Strangers

26

The last time Scott had seen Barry Walpole, the two of them had almost come to blows over the death of Ken Potter. Barry had been full of anger then, ready to defend his late friend’s dubious honour. He’d been a formidable creature that day, all piercing eyes, bulging veins and flared nostrils. Not now, though. Today Barry was a shadow of his former self. He was quiet and subdued, timid almost. Scott didn’t even notice him there until he almost tripped over him on the way back from the bizarrely heavily guarded toilets. ‘Strange how they’ve got armed guards round the toilets, isn’t it?’ Barry said. His voice was drained of all its former energy. He was sitting cross-legged on a mat, holding a frail-looking old woman’s hand, his other arm around her shoulder, his size dwarfing hers. He carefully let her go and stood up. ‘You all right, Scott?’

‘I’m okay,’ Scott replied, perfunctory. ‘You?’

‘I’m all right. Mother’s struggling, though, aren’t you, Mum?’ The old lady barely looked up. ‘You been here long?’

‘Few hours. You?’

‘Since first thing. I was only just out of bed when they started hammering on the door. Requisitioned a load of stuff from the yard, they have. Buggers. You got any idea what’s happening?’

‘Not a clue,’ Scott answered quickly. Having seen what happened to Jeremy he felt sure he probably knew more than most but he couldn’t bring himself to explain. Besides, he thought, what good would it have done other than to push everyone closer to the edge than they already were?

‘What about Doc Kerr? I saw you with him. Does he know anything?’

‘If he does he isn’t saying. It’s all just speculation right now. Look, Barry, I have to go. I need to get back.’

‘Course you do. Got to look after the people nearest to us, eh Scott?’ he said, crouching again and giving his mother’s hand another tender squeeze.

‘Absolutely.’

‘Sorry,’ Barry said unexpectedly.

‘Sorry for what?’

‘For being so hard on you after Ken…’

‘No problem. You weren’t to know. None of us were.’

‘Right. Okay. Hopefully see you back at the yard in a couple of days when all this has blown over?’

‘Yep. Almost looking forward to it, Barry.’

‘That’s the spirit. Look after yourself, lad.’

‘I always do. You too.’

Scott continued back across the hall, watching his family as he weaved between the rest of Thussock’s refugee-like population. People had continued to be herded into the leisure centre continually through the day, but their numbers had reduced to a mere trickle now. Space was at a premium, the narrow gaps between each family’s individually claimed area of floor steadily reducing. In places it was difficult to get through.

Scott didn’t feel scared, he decided, just uneasy. He didn’t like not knowing, not being in control. He sat down next to Michelle, not knowing what else to do. As much as they’d pissed him off today, his family was all he had left.

‘The atmosphere’s changed in here,’ she said. ‘Can you feel it? It’s like there’s a storm brewing. It’s making my head hurt.’

‘What do you expect?’ he said, still not able to find it in himself to be civil. ‘They’ve dragged everyone out of their homes at gunpoint and locked them in a school gym. Hardly going to be a fucking party, is it?’

She chose her next words carefully. The last thing anyone needed was Scott kicking off and causing another scene. Keep him sweet. Keep everything together. Keep it all ticking over like I always do.

‘What do you think’s going to happen?’

‘How am I supposed to know?’

‘What are they trying to protect us from?

‘You’ve read the card, same as I have. Biological hazard.’

‘I know that, but Dez said he was talking to the doctor… he was saying something about this being something to do with all those deaths… about them being linked.’

‘Yeah, that’s what he reckons.’

‘So are we going to be okay, Scott?’

‘Well there are plenty of soldiers around. Don’t know what good all those guns’ll be against a bloody biological hazard though.’

‘And are we going to be okay?’

‘You tell me.’

She was about to speak again when Phoebe interrupted her. ‘I still can’t see him, Mum.’

‘Can’t see who?’

‘Dad. If they’re bringing everyone here, then he should be here too, shouldn’t he?’

Michelle stood up to comfort her daughter and help her look. Scott lay back and stared up at the high roof of this expansive gym, counting metal struts and ceiling tiles, doing everything he could not to get drawn into their impossible conversation. He wished he hadn’t found Jeremy. It would have been easier not to know. He’d have to tell them at some point, and then they’d—

—a sudden commotion erupted on the far side of the leisure centre, near to the rapidly depleting stack of supplies. Scott got up fast, scrambling to his feet. He couldn’t see much through the sudden chaos. Many other people were up now, though most remained defiantly rooted to their own pockets of space.

It was different on the other side of the gym. There people were trying to get out of the way, both from whatever it was that was happening and also from a mass of soldiers who were wading through the crowds. Their weapons, this time, were held ready to fire.

A bubble of space had opened up around a woman lying on the floor. Her body was convulsing, limbs flailing, kicking and lashing out. All around her people were trying to get away, grabbing at their bedding and supplies, desperate to move but finding their progress impeded by other people all doing the same. Two soldiers without weapons, wearing slightly different suits – medics or scientists, perhaps, Scott thought – approached the woman writhing on the floor.

‘I’m not getting involved,’ Dr Kerr said, appearing by Scott’s side. ‘It’s Edie Fitzpatrick. She’s epileptic. That’s all this is. They’ll realise soon enough.’ Scott just looked at him and the doctor anticipated his unspoken questions. ‘I know, I know… Hippocratic Oath and all that… Thing is, they’ll help her and I know she’ll be all right. They know who we are and I’m sure they’ve access to as much medical information as I had, more probably. Until someone tells me exactly what’s going on here, I’m not helping anyone.’

‘Don’t blame you, Peter,’ another voice said. Scott thought he recognised the man, though he wasn’t immediately sure where from. Then it dawned on him. It was Sergeant Ross, out of uniform. Strange how much attention he’d previously paid to the uniform, not the man, Scott thought. ‘Mr Griffiths,’ the police officer said, acknowledging him.

‘Sergeant.’

‘Care to tell us what’s going on here, Dan?’ the doctor asked.

‘I was going to ask you the same question.’

‘Hold on,’ Scott said. ‘How can you not know? You’re the bloody police, for Christ’s sake.’

‘This hasn’t been a typical investigation…’ the sergeant began to explain.

‘You can say that again. Fucking amateurs. You arrest me, spend a day trying to get me to confess to crimes I know fuck all about, then just turn me out again without a frigging word.’

‘What was I supposed to do? Like I said, Mr Griffiths, this hasn’t been a typical investigation. We thought we were looking for a serial killer, and you have to admit, you gave us more than enough cause for concern…’

‘You treated me like a bloody animal. You’d decided I was guilty before you’d even—’

‘That’s enough,’ the doctor said, scalding both of them. ‘Don’t you think we’ve enough to worry about without fighting amongst ourselves? How much do you know, Dan?’

The Sergeant rubbed his eyes. He looked around then answered Dr Kerr in hushed tones. ‘Not as much as I should do. You know what it’s like yourself, Peter, we’re at the arse-end of nowhere out here. It still takes forever to get the information you need. It shouldn’t, but that’s how it is.’

‘What kind of information?’ Scott asked.

‘Test results. Forensics.’

‘It would have helped if you’d listened to me,’ Dr Kerr said, clearly disgruntled.

‘I know, and I’m sorry.’

‘I said we were missing something crucial. All along I was trying to say that…’

‘I know you tried, and I’ve apologised. With the benefit of hindsight we—’

‘But you just dismissed everything I told you. Bloody hell, Daniel, the gender of the victims should have made it clear.’

‘Gender?’ Scott interrupted. ‘What’s that got to do with it?’

‘Male, female, male, female… it’s what we were saying earlier. This thing is a parasite, transmitted sexually.’

‘We were almost there,’ the policeman said. ‘We’d found foreign DNA traces on all the bodies, but we didn’t spot the pattern.’

‘What pattern?’ Scott asked.

‘On most of the bodies we found traces of the DNA of someone else, but we didn’t know who because none of them were on the database. It took us a while to work it out… longer than it should have. The DNA belonged to the next person to die, you follow? But there were never any signs of a struggle, that’s what threw us. Just blood and genital mutilation.’

Dr Kerr took off his glasses, breathed on the lenses, then cleaned them on his jumper. ‘Scott here saw an attack today. Tell him, Scott.’

‘I wouldn’t call it an attack,’ he said, picturing Jeremy and the woman. ‘It looked like…’

‘Like what?’

‘Like consensual sex, just out in the open. Two people having sex, oblivious to everyone and everything else. It was after they separated, though… it was like he’d been torn apart. Just like all the others.’

‘Who?’

‘My wife’s ex. Jeremy Williams.’

‘He was staying at the pub last night, and I’ll put money on him having been with young Heather Burns,’ Dr Kerr whispered. ‘It’s like I said, some kind of parasite. Will you listen to me now?’

‘Explain,’ Sergeant Ross said.

‘The parasite needs a body to survive. When it’s taken what it needs, it has to find another host. What Scott saw this morning, what you’ve seen the aftermath of, was that transmission.’

‘So what you’re saying,’ Scott interrupted, ‘is that this thing needs blood or whatever, and when it’s taken what it needs from one body, it’s passed on to the next through sex?’

‘That’s exactly what I’m saying.’

‘You make it sound like a vampire,’ he laughed, unable to quite believe what he was hearing. The doctor looked serious.

‘Vampyrrhic. That’s actually a pretty good way of describing it.’

‘I’ll go get a fucking crucifix,’ Scott said, and he almost walked away from the ridiculous conversation.

‘I’m glad you said that, Doc,’ Sergeant Ross admitted. ‘I’d been thinking along the same lines myself. I thought it was just me going mad. Do me a favour, you two, keep a lid on this. People are already scared. If word gets out, this place’ll be out of control.’

‘So what are you going to do about it?’ Scott asked.

‘Me? What can I do? Have you not noticed, we’re all in the same boat here. I’m not in charge anymore. The investigation was taken out of my hands, shall we say. I’d tell you who by, but I honestly don’t know. Like you lot, first I knew about all this was a knock on my door from a soldier who’s face I couldn’t see. All I could see was his bloody rifle and I wasn’t taking any chances.’

Mr Renner, the school pastoral teacher, spotted Tammy and Phoebe in the crowd and came over to speak to them both. He told them about Heather, though Tammy had already suspected something had happened. She’d seen Chez sitting alone with his head in his hands and had feared the worst. Mr Renner told her where she’d find Jamie and she went to look for him. He was sitting on a bench at the side of the gym with Joel. Tammy positioned herself between the two of them, hoping they’d distract her with pointless rubbish and immaturity, but fearing they were already past that.

‘Got anything to drink?’ she asked hopefully. Joel shook his head, Jamie didn’t even look up.

‘I can’t take no more of this,’ Joel said, getting up. ‘You deal with him.’ And with that he was up and gone, relieved to be away. Tammy cautiously put her hand on Jamie’s leg.

‘I’m sorry, Jamie. I’m really, really sorry…’

He lifted his head and looked at her, wiping his eyes. ‘We thought she was with Chez. Dad was doin’ his bloody fruit tryin’ to find her. We called Chez and he said he thought she was with us.’

‘What happened?’

‘She was all fucked up, Tam. Like the others…’

‘Where?’

‘The pub.’

‘My dad stayed there last night…’ She stopped herself. She didn’t want to think about what might or might not have happened in the Black Boy. Did it have anything to do with what happened to Dad this morning? Did he have anything to do with what happened to Heather? He couldn’t have, could he?

Jamie wasn’t listening. He couldn’t take anymore of this in. He reached out for Tammy and held her, pulled her close. And she responded. All she’d had from pretty much everyone since first arriving in Thussock was constant grief, and this sudden unexpected physical contact seemed somehow to make it all a little easier to cope with. She held him tight, then tighter still, both of them sobbing as they leant against each other, his face buried in her chest. Huge amounts of previously suppressed emotions were released, let out at long last after having being locked away for too long.

Tammy kissed the side of Jamie’s face. He looked up at her. Oh, those eyes… those deep brown, hurting eyes… she’d thought him good looking the first time she saw him outside the Co-op, a class apart from the other boys, but she’d not wanted to get too close because he was from Thussock and she didn’t want to be here and because it felt like there was a world of difference between them and… and none of that mattered now. She’d just been looking for excuses before, avoiding reasons to form connections with this hellish place. Jamie looked so pale and drawn, racked with pain, and yet he was still attractive. She felt his hands on her and it made her feel alive. She really needed to be held like this… to be wanted. They parted for a moment, then kissed – soft, light and unsure, then stronger. Eyes closed now. Tongues touching, lips locked. She reciprocated his every move, finding such unexpected comfort in his touch and—

—and they separated when someone screamed. Tammy pulled back and felt her bladder weaken. The space around the bench where they’d been sitting had emptied, people scrambling away from them in absolute terror as soldiers rushed towards them. Hundreds of them it looked like, sprinting through the crowds with their rifles raised, all of their weapons pointing at her and Jamie. Jamie slipped off the bench in panic, landing on his back with a sickening thump and winding himself. Stunned, he lay there helpless as they surrounded him.

Tammy couldn’t see what they were doing to him. There were hazmat suits all around her now too. She tried to look for Jamie, but all she could see now was her own terrified face reflected back in the visors of the soldiers encircling her. ‘Name?’ one of them demanded.

‘Huh?’

‘Tell me your bloody name?’

‘Tammy Williams,’ she answered, voice shaking.

‘Did you have intercourse with this man?’

‘What?’

‘Have you had sexual intercourse with this man?’ he shouted, pointing at Jamie, still on the floor, still surrounded.

‘No.’

The soldier took a step back. Tammy remained exactly where she was, feeling as if her legs would buckle with nerves at any second. The rest of the leisure centre was silent. It was as if everything and everyone else had frozen. Everything except Scott. He shoved his way through the stationary crowds to reach Tammy, only to find his way forward blocked by more armed guards. The harder he fought to get through, the tighter they closed ranks. He pulled back a fist, ready to punch, but a soldier dismissively shunted him away then raised his rifle.

Scott froze.

The stand-off was unbearable, the pressure increasing by the second.

‘No reaction, Sir,’ a mask-muffled trooper shouted.

‘Clear,’ another soldier confirmed, and all of the faceless, suited figures stood down. Scott pushed his way through them to get to Tammy who’d dropped to her knees now, sobbing. He picked her up and no matter how much she hated him and how sick he was of her, they walked back to Michelle together.