A stronger breeze ran up the high street and Flynn shivered again. He scanned their surroundings once more, searching the dark shadows for signs of movement. Although he saw nothing, he still lowered his voice. “We think there are adults in this town. We think they tell them what to do and make them work for them.”
“That’s awful. Poor kids.”
“I know.”
“We have to help them.”
“How did I know that was coming?” After he looked at Rose and her blank expression, Flynn looked at their surroundings again and shook his head. “No.”
“What do you mean no?”
“I don’t know how you think we can help them, but I’m not getting involved. You saw them in the storeroom; they’re vicious little fuckers. Give them half a chance and they’ll take us down. It’d be suicide getting too close to them.”
“They’re only vicious because they’ve been conditioned to be like that. They’re kids, Flynn. They’re children being exploited by adults for their own ends. They should be the personification of hope, but they’re little animals instead. It’s hardly surprising they’re fucked up. Look at the world they’re being raised in.”
A deep sigh, but Rose cut Flynn off before he could reply.
“God knows what else is happening to them. We have to help them. We have to do the right thing by them.”
Flynn opened his mouth to object, but Rose cut him off again. “My mum told me to be the change I wanted to see in the world. If her death has any worth, it’s for me to honour that wish. I don’t want to live in a world where child abuse is accepted and ignored. I won’t be a part of that. There are so few people left now and we need to make sure our actions count for something; otherwise we might as well give up and let our species die out.”
Flynn shook his head. Why had he led them into the town? He should have run straight past it and let them take their chances against the nomads.
Chapter 8
Flynn stared at Rose and listened to the sound of the wind running through the town. What could he say to dissuade her from trying to rescue the rats? Sure, he got where she came from, and it was sad to see children subjected to such abuses, but what could they do? How could they communicate their intentions to kids who couldn’t understand them? Scared and dangerous kids who probably didn’t feel like they needed rescuing anyway.
Flynn finally said, “So what do we do with them afterwards?”
Rose frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
Another look around, the darkness inside every shop staring back at him, Flynn said, “Well, we’re going to have a shitload of liberated children, which is great, if they want to be freed.”
“If?”
“They might think they’re doing all right as they are. So let’s assume they do want to be freed, what then? We can’t look after them. We can’t take them with us or feed them.”
After a moment’s pause, Rose said, “I think we should at least find out what they’re about.”
“What, find out who runs this town?” Flynn said it as quietly as he could. The rats might not speak, but they could hear. No way of knowing if they understood them or not.
“We have to give it a go.”
“No, we don’t.” A step towards Rose and Flynn lowered his voice again. “I’d be very surprised if they’ve not listened to this conversation. They’ve probably heard every word we’ve said to one another already.”
Rose’s brown eyes widened slightly and she bit down on her bottom lip as if to hold her words back. She then let go of a deflated sigh and nodded. “Fine! You’re right, there’s nothing we can do for this lot anyway. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
Finally, she saw sense. Flynn nodded at Rose, but she only returned a scowl. Better for her to be pissed with him than they get eaten alive by the rats. He moved off towards the town’s exit. The sooner they got away from the place, the better.
Chapter 9
They didn’t speak as Flynn led Rose from the town. The scuff of their feet called through the abandoned spaces, and the wind ran through the deserted shops. Better they walked in silence so they could keep their wits. Besides, the crumbling walls in the place had ears. They needed to get out of there and work out what to do next when they weren’t being observed.
Dark shadows sat inside every shop they passed. It made it impossible to assess the depth of each building. It didn’t matter how hard Flynn squinted, he had no idea if the small beings lurked inside them or not, and, if they did, how far away they were. At times it looked like the shadows shifted, his heart kicking in response to what he thought he saw, but nothing had come of it yet. So tired at that moment, the line between reality and his imagination blurred.
They passed the restaurant they’d run through earlier and the shuffle of movement called from the windowless building. Flynn’s pulse spiked to hear it and he drew in a sharp breath. But he couldn’t see the source of the sound. Probably just an animal.
Who was he kidding? In all likelihood, a rat lurked in the darkness, stilling its giddy breath as it watched them through its hollow and haunted eyes. They were everywhere, hanging back just out of sight, deciding if they should let Flynn and Rose leave the town. A shudder snapped through him. He shook his head to himself; they could only deal with what got placed in front of them. At present, they had nothing other than architectural ruin. He couldn’t be afraid of the shadows.
When they passed the large derelict office building they always saw upon entering the town in the past, Flynn looked up at the top floor. Vicky had told him about how she and Hugh were chased into it and all the way up by the diseased, and how they had swung down over the edge to jump onto the floor below. It must have been something to see.
The diseased seemed like a lifetime ago now. It had been years since Flynn had heard the deranged scream that used to send ice down his spine. Who’d have thought he’d get to a point where a pack of children became a more tangible threat than a mob of diseased?
They passed under the railway bridge—the scuff of their feet amplified by the enclosed space—and stepped out into the meadow beyond. A shiver ran through Flynn to get hit by the strong wind in the open space. He hugged himself for warmth, his movements so clumsy he banged his sore wrists together. The connection sent a buzzing shock streaking up his forearms, making him realize the sooner he changed the bandages, the better.
No buildings to block the wind, Flynn stumbled as he walked and looked around the dark plains. Night had well and truly settled in now they’d left the town. A look at Rose and his eyes dropped to her breasts. No bra beneath her thin T-shirt left little to his imagination.
He quickly looked away. No one wanted to be that guy. Heat flushed his cheeks just to think of her catching him. She was so much more than a hot physique. Besides, if he judged her current body language correctly, she seemed ready to swing for him.
“We need to find somewhere to settle for the night,” Flynn said.
Rose didn’t reply and turned her head away from him as he spoke, her jaw clenched.
“Okay …” Flynn said. But even then, Rose still didn’t respond.
The long grass dragged against Flynn’s thighs and waist as he walked. The cold night had dampened the blades, which quickly soaked through his trousers.
Other than the sound of the wind and the swish of the long grass, Flynn heard nothing. The nomads weren’t known for going out at night.
Because he’d walked to the town and back countless times, Flynn knew exactly where to go. A look across the meadow and he saw the large silhouette of it like he’d done many times before.
From what Flynn had been able to tell over the years, the barn had been abandoned a long time ago and served no purpose for anyone. Not that he could take it for granted, but it seemed like a good starting point.
When Flynn stopped, Rose looked at him. He pointed across the meadow. “I think we should stay in there tonight.”
The wind blew through Rose’s hair as she looked to wher
e he pointed, her jaw set. She didn’t respond any more than with a flick of her head.
“Are you going to ignore me for the rest of the night?”
Rose still said nothing.
It took them about ten minutes to get to the barn. Neither of them spoke for the rest of the walk, and by the time Flynn got there, his trousers, underpants, boots, and socks were soaked from the wet grass. Every step returned a cold squelch.
If there had been a door on the large wooden barn in the past, Flynn saw no trace of it now. A look into the place as they approached it and it seemed clear. The roof somehow remained on it, although the entire structure looked ready to collapse. He continued in.
Because the entrance stretched so wide, it let in the moonlight, which shone through most of the building. It looked completely abandoned like Flynn had expected it to be. Rotten wood and dust made it smell like no one else had been in there for a long time.
There were so few people left now, it would have been bad luck to come across another group of squatters. If you weren’t a nomad or a member of a community, then you were dead. In all the years Flynn had been in Home for, he hadn’t seen any trace of nomads in or around the barn.
“One dark corner seems as good as any,” Flynn said as he headed for the farthest corner from the entrance. But when he turned around, he saw Rose had halted in the doorway. He stopped too. “What are you doing?”
The way Rose shook her head made Flynn fall limp. “I wanted to make sure you found somewhere safe.”
“I found somewhere safe?”
“I’m going back into the town to free the rats. I said it in the town, and I’ll say it again now; I refuse to live in a world that turns their back on abused children. I can’t force anyone else to live by those standards, but I can stay true to them myself.”
Before Flynn could reply, Rose turned around and walked out of the barn. “I’ll be back when I’m done.”
Chapter 10
Fuck Rose. Let her go and get herself killed in the town. If she didn’t want to listen to Flynn, he couldn’t do anything to help her. Fuck her.
Grime and dirt covered the barn’s concrete ground. It crunched beneath Flynn’s steps as he walked across it. He found the darkest corner and eased himself down.
The concrete felt cold to sit on and had zero give. Miserable, cold, and uncomfortable, Flynn sat and stared out through the barn’s large doorway. What else could he do? Rose had made it clear she didn’t want a discussion about it, and he’d made it clear he didn’t want to help the rats.
The fact that Rose had only just walked through the large doorway made it seem emptier than it would have been had she never been there. A stark reminder that she’d left him on his own and, in all likelihood, wouldn’t be returning. In that moment, she’d become just a memory, a whisper on the wind. But if she wouldn’t listen to him, what could he do?
When Flynn leaned against the wooden wall behind him, it stood firm. Like the ground, it offered little comfort. He wouldn’t be sleeping that night. He shifted to try to sit more at ease, but aggravated the brand on his lower back instead. The wound, although better than it had been, hadn’t yet healed.
Cold in just his T-shirt, his wrists stinging more than ever, and surrounded by an encroaching darkness, Flynn refused to get up. Fuck Rose. She’d made the choice and she needed to stand by it. It wasn’t his place to rescue her.
… even though she’d rescued him by giving up her chance to get away from the games …
Maybe he should follow her. He didn’t have to talk to her, but at least he could walk beside her and make sure she didn’t kill herself. This world had very few good eggs left in it. It would be a shame to let one crack.
If Flynn waited much longer to run after Rose, he’d completely lose sight of her in the darkness. She’d vanish into the long grass and then the town. She’d be on her own in that hideous place. “Fuck it,” he muttered to himself and got to his feet. If nothing else, he needed someone to help him bind his wrists so he could keep them free from infection.
A dark night with the weak moon in the sky, but much lighter outside the barn than in it, Flynn stepped out into the meadow. He saw Rose a good thirty to fifty metres away from him. He’d been correct to get out and after her at that point. Much longer and she would have vanished from his line of sight like he’d thought.
Even raising his hands to cup them around the sides of his mouth sent an angry buzz through his wrists. He drew a deep breath to call out to her and then heard a rustle to his right. It cut him dead, stopping the words before he could yell them. He looked in the direction of the sound.
They looked like nomads, but he could only see two of them. They followed Rose, spears raised. Rose seemed oblivious. So determined to get to the town, she’d neglected to keep an eye on her surroundings.
Chapter 11
No weapons other than his fists, Flynn clenched them, doing his best to ignore the buzz in his wrists. He shouted, “Rose!”
The sound of his call rang out across the meadow. He didn’t look to see if Rose had turned around. Not now the two hunters were facing him.
Flynn charged straight at the two spear-wielders, screaming as he ran.
A man and a woman, they both raised their weapons and hunched down, widening their stance. The man panicked and threw his spear too soon. It fell short, planting in the ground like a flag.
The woman had more composure, watching Flynn with her spear raised.
Although he focused on the hunters, the long grass whipping at his stomach and thighs, Flynn saw Rose in his peripheral vision. She charged at them like he did, closing them down from another side.
Then the hunters noticed Rose. They looked between her and Flynn. Their frames slumped. They’d suddenly lost the advantage and they knew it.
Flynn grabbed the spear the man had thrown at him without breaking stride. While winding it back, he watched the two hunters pull close to one another as if the proximity to one another meant safety. They’d just given him a larger target to hit.
Only a few metres between Flynn and them, the woman then threw her spear. A good shot, but not good enough. It passed Flynn with a whoosh. Weaponless, they were now fucked.
Like a pair of spooked animals, they pulled in even tighter to one another. The predators had become prey. Then the man broke away, charging at Flynn with his fists raised.
Flynn turned the spear he’d retrieved into a lance. He held it with both hands and kept running.
The man continued towards him without slowing. A game of chicken only one of them would win.
Flynn drove the spear into the centre of the man’s face. A violent kick ran through the wooden pole as the tip of the spear sank into the man’s nose. It turned him instantly limp. When he fell, he pulled the weapon with him, snapping its wooden shaft.
Now a club, the broken handle remained about half a metre long. As Flynn ran at the woman, he raised the baton above his head, ready to swing for her. Not that he’d need to attack her. He saw it before she did.
Rose rugby tackled the woman from the side and knocked her to the ground. The loud, “Oomph,” she forced from the woman’s body sounded like it had driven the air from her lungs.
Breathless or not, the woman couldn’t defend herself against Rose’s speed. After snatching the spear handle from Flynn’s grip, Rose laid into the woman with repeated blows against the top of her head. They sounded out as hollow tonks that quickly gave way with a crunch and then a squelch that turned Flynn’s stomach.
Despite the woman clearly becoming no more than a corpse, Rose clenched her teeth and drove several more blows to her pulped cranium. Something sprayed away from the woman. Too dark to see exactly what.
Still riding the rage of her attack, her shoulders raised, her breaths heavy, Rose got to her feet and stared at Flynn. She held the snapped handle like she’d use it against him. “I had to do that.” She pointed the bloody baton at the downed woman and spoke through gritted teeth. “I
want to help people in this world, but when they come at me like those two just did, there’s no helping them.” Tears glazed her eyes. “I need to be the change I want to see. I want a world without arseholes like that in it.”
Reluctant to speak in case he said the wrong thing, Flynn simply nodded at her.
The rage then visibly cleared as Rose relaxed, her arm and the baton falling down to her side. She then let the weapon drop to the ground. A moment later, she spun on her heel and resumed her march towards the town.
Chapter 12
Flynn had to jog through the long grass to catch up with Rose. He fell into stride with her, but remained far enough away just in case she swung for him. Not that he’d done much wrong other than save her. Although, maybe that was enough. To look at her tense frame—her shoulders still pulled into her neck and her fierce scowl—should have been enough of a warning to keep his mouth shut. Yet he still said, “See?”
Fire burned in Rose’s eyes as she spun on him. “See what?” Although shorter and slimmer than Flynn, at that moment she’d knock his head off given half a chance.
Too late to back down, Flynn moved another pace away from her as they walked. “It’s dangerous out here. And we haven’t even reached the town yet. That’s why I think we should move on. You agreed with me when we were in there. What’s changed?”
“I only said that because you said we were being watched. What other options did I have? I didn’t want the people in the town to think I was going to return. I would have headed straight back in when we left the place, but I figured I needed to give it a little time so they lowered their guard.”
Before Flynn could respond, Rose said, “And those people following me has nothing to do with me going back to help the kids. That could happen at any time in this world.”
“But at least you wouldn’t have been out in the field in plain sight if you’d have stayed in the barn with me.”
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