‘What happened then?’ said Ellis.
‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘Florence asked for more soup. Kathy and Keith said about telling their friend McKenzie about our adventures.’
I shook my head.
‘It was really horrible. They both looked so mean. Florence helped me by asking for more soup.’
‘Who’s Florence?’ said Amber.
‘She’s a kid I met. She lives a van. Her family are missing. She said about the tunnels. It is a way out of here.’
‘The tunnels?’ said Amber. ‘Where are they?’
I shook my head. I had no idea.
‘Florence said she knew.’
‘In any case,’ said Abe. ‘Why would we need to get out of here? We were lucky to get in.’
Amber told Abe to stop making a fuss. Abe said something grumbly.
Vinnie was being sensible.
‘You never know,’ he said. ‘A way out of here might be a useful thing to know about.’
‘Why?’ said Abe. ‘We’re better off in here than we are out there.’
‘For now,’ said Vinnie, ‘but anything could happen. The Tall Man might have other family in here as well. If they find out about us we could be in real trouble.’
‘But we didn’t do anything?’ said Abe. ‘He brought it on himself.’
‘True,’ said Amber, ‘but if anyone finds out that we shot him, kidnapped his baby, shut him in the boot of a car, left him for dead and then walked away as he turned into a viro, then they might be more than a little upset.’
‘Amber’s right,’ said Ellis. ‘At the very least, we should try and find the entrance to the tunnels just in case.’
I was worried. I knew the people at the soup kitchen were trouble. I thought about Florence.
‘What about Florence?’ I said. ‘She needs help too.’
‘She does,’ said Amber. ‘We should go and get her. She could wait for her family with us.’
Gone
I led the others to the van. The back door was open. Florence was gone.
‘This is her house,’ I said. ‘She is not here.’
‘Where’s the soup kitchen?’ said Vinnie. ‘Perhaps she’s there.’
I went the way I thought I could remember. We walked down dirty alleys. Broken glass and boxes lay against the walls. Baxter sniffed along. His nose smelled so many things. People walked past us. No one was friendly. Everyone was tired and scared. No one was clean. Everyone I saw was muddy and ripped. Dirty shoes. Wet clothes. Broken coats. Ripped shoes.
‘Some people have been waiting days in the marshes to get in,’ said Vinnie. ‘That’s after having walked for miles to escape.’
‘How escape?’ I said. ‘Those things are everywhere.’
‘I know,’ said Vinnie. ‘Night-time was the worst apparently, with everyone huddled together, waiting to be bitten. One man told me it was like those sailors during WWII who waited for days in the sea to be rescued while sharks constantly attacked them.’
‘USS Indianapolis,’ I said. ‘The boat was torpedoed. 317 survivors.’
‘Sounds awful,’ said Ellis.
‘It was.’
‘The man said he saw people being dragged away,’ said Vinnie. ‘Families fighting to save their children and grandparents.’
Vinnie shook his head.
‘Just so awful.’
Ellis held her brother’s hand.
‘There’s nothing we can do anymore,’ she said. ‘We can’t protect other people. We can only look after ourselves.’
Vinnie nodded. I didn’t. I felt different.
‘But we could do more. We could save people. We can’t give up.’
No one said anything. They were all too sad.
I stopped talking. My words weren’t needed at that moment.
I was sure in my head.
Truck
The truck wasn’t open. There was no one there. The table was gone. There was dirty bread on the floor. It was green. I was confused. Baxter sniffed about. He went underneath the van. He started to bark. Baxter ran back to me. I knew what he wanted.
‘Baxter has found something.’
Vinnie walked around the van. He looked through the window.
‘There’s someone in there,’ he said.
I went and looked. It was Florence. She was tied up. There was tape over her mouth.
‘That is Florence. She is in trouble.’
Amber and Ellis tried to open the back door. It was locked. Abe looked at the table. He found a giant spoon.
‘Stand back,’ he said.
Abe hit the driver’s window with the spoon. It cracked. He hit it again. The glass fell out.
‘Good work,’ said Vinnie. He put his arm inside. Vinnie unlocked the door.
‘Keep a look out,’ he said. ‘I’ll grab Florence.’
Vinnie went inside the van. We looked around. I felt worried. Kathy could come back anytime. She would be more angry if she saw her window.
Vinnie and Florence came out the van. She was crying. She was really scared.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ Vinnie said. ‘Florence says that they’ll be back soon.’
We ran. Florence led the way. She went down an alley. I was scared. Kathy could shoot us. She would be so angry.
Florence stopped outside a dirty building. It was covered in green leaves.
‘In there,’ she said. ‘I think the entrance to the tunnels is in there.’
Florence looked at us.
‘I heard Keith talking about this place being riddled with tunnels used by smugglers years ago. Keith said he was descended from a long line of smugglers and wreckers.’
‘Wreckers?’ Ellis said.
‘People used to stand on the beach and trick ships by waving lights,’ I said. ‘They would crash on the rocks and have their stuff stolen.’
I saw a green metal door. It was rusty. Vinnie tried the door.
‘Locked from the inside,’ he said.
There was one small window round the back. It had wire inside the glass.
‘We’ll never break that,’ said Amber. ‘We need another way.’
‘Lift me up,’ I said to Vinnie. ‘There’s something on the roof.’
Vinnie put his hands together. I put my foot in his hands. I grabbed the roof. I pulled myself up.
Plastic
I saw a plastic window. I could break it with my foot. It went into the building. I stamped hard. The plastic cracked. I stamped again. The window broke. I leaned over.
‘I can get in up here.’
‘Great,’ said Vinnie. ‘Good work, Jake.’
I went through the broken window. The building was dark and dusty. I saw a small door in the floor. There was the front door. It had a stiff bolt. I pulled it. The door unlocked.
Everyone came inside. I locked the door again. Amber stood next to me. There was metal door in the floor.
‘Well done, Jake,’ said Amber. ‘This must be the entrance to the tunnels.’
‘It is,’ said Florence. She wasn’t crying now. ‘I heard Keith talking about it. He said something about it being a place to store people without the soldiers knowing.’
‘Store people?’ I said. ‘What’s that?’
Florence shook her head.
‘I don’t know, Jake. Keith said something about the tunnel being like McKenzie’s own personal fridge. I didn’t know what he was talking about.’
I shrugged. Vinnie and Abe pulled at the bolt. It was stuck.
‘Stand back,’ Abe said.
Abe started kicking the bolt. It was loud. I wanted to say be quiet. I was worried about Kathy. Abe kept kicking. The bolt finally moved.
‘Gotcha!’ he said.
Vinnie pulled the trapdoor up. We looked inside. It was pitch black. Vinnie shook his head.
‘There’s no way we can go down there like this. We’re not prepared.’
Vinnie looked at us.
‘A couple of us will need to go back and get our stuff. We can be there and back reall
y quick if we’re careful. The rest of you should wait here.’
Vinnie looked at Florence.
‘They must know that you’ve gone by now,’ he said. ‘We can’t risk you running into them again. It’ll give the game away.’
Vinnie looked at me.
‘You too, Jake. You had better stay here and wait.’
I was disappointed and pleased together.
‘Abe and I will go back for our things. We won’t be long.’
Vinnie unlocked the rusty, green door.
‘We’ll knock three times when we want to come in. Don’t open it for anyone else.’
Story
‘They said they wanted to get you and your friends, Jake,’ said Florence. ‘Kathy knows all about what happened to her cousin.’
‘Does she?’
I was worried.
‘Yes,’ Florence said. ‘She knows that you shot him in the foot and locked him in the boot of his car. She says you left him for dead.’
‘Actually, I shot him in the foot,’ said Amber. ‘I locked him in the boot of his car. I left him for dead.’
She was proud.
And I would do it again without hesitation.’
Amber looked angry.
‘That man hurt my brother. He was a cruel pig.’
She snorted.
‘He deserved everything he got.’
I was upset too.
‘He was really mean to me. He took the others away and said I wasn’t good enough to be their friend anymore.’
‘But you found us, Jake,’ Ellis said. ‘You helped rescue us.’
It was nice what Ellis said. I liked her words. Florence whistled.
‘You sound like you’ve had some real adventures,’ she said.
‘What about you?’ I said. ‘What happened to your story?’
Florence didn’t like my question. She looked sad. Ellis held her hand.
‘We’re your friends now,’ she said. ‘You’ll be safe with us.’
Florence had a small smile.
‘Thanks, Ellis,’ she said. ‘I hope you’re right, but I don’t think I’ll ever feel safe again.’
She shivered.
‘Kids aren’t meant to feel this scared. Scared all day every day. Running and hiding and crying.’
Florence sniffed.
‘Kids are meant to smile and laugh. I can’t remember the last time I sang a song.’
Florence was right. I knew that. Her words were sad and true. The world was a bad place for kids now. Not just kids. For old people. For everyone. I looked at Baxter. Even for animals.
Block
‘We lived on the top floor of a big block of flats,’ Florence said. ‘It was fifteen stories high. The lift used to take forever to get up to our flat.’
Florence sighed.
‘It felt like going up into the clouds.’
I hoped she was happy talking. I wanted to hear what she said. Florence carried on.
‘Sometimes the lift was broken. I hated it when that happened.’
‘I bet,’ said Ellis. ‘It must have been a nightmare, especially if you had shopping to carry.’
‘Our neighbours were always really noisy,’ Florence said, ‘shouting and singing all day and night. My dad kept trying to get them to be quiet, but they wouldn’t listen. They weren’t really mean people, they just didn’t think about anyone else.’
‘We’ve all known people like that,’ said Ellis. Florence kept saying.
‘It was about a week ago and they were so much noisier than normal. He tried to ignore it at first but eventually Dad got really upset. He knocked on the door to ask them to keep it down. The noise woke me up and I was listening. I heard Dad shouting and then the door slammed shut. Dad came back inside. He was very scared. He said we had to get dressed and leave straightaway.
‘They’re not right,’ he said. ‘Not right at all.’
Florence got upset. Ellis held her hand.
‘I had never seen Dad that scared before. He taped a kitchen knife to a broom handle and we started to sneak down the stairs. Jo and me were terrified. There was screaming everywhere. Doors kept banging and clanging. All the lights were flashing on and off and then the whole building went black.’
My eyes were wide. This was horrible.
‘That’s nasty,’ I said.
Florence nodded. She was crying some more. Ellis gave her a hug. Florence kept saying her story. Her voice was heavy with tears.
‘We slowly crept down the stairs, Dad in front with his spear. A great big man came rushing out a door and tried to grab Mum. Dad stabbed him in the face and the man fell down the stairwell. We had to step over his body further down.’
Florence shuddered.
‘We bumped into Miss Molloy on one of the landings. She was a lovely old lady who lived on the tenth floor. She walked very slowly with a frame but had somehow managed to get herself down to the fifth floor. Dad offered to bring her with us but she said she was resting.
‘Don’t worry about me,’ she said. ‘You need to get these girls to safety. Head for the army base at Dungeness. You’ll be safe there.’
I knew what the next bit of the story would be. In my head I just knew. I could see what Florence was going to say. I nearly said it for her.
‘Not long after we heard Miss Molloy screaming. It was loud and horrible. It suddenly stopped. Dad told us to run faster. We got out the flats and raced for our car.
Roads
‘The roads were really busy and it took ages to get away from the block of flats. Dad drove as fast as he could but everyone was trying to escape at the same time.’
Florence was scared to speak. It was all bad memories. I said nothing. I listened. That was best.
‘Loads of people were walking along the roads, trying to get to here. It was hard to drive past them. We couldn’t go very fast and people kept banging on the car and trying to open the doors. It was so scary. Dad was so worried. So was Mum. I just lay in the back and closed my eyes. I tried not to look at the people outside.’
‘I can imagine the panic,’ said Amber. ‘I can picture all those poor people not knowing what to do other than keep walking.’
‘What about the viros?’ I said.
Florence shuddered.
‘They were everywhere, Jake, and I mean, everywhere. It was so crowded that you couldn’t see who was who. All you could do was hear the screams as people got attacked. I saw groups of people trying to defend themselves and their families but there was just too many of those things.’
‘What about the soldiers?’ I said. ‘Me and Ellis saw soldiers in trucks. We also met some other soldiers on patrol.’
‘We saw more soldiers once we got closer to Dungeness,’ Florence said. ‘Some of them were in trucks and jeeps. I even saw some helicopters but there was too many monsters and not enough soldiers to stop them attacking everyone.’
Florence looked at us. Her eyes were big and scared.
‘It is like the whole world is full of those things now. They are everywhere, with their teeth and their hunger. All we are now is helpless creatures being chased down endless roads by these horrible things. There is no escape.’
Florence waited. She sighed. I saw the same pictures as her in my head. I knew her mind.
‘This is it now,’ she said. ‘This is it forever. Nothing can save the world now.’
Help
I wanted to help Florence. I wanted her to see that it could be better. I didn’t know how. How could I? But I wanted to. I asked a question.
‘Can we help find your family?’
Florence looked surprised.
‘Why would you help? No one else cares. I’m just another lost kid with another missing family.’
I nodded. I knew what she said.
‘Me too. My mum is missing. I’m like you. I need to find her. Perhaps helping you will help me?’
I wasn’t sure. It sounded like something right. Florence looked at me.
‘I thou
ght that waiting here was the best thing to do?’
‘It is, for you,’ said Ellis. ‘We had all sorts of issues outside with someone and thought we’d be safe in here.’
She looked at Amber and me.
‘Clearly not.’
‘It isn’t safe anywhere,’ said Amber. ‘It makes very little difference now. The soldiers are stopping those monsters getting in here, but they haven’t got time to stop the people inside behaving like monsters. It is every man for himself.’
Baxter licked her hand. She stroked his head.
‘And dogs as well.’
I agreed with Amber.
‘I thought my mum would be here. She isn’t. She must still be out there somewhere. I need to keep looking.’
“But where will you look?’ asked Florence.
‘St. Burton’s-on-Sea,’ I said. ‘That’s where me and mum live.’
Ellis sighed.
‘But that’s where we all came from.’
‘I know,’ I said. ‘Perhaps I should have stayed there longer? Mum’s lorry left the hospital, but it never got here. That’s my idea. If not here, then somewhere. Where? Back to the start and start again.’
I tried to sound right. I didn’t know. I kept talking.
‘Once we find my mum we head for your farm, Ellis. I want to live there. It sounds nice.’
‘It was nice, Jake. It was really nice but it’s probably really horrible now. All broken and full of viros.’
I didn’t care.
‘We can make it nice again. We can get rid of the viros. We can be happy. No more sad. A brand new family. Everyone can live together. All of us.’
I wanted this to be true. I really did.
Abe
Three knocks woke me up. Amber slid open the door. Abe ran inside. He was frightened.
‘Shut the door, Sis,’ he said. ‘Don’t let them find me.’
‘Who?’ said Amber. ‘Don’t let who find you?’
‘Kathy and Keith. They’ve got Vinnie. There was nothing I could do. I had to run. Vinnie told me to find you and get you to safety. Kathy is going to get everyone. She knows everything. She’s gone crazy.’
Viro (Book 3): Viro Page 3