The Fearless (14 page)

The baby gives a cry. ‘Shh, shh,’ the woman soothes, jogging her up and down. When she sees Myo, a smile spreads across her face. ‘Oh, thank goodness,’ she says. ‘We were worried.’

This time, Danny makes the introductions. The baby is called Tessie. April gives Myo an awkward, one-armed hug, and then, to my surprise, hugs me too. I look down at Tessie, who’s gazing at me like I landed from another planet, her eyes round. I put out a finger and she grabs onto it. A lump rises in my throat. ‘Hello, you,’ I whisper. This must be the baby Myo was trying to find medicine for. ‘Is she better now?’ I ask April.

April frowns. ‘Better?’

‘She wasn’t feeling well when I was here last time, was she?’ Myo says.

‘Well, she had colic, but—’ I see April meet Myo’s gaze over my shoulder, and her frown smoothes out. She gives me a quick smile. ‘Oh, yes, she’s much better now. She had a fever, but it broke last night. Thank you.’

She and Danny take us into a little living room. It’s as packed with junk as the hall: tin cans, bits of rope, pieces of cardboard, and even, I see in a corner, a stack of books. Although I’m starving and exhausted and frozen, I have an overwhelming urge to look through them. I’ve read the books on Hope so many times I could recite them in my sleep.

This must be all the stuff he trades
, I think as Danny clears a space on a sagging couch. Although everything is shabby, it feels like a real home. There’s even a grandfather clock in the corner, ticking ponderously, the pendulum swinging from side to side. The hands point to four forty-five.

‘Sit,’ Danny says. ‘You must both be knackered. April, is there enough grub for all of us?’

‘There can be,’ she says with another of those smiles. ‘Give me half an hour.’

‘Here.’ Myo unties the rabbit from his pack and hands it to her.

Thanking him, she passes Tessie to Danny and disappears through another door. The whole house smells comfortingly of cooking and woodsmoke. I take off my boots, sink onto the couch and close my eyes. I can’t remember the last time I sat on something this soft.

‘So what you been up to?’ Danny asks Myo as Tessie gurgles on his lap, talking to herself in secret baby language. I keep my eyes closed. I’m so tired that if it wasn’t for the hunger gnawing at my middle, I’d fall asleep in seconds.

I listen as Myo tells Danny what happened, Danny getting more and more indignant. ‘They did
what
?’ he says when Myo tells him about Sol beating him up. When Myo reaches the part of the story about the Fearless man and girl following him onto the island, and Jori being taken and everyone refusing to help me get him back, Myo’s voice cracks, making me open my eyes for a moment. I glance at him, but he’s looking away from me.

‘Are they
crazy
?’ Danny says. ‘They’d let a Fearless get away with one of their own? That’s never right.’

I prise my eyelids open again. ‘It’s the rule. We don’t have enough resources or weapons to go after people if they’re taken, even kids . . .’ I trail off, not trusting myself to say any more.

‘They’re a right funny lot down there,’ Danny says, shaking his head. ‘No offence, like, but—’

I shake my head too. ‘It’s OK.’

‘If I’d known that was where you were going, I’d’ve told you not to bother,’ Danny says to Myo. ‘Who told you about it?’

‘Shane,’ Myo says. I’m guessing he means another barterer.

‘Yeah, well, do us a favour and take whatever Shane says with a pinch of salt next time. He’s a nice lad, but he’s never been down that way. He don’t know what they’re like.’

‘What are we like?’ I say. I’m curious to hear an outsider’s view of the island. ‘Why do people think we’re funny?’

‘Just . . . suspicious, like. Won’t help anyone. It’s as if everyone who don’t live there is Fearless. I mean, I know we all got to be careful, but you’d think the people in charge want that place to stay cut off from the rest of the world for ever.’

I remember how everyone is told as soon as they’re old enough to understand the dangers that the mainland is crawling with Fearless, waiting to Alter us if we’re ever stupid enough to set foot over there. And I remember how, two winters ago, the barterers stopped coming for months, and everyone assumed that their luck had run out and they’d finally all been picked off by the Fearless. Food supplies almost ran out, but Sol’s dad and Captain Denning wouldn’t let anyone go over to the mainland – they said there was nothing we could do but wait it out. Then, in spring, the barterers suddenly appeared again. We never found out what had happened, although there was plenty of speculation about it.

And yet . . .

Apart from Danny and April, the only people Myo and I have seen all day are the Magpies.

‘Where
is
everyone?’ I ask Danny. ‘I thought there’d be Fearless everywhere, or that we’d come across another community, but there’s no one.’

Danny frowns. ‘There used to be more communities,’ he says. ‘Small groups, mostly in the towns and cities. But a bad flu went round the winter before last, and then the measles. It wiped a lot of ’em out – apart from Myo’s lot, there’s only a few groups left now, one in Wales and a couple up north that I know of. ’Course, if we still had hospitals and the like, it would have been a different story, but . . .’ He shrugs. ‘We both got the flu pretty bad ourselves, but we were lucky and avoided the measles. I guess your lot must have been all right too, what with being isolated on that island.’

I stare at him. So that’s why no one came that winter. Epidemics like that have always been Hope Island’s biggest fear. Like Danny said, our isolation from the mainland must have kept the illnesses away. But how could something on that scale have happened and we didn’t know?

Perhaps Sol’s dad and the Patrol did know, and kept the barterers away
, a little voice in my head says.
And they wouldn’t let anyone go to the mainland because they were scared they might bring the illnesses back
.

But if that’s so, why didn’t they tell us what was going on? Why did they let us nearly starve, thinking the barterers were gone for ever?

‘What about the Fearless?’ I say. ‘Did the flu and the measles get them too?’

Danny shakes his head. ‘Nah. Illness don’t seem to affect ’em like that. It’s the serum that’s doin’ for ’em.’

‘Myo said it’s not as strong as when the Invasion first happened – that it takes longer to Alter people now.’

‘Yeah. There’s no one with the facilities to make the real thing any more – all the scientists who made the drug originally are dead or Altered or gone – so the Fearless brew up something themselves. It’ll Alter anyone they give it to who’s not had it before, but after that it wrecks ’em proper quick. ’Cos the cravings are so bad, they have to keep takin’ it – drives ’em mad otherwise – but eventually it rots ’em from the inside out. It ain’t pretty.’

‘What do they make it out of?’ My voice is shaking as I remember the filthy bandages around the Fearless man’s arms and head, his blackened teeth and the terrible stench coming off him.

‘Who knows. But if you can get your brother back before he Alters, he might be OK.’

‘Do you think that’s why they took him?’ I say. ‘Because the drug’s making them ill, and they want to make new Fearless? Because otherwise they’d’ve killed him straight away, right?’

‘I reckon,’ Danny says. ‘I’ve heard about other people getting taken recently – young ’uns like your brother, mostly. Most of ’em – the Fearless, that is – stick together these days. My guess is the two who took your brother will be taking him to one of their hideouts somewhere to start giving him the drug.’

‘But why kids?’

‘Couldn’t tell ya. Might be because they’re younger – stronger.’

I feel sick. ‘But why don’t they just have kids, then?’

‘This new stuff made ’em infertile, or so they say. And most of the original Fearless have been takin’ it too, so . . .’ Danny shrugs.

I stare at the tabletop. ‘But
why
? Why keep trying to make new Fearless?’

‘People think it’s another effect of the serum,’ says April, who’s come to check on Tessie. ‘That it gives them this compulsion to make others like them, even though the drug is a death sentence. Of course, no one’s actually
studied
them – how could they? But that’s our best guess.’

As she goes back into the kitchen, I carry on staring at the table, trying – and failing – to process all this information.

‘We think the two who got him are taking him to Sheffield,’ Myo cuts in.

‘To the Torturehouse?’

‘Aye.’

Danny’s frown deepens. ‘And if you don’t get this kid back before, you’re going up there?’

Myo gives me another one of those sideways glances, like he did out in the hall. ‘Maybe.’

Danny raises his eyebrows, but doesn’t say anything.

Shortly after that, April comes back through to tell us the food’s ready. In the kitchen, a pot is bubbling merrily on top of an iron wood-stove. At first, I don’t think I’m going to be able to eat anything – my stomach is in knots after my conversation with Danny – but the smells coming from the pot are so delicious that I start getting hunger pangs again. Danny places Tessie in a cradle near the stove, and then we sit down at a table in the corner while April fills bowls with a thick stew that contains beans, lentils and shreds of meat from Myo’s rabbit. Lochie gets some too, pushing his bowl around with his nose as he tries to hoover up every last molecule.

‘Did you see if that . . . person was still lurking around in the woods when you answered the door?’ April asks Danny as we scrape our own bowls clean.

Danny shakes his head.

‘What person?’ Myo asks.

‘There was someone hanging around on the road earlier,’ Danny says. ‘No idea who. You didn’t see anyone, did you?’

Myo shakes his head too. ‘We saw Magpies earlier, but that’s all.’

Danny makes a face. ‘Those crazy bastards. I hope you didn’t let them see you.’

‘No fear,’ Myo says.

‘Are you two going to stop here for the night?’ April says. ‘It’s bitter out there.’

‘If that’s OK,’ Myo says.

‘Of course.’

‘I need to ask another favour, too,’ Myo says, glancing at me. ‘You said you might be taking the horses up north in a couple of days . . .’

Revived by the food and warmth, I’m more alert now, so I see the look that passes between Danny and April. My heart sinks.

‘I’ve decided not to go,’ Danny says at last. ‘The weather’s supposed to be getting worse up there – they say snow’s coming. If I didn’t have Tessie to think about, of course I’d take you, but I can’t risk getting stuck. April needs me here.’ He turns to look at me, his expression filled with regret. ‘I’m sorry, love.’

‘It’s fine,’ I say dully. ‘I understand.’ My heart sinks even further as I contemplate the days of walking Myo and I have in store. The Fearless don’t need as much rest or sleep as we do. They’re probably way ahead of us already. There’s no way I’ll get to my brother in time.

A gloomy silence falls. Seeing Myo stifle a yawn, April says, ‘Would you two like to get some sleep?’

I nod. So does Myo. He looks exhausted.

April takes us back through to the living room, where she clears the rest of the stuff off the couch. ‘One of you’ll have to sleep on the floor. We’ve got plenty of blankets, though.’

Before she leaves, she hangs a lantern on a hook near the door. I make Myo take the couch, even though I’m still annoyed with him about this morning, and spread my blankets out near the piles of books. After applying some more antiseptic cream to my heel, I lie down, listening to the rhythmic clunk-tick of the clock and thinking about Jori. Where will he be sleeping tonight?

Lochie pads across to me and flops down against my back with a grunt. I tense. Myo laughs. ‘If he’s squashing you, give him a shove. He won’t mind.’

Give Lochie a shove? Is he
crazy
? I stare up at the ceiling, my body rigid. Lochie give an enormous sigh and relaxes against me.

Eventually, I relax too. It’s quite nice having him there; he’s like a big, hairy hot water bottle. I close my eyes and drift off to sleep.

Myo and I are walking again. It’s just past dawn, the air still, everything silver with frost. We don’t speak. Lochie lopes silently alongside us. There’s an atmosphere of tension, of waiting, hanging around us like smoke.

I hear a buzzing sound.

Engines.

Magpies.

Fear bursts through me as I remember what Myo said yesterday.
They’re not interested in helping people. Especially not people like you and me
. ‘We have to get off the road,’ I tell him in a low, urgent voice, but he keeps walking, head down, like he hasn’t even heard me. Lochie doesn’t respond either. ‘Myo!’

The engines grow louder. I scream Myo’s name, trying to get him to look at me, and when he won’t, I try to run. But all of a sudden, I can’t move. I look down and see that the ice on the road has crept over my boots, freezing me to the tarmac. As I struggle to get free, it spreads, running up my legs in a crazed spider-web pattern. I can feel the cold biting into my flesh through the fabric of my trousers, and as the sound of the jeeps gets closer, I realize that this is something the Magpies have engineered, that they’ve done this so they can catch me.
But I’m not Fearless!
I scream. I look at Myo, but he and Lochie aren’t there; they’ve run off into the woods and left me. The ice has got to my waist. I’m so cold. Soon it will reach my throat, and then my mouth, and then it’ll creep down into my throat and lungs, and I’ll die . . .

Suddenly, Lochie bursts out of the trees behind me, giving a deep bark.

I sit up, gasping for breath.

Lochie’s no longer lying beside me. I must have been asleep for a while because, although the lantern’s still burning, I’ve kicked the blankets off myself and the house has gone cold.

I look over at the couch. Myo’s sitting up, frowning at the door, where Lochie’s got his nose to the crack at the bottom. Suddenly, Lochie barks again – the sound I heard in my dream.

‘Why is he barking?’ I whisper.

‘Dunno. He must have heard something.’