by Gill, J. G.
“Where’s it lead?” I called back.
“The Old Town, I hope,” said Bede. “I never normally come down this way.”
The alley smelt bad – a combination of dust and fishy death. I pinched my nose, trying not to breathe in unless I absolutely had to. The lighting was bad and the cobblestones uneven, forcing me to concentrate on not tripping over as I followed Bede’s giant running strides. The passageway was much longer than I’d first thought and it wasn’t long before I realised I had no idea where I was. My lungs were burning and I had a stabbing pain in my side. I tried to ignore it, but eventually the pain got the better of me.
“I’ve got a stitch,” I yelled to Bede. He slowed to a stop and turned around, leaning over with his hands on the tops of his knees.
“Yeah, me too,” he said.
I leaned against the wall of one of the old houses and let my exhausted body slide down until my butt hit the ground. A stone gargoyle looked down at me from the top of an arched doorway, its stone tongue poking out garishly in the moonlight. The night was so still that it felt as if we’d stumbled into an old photograph. Bede slunk over and collapsed next to me.
“What on earth’s happening to us?” I said. “Those things in the river, what were they?”
Bede shrugged and shook his head. “Beats me. I’ve never seen anything like them. If they were eels, they weren’t normal ones.”
“No one’s ever going to believe what just happened,” I said. “Imagine, trying to explain how we got attacked by some huge, mutant eels that just happen to live in the local river.” I paused, as another thought suddenly struck me. “What I don’t get is why they were they trying so hard to get me into the water. It was almost as if they were possessed or something.”
“Maybe it’s easier to eat you there, you know, like crocodiles,” said Bede.
“Nice thought,” I said, grimacing. “I wonder how they even knew we were there in the first place? And why would eels, of all things, come onto the land like that to attack us? I’ve never heard of eels doing that before. In fact, I didn’t even know they could breathe out of water.”
Bede shook his head thoughtfully. “I know, none of it makes any sense. Maybe we should just try to find somewhere else to sleep tonight, and see if we can work it out tomorrow. Things might make more sense in the morning.”
I looked at him sceptically – sleep or no sleep, mutant eels were inexplicable. Still, Bede had a point, we did need to get some rest. I began scrambling to my feet when I noticed a dark, olive-green mist had begun to swarm around us, turning the glow of the street lights fuzzy. Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I saw what I thought was the beam of a torch. It was hard to be sure though, it was so fleeting.
“Bede,” I whispered, “I think there’s someone else here. I think I saw a light.”
We exchanged glances, each of us barely daring to blink. All of a sudden an unmistakeable ball of yellow light appeared on the corner of the building, just up from where we were standing. I gulped down a breath and held it, waiting for the light to move away. It hovered for a moment, then rippled sideways. I was about to breathe a sigh of relief when, to my horror, the beam suddenly flickered back again, falling directly on us.
“You two, stay right where you are!” a voice shouted.
Although he was thirty paces or more away, I could clearly see that the figure was wearing a uniform.
“It’s the cops,” Bede hissed. “We’re going to have to run for it.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me along the cobblestones, my feet stumbling over themselves as I struggled to keep up.
“Hey, you two, come back here,” the voice shouted behind us. I glanced over my shoulder to see that the officer was gaining ground rapidly.
“Bede, he doesn’t look that far away,” I said.
“C’mon!” Bede pulled my hand even harder than before.
We continued sprinting down the street until we reached the corner. There were now three separate alleys to choose from, each as dark and narrow and dingy-looking as the other.
“Where to now?” I muttered, partly to myself and partly to Bede. Somewhere in the background I could hear the policeman call to his partner.
“Warren, get the dogs out!”
“Dogs?” said Bede. “Shit!”
“Maybe we can confuse our scent somehow?” I said.
Bede shook his head. “There’s no time. We’ve just got to pick a street and go for it.”
“That one?” I pointed to the road veering farthest to the left.
“Yeah it’ll do,” he said.
I could hear the dogs now in the distance, their barks reverberating off the walls of the narrow alleys as they closed in around us. Every so often, human voices would rise above the yapping, like small off cuts from a big sheet of noise.
“We might be okay if we can just keep in front of them,” said Bede. He gave me one of his hopeful, lopsided grins, and I couldn’t help but smile back.
My legs were really tired and I could feel them starting to wobble as I ran. The darkness of the streets had forced us to slow down slightly, so we could see where we were going. Even then, I was navigating as much by touch as by sight, the treacherous ground bending the soles of my boots into odd angles. Suddenly, my foot caught on something – a loose paving tile maybe, I couldn’t be sure – and I went sprawling across the cobblestones. Bede heard me fall and spun around.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, fine,” I said, clambering to my feet. It wasn’t until I tried putting weight on my foot again though that I realised how badly I’d twisted my right ankle. The pain made me draw the breath back behind my teeth.
“C’mon, we’ve got to get going,” I said.
Bede frowned. “Are you sure? You look like you’re in pain.”
“I’m fine,” I said. There seemed little point telling him the truth.
Bede hesitated for a moment, tossing up whether to believe me or not. He settled on a compromise.
“Okay, but you go ahead of me and set the pace,” he said. “Let me know if you need to stop.”
“Thanks,” I said, smiling weakly as I hobbled ahead of him. “Don’t worry, I won’t need to stop.”
I gritted my teeth, determined not to be the one that held us back. It wasn’t bravery driving me on, but fear, pure, raw, fear. The last thing we needed was to get caught before we’d had a chance to find Dad. I tried to block out the pain in my ankle by concentrating on the sound of my boots, clattering over the cobblestones.
“Quick, down there,” Bede called out behind me. He was pointing towards a particularly dark and narrow street up ahead. I glanced back at him doubtfully. The street was so old and crumbling, it was hard to imagine that people might actually walk along there during the day. But as Bede drew up beside me, something else had suddenly caught my attention.
“Can you hear that?” I craned my ear, listening for the sound again.
“What?” said Bede.
“It sounds like a helicopter.”
Bede sighed, heavily. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Are you sure?”
There was no need to answer, the once distant plop, plop, plop of rotor blades was now an unmistakeable hum, moving rapidly towards us.
“Keep running!” Bede grabbed the sleeve of my jacket and hauled me forwards.
I glanced up, snatching a glimpse of the belly of the helicopter as it hovered above us like a giant hornet. I could feel the sound of it vibrating through my whole body, drowning out my own heartbeat. A swathe of yellow suddenly cut a track across the black sky and I realised that someone had turned on the spotlight. The beam was now probing the southern part of the city, like a dentist poking around in a giant mouth. It was drawing dangerously close to where we were running and I knew it would only be moments before the light had hunted us down.
“We need to hide, fast,” I said.
“Just keep running,” said Bede. “There’s got to be something useful to hide along here.”
&n
bsp; My eyes strained to see where the street was leading us but the darkness was impenetrable. I was still trying to find my way when I suddenly hit something solid. I pressed my hands against it, then moved them slightly apart, searching to see if the object had any edges. It was entirely flat. I spread my hands even further apart and pressed again. Nothing moved. I pressed again, as hard as I could, before realising what had actually happened.
“Bede, it’s a wall. We’ve hit a dead end!” I said.
“Maybe we can climb over it,” he said.
We both looked up. The wall was several metres tall and far too high to climb, even if one of us had stood on the other one’s shoulders. By now the beam from the helicopter was shining down on a street just two away from where we were standing.
“It’s no good, we need to find cover,” I said.
“Try and find a door,” said Bede. “Push, pull, kick anything that even vaguely looks like one.”
I had already begun scanning the walls as Bede was speaking, but everything seemed to be made of solid stone.
“There’s nothing here!” I said, my voice the colour of panic. Only a few minutes longer and it would be all over, the searchlight would be on us and any hope of finding Dad would be dead. I suddenly had an overwhelming urge just to run home, stick my head under the covers, and pretend that none of it was happening.
Then something caught my eye I crouched down to take a closer look, running my hand over a rough surface. Nestled amongst the stone was a small patch of wood. My fingers slid to one side and I felt the metallic coldness of a padlock. It was then that I realised I’d found a door of some sort. I felt along the length of the panels to discover that a couple of boards had been broken at the bottom, leaving a triangular shaped gap the size of a large dog.
“Hey Bede, look at this,” I said, pointing to the gap.
“Good work,” he said. “At least one of us should be able to get in there.”
He looked at me expectantly. I paused, double-checking that I’d deciphered his expression properly, before shaking my head.
“No, don’t be stupid, I’m not leaving you behind.”
“Quit the heroics, Clare,” he said. “Now’s really not the time.”
“Who do you think…”
I was completely caught off-guard as Bede started bundling me into the hole. There was no time to even feel indignant – I just had to scramble into the small space as quickly as possible. The helicopter was now in the street next to us and starting to circle.
“Bede, get in here!” I screamed, curling myself up as tightly as I could to make room. Two seconds passed like two hours. There was still no sign of my brother.
“Bede!” I screamed again, but the sound of the helicopter swamped my voice. Then, an agonising few seconds later, Bede’s arms thrust through the gap, making him look like a headless ghost. I grabbed his sleeves and pulled as hard as I could, trying to wrench him inside.
“It’s too small Clare. Let go, I’m not going to make it!” Bede shouted. The fear in his voice was contagious.
“Yes you are!” I screamed. “Just keep trying!”
I pulled frantically at the boards, trying to make the gap bigger, but it was no use, the wood wouldn’t budge. Bede’s head was now inside and he was clawing desperately at the concrete floor, crunching his elbows against it and tying to lever himself inside.
“C’mon!” I screamed.
I grabbed his shoulders and kept pulling, while Bede continued to wriggle frantically, finally managing to haul himself onto his knees. He catapulted himself forwards, just as a searingly bright flash of yellow flooded the triangular gap in the door.
The pair of us lay in a heap on the floor, hardly daring to breathe, as the light lingered outside.
“Did it see us?” I whispered.
Bede cast me a worried glance. “Dunno”.
I could feel each thud of my heart, bounding in my chest, and the adrenalin in my system was making me shaky. Then, almost as suddenly as it had arrived, the light disappeared and I could hear the rhythmic chops of rotor blades drift away. Bede and I sat in silence, saying everything we needed to in heavy sighs of relief.
CHAPTER V
It was the sunlight that woke me up, sneaking through the wooden slats of the door and prising my eyelids open. I lay still for a few seconds, pretending to myself that I wasn’t awake, before reluctantly admitting that I was a useless actress. No matter how tired I was, I could never sleep when it was too light. Bede, on the other hand, was still asleep and snoring happily. There were some things I really envied him for and his ability to sleep, no matter what drama might be going on around him, was right up there.
I glanced at my watch: 7:03 am. Still way too early for any civilised person to be awake. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and began inspecting our hide-out. It was so tiny it looked like a dumping ground for old arms and legs, the way that Bede and I had squashed ourselves into the space. I closed my eyes again and tried to catnap, when something suddenly jabbed me in the ribs. My eyes flicked open to see Bede in the middle of a huge yawn. He glanced at me with a dazed expression on his face.
“Oh, that’s right,” he said, slowly coming to. “We’re in the middle of a living nightmare.”
I laughed, not because it was particularly funny, but because I was relieved that there was at least one other person in the world who understood how I felt.
“I reckon we should start looking for Dad and Arlene right away, if we’re going to beat the police to it,” I said.
“Food first though?” said Bede.
“Food? At a time like this?” I said.
“I’m starving, and we’ve got to eat, Clare. How else do you think we’re going to keep going?”
I paused. Now Bede mentioned it, I was pretty hungry too. The last time I’d eaten was lunchtime the day before, and that had been a pretty pitiful sandwich from the school canteen. A short detour to find food wouldn’t take long.
“Okay, maybe food first, then we look for Dad and Arlene. We should probably work out how much money we’ve got.”
I started rifling through my pockets, pulling out notes and coins and dumping them on the floor. I counted it quietly to myself, before turning to Bede.
“There’s just over thirty here.”
Bede pulled out the notes and coins from his pockets and started counting.
“I’ve got twenty-three here and a few coins,” he said. “Not much, but it should get us something. A bread roll at least.”
“A bread roll?” I said. “We can get more than that.”
I began putting the money away, storing some of it in the soles of my shoes like I’d seen on TV when people went on the run.
“We’ve got to be careful, Clare,” said Bede. “We’ve got no idea how long it’s going to take to find Dad and Arlene, or how much money we’re going to need. If we’ve got, say, fifty-five all up and we budget on five each a day, that should give us just over five days to find Dad and get this whole mess sorted out.”
“What do you mean?” I said, frowning at him “We’ll find them today, Wiltsdown’s not that big. Come tonight, everything will be pretty much back to normal.”
I paused, remembering the business about the smuggled snakes. “Well, maybe not completely normal, but there’s got to be some sort of reasonable explanation. I’m sure things will get sorted.”
Bede looked at me in a way that made it clear he thought I was being way too optimistic.
“It might not work out like that,” he said.
“I don’t see why not,” I said, stubbornly.
Bede shrugged. “Let’s just see, shall we?” he said.
I frowned at him some more. “C’mon, I can’t believe this much weird stuff can happen in such a short space of time without there being some sort of logical explanation,” I said. “I mean, seriously, how else would the world work if random stuff just kept happening?”
Bede was now fiddling with a buckle on his bag and smiling qu
ietly to himself. I knew that look. It was the kind of a smug smile I used to see when we were kids, when Mum and Dad would tell him stuff simply because he was older and would understand it better.
“How about we go and track down some food?” he said, obviously trying to change the subject. “The market should be setting up by now.”
I paused, deciding whether or not to let the subject drop. It was pretty clear that Bede wasn’t going to listen to a word I said, at least not right now.
“Okay, so we’ve got five each to spend, right?” I said, gathering up all the money. I shoved a ten note in his hand, then crammed the rest into my shoes and pack. “For
safe keeping,” I said.
Bede shifted his weight awkwardly.
“Umm…I wasn’t exactly thinking of spending anything this morning,” he said.
I looked at him, confused. “I don’t get it? We’ve both just been saying how hungry we are.”
“Yeah, I meant, we’ll get some food. We just won’t pay for it. You know, the ole ‘five-finger discount’.”
I shot Bede a look that went well beyond mere scepticism. I was accusing him of downright idiocy.
“We’re on the run for one day and you’re already turning feral?” I said. “Since when was stealing stuff okay? Besides, are you crazy? We’ve already got the police looking for you and chasing us half to death last night. Do you really want to do something that could show them where you are? Why can’t we just buy the food like normal people?”
Bede sighed impatiently. “Look at us Clare, we aren’t exactly ‘normal’ people at the moment, are we? It’s not like we can just go and ask Dad for more money if we run out. If we’re careful with it now, we’ll have more to spare if things get tight.” He paused to stretch his shoulders. “As for the police, they’re not going to stop looking for me no matter what we do. We could stay put and they could still find us.”
“I still think you’re crazy,” I said.
“Look, Clare, I get what you’re saying, but honestly, it’ll be fine. I know what I’m doing, we’re not going to get caught. Besides, if you still feel bad about it later, you can always come back and pay the money once all this crap’s died down.”