by Robin Jarvis
The men immediately began unloading the trucks.
“Hey,” Alasdair asked one of them. “What are ye doin’?”
A disgusted expression appeared on the man’s face and he averted his eyes from this aberrant scum. Ladders were carried to the tall wooden posts nearest the gate. Bunting, lanterns and flowers were ripped down and the first bale of fencing was rolled across.
Jody took hold of Christina’s hand. Power tools began to whirr, followed by hammering as the high fences went up. The children watched in confusion, but a horrible suspicion was forming in the older ones.
“You can’t be serious,” Alasdair shouted, rounding on Jangler.
“I don’t… I don’t get it,” Spencer muttered, clutching his Stetson nervously.
“What’s happening?” Charm insisted. “Why ain’t me ma here? What them blokes doin’? What’s them fences for? Can I get a bleedin’ answer?”
Tucking his clipboard under his arm, Jangler made his way back to his chalet. The children followed, some out of anger, the rest because they didn’t know what else to do and weren’t quite sure what this meant. Lee rose from the step and stood among them. As the noise of the workmen continued, Jangler cleared his throat and mimed the removal of invisible gloves.
“Firstly,” he began with even more pompous self-importance than usual, “let me make this perfectly clear. There will be no further transport. You will not be returning to your previous homes. You will no longer be indulged and tolerated out there. There is no place in society for abominations such as yourselves.”
His audience murmured in disbelief at what they were hearing. The hate in the old man’s voice was unmistakable.
“The tomfoolery of the past few days is now at an end,” he continued. “From this day forward, you are internees. This camp is your only home. You will remain here until the age of sixteen, when you will be relocated to an adult camp. You will not go beyond the boundaries that are being erected right now unless supervised by guards under my strict orders. If you do, there will be punishments.”
“What the hell are you saying?” Jody shouted. “You can’t do this. You can’t make us prisoners.”
“Too right he can’t!” Alasdair supported her.
“He’s gone nuts,” Marcus declared.
“What guards?” Lee demanded.
“I have the full blessing of the Ismus in this,” Jangler told them. “I am the Lockpick, gaoler of Mooncaster. My word is now law here. You will obey me or suffer the consequences. You have no rights except the ones I deem fit to grant. And do not think you can continue idling your days away as you have been doing. You will be made to work, to earn your bed and board. This is not a holiday camp.”
“Could’ve fooled me!” Maggie jeered.
“I repeat. This is not a holiday camp. If you do not work, you will not eat. I have made a list and divided you into groups; these will be your work parties. I will pin the schedule and rota in the dining hall. I suggest you familiarise yourselves with both because ignorance will not be accepted as an excuse for shirking your duties. If you try to avoid the work, you will be punished.”
“Blimey,” Charm exclaimed. “He’s serious. He means it!”
“Indeed I do. And the sooner you recognise that, the better.”
“Up yours!” Maggie called, finishing off with a raspberry.
“I suggest you calm down so we can get on with the business of the day,” he said. “There is a tremendous amount to get through. Firstly, the condition of this internment camp is an absolute disgrace. That must be attended to immediately. Then there is the very grave matter concerning the wanton destruction of the beautiful model of the White Castle, plus the sheer vandalism and criminality which occurred last night. That will not go unpunished. The ringleader will be made an example of.”
“He’s so getting off on that word ‘punish’,” Maggie commented.
“Why are we even listening to him?” Alasdair cried. “Dinnae give him the oxygen of attention. I am going oot that gate right noo and that jumped-up wee man isnae gonna stop me.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, man,” Lee warned.
“Och, what’s he gonna do? Hit me wi’ his pathetic clipboard? I’ll lamp him if he tries anything.”
The Scot turned to the others. “I’m away,” he told them. “Who else is wi’ me?”
Just about everyone agreed and they headed for the gates. Lee hung back. He knew it couldn’t be that easy. He was right, again.
“Captain!” Jangler called. “It’s time!”
The door of the supposedly empty chalet was yanked open. A hideous, humpbacked creature came running out. Lee jumped in shock. He hadn’t expected this, not this.
“What the actual hell is that?” he breathed.
Charm screamed, just as she predicted she would if she ever saw one of those things. Other children joined her. Nobody could believe what they were seeing. Jody shook her head in denial and squeezed Christina’s hand.
“No way,” she murmured incredulously. “Can’t be!”
“Mr Big Nose,” the little girl said hollowly. “I told you he was here.”
It was a Punchinello Guard from the book – right there in front of their eyes, in the sunlight and completely real. This wasn’t a dwarf actor in a clever costume with a special-effects head, this was genuine – a living, snarling creature of ugly flesh and gristle. It was dressed in an exact copy of the outfits worn by the guards in the book: a yellow frilled tunic with scarlet and blue buttons. There was a ruff around the join where the hideous chin jutted from the barrel chest and a yellow, Napoleonic-style hat was pulled down on its head. It should have looked preposterous and absurd, but the clownish costume only made that grotesque face appear even more terrifying.
Alasdair and the others started backing away. The Punchinello shouted an order and four more of the hideous creatures sprang from the cabin, clutching medieval-looking spears and wearing different curved hats. The children screamed louder and fled towards the road. The day had suddenly turned into a nightmare.
Squawking in strange, pinched voices, the guards leaped after them. Moving swiftly on their short, bowed legs, they overtook the terrified children and stood before the gates. They jabbed their spears forward, taunting and goading, forcing the youngsters back. One of them leered at Charm and licked its lips with a grey tongue.
Marcus couldn’t take it in. This was insane. It was happening so fast the world seemed to be spinning around him. He tried to remain rational, be calm. Be a man.
“Whatever those are,” he voiced sceptically, “they wouldn’t dare lay a finger on us. Besides, there’s only five of them. What’s stopping the rest of you? I’m going.”
He picked up his bag and marched forward defiantly.
The nearest guard ran at him. It struck the boy across the face with a powerful fist and he fell to the ground. The creature stood on his chest and grinned, prodding the spear tip against his neck.
“Oh, yes, oh, yes,” the guard gloated. “Let me kill. Me want to kill.”
Marcus had never been so frightened in his life. He looked up into those cruel, squinting eyes and knew he was a nudge away from death.
“No! Please! Please!” he begged.
“Get off him!” Alasdair shouted.
Maggie looked desperately at the workmen and cried for help, but they calmly carried on putting the fences up. To them it was only natural seeing Punchinellos and the aberrants deserved what was coming to them.
“I can’t believe you people!” Maggie yelled at them. “How can you just stand there?”
“All right, Captain!” Jangler commanded. “That will do. Call your fellow off. The point has been well made.”
Captain Swazzle complied reluctantly. The guard took his foot from Marcus’s chest and drove the spear into the turf close to the boy’s ear.
“Next time,” he growled threateningly, “Yikker not wait for order. Yikker will set your blood free. Yikker no like your smell. It
make Yikker angry. You stink.”
Marcus spluttered an apology. The guard waddled away, wiping his great nose. The boy needed Alasdair and Lee to help him to his feet.
“Get some smarts,” Lee told him. “Don’t do nuthin’ like that again. Those things ain’t foolin’.”
“Captain Swazzle and his fine guards have been brought into this world to guarantee your obedience.” Jangler addressed the children with a dark chuckle. “Don’t antagonise them. They really are as vicious as they appear. There is nothing they would like more than to butcher the lot of you. You may be rejects but you have at least read the sacred text numerous times: you know what the Punchinellos are capable of. There are no creatures more aggressive and violent in all the land. They are the bloodiest fighters in my Lord’s service, so beware. Now where was I? Oh, yes, the despicable destruction of the castle model. Unless the instigator of that hateful crime steps forward to be made an example of, you shall go without food for the rest of the day.”
He looked at them expectantly. “Well, own up. Who did it?”
The children stirred unhappily. They were all hungry but they said nothing. Jody felt her cheeks burn. She was the one who had attacked the model first, but she wasn’t going to confess to that and nobody blamed her.
“Very well,” Jangler said. “I can see it’s pointless trying to appeal to any sense of decency or honour. You filth have none. I do, in point of fact, know precisely who it was.” He snapped his fingers at one of the guards then pointed at Jody. “Take her!” he said.
“Stop!” Alasdair yelled as the creature elbowed its way through the horrified children. “It wasnae her. It were me! I smashed your crappy toy fort to bits. It were me! Not her! She had nothing to do wi’ it! And I’d do it again! Leave her be!”
“You don’t want to do this!” Lee warned the old man.
“I rather think I do,” came the remorseless reply.
It was no use protesting. The Punchinello seized Jody by the hair and dragged her out. The girl shrieked and struggled, but he was too strong and she was hauled backwards over the lawn, kicking and crying.
“Jody!” Christina howled, running after until another guard charged round to bar the way.
“Let her go!” Alasdair demanded. “You’re a maniac! Who do ye think you are?”
“I am Jangler!” the old man laughed. “Your gaoler.”
The guard pushed the girl against the maypole and tore the cardigan from her. Then he tied her hands and hitched her so high her feet could hardly reach the floor. He sniggered gleefully and unhooked a lash from his belt.
“Jody Jody Jody Jody,” he taunted, taking a practice swing.
“No!” Maggie screeched.
“What’s it doin’?” Charm muttered.
Alasdair tried to dash forward, but Captain Swazzle swung the spear shaft under the boy’s legs and threw him backwards.
Jim Parker had watched everything with a mounting awareness that his moment was drawing very close. The excitement he felt was electric. It took his breath away. This would be the first public demonstration of his new powers. It was precisely the sort of perilous situation the heroes in his comic books encountered. The Punchinellos were worthy adversaries for the debut of Jim Credible.
His right hand pressed against his chest and his face assumed a steely determination. He had pledged to protect the other kids here and that’s what he was going to do. This was it. This would be his first battle. In his troubled imagination he heard the galvanising brassy introduction of a John Williams theme, heralding the appearance of a new champion in the pantheon of fantastic superheroes.
The twelve-year-old stepped forward.
“Untie her!” he demanded as the guard raised the lash to strike. “Or you will be sorry. You only get one warning.”
The Punchinellos stared at him and crowed with laughter.
Alasdair lifted his head. “Oh, God, no,” he uttered when he realised what was in the boy’s mind. “No, Jim! Stop! Get back here!”
“I am Jim Credible,” the young hero declared boldly. “Leave this place now, while you still can. I will not allow you to hurt any of these people.”
Marcus looked on, mystified and fearful. He couldn’t understand. What did the boy think he was doing? “Don’t!” he cried. “Are you crazy?” He wanted to run and get him, but was far too scared.
“What you up to, kid?” Lee called. “This ain’t no game!”
But Jim was beyond reason now. In his mind the ‘J’ on his chest shone out through his T-shirt with a blue light and superhuman strength pumped through his veins, inflating his physique. He thought the horrified gasps and calls of the others were cries of amazement now that they saw him for who he really was. He would have to swear them to secrecy when he was done here. His true identity must always remain an enigma.
The guards were still laughing when he rushed at the one with the lash and launched himself at him. He caught the astonished creature by the head and the two of them went rolling on the ground. Jim’s juvenile fists pounded the Punchinello’s misshapen face, but the blows did not send the monster careering through the air as he expected. Instead the guard roared with rage, lurched to his feet and reached for the spear he had set aside. Jim leaped up to charge again. The Punchinello gave a bestial snarl and rammed the weapon into the boy’s chest – straight through the middle of his self-inflicted scar.
There was a ghastly, stretched silence. The others watched him stumble. As Jim fell, his eyes were filled with confusion and surprise.
Then Maggie screamed. Charm covered her face and Marcus sank to his knees.
“What have you done?” Alasdair gasped in stunned disbelief. “Get an ambulance! My God! My God!”
He would have raced to Jim’s side if Lee hadn’t caught his arm and spun him around.
“You want to end up the same? The kid’s gone! Look at him. There’s nothing you, nor no one, can do. He’s dead! Don’t give those things an excuse to do that to you.”
“They k… killed him!” Maggie stuttered, staggering backwards. “They killed him!” She turned to the workmen again. One of them had started eating his packed lunch. “Damn you!” she cursed.
By Jim’s behaviour, Jangler knew the splinter of Austerly Fellows had not been hiding inside him. He consulted his clipboard with mild annoyance. “Now I shall have to rearrange the work parties,” he tutted. “Let me see, that makes only twenty-two of you now. Ho, two little ducks – as they say in Bingo.”
He peered over at the guards and instructed them to get on with the flogging. The lash began its work and the five Punchinellos hopped and danced as Jody cried out.
“That’s the way to do it!” their odious, nasal voices rejoiced. “That’s the way to do it!”
“And so, with these heart-warming family reunions continuing behind me,” Kate Kryzewski said to camera on the coach, “I am more than happy to admit I was wrong. My initial reaction to Dancing Jax was prejudicial and deeply flawed. There is no ‘Jaxis of evil’ here. It’s merely a different and new way of looking at the world but, as you can see, children and families are very much front and centre of that, something we in America can fully appreciate and applaud. All I’ve witnessed this weekend is the joy this book has given to the people of the UK. It has transformed the lives of the sick and disabled and I’ve seen, first hand, the astonishing rehabilitation of convicted felons. What I say to you, America, is do not be afraid of this truly incredible work. Its wisdom and philosophy should be embraced. The benefits it could bring our society are only to be guessed at. This is Kate Kryzewski ending her special report for NBC Nightly News.”
MARCUS SHOVELLED THE last spadeful of soil on to the grave and patted it down respectfully. It was getting dark. Had all this happened in just one day? How had a handful of hours taken this already upside-down world and ripped it inside out so violently?
Jangler had made the teenagers dig the hole themselves. He refused to allow the body out of the camp. Besides, he ha
d said, no one out there cared what happened to them any more. The sooner they understood that, the easier it would be for them. He generously allowed the use of a spade, but first things first: there was important work to do. The camp had to be cleared of litter and he wanted the dining hall “sparkling like a new pin” before anything else was to be done.
No one dared object. They were numb with shock and traumatised by what they had seen. Their lives had shifted into an even higher gear of insanity and they were straining to adjust and take it in. Jim’s body lay in the sun for most of the day. Close by, Jody remained tied to the maypole. Her back was striped with blood and her head lolled to one side. Alasdair’s pleas to send her to hospital or even just fetch a doctor fell on deaf ears.
A Punchinello stood guard, keeping everyone back.
“Is she dead too?” Christina asked Maggie.
“No,” Maggie answered, trying to sound positive for the little girl’s sake. “She’ll be fine, just you wait and see. Soon as we get these jobs done, we’ll bring her inside and make her better.”
Before they could begin, however, Jangler had them line up in three rows, alphabetically, telling them they must always assemble this way in future. Then he had the guards confiscate every mobile phone, tablet, media player and relevant chargers. They emptied the luggage on the ground, hunting through everything, tearing bags apart if they thought there was a hidden pouch or compartment. One of the creatures pawed through Charm’s clothes with a disgusting grin, his great bristled nose twitching and sampling. They took their finds over to the old man who then instructed them to search the children’s pockets.
Fourteen more phones were found. The leering guard patted Charm down thoroughly with his large gnarled hands, taking much longer than necessary.
“You already found me phone in me handbag!” she said, cringing at his clammy touch. “I ain’t got another one!”
“Bezuel like,” he whispered covetously in her ear. “Pretty.”