Heroes Don't Travel
Page 31
‘Sorry.’
‘Serious babes, I’m sorry for you but that’s how the shit falls,’ Gillian said. ‘You can stay or run with us. I’s not shitting you babes, but I’m not much for running, but you can’t be staying with you crew.’ She shook her head. ‘We your crew now.’
Gillian looked across the crumbling bridge. The middle sagged toward the water and most of the side support had crumbled into the fetid flow below. ‘We cross that bridge it places us safe babes, and this lot they not following into the Kenton Gardens.’
‘Kenton Gardens isn’t so nice,’ Jacob said. ‘We need transport. We don’t want to be crossing the gardens on foot, like. Serious it’s bad in there.’
‘We keep to ourselves we be fine.’
‘Cool,’ I said. ‘But what then?’
‘Then is the East End.’
‘We aren’t going in there,’ Jacob said. ‘You said we dropped him at the gate then back. That’s what you said. I’ve lost me gang and you taking me into hell, like. That isn’t right. No way. Serious like I don’t want to be going to the East End.’
A crowd gathered a hundred yards back, stomping their feet and shaking their weapons. The child stood with the gun, filling it with shot or powder. God knows what he was putting in the muzzle, but the chanting urged him to finish.
‘You want to join the living dead?’ I said. ‘They’d be happy to have you in their gang, eh? He shook his head. ‘So, we got to walk.’
The bridge swayed with the icy wind blowing over the water. A piece broke from its road and hit the water with a dull plop. A yelp sounded and we turned and peered over the grassy bank. The dog howled from the middle of the road. Its back end had collapsed. Bodies approached with blades reflecting the reds and yellows of the flames burning in the road.
‘Shit.’
‘So let’s go.’