Outside

Chapter Thirty Four

‘What are you talking about?’ Luc says.

‘Sshh. For God’s sake, man, keep your voice down,’ hisses Denzil.

‘Sorry,’ whispers Luc. ‘But where are you going? You can’t just leave us here. What are we supposed to do?’

‘I’ve got an idea,’ says Denzil. ‘I don’t like it. I’m gutted about it, but it’s our only chance.’

‘What?’ asks Luc. ‘What’s your idea?’

‘I could make out you took me against my will and now I’m escaping back to the barracks.’

‘But won’t they want to know why we escaped in the first place?’ I ask. ‘Why would we have thought we were in danger if it wasn’t for you telling us?’

‘Good point.’

‘How about you tell them that Riley heard soldiers walking past her window talking about how they were going to do us some serious harm?’ Luc says. ‘She panicked and came to fetch me.’

‘That would work,’ says Denzil. ‘Then you knocked out one of the soldiers and took me at gunpoint from my post at the checkpoint. I’ll tell them you tied me up in the back of your AV, but I managed to untie my ankles and throw myself out of the back of the moving vehicle. Sound believable to you?’

We nod.

‘You could throw them off our scent,’ says Luc. ‘Tell them you saw us stop and pull off the road. That we’re driving cross-country in the other direction, heading back down south.’

‘Yeah, good idea,’ Denzil replies. ‘Meantime, you stay put till dawn. By then I should’ve been able to draw them south, away from here. I’ll tell ‘em you’re probably heading back to Bournemouth, frightened out of your stupid minds.’

‘Hey!’ I say with mock indignance. ‘Are you sure there’s no other way? I don’t want to think of you going back there when you hate it so much.’

Denzil smiles and shakes his head. ‘We’re running out of time. It’s the only plan I can think of that’s got a chance of working.’ He looks at me and points at the jacket I’m wearing. ‘I’m gonna need that back.’

I shrug it off and hand it back to him.

‘We have to make it look authentic,’ says Luc.

‘No holds barred then. My life depends on it.’

We bind his hands together with rope and give his ankles rope burns, so it looks as though they’ve also been bound.

Denzil turns to Luc, ‘I’m relying on you to give me what you got.’

Luc takes a breath and punches Denzil hard on the mouth. I gasp and flinch. He’s bleeding from the lip, but he doesn’t make a sound.

Luc finds a jagged piece of metal from the warehouse floor and uses it to rip down one side of Denzil’s uniform. Luc rips the bottom of his t shirt and makes a gag for Denzil’s mouth. Lastly, Denzil rolls in the dirt.

We stand awkwardly silent for a moment.

‘Thank you Denzil,’ says Luc. ‘But you know you really don’t have to do this. We could all just make a run for it.’

‘Man, you didn’t just mess up my uniform and give me a fat lip for nothing. I’ve been with these sorry-ass soldiers for years now, a few weeks longer won’t hurt and then I can get to Bournemouth no problem. Anyway, I need you to escape so you can give me the job of highly paid guard with a chunky Christmas bonus.’

‘The job’s most definitely yours,’ Luc says. ‘Thanks, mate. Good luck. We‘ll see you soon.’

They shake hands and Luc presses some gold pieces into his hand.

‘To help you find your way back to us,’ he says.

I give Denzil a hug and kiss his cheek. He passes me the gag and I tie it around his mouth, mindful of the purple bruise and split lip.

He smiles, lifts up the garage door a fraction and rolls out into the dangerous night. All we can do now is sit and wait.

It’s quiet. Not once do we hear soldiers nearby. Hopefully Denzil has thrown them off our trail.

‘I’ll sleep in the front, you take the back seat,’ offers Luc.

‘No way. You’re definitely taking the back seat, you’re still recovering from your bang on the head.’ Luc doesn’t think I notice each time he winces at the pain the raiders inflicted. ‘Anyway, you need a decent night’s sleep more than I do. I already had some back at the barracks.’

‘Riley, if you don’t take the back seat, I’ll sleep on the stone floor outside.’

‘Urrgh, you’re such a gentleman,’ I huff, feeling guilty. But I know he will actually sleep on the floor if I don’t do as I’m told, so I climb into the back seat and make myself comfortable.

‘Night, Luc.’

‘Night, Riley. Sleep well… if you can.

‘Thanks.’

‘You did really well tonight, coming to get me in the mess hall. That was a horrible call to make, knowing whether or not to trust Denzil. I don’t know what would’ve happened if we’d stayed.’

‘I’m sorry I was such a wimp before. Leaving you to go and eat with those hideous soldiers.’

‘Don’t worry about it.’

‘I would’ve hated me if I was you. But I was terrified, like I couldn’t function properly.’

‘Well, it’s a good thing you did wimp out and it turned out fine, so don’t worry about it.’

The rest of the night is long and strangely lonely. Denzil has left a big gap. Luc and I had quickly gotten used to his company. We feel terrible that he now has to return to his barracks, that his plans to save his family have to be put on hold. I pray he’s going to be alright, that he’ll manage his escape to Bournemouth soon. We owe him our lives.

Luc and I chat until we finally doze off for an hour or two.

Now early morning has crept up on us and I feel cold and stiff. I’m worrying about Denzil and wonder if he’s succeeded in fooling his colleagues.

It’s strange spending the night alone with Luc. I haven’t had much time to consider my feelings for him on the journey so far – we’ve had too much to think about and too much to cope with. Also, I’m regretting not being more direct with Denzil about Chambers. I should have pushed for more answers. Now it’s beginning to look like a lost cause on all fronts. Last night was probably the end of all my hopes.

We’ve blown our chance of finding out where Chambers was headed and, after spending a whole night alone with Luc, he doesn’t seem to be remotely interested in me. I thought fear and stress were supposed to throw people together, to bond them and help them to release their inhibitions. Sometimes it feels as though Luc doesn’t even like me, let alone anything else.

Why am I such a coward? Why can’t I make a move? Skye had more guts than me. She made it clear to Luc how she felt and was brave enough to risk his rejection. If she hadn’t died, I know she would have gotten over it quickly. That was the type of person she was, not one to hold grudges or sulk and cling to past hurts. She and Luc would have been back to their old selves almost straight away.

But if I give Luc the chance to reject me, I know I won’t be able to handle it with such ease and grace. I’ll be humiliated and devastated. That’s why I’m so scared to show my feelings. Maybe if he showed me something to make me believe he feels the same way… but I never get a glimmer of anything more than friendship.

We’ve got no plans of action left. We’ve got no new leads to follow. Our prime goal was Century Barracks, relying on the soldiers to point us in the right direction. Now we’ve reached a dead end. We’ll have to keep going onwards to my grandparents’ house.

Maybe we can stop at settlements along the way and show Chambers’ picture to everyone we meet. He is, after all, rumoured to be somewhere in the West Country and we are heading west, so it’s possible someone might recognise him. But I don’t really believe this is going to get us anywhere. It’s hopeless.

I feel deflated. My bones are damp and I feel grubby and irritable. Watery sunlight filters through the trees and into the hole in the warehouse roof, but it isn’t enough to warm the chilly space. As well as everything else, I’m really conscious our parents will now be sick with worry. I’ve got to face it, this trip has been a hideous mistake causing nothing but grief and distress. I shiver for the millionth time and try to think of something to make me feel less miserable. But I’m on a real downer.

Luc has been rummaging around for ages in the front, trying to find something. It’s getting on my nerves and I snap irritably.

‘What are you doing?’

He lifts his head and passes me a large bar of whole nut milk chocolate. ‘Breakfast? Half each?’ he grins.

I feel horrible. As usual, he’s trying to do something nice for me and I’m being a cow.

‘Damn good idea,’ I say, a reluctant smile escaping at the thought of such decadence.

At seven o’clock we risk opening the garage door. The sunshine streams into the gloomy warehouse. The brightness, combined with a sugar rush from breakfast, does a lot to lighten my mood.

‘Wait here,’ says Luc. ‘I’m just going to have a little scout around and make sure there’s no one about.’

‘I’d rather come with you, if that’s okay?’

‘Yeah, come on then.’

We crawl under the garage door and stand up, blinking and squinting in the light. The sun on our skin feels good and I stretch my body, catlike in the warmth. Then I turn around three hundred and sixty degrees to take in our surroundings. We’re standing in a sun-drenched clearing encircled by trees and bushes. The vine-covered warehouse has almost merged into the surrounding forest.

Last night’s storm has washed away our tyre tracks, so we head towards a gap in the foliage. We walk for only a few seconds before finding ourselves back on the narrow main road.

Gentle birdsong permeates the air and a startled squirrel spirals up a tree next to me. It’s like we’re in a completely different place to the eerie ghost town we reluctantly entered last night. This morning we’ve awoken to the heat-hazed jungle of a lost civilisation. A magical, dappled light plays through the trees and I half-expect to see fairies and goblins or perhaps a unicorn come trotting through the forest. Steam from last night’s rainstorm rises in soft billowing puffs from the drying land and the morning air smells fresh and loamy. We stand for a minute, looking down along the track at the shimmering, half-ruined buildings that have sunk back into the soft embracing earth.

‘I don’t think there’s anyone here, do you?’ says Luc.

‘Doesn’t look like it. But what if we start up the engine and someone hears?’

‘Mm.’ Luc pauses in thought. ‘The thing is, I don’t think it’s a good idea to hang around here for much longer. We’re too close to Warminster. They might come back when they don’t find us to the south.’

‘You’re right,’ I say, feeling a momentary braveness. ‘Let’s just go. Come on.’

Luc looks at me for a moment and then catches my infectious urgency. We run back to the AV, laughing hysterically and almost tripping ourselves up in the process. I’ve got that silly-scared feeling, like when Skye and I were young and Pa would pretend to be a bear, chasing us up the stairs and we’d scream and squeal in terror. Only this time, the terror is partially real. Well on my part, anyway.

We push up the warehouse door, jump into the AV, breathless with recklessness, and Luc starts up the engine. Bouncing back onto the track, we drive lightning fast out of Westbury, hearts pounding, hoping to God no one’s following us.