Страница 35 из 80
Good dog, I think, Good effing dog.
And I can’t leave him, can I?
I run back into the darkness, towards where I can see Matthew hopping around and the form of Manchee dancing twixt his legs and swipes of the machete, barking his little head off.
“Todd! Todd! Todd!” he’s barking.
I’m five steps away and still ru
I let out a yell and crash right into Matthew. We both go flying, toppling to the floor in a tumble of elbows and kneecaps. It hurts but mostly I’m landing on Matthew so that’s okay.
We roll apart and I hear him call out in pain. I get right back up to my feet, knife in hand, a few metres away from him, far from the back door now and with Matthew blocking the front. I hear Manchee whimpering in the dark.
I also hear some Noise rising from across the village road in the direkshun of the meeting hall but there ain’t time to think about that now.
“I’m not afraid to kill you,” I say, tho I totally am but I’m hoping my Noise and his Noise are now so rackety and revved up that he won’t be able to make any sense from it.
“That makes two of us then,” he says, lunging for his machete. It don’t come out first tug, or the second. I take the chance to jump back into the dark, looking for Manchee.
“Manchee?” I say, frantically looking behind the sheaves and the piles of fruit baskets. I can still hear Matthew grunting to get his machete outta the floor and the ruckus from the town is growing louder.
“Todd?” I hear from deep in the darkness.
It’s coming from beside the silage rolls, down a little nook that opens up next to them back to the wall. “Manchee?” I call, sticking my head down it.
I look back real quick.
With a heave, Matthew gets his machete outta the floor.
“Todd?” Manchee says, confused and scared. “Todd?”
And here comes Matthew, coming on in slow steps, like he no longer has to hurry, his Noise reaching forward in a wave that don’t brook no argument.
I have no choice. I wedge myself back into the nook and hold out my knife.
“I’ll leave,” I say, my voice rising. “Just let me get my dog and we’ll leave.”
“Too late for that,” Matthew says, getting closer.
“You don’t wa
“Shut yer mouth.”
“Please,” I say, waving the knife. “I don’t wa
“Do I look concerned, boy?”
Closer, closer, step by step.
There’s a bang outside somewhere, off in the distance. People really are ru
I press myself back into the little nook but it’s really not wide enough for me. I glance round, seeing where escape might lie.
I don’t find nothing much.
My knife’s go
“Todd?” I hear behind me.
“Don’t worry, Manchee,” I say. “It’s go
And who knows what a dog believes?
Matthew’s almost on us now.
I grip my knife.
Matthew stops a metre from me, so close I can see his eyes glinting in the dark.
“Jessica,” he says.
He raises his machete above his head.
I flinch back, knife up, steeling myself–
But he pauses–
He pauses–
In a way I reckernize–
And that’s enough–
With a quick prayer that it ain’t the same stuff from the bridge, I swing my knife in an arc to my side, slicing right thru (thank you thank you) the ropes holding up the silage rolls, cutting the first lot clean away. The other ropes snap right quick from the sudden shift in weight and I cover my head and press myself away as the silage rolls start to tumble.
I hear thumps and clumps and an “oof” from Matthew and I look up and he’s buried in silage rolls, his arm out to one side, the machete dropped. I step forward and kick it away, then turn to find Manchee.
He’s back in a dark corner behind the now-fallen rolls. I race over to him.
“Todd?” he says when I get close. “Tail, Todd?”
“Manchee?” It’s dark so I have to squat down next to him to see. His tail’s two thirds shorter than it used to be, blood everywhere, but God bless him, still trying to wag.
“Ow, Todd?”
“It’s okay, Manchee,” I say, my voice and Noise near crying from relief that it’s just his tail. “We’ll get you fixed right up.”
“Okay, Todd?”
“I’m okay,” I say, rubbing his head. He nips my hand but I know he can’t help it cuz he’s in pain. He licks me in apology then nips me again. “Ow, Todd,” he says.
“Todd Hewitt!” I hear shouted from the front of the barn.
Francia.
“I’m here!” I call, standing up. “I’m all right. Matthew went crazy–”
But I stop cuz she ain’t listening to me.
“Ye gotta get yerself indoors, Todd pup,” Francia says in a rush. “Ye gotta–”
She stops when she sees Matthew under the silage.
“What happened?” she says, already starting to tug away the rolls, getting the one off his face and leaning down to see if he’s still breathing.
I point to the machete. “That happened.”
Francia looks at it, then a long look up at me, her face saying something I can’t read nor even begin to figure out. I don’t know if Matthew’s alive nor dead and I ain’t never go
“We’re under attack, pup,” she says, standing.
“Yer what?”
“Men,” she says, rising. “Prentisstown men. That posse that’s after ye. They’re attacking the whole town.”
My stomach falls right outta my shoes.
“Oh, no,” I say. And then I say it again, “Oh, no.”
Francia’s still looking at me, her brain thinking who knows what.
“Don’t give us to them,” I say, backing away again. “They’ll kill us.”
Francia frowns at this. “What kinda woman do ye think I am?”
“I don’t know,” I say, “that’s the whole problem.”
“I’m not go
“Where’s Viola?”
“Back at my house,” Francia says, suddenly all active again. “C’mon. We gotta get ye inside.”
“Wait.” I squeeze back behind the silage rolls and find Manchee still in his corner, licking his tail. He looks up at me and barks, just a little bark that’s not even a word. “I’m go
“Okay, Todd,” he whimpers, yelping each time he wags his stumpy tail.
I reach down, put my arms under his tummy and hoist him up to my chest. He yelps and bites hard at my wrist, then licks it.
“It’s okay, buddy,” I say, holding him as best I can.
Francia’s waiting for me at the doors to the barn and I follow her out into the main road.
There are people ru
“Where’s Hildy?” I yell.
Francia don’t say nothing. We reach her front steps.
“What about Hildy?” I ask again as we climb up.
“She went off to fight,” Francia says, not looking at me, opening the door. “They would have reached her farm first. Tam was still there.”
“Oh, no,” I say again stupidly, like my “oh nos” will do any good.
Viola comes flying down from the upper floor as we enter.
“What took you so long?” she says, her voice kinda loud, and I don’t know which one of us she’s talking to. She gasps when she sees Manchee.
“Bandages,” I say. “Some of those fancy ones.”