The Enemy

Just John. He’d stabbed up at Freak from the ground with his horrible three-bladed spear.

‘No.’ Maxie’s cry sounded like the snarl of a wild beast. All her pain was forgotten, she moved quickly, with an inhuman strength fuelled by rage and despair. Arran’s club swung through the air in a blur of silver-grey. It slammed into the shaft of John’s spear and knocked it out of his hands.

He looked up at her, surprised. She raised the club above her head.

‘Tell them to stop!’ she shouted. ‘Now!’

‘Make me, bitch.’

Maxie swiped the club across John’s face. It smashed into his nose and flattened it sideways. He howled. Maxie kicked him flat and picked up his spear.

‘Now tell them!’ she shouted, pressing the blades into the soft skin at his throat. ‘And don’t ever call me a bitch again, you ugly piece of shit.’

Just John mumbled something, blood streaming from his ruined nose into the gravel.

Maxie looked over and saw Carl, with a bunch of tough-looking squatters, grappling with Achilleus and his best fighters.

‘Everybody stop now!’ she screamed, finally making herself heard. Kids paused in what they were doing. Carl looked furious. All he could see was the blood pouring out of Just John and Maxie standing there holding his spear.

What had she done to him?

‘I’ll kill him!’ Maxie yelled. ‘I swear it! Now stop! Throw down your weapons.’

‘You better do as she says,’ said Achilleus.

‘Do it,’ Carl ordered, and the squatters gave up the fight.

45

Pod had finally got to Blue and was dragging him out of the ruins of the shack. His body was limp and lifeless. He’d been knocked cold by a falling beam. He was still alive, though. Pod ordered his team to make a stretcher out of bits of scrap.

Lewis watched them, his Afro flattened in the rain, his head looking two sizes smaller. ‘We’re going to need another one of those,’ he said.

Pod gave him a quizzical look.

‘Freak’s hurt.’

There was a sullen mood in the camp as the squatters surveyed the damage. Many of their shacks were completely trashed. Half of their tents trampled. They were getting thoroughly soaked. Younger kids were crying.

Achilleus and the fighters were standing in a ring round Just John, who still hadn’t got his senses fully back. He was lying on the gravel, bewildered and bedraggled.

Another group was clustered around Freak, who was sitting where he had dropped. Ollie was pressing a piece of torn cloth over the wound in his back. Maxie was holding him in her arms.

‘I don’t want to die,’ Freak whispered.

‘Then don’t,’ said Maxie, trying not to sob. She looked at Ollie, who had a look of utter hopelessness on his face.

‘I don’t feel good,’ said Freak. ‘I wish my mum was here. How she was. Before she got sick. I wish everything was how it was before. I never asked for any of this. It was just me and Deke. Spraying our tag on the walls.’

‘Freaky-Deaky,’ said Maxie.

‘Yeah… Is Deke there? Where’s Deke?’

‘He’s not here.’

‘Neither am I,’ said Freak and he closed his eyes.

‘The bleeding’s stopped,’ said Ollie.

‘He’s dead,’ said Maxie.

46

They wrapped Freak in a blanket and carried him gently on to one of Pod’s stretchers. They lifted Just John to his feet and tied his hands behind his back.

Maxie looked at the sky, and then walked over to where the squatters were standing watching. She looked for Carl, the pirate, who seemed to be John’s second in command.

‘Here’s the deal,’ she said, her voice cold and hard and clear. ‘We’re going back to the palace and we’re taking John with us. You’ve till this evening to decide what you want to do. But before it gets dark you send someone to the palace to talk to us and we’ll sort out what happens next.’

‘What do you mean what happens –’

‘Shut up, Carl. I’m speaking. Two things can happen. One. You turn up and make peace, and we figure out how we can all get along, and you take John home with you. Happy ending. Or two. No one shows up and we come back here with a bigger force, with all our weapons, and we don’t hold back. We wipe you out. Kill you if we have to. You understand? It’s your choice.’

47

‘On a Friday or Saturday night we’d get pizzas and watch DVDs.’

‘Me too… Only we used to get Indian takeaways.’

Sam and Rhia

‘I used to love chicken tikka,’ said Rhia

‘Me too,’ said Sam. ‘But we didn’t get Indian food much. It was too spicy for my little sister, Ella.’

‘Don’t she like chicken tikka? Everyone likes chicken tikka.’

‘She likes it a bit. But she’s not very good with food. She’s fussy. All she really likes is margherita pizza.’

‘Boring,’ said Rhia

‘I bet you wouldn’t say no to one now, though,’ said Sam.

‘Maybe we could ring for a delivery,’ said Rhia

‘Domino’s,’ said Sam. ‘What will you have?’

‘Four seasons.’

‘I don’t think I ever had one of them.’

‘We’ll get a DVD from the shop and have pizza,’ said Rhia

‘We used to watch TV series mostly,’ said Sam. ‘Sometimes three episodes in one night.’

‘Yeah,’ said Rhia

‘Doctor Who,’ said Sam. ‘And Heroes. But it was a bit gory.’

‘We were halfway through Lost,’ said Rhia

‘That was too scary for Ella,’ said Sam. ‘She liked Ugly Betty. She didn’t really understand it, though.’

‘Did you have a Wii? We had a Wii.’

‘No,’ said Sam. ‘I used to play games on my computer. World of Warcraft.’

‘My favourite was The Sims.’

‘Yes, I quite liked that. But I preferred World of Warcraft. I had a Tauran shaman called Dorkcrawler, I wanted to call him Darkcrawler but that name was already taken. I also had a Night Elf Warrior called Deathblooood, with four Os, and a gnome called Shortybottom. He was level sixty-two.’

‘Were you on Facebook or MySpace?’

‘No. My mum wouldn’t let me,’ said Sam. ‘I used to use MSN sometimes, but mostly I played World of Warcraft. Though I was getting a bit bored of it. My friend had GTA. I really wanted to get that, but Mum said no way.’

There was a muffled thud from somewhere down the train. Sam and Rhia

What was that?

It was a sound they hadn’t heard before. It could mean that Nick and Rachel were up to something in another carriage. Cutting meat. Hurting something. Killing something. It could be other grown-ups attacking. It could be a brick falling from the roof.

Or it could be something to do with the nasty face at the window, and that posed as many questions as it answered.

Of all the things that had happened to him, the face freaked Sam out the most. The fact that it had no mouth.