“Pea and ham soup!” said Claire before she seized a spoon and began to tuck in.
Amber squeezed in beside Noah and Jacob and soon they were slurping back soup like there was no tomorrow.
I sat down beside Bruce, who seemed a little on edge.
“I don’t trust these people,” he said behind his hand, not touching his soup. “And I didn’t build my empire and soft drink business from the ground up to spend a day tending to pigs. I’m here for my wife and my wife only.”
“This tastes different to the normal pea and ham that my grandma makes,” said Reece, but he shrugged. “It’s still good though,” he said before spooning more into his mouth.
Bruce nudged my side. “Look around. See how they’re all watching us?”
I nodded. “Maybe you and I shouldn’t have any soup and see what happens.”
“I don’t suppose we can tell the others without alerting the people around us.”
“No. Let them eat. We’ll pretend to eat ours and spit it into our beer.”
I nodded in agreement. I was liking the guy more and more by the second. He was much like me. Here for one reason only. A twinge of guilt twisted at my heart. If only we could all bring our loved ones back.
I lowered my beer between my legs and tipped half of it under the table, which was already sticky and wet with spills, and picked up my spoon with a trembling hand before bringing the soup almost to my lips and dropping it.
I turned my head, raised my spoon, and smiled at the pig-faced woman. She narrowed her gaze and grinned before she slapped her husband on the back and nodded.
She whispered something in his ear, which seemed to get him excited because he swatted her on the bum and she ran off to get a couple bottles of some kind of special liquor and passed it around the rest of the customers, all except us.
They each took a drink, shouted something that sounded like “cheers” but perhaps in another language, and then continued on with their card games and conversations.
The little girl and boy who’d led us here from the woods were laughing at us and singing a song.
“This little piggy went to market,
this little piggy went home, this little piggy went wee, wee, wee, all the way home and into our tummies.”
“Did you hear that?” I asked Bruce.
Bruce turned around and made a face. The little boy and girl, who’d been pointing at us, giggled and ran away.
“I did. Creepy little shits. Let’s get out of here. I’m not waiting around a second longer.”
But when we tried to get the others up, who’d almost finished their bowls of soup, they swayed on their feet and were unable to stand. They’d been drugged. I should have known.
Amber giggled when I slipped my hand around her waist to help her to her feet. In fact, every time I touched her, even when I touched her hand to remove the spoon, she dissolved into a fit of giggles. Jacob, Reuben, and Reece were the same, giggling at every move Bruce and I made, while Noah, Claire, and Kyle were practically asleep. Which made sense, seeing as their bodies were smaller by comparison to the others.
Bruce winked at me and then made a sleepy face with half lids.
“We think we’ll just leave…” he said, his words slurring as he started to drag Jacob out.
“No, no, no,” said several men who stood up. The music stopped. A cold breeze wafted in from the open door and suddenly the place wasn’t so warm and welcoming anymore.
“You can’t leave now, you’ve eaten, so you’ve got to stay the night and put in a half days’ work tomorrow. That’s the rules of this place.”
“What ruuuuuuules?” Amber said, her voice taking on the liquid tones of someone drunk.
“Those!” said the man, and he pointed to a blank wall where the words began to spell out on the wall.
“If you eat and sleep, your bodies we keep.”
My gut stirred sickly.
“No, we are on our way on an important journey. Here.” I offered my unicorn dagger, which I didn’t wish to give up. “Take this and let us go.”
The man saw it and laughed. “We don’t want valuables. They mean nothing to us. We’re farmers, we just worry about our pigs and putting food on the table for our families.” His eyes glinted and the hairs on the back of my neck prickled. It seemed we’d been backed into a corner. There were too many village folk against our small group of nine.
“In that case, show us our beds, please,” I said, yawning for show and glaring at Bruce. He nodded and pretended to stumble around so that the men and women stepped in to assist us upstairs.
There were indeed beds up in a large attic, mattresses spread out with pillows that appeared soft and inviting. Perhaps I’d gotten it wrong. Bruce raised his brows as though he was thinking the same.
I watched as the men laid the others down and I pretended to be half asleep when they tossed me onto the mattress.
“This one isn’t as gone as the others. He didn’t fall as heavily,” said a guy with a lisp. I thought he was talking about me, but when I took a peek, I realised they were standing around Bruce. “Maybe we need to knock him out with a shovel.”
Oh. Shit.
Bruce pretended to snore. I made my breathing just as heavy and relaxed, which was difficult when your entire body was coiled tight, anticipating danger.
Someone pulled my fringe out of my eyes, the action making my heart jolt against my ribcage. It was hard to stay relaxed and keep my breathing regular.
“This one’s the same.”
“He’s pretty to look at,” said a woman with a voice gruffer than my own. “Can I keep him?”
They all laughed while I cringed inside, willing them to leave the room so that we could escape.
“They only ate half of my soup,” said a voice I recognised to be the pig-faced lady. “But still it’s enough to knock them out. Let’s leave them be. We don’t have to string ’em up until morning. It’s too late and you’ve all had too much to drink to start butchering now.”
I tried not to visibly tense at the words and waited until all the footsteps retreated downstairs until there was silence.
I pretended to roll over in my sleep and got a good look around the room. After being confident none of the locals remained, I whispered Bruce’s name.
His head popped up, his thick white-blond hair sticking out in all directions.
“We’ve got to move fast,” he hissed.
“How do we get them out when they’re all dead to the world? They’re too heavy and we’re up a storey. We’ll kill them if we throw them out the window.”
Bruce stood up. “All I know is that death by fall is a little more appealing than death by being cooked up and eaten by cannibals.”
A shadow moved from beside the window, someone who’d been standing there, hidden from our eyes the whole time, and before I could warn Bruce, the dark figure beat him on the back of the head with a shovel.
I shot out of bed, but was too late. Something hard smacked the back of my skull, sending me flying face first against the wooden boards, the sound of my nose crunching the last thing I heard before I succumbed to blackness.
Chapter 19
Amber
I woke up upside down and hanging by my feet, bound by rope from a wooden railing. I was inside a barn, with golden straw on the floor beneath my hanging head.
My head ached, like a migraine times twenty. I wanted to rub my temples, which felt like they were about to explode from the pressure of being upside down, but my hands were bound to my sides.
“What the…?” said Reece, who dangled beside me.
It seemed everyone was waking up at the same time.
Claire started to whimper.
“Shhhh!” Bruce called from the ground.
Why were we tied up and he free? And Axel, what was he doing there beside Bruce?
“Get us down,” Noah said from somewhere behind me.
I twisted around and swung a little so that I could see better but
each swing made my head throb even more.
Bruce and Axel were on the floor, cutting away at the rope that bound their feet. Bruce had a lump the size of an egg on the back of his head and Axel winced when he moved, as though he’d too been hurt. Plus there were dark bluish smudges beneath both his eyes and his nose seemed to have swollen to double its size. What on earth had happened to him? What happened to us? Despite their injuries, Bruce and Axel seemed more alert than me and the others.
I tried to think hard about last night but all I could remember was following those kids and then drinking beer that tasted amazing and then eating soup that tasted funny…my memory from then on was patchy.
It wasn’t dark outside anymore. By the pale apricot-pink sky, it seemed to be pre-dawn.
Flashes of last night came back to me, of a woman with a pig-shaped nose and something about giving our bodies up to the pig farmers.
“Shit. Cut us down!”
Jacob, who was tearing away the rope that bound his legs after Axel cut him down, whispered, “Do Amber next.”
“Do me! Get me out of here,” Claire hissed. Kyle was swinging back and forth, making a loud creaking noise, and Bruce rushed over to cut him down.
“Quiet, all of you,” Axel growled as he hacked at the thick rope that bound my hands, then the one that suspended me from the beam. I put my hands out in front of me, ready for the fall, but Axel caught me in his arms and flipped me over so that I landed on my feet.
“Thanks,” I said.
“It’s all right,” he said between breaths, his shadowed eyes holding mine.
Bruce cut Reece and Reuben next. Once we were all down, wobbling on our feet, we followed Bruce past wooden, blood-stained tables with chopping blocks and big butcher blades resting on them. The rank stench of old blood made me want to dry-retch but I didn’t want to make a sound.
At the end of one of the tables, I spied my sword and sheath and quickly grabbed them, thankful I wasn’t leaving this place without a weapon. In the short time since the blacksmith had handed it to me, I’d grown used to carrying the sword.
When we stepped outside the barn, chilly air slapped my cheeks, making me shiver. After I secured the sword at my hip, I glanced over my shoulder and saw that the houses were still dark, as well as the pub we’d gone to sleep in.
“Move as quickly but as quietly as you can. Walk on the grass, not the stone path, and cut through these fields,” said Bruce, pointing to the left. “If they hear us you can guarantee we’ll be their Sunday roast.”
Claire started to whimper and I had to admit, I wanted to cry too, but I was too bloody scared that the tears would cloud my vision and slow me down. When I looked back once more, after we’d hopped over a wire fence, two familiar, small, pale faces came to one of the windows of the first house. I was certain they were watching us. But when I blinked they disappeared. Except that now the same house was lit up with lights.
“Those creepy kids saw us. Quick! Run!”
I ran so hard my thighs burned. When someone tripped or stumbled, we helped each other out. Nobody was getting left behind to be cannibalised, no matter how annoying or cruel they could sometimes be.
After about half an hour of straight running, Axel finally slowed down. He raised his hand to signal us all to stop.
“Still got your blades?” he asked after he’d caught his breath.
I patted my sword. The others shrugged.
“It was in my pack.” Claire screwed her face up and started to cry.
“It’s okay, Claire,” I said. “Axel and I still have ours and we’re all sticking together so you’ll be safe.”
“But our food was in the packs.” Claire brought her hands to her face. “And my phone!”
She started to bawl and Reece took her into his arms. I drew out her phone from my pocket, surprised it hadn’t slipped out when I’d been strung up, and handed it to her. But not before I saw the pic she had on the home screen. It was of me and her when we were about twelve, posing with full faces of makeup and wearing her mum’s dresses and heels.
“Oh, I must have accidentally saved it as my home screen when we were burying our gear yesterday,” she said when she caught me staring, and I shrugged. Okay, then.
“But thanks,” she said after she scrolled through the phone and hugged it to her chest before putting it away.
I shrugged again.
“So…” Axel glanced at Reuben’s watch. “At least we still have the time, and some weapons. We can at least hunt for food.”
“I don’t know how to hunt,” said Reuben. “But I’m game to try.”
“That’s the spirit,” said Bruce, his hair all askew but his face bright with excitement. “We all have to work together, band together as we pass through these lands. The king said there are nine different heavens or hells to pass through before we see the woman.”
“Was that one a heaven or hell?” Noah asked. “It could be both, depending on the person.”
“In what way could that be a heaven?” asked Claire, her lips screwed up in distaste.
Noah shrugged.
“If Hannibal Lector had a heaven, then maybe this would be it.”
I couldn’t help but smile.
Axel stared at me. “Who’s this Hannibal person?”
“He’s from a movie…don’t worry.”
I sighed and gazed out at the green landscape, the same green landscape we’d encountered yesterday, and shivered. How long before we were out of this person’s afterlife? I was sick of it already.
“How will we know when we’ve entered another afterlife?” I asked Axel, who was rubbing the back of his head. I saw a bit of his scalp, the crusted blood matted there. Somebody had hit him over the back of his head and perhaps he’d landed on his nose. That would explain the bruising and all the swelling. I winced at the pain he must have been experiencing.
“Everything we see right now will change. Right before our eyes. But there’s always a chance that two similar heavens could sit side by side. But I don’t know if that has ever happened before.”
“You don’t know much, do you?” said Reece.
“He knows more than you,” said Bruce with authority.
“Shut up, Buzz.”
Bruce ignored him.
“Let’s keep going until we see something different. If anyone spots a change in landscape give a shout,” he said.
Axel nodded.
We started forward, one leg in front of the other. It was monotonous to say the least, walking the same green fields endlessly. While I walked, my mind drifted to last night’s events and I prayed I’d never smell bacon again.
It seemed I wasn’t the only one.
“Do you think that bacon was…uh…human?” Noah suddenly asked, echoing my own thoughts.
“Shut up,” Kyle said, gripping his stomach. “I’ve spent the last hour trying not to think about how weird that soup tasted.”
“I think it was human,” Reuben said, his eyes tearing up. He stopped and ran his fingers through his thick black hair. “Oh God.” His stomach made a strange noise. “Oh God, I feel sick. We ate people.”
Reece, who was now as pale as snow, made a retching sound and stopped before dropping to his knees. And then I couldn’t help myself, my mouth filled with saliva and my stomach started to heave and I leaned forward, resting my hands on my knees, and threw up all over the fresh green grass.
When my stomach finished pumping, I wiped my mouth and stared at everyone. It looked as though we’d all been sick, bar Bruce and Axel.
“Didn’t you eat the soup?” I asked.
They both shook their heads.
“We sensed something was wrong and had to pretend we were knocked out too,” said Axel.
“Maybe they keep actual pigs out the back somewhere,” said Noah, his face deathly pale, his voice hopeful.
“I think you’re right.” I nodded. “I heard a pig squeal the night before.”
Everybody agreed to agree that we’d e
aten pig and we made a pact then and there never to speak of it again.
We walked in silence for several more hours before I noticed a cool wind snake through the openings of my jacket. I had my chainmail on underneath but it did nothing to keep me warm, instead it made me feel even colder. I started to shiver, as did everyone else.
“It’s the Change,” warned Axel before he motioned for everyone to climb up the cluster of trees nearby.
“Quick,” he shouted as a rush of frosty air hit us, causing my fingers to sting and then numb almost instantly.
But as we tried in vain to climb the tree’s icy trunk, Claire screamed.
“Over there!” she shouted. “It’s a cave!”
There was no time to think or do anything except run towards the black opening of the cave that had materialised before us.
At the cave’s entrance, Axel picked up a rock and threw it inside. The wind was howling so much we couldn’t hear the rock land, so Axel threw one again.
“Looks like there are no animals. Let’s go inside.”
We edged into the entrance and spread out. I kicked something with my foot, a pile of wood by the sound of the logs scattering, and Claire screamed.
“There’s kindling here,” said Bruce, who sounded like he was crouched low on the ground.
“I’ve got wood,” I said. “I think.”
“And I’ve got flint rocks, remember?” said Reece, and I heard him fumble around in his jacket pocket.
“Give it to me,” said Axel.
“No way, servant boy. I’m a Scout and I know how to start a fire, for your information,” said Reece.
He started hitting the flint rocks against each other until a tiny spark illuminated the cave momentarily. He did it again and again, until tiny sparks showered over the kindling. Pursing his lips together, Reece gently blew on the tiny flames, stacking more and more kindling on top, then small pieces of wood, until, eventually, he had a fire going.
I was impressed, and by the looks of the smiles and grins on everyone’s faces as they gathered around the flames, so was everyone else.
Alive (The Veiled World Book 1) Page 16