

Justin led DogNut through the museum away from the public areas, into the warren of corridors, offices and backrooms that were hidden behind the scenes. He had grown a lot more confident in the last year, the way a nerd often can. He had blossomed from being an outsider and loner into being respected for his cleverness. He was among his own people here, and DogNut could tell that they liked him and looked up to him. He had the self-assuredness of an adult.

‘Brooke told me you’ve had an exciting morning,’ he said as they walked. ‘Out there ridding the streets of filth and vermin.’

‘Something like that.’

‘So, Paul got his revenge?’

‘Yeah.’ DogNut thought about this for a moment. ‘I’m not sure how much good it’s done him, though. The guy’s a mess.’

‘He was a bit unstable before all this, if you really want to know,’ said Justin. ‘He’s been acting weird for the last few weeks. I think he’s been pretty depressed.’

‘Well, he’s seriously depressed now,’ said DogNut. ‘All the way back he was either blubbing or raving “You shouldn’t’a let her die, you abandoned her, you’re all to blame, boo hoo hoo.”’

‘He has a point.’

‘Come again?’

‘You didn’t protect her, did you?’

DogNut stopped and confronted Justin.

‘You weren’t there, Justin. You don’t know how it went down. I don’t suppose you get out much, don’t get to see any sickos up close and personal. But maybe you remember what it was like when we found the lorry back in the day?’

‘It’s not something you can forget. That lorry saved all our lives.’

‘Yeah, well, remember you and me sat in the cab and tried to drive the bastard?’

‘Of course I do.’

‘Now, think back, Justin,’ said DogNut. ‘You’re sitting there popping cold hard sweat, crapping yourself, swearing at the engine. You remember?’

‘Yes. I remember I couldn’t get it started.’

‘Now, tell me, at the time, did you have any idea what anyone else was up to?’

‘Not really, no,’ said Justin. ‘I was too busy concentrating on trying to get the lorry to move forward.’

‘Exactly. When you’re in a fight like that, you got to look after yourself; you can’t be thinking about what everyone else is up to. You don’t know what’s going down. Back then, in the lorry, it was just you and me.’

‘Yes, but I wasn’t in charge, DogNut.’

‘Say what?’

‘I wasn’t in charge. I had a job to do. To drive the lorry. And I was doing my job. Ed was in charge, not me. He was making sure everyone else was all right. That was his job.’

‘Ed, Ed, Ed …!’ DogNut slapped his forehead. ‘Why’s everyone keep going on about Ed?’

‘Ed was a good leader. And that’s the sort of thing a leader has to do.’

‘He wasn’t perfect!’ DogNut protested. ‘He nearly left that bird behind when we drove the lorry off, the one who was sick, the French girl – what was her name?’

‘Frédérique.’

‘Yeah, her. We nearly went without her.’

‘Yes, but we didn’t.’

‘You’re confusing me,’ said DogNut.

‘You said yesterday that I was to blame for abandoning David on the bridge,’ said Justin.

‘Did I? Yeah, maybe I did.’

‘Well, you were right. I don’t mind accepting responsibility. At that moment I was in charge. And looking back, knowing everything I know about David now, I think I did the right thing.’

‘Probably.’

‘OK, and you probably did the right thing when you left Olivia behind. You had to think about everyone else. Paul’s pissed off – he always will be; he’ll never forgive you – but you’re just going to have to deal with it.’

‘I didn’t do the right thing,’ said DogNut miserably. ‘That poor little girl. I shouldn’t never have left her behind.’

‘You did what you had to do,’ said Justin, and he pushed open a door.

It led into a library, flooded with light from windows down one side, lined with shelves and shelves of old books. A spiral staircase led to an upper gallery where two boys were leaning on the railing discussing something. They stopped when Justin and DogNut came in.

‘That’s Chris and one of his librarians,’ said Justin. ‘You remember Chris?’

‘Yeah, the book guy. Hiya, Chris!’

Chris nodded back. Like a lot of the kids at the museum he was wearing old-fashioned clothes, in his case what looked like robes. He had grown a rather sad fuzzy beard and moustache in an attempt to look older.

‘Don’t mind us,’ said Justin. ‘I’m just showing DogNut around.’ He lowered his voice and moved closer to DogNut. ‘You should have seen Chris’s face when he discovered the library here. You’d have thought it was a hoard of sweets and chocolate or something, not dusty old books. And it’s not just these ones. There are libraries all over the place. This is mostly geological books, I think, but he’s moving a lot of them out and replacing them with other ones from the different libraries, making his own collection. He even found a first edition of The Origin of Species.’

‘Yeah?’ said DogNut, trying to sound like he knew what Justin was talking about.

‘He virtually lives in here now,’ said Justin. ‘Calls himself the Librarian. He has a study group working through all the books. Reckons the knowledge in them and the way we use it is what’s going to keep us alive. I can’t argue with that.’

‘Why’d you bring me here?’ asked DogNut, hardly listening. He was looking around the library, distracted, feeling shut in by all these books.

‘He’s writing his own book,’ said Justin. ‘Of all our stories, so that they’ll never be forgotten. He writes everything down in these big ledgers he found. The lives of every kid here. It’s so that we have a proper record of what’s happened, so that we won’t forget it, and hopefully there’ll be useful information in there as well, about the sickos. The Chronicles of Survival, he calls them. He tells the best stories to the younger kids at night – finding the lorry, the Battle of Lambeth Bridge, the great fire – it’s all written up.’

‘Yeah … and?’

‘It’d be good to get your story down, DogNut.’

‘Yeah, maybe. Not sure I’d want everyone to know about what happened to Olivia, though.’

‘It’s part of it,’ said Justin. ‘And if you want to be in charge you have to think about that sort of thing. You have to be responsible for everyone. You have to make hard decisions.’

‘Who said I wanted to be in charge?’

Justin sighed. He’d remained calm throughout their conversation, unlike DogNut, who was sweaty and hyped up, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, his head bobbing on his long, scrawny neck.

Justin waited for him to stop jigging and once he’d got his full attention he carried on. ‘I may be a lot of things, DogNut,’ he said. ‘I’ve been called just about every name you could think of, and some you couldn’t, but I’ve never been called stupid.’

‘Did I call you stupid?’

‘I’ve talked to everyone who went out today,’ Justin continued. ‘Robbie included. That’s what my meetings were about. It’s obvious what you’re up to.’

‘Oh yeah? And what am I up to?’

‘You think you can stroll in here and take over.’

‘No way, man. That’s not my game,’ DogNut protested. ‘I don’t want to step on no toes. This is your party. Whatever you been told you been told wrong.’

‘OK. Good. As long as that’s clear.’

‘Crystal.’

‘Is it?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Because I don’t want anything to happen here that could screw things up. We’ve worked hard to make this a good place to live. Apart from the sickos in the lower level, it’s just about perfect.’

‘Yeah. Brooke told me about that. How many you got down there?’

‘Don’t know for sure. Not that many. You know how they love the dark, how they love to be underground. It was too dangerous to try and clear them out, so we just secured all the doors so that they can’t get through to our bit. One day we ought to hire some hunters to go in and flush them out, but they don’t really bother us. You remember they used to say you were never more than ten feet away from a rat in London? Or something like that?’

‘Yeah.’

‘But you never saw them, did you? They kept out of our way, just like the sickos do now.’

‘So we safe, yeah?’

‘The museum’s built like a fortress, so it’s easy to defend. Plus there’s plenty of land to grow food on. It works well, but it’s complicated. It’s not just running around smashing sickos’ heads in. We’ve moved on from that.’

‘If you say so.’ DogNut shrugged.

‘Let me tell you what I do, DogNut,’ said Justin. ‘As the boy they voted to be in charge of all this. And you think about it. Think about what sort of life you want for yourself. I get up at dawn. I check with all the kids who’ve been on late duty that nothing’s happened overnight. I personally go to every entrance and exit and make sure that they’re secure. Then I check with the kitchen staff what food we’ve got for the day. Do we need to find more? Is there enough water? Do we have enough fuel for cooking? What are the menus for breakfast, lunch and supper? Will everyone get enough ascorbic acid in their diet? Then we have morning council, where any kids with any problems, complaints, questions, whatever come and talk to me. After that I …’

‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right,’ said DogNut. ‘I get the picture. Is boring, right?’

‘Not for me it isn’t, no,’ said Justin. ‘I find it all fascinating. But for you …’

‘It don’t have to be that way, blood,’ said DogNut. ‘At the Tower Jordan Hordern is a general, a fighting man …’

‘You’ve seen a few other settlements recently, haven’t you?’ asked Justin.

‘Yeah.’

‘And the kids in charge – were they more like Jordan or were they more like me?’

‘Well … I guess they was more like you. Nuts.’

Justin laughed. ‘You’re probably right,’ he said. ‘Now come and look at this. I want to show you something …’ He went over to the windows and pointed down to a big courtyard inside the museum buildings that had obviously been used as a car park.

‘What am I supposed to be looking at?’ DogNut asked.

‘The rather large white object with wheels.’

‘OMG!’ DogNut cried. ‘Look at that. It’s the beast!’

Parked on one side of the car park was the Tesco lorry.

‘Yep,’ said Justin. ‘We parked it there when we arrived. Hasn’t left the car park since.’

‘I guess the food ran out ages ago.’

‘Lasted about two weeks. The lorry’s still useful, though.’

‘What for?’

‘Safe storage.’

‘How d’you mean?’

‘Come with me and I’ll show you.’