by S. C. Ransom
“When the school rang this morning to see where you were, your poor Nan was frantic and called us. Do you not think a call home might have been in order? I assume you have your mobile?”
“I know, and I’m sorry. There wasn’t any phone reception where we were and I fell asleep.”
The policewoman reached for her little notebook.
“So who are the friends you’ve been with? Do we need to go and tell their parents too?”
“It was just one friend actually. We lost track of time, that’s all.”
“And the name of this friend?” She had her pencil poised over her book.
“It was Will from up the road. Will Dempsey.”
“What have you been doing, Lily?” Nan said, shaking her head. “Why have you been lying to me?”
“I haven’t…” I started before remembering about the note.
Constable Clark stepped towards me, hands up in a calming gesture.
“It’s OK, Lily, you’re home now. Why don’t you come and sit down and you can tell us exactly where you’ve been.”
“Oh, Nan, I’m so sorry!” I wailed, grabbing her close again.
I felt her stiffen in surprise. We really weren’t into overt displays of affection. I hugged her tighter, making sure my mouth was close to her ear.
“Please get rid of her. I’ll tell you everything but I have to be quick.”
She gave a barely perceptible nod, then patted me on the back.
“Now now, dear, don’t fret. You’re home safely now, that’s what matters.”
“All I really want to do right now is to go to the bathroom and then get a bit of toast,” I announced as I relaxed my grip.
“But—” started the policewoman.
Nan interrupted her.
“I think I can take it from here, Constable. Thank you for coming round so promptly, and I can assure you that I’ll be having a word with her.”
The policewoman looked uncertain.
“All right, I’m just pleased that we have you back safe and sound, Lily. Please think of others the next time you want to stay out all night. Your antics have caused a lot of grief and you’ve wasted a lot of police time. Are you sure there’s nothing else you’d like to tell me?”
I remembered the phone call I’d made to the emergency services. Had they put two and two together? If so I had no chance.
“No, nothing. I just made a mistake, that’s all.”
I held my breath, looking down at my scuffed Converse and the jeans splattered with Will’s blood. Luckily it looked more like mud.
“Honestly,” said Nan before the policewoman could say anything. “I think I’m OK to deal with her now. But thank you again for coming to see me. Next time I’ll leave it a little longer before I call you – I don’t like to waste police time.”
Nan looked at me with her eyebrows raised and I looked back at the floor again.
The policewoman turned to Nan and handed her a card.
“I’m glad she’s home safely, Mrs Wakefield. Here are my details – please call me if you want me to have a chat with her, OK?”
Nan was backing her up to the door.
“That sounds very sensible, Constable Clark, thank you. And I’ll be sure to talk to her now.”
The rest of the conversation was lost to me as I shot down the corridor into the bathroom. I shut the door behind me and turned to open the cupboard.
I had no idea why Nan kept all those medicines, but I was grateful that she did. All I had to do was to work my way through the boxes and find the amoxycillin. I was standing on my toes trying to see to the back of the shelf when she started pounding on the door.
“Right, she’s gone. I want you out of there NOW. And I want some proper answers.”
What was I going to say? I had no idea, and even without a watch I knew I was running out of time. I could hear her standing outside the door, fingers drumming impatiently. I was going to have to tell her something, and the truth was probably easiest. I turned the key and stepped back. She pushed the door wide and saw the open cupboard.
“What are you looking for?” she asked sharply. “What have you done?”
I took a deep breath. “I need amoxycillin, as much as you have.”
Will is fading fast, his breathing slow and shallow. We can’t keep his temperature down, and he’s been unconscious now for ages. The walls of the little room seem to be closing in on us and I long to take him up into the open air. I remember the park where he walked with his dog, and wish for the same cooling breeze for his face. Every so often I hear Mason walk up and down outside. Sometimes there are voices, but no one is allowed in but Carita.
I’m holding his fingers tightly, willing him not to go. I realise that I’m rocking and rocking, as if my movement could pump the life back into him. My friend is dying and I have no more tears.
We wait.
Nan put the cup of coffee down on the table in front of me, next to the various packets of amoxycillin, and then turned back to the toaster. The clock on the cooker said 12:53.
“Really, Nan, I don’t have the time. I just mentioned the toast to get rid of the policewoman.”
“I’ve already told you, young lady, you’re not going anywhere, particularly not with those,” she pointed at the boxes of drugs, “until you tell me what’s going on.”
“I want to but there’s no time. All I can say is that someone’s life depends on me getting those medicines to where they need to go, and in getting them there quickly.”
I took a sip of the coffee and shut my eyes briefly, enjoying the fleeting moment of normality.
“And is ‘Amox-i-cillin’ really the same as ‘Amox-y-cillin’?” I asked. “It’s important that I get it right.”
“They’re the same,” she said. “The one with the ‘Y’ is an old spelling, that’s all. But that’s irrelevant. These are strong medicines, and there are a lot of them. You have to tell me who they’re for. They might not be the right ones for the infection, and anyway, the person really must see a doctor. Can’t you take them to casualty?”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry, Nan, that’s just not possible. I’ve tried.”
“Can you bring them to me?”
I looked up from my mug and into her eyes, eyes that were old but still missed nothing. There was something else there too, something I couldn’t place.
“It’s a good idea,” I said, “and I’ll mention it, but right now I have to go back.”
“What if I say no?”
She was only asking all these questions because she loved me, I knew that. The effects of not sleeping for twenty-four hours were catching up with me, and I felt almost too exhausted to speak. I took another mouthful of the coffee, finally feeling the caffeine starting to mop up the cotton wool that seemed to be stuffed in my brain.
“You know you’ve always told me to do what’s right? Well, that’s what I’m doing. And I have to go now.”
Nan opened one of the kitchen drawers. Pulling out a carrier bag, she put the medicines inside.
I took a final swig of coffee as I stood up. “Can you please do me a favour? Can you call Will’s mum and tell her that he’s with me? I don’t want her worrying too.”
She nodded, holding out the bag towards me. “You’ll get in trouble if someone sees you carrying all that. Here.”
“Thanks, Nan. Oh, do we have any Calpol too? That’s what Mum used to give the twins, wasn’t it?”
As I reached for the bag she grabbed my wrist in a vice-like grip. “Are these for the babies? Is it still going on?”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Who is this really for? I’m not letting you go until you tell me.”
Her grip tightened around my wrist. I knew that I could get away, but it would mean pushing her hard and I couldn’t bring myself to do that. She knew it too, and we stood there for a second, nose to nose, waiting for the next move.
“Nan, I don’t have time to argue – it’s an emergency. I real
ly need this stuff. What else have you been stockpiling it for if it wasn’t for an emergency?”
“I’ve been keeping it in case it was needed,” she said, dropping my arm and turning away. “In case the immunity wore off.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“There are things you need to know before you go. I’m going to call—”
She stopped as the doorbell rang, and seconds later rang again, much more insistently.
“You sit there. Let me just get rid of whoever that is. I’ll be quick.”
She made her way to the front door and I heard her conversation. It was Will’s mum, who had obviously just had a visit from the policewoman. There was no way I could look her in the eye and say that Will was fine. Grabbing the bag, I ran towards the back door, and before they arrived in the kitchen I was gone.
I ran through the street, searching for clockfaces as I went. Everything had taken so much longer than I thought, and it was taking more long minutes to get all the way back to the warehouse. I clutched my precious cargo close to me, determined not to drop anything. There seemed to be a huge number of people on the streets, office workers milling about getting their sandwiches, couriers whizzing around on their bikes delivering parcels, and packs of pensioners, walking slowly along the pavement chatting. I swore under my breath as I dodged one particularly leisurely group, and ended up sprinting down the road itself.
I thought that I knew how long the trip back would take me, but as I ran past the church I could see the hand move on to the three. I was cutting it fine – too fine. As I sprinted towards the last corner I heard the bells begin to strike the quarter hour. I ran so fast that I felt as though my heart was going to jump out of my chest. I had to get back to Dane before the lift went down without me – I couldn’t possibly fail when I had got so close. Looking up I saw the door of the warehouse closing.
“Noooo!” I yelled. “Dane, let me in!”
“Have you got it?” His voice was low as he threw open the door.
“Of course I do! But we’re wasting time…”
I had to pause to suck some more air into my protesting lungs. All I wanted was to slide down to the floor and collapse in a small heap, but there was no time. I pushed past him.
“Come on then, let’s go and get these drugs to him,” I gasped, racing across the warehouse towards the lift, which stood open.
Dane turned to bolt the door. He hesitated.
“Are you sure, Lily? If you go down and Will dies, you might never come back. Give me the medicine and run while you can.”
“My deal with the Farmer was that if I saved Will and brought medicines and instructions on how to use them we could all go free.”
“Exactly, so stay here and I’ll send him back to you – if he lives. You have nothing to lose.” The lift machinery started to clank into life. “But if you come down and the drugs don’t work, then what’s to stop the Farmer going back to the original plan?”
I didn’t trust the Farmer for a minute to send Will up. Why would he? But if I returned and joined my friends, then I had to deal with the consequences of whatever happened.
“I’m not abandoning my friends. They wouldn’t abandon me so I’m coming back down. Let’s go.”
I stepped into the lift and started pulling across the outer gate.
Dane flicked out the lights in the warehouse and jumped into the lift as it started to move. He finished shutting the outer gate and I heard him haul the inner one into position. Everything was completely dark.
“Are you sure you have exactly what we need?” he asked.
“Yes. There’s more too, other drugs that will help quickly.”
“That’s OK then. And it’s good you know how to use them. You can teach the others.”
My heart sank as I realised what that meant. I had automatically assumed that, as they knew which drug they wanted, at least one of them would know how to use it. If they didn’t, what was I going to do – guess? Why hadn’t I asked Nan?
It was a stupid, stupid mistake. I turned to face the wall, slapping it in frustration. Not enough of the drug and the children would die. Too much and they could also die. The babies were also far too little to take a tablet, and I prayed that whatever Nan had put in the carrier bag it had included some instructions.
“You OK?” asked Dane, surprised.
“Just nerves I guess.”
“Remember to keep quiet this time and they’ll ignore you, OK?”
I was about to ask him what on earth he was talking about when I remembered the Crop. He must have thought I was nervous because of them.
“Why are you doing all this, Dane? What’s in it for you? If you wanted girls from Above to become Breeders, why not just grab one outside the warehouse?”
He gave a tired laugh.
“This wasn’t actually the plan, you know. I had something rather more subtle in mind, but you girls really made life complicated.”
“Aria mentioned a plan. She was really upset that she had failed you.”
“Did she tell you what it was?”
“That you needed someone special from the Tube platform and were going to take them down to the Community using the old crop tunnels.”
There was silence, and in the darkness I couldn’t see if he was surprised that I knew so much.
“Did she tell you who we wanted?” he asked eventually. “Do you know what her mission was really about?”
Something about his tone chilled me, and I took half a step backwards.
“We were planning on bringing you down the secret back route through the Crop levels,” he said. “But it had to be done quickly, while they were still feeding, and Aria didn’t make it back in time. Instead she went Above with you.”
“Me? You wanted me?”
“It had to be you. No one else could do what you can do.”
“What are you talking about?”
He didn’t answer immediately, and I thought maybe he wasn’t going to, but then I caught the musty dead smell again. We were passing the Crop. I stayed silent, the questions backing up in my brain. What could they possibly want with me?
“On the way up I told you about the baby who had been taken Above,” he said eventually. “The one who didn’t come back, remember?”
I nodded, confused. “Yes, what about it?”
“She was the Farmer’s child. All the other children he’s had have died of the infection. Every single one apart from her. He has no one else to take over from him. No one except for that baby. No one but you, Lily.”
His meaning was clear.
“Me?” I asked with an indignant squeak. “You think the Farmer is my father? That’s rubbish!”
“It is you. Why do you think that you got past the Crop? They know you have the Affinity. With you we can overthrow the Farmer, get rid of the Crop and rebuild a proper community.”
There was no doubting the excitement in his voice. He truly believed what he had just told me.
“You’ve got everything wrong. I’ve got parents, they’ve just moved away, that’s all.”
“You’ve been lied to, Lily. There’s no doubt it’s you. It’s going to be great!”
I stopped listening to him, appalled. It couldn’t possibly be true. He and Aria had to have made a mistake. There must have been another girl on the Tube platform. They just got the wrong one, that’s all. It was all just a horrible coincidence.
Dane was still talking. “It’s the Crop that’s the key. It’s how he controls everything – he breeds it, he nurtures it and he feeds it, and he is the only one who can do it. If anyone else were to get into this lift without the protection of the gate, they’d be dead in minutes. And building up the levels to use it as a weapon – that was the final straw.”
He paused for a moment, and when he spoke again his voice was softer.
“But you’ll be able to take over, Lily. We can overpower the Farmer and then you can control the Crop for us. We need them as protection, that’s a
ll. Not as a weapon.”
I shook my head, forgetting that he couldn’t see me in the dark.
“You’re wrong, Dane. It can’t possibly be me.”
“It’s OK, I understand that it’ll take a bit of getting used to, but now we have an excuse for you to be down here, so we’ll have plenty of time.”
He really believed it; that was clear from his voice. How was I going to convince him before he took me up to the Crop for a test? That was never going to go well.
Before I could speak again his hand found my arm and he squeezed it. “Not a word to anyone, all right? If he hears about this we’re all dead.”
I was about to reply when the greasy smell of fried food hit me, adding to my general feeling of nausea. We were nearly at the bottom. As the lift shuddered to a halt, the dim light from the corridor reached us. Dane peered at me.
“You don’t look well,” he said. “I hope that I’ve not upset you too much?”
“Why would I be upset? He’s obviously not my father – it’s a ridiculous suggestion. Come on, I want to get back to Will.”
“OK, OK, just let me get this – mind your fingers.”
He unlatched the gate and it sprang back, closing tightly into a recess in the lift wall.
There were no guards this time, and Dane set off down the corridor with me right behind. He knew that I wasn’t going to try to escape. I jogged alongside him.
“We need to run faster, Dane. Get a shift on.”
It’s too late. Will is lost, his body limp. I can’t let his passing go unrecorded so I’ll make the mark for him as he joins our others, the long, long list of children who never really were. Before he is taken away I will cut my own thumb, and cover his hand in my blood. His handprint will be left on the wall alongside Carita’s lost children, their cousins and the other children who would have been their friends if things had been different. It will be all that is left to show that he was ever here at all.
The race through the tunnels seemed endless, but finally we made it back to the miserable room where Will was being kept. There was no sign of Lance or any other guard. I threw aside the thick curtain and burst through the entrance, desperate to get the medicine into Will as quickly as possible. Aria was sitting on the floor leaning back against the opposite wall, her eyes closed, cradling Will’s head on her lap. Carita was also there. She looked exhausted.