The troopers’ movements were methodical. It was like they had all the time in the world, like they knew they would get her, eventually. Well, they wouldn’t, not if she could help it.
Lily realised that she was making it easy for them by moving in a straight line. If they had surveillance they would probably track her wherever she went, but she was at least going to try to throw them off.
The troopers were so close now Lily could hear them grunting, a terrifying sound. A sob rose in her throat, but she gritted her teeth, forcing it down.
Suddenly, like unplugged bathwater, it began to rain. Then came great smashing chunks of hail. Lily had heard these flash hailstorms and seen them from her bathroom window, but she’d never been out in one.
Huge balls of ice bounced off the road. Lily held up her arms and used her bag to protect her face. The hail stung her upper body and made running harder. Bit’s of leaves and twigs showered down. She saw that the road ahead curved very slightly. She sprinted around the gentle corner and made a split-second decision to turn down a narrow side street that ran downhill at a right angle to the Wall. Lily hoped desperately that the troopers hadn’t spotted her. They’d probably work out pretty quickly what she’d done but, slim though it was, this looked like her best chance to evade them.
The day had gone from bright sun to gloom as more thick black clouds rolled in. Every so often forked lightning floodlit the street, but the rest of the time Lily could barely see her hands in front of her face. On top of that, the street was littered with hunks of ice, making it hard for Lily to keep her footing. Still, she welcomed the extra coverage the storm gave her and she knew she’d better make the most of it before it gathered up it’s cloud folds and left only blue-sky heat behind.
Lily decided to find a place to hide until the troopers gave up. Casting around, she chose a house with a white picket fence because it looked friendly. Unkempt bushes nodded over the top of the fence. She vaulted the gate, stumbled through the bushes and onto the verandah. The storm up there sounded even louder as the hail bounced off the verandah’s tin roof.
She was still visible from the street so she edged around the corner of the house. Her heart sank. The verandah, which ran down the side of the house, ended in a brick wall, from which another wing jutted out. She was at a dead end.
Lily spotted a partially opened window right at the end of the verandah at the same time as she heard the faint but unmistakable grunt of the Blacktroopers. She crouched down instinctively. If they came through the gate and around the corner, they would spot her instantly. Her only chance was to get inside the house.
Moving quickly, Lily stood and pushed aside a gauze curtain that hung in the window. She slid her legs over the edge of the sill, hitting the floor with a thump and ducking beneath the inside window ledge. She couldn’t hear any sound in the house over the noise of the storm. The wet gauze curtain clung to her face and she struggled to catch her breath. She was unfit. The gym in her parents’ house with it’s walking, rowing and cross-training machines and it’s bicycle that went nowhere was a total no-go zone for her. Her parents used it constantly and Lily would rather have had a heart attack than risk meeting them there. Looking at their smooth skin with the toned muscles sliding underneath made her want to vomit.
Gradually, the thumping in her ears subsided. She pulled herself up and carefully eased the window shut. The storm was ending as abruptly as it had begun. A watery sun was emerging and there was a silvery quality to the thinning rain. The hailstones were rapidly turning to slush.
With the window shut, there was no sound. Lily hoped the Blacktroopers had moved on down the street and she had bought herself some time. She looked around and saw that she was in a bedroom. There was a four-poster bed with high pillows and an old-fashioned dressing table with silver hairbrushes and perfume bottles arranged in front of the mirror. Brass hooks lined the back of the partially open door, but nothing was hanging there. Lily stepped gingerly onto the carpet in the centre of the room, avoiding the dusty wooden floors.
She crept to the doorway. She was sweating even more heavily in this oppressive atmosphere than she had been in full sun. Her aim was to make her way to the back of the house without disturbing anyone living here, find a way to climb the fence, maybe travel through some rear gardens, before slipping back into the street. She had to return to the Wall and search for a place to cross it. Lily knew it was unrealistic to think the Blacktroopers would just abandon their search for her, but she didn’t really have much choice other than to push on.
Lily peered down the passageway, relieved to find there was no one there. Treading lightly, she moved down the hall. She passed one dark doorway and then another, resisting the urge to sneeze as her footsteps raised dust.
The hallway opened into a large living space. Beyond the French doors at the end of the room was a garden surrounded by high walls. On the left side of the room was a messy cluster of chairs and sofas. As Lily moved towards them, she saw a flickering screen behind one of the high-backed wing chairs. No sound came from the screen; there was just the image of a girl. With a start, Lily realised the girl was her. She was being filmed. Only then did she see the tiny shape sitting in the chair. Lily’s first instinct was to run, but she made herself stand still.
The person was shockingly old. Lily had never seen anyone so elderly and it struck her that her computer screen, which had been Lily’s only window to the world, had contained no images of anyone above the age of about forty. Lily thought the old woman looked sick and close to death. Her skin was powdery and her bones protruded.
‘Don’t be afraid.’ The woman raised an almost translucent hand. ‘I won’t hurt you.’ Her voice was like dry leaves scraping on glass. Lily stared.
‘Are you hiding from them?’ the woman said.
‘Yes.’
The woman shifted slightly in her chair. ‘I can’t protect you here. I’m waiting for them myself, watching for them.’ She gestured at the screen.
Lily’s stomach lurched with fear. Then she saw that the woman was wearing a bracelet. It was different from Lily’s and Alice’s. Hers was thick, black and ugly. Who had put it on her? Panicked, Lily looked around, but there was no on else in the room.
‘At least come and sit with me until they arrive,’ the woman said.
‘I can’t. I need to go,’ Lily said.
But her shock at the woman’s age was fading and Lily was curious so she perched on the edge of a small chair, keeping an eye on the closed-circuit screen. It seemed to scan the hallway and the front door. At least they would have some warning if the Blacktroopers came in that way.
‘Bring your chair closer so I can look at you,’ the woman said. She narrowed her eyes to see Lily better and her old face melted into a smile.
‘You’re beautiful, just like
‘Like who?’ Lily said
The woman’s eyes were the palest blue, stunning despite the effects of old age. Still, the woman repelled her a little. This must be how we age, Lily thought, slowly shedding moisture.
‘I’m sorry I have to go before the Blacktroopers track me,’ Lily said.
‘You’re like my own daughter who I lost because of my greed,’ the woman interrupted. Lily sat back down abruptly. She had to hear this. The woman held out her hands and Lily forced herself to take them. They were dry and papery.
‘I gave her away,’ the old lady continued. ‘My son, too, and when it was too late, I came to my senses. I stopped taking their drugs and their serum and now I just wait. Either my children will come back to me …’ She looked down. ‘Or more likely, the Committee will put me outside the Wall or I’ll die.’
Lily was confused. Drugs? Serum?
This woman seemed ashamed. She winced and Lily let go of her hands, glancing at the TV screen.
‘They haven’t come yet,’ the woman said. ‘Maybe you’ll be lucky. Tell me your name.’
‘Lily. My brother Daniel’s gone and I’m here because I, my parents …
’ She couldn’t say it. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Meredith.’
‘Why did you let your children go?’ Lily said.
‘Because I couldn’t bear to think I’d be nothing one day. I wanted the serum they gave me that made me young, kept me young. I didn’t want my body to just shrivel up. I didn’t want to grow old and die. I would have done anything to stop the ageing.’ Meredith said, shaking her head.
‘What was the serum?’ Lily asked. ‘Is it connected to the pills that the Blacktroopers bring?’
‘Yes,’ Meredith mumbled. Lily had to lean forward to hear her. ‘If you want the serum, you have to take the pills.’
‘But what is the serum?’ Lily insisted. It was no use. Meredith went off on a tangent.
‘When my children left, did I tell you their names – Terrence and Rose?’
Lily realised there was no use trying to push the woman. She just had to let her talk. ‘Yes, go on,’ Lily said.
‘Terrence went first and then Rose. One straight after the other. No, I should say it properly – I gave them away. At first I was happy they were gone. Can you imagine? But then I fell ill. I couldn’t even get out of bed and I almost died. I lay there terribly sick and when they came with the drugs, I couldn’t swallow them; at first because I was too sick to do it and then because of the transformation. Eventually, my fever went away. I was weak, but that’s when I realised. Oh dear, that’s when I knew –’
Tears ran down her face. Lily touched Meredith’s hand to prompt her to keep talking, but Meredith just shook her head, her whole body trembling. Lily wanted to shake her by her frail shoulders. The woman was sobbing now, ancient hands pressed against her face.
‘Oh, I gave them away for nothing, for nothing. I gave them away without even knowing what I was doing. I want them back. I want to change what I’ve done, but I can’t.’ Meredith’s voice was rising.
‘You’re not making sense, Meredith, listen –’
‘It was the drugs, don’t you see? If only I’d known earlier, I wouldn’t have taken them. I’d have tricked those bastards, I would have found a way –’
‘Meredith. I don’t understand. Please try to explain it to me. I need to know. What about the drugs?’
‘They wanted us to give away our own children. They wanted us to forget how to love our own children. Can you believe such cruelty? That’s what those people have done to me. That’s why I no longer have my children.’ Tears rolled down her creased cheeks and dropped onto her lap.
Forcing herself to stay calm, Lily took Meredith gently by the face and made her turn her head. ‘Please try and explain what you mean about the drugs and the serum.’
‘I see they attached that to you, too.’ Meredith looked at Lily’s bracelet.
‘Did you try and get them back, your children?’ Lily asked.
‘They said I’d donated my children of my own free will. They said my children were the price I had to pay. I told them I didn’t want it any more, their poison. I just wanted my children back. I wanted to go and find them and bring them home. So they put this thing on me to keep me trapped.’
She raised her wrist. Lily could see the copper wires inside the black bracelet; even thicker than the ones in Lily’s bracelet.
‘And then they stopped talking to me. They wouldn’t even tell me if my children were still alive. They said if I wouldn’t take their drugs and I didn’t want their precious stuff, I was on my own and they would leave me to die,’ Meredith said.
Lily tried to make sense of what she was saying. She patted the old woman’s hand soothingly. Meredith leaned towards Lily and whispered, ‘Do you know how they get the serum? They get it from children like you.’ Then Meredith started laughing. It was grotesque. Lily thought she mustn’t be quite sane.
‘Let me show you something,’ Meredith said. ‘Over there, on the little table …’
There was a photo in a silver frame and Lily got up and brought it back to Meredith. Lily checked the TV screen. Still clear. In the photo, a youngish woman was sitting on a cream sofa. A teenage boy and girl sat beside her.
‘Are these your children?’
Meredith nodded wearily.
‘Who’s this woman here?’
‘That’s me, taken two months ago.’
Lily looked from the photo to the shrunken person in front of her. ‘It can’t be.’
‘It is. I’ll be forty next year, but I look eighty. It happened quickly once I stopped taking their serum. I’m dying. There’s nothing I can do about it and nothing I want to do about it. If I can’t have my children I want to die.’
Lily’s brain struggled to catch up. ‘Are you saying the Blacktrooper drugs made you give away your children?’
‘I gave them away. I did it, no one else.’
Lily checked the screen again. It was clear, but she thought she saw a shadow slide past the front door. It was hard to see down the gloomy hallway. Lily remembered how quietly the Blacktroopers moved when they wanted to.
Meredith had seen it, too. ‘Go,’ she said quietly. ‘Don’t be caught here. Save yourself.’
Lily desperately wanted to run, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave this frail woman.
‘Go out the French doors, they’re not locked,’ Meredith said. ‘See if you can scale the wall into the garden next door. Then make your way to the wall on the far side – there’s a gate there that the neighbour’s don’t lock. They never used to, anyway.’
‘No, I’m not leaving you here. What’ll they do to you?’ Lily darted across to the kitchen and grabbed a knife from a block on the counter. ‘I’m staying,’ she said.
‘No!’ Meredith’s voice rose thinly. ‘You have to go. I’m not going to be responsible for another child. Leave now.’
Lily shook her head, tightening her grasp on the knife handle. The front door knob turned with the faintest crunch of metal.
Meredith pushed herself upright, staggering slightly, and took four rapid steps across the room. Before Lily could stop her, Meredith opened the French doors and stepped outside. She fell to the ground instantly as the bracelet siren began it’s unearthly screeching. Lily dropped the knife and sprang after her, throwing herself down beside the woman, but it was too late. This bracelet was different from Lily’s. It had already tightened like a vice, instantly severing Meredith’s hand. Her dark blood ran thickly from her wrist and soaked into the ground. Meredith’s eyes went wide, her body stiffened and convulsed once, twice and then she went quite still, her eyes already glazing over. The bracelet, having completed it’s gruesome task, fell silent.
Lily was horrified.
‘Meredith!’ She felt for a pulse, but there was nothing. Lily recoiled, scrambling backwards.
She heard the troopers enter the house.
SEVEN
Lily took off across the garden, which was a green and sodden tangle. She felt removed, as if this was all happening to someone else. She looked back at Meredith’s tiny husk of a body. If only she’d left when Meredith had told her to; if only she’d listened.
She stumbled between some brimming pots and tunnelled through a creeper that was growing against the neighbour’s wall. The rainwater on the leaves drenched her. At least here she was hidden from the house. Using the protruding rivets that attached the creeper’s support to the wall, she climbed frantically, sobbing, her arms and thighs burning.
One of the rivets ripped out of the wall and Lily gasped, swinging out, wrenching her wrist and yelping. Idiot, she berated herself. She needed to be more careful. Any minute she expected a rough hand to grab her ankle and haul her down. Finally she saw the top of the garden wall. She threw one leg over, grazing the skin on her stomach and inner thigh before toppling down the other side.
Only then did Lily remember she’d left her bag beside Meredith’s chair. The remote control for her bracelet was in it. Now there was no way to prevent the bracelet from tightening if someone set it off. Thanks to her own stupidity, she’d brought ab
out the death of a desperate woman and would probably end up losing her own hand as well.
She stopped and listened. Angry shouts were coming from Meredith’s house. Lily pictured the Blacktroopers crouching over the old woman, who had sacrificed her life so Lily could get away. She had to at least honour Meredith’s sacrifice.
This neighbouring backyard was obsessively clipped and trimmed like the yard at Lily’s parents’. Unfortunately, this controlled garden didn’t offer Lily anywhere to hide. She darted across the lawn towards the back of the house. She was briefly exposed to the wide glass doors that faced onto the garden and reflected the light, making it impossible to see if anyone was watching.
Meredith had been right; there was a gate in the wall on the far side of the neighbour’s garden and it was unlocked. But maybe leaving by this exit was too obvious. Lily hesitated, weighing her options. Her legs were still shaky from climbing the wall. As well as the remote control, her water and cap were in the bag she’d left behind. She prayed the Blacktroopers wouldn’t search the bag.
There was a furious roar of voices from beyond the neighbour’s wall. Lily had to move faster. Frantically, she examined the back fence. It was too high – there was no way over there. The side fence was of a more manageable height, but it was too smooth; without footholds. Her original plan of climbing through the back gardens and hiding in one of them until the danger passed wasn’t going to work.
She went through the gate, trying to look everywhere at once, eyeing every movement of tree branches and bushes. The air shimmered in the post-downpour heatwave. She heard the sound of shattering glass from Meredith’s house.
Lily prepared herself and burst into the street at a run, ducking behind the thick trunk of the tree outside Meredith’s house. There was a line of similar trees running up the street, healthy and green from the water moon.
She peered around the tree and was shocked to see Blacktroopers everywhere. Where had so many of them come from so quickly? They were moving from house to house while their high metal vehicle idled further down the road. Lily took off in the opposite direction. Dodging in and out, trying to keep the line of trees between her and the Blacktroopers, she could see glimpses of the Wall up ahead. If she could only just reach it, there must be a way over. She was running so fast she couldn’t stop herself in time when a group of black-clad figures sprang out in front of her and she cannoned right into them. The lead figure spread out his arms and trapped her.
Days Like This Page 7