The Fear (6 page)

DogNut reckoned they might be able to rush the guards, overpower them and get to their weapons. He and Courtney and the Good, the Bad and the Ugly were all tough fighters. But for now he was holding back, waiting to see what was going to unfold here.

‘We have to be very careful,’ Nicola explained. ‘We don’t know who you are –’

‘But –’ DogNut tried to interrupt, but Nicola cut him off.

‘We’re always under attack from other children.’

‘You’re joking me.’

‘I’m deadly serious.’ And she looked it. ‘We don’t know anything about you.’

‘Do we look like an invading army?’ DogNut laughed. ‘There’s only eight of us.’

‘True. But most of the attacks on us are sneak attacks, by small groups. There’s a bunch of kids have set up camp in St James’s Park. They’re not very nice. They’re always sending raiding parties down here, trying to steal from us.’

‘Well, we ain’t from St James’s Park.’

‘Where
are
you from?’

‘Look,’ said DogNut, ‘you being bare rude here, sister. You need to jam your hype and tell your boydem to stand down. They making me uncomfortable. Then we all just shake hands, sit down somewhere cosy like and have a nice civilized chat. What do you say to that?’

Nicola thought about it for a moment then relaxed.

‘OK,’ she said, nodding to some benches at the edge of the park. ‘Over there.’

Once they were seated DogNut explained who they were and where they were from. Nicola seemed satisfied, but still a little wary.

‘So you’re looking for friends,’ she said when DogNut had finished.

‘You got it.’

‘They came over the bridge well near to here, in the fire,’ said Courtney. ‘That’s why we come up this way. We mainly looking for a girl called Brooke. Blonde hair and a big mouth on her.’

Nicola looked around at the five boys who were still with her. ‘Don’t think we have anyone called Brooke here, do we?’ Her friends shook their heads.

‘When she come over the bridge she was in a big Tesco lorry,’ said DogNut. ‘With a load of other kids.’

‘I remember the lorry,’ said a tall boy with a wispy growth on his top lip that wasn’t quite a moustache. He was missing his front teeth and wore his hair in a ponytail. ‘I came over Lambeth Bridge at the same time.’

‘What happened to it?’ DogNut asked.

The boy shrugged. ‘It didn’t stop. Far as I remember, it just kept on going.’

‘And none of you know where it went? What happened to the kids on board?’

‘What about Paul?’ Olivia chipped in. ‘My brother? Paul Channing? He wasn’t on the lorry. He might have come here? We’re not only looking for Brooke.’

Suddenly the boat crew were all talking at once. Asking after friends, relatives.

Nicola held out her hands and had to almost shout to be heard.

‘OK, listen,’ she said. ‘We’ll call a session of parliament.’

‘You’ll do what?’ said DogNut, taken aback.

‘Parliament,’ said Nicola matter-of-factly, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

DogNut didn’t know whether to laugh, but chose not to. Nicola had such a serious expression on her face.

‘That’s how we run things here,’ she said. ‘We vote on everything. If we call a session, everyone has to attend and we can ask if anyone knows anything about your friends.’

‘You vote on everything?’ said DogNut.

‘Yes.’

‘So they voted you in charge then?’

‘Yes,’ said Nicola. ‘I won the vote. They made me prime minister.’

Now DogNut couldn’t stop himself from laughing. It sounded too much like a game, or a school project. But Nicola looked more serious than ever and DogNut’s laughter died away.

‘I know it sounds a bit silly,’ she said, and at last she did smile. ‘But we have to start setting up some sort of order in the world. There are lots of children here and they need things to be normal; they need to have some kind of structure in their lives.’

How quickly they’d had to grow up, DogNut thought. It was a simple choice, behave like adults, or die like babies.

‘True dat,’ he said. ‘Just like Jordan Hordern is big man at the Tower. He’s a general, though – he ain’t no prime minister.’

‘Doesn’t matter what we’re called,’ said Nicola. ‘But it made sense, as we were all living here, to set up an old-style government.’

‘So why
are
you living here then?’

‘It’s safe,’ said the boy with the ponytail. ‘The Houses of Parliament is one of the most secure places in the country.’

‘Guess so,’ said DogNut.

‘It’s too big for us, really,’ Nicola added. ‘But more children arrive all the time.’

‘A lot of us were already here when the fire broke out last year,’ said Ponytail. ‘And then hundreds more kids poured across the bridges. Some of them stopped here.’

‘But not Brooke?’ Courtney asked.

‘Sorry,’ said Ponytail. ‘Don’t think so.’

‘As I say,’ said Nicola, standing up, ‘we’ll call a session. You make up a list of names of the people you’re looking for. There are nearly a hundred of us here – someone might know something.’

An hour later and all the kids were assembled on the rows of red leather benches in the House of Lords. It was gloomy and cold, despite the light streaming in through the high stained-glass windows that ran down either side of the hall.

‘Fancy,’ said Courtney as she sat down next to DogNut and looked around at the carved wood panelling that covered the walls, the gold leaf, the chandeliers, the oil paintings.

‘It looks like a film or something,’ said DogNut. ‘At least they ain’t wearing any fancy robes and wigs.’

The boat crew had been given their gear back, but Nicola had insisted she keep hold of their weapons and armour until they were ready to leave.

Nicola was sitting on a golden throne at one end, her ministers on the benches nearby. She called for quiet, explained the purpose of the meeting and then read out the names that DogNut had given her, adding a brief description of the lorry crossing the bridge.

A murmur went around the assembled kids and Nicola let them talk for a couple of minutes. It was soon clear, though, that nobody was going to jump up and say, ‘That’s me!’ or, ‘I know where they are.’ Slowly the noise died down and Nicola spoke again.

‘So nobody knows anything about any of these children?’ she asked.

There were shaking heads and mumbled ‘no’s all around. Courtney felt a mixture of disappointment and relief. She still couldn’t get her mixed-up feelings about Brooke and DogNut straight in her head. And then, to her surprise, she found herself standing up and calling out into the echoing space of the hall.

‘Did nobody even see what way the lorry went then?’

‘I saw it,’ someone shouted. ‘It just carried on going.’

‘There was some other boys walking with it,’ said Courtney. ‘Posh kids all in red with rifles. What about them?’

‘Everyone knows them,’ said a girl at the back.

‘What do you mean?’ Courtney looked confused.

A stocky kid with a shaved head stood up and called over to her.

‘You see their leader? Was he a weirdo called David?’

‘Yeah, that’s him,’ said Courtney. ‘You got it. He was in charge of them.’

‘He a friend of yours then?’ said the stocky kid.

‘Not exactly,’ said DogNut. ‘He was guarding the lorry. Wherever he is, the lorry ought to be too.’

‘They’re at Buckingham Palace then.’

A noisy hubbub of chatter broke out among the assembled kids. Nicola stared across at the new arrivals.

DogNut leant over and muttered to Courtney. ‘So David’s at Buckingham Palace. That makes sense. This lot have set themselves up as the government – David’s set himself up as the bloody king.’

Courtney laughed and DogNut straightened. ‘How far is it to the palace from here?’ he asked.

‘It’s only about ten minutes away,’ said someone sitting nearby.

‘Sorted!’ DogNut punched the air. ‘So do any of you mugs want to come with us? Show us the way? Keep us safe? We don’t know this area … Anyone?’

Nobody made a move to volunteer, and DogNut sighed.

Waste of time. This bunch might have been well organized, but they weren’t exactly the most adventurous kids in the world.

‘I have to ask you again,’ said Nicola. ‘What is your relationship with David?’

‘I don’t have no relationship with David,’ said DogNut with a smirk. ‘You calling me gay?’

A ripple of laughter spread among the seated children.

‘I just want to know what he is to you,’ said Nicola patiently.

‘He ain’t nothing to me,’ said DogNut. ‘He tipped up at the War Museum just before it all kicked off, looking for guns, yeah. When everyone had to get out on account of the fire, he kind of, like, volunteered himself to guard the lorry. Wanted a piece of what was on it, the food and that. Why you ask? You got a problem with him?’

‘You could say that. David’s always trying to take over here.’

‘He one of these raiders you told us about?’

‘No. He’s got a lot of kids at the palace. He wants more, though. Keeps trying to make a deal with us. But you can’t trust him. One of my promises when I was standing for government was that I wouldn’t ever have anything to do with him.’

‘Well, you telling us how to get there ain’t exactly gonna break no promise, is it?’

‘No. But I can’t let anyone go with you.’

Courtney shook her head and looked at DogNut.

‘What other promises did you make?’ DogNut asked. ‘Just so’s we know.’

‘My only other promise was that I’d never attack any other kids.’

DogNut laughed. ‘That why you took our weapons and set your soldiers on us then?’

‘That was self-defence.’

‘If you say so.’

‘So you ain’t none of you gonna help us?’ Courtney shouted angrily.

‘We’re not fighters here,’ said Nicola.

‘No, you’re talkers. And talking ain’t no use to us.’

Courtney left her place and headed for the doors, telling the others to come with her. They hesitated for a moment, then drifted after her. DogNut followed her and put a hand on her arm, slowing her down.

‘Ain’t so bad, gyal,’ he said. ‘We got us a lead. At least we know where David went. Can’t blame these kids for not helping more. They got problems of their own.’

‘Maybe.’

‘Wait a minute!’ It was Nicola, hurrying to catch up with them. She looked flushed and slightly embarrassed. Courtney gave her the cold shoulder, but DogNut waited for her.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘But you must understand. I’ve got to look after my people. It’s not far to the palace. You should be OK.’

‘Yeah?’

‘You’re welcome to stay with us here for a bit if you want. As long as you stick to our rules.’

‘Thanks but no thanks,’ said DogNut. ‘Is a cool offer, like, but we come up this way to find old friends. We ain’t gonna crash just yet. We gotta keep moving. So what’s it like round here? Many sickos?’

‘Sickos?’

‘Grown-ups. Mothers and fathers …’

‘Oh, them. We call them oppoes – short for the opposition.’

‘The enemy?’

‘Yes.’

‘They bother you any?’

‘There’s always some around. Less than there used to be. David’s actually done quite a lot to clean the streets up. And lots of them have just starved to death, I guess, or been killed by the disease. It’s not too bad in the day, but it’s certainly not safe out on the streets after dark.’

‘Sounds familiar,’ said DogNut.

The gap-toothed kid with the ponytail – he seemed to be Nicola’s deputy – had joined them.

‘We’ve tried to clear out the area as well as we can,’ he explained. ‘But they’re starting to come over the bridges again, from the south. Real mean ones. As Nicola said, we’re not really fighters here; we’ve fallen back on our defences instead. There are some gangs out there, though. Hunters. They wander the streets looking for oppoes. We sort of rely on them to keep us safe.’

‘If you bumped into a hunter gang out there, they might be able to give you some more information,’ said Nicola, trying to be helpful. ‘They cover a lot of ground.’

‘So you wouldn’t consider breaking your rules and borrowing us an escort?’

Nicola looked embarrassed.

‘I can’t order anyone to go with you. I can let everyone know that if they want to help I’m not going to stop them, but …’

‘But you ain’t fighters. You gonna stick behind your strong walls.’

‘I’ll give you your weapons back, and it’s our lunchtime in half an hour. I can offer you a meal and some water. How’s that?’

‘Deal. Then we on our way, sister.’

They were ready to leave. They’d had something to eat, picked up their weapons, strapped their extra belongings to their backpacks, put on their bits and pieces of armour and now they stood by the Sovereign’s Entrance in Victoria Tower.

Being in the Houses of Parliament, among the lush trappings of the old world, had felt like a dream. She had never realized just how big the place was. Almost like a small city within a city. They had only seen a tiny part of it. She had heard some of the kids call it the palace of Westminster. And it was a palace – full of paintings, and gold, and marble floors. More than ever Courtney felt like London had been turned into a giant playhouse and they were just silly toddlers dressing in their mum and dads’ clothes and parading about pretending to be adults. What hope did any of them ever have of building anything like this in the future? How would they even know where to start? Massive carved stone pillars rose above their heads, supporting arches and beams and statues and huge windows. Even the Lego buildings she’d tried to make as a kid had always collapsed. She remembered learning about the Romans at primary school (they always seemed to be learning about the Romans). About how when they left England everything had started to go wrong; all their fine buildings, with mosaics and central heating and toilets and murals and whatever, had fallen apart. The Brits went back to their old ways – living in mud huts, huddled round fires, eating crap – and everything the Romans had brought here had been forgotten. They called it the Dark Ages. Must have been a rubbish time. Well, they were in a new Dark Age now, weren’t they? That was for sure.