Текст книги "The Fear"

Автор книги: Charlie Higson

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Текущая страница: 6 (всего у книги 27 страниц)

11

One of his toys was moving about, scuttling across the floor, all jerky. Annoying.

It had woken him up when it had knocked against his legs. He’d been sitting on his sofa. Sleeping. Dreaming. He always slept well after a meal. He’d nearly finished eating the broken toy he’d brought back with him the other night. They didn’t taste so good if you left them too long. Sometimes they started to smell and then they’d make him sick if he ate them. He’d probably had the best of it now. He’d put what was left of it into one of his bags, and the next time he went out collecting he’d take it with him. It was useful if any of the others were around. He could throw them scraps and they’d leave him alone. Some of them had even got used to it. They waited for him, then followed him around like pets, expecting to be fed. He’d had a pet before. He remembered it now. A cat. When he’d got ill, and there was no food left in the shops, and everything became confusing, he’d had to eat the cat. He wondered now if he would have to eat all his new toys before they were broken. This one was pesky, always moving about, trying to get away, dragging its broken bits behind and making that noise, that horrible irritating noise.

Annoying.

He nudged the toy with his foot and grunted at it. Why wouldn’t they just stay still when he wasn’t playing with them? Stupid toys.

He sighed. Belched. A thin trickle of sticky brown liquid squirted from his throat and dripped down his front.

It was a stupid world. Such hard work. He loved his stuff. His collection. He loved to go out searching for more. But it was hard. Avoiding the sun. Always hungry. Always thirsty.

His toys gave him pleasure, except this one. This one was making his life harder. Hard work. Hard, hard work. He’d always hated hard work.

He needed his sleep, needed his rest. Couldn’t his toys see that? Why did they have to be so mean to him? It wasn’t fair. If he was always having to wake up and put his toys back in their box, it was annoying.

He shouted at the toy.

‘’Noying!’

The toy made some stupid snivelling little noise and carried on crawling across the floor. The Collector groaned, shifted his weight and hauled himself up from the sofa. He would have to stop this toy from moving about like this. He had broken its legs, but it was still able to get about by wriggling and shuffling them.

‘’Noying!’

Well, he thought, as he leant over to pick his toy up, if it didn’t have any legs then it would have to stay still.

12

‘The fact of the matter is your friends abandoned us.’ David spoke in a very formal grown-up manner, his pale, freckled face comically serious. ‘We kept our side of the deal, but they simply chose to drive away and leave us to our fate. So, you see, your friend Brooke is not exactly on my Christmas-card list right now.’

The boat crew was sitting with David on a terrace overlooking the gardens of Buckingham Palace. The sunlight glinted off the lake on the far side of what had once been neat lawns, but was now a muddy field of various different vegetables. A small army of kids was busy tending the vegetables, working away with forks and spades and trowels.

If it had felt odd being in the Houses of Parliament with a bunch of children pretending to be the government, it felt odder still to be here in Buckingham Palace. DogNut and his friends had come in through the parade ground, where four of the boys from David’s school, wearing their distinctive red blazers, had been on guard in the sentry boxes at the front of the palace. They’d been suspicious of the new arrivals at first, but luckily one of them had remembered DogNut from when they’d met at the War Museum before the fire. Finally they’d unlocked the gates and DogNut had led his little band across the parade ground into the shadow of the massive building. David had met them inside, in one of the staterooms, and he’d made a big show of welcoming them as if they’d been his oldest and dearest friends. Then he’d given them a tour of the palace, showing off everything, and going on and on about what a good thing they had going there. Finally he’d taken them out into the garden at the back. He called it a garden, but it was more of a small park really, what with the lake in the middle and all the trees and shrubs everywhere. Once again his main aim seemed to have been to show off. He went on and on about how organized they were, how many of them there were, how much food they were growing, how safe it was here.

He’d even got someone to go and make a pot of tea for them all.

Now DogNut, Courtney, Olivia, Finn, Al and Jessica were sitting on white cast-iron garden furniture, sipping tea as the afternoon sunshine slowly faded. Marco and Felix had settled themselves on the lawn, enjoying the last of the sun.

It had all been going so well. David relaxed, bigging himself up, upright in his chair with his cup of tea. Talking of nothing, chitchat, gossip, catching up, and then DogNut had told David about how he was searching for Brooke and David had suddenly turned.

Now he was glaring at DogNut, who had to stifle the urge to laugh.

‘Brooke can rot in hell for all I care.’

DogNut had never met another kid who talked like David.

‘How d’you mean they abandoned you?’ he asked, trying to get to the bottom of David’s anger.

‘I mean exactly what I say. The deal was that my boys and I would escort the lorry over the river in return for a share of the food it carried.’

‘For real?’ DogNut shrugged. ‘I don’t know about none of that. Wasn’t my food. Wasn’t my lorry. I did help capture it, though. Don’t remember seeing you there.’

‘I wasn’t there,’ said David patiently. ‘You know I wasn’t there. As I say, the deal was –’

‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, you excort the lorry over the river, they give you some of the food. That must have been something you fixed up with Ed and Brooke. Nothin’ to do with me. That wasn’t my crew.’

Two of David’s red-blazered guards stood nearby with rifles at their sides. DogNut remembered those rifles. They were from the museum. He remembered what a fuss David had made about trying to get hold of them, and how proud he’d been when he finally managed it. He also remembered that they’d been given hardly any bullets for them. Were these ones even loaded? Or were they just for show?

‘We kept our side of the bargain,’ said David. ‘We got the lorry over the bridge, which wasn’t easy – it was jammed with children trying to escape from the fire – and then as soon as we got to the other side the lorry accelerated and pulled away from us. We chased after it, but it was no good …’

‘They abandoned you.’

‘Yes,’ said David matter-of-factly.

‘This is something that means a lot to David. He’s talked about it a great deal.’ They’d been joined by an intense kid with a crazy tangle of sticking-up hair who was wearing a coat that looked like he’d made it himself out of many different mismatched patches of material. He was standing behind David, leaning on the back of his chair.

‘Your friend Brooke hurt David quite deeply,’ the boy went on.

‘Yeah, well, as I say, I don’t know nothing about that,’ said DogNut. ‘I’m sure they had they reasons for driving on.’

‘I’m sure they did,’ said David. ‘And you know what I think their reason was?’

‘Tell me.’

‘They never intended to share any of their food. They used me when it was convenient and then dropped me, as they had always intended to do.’

‘I’m sure it wasn’t like that,’ said Courtney.

‘Were you there?’

‘No, I wasn’t there. That’s the whole point. We got split up. That’s why me and DogNut is looking for Brooke now. But, you see, I know Brooke. I know she’s mouthy and that, but she’s got a good heart.’

‘A good heart?’ David scoffed. ‘You sound like some awful American TV programme. From what little I saw of Brooke I’d say she was a mean and selfish bitch.’

Courtney jumped to her feet and leant over David with her fists clenched. His two guards twitched, but he waved them back with a dismissive little hand gesture. He smiled at Courtney, which only made her madder.

‘You didn’t ought to speak about my friend like that!’ she bawled. ‘I don’t care who you are, and how many mates you got with guns, I’ll break your stupid butters face.’

‘Sit down,’ said David calmly.

‘Not till you apologize.’

‘It’s all right, babes,’ said DogNut, who could tell that David would never apologize. ‘He ain’t worth it.’

‘Yeah, well …’ Courtney jerked her chin at David and sat back down.

‘Maybe I was a bit rude,’ said David, who remained completely unruffled. ‘But you can understand my anger I hope? A deal’s a deal.’

‘Yeah …’ Courtney gave him her best cold stare.

‘And she obviously means a lot to you all,’ David went on, ‘if you’ve come all the way over here from the Tower of London to look for her. That’s quite an impressive feat.’

‘Wasn’t so hard,’ said DogNut.

‘Tell me about it,’ said David. ‘Tell me all about life in the Tower. I’m interested to know what other children are up to.’

OK, thought DogNut, you asked for it, pal. Now it was his turn to show off. He launched into a long explanation of how they lived. Some of it was exaggerated, but he didn’t tell any outright lies. He painted a picture of a well-fed, well-armed, happy bunch of warriors living in luxury beside the Thames in the ancient castle.

His friends chipped in, fleshing out the picture with their own memories and experiences. David listened intently, asking a lot of questions. In the end DogNut put up his hand.

‘All right,’ he said, ‘we’ve answered your questions, bruv. Now you answer ours, yeah? Leaving aside your bad vibes for one moment, do you got any idea what happened to Brooke and the others off of the lorry, after they abandoned you?’

‘Even if I knew, why would I tell you after what they did to us?’

‘Why not? We all in this together. Kids ain’t the enemy – mothers and fathers is.’

‘Exactly,’ said David. ‘But they didn’t seem to remember that when they drove off, did they?’

‘Maybe if I can find Brooke I’ll ask her why she done it, and then let you know.’

David offered DogNut a smile. ‘To tell you the truth,’ he said, ‘I have absolutely no idea where she went. As I say, she can have gone to hell for all I care.’

DogNut let out his breath noisily through his mouth, like a balloon deflating. ‘For real?’

‘For real,’ said David, copying DogNut with more than a hint of scorn in his voice. The boy in the patchwork coat sniggered.

‘All right,’ said DogNut. ‘I can see you all don’t want to help us none. But what about my other bredrin here?’ He gestured towards the rest of his crew. ‘What about Olivia, and Al and Jessica and Finn? They wasn’t with us at the museum. Their friends wasn’t on the lorry. What about them? Can you help them any?’

Olivia and the others all now clamoured at once, throwing out names and information. David and the patchwork boy went into a huddle and whispered to each other. Finally the patchwork boy spoke.

‘Hi there. My name’s Jester,’ he said. ‘I’m David’s right-hand man.’

The boat crew muttered some half-hearted hellos.

‘I know everything that goes on here. The names of everyone, where they came from, what their stories are. All the info. Anything you want to know in future you come to me. OK? We don’t want any hard feelings. And you’re right – we can’t blame any of you for what happened with the lorry.’

He shook hands all round, making an effort to learn the names of everyone. He got to Al last and held on to his hand a little longer than the others.

‘Al, my friend,’ he said, with the broad smile of a game-show host. ‘You are in luck. Your sister is here with us.’

Al shot out of his seat as if someone had put a rocket up his arse. His ugly, lumpy face was made almost good-looking by a huge soppy grin, and he was shaking with excitement.

‘Really? She’s here? Maria’s here?

‘Yep.’

‘And she’s all right?’

‘Everyone’s all right here. We look after our own.’ Jester clapped Al on the back and called one of the guards over. He gave him a quick order and the boy nodded and hurried off. This got the other kids even more worked up, and once again they bombarded David and Jester with questions.

Olivia was tugging at Jester’s patchwork coat.

‘Are you sure my brother’s not here?’ she piped. ‘He’s called Paul Channing, he’s got black hair, he’s older than me, he’s very tall …’

‘Sorry, precious.’

‘Can you double-check? You might have made a mistake …’

David silenced her. ‘Believe me,’ he said, ‘Jester should know. He knows everything. If he says your brother’s not here, he’s not here. Same goes for the rest of you.’

‘But we can ask around, yeah?’ said Jessica. ‘Talk to the kids here? They might know something.’

‘I’d rather you didn’t go pestering everyone. Let Jester talk to them.’

‘Don’t be a dick,’ said DogNut, standing up. ‘You can’t stop us talking to people.’

David made an empty-hands gesture. DogNut gave him a dirty look in return and stormed off down the steps and over to a group of kids who were weeding one of the vegetable patches. As he approached them, they stopped what they were doing and stood up, wiping their hands on their trousers.

‘We’re looking for some friends,’ he said, slightly more aggressively than he’d wanted. ‘Any of you know where they might be? David says we got to go through him, but …’

A thin girl with a muddy face and hands glanced over at David before speaking. DogNut saw him shake his head. ‘If David says he doesn’t know anything, then neither do we,’ she said.

‘That’s right,’ said the girl next to her. ‘We can’t really help you.’

DogNut swore and went over to the next group, but got the same response. Nobody was willing to talk to him. After a few minutes he gave up and looked back towards the terrace where David was watching him with a self-satisfied expression.

The two of them locked stares. DogNut was fuming, his chest rising and falling. David had made him look like an idiot.

And then the tense mood was broken by a girl running out of the building, laughing and shouting. She ran straight into Al’s arms and they hugged each other, both in floods of tears. DogNut tried to picture himself and Brooke hugging like that, her crying into his shoulder, him stroking her hair …

Somehow the picture never quite came into focus. They were neither of them the blubbing, hugging type. For the hundredth time he wondered where she was and what she might be doing.

Each step closer seemed to take him two steps further away.

13

‘Listen, why don’t you all have something to eat and then stay here for the night?’

It was a moment before Courtney realized that David was talking to her. DogNut was still down among the vegetable growers looking sulky and cross. David was standing with his arms folded, watching him.

‘We need to move on,’ Courtney said flatly.

‘But where will you go?’

‘That’s not your problem.’

David turned to her, unfolded his arms and smiled.

‘I’m sorry we got off to a bad start. I’ve no argument with you. It was Brooke and the others who let me down. Maybe I’ve come across a bit angry. I’m sorry about that. I’ll calm down. It was just … hearing Brooke’s name brought up some bad memories for me.’

‘She was my best mate.’

‘I know. Please don’t think that I don’t care.’

‘Whatever. I’m going to find her.’

‘Yes, I appreciate that, but you can’t just go wandering around out there. I would have thought that what happened to you on the way here would have shown you how dangerous it is on the streets still. Can I make a suggestion?’

‘OK …’

‘Why not stay here with us for a while? Not just tonight. We’ve plenty of food and water and it’s very safe here.’

‘Yeah, but I just said I want to –’

‘Let me finish.’

‘Sorry.’

‘I’ll send Jester out. He has contacts everywhere. He knows these streets really well. If anyone can track Brooke down, it’s him.’

‘Maybe …’ The thought of staying at the palace for a while, resting, eating well, not being scared, being alone with DogNut with no Brooke around to spoil things …

‘I thought you said you didn’t want nothing to do with her?’

‘I can be a grown-up about it,’ said David, and he smiled. ‘Actually, sorry, no, bad choice of metaphor. Not a grown-up, but you know what I mean. Maybe it’s time I forgave her, moved on. Or maybe seeing these two reunited has made me go all gooey inside.’

David nodded towards where Al and his sister Maria were sitting on the grass, excitedly chatting away to each other as they caught up on all that had happened in the last year.

‘At least stay the night, anyway,’ said David. ‘We can offer you better food than you’ll have tasted since before the disaster. You can have a wash, get some clean clothes.’ He looked pointedly at Courtney’s jeans, stained dark where she had wet herself.

Courtney blushed and stared at a patch of grass, feeling about three years old.

‘In any case,’ said David, ‘get rested, think about things. We’ll talk again at dinner.’ He moved in closer and spoke quietly to Courtney, fixing her with his pale clear eyes. ‘Maybe you don’t really want to look for Brooke. Yeah? Maybe that’s the past? You don’t necessarily want to hold on to it. This is the future. Here in the palace. And we need children like you – tough and experienced, with a good understanding of how things are out there. You’d fit in really well here, Courtney – you could make a good life.’

‘I’ll think about it.’

‘Do that.’

David walked away a few paces, stopped and turned round.

‘Whatever happens,’ he said. ‘You will stay here tonight.’

‘Oh, but –’

‘It’s the safest thing for you.’

David left them to it and went inside. Courtney was confused. She needed to talk to DogNut, but when she looked for him he was gone.

14

The gardens at the palace were ringed by tall trees, so that standing by the lake in the centre you could imagine you were deep in the countryside, especially now that there were no sounds of cars or aeroplanes to spoil the illusion.

While David had been distracted talking to Courtney, DogNut had ducked into the shadow of the trees and was now skirting the outer wall. If for some reason David tried to keep them there, it was worth knowing whether there was any easy way out.

It wasn’t looking good.

The wall itself was about five metres high and topped by rotating steel spikes. Above the spikes there stretched another couple of metres of barbed wire that sloped outwards towards the road on the other side.

The walls had been designed to keep people out. After all this had been a royal palace, the Queen’s home in London. DogNut had heard tales of nutters breaking in, but it was still a pretty impregnable fortress. And these walls could also, of course, keep people in.

Worse still, some of David’s guards seemed to be patrolling the perimeter. DogNut had seen one a couple of minutes ago. His bright red blazer had given him away. DogNut had easily hidden behind a tree until the boy had wandered past. Despite the rifle slung over his shoulders, he didn’t look like he was taking his job very seriously, and why should he? No sickos could scale that wall from the outside. This was all just for show, to give the other kids a feeling of security.

Or was there something more to it? DogNut wondered how many of the kids might be being held here against their will, like the hunters had said.

It was almost like being in some kind of concentration camp.

‘Oi!’

Dammit. DogNut had missed a second guard, who had sneaked up on him from behind and was aiming his rifle at his belly. DogNut smiled at him.

‘A’right?’

‘You shouldn’t be back here.’

‘Why?’

‘David says so.’

‘Why?’

‘It’s dangerous.’

‘Why?’

The boy lowered his gun and shrugged, evidently feeling a bit silly. He had a big nose and didn’t look the fighting type.

‘Don’t you get bored doing that?’ DogNut asked him.

‘A bit, yeah. But it’s better than digging up sodding vegetables.’

DogNut laughed. ‘What’s your name, soldier?’

‘Andy. You’re called Dog’s Bollocks, or something, aren’t you?’

‘Close enough.’

‘I remember you from the museum. Your lot gave us these guns.’

‘Yeah. You ever fired it?’

‘Nah.’ Andy laughed and they slapped palms.

‘I always wanted to stay with you lot,’ Andy went on. ‘David wouldn’t let us, though. Said we had to stick together. Between you and me, David’s a prick.’

‘For real?’ said DogNut in mock amazement. ‘You learn something new every day. But tell me, Andy, my manz. Has anyone ever got over these walls?’

‘Nah, it’s impossible.’ Andy didn’t sound that convincing.

‘For sure? No one’s climbed in – no one’s climbed out?’

Andy made a face, deciding whether to keep a secret. He looked around, checking nobody could see them.

‘If I tell you something, will you promise never to let anyone know it was me that told you?’

‘Sure, bruv.’

‘There is a way over. Some of the kids worked it out. They jammed the spikes so they won’t turn and cut a section of wire. They fixed it back up again so if you didn’t know what to look for you’d never know. David never looks, anyway.’

‘Why’d they do that?’

‘To get in and out. David doesn’t let us otherwise.’

‘To get away from here?’

‘No. But some of the kids take stuff, food and whatever, and they trade it with other kids out there from the other settlements.’

‘Not you, though, soldier?’

‘Never had the guts. Besides I’ve got a blazer, so I have privileges. Wouldn’t want to lose them.’

‘So are you going to tell me where this safe way out is?’

Andy shook his head and looked at his shoes. ‘I’ve told you too much already. If David found out …’

Andy fell silent as they heard someone approaching through the trees. He looked miserable. Like a kid waiting to see the headmaster. It was only Courtney, though. Andy relaxed and smiled at her.

Courtney nodded dismissively at him and turned her attention to DogNut.

‘There you are,’ she said, sounding tired and grumpy. ‘I been looking all over.’

‘Just taking a likkle stroll,’ said DogNut. ‘You know. Stretching the old pins.’

‘Yeah, right.’

DogNut said goodbye to Andy and walked back towards the palace with Courtney.

‘David wants us to stay for dinner,’ she explained. ‘But Al’s got some news that might change things.’

‘Cool,’ said DogNut. ‘Hit me with it.’

‘I’ll let Al tell you himself.’