The Enemy (18 page)

“What do you mean, what I did to Arran? I didn’t do nothing to him.”

“It was you got him kil ed, Freaky-Deaky.”

“What are you talking about? I never shot that arrow.”

“Didn’t need to. He was already dying. And Deke was already dead. Al because you wanted to go looking for a stupid vending machine.”

Freak felt a lump in his throat. He fought hard not to sob. “Don’t say that.”

“It’s the truth, Freaky-Deaky. You know it and I ain’t never going to forget it. You nearly got us al kil ed. You think if Arran hadn’t been bitten he would have gone crazy back there? No. And he wouldn’t have gotten shot. Al your fault.”

Freak swore at Achil eus, who spat in the road and walked over to Mick. He said something to the big Morrisons kid, who looked at Freak and laughed.

Up at the front, Jester was talking to Blue, their flashlights raking the road in front of them.

“We should try to go faster,” said Jester. “We’ve lost a lot of time. We should have arrived in daylight.”

“We’re safer at night,” said Blue. “Less grown-ups around.”

“I don’t feel safe. Not after what happened today.”

“Wasn’t right,” said Blue. “Grown-ups don’t usual y act like that. Clubbing together. They was an army. I’ve not seen that before.”

“You stil think that the park is the best way to go?” said Jester.

“Yeah,” said Blue. “It’s wide open—we can see anything that’s coming. Grown-ups don’t like wide-open spaces. I was thinking we could even set up camp for the night. Post sentries around the edges. Let the little ones rest.”

“They’ve rested enough,” said Jester. “We were hours in Camden waiting for Arran to die.”

“That’s cold, man,” said Blue. “What do you think we should have done? Finished him off ourselves?”

“Of course not,” said Jester. “But it was obvious he was going to die.”

“We did what we did, man,” said Blue. “Couldn’t have done it no other way.”

“I know,” said Jester. “And I think it was good the way you took control. I think you should take overal charge.”

“What do you mean?” Blue turned to Jester but couldn’t clearly see his features in the dark.

“We don’t need two leaders,” said Jester. “Maxie can look after the little kids. She’s a girl. She fel apart when Arran died.”

“We’l see,” said Blue. “The Waitrose crew ain’t necessarily gonna accept me as their boss. We need Maxie.”

“Maybe.”

“And what about when we get there?” said Blue.

“How do you mean?”

“Presumably you got someone in charge at the palace.”

“Yeah ...”

“So what happens? Eh? I just sit down and do what I’m told?”

“Don’t worry about that,” said Jester. “We’l work something out.”

“Yeah,” said Blue. “We wil .”

T
hey crossed the road at the top of Parkway and entered Regent’s Park by Gloucester Gate.

The park had changed. The flower beds were overgrown. The short, wel -kept grass was now waist high and tangled with weeds and wildflowers.

Here and there young saplings pushed up through the undergrowth. Only a few inches tal now, but in time this would become a forest.

There was a playground near the gate. A relic from a forgotten age. And the little kids stared at it in wonder as they passed. Maxie gave Godzil a back to Joel and went to relieve Josh and join her team on the right flank.

Josh walked up front where Jester and the others were discussing the best route to take.

“Best stick to the path, I reckon,” said Blue. “It’l be clearer and we’l have a better view. Who knows what might be hiding in the long grass.”

“Like those raptors in
Jurassic Park
,” Josh chipped in.

“There’s a lot of things out to get us in London these days,” said Blue, laughing. “But dinosaurs ain’t one of them.”

“You never know,” said Josh. “The world’s turned upside down. I wouldn’t be surprised. Nothing surprises me anymore.”

“Don’t be scared of no dinosaurs,” said Blue.

“Who said anything about being scared?” said Josh. “You know what they cal me? Josh, the Boy without Fear. I’m gonna kil me a dinosaur.”

“Don’t nothing scare you, man?” said Blue, trying not to laugh.

“Nah. Grown-ups is stupid, and slow. And they got no weapons. Dogs is stupid too. Nothing scares me. Something tries to scare me, I just kil it, man.

Dead.”

“Wel , I’m glad you’re on our side,” said Blue. “Now, let’s get going.”

They had to stretch out along the path, as it wasn’t as wide as the roads they’d been traveling on. The flanking parties stayed close on either side, pushing through the grass.

The emos, Ben and Bernie, were helping the smal er kids along, listening to their chatter.

“That’s the zoo over there,” said Monkey Boy, pointing past a line of trees toward where some of the zoo’s structures were just visible.

“I used to like the zoo,” said El a. “I had a birthday party there once. My favorites were the lions and tigers.”

“What happened to al the animals, do you think?” asked Joel, clutching Godzil a tightly. “When al the keepers died?”

“Did the animals al starve to death?” said El a. She sounded tearful.

“I don’t think so,” said Bernie comfortingly. “I expect the keepers moved them somewhere safe.”

“They wouldn’t have had time,” said Curly Sam, one of those annoying smal kids who thought they knew everything.

“I’m sure the keepers had time to make sure they were al right,” said Bernie.

“Did they let them out, then, do you think?” said El a.

“Yeah, ’spect so,” said Ben, smiling at Bernie. “They would have set them free.”

“Then they might be in the park,” said El a, suddenly fearful, and Ben immediately regretted saying anything.

“I thought you liked the lions and tigers,” said Bernie quickly.

“I did when they were in cages,” said El a, “but not running free.”

“Lions are dangerous,” said Monkey Boy.

“Wil we be eaten?” said Joel. “Like the Christians?”

“What Christians?”

“In the Colosseum. In Rome. They used to feed Christians to the lions.”

“If any lions did get out,” said Bernie, “then they’d be miles away from here by now. They’d be long gone. They’l have gone to the countryside to find cows and deers and things like that.”

“I don’t want to go to the countryside,” said El a. “I don’t want to be eaten like a Christian.”

“You’re not going to be eaten by a lion,” said Bernie.

“Yes,” said Curly Sam. “The only thing that’s going to eat you is a grown-up.”

“That’s not a very helpful thing to say,” said Bernie.

“It’s true, though,” Curly Sam insisted. “They eat kids.”

“What was that?” said El a, her voice very high and thin.

“What was what?”

“I heard something moving in the grass.”

“It’l be the bigger kids,” said Bernie, trying to sound calm, even though she too thought she had seen something moving. “They’re protecting our sides.”

“No. It wasn’t a big kid.”

“Maybe a rabbit, then, or a cat.”

“Like a lion?”

“Look,” said Ben, trying not to lose his patience, “there’s nothing there. Nothing’s going to eat you. We won the battle, didn’t we? We’re strong.

Nothing can get to us.”

“We’re safe, aren’t we?” said Joel.

“Yeah,” said Ben. “We’ve got Godzil a to look after us.”

Joel hugged the puppy tighter. “Godzil a can’t fight,” he said. “He’s too young.”

“I was only joking,” said Ben. “I just can’t win with you lot, can I?”

They had come on to The Broad Walk, a much wider path that ran down the center of the park beneath rows of tal trees. There was enough room here for them to spread out a little. Bernie cal ed Lewis over. He shambled up, scratching his untidy Afro.

“Did you see anything?” she asked.

“What you mean?” said Lewis.

“In the grass?”

“Nope.”

“Did you hear anything?”

“There’s nothing in the grass; we’d have seen any grown-ups.”

“It’s too dark to see anything properly.”

“We’ve got flashlights.”

“We heard something,” said El a. “Maybe a lion.”

Josh came back from the front and looked at the frightened bunch of kids.

“Can’t you keep them quiet?” he said. “They’re getting spooked.”

“They can’t help it,” said Bernie. “They’re smal . They’ve got overactive imaginations.”

“I saw something again!” said El a.

“No you didn’t,” Bernie snapped.

There came a rustle in the leaf canopy above their heads, and everyone stopped walking and fel silent.

A twig snapped.

Something was moving through the trees.

“What is it?”

“Grown-ups, maybe.”

“They can’t climb trees,” said Lewis.

“How do you know?” said Josh. “Our problem is—we’ve been stuck inside those stupid supermarkets too long, and we’ve thought we knew what was going on in the world. I used to sit on that roof with Cal um and thought I could see everything there was to see. Wel , I couldn’t see nothing. Except that tiny little bit of Hol oway. For al we know there are grown-ups that’ve sprouted wings and learned to fly.”

“They can’t fly, can they?” asked a fearful El a.

“Stop it, Josh,” said Bernie. “You come back here and tel us not to spook the kids, and now you’re terrifying them. It’s bad enough as it is without having to worry about flying grown-ups.”

“They can’t fly, can they?” El a repeated.

“Of course they can’t fly,” Bernie almost shouted. “Most of them can hardly walk.”

“There’s definitely something in the trees, though,” said Lewis, looking up.

“Probably squirrels.”

“Too big for a squirrel,” said Maxie, who had also heard something and had come over to consult with Lewis.

“Wel , I ain’t climbing up there to find out,” said Lewis.

“Look out, we’re getting split up,” said Ben, pointing to the front of the column where the fighters were walking on.

Maxie swore and ran after them, shouting to Blue to stop.

“What is it?”

“Wait for the others to catch up.”

“Why have they stopped?”

“The little kids are getting scared. There’s something in the trees.”

“Yeah, we heard it. We reckon it’s best to push on.”

“Can you see anything up there?”

“Too many leaves. Whatever it is, it’s good at hiding.”

“Shouldn’t we at least warn everyone to be careful?”

“We start shouting orders, the kids’l get even more scared,” said Blue. “You go around and tel them. And get the others to hurry up.”

Achil eus came over. “Why ain’t we moving?”

“We need to look up, Akkie,” said Maxie quietly. “There’s something in the trees.”

“I hate to say it, but there’s something in the grass too,” said Achil eus, peering into the darkness.

“What?”

“Something’s crawling about in there. Not big enough to be grown-ups.”

“What is it, then? Could it be other kids?”

“Dunno,” said Achil eus, and before Maxie could stop him, he put a hand to his mouth and shouted, “Hey! Who’s there? Show yourself.”

Nothing. The grass was absolutely stil .

“We need to press on,” said Blue, and he started walking again.

“Wait,” said Maxie, but it was no use.

Her heart was thumping as she made her way back to the huddled mass of smal er kids.

“You have to hurry up,” she said, glad, in a way, to be doing something to take her mind off Arran.

“I don’t like it under the trees,” said El a.

“Don’t go in the grass,” said Maxie. “Don’t you dare go in the grass.”

“Why not?”

“Just don’t.”

“Why? Is there something there? Is there something in the grass?”

“No. We just need to stick together, is al .” Maxie sensed a mounting panic among the smal er kids.

Whitney had sensed it too, and was going around tel ing them not to be scared. Maxie looked to the front. Blue and Jester and the others were getting farther away. She felt like she was slowly losing control.

“Get going,” she said, hustling kids forward.

Half the smal kids walked on, the rest mil ed around fearful y. Some were even heading back the way they had come.

“Hold stil !” Maxie shouted, but at that moment something dropped from the trees and landed with the effect of a bomb going off among the children.

In an instant they were running, screaming, in al directions.

Before Maxie could do anything, something else dropped from the trees. Then another. Gray blurs that shrieked as they came down. She gripped Arran’s club.

It seemed that they were going to have to fight every step of the way into town.