Baxter.
I ran over to him. He was not moving. I felt blood on his fur.
‘Baxter,’ I said. ‘I’m here.’
I rubbed his head. I stroked his ears.
Baxter didn’t move.
He was cold.
Baxter was dead.
Baxter
The tears burst my eyes. My head was just water. I had a snotty nose. I fell down. Baxter was heavy. I pulled hard. I cuddled him. I leaned into his fur. His body was cold. I choked on my sadness.
I heaved and heaved. I didn’t care who saw me. I had to stay. But I ran away. I killed Baxter. That was my thought. He was better before he met me. He was safer. All I thought was bad.
‘There you are, you snivelling little shit.’
I looked up. Keith was standing in the doorway. I didn’t hear it open.
‘Crying about your stupid dog, are you? Wait ‘til you meet McKenzie, then you’ll really have something to cry about.’
‘McKenzie?’
I didn’t know. I stood up. This was confused. Keith walked at me. He had a gun. His grin was bad.
‘I shot the dog. It was great fun. You should have heard him cry.’
‘I did hear him. You’re bad all over and everywhere.’
Keith was pleased. He liked my words.
‘Yes, I am bad all over. Bad to the very bone.’
He pointed the gun at me.
‘Come with me. We can’t keep McKenzie waiting any longer.’
I thought fast.
‘What if I run away?’
Keith laughed.
‘Do what you like, I don’t care. We’ve got the rest of you stupid kids so please yourself.’
‘The rest? Ellis and Amber and Abe and Florence?’
‘Of course.’
Keith laughed.
‘They’re almost as stupid as you. Not quite, but almost.’
I got red.
‘I’m not stupid. I’m not. Don’t say that!’
‘Whatever you say, kid. I couldn’t care less.’
Dimwit
Keith made me walk. It was hard with Baxter. Keith told me to drag him. I didn’t like that. My eyes were still so wet.
‘Please can I bury him? I have to be proper.’
Keith got angry.
‘What are you taking about? Bury him where? Can you see a graveyard round here?’
There was nothing like that. We were in a dirty alley. It was only broken buildings around. There was a pile of black bags. Flies were all over. The smell was rotten. Keith pointed there.
‘Just dump it there and hurry up! We can’t keep McKenzie waiting.’
I didn’t like that. Baxter needed better looking after. I didn’t move. I didn’t like the thought. I wanted to be like the Reverend. He was proper. Keith got angry. He pushed me out the way. He grabbed Baxter and threw his body on the bags. Flies burst everywhere. Baxter was their new food. I was sick in my mouth. Keith grabbed my shoulder. He pushed me in front of him.
‘Think yourself lucky McKenzie doesn’t eat dogs,’ he said. ‘Otherwise, I’d make you skin the beast and cook him on a barbecue.’
Keith hit me on the back of the head.
‘Get going, you dimwit!’
It was dark. No street lights were working. I didn’t know where I was. I saw nothing I knew. There was no-one around. No one to help me.
We came up to a big building. The sign said, ‘McKenzie Cash & Carry.’ Keith unlocked a small door. He pushed me inside. It was dark. I could see big shelves everywhere. Keith pushed me to a big door. He pulled the handle. The door opened. I felt a big chill.
‘Here’s your new home,’ he said. ‘Don’t get too comfortable, McKenzie will want to meet you very soon.’
Keith laughed when he said this. He pushed me inside. He slammed the door. It was dark at first but then a small blue light came on.
Puddles
It was a giant freezer. I shivered. It was really cold. There was a big pile of boxes along the wall. Some had blood coming out. This was puddles on the floor. I didn’t like the boxes. They made me feel ill. I didn’t want to guess what was there. There must be bad stuff inside.
I looked elsewhere. A big pile of black bags was at the back. I went over there. It was away from the boxes. It was more shivery. I rubbed my arms. The bags were all jumbled. There was no puddles. There was a small door by the bags. It was dark through the glass. I touched the handle. It opened. The blue light fell inside. I saw someone. They were all tied up. It was Vinnie.
Vinnie was tied to a chair. He had rags in his mouth. I pulled them out. He gasped.
‘Jake,’ he said. His voice was small. ‘They got you too?’
I nodded.
‘Keith shot Baxter. He put me in here. He dumped Baxter outside. Baxter is dead.’
Vinnie was sad.
‘I’m sorry, Jake.’
He looked behind me.
‘Is it only you? Where’s the others?’
‘We hid down the tunnel. Abe found a way out. They went with him. I was stuck. I went to find Baxter. Keith got me. He brought me here. He told me he had the others.’
‘He was lying,’ said Vinnie. ‘I heard him say that he couldn’t find them anywhere.’
I looked back at the boxes. I looked at Vinnie.
‘What is here?’
‘Get me out of these ropes, Jake. We’re in big trouble.’
‘It turns out,’ Vinnie said, ‘that McKenzie is the local gangster who owned this place. He’s the Tall Man’s step-brother.’
Vinnie smiled.
‘I say ‘owned’ because McKenzie got bitten recently and is now a raging viro.’
‘A viro?’
‘Yes,’ Vinnie said. ‘Keith and Kathy have got it into their head that even though McKenzie is a viro he is still part of the family and so they are doing all they can to keep him happy.’
‘But how happy?’
‘By feeding him. Keith and Kathy use that soup kitchen as an excuse to kidnap children and bring them over here. Once they have enough, they’re going to start feeding McKenzie. Apparently, he’s locked up somewhere in this warehouse.’
I shivered. This was mad stuff. Super sick. They were bad, bad people. Vinnie nodded.
‘They started by killing random strangers in the camp and chopping them up to feed McKenzie. That’s what’s in those bags over there.’
I nodded. The sick was back in my mouth. Vinnie kept speaking.
‘They told me that McKenzie didn’t like dead bodies, he wanted live meat instead. There are so many kids running loose in this camp that they decided to target them. They found out who was alone and who didn’t have parents and kidnapped them. That what they were doing with Florence.’
I got angry.
‘What about the soldiers? Can they stop this?’
Cousin
Vinnie shook his head.
‘The soldiers are far too busy trying to keep the front gate from being overrun. They don’t have the time or the inclination to police what’s going on in here. They wouldn’t like what’s going on if they found out but they have much bigger things to worry about than a couple of local gangsters.’
Vinnie paused.
‘In any case, who’s going to tell them? McKenzie and his family have been running things round here for years and years. If anything, the virus has made it easier for them to run their empire because no one cares any more. Protected by the army, they can get on with whatever they want, and no one is going to stop them.’
‘What about the kids?’
Vinnie sighed.
‘They’re so traumatised by everything that even if they were able to escape, no one would believe them. You’ve seen what it’s like round here; most people don’t even care.’
‘Jill does.’
Vinnie smiled.
‘She probably does but we have no way of knowing if she’s part of the family. Until proven otherwise, we can’t trust anybody in here ever again.’
How could good things ever happen again? The world was just darkness all over. Nobody was nice. Everyone wanted to be bad. It was so hard to know how people worked. There was nothing to do about it. I was too small to make big change. I had to find Mum and hope. That was all.
Help
Vinnie and me stopped speaking. I was very tired. It was very cold. There was no sleep for me. Or him. My ideas jangled in my head. What to do? How to escape? Where were the others? Were they in another freezer? What about the children? Were they scared like me? Sitting in the darkness waiting to be eaten. That was just bad. They must be so scared. We had to do something. We could not sit and watch them being eaten by the monster.
‘We must find the kids. We must help them.’
Vinnie looked at me. He was tired as well.
‘You’re right, Jake, we must, but how? We’re locked in here. We don’t even know where they are.’
‘True but it doesn’t matter. We must just help. That’s what we do.’
Vinnie smiled.
‘You never give up, do you, Jake?’
‘You don’t. You keep us all going. We follow you, Vinnie.’
Vinnie nodded.
‘Keith will be back soon. We need to be ready for him.’
I knew a plan.
‘I’ll go out there and lay down. I’ll cry like a big baby and he’ll ignore me. When he comes to you I’ll hit his head hard.’
Vinnie smiled.
‘Good plan, Jake. Get yourself ready.’
I went back out. I saw a broken shelf. The wood was thick. I took it. Then I huddled myself on the floor. I waited.
It was later. I heard the door open. It was Keith. He was laughing. I started my game. My pretend tears were loud. Keith stood by me.
‘Please don’t hurt me,’ I said. ‘I’m so scared. Please don’t hurt me.’
Keith kept laughing.
‘Keep crying, you little cretin,’ he said.
Keith kicked me with his shoe. I kept crying.
‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.’
Keith snorted.
‘You’ll keep,’ he said. ‘McKenzie is looking forward to meeting you but first he wants to meet your mate in there.’
I didn’t answer. I kept crying. Keith walked away from me. I opened my eyes. Keith was by the door. I stood up. The shelf was heavy. Keith put his hand on the door. I tip-toed. I got right behind him. I lifted the shelf. I hit Keith with all my effort. The shelf bounced in my hand. Keith stopped.
‘What the …’
I hit him again. My hands hurt. Keith kneeled down. He had his hand on his head.
‘You little …’
All my anger. All the bad names. The nasty voices. The horrible looks. The terrible things. Baxter. Everything else. All those things made my arms powerful. I lifted the shelf again. My arms swung down. The shelf bounced off Keith’s head. He fell over. I hit him again. He didn’t move.
‘That’s enough, Jake,’ said Vinnie. ‘We don’t want to kill him.’
I put the shelf down. I was out of puff.
‘He’s a bad man. He killed Baxter. He has to be hurt.’
‘We’re not killers, Jake. We’re not like that. We’re different to them.’
Vinnie was right. We had to be better than them. We had to help not hurt. That was how we had to be. Especially now. We might be the only good left in the world.’
Freezer
The warehouse was real dark. Some light came in from small windows up high. We could just see. Vinnie had tied Keith up. We left him in the cupboard. We closed the freezer.
‘We need to find those kids,’ I said.
Vinnie nodded. He pointed down the side. I saw three more freezer doors. We went that way.
I looked around. I hoped no one else was here. It was scary. Vinnie was worried as well.
‘We need to move quickly,’ he said. ‘We have to find the kids and get them out of here.’
‘Where will we take them?’
Vinnie shrugged.
‘Just out of here is a start,’ he said. ‘We can worry about the rest later.’
Vinnie pulled open the first door. No light came on. I listened. Nothing. No kids. I went to go to the next one. Vinnie stopped me.
‘We have to check,’ he said. ‘We have to be sure. You keep watch while I take a look.’
I gulped. We stepped inside. I stood by the door. I saw shelves like the other one. Nothing was on them. There were no bags. Vinnie came back quickly.
‘There’s a cool box down the back but there’s no way I was going to open it up and see what’s inside.’
He shuddered.
‘Let’s check the next one.’
We did the same. I stood by the door. Vinnie checked. The blue light worked in this one. Loads of boxes were on the shelves. There was stuff spilling from them. Everything smelled terrible. My nose felt sweet and sickly. Vinnie had a quick look. There was no kids here.
We came to the last freezer.
‘They must be here,’ I said. ‘We must find them.’
Vinnie opened the big door. We looked inside.
Kids
The blue light flickered. Vinnie gasped. The kids were here. They were tied up. They had little eyes full of tears. I counted ten. They were very dirty. I could smell poo and piss. Lots of flies landed on them. I got angry.
‘This is not right. No kid should be stolen like this. It is not their fault. They are refugees like us. They should be treated the same. We all came into this camp the same. No one should steal them. What if the families can’t find them? Where is the humanity? This. Is. Not. Right.’
Vinnie put his hand on my shoulder.
‘I agree, Jake, but the world is rotten now, totally rotten to its core. Keith and the others are just diseased people.’
Vinnie snorted.
‘They’re worse than the viros. At least the viros can’t help themselves. This lot are the real monsters.’
We started helping the kids. I put my finger to my lips. Ssssh! The kids nodded. They knew we were good.
It was slow to untie them. The kids were all frightened. They stood still. They said nothing. I counted six boys and four girls. I didn’t know their names. We had no time to chat. I looked at Vinnie.
‘What now?’
‘We get out of here. They come with us and we look after them. We can’t trust anyone else.’
Vinnie was right. We had to be the good ones. There was no one else. Those people were monsters. Not us. We were protectors.
The plan was easy. We had to get the kids out the front door. We would hide them in the tunnel. We would find the others. We would all escape the camp. Vinnie spoke to the kids.
‘We’re going to play a game,’ he said. ‘We’re going to run away from here and hide somewhere where no one can find us. We have some more friends outside. Once we find them, we are all going to leave the camp together.’
He looked at the kids.
‘Do you understand?’
Some kids nodded. Some didn’t. One little boy shook his head.
‘My daddy said he would find me. He said I was to wait here and he would get me. I can’t leave the camp. He is looking for me.’
‘We can’t wait here,’ I said. ‘We have to hide.’
Vinnie smiled at me.
‘He means the camp, Jake, not this freezer.’
I nodded.
‘We still have to get away. It is not safe. These people shoot dogs and steal kids.’
‘I don’t have a dog,’ said the little boy. He looked at Vinnie.
‘Have you seen my dad? He is a fireman.’
V
innie looked at me. He shook his head. I understood. Vinnie looked at the boy.
‘I haven’t seen your dad. When was the last time you saw him?’
The little boy thought for a minute.
‘We were playing a game together. Mummy wasn’t happy. She had a sad face. Daddy was in a ditch. Mummy gave him a bad kiss. Daddy screamed. He told me to run to this camp. He said to wait here.’
The little boy cried. I said nothing. There was only empty left in my head. All the sadness was just too big.
Kathy
Vinnie stopped. He looked behind him. He put his fingers to his lips. The kids copied him. I waited. Someone was outside. The door opened. It was Kathy. She wasn’t paying attention. She jumped when she saw us.
‘What the hell are you doing here? McKenzie won't like this, he won’t like this at all.’
Vinnie stepped behind her. He blocked the door. Kathy hissed.
‘Get out my way! I’m getting the others.’
Vinnie shook his head.
‘Oh no you’re not. These kids are leaving with us.’
Kathy laughed.
‘Oh, are they? And where are they leaving to?’
She pointed at the kids.
‘In case you hadn’t noticed, no one gives a shit about these kids. They’re just little lost nobodies who are taking up valuable resources and getting in the way. We’re doing the world a favour by giving them to McKenzie.’
I pointed at Kathy. She made me see very red.
‘These kids are not yours. You can’t steal them. You can’t lock them here. They have mums and dads somewhere. They are split up. Separated. You’re a monster.’
Kathy was nasty at me.
‘Oh, Am I? Am I really? Then what does that make you, you little halfwit.’
I stood up tall. I looked at her bad eyes. I stared very strong.
‘You cannot say that to me. You are not welcome to. Me and Vinnie are taking these kids with us. You are not saying stop.’
My voice was angry. My face was tight. Kathy looked at me. She saw I was serious. She stepped back.
Viro (Book 3): Viro Page 5