Blood Crazy (41 page)

Del-Coffey looked round amazed at the happy faces of kids from four to nineteen charging about on errands or just running to find others to share the news and slap one another on the back.

In the corner two of the servant girls were using brass candlesticks to beat one of the Crew members around the head.

Del-Coffey was astonished. ‘What are those two doing?'

‘It's called revenge. There's going to be more of that in the next few days. And whoever wants to pay those sadists back gets my blessing … Hey. You, you were one of the Crew, weren't you?'

The guy stopped dead in his tracks, his hair still wet from the pool. ‘Yes, sir.' He trembled.

‘Get the rest of the Crew together,' I told him, ‘Then you can cook these kids you've shit on for the last six months a meal – no, make it a feast. And you, or your old buddies, don't eat a crumb until these kids can't eat another thing. Got that?'

‘Yes, sir.'

As he started to walk away I couldn't stop myself grinning mischievously as I said, ‘And remember, wherever you are, whatever you do, Slatter is always watching you.'

The ex-thug ran like he was scalded.

Del-Coffey shook his head in wonder. ‘What happened to the old Nick Aten? You look as if you were born to be king.'

‘You know about computer software … Well, I bought some new software for up here.' I tapped my head.

Del-Coffey looked puzzled.

‘Don't worry, it's a long story.' I pulled Bernadette's book from the haversack. ‘Do you believe in God, Del-Coffey?'

The puzzled look deepened. ‘No.'

‘Good. You can be our first bishop … Now, listen. Did you get my message from Murphy?'

‘No. Our transmitter's bust. I couldn't fix it.'

‘Shit … You don't know about the Creosotes, then? And what's been happening to communities like this all over the world?'

‘No. The Creosotes are harmless now; we can see—'

‘Sarah. Where's Sarah now, and the baby?'

‘The baby's being looked after by Sarah's sisters at my house in the village. Sarah's helping out at the hospital.'

‘What hospital?'

Del-Coffey explained Curt didn't want sick people in the hotel or even the village. A pub up the road had been roped in to serve as a hospital. ‘She's there with Kitty right now.'

I said, ‘Listen. It's not safe now. The Creosotes are … Hey, what the hell's this?'

At that moment I was mobbed by dozens of kids, shaking my hand and patting my arms and back; all of them talking at once in excited voices.

Del-Coffey was forced back by the crowds. Grinning, he shouted over the racket, ‘What's it like to be popular?'

Me? I couldn't stop smiling. ‘Weird … Damn weird.'

Half an hour later we were sitting drinking coffee and eating cake.

We were talking about what we had to do. Sarah's absence was nagging away at the back of my mind but there was a mountain of work to get through. Del-Coffey filled me in on what supplies the Community had to live on, that the fuel was long gone, no electricity. No vehicles worked. In short the place was a mess.

We were talking when I heard a horse clattering outside on the driveway.

A ten-year-old raced across the foyer. ‘Nick … Nick. It's one of Slatter's men. He's got something important to tell you.'

Outside the kid on horseback told me they'd set the charge against the wall of the dam. ‘There's a ten-minute delay fuse. Do you want Burke to blow it now?'

‘No.' I looked at the sun dipping down toward the hills. ‘Tell him to detonate it tonight at midnight when the Creosotes are asleep.'

As the kid prepared to ride off, Del-Coffey told him to wait and ran into the hotel. He came out minutes later with a pair of walkie-talkies. He handed one to the kid on horseback.

‘Now, at least we've got instant communication,' panted Del-Coffey.

After the kid had ridden away we returned to the hotel.

Life was beginning to settle down. I got some kids to make inventories of stores while I decided who could be trusted with guns to help guard the place.

By late afternoon I stopped, suddenly uneasy.

‘Christ, I forgot all about Sarah. Where is she?'

Del-Coffey looked up from his clipboard. ‘I sent word an hour ago … Don't worry, Nick. She'll want like mad to come, she's talked about you night and day ever since your parents took you. It's just that they're so damn busy with the children suffering from malnutrition.'

I looked across to where ex-Crew members were handing out plates of steaming food to young kids. ‘I've a good mind to nail up some of the old Crew as an example … The bastards should have to pay for this.'

‘Let them pay. Now you're in charge, Nick, they'll be happy to work until they drop.'

‘It's Kitty! It's Kitty!' someone shouted. ‘She's running … Nick!'

Kitty nearly fell into Del-Coffey's arms as she came gasping up the drive, blood streaming from her mouth.

‘Nick … I'm sorry, Nick …' Kitty panted. ‘We were walking back to the village … A man and a woman jumped out at us. They've taken Sarah away. I tried to fight them …'

That cold feeling came sliding back.

‘Creosotes?'

‘Yes.'

‘What did they look like? Exactly.'

‘Woman … I don't know. Dark hair. Forty. The man had grey and black hair mixed. And just here.' She pointed to her mouth.

‘He had a gap in his top front teeth,' I said.

‘Yes … how did you know?'

Understanding thudded inside of me. Suddenly I felt so weak and tiny – as if I was a little child again. ‘Oh, mother. Why do you always have to interfere?'

Del-Coffey looked startled. ‘Your parents?'

‘Yes. I know it's them. They've been following me all along. They were probably watching me when I was at the Cropper's settlement … They probably watched me from the bank of the lake when I was on the Ark. Then they followed me all the way home … And now they've got Sarah … Jesus Christ Almighty … When is all this going to end?'

Del-Coffey asked Kitty, ‘How long ago was this?'

‘Half an hour.'

‘Half an hour? Kitty, why didn't you come straight here? They might have—'

I interrupted. ‘Give her a chance to speak. Kitty, what happened after they took her?'

‘I … I followed them. They took her over the hill into the next valley. I watched them take her to that little white church on the hill.'

‘Go on.'

‘I waited a few minutes, but nothing else happened. They just took her into the church.'

I got my rifle and pushed the pistol into my belt.

‘I'll get some people to go with you,' said Del-Coffey.

‘Don't bother … The speed I'll be shifting none of them will be able to keep up.'

‘For chrissakes be careful.'

I nodded at Bernadette's book in his hand. ‘Read that – learn it from cover to cover. It might seem strange … But you've got to have faith in it … Whether it's true or not doesn't matter. We've got to believe in something or we might as well feed those children cyanide. At least they'd die quickly.'

Del-Coffey looked bewildered.

‘If I don't come back … There's something in the bag I've
written, too. It'll all become clear when you read it … It might just save those poor devils' lives.'

I'd started off down the driveway when I heard Del-Coffey, shouting and running after me. He held the walkie-talkie to his ear. ‘Nick … Nick! It's Burke up at the dam … He says the Creosotes have started moving.'

‘This is it, then.' Mouth dry, I looked at Del-Coffey.

I felt I was living out a series of prophecies that were, one by one, becoming fact. Once I would have ranted and sworn. Now I felt calm. I knew what I had to do.

‘They've begun to move in our direction, Nick. Burke reckons there's more than four thousand of them.'

I looked at the faces of the hundreds of kids as they came out of the hotel to watch me go. They didn't shout now. Their expressions were serious, more than that there was a look of deep, painfully deep trust in their eyes.

‘Nick. What shall I tell Burke?'

In my head I could see Sarah's face as well as I saw those in front of me.

‘Nick … The dam is in the same valley as the white church.' Del-Coffey went grey. ‘If they blow up the dam wall a tidal wave a hundred feet high is going to tear down that valley. Nothing will survive that.'

‘I know.' For a moment the world became unreal – then suddenly I had the strongest conviction in my life what I must do.

I looked at Del-Coffey. ‘Tell Burke to blow the dam.
NOW
.'

Del-Coffey, trembling, nodded and began talking into the walkie-talkie.

I turned my back on the hotel and the hundreds of watching eyes. And I ran.

The trees lining the driveway blurred into a dark tunnel as I ran, the rifle strapped across my back.

Through the hotel gates, down into the village, by Del-Coffey's house, across the bridge, then up the other side of the valley.

As the road began its zig-zag climb up the hill I cut straight up across the turf, willing myself to keep running up the steep hillside, my eyes burning in the direction of the hill-top and the darkening blue sky.

My throat rattled, my body burned and pains pierced my legs, but something inside of me wouldn't let me slow down.

A hundred yards from the hill-top I heard the sound. A thumping great crack that sounded as if the sky had been torn in two. To my left, in the distance, white smoke billowed into the sky.

The dam had gone. I ran harder, wanting to see what would happen next. The last hundred yards were the steepest. At times, I had to climb on all fours. As my hands touched the ground I felt a powerful vibration running through it.

Then I was at the top of the hill, looking down into the next valley. It had already been and gone.

The tidal wave must have torn the two miles down the valley like a hundred foot high concrete wall, moving with the speed of an express. Its force grinding boulders to gravel.

Nothing living even had a chance to drown in the flood: the crushing wave would have shattered every bone in their bodies.

I turned right and ran along the top of the long spine of the hill, looking down into the valley bottom.

Already the flood waters were dropping as I watched, leaving behind on the valley walls a continuous slick of mud, uprooted trees and thousands upon thousands of dead men and women.

No. Not men and women. They weren't human any more. They had become an alien species, dedicated to destroying us. I felt no pity. All I wanted now was Sarah.

The church in which she was being held was perhaps another mile down the valley, where it began to broaden out.

The sun rested on the hill top when I saw the church, making its white walls and spire glow pink.

The church and the top of the hill it stood on were clear of the flood. But still surrounding it was a black lake, streaked here and there with clumps of pink froth.

Now it was downhill all the way.

I went down that hillside in huge leaping strides. Slip now and I'd break my neck.

From bushes in front of me a figure lurched out, arms grasping forward.

Not all the Creosotes had been caught in the flood.

I didn't stop running as I slipped the rifle from my shoulder and shot him in the chest. I jumped over the body as he fell.

Five or six more stragglers came at me. These were ferocious bastards – they wanted my blood.

I shot one after another, willing each bullet to count.

Several more were working along the valley behind me but I ignored them.

Only the ones that stood between me and the church I blasted.

When the bullets ran out I broke the rifle across the head of the last one that stood in my way.

Now I was running across the valley floor, through six inches of liquid silt. Bodies were twisted mud shapes; they were everywhere. In the end I had to run across them they were so tightly packed together.

From trees that had survived the tidal wave more bodies hung
from branches like dead fruit where they'd been left as the flood waters dropped.

A hundred yards from the church the liquid mud deepened until I was wading waist deep through this freezing shit, pushing floating corpses away with my hands.

The slope began to run up, I moved quicker as the water shallowed to my knees, ankles, then I was free of it and running up the hill to the white church.

At the doors I stood panting. What I'd find in there God only knew – but I wanted to be in control when I went in.

Gingerly, I pushed open the door.

Inside, the church was filled with dappled greens, pinks, reds, golds and deep, deep shadow.

Silence pressed hard against my ears, the only sound my heart that seemed to fill the void with a deep bass thump.

I pulled the pistol from my belt. It was still dry. I eased back the hammer and holding the gun high walked slowly down the aisle.

The millions of colours moving across the inside of the church came from the setting sun shining through the stained glass windows. They were full of Biblical scenes – ten foot high saints, lambs, angels and a green hill far away.

I couldn't manage a shout, only a whisper. ‘Sarah?'

Jesus Christ … No
.

I'd seen so many things. But this was so bad I had to turn away.

Ahead of me, leaning against the altar rail, a dozen tiny figures. They were like the ones I'd seen on the barge, just before I'd been released.

Cut down and mummified bodies of teenagers. They watched me with their biscuit-dry eyes. One of them had a split face, roughly repaired by a row of stitches: XXXXXX.