We looked back to the doors in front of us as they opened and the passengers jumped out.
Chapter 4
As the days went by I found myself thinking only of Alice and of what she had done for me. She had been away from school for the days that followed and I worried she’d moved schools just like Jerome and his friends had been forced to do, doubtless to visit misery on another poor boy in some other area. Where I would not miss those three, I found myself missing the girl who had saved my life.
My year group were treating me different now and were making more of an effort with me. Although I wasn't used to having people to talk to at school, I would talk back to most of the kids who were making a new effort. But I would still keep to myself and I went to the computer labs during my lunch break just as I always had. I decided not to tell my mother of what happened at school. The last thing I wanted was her freaking out and pulling me out of there. For one thing, I’d never see Alice again.
Then Wednesday arrived and it was art class. I took the seat in my usual spot at the edge of the room, all alone. My legs were shaking and my feet tapped against the floor, even though I doubted she’d show today.
Then Alice entered.
She was sandwiched between two friends and they strolled to the other end of the room and took seats.
My heart pounded through my chest, I felt it all the way up in my throat which actually made me feel kind of sick. I watched her as she took her pencil case out from her bag. I could tell she sensed every set of eyes in the room watching her and she blushed from the attention. She had long red hair and chubby cheeks that always made her look happy.
Then something incredible happened.
She looked at me.
Time stopped and for unknown seconds we had our first moment I would never forget.
I smiled at her and silently mouthed “thank you.” She looked away and then down to her pencils. I swallowed and felt a lump in my throat. For the rest of that day I was in the clouds.
Weeks went by. She never looked at me again. I began to wonder if what I’d experienced in art class had been my imagination. I tried to get close to her, to talk to her, but she always had her friends around. She had picked up a few new ones too. She was popular. I was not.
I always thought about her. One time I followed her home from school to see where she lived. I was careful to make sure I kept a safe distance, I would have died if she saw me. But no matter where or when it was, she always had people around her. I wished I possessed the courage to talk to her. But I knew I’d only stutter my words and those who gathered around her would just judge me and maybe even laugh.
My mum sensed there was something wrong as I was not eating my meals. I just told her I was studying hard for the upcoming exams and was finding it all stressful.
I tried to take my mind off Alice. For the first time ever, I went to the local park and played football with the other boys. I'll always remember the look on their faces when I arrived. It was fun, I became a little fitter and I actually made a few friends. They were nice and they didn't treat me any different to how they treated the other boys.
At school I would play football too. I stopped going to the computer labs, although I would still design my computer programmes when I got home, just not as much as I used to. But school was ending in two weeks and most of my new friends would leave for college or to find work. I regretted that only now was I actually beginning to experience what school was supposed to be all about.
Then exams came. I was prepared and I think I did ok.
The final exam was art. I resigned myself to the fact that this would be the last time I’d ever see Alice because I’d heard she was going to Art College for the new term, while I was sticking on at school to try for a place at university. We had to draw a picture of something that had inspired us during our lives. So I drew Alice. I didn't want to hand it in at the end of the exam, I wanted to keep it and it was hard to see it go into the pile with thirty other pieces of art.
Then the teacher said we could all go home. Everybody stood and I watched helpless as Alice walked out of my life.
My heart sank and I hoped the inevitable torture my heart would suffer over the summer would not be too harsh. But as soon as I returned home, reality hit me, the reality that I would never see Alice again and my heart was full with regret.
The summer went by and although Alice was always in the back of my mind, things did get easier. I kept myself occupied with playing football and meeting new people. I even got a part time job collecting golf balls at the driving range.
One day after playing football, John invited me over to his for a house party that night. His parents were out of town and had foolishly entrusted their son with the house for the weekend. It would be my first ever party, so I said yes!
There was music, girls, the odd breakage of an expensive household item and of course alcohol. John handed me my first ever beer and we drank whilst discussing football mixed in with our plans for after the summer.
Then I heard a series of wolf whistles as a group of girls entered through the front door. I recognised them from school and it was nice to see some old familiar faces.
Alice was there!
My heart leapt, time stopped dead.
"It really pisses me off the way Man City fans think they’re better than Man United, they won the league once." John said, but I didn't really hear him.
No way would I pass up this opportunity to finally speak with Alice. I walked straight up to her, even though she had her friends with her. "Hello, Alice." My voice was squeaky and I could feel myself shaking. "I never got to thank you for the time you saved me from getting stabbed."
She was surprised to see me and looked a little shaken, but happy. "Oh, that’s ok, somebody had to do something. You look different."
"I spend all day walking around looking for golf balls, it's good exercise and I play football too. How are your hands?"
"I had some stitches put in, but he didn't cut me too bad.” She showed me and I made a goofy appreciative grin.
We spoke for over an hour and I was struck by how easy she was to talk to. "I wish we’d had this conversation months ago."
"Well you should have just come over and spoken to me then." She said with a cheeky smirk and she was right, I really should have.
I pulled out my camera phone and took a photo of us together before asking, "would you like to go for a walk tomorrow?"
Chapter 5
We ran through the Arndale Centre, a large city centre shopping mall which connected various parts of the centre of Manchester. The Arndale Centre occupied two floors, each running circular around a central atrium containing dozens of stores.
Yet, again we found danger at every turn. We were no safer here than we were outside, or at Piccadilly station.
We’d managed to escape the train station, but only because we had advanced warning from the other carriage of what awaited us when the doors in front of us opened. Several men with blood on their faces had leapt at us from the open doors. We were trapped, all except for one escape route. We hit the ground. As those deranged men flew into the people behind us, we crawled along the side of the train and dropped onto the tracks as those we left behind died horrible deaths. I realised then that something inhuman had struck these people and that we’d need to be careful how close we came to those we didn't recognise from now on.
Now we saw those same deranged lunatics once again, attacking people at random and for no reason at all. What happened to these people’s sanity? Had everybody started taking some kind of a new drug? Or was it something to do with all the mobile phone signals that had finally sent everybody insane. The best explanation I could come up with was that I was in fact dreaming.
That thought was cut short when I saw two policemen attempting to taze a tall tattooed man in a Manchester City football shirt. It had no effect on the man as he continued stumbling towards them, dragging his foot along the ground. The policemen backed
up and reached for the pepper spray. The tall guy took a huge dose in the eye balls but was not deterred in the slightest. I bet they wished they had guns I thought, as the guy in the football shirt lunged at one of them, biting off the front of his face.
"Don't look at that Alice," I covered her eyes and led her away.
We walked around the perimeter, or at least we tried. Three men had evidently looted the DIY store and had taken a sledge hammer, a hacksaw and a DeWalt cordless drill. They approached a cash point embedded in the wall before the one with the sledgehammer took a giant swing, cracking the head against the screen. He beckoned forward his comrade with the drill who took a turn at trying to get to the riches.
I thought a weapon might be just what we needed, but as soon as that thought entered my mind, I realised that speed was probably our best weapon, after all, I had Alice to think about.
The need to find a safe hideout was greater now than ever, but where to? It would simply be a matter of running as far as possible, avoiding the obstacles and holing up somewhere until whatever was happening died down. I’d been caught up in the riots a couple of summers before when they spread from London to the rest of the country and the scenes weren’t too dissimilar, well except for biting people’s faces off, that was all new to me. The looting was similar though and the same stores that had been looted then, were being looted now and I stood aghast as a stream of youths ran out from the All Saints clothing store with backpacks bursting at the seams. It really hadn't taken much for law and order to break down. Was the whole world just a few incidents away from anarchy?
The looters were blocked by a wall of deranged men, women and even children. Most had blood all over their bodies. Some had limbs missing yet didn't seem to be in any pain. They advanced in a slow moving pack, each with a look of lust on their face. Foolishly, the looters thought they could intimidate their foes simply by nature of the fact they were wearing masks. They ran straight for the pack, using their backpacks as battering rams. That was their biggest mistake as the four looters were fallen on from all directions. They disappeared from site as the mob of freaks tore their limbs apart.
"Well we can't go that way!"
"Upstairs, there's less people up there." Alice said, yanking at my arm. "We'll need to head the other way for the escalators."
We dashed back the way we’d come. Now, people ran in the direction of the freaks we were running away from. We passed the trio of thieves who were trying to break in to the cash machine, only now, the guy with the DeWalt was busy drilling a hole into the forehead of a woman he had pinned down on the ground. I saw the guy with the sledgehammer taking a swing with his tool, smashing the rib cage and internal organs of a postman, letters flying from his bag. Yet the postman returned to his feet and continued his pursuit of a victim.
We arrived at the escalators and I prayed we could make it round to the far side of the perimeter where we could hopefully take the exit through one of the stores and onto Market Street. The truth is that for the first time I was beginning to doubt we’d ever find safety. But I owed it to Alice, she had saved me, so I would die to save her.
We ran along the top floor, thankfully it was less dense with people, looters and the deranged. Then we froze.
Three looters strolled out from the Apple store. They held large bags which they dropped to the floor when they saw us.
We knew these looters.
"You aint gonna disrespect me now, white boy, are you!" Jerome said as he brought a knife out from his back pocket. "This must be my lucky day."
What were the chances of this happening? My mind went into overdrive, a hundred scenarios ran through my head. I thought about running, but I knew there was no chance Alice could outrun the three of them, I doubted even I could. I thought about shouting for help and on any other day I'm sure help would have come, but not today when the whole city seemed to have lost its collective head. Finally, I thought about taking them on, just like I had fantasised about in my dreams so many times, but I couldn't risk Alice getting hurt in the fallout and besides, I was sure I'd end up getting killed.
"Just leave us alone, you'll never have a better opportunity to rob the place, so don't waste it." I said, hoping they’d see sense.
"You don't get it do you. You don't disrespect me!" Jerome said, eyeing the light shining off his blade.
"Your problem is with me, let Alice go!" I really thought they’d be happy with this compromise.
"That bitch disrespected us too!" It turned out the tall, lanky one wearing a bright yellow baseball cap and full yellow shell suit also had a voice.
"We gonna kill you both!" The third submissive member of the group turned out not to be so submissive either.
I gave Alice's hand a squeeze and she squeezed it back. There was nobody else around to help, so I would have to do this myself.
The submissive gang member lunged for Alice and I pushed her out of the way. "Leave her alone!" I tried to shield Alice from them but they simply encircled us, like a pack of wolves around their prey. But when a prey is cornered and protecting their loved one, there’s not a single force in nature that’s more powerful, and they failed to realise this, those high school drop outs.
I decided to go for the biggest threat first, Jerome with the knife. I feigned a punch and he moved to block it, so I kicked him in the balls. But that movement had left Alice unguarded and the yellow attacker tried to grab her. She brushed his attempt aside and I was surprised at just how feeble he really was. I dived on the submissive one, sending us both crashing into the wall.
"Run Alice, run!" I shouted but she didn't. "Alice, you must run now, I'll catch up with you, I promise."
She was crying, which only made me more determined to fight these guys, even though deep down, I knew I was dead. She ran, looking back as she did.
The submissive gang member held me down in a headlock. I couldn't move. Through the gap in his arm, I saw Jerome stumbling over to me. He was pained from the crack I'd given his nuts. The yellow one ran over and held my body still, preventing me from using my knees on the ribs of the one who had my head.
"This is gonna hurt.” Jerome said with a grin.
I felt the cold steel slowly penetrating the back of my thigh, which was the only area of my body he could get a clear view of. He twisted the blade and the pain shot up through my spinal column and into my brain. It gave me an adrenaline rush which caused a gush of blood to shoot out through the open wound, as I tried as hard as I could to wrestle myself free of these monsters.
"You got blood on my shell suit, white boy." If I could have seen it, I'm sure the red and yellow would have been a contrast.
I felt the blade come free from my leg, which made a sickening sucking sound and I braced myself for the next thrust of the knife.
Not one of us noticed the half dozen deranged lunatics until they descended upon us at once and then all I could see were empty expressionless faces, blood dripping from teeth. Jerome dropped the knife and was pulled back screaming, blood shooting in a fountain from his neck.
If the submissive one refused to loosen his grip about my head, then we’d both die in a similar gruesome way.
I resigned myself to my fate and consoled myself with the fact I'd repaid my debt to Alice.
Chapter 6
Our walk turned out to be a full blown day around the shops of Manchester. I should have been bored witless going into shop after shop, looking at girl’s clothes and shoes and more clothes and more shoes. But for some reason I wasn't. There was always a lot to see in the Arndale Centre, plenty to take your mind away from the monotony of clothes. Besides, Alice and I were enjoying each other’s company.
We walked along the upper level and beyond the Apple store. There was something I'd wanted to do for a while and I finally plucked up the courage, took her hand and held it in my own while watching her from the corner of my eye. She was smiling. I gave her hand a squeeze and she squeezed it back.
"There's something I’ve wanted to
know." I asked as we sat in Bella Italia awaiting our food. "What made you step up and risk your life to save me? I mean, nobody else did anything, except for you. I'd probably be dead now if you were like all the others and did nothing."
“I’d watched Bloodsport the night before, so I thought I could take them." She said with a twinkle in her eye. I laughed and she took a sip from her coke. "I didn't do anything out of the ordinary. It says a lot about the world today that it takes a girl to stand up like a man, when all the boys stood around and did nothing."
"You're right!"
"I'm not sure I want to live in a world like that." As she looked at me, I wondered if I had it in me to do what she did. Or if when the time came, would I be like all the others and do nothing when somebody needed help?
"What does it say when people need to bring a knife to school to feel like a man? In actual fact, kids that do that are just kids, and will always be kids."
We strolled to the cathedral and sat on the bench that faced the magnificent building. I squeezed her hand.
"You do that a lot don't you?" She asked me.
"Do what?"
"You're always squeezing my hand."
“Oh, I hadn't noticed.”
"I don't mind it, it's your thing. Everybody has little things about them that makes them unique."
We sat and faced the cathedral for what seemed liked hours. As it began to get dark, we shared our first kiss.
Chapter 7
I could now see more clearly because the submissive one had loosened his grip. There were five bloodied attackers, three of which were feeding on Jerome's twitching body. The yellow one picked up his loot from the Apple store then tried to run through the gap formed between the two deranged freaks. But they reached out and clung to him. He dragged them along for several meters under his momentum before their weight brought him to a stop. They pulled him to the ground, still holding his loot. "Help, help!" He shouted as he tried to fend them off.
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