by Stephen Laws
“So?” asked Annie.
Jay ran a hand through his hair. “I need a drink. Anyone else?”
“Bottled water, pop or beer?” asked Damon. He rose from the sofa, rubbing his hands nervously on his thighs.
Christ, thought Jay, unbelieving. He wants to do something for someone. It was the first “community” gesture that he’d made in all their time together, ridiculously small though it was. It seemed as if the sight of the wild tribe and the utter hostility of their intent had suddenly made him realise where his loyalties must lie.
“Beer for me,” said Jay, still bewildered. Damon took everyone’s order and made his way to the kitchen as Lisa and Alex emerged with plates of food.
Annie looked at Jay. “You said ‘What goes up can also come down’. What do you have in mind?”
“Simple, really,” said Jay. “We just have to make sure that they don’t get to build their tower. Make sure they never get it high enough. But it’s…well, it’s not going to be very pleasant.”
“Go on.”
“Look, we’ve got this far against all the odds. By rights, we should have ended up like all those other poor sods. Dead…or living dead. And we’ve made it by doing what needed to be done. By being hard. We’ve got to be hard again.” He was silent then. Damon emerged from the kitchen with the first of the drinks, handing Jay an opened bottle of beer. Jay thanked him, saw the anxious expression on his face, which somehow gave him a greater resolve. For the first time, it seemed that Damon was truly one of the group. “Some of the kids over there may end up dead, or badly hurt. But that’s the way it has to be. We’ve got to steel ourselves against that. We don’t want them over here. They’ve…well they’ve gone wild or something. So, this is what we have to do.”
He drank a mouthful of beer and continued.
“I know our petrol reserves are valuable, but we’ve got to use some to protect ourselves.”
“Petrol bombs?” said Alex.
“Right,” said Jay. “I know how to do it. Don’t ask me why I know how to make them. Just let’s say it was one of the skills I had in my previous life.”
Jay looked hard at Juliet, his expression softening into a smile. She didn’t know or care what had happened in his previous life. She knew some of it, told in intimacy. But she also knew that there were things he didn’t want to remember. It didn’t matter. All that mattered now was their new life, in New Edmonville. Her anxieties began to fade, despite the potential hazards that faced them. This was a chance for everyone to start again; a chance for her to forget everything that had happened in her own past and discard all the bad stuff.
“We need lots of empty glass bottles,” Jay went on. “Petrol, rags. I know how to make home-made fuses. We load up the dump truck and we head back down there to our friends.”
“And we bombard that fucking tower,” said Annie. “Burn it to the ground.”
“We’ll need protection,” continued Jay. “So far it’s only been stones they’ve thrown at us. They may have other tricks up their sleeves. But we’ll have to make sure that tower burns, and it may mean that some of those kids are also going to get burned. I don’t like the idea any more than anyone else. But we’ve got to be prepared for it happening. It also means that we’ll have to set up some kind of base camp down there. Work out a shift system. Burn the tower down, and keep up the bombardment, until they decide they’ve had enough and move on somewhere else.”
“When do we start?” asked Lisa.
“No time like the present,” said Juliet. Jay nodded.
They finished their drinks, ate what they could of the food and set about the tasks ahead of them. Glass bottles were collected from their own trash. They’d got through more bottles of champagne than seemed possible. They looked good for throwing. Rags were easy enough to find. Annie and Lisa siphoned off petrol from their spare supply in the garage; Jay set about his home-made fuses, a process that fascinated Annie from a professional “hardware” point of view.
And throughout, Juliet watched as everyone worked.
They were a community.
They were bound together.
Now they had become an army.
The back of the dump truck was loaded with petrol bombs, carefully stacked and padded in crates for the first journey. The whole process couldn’t have taken longer than an hour and a half before they were ready to move. The route would be slightly different because of the truck. Taking a side road past the park which would skirt the rubble of the fallen apartment block, then over rough ground to avoid the shattered flyover. They would have to take a look at the rough ground first; find out whether there’d be any risk of breaking bottles. Alex seemed convinced that they could get to the cliff-edge without mishap, but better safe than sorry.
They’d just loaded up and were ready to head off when Robin complained of feeling ill. Jay, Juliet and Alex were up front in the cab. Alex was behind the wheel, and everyone else was in the back, steadying the crates. Lisa asked them to hold on for a moment, while she checked him out.
“It’s okay,” she said at last. “He’s just tired.”
Annie looked at her as she took Robin across her lap. Lisa shook her head.
They’d discussed whether Robin should stay at the Rendezvous, not witness what was going to happen at the cliff-edge. But that would mean that Lisa would have to remain behind while the others did what had to be done. Annie had suggested that she or one of the others stay and look after him, but Lisa knew that he would be happier with her. And there was the dilemma. Lisa wanted and needed to be a part of what was going to happen. She had no problems about the childminding part, but the anxieties of waiting at the boarding house, not knowing what was happening out there—it was all simply too much. No, she would go with the others, and so would Robin. But when it came to…what had to be done…she’d take him away from the edge, maybe beyond the apartment block rubble, so that he wouldn’t have to see. Right now, it was vitally important that they all be together.
Annie nodded her understanding and stood up from the dumper to slap the roof of the cab.
“Okay!”
The truck rumbled off down the street towards the park.
In the months during which they’d carved out their lives in New Edmonville, they’d managed to clear most of the main road and the side streets, so that the truck could have easy access to the Rendezvous and beyond. Good, hard work to take everyone’s minds off their troubles.
“Bastard!” said Jay, as the dump truck turned in towards the park.
“What?” asked Juliet.
“The microlight. Look at him.”
Juliet and Alex strained to look up, and saw the microlight heading away from them, moving in the same direction.
“He’s gone on ahead to tell them we’re coming,” said Juliet.
“Better step on it,” said Jay. “Don’t want to keep them waiting…”
Alex groaned, and leaned forward over the wheel.
Juliet was sitting next to him. Instinctively, she grabbed his shoulder.
“Alex…?”
“Oh, Christ,” moaned Alex, and he lolled back in his seat, still hanging on to the wheel. The dump truck slewed to the right.
“Alex!”
Juliet grabbed the wheel, righting it. The truck rumbled on, but now she could see that Alex’s face was white and beaded with sweat. His eyes were closed.
“Juliet, I’m…”
“Alex!” snapped Jay. “What’s wrong?” He began to rise.
Juliet tried to jam a leg down past Alex’s own, trying to find the brake. It was no use; she couldn’t reach.
“Hang on!” she shouted, yanking at the handbrake.
They hadn’t been travelling fast, no more than twenty miles an hour. But the truck still skidded on the grass that fringed the park and jerked to a halt. In the back, there were cries of pain and a rattling of bottles. Alex slumped forward across the wheel, unconscious.
Quickly, Jay jumped out and ran around
to the driver’s door.
“What’s wrong?” called Annie, leaning over the side.
“Something’s wrong with Alex.”
Jay yanked open the driver’s door, jumping up in alarm when Alex pitched sideways and almost fell out of the cab. Juliet grabbed his sleeve, preventing him from falling. Between them, they lowered him down from the cab and on to the grass. Juliet jumped down and began to unfasten his collar.
“What is it?” asked Jay.
“I don’t know,” said Juliet. “He’s just…well, he’s completely out of it. Unconscious.”
“Jay!” It was Annie’s voice, from the dumper. And by the tone of it, something was also very wrong up there. Jay moved quickly, jumping up on the side of the truck to look over into the dumper.
Something was very, very wrong.
Robin was fast asleep, sprawled on Lisa’s lap. But Lisa was lying back against the side of the truck as Annie shook her by the shoulders, trying to bring her round. She was semi-conscious, moaning. Her face was the same chalk-white colour as Alex’s; the same beads of sweat on her forehead and cheeks.
“What the hell is going on?” Jay began to climb over into the dump truck.
Just as Gordon took a step forward from where he had been leaning against the cab roof and fell headlong across the crates of petrol bombs.
“Christ!” Jay grabbed for him, but missed.
Gordon sprawled, unconscious.
“Jay!” said Annie. “I think…”
“Gordon! What’s wrong, man? Come on…”
“Jay, I’m not feeling too good…I think I’m going to…”
Juliet heard the commotion up on the truck and stood up quickly to see if she could help. Was standing up too quickly the reason for her dizziness? She took two tottering steps and came to a stop, her hand against the side of the truck.
“Jay…?”
Juliet took a deep breath and tried to climb up.
The next moment she was sitting on the grass, not understanding how she’d got there or what was going on. She tried to stand, but now she had rolled over, the grey sky above tilting and filling her vision.
Someone was standing over her.
“Jay, is that you?”
“No, it’s fucking not,” said Damon, as he moved out of her sightline.
Juliet rolled, and saw him walk to the back of the dump truck. Slowly and methodically, he began to unfasten the flap at the back of the dumper, pulling back the bolts. When it clattered open, he lifted the metal flap and leaned inside. Juliet tried to crawl towards him, but she felt terribly nauseous and there was something wrong with her vision. It was blurring as she watched him leaning into the dumper, struggling to grab something. She tried to call out to him, but now even her voice had gone. Good Christ, was she dying?
And then Damon stood quickly back, yanking a body out of the dumper by its jacket collar. The body fell heavily to the grass.
It was Jay.
Moaning, Juliet clutched at the grass, trying to drag herself forward as Damon moved forward again, seized Jay once again by the collar and dragged him several feet from the dumper. Jay began to moan now, just like her; trying to turn, feebly clutching at the grass.
“What’s the matter?” asked Damon. “Not feeling too well, Jay?”
“Damon,” mumbled Jay, trying to get on all fours. “Help…”
“Help?” asked Damon. “You mean the way you all helped Wayne?”
“What?”
Damon knelt down and seized Jay’s hair, dragging his head up until they were face to face.
“Thought I’d forgotten, didn’t you? Thought I’d forgotten all about Wayne. The way you let him die.”
“Damon…”
“Shut the fuck up, O’Connor!” hissed Damon, and spat in his face. “You thought I was so fucking stupid, didn’t you? Well, you’re the stupid bastard, Mr. Leader. Because Wayne isn’t dead, after all. Not dead the way we used to know it. He’s been coming to me, in dreams. Telling me things. About him, and about the Vorla, and about the people who are coming.”
Juliet tried to call out to Gordon. Was he still up there on the dump truck? Was he still conscious? Nothing would come.
“You thought the Vorla had just gone away, didn’t you? You stupid fucking utter twat!” Damon smacked Jay hard across the face. Jay couldn’t react. Juliet grabbed two handfuls of grass, trying to drag herself across. She didn’t move an inch. “All the time you’ve been playing Happy Families here, the Vorla has been making its own plans. Finding its own people. I just have to pass the Test, and I can be one of its people, just like Wayne. Then we’ll see who bosses who around, eh, Jay?”
Jay groaned.
“Oh dear, still feeling a little unwell? What a shame. Want to know why you’re feeling like shit? Do you?”
Jay’s head sagged. He lay still, face down on the grass.
“Do you?” yelled Damon, dragging him up by the hair again. “Well, I’ll tell you. All the time you and your friends were reading up in your library books, trying to learn how to be fucking farmers, I was reading books as well. Same fucking library, different fucking books. And do you know what I found out? Do you? I found out just what I needed to get from that chemist’s shop at the end of Wady Street. They had lots of the stuff I needed in there. Can you believe it? No one asked me for a prescription. So when you were all knocking back your drinks at the Rendezvous, you were also knocking back my home-made knock-out pills. All crushed up and ready for use. What do you think of that, then, O’Connor?”
Juliet’s vision was so blurred that she couldn’t see Jay or Damon any more. But she couldn’t pass out now; she had to get up to the dump truck and warn the others.
Damon began to laugh then; long and loud.
“Come on, then, O’Connor! Do something!”
Damon, Juliet tried to say. But the ground beneath her was tilting. Christ, were they all falling into the Chasm?
“Someone’s coming,” laughed Damon.
They were the last words Juliet heard before everything fell into the pit.
Chapter Nine
Betrayal
Damon stood on the cliff-edge and waited for the Big Man to make his appearance. The kids had started whooping and yelling again as he’d strode down from the rubble and right up to the edge. He was careful, just in case the “no stone-throwing” order hadn’t been given. Perhaps they didn’t yet know what a great part he’d played, how much he was to be respected. Only the Big Man would know.
Damon didn’t have long to wait.
The Big Man soon emerged from the ruined house he’d been using as a base while the tower was being built. In the short time since Damon had last seen it with the others, it had already grown another thirty feet, but the Big Man didn’t give it a passing glance as he strode towards his side of the ledge, pushing through the kids. They parted, and he stood silently looking across the gulf at Damon.
Watch out for the Big Man, Wayne had said in another dream.
Big Man? How will I know him when he comes?
Oh, you’ll know him all right.
And here he was, just as Wayne had said he would be.
The Big Man smiled.
Damon smiled back, and knew that he had passed the Test.
The Big Man held wide his hands, making a broad gesture that suggested he was trying to look over Damon’s shoulders. The meaning of the gesture was unmistakable: Where are the others?
“Back at the house. I took care of them. Knocked them out.”
The Big Man smiled again.
“They’re waiting for you. Just what the Vorla wants.”
The Big Man threw his hands back in the gesture that Damon remembered from earlier that day. He howled at the sky again, and the kids all around him burst into frenzied activity. Screaming, yelling, and with the kids up on the tower banging on the framework. When the Big Man whirled away, jabbing one arm up at the tower, that command too was unmistakable. Work began again on the tower, but this time the
activity was frenzied as ragged figures clambered all over it. The Big Man vanished back into the house.
Damon moved back from the cliff-edge, found a boulder to sit on, and watched.
And remembered.
It would have been an easy matter to throw Jay and Juliet back in the dump truck and drive on down here; show the Big Man what he’d done. But there was greater satisfaction to be had. First, he dragged Jay back to the truck and heaved him inside again. Then he moved to Juliet.
“Romeo not up to much now, is he?” He looked down to where she lay, and began to tremble.
“Romeo and Juliet.”
Damon began to unzip his flies.
He wiped a trembling hand across his mouth.
This wouldn’t take very long. Just a little piece of what Jay had been getting.
He dropped to his knees, flipped Juliet over, and began to pull at the belt of her jeans.
And then he remembered Wayne from his last dream.
Take the one called Candy. Give her what she thinks she wants. It’ll be like twisting a knife in her husband. And that’s what we want, Damon. We want them to suffer. And you can enjoy yourself a little in the process.
“I’ll enjoy it…”
Damon pushed Juliet’s legs apart and positioned himself.
But don’t touch any of the other women, Damon. The Vorla has something special planned for them.
“…enjoy…”
Don’t touch any of the other women, Damon. Don’t fail the Test, if you want to be one of us.
Moaning, Damon moved off. Right at the last moment, he mustn’t fail.
“Just the once, Wayne. Just once…”
Don’t fail the Test.
Moaning again, Damon turned away and masturbated on the grass. When he’d finished, he stood with his back to Juliet, as if she were conscious and he didn’t want her to see what he’d done, or to hear him zipping up again. He stood for a long while, looking out across the parkland to the ragged trees. Beyond the trees was his new future.
“I won’t fail the Test.”
Turning quickly then, he grabbed Juliet’s legs and dragged her to the rear of the dump truck. Angrily, he flung her up there on top of Jay, banging her head against the gate in the process. Alex was next, heavier than Juliet. It made him angrier still, but he finally managed to get him up there too. Swinging himself into the cab, he revved the engine furiously, then remembered the crates of petrol bombs. Calming himself, he drove carefully back to the Rendezvous.
