Darkshines Seven

by Russell Mardell

  Albie reached out and squeezed his arm. Her gaze then fell on Callie. ‘Callie?’

  She didn’t return the look, she didn’t shrug or smile or show any emotion. When she spoke, her lips didn’t seem to move. ‘We wait,’ Callie said and then wrapped an arm around her brother’s waist.

  They didn’t have to wait long.

  8

  It was Hector that saw the jeep first, parked further back along the coastal road. The man approaching it was little more than a shape at this distance, but the machine gun he held before him was still unmistakable. Stopping in the road the three of them watched in silent horror as the man walked a circle around the vehicle, and then came to a stop at the driver’s seat. A moment later a figure was rising from behind the wheel and then stepping out onto the road at the end of the gun. Like the man behind him, this figure too was little more than a shaded-in shape, but they all knew instantly who they were looking at. Half the size of the man with the gun, and walking with a confident, purposeful stride, Sam was making his way towards them.

  A hundred words all seemed to jam in Albie’s throat at once, just as the life in her legs deserted her and sent her down to her knees. She hugged herself tight, tears breaking in eyes that couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

  ‘Well now, no need to bow to me, darling,’ the voice came from behind her, just as the well placed kick sent her sprawling forward onto her face. Jack Raizbeck stood over her, a boot pressing down into her back. ‘How’s everyone doing?’

  Callie suddenly turned Hector sharply, making to break for the campervan, but found herself stumbling into the motionless bulk of Fallon instead. ‘Don’t get any ideas there, sweetheart.’ Fallon brought the machine gun up hard and fast between Hector’s legs, dropping him to the ground next to Albie.

  ‘Leave him alone! Don’t you lay a finger on him!’ Callie swung a fist at Fallon who parried it away as if he were swatting a fly and then slapped her backhanded across her face.

  ‘Eat the dirt sweetheart, before I decide to spread your brains all over this road.’

  A moment later and Callie had joined her brother and Albie on the ground as the three armed men closed in around them.

  ‘You seriously telling me he’s alone?’ Raizbeck was shouting across to Everett, his free hand waving back to the jeep. ‘She’s here, I know she is. Find her!’

  ‘No one else in the jeep, boss.’

  ‘Then sweep the area. Find her! Now!’

  Everett shrugged to himself and peeled away from Sam, crossing back towards the jeep. Raizbeck lifted his own machine gun and aimed it off down the road, towards the approaching boy. ‘How’s it going, kid?’

  ‘Don’t you hurt him! Leave him be!’ Albie had found her voice and her fight, and was wriggling under Raizbeck’s boot, trying to pull herself free. ‘He’s nothing to you. Leave my boy alone!’

  ‘Can it, darling.’ Raizbeck lifted his boot and then brought it down hard again between Albie’s shoulder blades.

  Sam was little more than twenty yards from them now. Seeing the situation quickly, he fell into the role he knew he had to play.

  ‘Your mother is it? Seems mother dear has got a trap on her, kid. Seems she hasn’t quite got a handle on the shit you’re in. How’s about I put a bullet in her, how’d you feel about that? You think she’d get it if I did that? You think perhaps she’d understand then?’

  ‘She’s not my mother. We aren’t even related. She’s nothing to me.’ Sam spoke matter-of-factly, his eyes never leaving Raizbeck for a second. ‘She’s just a sad old woman who tagged along because she had nothing better to do.’

  ‘Sam!’

  Raizbeck’s eyes became narrow slits as he screwed his face up, contemplating, working the boy out. ‘So you don’t mind if I kill them then?’

  ‘I’m guessing it doesn’t matter a damn what I want. You’re going to do whatever you want to do anyway. You want to waste your time with a bunch of strangers then you do what you gotta do.’

  Raizbeck turned his attention back to the walkie-talkie. ‘Porter? Get back up here.’

  ‘What you want me to do with these two walking down to the cove?’ came the tinny reply. ‘They’re out of my sightline in a minute.’

  ‘Let them be. They can die down there as good as up here. I need you sweeping the area.’ Raizbeck took his foot from Albie’s back and paced slowly behind the bodies on the ground. ‘I know you’re here, Mia!’ he bellowed up into the sky. ‘We will find you! How much are your friends’ lives worth, Mia? How much will you let people suffer by your actions? Show yourself now and no one need die here. You hear me, Mia?’ Raizbeck turned around on the spot, eyes out towards the cliff edge and then back to the car park. ‘Where is she, Sam? Where is Mia Hennessey?’

  ‘She’s dead,’ Sam replied, without any emotion. ‘She died at Darkshines.’

  ‘Yeah, you see, I keep hearing that and still I don’t believe it.’

  ‘Not much I can do about that, is there?’

  ‘Maybe. Maybe not.’ Raizbeck walked a full circle around Albie, Hector and Callie, and then drew up in front of Sam. To their left, the small figure of Porter wandered towards them from the steps to the cove. ‘I know. I saw,’ Raizbeck spoke slowly down towards Sam’s upturned face. ‘I saw what you did to my friend. Quite the little savage, aren’t you? Tell me, how did it feel? How did it feel when you killed Jacob Silence?’

  ‘Felt good.’

  Raizbeck bent down and looked Sam square in the eyes. ‘You’re going to die for what you did to my friend. I just wanted you to know that. It’s really just a question of how long I make it last. How long you make me drag it out. I know she’s alive, Sam and I know that she’s here. How do you want to play it, kid?’

  Sam shrugged, and spoke directly into Raizbeck’s face. ‘Get it over with now, shall we?’

  Sam was on him in a flash, his face lunging forward, mouth opening wide, teeth sinking down into Raizbeck’s left cheek. Blood seemed to explode in his mouth, as skin tore away and hung off his tongue. As Raizbeck recoiled and let a pathetic high pitch scream out into the morning sky, Sam grabbed the machine gun, pushed it up over Raizbeck’s shoulder, and fired across the road. The bullets peppered the ground, and cut a zigzag path towards Porter who was caught clean across the legs, cutting him down to the floor. Porter’s own gun discharged up into the air as he fell backwards at the edge of the cliff.

  Fallon was advancing on him now, the machine gun up against his shoulder, looking for a clear shot. He had only got a few feet before a hand grabbed him around the ankle, yanked back and then upended him. Fallon fell flat on his face in front of Albie with a hefty thud. A second later a black loafer landed on Fallon’s right arm, hard, and then Hector pulled the machine gun free and turned the barrel down to his face.

  ‘Eat the dirt, sweetheart,’ Hector commanded him, through a wide-angle grin.

  Jack Raizbeck’s screams came again, as Sam slowly worked fingers through the wound on his cheek. With his other hand he moved the machine gun back and forth, sweeping it across as much of the car park as he could see.

  Now Mia, now!

  9

  Not knowing what they would face at Storm Tail, there hadn’t been any sort of plan.

  Both knew that someone was going to be there. Something. It was really only a question of how they were going to proceed. In that, Sam had made the decision for them. ‘They want you. Anyone there is liable to shoot you on sight. Me, they might just torture for a bit in the hope I might give you up. You take the gun. See the lay of the land. See what we are up against and then…’

  Then what?

  ‘Back at City 17 The Party had machine guns. We’ve got a pistol with five bullets. There could be a whole truckload there. Dozens even. And we can’t even know for sure that Albie and the others got there.’

  Sam shrugged. ‘You want to go back to Bleeker Hill, perhaps you should do that now. Let me go by myself. If it’s you they really want, then perhaps they mig
ht just leave us alone.’

  ‘You really believe that?’

  ‘Not really. No.’

  ‘I’m not leaving you to go there alone. Not after…’

  ‘I’m not your responsibility. None of us are.’ Sam turned back and stared at Blarney. The Irish terrier was sat bolt upright staring off at the passing coast, a great pink tongue flopping out of his mouth. ‘Except perhaps you, fella, right?’

  ‘I think he sees it the other way round.’

  At the top of the rise, just before the road levelled out, Sam cut the headlights and brought the jeep to a stop. Up ahead the empty road skirted the cliff edge, bending around out of sight. They sat in silence for a moment, staring at the rain lashing the windscreen, Blarney’s breath filling the space between them like the worst sort of car air freshener.

  ‘What happened there, Mia? What happened at Bleeker Hill?’ Sam sounded almost apologetic, broaching a subject he knew she didn’t want to delve into, catching memories she had tried hard to discard. ‘Is that why you won’t kill? Did something happen there? Something to do with Sullivan?’ Sam thought he saw her eyes watering but before he could tell for sure, Blarney was slobbering his tongue over his master’s cheeks and then nibbling her ears. ‘I’m sorry, Mia, I shouldn’t…’

  ‘It’s okay.’ Mia moved Blarney’s head away from her and then wrapped an arm around his back. ‘But your question…’ she laughed flatly, leaning her head against Blarney’s side. ‘If someone had told me, back before all this started, that a twelve year old would be asking me why I won’t kill, I would have been horrified. Or maybe I would have laughed. I don’t know. Either way, can you hear what’s wrong in that question of yours?’

  ‘I’m twelve and a half!’

  ‘And you don’t know anything else.’

  ‘Yeah, I’m a product of my time, so I’ve been told.’

  ‘You’ve saved my life Sam. You’ve probably saved all of us over the course of the last day, and now here you are driving towards who knows what because of me. And you’re prepared to do that. For me. For all of us. Heaven knows I’m not criticizing you. But I do still remember what things were like before. Maybe it’s just taken me a little longer to adjust to where this country has fallen.’

  ‘You’re still holding on to the idea that things will go back to how they were?’

  ‘No. Not any more. Not now. I guess…I suppose I’m too aware that there is no way back over that line.’ A hand instinctively went to Sam and stroked his hair. Sam flushed a deep red. ‘But I’m also aware that the only thing left worth fighting for is the protection of those that you love.’ Mia let her hand fall down to her side as the other one opened the passenger door. ‘And that was always something worth killing for.’

  Stepping out into the rain, Blarney bouncing around at her feet, Mia rested a palm against the pistol butt and then found her fingers playing lightly along the soggy toy rabbit next to it. Gently she closed the door and then turned from the vehicle and wandered off across the patch of grass that stretched far and wide on the other side of the road.

  It had all felt quite simple back then, just that short time ago. Even with their lack of knowledge about what waited for them at Storm Tail it felt simple, achievable. But now things were different. Now, as Mia lay on the rain sodden ground of the car park, staring under cars, trying to catch a better view of what was playing out further ahead, the full hopelessness of their situation came into focus for her and that little pistol in her hand felt pathetic, barely more than a cap gun.

  She heard raised voices coming from the road. She heard Raizbeck yelling her name into the air. She saw Everett’s shape wandering back down the road they had come in on, and then finally there was the gunfire, that ferocious roar from those machine guns that they carried with them.

  But then, as quickly as things seemed hopeless, the situation turned on its head, because now Raizbeck was screaming, and then someone else was too. From her position she saw only shapes but her heart suddenly jumped into her throat. She couldn’t be sure, she needed to know, she had to be convinced that her friends had actually found the upper hand before she stepped out with that stupid little gun.

  Blarney was straining against her hold, wanting to get free, needing to charge and defend and attack, to do the right thing for his master, and she could no longer hold him still. She had to trust to hope, and let fate lay its hand wherever it chose. Gripping that tiny gun, she released her hold on Blarney and let him go. But instead of charging ahead towards the others, her faithful dog cut a path sideways and ran off further into the car park. Mia followed at a crouch, ducking down behind vehicles, stumbling and jumping over discarded tyres and bits of metal, running further into the junkyard maze. She heard growling, then a high-pitched yelping, and suddenly she was turning around the back of a transit van and drawing her pistol on Tommy Bergan.

  ‘Get this dog off me!’ Blarney was attached to Tommy’s ankle, biting deep and shaking his head, his rump raised to the sky as he pushed his taut flank down, claws digging into the ground to get a better purchase. ‘Get this damn dog off me or I will shoot it!’ Blarney tugged so hard at his ankle that Tommy lost his footing and landed on his back with a squelching splat, the gun Raizbeck had given him, waving unconvincingly around at Blarney’s head.

  Mia was down on her haunches and moving in front of Blarney, pushing herself in front of the gun as she did so. ‘Don’t threaten my dog,’ she said bluntly, wrapping her arms around the ginger fur, and slowly wrestling him clear.

  ‘Don’t threaten your…what about me?’ Blarney released his jaws and Tommy yelped again, his hands instantly going to the wound, investigating the damage.

  ‘What about you? Get over yourself.’ Mia lifted Blarney up and shoved him in past the one open door at the rear of the transit van and then perched herself on the edge. ‘I need your help, Tommy.’

  ‘Oh, simple as that is it? You any idea what you’ve just walked into here?’

  ‘Nice to see you too. Hoping you wouldn’t see me again after you deserted us?’

  Tommy waved the comment away as he got to his feet.

  ‘I said I need your help. We all do. Help us, Tommy.’

  ‘Yeah, well I need your help too.’

  ‘Sure, that’s what friends do, right?’ Mia stood and extended her hand. ‘They help each other.’

  ‘So they say.’ Tommy stepped forward and offered his own hand.

  ‘What do you say, friend?’

  Mia didn’t hear the little laugh that followed, neither did she feel anything in the strength of the handshake. Only when Tommy shouldered the door of the van closed, shutting Blarney inside did Mia realise what was happening, and by then it was too late. Suddenly her arm was being pulled up behind her back and her pistol was prised free. Shoved around roughly to face the road, the cold metal of Tommy’s gun found the soft flesh at her neck. ‘Get moving, Mia.’

  As Tommy frog marched her through the car park, back towards the road, the small transit van began to rock from side to side behind them, as a furious dog launched himself repeatedly at the door.

  10

  Tommy pushed Mia out onto the road, striding amongst the others with all the tenuous confidence of a young man with a gun. Standing in the space between his three floored comrades, he first turned to Sam and then to Hector, and barked the same instruction to both: ‘Let them go, now, or she dies. Do it!’

  For a brief moment no one moved, the assembled bodies all seemingly holding their breath at once, waiting for someone else to make a choice for them. In the end there was no choice for Sam, and then once Sam had pushed Raizbeck off him and dumped the machine gun, no choice for Hector either. Tommy’s gaze lingered on Sam, scrutinizing, looking past that boyish innocence for that grotesque evil he had seen painted there just a few hours before. ‘Don’t trust that kid. Don’t let that kid anywhere near you.’

  ‘You two faced son of a bitch, Bergan.’ Hector moved away from Fallon and gave no fight when he
snatched his gun back, and swiped the weapon hard across one of Hector’s kneecaps.

  ‘Enough!’ Raizbeck was dabbing lightly at the blood oozing down his face. ‘There will be time enough for that later, Fallon.’

  ‘Let me just shoot this one, Jack. Let me put a bullet in that stupid damn face of his. Let me just do that, Jack.’

  ‘I said that’s enough!’ Raizbeck left Sam lying on the ground like an upturned turtle, arms up in front of him, both a defensive gesture and also a promise that the fight was still with him. ‘He’s all yours when we are done here. You can have all of them. Except him…’ he gestured a trailing arm to Sam and then brought it forward, jabbing a finger into Mia’s face. ‘And her. Nice to see you again, Mia. You’re a tough one to pin down.’

  ‘Shouldn’t have bothered then,’ Mia replied, her eyes cast down to the ground.

  ‘Well that remains to be seen.’

  ‘What do you want me to do with her, Mr Raizbeck?’ Tommy asked. ‘I told you I’d get her to you. I told you I wouldn’t let you down.’

  ‘You worthless bastard,’ Albie seethed under her breath.

  ‘Coward,’ Callie spat.

  ‘What do you want me to do with her now?’

  ‘I want you to shoot her, Tommy.’

  ‘What? I…you mean now, Mr Raizbeck? Surely…but…what?’

  ‘Go on. Show me you still have the balls for the job even if you haven’t the heart for The Party.’ Back down the road, Everett was lumbering towards them in a tired jog. Raizbeck gave a sharp whistle. ‘Enjoying the view? Get back here!’

  ‘Sorry boss…’ Everett gasped between heavy panting.

  ‘What do you mean I haven’t the heart for The Party?’ Tommy spluttered. ‘You know I do, Mr Raizbeck. My father did and so do I. I did what you asked. I got her to you.’