Strangers

31

They didn’t have any other choice now. Other than surrendering themselves to the military, going back to the house was the only option left.

Scott parked the truck on the grass at the side of the house rather than on the drive, hoping to make it less obvious that they’d returned. Phoebe ran to the door but Michelle called her back. It was still open from where it had been kicked in by soldiers this morning. This morning, she thought, was it really only this morning? Was this day ever going to end? ‘I’ll go first,’ she said, but Scott had other ideas and he pushed her out of the way. She followed him in and flicked on the hall light. He immediately switched it off again.

‘Too dangerous. Don’t want anyone knowing we’re in here.’

‘You really think anyone cares?’

He wasn’t going to discuss it. He grabbed her wrist tight and pulled her closer. ‘You leave the fucking lights alone and you do exactly what I tell you, got it?’

He handed George to Michelle, made sure the girls were inside, then propped the broken door shut with an upturned shoe rack. ‘I need the toilet,’ Phoebe said. He glared at her.

‘Be quick, then get into the living room. I want all of you in the living room, got it? You stay out of sight at the back of the house.’

Michelle ushered Tammy through. Scott waited for Phoebe to finish, then made sure she followed. He went into the kitchen and grabbed a little food and drink, pausing at the window. It appeared deceptively calm out there now, but he knew it was just an illusion. They were trapped between the chaos at the school on one side and the military lines securing Thussock on the other. No man’s land.

The girls were sitting on the sofa, George perched between them, while Michelle anxiously paced the other end of the room. There were no street lamps visible here, but the intermittent moon provided a little illumination through the French window. Scott dropped an armful of food onto the coffee table then shut the door. The silence in the room was ominous, the tension unbearable. Tammy stared straight ahead. George looked from face to face, hoping for reassurance from someone but getting nothing. Michelle chewed her nails and watched the others, Scott especially. Phoebe was sitting with her hands in her lap, eyes wide with fear. When she spoke there was a noticeable waver to her voice. She was right on the edge. ‘What are we going to do?’

‘I don’t know yet,’ Scott answered quickly, getting in fast before anyone else could speak. ‘For now we’re just going to sit tight and wait.’

‘Wait for what?’ Tammy demanded. Michelle felt her guts tighten.

‘No, Tammy, this isn’t the time.’

‘Then when is?’

‘Your mother’s right,’ Scott said. ‘Shut up. No one will have expected us to come back here, so we wait for the situation back in town to get sorted, then we leave. Simple. As long as we stay away from everyone else, there’s no chance of any of us getting infected by this damn thing.’

‘Unless one of us already has been.’

Tammy’s words silenced all of them. She couldn’t be right, could she? Scott and Michelle individually tried to work their way back and remember if any of them had been left alone long enough to have been infected. They couldn’t have caught it from that body on the grass outside the school, could they? It was all too much for Michelle. The idea of one of her girls being violated… she couldn’t bear to think about it. ‘No one’s been infected…’ she mumbled. ‘We can’t have been.’

‘So all we’ve done,’ Tammy said, not letting go, ‘is leave one prison cell to end up in another. We might as well have stayed at the school, or even in that Portakabin. Oh, but we couldn’t stay there, could we, Scott, because you screwed that up as well. You got Mum’s friend and her family killed.’

‘We don’t know what happened. Anyway, they weren’t my concern.’

‘And we are?’

‘You’re my family.’

‘But we don’t matter really, do we? As long as you’re okay, that’s all that’s important. You don’t give a damn about anyone but yourself.’

‘Tammy, please…’ Michelle begged. ‘Don’t…’

‘No, come on,’ Scott said, goading her, ‘let her have her say.’

Tammy stood up, face to face with her step-father. ‘You just keep backing us into corners.’ She looked at Michelle. ‘Can’t you see it, Mum? We had our freedom back in Redditch, until he screwed up and we lost that. You keep making our world smaller and smaller, Scott, adding more and more restrictions. You brought us here to the middle of nowhere and you even managed to fuck that up.’

‘If it wasn’t for me—’

‘If it wasn’t for you, everything would be okay. You think you’re above it all, don’t you? You think you’re more important than everyone else. The army dragged us out of here this morning. The bloody army! And even that’s not enough to stop you. Now look at us, stuck in a single shitty room in this shitty house. Like I said, from one prison cell to another. What’s next? Seems to me there’s nowhere left to go now. We’re stuck here. We’ll probably die here.’

‘Don’t say that,’ Michelle protested. She tried to get to Tammy but Scott wouldn’t let her through. He held her back.

‘You just don’t get it, do you?’ he said to Tammy. ‘You’re all fuck ups, the bloody lot of you.’

‘I don’t have to listen to this.’

‘But you do, don’t you? Because it’s not up to you, it’s up to me.’

Tammy stood her ground, tears of anger running down her face. ‘This was our last chance, Scott, don’t you get it? I’m not going to let you drag us all down anymore.’

She went for the door but he caught her shoulder and pulled her back, throwing her down onto the sofa, crushing George who yelped with pain. ‘Leave her alone!’ Michelle screamed and she threw herself at Scott. He spun around and caught her by the throat, fingers digging into her neck. She tried to speak but couldn’t, choking on her words.

‘Stop it!’ Phoebe yelled.

Scott let go of Michelle and pushed her away but she came at him again, arms flailing. He swung out as she launched herself at him, punching her in the face. Stunned, just adrenalin keeping her moving now, she lunged at him again. He punched her for a second time, a quick, brutal jab. She swayed momentarily then dropped to the ground, out cold.

When he looked around, Tammy had gone. Phoebe ran to help her mother but Scott stopped her. ‘Get up to your room and don’t move,’ he ordered. ‘Take a step outside this bloody house and the same’ll happen to you. Got it?’

She scooped up her little brother and held him close, cowering in the corner until Scott had gone.

The front door was open but he couldn’t see Tammy. Little bitch. Where had she gone? He ran out to the road and ducked down instinctively when a military helicopter thundered overhead, flying low on its way out of Thussock, filling the air with pressure and noise. He couldn’t see Tammy anywhere. He ran back and did a quick circuit of the outside of the house… nothing.

‘I know you’re still here,’ he shouted over the wind and the fading helicopter noise, certain she was hiding nearby. ‘You’re on your own now, you hear me? This family’s better off without you. Don’t bother coming back, dumb little bitch.’

Breathless, he looked up and down the length of the back garden once more then went inside. He stood in the hallway and listened to the silence. He could hear Phoebe and George upstairs, but other than them, nothing.

Thank Christ for that.

The unexpected quiet was blissful. No one shouting at him or accusing him of anything for once. No one arguing or trying to tell him what to do… Why couldn’t they have always been like this?

He knew what he had to do now. Tammy leaving had made it all that much easier. ‘The key to staying together and surviving now,’ he told Michelle who remained facedown and motionless on the living room floor, ‘is keeping apart.’

Scott fetched himself a can of beer from the fridge and knocked it back in a couple of quick, gassy gulps, then he picked up his toolbox from the corner and carried it to the living room. Michelle was beginning to come around. Her face was a mess. He regretted that – he always did – but it had been necessary. She had to learn. She needed to know her place in this household and this kind of thing was just going to keep happening again and again until she got it right. It wasn’t like she hadn’t had any warnings. He’d told her over and over. When was she going to stop talking and start listening?

‘Scott…?’ she mumbled, though she was drifting in and out of consciousness and it was difficult to speak through the blood and spit and broken teeth.

‘Be quiet, love,’ he told her, standing over her. ‘It’s gonna be all right.’

She tried to get up but couldn’t. She slurred another word. Or was it a groan? He couldn’t tell.

‘I don’t like hurting you,’ he said, ‘but it’s not my fault. You bring it on yourself. You could have avoided all of this.’

‘I’m sorry…’

He left her lying in the middle of the room.

‘Stay there and get your strength back. I’ll check on you later.’

She tried to protest but couldn’t. She could barely move. Her body was a dead-weight, nothing working how it should have. All she could do was watch as he shut the door.

The hammering startled her. It seemed to go on forever, the noise hurting her already throbbing head, but it stopped eventually, the door nailed shut.

Phoebe was crouching at the top of the stairs, George just behind her. When they heard him coming they ran back into her room and hid on the far side of the bed. He appeared in the doorway. ‘You here?’

‘We’re here,’ Phoebe answered, sitting up slightly so he could see her.

‘Good girl.’

‘Where’s Tammy?’

‘She’s gone.’

‘What about Mum?’

‘Your mother’s fine. She’s downstairs.’

‘What was the banging?’

‘You know how this thing spreads, don’t you Pheeb?’

She nodded but didn’t want to say. ‘Yes…’

‘So the safest thing is for us all to stay in the house but keep apart from each other, right? You and George should be okay ’cause you’re just kids, but it’s different for me and your mum. You understand?’

‘Think so.’

‘Good girl,’ he said again.

He shut the door, picked up his hammer, and took a handful of three inch nails from his pocket. Just as he had downstairs, he worked his way around the edge of the door, hammering the nails through the door itself at an angle and deep into the frame.

He was dripping with sweat by the time he’d finished, his hands and arms heavy and numb. He leant against the door. ‘All done,’ he shouted to Phoebe. ‘It’s for your own good. I’m just doing what I have to do to keep us all safe.’