Lily felt her knees giving way. Kieran arrived from nowhere, putting his arms around her waist to support her.
‘Take some deep breaths,’ he said. ‘it’s all right.’
‘It isn’t all right,’ Lily said. ‘Someone’s been killed. Was it that woman Chrissie who did it? The spy?’
‘Yes,’ Kieran said. He looked at her as if making up his mind. ‘We’re going after her right now You look fit enough. Are you coming?’
‘Definitely. And after we’ve found her, we’ll go for Daniel and Alice, right?’ Lily said quickly.
‘Yes. When we’ve found her we’ll look for your brother and sister, I promise. But Chrissie has to be our first priority. If we don’t get her, this whole community will be stuffed because she’ll lead them back to us. She can’t be allowed to get back over the Wall.’
Lily looked at Sandro, now surrounded by people trying to give him comfort.
‘Let’s go,’ she said.
‘OK, get what you need – waterOK, get what you need – water’s important, s important, something to cover your head, sunglasses if you can find them. Some food. Ask Rosemary to give you a hand. We’ll be at the entrance in about twenty minutes.’ As quickly as he’d arrived, he slipped away.
SIXTEEN
‘You should go,’ Rosemary said, surprising Lily, who’d thought she might have an argument on her hands. ‘Bring that woman back or …’
‘Or what?’ Lily said.
‘Don’t worry. Just follow Kieran’s lead, you can rely on him completely. He’s trustworthy.’
Unlike Luca, Lily thought.
Rosemary had given Lily a small backpack as well as some nuts, dried fruit and a water bottle. Lily was jamming it all into the pack, attaching the water bottle to the outside, when Rosemary stood and put her hands on Lily’s shoulders.
‘I’m sorry about our disagreement yesterday,’ Rosemary said. ‘I was wrong. I should have been honest with you. We’ll talk more when you return. Deal?’
‘Deal,’ Lily said. ‘And I’m sorry, too, for what I said.’
Lily was relieved that they had moved towards clearing the air. ‘Who else will be going today?’ she asked Rosemary.
Rosemary shrugged. ‘There’s a core group. Kieran, obviously, he’s a natural leader.’ She hesitated. ‘Probably Luca, but with his head full of fury, he’s not the ideal candidate. Ingie, Merrick, maybe Sal and Taddy. Now, let me bandage those feet.’
Lily shook her head. ‘It’ll make the shoes too tight. I’ll be okay,’ she said.
‘Well, go on then, or you’ll miss them. Don’t get caught. Please,’ Rosemary said.
It was already hot, even in the small entrance to the main cave. Lily jammed a cap on her head and the sunglasses Rosemary had thrust at her. They slid down her nose so she had to keep pushing them back up with her finger. Kieran was there already, with Ingie and another tall, strong-looking boy. They nodded at Lily and Kieran introduced her to the boy, whose name was Shah.
‘Oh, hell, we can’t escape you, can we?’ It was Sal. Luca was with her.
‘For heaven’s sake, Sal, will you shut up?’ Kieran said.
Even with all her bravado, Sal recoiled slightly.
‘Well, I’m still not convinced that she and Chrissie aren’t in this together,’ Sal said defensively.
Before Kieran could speak, Lily stepped up to the taller girl and grabbed one of her arms, digging in her fingers. ‘Give it a rest, all right. Enough is enough,’ Lily said.
She half expected Sal to laugh. Instead she just snorted and snatched away her arm as if Lily had burned her. Kieran smiled and winked at Lily. Luca shook his head in disgust, though it was unclear what exactly disgusted him.
Greta arrived and Kieran gave her a big hug. ‘Thanks for coming,’ he said.
‘Yes, thanks, Greta,’ Lily added softly.
‘Is there anyone else? Where are Merrick, Petra and Taddy?’ Ingie said.
‘They’ve already gone out with the two regular parties,’ Kieran said. ‘One lot stuffing up the electricity and the other lot doing food. Ric’s with them as well. So it’s just us.’
A shiver went through Lily’s body. This was it.
‘Here’s the plan,’ Kieran said. ‘We track down Chrissie and deal with her. Then we head for the Wall. We’re going to Lily’s house to see if her sister Alice is there. If she is, we take her with us. If she isn’t, we’ll reassess. Then we go to the drainage facility where Lily was. We find the boy named Daniel and see if it’s Lily’s brother. Agreed?’
Everyone nodded.
‘Have you got your weapons?’ he asked.
They all nodded again, except Lily.
‘I need something,’ she said.
‘Here.’ Kieran handed her a short metal pipe. ‘Keep this handy. You’ll probably need it at the facility,’ he said.
She slipped it into her pack.
‘Okay then, what are we waiting for? Let’s move,’ Luca said.
Kieran went out through the screening vegetation and into the gully. Ingie, Greta and Shah were close behind, moving quickly. Lily followed, almost tripping over herself, reluctant to be left behind or, worse, to be stranded with Luca and Sal.
They made their way up the gully. When they reached level ground, Kieran held up his hand. They crouched, listening, but there were no unusual sounds so they moved out of the gully and into the sun, which struck them like a ball of flame. Kieran ran like a deer, all sinew and muscle, slightly bent over, staring at the ground.
‘Is he tracking?’ Lily called to Ingie, trying to curb her puffing.
‘Yes, he’s brilliant at it. It’s easier to keep up if you don’t talk,’ Ingie said.
‘Yes, keep quiet,’ Shah added bluntly.
It wasn’t long before Lily’s lungs were burning. She was still angry with Sal. If she kept insisting Lily was a traitor, people would start believing it. Lily knew she would have to keep confronting Sal, and never ever wimp out. She had to prove herself and earn the group’s trust.
Peppery dust billowed up. Lily thought that maybe she should have worn jeans instead of shorts, but at least there was air on her skin.
Lily was glad of the hat and sunglasses. They were ill-fitting, but better than nothing. Even through the smoky lenses of the glasses, the weight of the sun hung heavy in the sky.
Lily scanned the ground as they ran. There was no sign of any other living thing, not in this heat. There wasn’t even an ant or a beetle, and the sky was free of clouds and birds. This was a dead land.
Still, Lily thought, it’s far more alive than the claustrophobic, sterile environment inside the Wall.
Every step closer to the Wall squeezed her heart. The last thing she wanted was to be back inside that world, but she couldn’t just leave Daniel and Alice. She imagined that each step took her closer to their freedom. She wouldn’t think about failure, or about the possibility that her brother and sister might be dead.
Ahead was a small clump of red rocks surrounded by sickly bush and a broken strip of fence. Lily saw that Kieran had stopped and was casting around on the ground. Now that the thud of their feet had quieted, there was only hot silence punctuated by the crackles and pops of baking earth.
They’d been running alongside what once must have been a large road, possibly a freeway, but the land had crept in and bunched up the tar, invading it with dusty rivers of earth and weeds. It would be fatal to the ankles to try to run on that broken surface, better to make their way through stunted bushes and rocky ground.
‘I lost her tracks for a bit, but here they are again,’ Kieran said from the other side of the outcrop, dragging in breaths as he spoke. ‘She’s not trying to be evasive; she’s just following the road. Look.’
He pointed down. Ingie bent over, so did the others, but all Lily could see was scorched earth and dust.
‘What do you see?’ Lily said.
‘Blood,’ Kieran said shortly. ‘She’s injured.’
He took off again
, faster than before. Lily, struggling to disentangle her water bottle, was the last to move. The others ran in a determined clump, drawing away from her. She should have let Rosemary bandage her feet. They were already bleeding.
Lily laboured along, trying hard to catch up. Her bag and water bottle bumped against her back and her sunglasses fell off. She couldn’t waste time picking them up so she jammed her cap further down over her eyes and pressed on. Sweat ran into her eyes and streamed down her neck and back.
How far was the Wall? There was nothing on the horizon, just the slight curve of the land with the odd bruised-looking tree and shattered building. Every so often there was another ragged clump of rusted farm equipment. All trace of the clouds that had brought the recent rain had vanished and the iridescent blue arched from one side of the sky to the other.
‘Up ahead!’ someone cried out. Lily picked up her pace. The group had come to a sudden halt, surrounding something that thrashed on the ground.
Adrenalin gave Lily extra speed, blunting the pain, and she came up on them in a rush. On the ground was the woman, Chrissie, pinned there by Luca, who had his knee pressed into her sternum. Chrissie screwed up her face and yelled in pain.
‘Shut up,’ Luca said. ‘You killed Nerita and now we’re going to kill you.’
She was surprisingly strong, managing to buck and lash out, despite Luca’s size.
Lily looked around at the others. They stood staring, dragging in big hoarse breaths. ‘Kill her?’ Lily said.
‘Well, duh,’ Sal said. ‘What else would you suggest? She’ll only go back and give us up otherwise.’
‘I won’t, I won’t, I promise. Just let me go and I’ll say nothing at all,’ Chrissie pleaded. A cut on her heel bled profusely into the filth that caked her bare feet.
She freed one hand and lashed out at Luca, catching his face with her nails. He grunted, shifting slightly. Seizing her chance, Chrissie dislodged him, squirming out from under his knee and reaching into her pocket.
Kieran threw himself down beside the girl, catching her wrist as her hand came out of her pocket. She held a small metal knife. The blade flashed, but Kieran held on and twisted so she couldn’t move.
‘She must have used this on Nerita. Who searched her, for God’s sake? Kieran said.
With a supple movement, he disarmed her, retracted the blade and shoved the knife into his own pocket. Then he let her go and pushed himself upright.
‘Well, get on with it,’ Sal said, holding out her knife to Luca.
‘No, we won’t be doing that again,’ Kieran said. He glared at Luca and Sal.
‘Again?’ Lily said.
Kieran ignored her. ‘Shah, take her back to the community,’ he said. ‘It’s not our place to kill her. Without the serum, she’ll die anyway.’
‘No,’ the woman screamed. ‘I need to go back. I need the serum. If I can’t have it, I’ll get old and ugly and then I’ll die!’
She went still and silent, her eyes wide and scared, flicking between them.
‘Yes, we know what you need,’ Kieran said. ‘But you came out after us and now you’re never going back.’
Tears pooled in the woman’s eyes and ran down the sides of her face.
‘She killed Nerita,’ Sal said. ‘Why take her back to the cave? She deserves to die.’
‘Yeah, Kieran, are you sure about this?’ Shah was frowning, staring at the woman.
‘We can’t kill her,’ Greta said. She spoke firmly and with more passion than Lily had heard from her before, even when she was telling her terrible story. ’Just because she killed doesn’t mean she deserves to be killed. We can’t help her, but we can’t kill her. The only choice is to take her back, keep her secure and let nature take it’s course. That’s the best we can do,’ Greta said.
Luca shrugged and turned away. ‘Do what you want,’ he mumbled. ‘Just watch her closely. She can’t be trusted. She’ll try and get away.’
‘Let her try,’ Shah said grimly. ‘On your feet and you’ll be staying in front of me.’ He hauled Chrissie upright and gave her a shove in the back and another one for good measure so that she stumbled awkwardly. ‘Get going then before we all burn to death out here,’ he said.
Whimpering, the woman limped off.
‘Spies,’ Sal spat out, narrowing her eyes at Lily.
‘Why did you even come with us today, Sal?’ Kieran said sharply, ‘If Lily’s such a problem for you?’
‘She doesn’t want to leave Lily with Luca,’ Ingie muttered.
‘You’re spot on, Ingie,’ Kieran said.
Sal reddened, tossing her head and turning away.
‘Okay.’ Kieran touched Lily’s arm gently. ‘It’s done. We need to get going now, if you want us to try and find your family and get back before sunset.’
Lily looked towards Shah and his captive, retreating across the harsh landscape, the woman defeated, head down and Shah watching her closely from behind.
‘You’re right, we should go,’ Lily said. She glared at Sal and Luca.
Kieran took off again and the others followed.
The front door of Lily’s parents’ house was slightly ajar and there was an ominous silence from inside.
They’d crossed the Wall without incident, though the sun was still high in the sky, leaving them exposed in no-man’s land. As they had crossed the rubble, Lily had thought of all the poor people who’d been beaten and killed by Blacktroopers as they tried to re-enter the city when the Wall first went up. She wondered where Kieran’s house had been.
Once over the Wall, Lily had kept expecting to hear the rumble of armoured cars and the march of the Blacktroopers, but they were lucky, making it to the front courtyard of Lily’s old house without running into any trouble. The house, the neat streets, the lush green of the trees and plants were so different from the wasteland on the other side of the Wall. This had been Lily’s world. The air was thick with loss, as if each molecule trapped a memory of the failure of love and hope.
‘Come on,’ Sal said now. ‘We can’t waste time standing around.’
‘Agreed,’ Ingie added. ‘Not if we want to have any hope of getting your brother as well.’
Kieran moved closer to Lily. She pushed at the door. There was no chirp of Sherbet, no ticking of the clock, no creak of floorboards or murmur of computer screens. The house was empty of everything. Dust had settled on the old wood floors, the walls were bare and darkness filled every corner. They moved from room to silent room. The house was as abandoned as the ruins outside the Wall.
Lily had no idea where her parents had gone or, more importantly, where they had taken Alice. Kieran and the others searched through every room, both in the main part of the house and in her parents’ wing. Back in the kitchen, they stood uncertainly.
A tiny scrape of noise came from the front of the house. Lily knew the others had heard it too because they all adjusted their bodies to face this new possibility of danger. The sound came again. Greta put her finger to her lips and then took a step towards the doorway, but Lily grabbed her arm, shaking her head.
‘I’ll go first,’ Lily whispered. She pointed to the floorboards. Kieran and Greta nodded, understanding.
Lily walked carefully, avoiding the boards she knew would squeak. She didn’t look back, but could sense the others following, moving as carefully as she was. They crept down the long passageway towards the front door, which was slightly open, just as they’d left it.
‘Hello?’ The voice sounded unused, cracking a little at the edges. ‘Is that you, Megan?’
A woman was silhouetted against the glass-paned front door. She held a doll which had bright pink cheeks and old-fashioned, sagging pantaloons. Lily thought there was something familiar about the doll. Then she remembered it had sat in an armchair in the hallway of the house next door, long ago in the days when they had been allowed out to visit the neighbour’s.
‘Mrs Tantallon?’ Lily said, tentatively.
‘Megan, it’s you. You’v
e come back like you promised,’ the woman said.
The woman dropped the doll and shambled forward with her arms outstretched. Lily stopped abruptly.
‘It’s Lily, Megan’s daughter,’ Lily said.
The woman hesitated, confused, and then dropped her hands, her body slumping. ‘I thought it was Megan,’ she muttered.
Now that she’d moved closer, they could see that the woman wore just a nightdress. It was torn and old, stained down the front. The woman was torn and old, too. Lily reached down and picked up the doll, but the woman snatched it back and cradled it protectively. ‘I thought it was Megan,’ she repeated, beginning to cry.
‘Mrs Tantallon, where did my parents go? Are they all right? Did they take Alice?’ Lily asked.
‘They went away to a better house,’ Mrs Tantallon said. ‘Not so long ago,’ she added. ‘Megan said she’d come back to visit me. She promised she’d bring me what I needed, but she hasn’t and I don’t feel well.’ A tear slid down her old cheek.
‘What about Alice?’ Lily said.
The woman looked at her blankly.
‘My sister,’ Lily prompted her.
‘I don’t know,’ the old woman mumbled, shaking her head impatiently. ‘Megan was my friend but she went away to a better house. She said she’d come back and give me what I need. She promised.’ Still shaking her head, Mrs Tantallon turned to go, shuffling back towards the open door.
‘Wait!’ Lily grabbed her arm. The woman flinched and raised her hand to shield her face. ‘Don’t. Don’t hurt me.’
‘No one’s going to hurt you, Mrs Tantallon. I just need to know where they went.’
‘I told you they’ve gone to a bigger house.’
‘Where?’
‘Lily,’ Kieran said gently, ‘you’re frightening her. Mrs Tantallon, my name’s Kieran. We’ve come here from over the Wall. Lily’s trying to find her sister and brother. Can you tell us where Megan went?’
At last, the woman focussed. ‘If I tell you, will you ask Megan to come and see me and bring me what I need?’ she said.
‘You can leave with us now. Mrs Tantallon. You can tell her yourself and then you can come back with us over the Wall,’ Kieran said.
Days Like This Page 17