The Sacrifice

by Charlie Higson

  Ed sighed and pushed his hair back off his face. ‘I just don’t think we should do anything until DogNut gets back,’ he said. ‘He can give us a much better idea of what’s out there.’

  ‘Sounds to me like you’re just scared,’ said Keren. ‘Us Pathfinders go out on to the streets every day.’

  ‘Not into the zone you don’t,’ Ed snapped. ‘Like I did to rescue Tish.’

  ‘Scared you, did it?’ said Keren with a smirk.

  Kyle gave Keren a dirty look, full of murder. ‘Ed ain’t scared,’ he said bluntly.

  ‘If you say so,’ Keren muttered.

  Ed hung his head in his hands. Kyle knew the truth. Ed was scared, but not of sickos. He was scared of himself. Kyle might have been a psycho, but deep down he knew that Ed was worse. When Ed got into a fight, he became a different person, capable of terrible violence. That was why Ed didn’t want to lead any war parties out into the no-go zone looking for sickos to slaughter. He didn’t want to be plunged back into a killing frenzy.

  ‘I’ll think about it,’ said Jordan. ‘But I ain’t making any decisions until DogNut’s back. I’m not moving without intelligence.’

  ‘He ain’t coming back,’ said Kyle.

  ‘We’ll talk about it at the next council,’ said Jordan. ‘I want to hear some proper ideas.’

  He stood up. The meeting was over. He walked across the wooden floor to the stairs. The others began filtering out after him, chatting excitedly about the meeting. Ed had to admit that Tomoki was probably right. The kids needed some focus. Something to do. A feeling of power, of taking control.

  He didn’t want to talk about it any more now, though. He waited for the others to leave then made his way down the stairs and out into the sunlight. It was a cool, crisp morning. The Tower ravens were hopping about in the big vegetable planters, rooting for grubs. The day was warming up. He was thinking about breakfast. He stretched, loosening his stiff muscles, and heard someone call his name.

  He looked round to see Small Sam and The Kid hurrying towards him across the cobbles. They were clumsy in their armour and with their swords hanging at their sides. He smiled. They looked so eager and happy.

  ‘We want to talk to you,’ said Sam.

  ‘I gathered that. What’s up?’

  ‘When are we going to be able to go and look for my sister?’

  ‘Whoa, hang on. Who said you were?’

  ‘You promised.’

  ‘Yeah, but Sam, I told you we need to wait for DogNut.’

  ‘If you won’t help us we’ll go by ourselves.’

  Ed couldn’t bear to imagine these two young boys going back out on to the streets.

  ‘No, you won’t,’ he said angrily, sounding like a bossy parent. He tried to calm down. ‘Not yet,’ he said. ‘You need to wait and be patient. Things are happening. We just had a meeting.’

  ‘What about?’

  ‘Well, one of the things we talked about was you … ’

  ‘What about us?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter. We talked about you and the forbidden zone. We’re making plans.’

  ‘Will they affect us?’

  ‘They’ll affect everyone. But you know what? You two, you’re special, OK? And whatever happens, I’m going to keep you near me. So don’t worry about anything.’

  Ed could see he hadn’t convinced Sam. He’d been trying to reassure him and he’d failed. Sam looked utterly gutted. Like a kid who’d been told he couldn’t go on a longed-for outing. He was too young to hide his feelings.

  The Kid just scowled.

  Ed squatted down so that he was on their level and put his hands on Sam’s shoulders.

  ‘Please be patient, Sam,’ he said. ‘I’m not bullshitting you. I will help you find your sister. Just not yet, OK? In a week’s time we’ll talk about it again. Do you trust me?’

  Sam bit his lip and nodded once, staring at the ground.

  ‘Come on, maggot,’ said The Kid. ‘There’s nothing for us here.’

  He dragged his friend away.

  Ed swore. It was clear Sam hadn’t believed a word he’d said, but he’d just have to wait. Ed would show him. In fact he’d start making plans that night. Present them to Jordan at the next war council. Yeah. He’d surprise Sam and The Kid. Go and visit them in their little house in the Casemates and sort it all out. And he’d talk to Tish. It would be an opportunity to break the ice with her. He was being over-sensitive about killing her friend. The sickos had ripped her guts out, for God’s sake. It wasn’t his fault. He had to stop feeling guilty.

  Life had to go on.

  15

  The Thames was low, exposing a stretch of muddy beach on which a cargo ship was stranded, jammed halfway under the Tower Pier. The pier was a relatively new construction that had been built for river cruisers and passenger ferries to dock. The Tower kids now used it themselves. They were starting to explore the river in rowing boats, learning to read its tides and navigate its strong currents. The wrecked boat, which must have slipped its moorings some way upriver, would damage the pier if left where it was. Plus, it was valuable salvage.

  It was pretty big and its ancient oak timbers were splintered down one side. A work party of older kids was busy on the beach dismantling it with axes, saws and crowbars. As they freed a section of planking, other kids hauled it across the beach to the foot of the embankment where ropes were tied to the pieces and they were hauled up.

  Tomoki was standing behind some railings watching the activity below. He turned to see three kids at his side. Tish and the two little boys. He had to admit the boys looked pretty normal to him – apart from the fact that they were both laden down with armour and weapons, and the dark-haired one appeared to be wearing a dress, like they were on their way to a fancy-dress party.

  ‘You won’t need all that lot today,’ said Tomoki, trying not to laugh.

  The Kid patted his sword.

  ‘We never go anywhere without our hardware, squire,’ he said. ‘Forearmed is forewarned.’

  ‘I tried sleeping with my sword one night,’ said Sam, adjusting his scabbard. ‘Kept waking me up, though. Sticking into me. I leave it by the bed now.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ said Tomoki. ‘But you might find it’s going to slow you down a bit.’

  ‘We’ll be all right,’ said Sam. ‘So what do you want us to do?’

  ‘It’ll be your job to help load the salvaged wood on to those trolleys over there and wheel them to the sorting area by the ticket offices.’

  A shout went up from the beach and they craned over the railings in time to see two big boys carry a steel barrel out of the wreckage.

  There was evidently more plunder on the boat than just the wood.

  It was wood that the three kids were mostly going to be shifting, though. They got to work, grabbing the salvage as it was hauled up and piling it on to their trolley. Once they had a full load, Sam and The Kid took hold of the bar at the back and Tish gripped the arm at the front and they began to wheel it up to the sorting area.

  ‘I’m really not sure about this,’ said Sam.

  ‘We might never get another opportunity this good,’ said Tish, straining to keep the heavy trolley moving.

  ‘It all feels kind of sudden,’ said Sam.

  ‘We’ve got to grab the chance while we can.’

  ‘Yeah, but I’m still not sure.’

  They had sat up half the night planning how to escape from the Tower when they were ready. And this morning, when they’d been told that they’d be working outside the walls, Tish had got very excited. Had tried to convince them that it was the perfect opportunity to get away unnoticed. At first Sam had been caught up in her enthusiasm, but now he was having second thoughts.

  ‘What exactly did Ed say to you again?’ Tish asked as the trolley bumped over the uneven, cobbled ground.

  ‘That we’re special,’ said Sam, ‘The Kid and me, and that he wanted to keep us near him.’

  ‘You see. It’s what I said.’
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  ‘But I don’t really know what he meant,’ said Sam. ‘I’m muddled. It doesn’t feel right, us three running off into the forbidden zone. It’s too dangerous. It’s crazy.’

  ‘What’s crazy is staying here, to be fair,’ said Tish. ‘You never meant to come here. You’ve got to get to Buckingham Palace. Your sister needs you.’

  ‘Yeah. I’m still scared, though.’

  ‘It’s the middle of the day. The sickos will all be asleep. Us three can travel fast and light. It’s only about three miles. If we’re quick we can do it in an hour. The hardest part will be getting clear of the Tower guards. If we try to just walk away they’ll stop us. We need a diversion.’

  ‘Hold your horses, captain,’ said The Kid. ‘All of it, every word you say, all the spouting of it, you make it sound too easy. I don’t like it. It’s too quiet. There’s Indians out there.’

  ‘We’ve got to go for it,’ said Tish.

  ‘Well … ’ The Kid turned to Sam. ‘I’m with you, little boots. What you say goes.’

  ‘I don’t want to be stuck here forever.’

  ‘We’ll be fine,’ said Tish.

  ‘So what do we do?’

  ‘The guards are looking for sickos coming in, not kids going out. I’ll think of some way to distract them.’

  Tish had an A to Z and last night they’d discussed routes. In the end Tish had said that they should head for Great Tower Street, then along Eastcheap, Cannon Street, past St Paul’s Cathedral, into Ludgate Hill, Fleet Street, the Aldwych and on to the Strand, which would take them all the way to Trafalgar Square. Almost a straight line all the way. She’d shown them where her hideout was, the place she called ‘the Temple’; it was a large building behind the London Coliseum, although you couldn’t tell much about it from the simplified black and white maps in the A to Z.

  This morning, when she’d heard about the salvage operation, Tish had packed some emergency rations into her backpack, as well as a torch, some matches, a knife and a few other useful bits and pieces.

  ‘We’ll get to the Temple, pick up some support and go straight on to the palace,’ she’d explained. ‘You’ll be with your sister by this evening, instead of being stuck here polishing armour for the rest of your life.’

  They crossed the wide open area by the ticket offices and unloaded the trolley. A group of older kids was breaking up the wooden sections further, separating the planks and stacking them in neat piles ready to be carted into the castle to be reused.

  Tish took the opportunity to look around. She clocked some boys guarding the perimeter. In the past, crowds waiting to go into the Tower had gathered here, joined by sightseers who just wanted to take pictures or gawp at the old castle. There had been food stalls, entertainers and sometimes marching bands and displays. Now the kids used it as a sorting area before stuff was taken into the Tower. They didn’t want to fill their living space with too much junk, so there were a couple of rubbish tips here as well. Once they’d built up a big pile, it was dumped in the Thames to be washed out to sea.

  That morning a unit of Pathfinders had found three cars in a private garage with petrol in their tanks and their keys hanging on a pegboard. Two matching silver Mercedes C-Class and a red Porsche 911 Carrera. They’d driven them to the sorting area and parked them with the vehicles they’d collected over the months. Some small boys were standing around admiring them.

  ‘Let’s get another load,’ said Tish and they wheeled their trolley back down to the river.

  ‘The longer we wait, the less I want to do this,’ said Sam.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said Tish. ‘I’ve an idea.’

  ‘What?’ Sam’s heart was pounding. He was filled with a mixture of fear and excitement. Everything was happening too fast for him to know if he was doing the right thing.

  ‘I’ll start a fire,’ said Tish. ‘When we get back up there, you talk to the boy racers with their shiny cars, keep them busy. When you see smoke, head for the shop. We’ll go together from there.’

  ‘OK.’

  Back to the river’s edge there was a stack of wood ready for them to load on to their trolley. They plonked it on in silence. Sam’s throat was too dry to talk. He couldn’t work out if he was most worried about getting away from the Tower kids or of what they might have to face if they were successful. He looked at The Kid. Couldn’t read him at all. If The Kid was OK with the way things were heading then Sam was OK. He’d survived alone out there. He knew all about danger.

  But what was he thinking?

  Sam caught his eye and The Kid winked at him.

  What did that mean?

  ‘Come on.’ Tish was ready to be off and Sam took hold of the bar. The trolley rattled and squeaked as it got under way.

  Was he right to trust Tish? Shouldn’t he trust Ed instead? Ed had promised to take him to find Ella. Was he just lying, though? There was all that creepy stuff about the lamb and the goat. Sam was too confused to straighten it all out. Best just to keep moving.

  Into the no-go zone …

  He’d spent time in there before. It was where he’d been held prisoner by two grown-ups, Nick and Rachel, in their tube train carriage down in the tunnels beneath Bank station. They hadn’t seemed to be affected by the disease. They’d said they wanted to help Sam, told him they were keeping him safe.

  Just like Ed.

  And just like Ed they hadn’t wanted him to go …

  Of course the grown-ups weren’t normal. They had the disease in them. Deep down and hidden. And they’d been fattening Sam up so they could eat him. It was The Kid who’d rescued him. Sam had escaped the forbidden zone one time. And now here he was getting ready to run back into danger, like an idiot.

  Was he really planning to leave the safety of the castle? Somewhere he’d always dreamt of living? He looked across at the high yellow-grey walls.

  Tish was right.

  This place might be a castle, but for hundreds of years it had also been a prison. If he stayed here too long he’d never get away. He’d forget about Ella; she’d fade from his memory like his parents had. It was less than three weeks since he’d last seen her, but so much had happened in that time. He’d moved from one world to another. He tried to picture her now, but all he could remember clearly was a photograph that had been on the mantelpiece at home. Him and Ella with Father Christmas. Ella looking like she was about to cry, Sam looking embarrassed.

  She was two years younger than him. Preferred to wear boys’ clothing to girls’ and had short dark hair.

  That was about it.

  It wasn’t enough.

  He had to find her. She was all he had left of the past.

  They unloaded their delivery and he strolled over to the cars with The Kid while Tish slipped away.

  He stood watching the older boys, who were taking it in turns to sit in the driver’s seat of the Porsche. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tish going over to the end of the row of older cars. He was supposed to be distracting these boys, wasn’t he?

  ‘How fast does it go?’ he asked one of them.

  ‘About a hundred and eighty.’

  Sam nodded.

  ‘Cool.’ In truth he didn’t really know very much about cars, but 180 miles an hour did sound pretty fast.

  ‘Has it got a full tank?’

  ‘Half full. It drinks a ton of fuel as well.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Sam nodded again. He was running out of things to talk about.

  ‘I like the colour.’

  ‘You want to sit in it?’

  ‘No. I’m all right.’ What was taking Tish so long? He nudged The Kid in the ribs. ‘Help me out here,’ he hissed.

  ‘It’s got four wheels,’ said The Kid, who evidently knew less about cars than Sam. The older boy laughed.

  ‘You’re weird,’ he said.

  ‘I’m no weirder than a dog with the head of a cat and the heart of a humming bee.’

  ‘I guess not.’

  Mercifully Sam saw a puff of black smoke w
aft above the row of cars.

  There was a shout.

  ‘Hey!’

  The smoke thickened, turned into a column. Kids were shouting and running towards the cars. There was a hubbub of voices.

  ‘It’s on fire.’

  ‘Fetch some water.’

  ‘Don’t get too close, it might explode.’

  ‘What happened?’

  Sam and The Kid edged away from the commotion, moving backwards through the crowd of kids who were congregating around the fire. They reached the ticket offices and found Tish waiting for them.

  ‘I thought it would never catch light,’ she said. ‘But look at it go now!’

  The guards were wandering over from the perimeter, drawn by the fire, forgetting what they were supposed to be doing. In the end they were all just children and couldn’t be expected to have the discipline of trained soldiers.

  ‘What did you do?’ Sam asked, staring at the flames that were leaping above the cars.

  ‘Set fire to some crap on the back seat of an old Ford Focus.’

  ‘Will it be all right?’

  ‘Of course it won’t be all right!’ Tish gave a short, slightly crazy-sounding squeal of laughter.

  ‘Now let’s go.’

  16

  They ducked behind the ticket offices and made their way quickly round the big modern building behind. In fact it was two buildings, joined by a huge glass wall and roof. A pedestrian walkway led between it and an old church. They pounded along it, fully expecting to hear someone screaming for them to stop.

  It didn’t happen.

  Sam realized he was crying. This wasn’t right. To be running away from other kids. He was letting them down. He felt really bad for Ed. Ed had been the kindest. He’d only wanted to help Sam, keep him alive. Ed was sensible. Tish seemed reckless and a bit strange.

  Sam knew he’d be putting Ed to a lot of trouble – all of them. They’d wonder what had happened, probably get together a search party. Ed would worry about him. And he was clever. He’d work it out. He’d know that Sam had gone off to look for Ella. Sam hoped he wouldn’t try to follow. He didn’t want to put any of the castle kids in danger. He remembered what Ed had said, about how he couldn’t risk other kids getting hurt for Sam’s sake.