Shift #2

by Jeff Povey

The square seems packed now. Every centimetre of it is full like Oxford Street at Christmas.

  ‘Almost there . . .’ I whisper, more to myself than the others.

  But the faces are everywhere we look and the people are crowding around us. There’s so many more of them than before and it’s getting harder to push through.

  ‘Excuse me, sorry, excuse me please . . .’ They step out of the way but for every one we squeeze past another two seem to be blocking our route.

  I see the taser woman with the chocolate-obsessed four-year-old stare directly at me but I look away. Her son starts to wail again and the shrill sonic scream fills my ears. GG is grimacing from the noise, but the Ape seems indifferent, probably thanks to all the heavy metal he listens to.

  I can’t actually see the side road where the next charity shop is located. There are just too many people in front of us and I’m becoming disorientated. I can smell the musk and sweat and perfume of the hostile creatures whose numbers are thickening around us by the second. It feels like we’ve been walking for at least ten minutes and yet we don’t seem to be able to find a way off the small cobbled square.

  ‘How come the square is so big all of a sudden?’ whispers GG.

  ‘It can’t be much further.’ Panic is wrapping itself round me and I’m starting to think that someone has got a power that plays with perception and they’re holding us in its sway.

  I don’t know which way to turn because it seems as if there is no end to the square. It just goes on and on and the more we push through the less we seem to get anywhere.

  Someone is definitely doing this to us, I am sure of it. I can almost feel them inside me, showing me a gap that we can head for but then it suddenly closes and we have to turn and find another opening somewhere else. But that closes too and I know we are being turned round and round in circles.

  The square is packed now, heaving with their version of their humanity. We’re getting jostled and pushed around and the faces are uniformly unforgiving and accusing. I don’t want to look at them because I’m scared they’ll see how horribly anxious I’ve become.

  I look at the Ape and his slow-moving brain is having trouble computing what is going on. ‘How far is this stupid shop?’

  ‘Ape,’ I say.

  The Ape turns. ‘It’s Dazza.’

  ‘We need to get off this square. And you need to clear a path.’

  The Ape couldn’t look more delighted. He twists his neck, making it crack, and then gets ready. ‘Which way?’

  I turn round and try to pick a path. But as I do I give in to the totally worst certainty ever.

  ‘Oh God, they know,’ I breathe quietly. ‘They absolutely know.’

  GG dares to look around and when he does every face is staring straight at us and we are trapped in the middle of them all.

  ‘They know what?’ says the Ape, frowning.

  ‘Who we are.’

  ‘What you are, you mean.’ The voice is high-pitched and shrill. Not-Del pushes through the crowd.

  I spin around looking for an exit or an escape route but all I can see is an army of angry aliens, all of them focused on us.

  The Ape bunches his fists. ‘I got this.’

  The Ape’s famous catchphrase is back. Have to admit I’ve kind of missed it, even if it does usually herald a fight.

  ‘Excuse me?’ GG is stunned.

  The Ape shrugs. ‘I got this.’

  ‘There must be a hundred of them!’ I hiss.

  ‘More than that.’ GG swallows.

  ‘Maybe we can talk to them,’ I say without a single trace of belief or hope.

  ‘Get ready to run,’ the Ape says. ‘I can hold them.’ The Ape is completely serious and I have to admire his utter conviction and fearlessness.

  ‘No, Ape, no way.’

  ‘Get ready.’ He flexes his muscles under his coat.

  ‘Let me talk to them,’ I suggest.

  ‘And say what?’

  Which is as good a question as he has ever asked because there is no talking to these creatures. We’ve seen it over and over first-hand. They do not stop for a cup of tea and a chat.

  ‘Go.’ The Ape is circling GG and me watching the creatures.

  The thing that scares me the most, the one thing I have grown to hate more than anything about these ‘people’ are their talons. Their sharp metal talons. I have seen the mess they made of Billie’s face and Carrie’s entire body.

  ‘Where exactly are we supposed to go?’ asks GG as the creatures continue to stare unforgivingly at us.

  ‘Get out of here, Rev,’ urges the Ape.

  Deep down in his Neanderthal brain is some never-say-die spirit, and it is a part of him that dwarfs anything I have ever seen in anyone else. Johnson and GG come very close but the Ape’s deep well of spirit and fight is God-like.

  All I wanted was to get us back to the other world. To save our stranded friends and find my beloved Johnson – both of them. Somehow I’ve been clinging to a crazed notion that, like in every book I read and every film I ever watched, the boy and the girl will end up together. It’s a universal given.

  Until now.

  Turns out that apocalyptic reality isn’t like the movies.

  ‘You can’t take on an entire town,’ I tell the Ape.

  ‘Yeah I can.’

  ‘No, Ape, you can’t. We’re in this together.’

  GG puts a gentle hand on the Ape’s thick wrist. ‘We’ve got nowhere to run.’

  The Ape stares at the gathering of aliens. They bare their teeth and a thousand steel-tipped talons slide from their fingers.

  They’ve been unusually patient. They should have attacked us long before now but maybe they’re drawing mental straws to see who gets first slash.

  ‘Then you’d better get behind me,’ the Ape tells us.

  GG’s hand remains on the Ape’s wrist as their eyes meet. ‘God I love you.’

  ‘Stop that!’

  I feel a sense of calm spread over the square, as if the creatures have come to a decision.

  Some of them part and out of the masses steps Not-Ella who joins Not-Del. She can barely contain her joy. ‘Yo, Pink.’

  ‘The old woman in the charity shop,’ Not-Del says, his high-pitched voice making my skin crawl. ‘Her thoughts got out. They were swirling around until someone picked them up. And that someone can sends texts without a phone. So we all know what you did.’

  ‘Wait,’ I say. ‘Aren’t any of you curious about why we’re here? Don’t you want to know about the other worlds out there? There could be hundreds of them.’

  ‘Yeah, it looked like the world you just came from was great. Visit and die.’ Not-Del laughs but it’s not a nice laugh.

  ‘That was just a big misunderstanding,’ I say. ‘Well – maybe more than one.’

  ‘And we’re talking humungous confusion,’ adds GG, babbling again.

  ‘D-don’t any of you get it?’ I stammer. ‘It’s the eighth wonder of the world.’

  ‘And you’ve got friends stuck there,’ GG adds.

  ‘Friends?’ Not-Ella laughs. ‘That’s not the word I’d use.’

  ‘Your people, your, uh, your kind, they can be healed. You all know that.’ I try and make eye contact with Ella, hoping she’ll see the humanity in me. ‘And we can go and get them and send them back. I promise you. I absolutely swear that’s what we’ll do.’ I blink the well of tears from my eyes. ‘You could even come with us.’

  ‘Don’t you get it? No one likes any of you.’ Not-Ella is enjoying this way too much. ‘We don’t want any of you – and that goes for both versions.’

  ‘My mum’ll miss me,’ I tell her.

  ‘Your mum’s a nobody,’ says Not-Del.

  The words sting and I can’t believe the whole town think of my non-mum and my real mum in such a callous way. God I hate them. I hate them all.

  ‘My dad’ll be furious,’ offers GG.

  ‘Your “dad” is driving a train to the coast.’

&nbs
p; ‘And your mum and your sisters were seen driving out of town earlier.’

  GG immediately pales at this. ‘You can’t do this to them. They love their little GG.’

  ‘I don’t recall anyone loving you,’ says Not-Ella to GG without an ounce of compassion.

  ‘Sorry, Dazza.’ Not-Del shrugs an apology to the Ape.

  ‘You’re the one who’s going to be sorry.’ I watch the Ape stand tall, taller than he’s ever been. He towers over Not-Ella and Not-Del, fixing the entire square with the bravest, most defiant look I have ever seen. ‘You think you can take me?’

  I feel a huge swelling in my heart, and a surge of strength flows straight from the Ape into my tired, battered body. I take a moment, then pull myself as upright and as proud as I can and stand head to shoulder with him. GG sees and follows suit, puffing out his skinny chest, and together we turn and form a small triangular circle, if there is such a thing, our backs to each other, waiting for a whole town to come at us.

  The Ape continues to eye the creatures. ‘Rev?’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Fight or die.’

  The Ape cracks his neck again. He is ready for war. And GG and I are going to stand right by him.

  It’s the only way. The Way of the Ape.

  ‘Why don’t you let us make this quick?’ Del is completely bewildered by the Ape’s lack of fear.

  ‘Why don’t you stop talking and do something?’ The Ape has no step back in him. He is all forward thrust and bring it on. He will never be a model citizen but I think a tiny part of me has fallen for the model he is.

  ‘We’ve got this!!’ yells the Ape as he charges forward. Talons glint, teeth are bared and I surprise myself by staying tall. I’m not going to give them anything but all the fight I’ve got in me.

  The Ape ploughs onwards, plunging headlong into a maelstrom of creatures who quickly fall on him.

  Despite my best intentions I turn away, unable to watch.

  ‘Nobody touches my daughter!’

  The voice erupts over the lethal gathering of teeth and talons.

  I open my eyes and find that the world has stopped.

  Everyone in the square is frozen. Their slashing talons, their snapping teeth, every part of them is frozen in suspended animation.

  GG’s eyes find mine and he’s just as confused as I am. The Ape crawls out from under at least a dozen clawing creatures, miraculously none of which managed to touch him before becoming frozen.

  He gets to his feet, triumphant. ‘Told you I had this.’ He grins at us.

  ‘Reva!’ My non-mum’s voice breaks through the mass of static bodies.

  I turn and see her pushing through the frozen masses. Her walk is a weak stumbling stagger as if she’s drunk.

  I go to her and catch her just as she falls into my arms.

  ‘Go! I can’t hold them for long.’ She can barely get her words out, she is breathing so hard.

  ‘You did this? You stopped them?’

  She can barely catch her breath. ‘Wherever you came from, you need to get back there.’

  GG and the Ape join us. GG is so excited, so relieved, he squeals. ‘I thought we were so dead, I did. I thought I was going to GG heaven.’

  My non-mum clutches my arm. ‘Please, you’ve got to go.’

  ‘I don’t understand. I’m not even – I’m not your Rev.’

  ‘But maybe . . .’ She has to take a moment to catch her breath again. ‘Maybe you can send my Reva back to me.’ She looks into my eyes and then reaches up and touches my face. ‘Send her home. Please.’

  GG casts his eyes around the square, taking in the nonmoving creatures. ‘How long have we got?’

  ‘Ten minutes, maybe less.’ The pressure of freezing an entire town is showing on her face.

  ‘I don’t know what to do,’ I tell her. ‘Not in ten hours, let alone ten minutes.’

  ‘You have to get away,’ she says.

  ‘But—’

  ‘You have to do this for me. I want my daughter back.’

  GG starts to pull me away from the frozen crowd. ‘Let’s find the jacket and the papers.’

  ‘They could be in any charity shop and I don’t even know what good it’ll do if we find them!’ This is hopeless and futile. ‘I pinned my hopes on those papers because I was desperate but I have no idea what difference finding them will make. The Moth would understand them but he’s not here.’

  ‘Let’s go back to the classroom,’ suggests the Ape.

  Which stuns me into silence.

  ‘It’s how we got here,’ he says. ‘Probably get us back.’

  ‘You think another light will just come along and sweep us up? From out of nowhere?’ I ask, disbelieving.

  ‘Why not?’ He shrugs.

  I look at GG who looks as incredulous as me that the Ape has said two sensible things in the last ten minutes, but then he nods. ‘It’s better than anything I can think of.’

  ‘But why would the light come back?’ I ask.

  The Ape shrugs again. ‘Why wouldn’t it?’

  My non-mum grips my arm tighter. ‘Hurry. I can’t hold them!’

  As if to prove her point, one of the aliens staggers closer, fighting hard against the bonds.

  My non-mum urges me with determined eyes and I think of my own mum and how she’d be right here fighting for me as well. I haven’t had time to miss her but now, more than ever, I’m determined to get back and be the best daughter ever.

  I can’t help myself and stop to kiss my non-mum’s cheek. ‘She’s coming home. I promise you. I’ll send your Reva home.’

  Running through a town of frozen yet deadly creatures is a long way short of pleasant. Most of the town’s residents have unsheathed their talons and some probably have exceptional powers. Whoever heard the old woman’s weak message has transmitted it to everyone in town, and that is one pretty powerful alien.

  GG and I try to duck and weave round them while the Ape just ploughs straight through them, shoulder-charging them out of his meaty way. ‘Coming through!’

  The school sits at the top of a steep hill and time is flying by too quickly. I’m not convinced that ten minutes will be enough.

  A skinny middle-aged jogger suddenly moves, lashing out with a clawed hand, and I am forced to duck at the last second.

  ‘She can’t hold them!’ yells GG.

  ‘Yes she can!’ I yell back. ‘She’s my mum.’

  A man in a suit moves stiffly towards us, but my non-mum must get a hold of him and he freezes again. Some see us coming and start to fight the bonds they are held in, but we keep going, pumping our legs, darting round and past the everyday folk of a nightmare world. My legs are aching as we head through the school gates. School has finished and there are fewer creatures in the grounds. We are lucky to meet only a few half-frozen teachers who are now struggling furiously against the bonds my non-mum has wrapped them in.

  I fear what they might do to her when they break free of her bonds. And I’m wondering if we should have taken her with us, but I can’t go back for her now. To pause, to even think about pausing, will be the death of us. I just pray that Rev Two comes home and finds her mum is still here.

  The Ape crashes into the school, shattering the glass in the doors, and almost gets decapitated by Mr Allwell who manages to swing slow-moving talons his way.

  GG sees it coming and, using all of his strength, barrels into the Ape and shunts him to one side. ‘Ape!!’

  The metal talons embed in the wall.

  GG dances round Mr Allwell and takes the first stairway we come across. The classroom we had detention in is on the top floor and we have to weave between hateful teachers and a group of violent-looking drama pupils who form pretty much the same doppelganger group that Billie and I were thrown out of. We have to be careful because on the stairs we are forced by the narrowness of the stairwell to pass close to them. A few even manage to take some painfully slow lunges at us as my non-mum’s hold over them starts to falter.


  The Ape barges a few over the side of the banisters but because of the way they are made the rubbery-skinned creatures shrug off their landing, then snap themselves back into place and, moving as if they are trudging through treacle, start to come back up the stairs.

  By the time we have reached the top floor it’s painfully obvious that my non-mum’s hold over the town has all but bled away.

  The noise of increasingly fleet footsteps coming up the stairwell is filling the school as the Ape kicks open the classroom door. GG and I burst in after him and start piling desks and chairs up against it. I know it won’t be any use as we hear footsteps in the hallway outside. The Ape smashes a chair against the floor over and over until all he is left with are the metal legs that he now intends to use as a weapon of some sort.

  The only weapon GG can find is a mid-sized globe of the world and he gets ready to wield it as the first thud crunches into the barricaded door. I try to put all my weight behind the piled desks but the door shudders again and I’m shunted back, my feet slipping and sliding on the polished floor.

  There’s another massive shunt and the door flies off its hinges, scattering the desks and throwing me into the middle of the room.

  Vicious angry faces appear at the doorway as GG drags me to my feet. The Ape tosses me a chair to use as a weapon.

  GG stands with us, globe at the ready, as the creatures weigh up what they’re going to do next. I could pretty much spell it out to them but they always seem to hesitate first. As if they know we’re doomed and that there’s no escaping them.

  ‘Rev?’ asks GG.

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Say the light did come, how would we know it was taking us to the right place?’ I hadn’t even thought of that. ‘I mean, it could be worse than this.’

  ‘Oh, yeah, GG. Loads worse. This is nothing.’

  Our eyes meet and for the briefest of moments we share a smile. We’ve come such a long way together, I think, and it’s a total crying shame it has to end now.

  The Ape studies the creatures. ‘Come on then!’

  They couldn’t have received a clearer invitation and the creatures begin to pour forth.

  They’re quick but the white light is quicker.