Strangers

28

Phoebe was standing up, looking out over the heads of the unsettled crowd, still desperately searching for her father. He had to be here somewhere, didn’t he? Michelle pulled her down but she shook her mother off. ‘I’m going to go and find him,’ Phoebe said.

‘You can’t, love. You have to stay here with us. It’s not safe.’

‘But what about Dad? He’s on his own.’

‘After what happened at the house he could be anywhere. If he was here he’d have found us, wouldn’t he? He’s probably left town. He’ll be in touch soon, I’m sure he will.’

‘He wouldn’t have left, not with all this going on.’

‘Listen to your mother and shut up,’ Scott said, his voice detached and unemotional. Michelle pulled Phoebe closer and held her as she cried. She watched Scott, and she wished she could tell him exactly what she was thinking like she’d tried this morning. She wished she could be honest with him and tell him to fuck off and leave them alone, to take a frigging hike and never come back again… but she knew she couldn’t. Not yet. She knew him better than he ever gave her credit for. She knew he had a better understanding of what was happening in Thussock than he was letting on. She and Jackie had watched him and Dez and the others talking, watched how they grouped together in a secretive huddle and spoke in whispers the way men do. They know, she thought.

‘Why can’t I go?’ Phoebe asked again, not giving up.

‘Because it’s too dangerous.’

‘How is it dangerous? We’re locked in here, aren’t we? I’m only going to be walking around this one room. You’ll be able to see me. It’s not like anything’s going to happen with all those soldiers around.’

‘No.’

‘I’ll go with her,’ Tammy said.

‘I said no.’

‘This is bullshit,’ she said.

‘Watch your language.’

‘You just don’t want us to see Dad because of what happened this morning. You’re embarrassed, aren’t you? Ashamed…’

‘That’s not true.’

George was sleeping with his head on Tammy’s lap. She gently moved him and got up. ‘I’m not waiting around here. I’m going to find him. And if I can’t find him, I’m going to…’

Scott was on his feet in seconds. He held her arms and pushed her back against the wall, suddenly aware of sounds of movement and concern all around as people scurried away.

‘Scott…’ Michelle hissed at him. ‘Soldiers.’

He looked over his shoulder and saw that his actions had aroused plenty of interest. A couple of soldiers were approaching, swinging their weapons off their shoulders in readiness as they moved towards him. He pulled Tammy back down and she yelped with pain.

‘You’re not going anywhere,’ he told her, ‘not yet. It’s too dangerous. You have to trust me.’

‘Trust you?’

Michelle positioned herself between her husband and her daughter and looked straight at Scott. ‘I’ve had enough of this.’

‘We’ve all had enough of this…’

‘You know exactly what I mean, Scott. All this bullshit. All this pretence. You know what’s happening here, don’t you?’

‘We’re in danger, that’s all you need to know.’

‘So how come you’re the one who gets to decide how much the rest of us need to know?’

‘Because I’m the one who has all the responsibility, that’s why. Because I’m the one who keeps this family together.’

‘You control us, Scott. You stop us breathing and try to stop us thinking for ourselves. You don’t keep this family together, you just won’t let any of us go. That’s what all this is about, isn’t it? It’s all a bloody power trip for you.’

‘For fuck’s sake, now’s really not the time for one of your domestics.’

‘One of my domestics? Jesus.’

‘Listen, this is serious. That warning about a biological hazard… it’s true, but it’s a hell of a lot worse than they’re letting on. If you have to know, and I’m guessing you won’t shut up until you do, there’s some kind of parasite on the loose.’

Michelle laughed involuntarily. ‘That’s the best you can come up with?’

‘It’s the truth. It’s passed from person to person. It’s passed through sex.’

She laughed again. ‘Bullshit.’

‘Think what you like. Why else do you think Jeremy was all over you this morning? Don’t flatter yourself, sweetheart, it’s because he was infected, not because he fancied you.’

‘You’re a heartless bastard.’

‘Maybe,’ he said, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. ‘Thing is, getting through this is going to need someone with a little backbone. As soon as I can I’m going to get us out of here and away from everyone else.’

‘What about Jackie and Dez and those others you were talking to?’

‘What about them? Fuck ’em.’

‘Hang on… if what you’re saying’s true, surely the army are trying to protect us from this thing? So shouldn’t we just stay in here? Wouldn’t they be trying to isolate or quarantine it?’

‘Clever girl. Yes, they are. But I’m not having them quarantine us along with it.’

‘But wait, Scott… shouldn’t we stay here? They’ll find out who’s got it sooner or later and deal with them.’

‘We’re not taking that risk.’

‘But if we try to get away, will they not think we might be infected?’

He shrugged his shoulders. ‘Maybe. We’re not waiting here all night to get caught like sitting ducks, though.’

‘There you go again, making decisions for the rest of us…’

‘Like I said, somebody has to do it.’

‘What happened to us?’ Michelle said, tears stinging her eyes, keeping her voice low so as not to involve or upset the girls more than they already were. ‘We used to be a couple… a partnership.’

‘You’re the one who tried to fuck your ex this morning,’ he said coldly.

‘But that was to do with this, wasn’t it?’ she said. ‘Christ, what happened to Jeremy? How did he—?’

‘Don’t know, don’t care.’

Michelle watched Scott closely… studied the way he did what he could to avoid looking at her. ‘You’re lying.’

‘Listen,’ he said, voice ominously low, ‘I’ve had enough of you. Just keep your bloody mouth shut and do what you’re told.’

‘Not anymore, Scott,’ she said, her throat dry, body shaking with anger.

‘What did you just say?’

‘I said not anymore. I can’t take this. You do what you want to do like you always do. The kids and I are staying here.’

‘You don’t have any choice.’

‘There’s always a choice. I could—’

A scream rang out from the far end of the cavernous room and everything stopped. For a single, heart-stopping moment, barely anyone moved. Scott stood up as a few trickles of movement threatened to become a stampede of desperate people, all trying to get away from whatever it was that was happening. More and more folks were getting in the way of him now, crisscrossing, blocking his view. He pushed them away, moving further forward until he was at the outermost edge of a roughly semi-circular bubble of space which had formed around the disturbance. And then he saw it.

It had been a woman who’d screamed, but it was a man’s body he saw slumped against the leisure centre wall, stripped to the waist. It was only when his blood-stained hands twitched that Scott realised he was still alive. As other people tried to get further away, Scott was one of the few who moved closer.

Soldiers swarmed out into the crowds, blocking his view again momentarily. When they moved, he saw that the man had, somehow, managed to flip himself over onto his front. He was using the wall to haul himself up. He recognised him. Christ, it was Warren from Barry Walpole’s yard.

‘Stay where you are,’ a soldier barked at Warren, aiming his rifle directly at his head and circling him at a distance, kicking rolls of bedding and people’s possessions out of the way. One arm outstretched, Warren leant against the wall, barely able to support his own weight. He was bleeding. Scott had been so focused on his pallid face that he hadn’t seen the streaks of blood running down the inside of his thighs from the eviscerated stump where his penis used to be. And now he was almost upright, the blood-flow increased, the trickling becoming a gushing, then a flood. Warren pushed himself away from the wall and staggered a few steps forward, hunched over, painting the wooden gym floor red. Then he collapsed, hitting the floorboards with a nauseating thud.

At first stunned silence; an uneasy malaise.

How did no one see this happening? How did they not know?

Then absolute chaos.

As panic erupted, Scott turned back and ran straight into Michelle. ‘What the hell was that? What just happened?’ she demanded.

‘Oh, so you believe me now?’

He grabbed her arm and dragged her back through the imprisoned population of Thussock. She tried to stop herself but was unable to find anything to hold onto. She slid along the smooth wooden floor. ‘Scott, stop!’

He saw more soldiers appearing, moving towards a mass of desperate people trying to force their way out through the entrance to the leisure centre through which they’d all originally been admitted. He yanked Michelle’s arm again. ‘We’re getting out of here.’

‘How?’

He couldn’t answer, but he knew he had to find a way. The carrier of the parasite was trapped here with them now, of that there was no doubt, but who was it? Probably a woman, but that barely narrowed the field. Already he could see troops dividing those people they could reach, separating them into males and females. The air was filled with screaming and crying, then with shouted warnings as brutally divided families fought not to lose sight of those they loved.

‘We’re getting out of here,’ Scott said to Tammy and Phoebe who were already on their feet. He bent down and picked up George, then turned to Phoebe. ‘We need a way out. Is there another way out of here?’

Trembling, she nodded and gestured, barely managing to lift a shaking hand and point towards the corner of the room where a fire exit had already been forced open by someone else. Scott looked back across the gym. Soldiers. Coming their way. No time to waste. But now Michelle had hold of him and was trying to pull him back the other way.

‘It’s not safe out there,’ she yelled.

‘Doesn’t look too safe in here.’ He pulled his son close, holding him so tight it clearly hurt. The boy writhed in his father’s arms. ‘George is coming with me, so I suggest you follow.’ He looked at Tammy and Phoebe. ‘Stay close.’

Gunshots.

For a heartbeat – no longer – everyone froze again. Scott spun around and from the dust and debris now falling like snow from the high ceiling, he figured they’d just been warning shots. Rather than calm the situation, though, they had the exact opposite effect. The threat of the soldier’s weapons clearly paled into insignificance alongside the horror of whatever it was that was loose in the leisure centre; the fear of the unknown far worse than the fear of being shot or beaten. Several people rushed the military lines, Sergeant Ross included, and were felled with a hail of bullets.

Enough. Scott ran for the exit which was, thankfully, being almost completely ignored by almost everyone else. ‘It’ll bring us out by the playing field,’ Phoebe said, shouting over the sudden carnage.

Another round of gunfire. George was screaming, his noise deafening Scott. Tammy winced at the echoing cacophony inside the gym and put her hands over her ears. Phoebe shoved her towards the exit and they piled through the fire door. Scott kicked it shut behind them, keen to stem the flow and mask their escape. The more people who followed, the worse their chances of getting away unnoticed.

It was cold and wet outside, and the sound immediately changed. The noise coming from the leisure centre became muffled, then was almost completely drowned out by the tumultuous soundtrack out here: the sounds of people being rounded up and fighting back. Jeeps, gunshots, warnings being shouted through loud-hailers, a helicopter drifting overhead which was clearly tracking people down with an intensely bright searchlight. Scott pressed himself against the side of the building they’d just escaped from while he considered their options. ‘We should go back,’ Michelle said. ‘What’s the point of running? They’ll know it’s not us who’s sick…’

‘Are you out of your fucking mind? You think they’re just going to give us the all clear then let us go home?’

‘Why wouldn’t they?’

He shook his head in disbelief and pointed into the chaos. ‘The world don’t work like that, Chelle. They won’t let any of us go now. They’re hunting people down… look!’

She followed his gaze down the side of the leisure centre building and saw a white-haired woman trying to get away. She’d somehow managed to escape, squeezing out through an unexpected gap in the chaos, but she was struggling to keep going. A soldier was in close pursuit, almost matching her speed even though he was only walking. Michelle looked away as he grabbed the woman by the waist and dragged her back towards the leisure centre, frail legs kicking and hoarse voice screaming for help.

Scott looked from face to face. ‘If we run now, they’ll see us and they’ll catch us. We need to lie low, then make our move when things calm down. Where do we go?’

The girls tried to think, to visualise, also trying not to panic. Tammy couldn’t get her bearings at all, but Phoebe could. ‘The temporary classrooms,’ she said, pausing mid-sentence as more gunshots echoed around them. ‘Over by the netball courts. They’re about halfway between here and the school gates.’

‘Show me.’

She crouched down and led them away from the leisure centre, taking them through a dark and narrow gap between two more buildings, then pausing to check her bearings. She took a sharp left, still crouching, half-running, only stopping when she reached the edge of the next block along. Scott looked over her head and could see across the playground to the Portakabin classrooms. It was relatively quiet there. Plenty of activity overhead and behind, but nothing in the direction they needed to go. ‘Wait here,’ he said, but none of them did. Michelle kept them moving forward together, bunched up tight. They held back slightly and ducked down as he forced the door to the nearest classroom. It flew open with barely any effort, just as flimsy as it had appeared. Still carrying George, Scott held the door and the others squeezed through. ‘Get down,’ he told them. ‘Stay low and stay away from the windows. We’ll sit tight, then get out of here.’

The five of them crammed into the corner of the room furthest from the door, hiding behind desks and chairs and holding onto each other for warmth and support, differences temporarily put to one side. ‘So what now?’ Michelle said. ‘Or didn’t you think any further forward than running out into the middle of a bloody war-zone?’

He glared at her, the anger in his face illuminated momentarily by a flash from the helicopter’s sweeping searchlight. ‘I told you, we’re getting away from here. Getting away from whatever’s doing the damage back in that place.’

‘And you think they’re going to let us get away?’ Michelle continued. ‘You think they’re just going to let us sneak out by the back door?’

‘We already have.’

‘No we haven’t. We’re still trapped, in case you hadn’t noticed, just in a different building.’ She stopped talking and held her breath as a group of soldiers thundered past the classroom. She lowered her voice again. ‘How is this helping any of us?’

‘I’m doing a damn sight more than anyone else, in case you hadn’t noticed. If it wasn’t for me we’d be—’

‘Back home in Redditch?’ Tammy said, wrong-footing him. ‘A million miles away from whatever’s going on around here.’

‘What the fuck is wrong with you lot?’ Scott said, the volume of his voice rising the angrier he became. ‘I should have just—’

The classroom door flew open again, and another group of figures crawled up the steps on their hands and knees. Scott braced himself to fight, to defend his territory and kick out these intruders. But wait… he recognised them. ‘Saw you lot gettin’ away,’ Dez said, shoving Jackie and the twins towards Michelle, the girls and George. ‘Figured you looked like you knew what you were doing.’

‘Think again,’ Michelle said.

‘We’re just trying to keep one step ahead, that’s all,’ Scott said.

‘It’s madness out there,’ Dez said, on his knees now, his eyes just above the wooden windowsill, surveying the chaos. ‘Never seen nothin’ like it.’

‘Keep your bloody head down,’ Scott yelled at him. ‘And get away from the fucking windows. You’ll bring them straight to us.’

‘Doubt it. They’re too busy tryin’ to sort out what’s happening in the gym. Anyway, the helicopter’s probably got us on infra-red.’

‘So why don’t you just piss off and hand yourself over? I didn’t ask you to come in here. If you’re staying, you do what I say. Now get your bloody head down.’

‘All right, Scott, man… no need for that. All the trouble’s out there. Don’t want anything kickin’ off in here.’

Time crawled. The world beyond the flimsy walls of the prefabricated building continued to be full of noise and activity; a constant, muffled din. Most sounds were indistinguishable, the noise occasionally punctuated by things they were able to make out more clearly, sounds of suffering and panic that they didn’t want to hear. It seemed the worse the noise got, the louder it became.

Dez tried to talk to Scott and plan a way forward, but he had nothing. And the frustration and the fear combined to leave both men feeling increasingly lost. Scott’s helplessness manifested itself as anger. By contrast, Dez tried to remain positive for the sake of his family. ‘We might’a made a mistake here, Scott.’

‘What?’

‘I don’t reckon we’re gonna get far like this.’

‘So what are you saying? Give ourselves up?’

‘Least we’ll have a chance of talkin’ then. What good’s this doin’ us?’

‘I can’t believe I’m hearing this.’

‘An’ I can’t believe any of this. Look, mate, this ain’t just about us. We’ve both got families to look out for.’

‘What the hell do you think I’m doing?’

Dez’s silence spoke volumes. ‘I don’t know, man… There’s a lotta firepower out there. Seems to me we might not have a lotta options.’

‘So you’re just going to hand yourself over? Hand your kids over?’

‘I never said that…’

‘You didn’t need to say it. Jeez, what kind of a man are you?’

‘One who knows when he’s beat. One who knows when what he’s doin’s gonna cause more harm than good.’

‘You’re fucking pathetic.’

‘That’s fuckin’ rich. You don’t even know—’

Their argument was truncated by the classroom door flying open again. A soldier scrambled up the steps then shut the door behind him and leant against it, facemask pressed up to the glass. What the hell was he doing? Whatever it was, Scott quickly realised he hadn’t yet noticed there were other people in the classroom. He went to get up. Michelle grabbed his arm but he shook her off. He gestured for Dez to go the other way around the outside of the small, dark room. Dez’s scrambling movements were more obvious than Scott’s and as the trooper turned around, panicking, Scott lunged at him and grabbed him from behind, taking him by surprise. Dez ripped off his facemask. Jesus, he was little more than a kid.

‘Don’t hurt me,’ he begged. Stripping him of his breathing apparatus had stripped him of his bravado too. He looked broken, close to tears. ‘Please don’t hurt me, mate. I’m on your side. I’ll help you.’

‘Bullshit,’ Scott said. ‘Why should we believe you? You’ve rounded up the entire town and held us prisoner for most of the day. Why should we believe anything you say?’

Scott pushed the soldier into an empty corner and squared up to him for the first time. He had a pistol in a holster, no rifle, but he made no attempt to reach for it. ‘I was just looking for somewhere to hide, same as you.’

‘Ask him what’s going on,’ Jackie shouted. The soldier looked startled. He hadn’t realised there were others there. His demeanour changed when he saw there were kids too.

‘We were just following orders,’ he said, his voice full of emotion. ‘We didn’t know…’

‘Didn’t know what?’ Dez asked.

‘What we were dealing with. What you were dealing with. They didn’t explain. They just told us there’d been a chemical spill in the town and that we had to round everyone up and keep them safe, that’s all.’

‘And you believed that?’

‘Wouldn’t you? Ask yourself, mate, what’s more believable here? Some bullshit story about a chemical spill or the truth?’

‘And what exactly is the truth?’

The soldier looked around with frightened eyes, wishing there was more light so he could see how many people he was up against, and at the same time praying for the darkness to swallow him up. He licked his lips and took a deep breath, figuring he had nothing left to lose. ‘They don’t know where it came from. They don’t even know what it looks like. Fuck, they’re not even sure what it is yet.’

‘What’s he talking about?’ Tammy asked.

‘It’s a parasite,’ the soldier explained. ‘We were laughing about it when we first heard, ’cause it sounded so bloody unbelievable, like something out of a horror film. It found the perfect way to make sure it kept itself alive – making people have sex. No one’s gonna say no to a quick fuck, are they?’ He grinned, the strain and surreal desperation of the moment beginning to show.

‘Wait,’ Tammy said, looking at her mother. ‘Is that what happened to Dad this morning…?’

‘I don’t know…’ Michelle answered.

‘It has to be, doesn’t it? So what happens to them?’ she asked, demanding an answer from the soldier. ‘Once they’ve got this thing inside them, what happens?’

‘It takes what it needs,’ the soldier said, still watching Scott’s every movement, ‘then it discards the rest.’

‘What do you mean, discards?’

‘Did you not see what happened to that fella back there? It forces its way out. There’s not a lot left when it’s finished.’

Tammy stared into the darkness, letting the full enormity of what she was hearing sink in. Her dad was dead. She didn’t need any further confirmation, she just knew it. The lack of any comfort or explanation from either her mum or Scott was enough to convince her she was right. She began to sob. Next to her, Phoebe wailed.

‘Keep the bloody noise down,’ Scott hissed at them both.

‘You bastard,’ Michelle said. ‘You absolute, heartless bastard. You knew all along, didn’t you? You let them spend the day thinking he was okay, worrying about him… and all the time you knew he was already dead.’

‘What else was I supposed to do? I’m trying to keep us all together here.’

‘Like hell. You’ve never given a shit about anyone but yourself.’

Scott grabbed the soldier by the collar of his protective suit. Focusing on him made it easier to shut out the rest of the unwanted noise. ‘Why did you keep us isolated? That’s the real question.’

‘Because isolating everyone in Thussock meant we’d isolate the parasite too.’

‘I get that, but why? Was it for our benefit, or yours?’

‘Why else would they do it?’ Jackie asked.

‘To keep it safe,’ Scott answered quickly.

Michelle laughed with disbelief. She’d seen and heard it all now. She looked at the young soldier, waiting for him to start laughing too, but he didn’t. His expression remained unchanged. ‘I swear I don’t know,’ he said. ‘We was just told to stop people getting away, that’s all, but it all went tits up when people started panicking. That’s why I’m here. I wasn’t gonna be a part of that. I couldn’t. And…’

‘And what?’

The soldier paused, choosing his words, knowing he’d said too much already. ‘And something wasn’t right. Something changed.’

‘What do you mean? What changed?’

‘I don’t know, I swear. You ever been in the forces? It’s just something you learn to pick up on. Usually happens when things are about to go shit-shaped.’

‘What the hell are you talking about?’

The soldier shook his head, struggling. ‘The orders changed, and no one would say why. We felt it filtering through the ranks. There was a shift in focus. The priorities were changing…’

Scott had had enough. ‘That’s it. I’m getting us out of Thussock right now.’

‘How?’ Dez asked.

‘You’ll never do it,’ the soldier said. ‘They won’t let anyone get away.’

‘So why exactly are you here again? Surely you’d have been better off staying with the military?’

‘It’s fucking chaos out there. They won’t notice me missing.’

‘So once they’ve caught this thing, they’ll leave the rest of us alone, right?’ Michelle asked.

‘I suppose,’ the soldier said. ‘All they’re interested in is—’

‘Are you serious?’ Scott interrupted. ‘You really think they’ll just let people go back to normality after this?’

‘Depends,’ Dez said. ‘If they still think this was just a chemical spill or sumthin’ like that, why not? They can’t make a whole village just disappear.’

‘They probably could,’ the soldier said ominously, ‘but they won’t want to, not unless they have to.’

‘So we can just stick it out here with him, can’t we?’ Michelle suggested, nodding at the soldier. ‘Wait ’til it’s all died down out there, then give ourselves up. We’re not infected, so they’re not going to care. We act dumb, tell them we just hid when it all kicked off, then tell them he found us. He’ll look good, we’ll be safe… we might all get out of this still.’

‘She’s right, Scott,’ Dez said. ‘Play our cards right an’ we might all be okay.’

‘Do you have any idea how naïve you both sound?’ Scott said. ‘Just listen to what you’re saying.’

‘And can you hear how cynical you’ve become?’ Michelle said. ‘You’re not interested in anyone but yourself, are you?’

‘Shut the fuck up and—’

‘Quiet!’ The soldier’s voice abruptly truncated Scott’s outburst. He raised his pistol and aimed it at Scott. ‘All of you shut up. She’s right, we can do this. Stay quiet, stay calm, and we’ll all get out of this in one piece.’