Tabitha

by Hall, Andrew

  ‘Alright,’ Tabitha replied softly, smiling as Liv left and closed the door. She lay there on the bed with Laika, rubbing her mum’s blue ribbon between her finger and thumb, and tried to think about the good times as she dozed off. For the first time in a long time, Tabitha felt safe.

  20

  It was a chillier morning than most, and the sky was overcast. Tabitha zipped up her hoodie when she wandered outside the keep, and pulled the hood close around her neck. It was going to be an early autumn this year, from the looks of it.

  ‘Morning,’ Will said brightly, up on the curtain wall beside the courtyard.

  ‘Morning,’ Tabitha replied, climbing the stone steps to join him.

  ‘How did you sleep?’

  ‘Really well, thanks,’ she replied, stifling a yawn. ‘It was really nice of Liv, to let me sleep in her bed.’

  ‘Well, it’s not just her bed,’ Will said with a smile. ‘We can all use it, if we want to. It’s just that she’s been the bossiest about keeping hold of it.’ Tabitha smiled, and hesitated. Thinking how to say what she wanted to say. Probably better just to be honest about it.

  ‘I’m embarrassed about yesterday,’ she told him. A blackbird flew overhead.

  ‘Well don’t be,’ Will replied, watching the town below. ‘From what Liv said, you’ve been through a lot.’

  ‘I just don’t want anyone to think I’m weak,’ she said. ‘Crying since I got here, and being sick all over the place…’

  ‘Trust me, no one thinks you’re weak,’ Will replied. ‘None of us could have done what you’ve done. I mean, look what you’ve survived just to get here. Liv told us everything. You’re different.’

  ‘I’m just the same as all of you,’ she said, shaking her head. Did he mean her hands?

  ‘Yeah, you’re still human like the rest of us… but look at what you can do. You’re like… superhuman.’

  ‘That’s comic book stuff,’ she said dismissively, thinking about her favourite films.

  ‘So you don’t think the way you heal is superhuman?’ said Will, disbelieving. ‘Having alien blood, and alien strength? You’ve got, like, superpowers. They’re not things to be ashamed of, mate,’ he chuckled. ‘Be proud of them. I mean, they’ve got you this far in one piece, haven’t they?’

  ‘Well, yeah,’ she admitted. He did have a point.

  ‘You’re just who we need, Tabitha. You could be the one to turn this war around.’

  ‘Well… it’s not really a war. They’ve already won,’ Tabitha pointed out.

  ‘No, it’s still on,’ he replied stubbornly. ‘It started the day they came here, and we’re still fighting it now just by staying alive. They only win the war if they kill every last one of us on the planet. And not a second sooner.’

  ‘Well, that’s a good way of looking at it,’ she admitted. ‘So if the war’s still going on, how do we stand a chance of winning?’

  ‘Us,’ he said simply. ‘It starts with the five of us. We need to become something.’

  ‘How do you mean?’ she said.

  ‘Well, I used to think the army would come here and save us, but the last couple of days, I’m not so sure,’ said Will. ‘Maybe instead, we need to save ourselves. I want us to become an idea for other people.’

  ‘I’m not sure what you mean,’ said Tabitha, smiling in apology.

  ‘Well, all will become clear,’ Will said brightly. ‘I’ve got a new plan for us. I’ll be telling everyone about it later on.’

  Liv headed back over to the fireplace in the keep as Will and Tabitha came back inside. She made herself look busy, and pretended she hadn’t been peering round the doorway at them while they were talking on the wall.

  ‘Morning,’ Will said brightly.

  ‘M-Morning,’ Liv echoed. ‘I’ll get some breakfast on.’ Her mind was racing. Why wasn’t she the first to know about the new plan? She was always the first to know the plans. She was the one Will confided in, but he hadn’t mentioned his new idea to her at all. Had something changed?

  ‘Thank you, for last night,’ Tabitha told Liv. ‘I should be the one making breakfast, though.’

  ‘Oh no, it’s fine hun,’ said Liv, smiling. ‘As long as you’re feeling better, that’s all that matters.’ Having had her offer of help politely refused, Tabitha left Liv to make the breakfast and went to fuss over Laika for a little while. There was something different about Liv this morning; she was sure of it. Something a little more frosty. But she didn’t know her yet. She didn’t know any of them yet.

  A little later Will had asked everyone to meet up in the keep, and waited for them to come inside before he made his speech. Jim slurped his tea at the table and cringed at the taste.

  ‘Liv, this milk’s off,’ he said. ‘Tastes like porridge.’

  ‘Yeah, it’s o-oat milk,’ Liv replied. ‘Don’t you like it?’

  ‘Well, not in my tea I don’t. Haven’t we got any of the proper stuff left?’

  ‘The long-life milk?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Only one c-carton left,’ Liv replied. She stepped closer, and dropped her voice to a whisper. ‘But while it’s you Jim, you can have it to yourself. We’ll pr-pretend it’s all gone, ok?’ she winked at him.

  ‘Scandalous,’ he chuckled quietly. He slurped his tea, and grimaced at the oaty taste.

  ‘Give me that,’ said Liv, smiling. ‘I’ll make you another cup.’ Chris came downstairs yawning, woken from sleep. Tabitha stepped back inside the keep door, having gotten rid of Laika’s business out in the garden.

  ‘Right everyone, this is a biggie,’ said Will, rubbing his hands together with excitement. He was grinning like a little boy.

  ‘Not another idea,’ Chris moaned, flattening his bed hair as he took a seat at the table.

  ‘See, it’s that can-do attitude that I love about you, Chris,’ Will said brightly. ‘Now. I’ve been thinking,’ he told the group. He hesitated. ‘I don’t think the army’s coming here to save us. If they were, they would have got here by now.’ Jim nodded gravely. ‘If we’re going to survive here, we’re going to have to start heading outside for food and things,’ Will continued. ‘At least until the allotment gets going,’ he added, with a nod to Jim. ‘So… I say we need to take charge of this town. To do that, we need to turn ourselves into something more.’ Liv nodded.

  ‘I don’t know what that means,’ Jim admitted.

  ‘Well, I mean that we need to band together and become a team,’ Will replied. ‘We could be the start of something big. I mean, Tabitha managed to find us, so what if there’s more people out there? Looking for a place like this?’

  ‘It was just luck that I found this place though,’ Tabitha chipped in.

  ‘Exactly, so we need to advertise,’ Will told the group. ‘We need to get noticed, so other people out there can come and find us.’

  ‘An urban l-legend,’ Liv suggested.

  ‘Exactly!’ said Will, banging his fist on the table. ‘A tribe,’ he said excitedly. ‘Like a… a group of heroes. With a mission to protect people.’

  ‘That sounds shit,’ Chris chipped in. ‘Have you been drinking or something?’

  ‘See, Chris agrees with me,’ said Will sarcastically, ignoring him. ‘It’s a great idea.’

  ‘So just like that, we’re going to be a bunch of heroes?’ said Chris, chuckling in disbelief.

  ‘Just like that,’ Will said with a smile. ‘Every group of heroes in history started out the same way. Just a handful of people, agreeing to a cause they believed in.’

  ‘What heroes?’ said Chris, looking around at the others. ‘This is real life, do you understand? There aren’t any heroes in real life.’

  ‘So doctors and soldiers, and, and relief w-workers, they’re not heroes?’ said Liv.

  ‘That’s different,’ said Chris, folding his arms.

  ‘No, it’s not,’ Will replied. ‘Those are real heroes. And we can be too. It’s like you said Liv, doctors and soldiers and relief workers. We
can be those things to other people. We can help people here.’ Jim grunted his approval.

  ‘So we’re a team now?’ Tabitha chipped in, moving it on a step. Making it official.

  ‘That’s right,’ Will said happily. ‘If we’re all together on this?’ the others looked around at one another and nodded, glad to be part of something bigger. Chris stayed quiet, arms crossed.

  ‘So what do we call ourselves?’ said Jim.

  ‘Well, that’s what we need to decide,’ Will replied excitedly. He fetched a pad and pen and put them down on the table. ‘I’ll get some food on the go, and we’ll have a brainstorm.’ Chris moaned at the word.

  ‘A what?’ said Jim, screwing his face up.

  ‘Brainstorm,’ Tabitha replied. ‘It means we’ll have a think about it.’

  ‘Ohh,’ said Jim. ‘Is that a proper word? Brainstorm?’

  ‘Afraid so,’ said Liv, smiling at Will.

  ‘Yeah, but it’s only a certain kind of person who uses words like brainstorm,’ said Chris, aiming it at Will.

  ‘Look, just get some ideas written down,’ said Will, pointing a half-eaten biscuit at the writing pad on the table. ‘Please.’

  Coming up with a name took longer than they expected. It wasn’t easy to think of something that everyone could agree on. The group had already drained their cups and emptied their plates while they were thinking, and the clammy fatigue of a board meeting had settled in over their heads. With nothing else to do though, nobody wanted to be the first one to give up.

  ‘The Leftovers,’ Chris suggested, picking his nose. ‘Because we’re the last people left over after the main course.’

  ‘God, that’s grim,’ said Liv. ‘I vote n-no on that one.’ Will, Jim and Tabitha agreed. The daylight from the open door painted their faces bright against the gloom and shadows. Tabitha looked over at Laika, resting on the rug by the white ashes of the fire. She smiled to see her so safe for once. So content.

  ‘The Knights,’ Jim chipped in. ‘We live in a castle, and we want to protect people. So we’re like knights.’

  ‘It’s a good one,’ Will replied, noting it down on his pad in a scruffy hand. Tabitha had never seen anyone hold a pen so strangely. ‘So. We’ve got The Resistance, The Survivors, The Wolves, The Guardians, and The Knights. And a lot of crossed out names we can’t agree on. Any more?’ the room was quiet. Only the high cheeps and chatters of the birds outside. Jim coughed to break the silence.

  ‘The Ghosts,’ Liv suggested, after a moment of thought. ‘Because we’re going to rise up from the dead, and haunt our enemies. And because it s-sounds cool.’

  ‘It does sound cool,’ said Tabitha, smiling. Will nodded. Jim grunted his approval, past caring. Tabitha’s heart leapt at the sticky social glue she felt around her. They’d brought her in and stuck her to the family. She was there at the start of this, whatever it was. The movement.

  ‘Oh Liv, that does sound cool,’ Chris mocked her. ‘Are you two just here to kiss each other’s arses? Get a room.’ Tabitha didn’t have a reply. She could only look at him, dumbfounded. Surely it was too soon to be getting into fights; she hardly knew him. Well, she knew he was a prick now, anyway.

  ‘Actually, Tabitha would be the first p-person I’d get a room with in this place,’ Liv shot back. ‘And I bet she’d be a damn sight b-better than you, chicken dick.’ Will burst out laughing. Jim and Tabitha grinned. Chris glared angrily at Liv, lost for words.

  ‘Chicken dick,’ Jim chuckled to himself, tickled.

  ‘Right, should we get back to business?’ said Will, grinning.

  ‘Just g-give as good as you get with him,’ Liv advised Tabitha, holding Chris’s angry stare. ‘Even science can’t explain why he’s just such a massive pr-prat.’

  ‘It’s only since I got here that I got like that, actually,’ Chris replied. ‘It must be the c-company.’

  ‘Chris,’ Will warned him.

  ‘Well bloody well leave then!’ Liv yelled.

  ‘You leave!’ Chris yelled back, kicking off a shouting match between them.

  ‘Don’t you dare take the piss out of her!’ Jim bellowed. Laika looked up, startled from sleep. She looked to Tabitha amidst all the shouting. Tabitha looked back and shrugged, bemused.

  ‘Jesus Christ,’ Will sighed, standing up. ‘Everyone, shut up!’ he slammed his hands down on the table, and the room fell silent. ‘We’re called The Ghosts, alright? I can’t be arsed with this any more.’ Jim grunted and nodded. Liv was still fuming. ‘Why do our family meetings always turn out like this?’ said Will, despairing. ‘Anyway. Phase Two. Follow me outside.’

  ‘Now,’ said Will, pacing in the garden. The others were assembled to hear the plan.

  ‘Tabitha, I don’t think any of us have mentioned it, so you won’t be aware of this,’ he said. ‘We had an army patrol coming through the hills over there, last week.’ Tabitha looked in the direction he was pointing, but saw only the curtain wall. She felt stupid for looking, but no one seemed to notice.

  ‘The army?’ said Tabitha. ‘Coming here to rescue you?’ she gave Laika a stroke as she came to sit by her feet.

  ‘We don’t know,’ Will replied with a shrug. ‘They might not even have known we were here. All we know is what we heard from the fighting one night.’

  ‘They could have been a g-gang, like a militia,’ said Liv.

  ‘Maybe,’ Will replied, nodding. ‘But they sounded disciplined to me, to hear them shouting. Personally, I think they were trained soldiers. But we’ve not seen anyone come to find them since then.’

  ‘They were screaming for a long time,’ Chris chipped in.

  ‘They were,’ Will replied grimly. He looked back at Tabitha. ‘Anyway, long story short, we don’t think those soldiers need their guns any more, unfortunately. But if we could get hold of them… just think what we could do here. We could take the town back.’

  ‘You want to go out there on the m-moors?’ Liv said doubtfully.

  ‘For some new hardware that could really change our fortunes,’ Will replied, smiling.

  ‘It’s risky,’ Jim chipped in.

  ‘Risky?’ said Chris. ‘It’s going to get us killed!’ he stared around at them. The sky was turning grey up above the castle courtyard.

  ‘Not if we’re quick. And careful,’ Will replied. ‘Plus, we’ve got a car now.’ He nodded to Tabitha.

  ‘There’s not enough petrol in it though,’ Tabitha replied, feeling like she’d slurred her words. Suddenly she was feeling drained with a creeping exhaustion. ‘It was running on empty when I got here.’

  ‘Well, there’s that minivan p-parked round the back on the drive,’ Liv suggested. ‘The engine won’t start, but it should have some petrol we can sy-syphon off.’

  ‘Syphoning doesn’t work any more,’ said Chris. ‘They put valves in now to stop people doing it. You have to –

  ‘Put a hole in the fuel tank,’ Tabitha chipped in.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Chris, looking over at her.

  ‘Sounds like a plan,’ said Will. ‘So. Once we’ve filled up Tabitha’s tank,’ Jim sniggered.

  ‘Oh Jesus, Jim,’ said Liv. ‘You’re nearly s-seventy. Grow up.’

  ‘Sorry,’ he chuckled.

  ‘Once we’ve filled up Tabitha’s car,’ said Will, ‘we’ll decide who goes out there to find the army patrol. And bring the guns back here.’

  ‘Hold on, you can’t just decide we’re all going out there now!’ Chris objected.

  ‘It’s not up to Will,’ Jim replied gruffly. ‘We’re all going out because we want to.’

  ‘I don’t want to!’ Chris shot back.

  ‘But it’s like Will said,’ Liv told him. ‘If we don’t start looking s-soon, we’re going to run out of food. Eventually.’

  ‘But those spiders might still be out there,’ said Chris.

  ‘Yeah, they might be,’ Will agreed. ‘But they might not. They might be a hundred miles away by now. Think about what we could gain though. If we get g
uns, we can defend ourselves here. And even if we do run into trouble out there, we’ve got Tabitha and her talents on our side.’ Will smiled at her. Tabitha felt embarrassed at the praise. Looking to Liv didn’t help, though. She saw an uncertainty there in Liv’s face. Maybe even a dark trace of jealousy, before she looked back to Will.

  ‘So,’ said Will. ‘How do we decide who’s going out?’

  ‘We’re all going,’ said Liv. ‘We’re a t-team.’

  ‘Someone should stay back and guard the castle,’ Chris chipped in. A silence of indecision hung over the group suddenly. Everyone waited for someone else to decline or volunteer, one way or the other.

  ‘Well, how many seats are there in your car?’ said Jim, breaking the silence.

  ‘Only four, actually,’ Tabitha replied. ‘We’ve got the gear to bring back too, so it’ll be a tight fit anyway.’

  ‘Exactly,’ said Chris. ‘So one of us should stay back. To guard the castle.’

  ‘Yeah, you already m-mentioned that,’ said Liv accusingly. ‘Would that someone be you, b-by any chance?’ Chris gave her a dark look.

  ‘Wow, my hero,’ said Liv, walking past him towards the keep. ‘Try not to let those evil flames b-burn the dinner while we’re gone, guardian of the c-castle.’

  ‘Piss off,’ Chris replied.

  ‘Right. Boots on, people,’ said Will, following Liv to the keep. ‘No time like the present. Oh, and nice one for volunteering to stay here mate,’ he told Chris, patting him on the shoulder as he walked by. ‘Very brave of you.’

  ‘Piss off,’ Chris repeated, looking away.

  ‘Yes, very good of you Christopher,’ Jim joined in, walking by. ‘A true gent.’ Tabitha walked on by after Jim, saying nothing. Chris still gave her an angry look though, despite her silence.

  ‘And you can piss off too,’ he told her.

  ‘I’ve not said anything,’ she replied, trying her best to skirt around a confrontation.

  ‘No, you just thought it instead,’ said Chris accusingly. ‘Just come out and say it. You don’t like me.’ Tabitha sighed and stopped walking. A skinny moth fluttered up from the grass at her feet. The old Tabitha in her head begged her to say nothing and walk on. The new Tabitha didn’t care.