The Dead

The fire couldn’t get him, though. It couldn’t leap across the road or the round thing, the thing the cars went round, round, the roundabout, the magic roundabout. But there was nothing left for him here. He belched. He was full. He picked up his bundle and walked towards the bridge. They were over there, the ones he needed. He could smell them. The living food.

There was water below him now. He stopped to look. And over there … He knew those houses, the big boys lived there, the bastards, he knew the name …

HP sauce, or something, the jolly green giant.

Big Ben.

Aaaah, it was all too much for him.

All he knew was that the bastards lived in there, in the spiky buildings. The ones who made the laws …

Politicians.

You see. He still had the words in him.

Politicians.

He looked down into the river. It was full of fire and death and pigs.

No, not pigs …

He looked at the boiling colours. He wanted to drop something in, see it splash. That’s what you did, wasn’t it? There was a game.

Pig sticks.

No.

Not pigs.

Pooh.

Pooh sticks.

Race them under the bridge. Two sticks. See which one came out first the other side. He’d played it with him, the little one, the boy, what was his name …?

Gone now.

They’d played it, racing sticks under a bridge in the park. Played the game. He wanted to drop something in now. He had something. This thing in his hands. Didn’t know what it was. Why was he carrying it?

It weighed nothing, just a bundle of scraps and twigs.

A stick, yeah. It was a sort of stick.

He propped it on the wall of the bridge then pushed it over, watched as it turned and fluttered in the air, as if it was trying to fly away. And somehow it turned into a boy. A little angel, flying down …

Down and down it fell.

And then the tiny splash.

Watched it float away under the bridge.

Now what? There was something he was going to do, something about a race and sticks and pigs and a jolly green giant.

It had gone.

No mind. No mind. Get over the water to the other side. Get home. Go see his boy.

His Liam.

That was it. Get home to see Liam.

He turned and walked on.

80

The first lifeboat bumped into the pier and the kids gave a cheer. They’d been begi

They clawed at the water, sticking their bodies half over the sides and kicking, scrabbling with the few oars they had. At last they’d stopped.

They were on a wide, open reach of the Thames. On the far side was the great hulk of the battleship HMS Belfast, which had been run as a tourist attraction. Ahead were the twin gothic towers of Tower Bridge. On this side of the river were the high walls and turrets of the Tower of London.

Ed planted his feet firmly on the steel decking of the pier and hugged Courtney. The two of them were cold and wet and exhausted. They clung to each other laughing and crying at the same time.

The fire hadn’t spread this far downriver so it was quite dark. Though the sky to the west was lit by an angry red glow. Ed broke away from Courtney, wiped his face and looked up at the ramparts of the Tower, silhouetted against the sky.

‘It was Wiki, wasn’t it?’ he said. ‘Or was it Jibber-jabber? One of them, anyway, said we should come here.’

‘I don’t know,’ said Courtney. ‘Where are we?’

‘Don’t you recognize it? It’s the Tower of London.’

‘It looks like a castle.’

‘That’s because it is a castle.’ Ed laughed. ‘The oldest bit was built by William the Conqueror, I think.’

‘Who’s he?’

‘It doesn’t matter.’ Ed shook his head. ‘All that matters is that we’ve washed up in just about the safest spot we could. This is the perfect place to hide out. No sickos could get to us in there.’

Jordan Hordern was already organizing the kids, shouting at them to form into groups.

‘We need to know who’s made it and who we’ve lost,’ he barked.

Ed checked his crew. It didn’t take long. He and Courtney were the only two left. Jordan had lost five of his boys, either in the fight or when the boat had sunk. Of the third group, the kids who’d joined the fight at the roundabout, nobody really knew how many there had been to start with. Some kids talked of losing friends, but again it had all been so confusing – for all they knew their friends could have crossed Lambeth Bridge safely. Though one or two were certain their friends had disappeared in the water. Ed remembered that pale face sinking past him when he’d gone under.

He tried to shut the image out of his mind.

‘We need to get inside the Tower,’ said Jordan, who had evidently come to the same conclusion as Ed. ‘In the morning we can find food and water, but for now we need somewhere to get warm and dry and safe. We have to assume, though, that there’s already people inside. So be ready for a fight.’ He took off his glasses and wiped them clean. ‘If you all work together and do what I say, you’ll be all right. But just remember – I’m in charge. OK? DogNut here is my second in command directly responsible for my boys. That’s Ed over there. The one with the scar. He’s in charge of everyone else. You do what he says, he does what I say.’

‘Who says he’s in charge of us?’ said a short kid with thick arms and a fat neck.

‘I do.’

‘And who says you’re in charge?’

Jordan walked over to the short kid. He didn’t stare at him directly, but stood right next to him and looked out across the river at HMS Belfast. Somehow it was more intimidating than if he’d gone eyeball to eyeball with him.

‘Don’t argue with me,’ he said quietly.

‘Listen –’ said the kid, but Jordan cut him off.

‘So you want to be in charge, do you?’

‘Maybe?’

The short kid looked around for support. Nobody seemed keen to back him up.

‘Do you not think I’d better be in charge?’ asked Jordan. His voice low and steady.

‘Yeah, all right,’ said the short kid, and Jordan walked away.

‘I like him. I like his style,’ said Kyle quietly as he came over to stand next to Ed, still holding his fire axe. Then he raised his voice and addressed everyone else. ‘I ain’t got no problems with Ed,’ he said, and gave a big smile. ‘He knows what he’s doing. I saw him fight. This man is a maniac! Now, let’s get shifted. I’m freezing my bollocks off here.’

The castle was ringed by two walls: a plain outer wall, and a higher i