Them or Us (11 page)

13

I
SPENT ANOTHER HALF
hour walking the streets in the late-evening subzero gloom, checking buildings and looking for somewhere where I could report back to Hinchcliffe and then sleep. I eventually found an upstairs room in an empty bank, and from there I looked down onto the square below through a window covered with strong iron bars like a prison cell. From my position up high I could see the entire square down below. By then the place was virtually deserted, just a couple of people left standing guard, warming their hands over a fire burning in a metal trash can near the hotel, and nothing else happened for as long as I watched. A while ago my curiosity was overtaken by my exhaustion. I tried to read my book for a while and forget where I was, but I was too tired. I lay back on the hard floor, made a pillow from a pile of papers and spare clothes from my backpack, covered myself with my coat, then closed my eyes and tried to get a little rest before reporting back to Lowestoft.

That little rest turned itself into a lot of sleep. I’ve been completely out of it for hours, and I sit up quickly when I realize it’s late and I still haven’t called in. Hinchcliffe’s going to be fucking furious. I grab the radio from my bag.

“Hinchcliffe, it’s me,” I whisper, keeping my voice low. I cringe and fumble for the volume control when a sudden burst of loud static deafens me and fills the entire building.

“Jesus Christ, Danny,” his distorted but distinctive voice immediately answers back. “Where the hell have you been? I was starting to think they’d done you in. Either that or you’d defected.”

Defected? Is he serious or just trying to be funny? His voice sounds slurred, like he’s been drinking. He probably has.

“Nothing like that,” I tell him, wiping the sleep from my eyes and trying to sound more awake and alert than I actually am. “I was just biding my time. Wanted to find out as much as I could before I got back to you.”

“And…?” he asks.

I hesitate. “And I don’t know what’s going on here. Warner’s got these people well and truly on his side. He makes it look like all he’s trying to do is organize them according to his rules and to get them to—”

“That’s half the problem,” Hinchcliffe angrily interrupts. I’m surprised by the strength of the alcohol-fueled venom in his voice.

“What is?”

“
His
rules. Don’t you see, Danny? Warner’s rules aren’t my rules.”

“Suppose not,” I quietly agree, suddenly feeling like I’m walking on eggshells and wishing I hadn’t bothered calling in.

“You’ve heard the old story about two boats in the harbor, haven’t you?”

I don’t have a clue what he’s talking about. “Remind me.”

“They start next to each other and they’re both supposed to be following the same course. One gets it wrong by just a fraction of a degree. They set off together, but the longer they’re at sea…”

“The bigger the gap between them.”

“Exactly. You see what I’m saying? I can’t afford for that to happen, Danny. Not when Southwold is so close.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I can’t speak for Warner, but I don’t think the people here are looking to pick a fight. They think he’s just—”

“Don’t get me wrong, that’s not what I’m looking for, either,” he continues, not listening, “but everybody there needs to understand that things run the way I want them to around here. You play ball or you fuck off, that’s your choice.”

“Have you tried telling them?” I ask, only feeling brave enough to confront Hinchcliffe because he’s ten miles farther up the coast. “You could come down here, try a little diplomacy first and then—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah … Fuck, Danny, it seems to me there’s only two options these days, full-on or fuck all. Why can’t these people just do what I tell them?”

“I know, but—”

“What happens in Southwold is important,” he interrupts again, his voice sounding even angrier now. “I can’t risk having a rebellion on my doorstep, you know what I mean?”

“But are you sure Warner’s a threat?”

“
Everyone
is a potential threat. I thought you’d have worked that out by now.”

“I still think you should talk to him. Try to find out why—”

“What’s the state of the place like?” he interrupts.

“What?”

“What kind of condition is Southwold in?”

“I don’t know. It’s pretty much like everywhere else. A little less damaged than most places, but—”

“And what about supplies?”

“Now that’s the thing. Warner’s got them getting the fields around here ready for planting. On the face of it he seems to be planning for the future. I’ve been working all goddamned day digging goddamned holes…”

“Nothing’s going to grow. Everything’s fucked.”

“We don’t know that for sure. It might be that—”

“I asked you about supplies, Danny. I’m not interested in next year, what are they eating
today
?”

I pause, knowing that Hinchcliffe will hit the roof when I tell him about the delivery.

“I saw a truck arrive.”

“A truck?”

“Great big army thing. It wasn’t one I’d seen before. They unloaded a stack of stuff out of the back.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“Couldn’t tell. Food, weapons … I couldn’t see what they—”

“Fuckers. That will have come from my stores. Fucking Neil Casey, I bet he’s got something to do with this. Bastard’s told them where I keep my supplies. Cunt’s sold me out.”

“I haven’t seen Casey. He wasn’t with the truck. They buried a few bodies this afternoon, and I thought he might have been one of them, but I don’t know if—”

“You said weapons?”

“A few rifles, that’s all, nothing any bigger than that. Look, Hinchcliffe, I really don’t think that—”

“I’m not interested in what you think. All I want to know is what you’ve seen.”

“And I’ve told you everything. I’ll find work again tomorrow and see what else I can find out.”

“I don’t think you understand the importance of this, Danny. There are implications for all of us if Warner starts getting support and if people here start hearing what he’s doing. The grass is always greener on the other side, remember that expression?”

“The grass is yellow everywhere now,” I tell him. “What’s happening here is on a very small scale, Hinchcliffe. If Warner’s stealing from you that’s one thing, but I don’t think it’s worth…”

I stop talking when I realize he’s not there anymore. The radio’s dead.

14

THE SOUND OF ENGINES
wakes me up. The top floor of the bank is icy cold as I scramble across the room to the window and look down onto the square. All around the edges of the large triangle-shaped area, people are emerging from buildings and spilling out onto the street. Several of them dive for cover as a fleet of vehicles powers into the center of Southwold, filling the air with black fumes and noise. I recognize some of these trucks and vans, they’re from Lowestoft. Hinchcliffe’s obviously thought about our conversation last night and has decided to flex his muscles and remind everyone who’s boss. So much for diplomacy and negotiation, not that I ever expected anything different from him.

The convoy stops, filling almost the entire square now. An army of fighters flood out into the open and begin rounding people up. For the most part they do exactly what they’re told, shuffling toward the center of the square. One woman refuses and runs the other way, but she’s chased down by one of Hinchcliffe’s thugs and clubbed to the ground. She lies on the asphalt screaming, blood pouring down her face, everyone else too scared to help. The fighter drags her over to the others. Christ, I need to get out of here.

The arrival of Hinchcliffe’s troops means my time here is up. I quickly gather my stuff and pack everything into my backpack, but I start coughing as soon as I stand upright, and for a few seconds it’s like I’ve lost control of my body. I try to drink from a bottle of stale water, but the first gulp I take ends up sprayed across the floor before I can swallow it down. Eventually the coughs subside. Panting with effort, I spit a lump of sticky, foul-tasting muck into the corner of the room, then lean against the window.

Down on the street below, directly outside the hotel, there’s an uncomfortable-looking standoff taking place. Several of Hinchcliffe’s vehicles have been parked in an arc around the entrance to the building, and his fighters are advancing. I recognize a couple of the more notorious faces. Patterson is moving closer, and Llewellyn is loitering ominously toward the back of the assembled troops, no doubt there to coordinate them and to keep Hinchcliffe updated. Getting out of the lead truck now is his protégé, Curtis, wearing his usual uniform of full body armor. He’s a vile, nasty bastard, not known for his negotiation skills. These discussions won’t last long.

I finish collecting my gear, then swing my pack onto my shoulders, eager to get out of Southwold fast. I glance out of the window again and see that John Warner has emerged from the hotel now. Barely dressed, he’s walking toward Curtis with arms outstretched to demonstrate that he’s unarmed and ready to talk, gesturing for him to follow him into the hotel. Curtis marches toward him. Fuck. What the hell’s he doing? He doesn’t even try talking to Warner. The bastard just lifts up a machete and takes a vicious swipe at the white-haired leader of Southwold. Warner tries to get out of the way, but he’s taken by surprise. Curtis chops down into his neck, hitting him with such violent force that he drops to his knees, the blade wedged deep into his flesh. Curtis grips the older man’s shoulder and yanks him up, then wrenches his machete free. Still holding him, he sinks the tip of the blade deep into Warner’s chest, then pulls it out again, swiping it through the air to get rid of the excess blood before pushing Warner away. He staggers back, his body soaked with glistening red, then his legs give way and he crumbles to the ground like a marionette with severed strings.

There’s a brief moment of silent, stunned disbelief, then all hell breaks loose.

The powerful pit digger from yesterday is the first person to react. He charges at Curtis but is killed as quickly and as easily as Warner. Another fighter comes up behind him and cracks him around the side of the head with a baseball bat, almost decapitating him. Perhaps it’s because I wasn’t expecting it, but even after all I’ve seen and done myself, this sudden brutal violence shocks me to such an extent that I can hardly move.

“Round them up,” Curtis yells to the rest of the fighters. “Take anything worth having and burn the rest. Kill anyone who gets in the way.”

Is this my fault? Even though I’m starting to think that Hinchcliffe sent me here just to find an excuse for him to demonstrate his obvious strength and superiority, I can’t help wondering if it could have been avoided if I’d handled him differently. If I’d told him everything was okay and that Warner was one hundred percent on his side, would he have let Southwold be? Who the hell am I kidding? The more I think about it, the more I realize that, yet again, I’ve been Hinchcliffe’s patsy and he’s played me like a pawn on a chessboard.
Screw the fucking lot of them
, I tell myself as I run downstairs and look for a way out of the bank.
Not my problem
.

I head for the back of the bank, squeezing down a narrow corridor past the open door of an unlocked vault, and I curse myself for picking such an impregnable hiding place. It seemed sensible last night, and the security was welcome, but every window here is either barred or shuttered, and the only other exit is a solid-looking, metal-clad fire door that I’ll never be able to get open. I have no choice but to go back out onto the street.

I slip out through the front door and press myself tight against the outside wall, doing all I can to fade into the background. The village square is in utter chaos now, the remaining population of Southwold scattering in panic as Hinchcliffe’s troops turn on them. I see Jill, the work party leader from yesterday, struggling to load and fire a rifle with trembling hands. She lifts it up, but before she can even get her finger on the trigger, a fighter chops into her side with an axe. Dumbstruck, I stand there like an idiot as Hinchcliffe’s men grapple the locals to the ground, then force those still alive into the trucks that will ferry them back to Lowestoft. Our inglorious leader has obviously decided that having people living here outside his direct jurisdiction is an unacceptable risk. But Christ, did he really need to react like this? A woman is hit with a riot baton when she won’t cooperate, winded first, then bludgeoned around the side of the head. Semiconscious, she’s left on the ground close to Warner’s body, blood pooling around her face, cheekbone shattered and skin split, her eyes moving but nothing else. She looks straight at me …

Spencer, one of Hinchcliffe’s men, comes at me with a crowbar. I see him coming, but I’m stunned, too slow to move. A tall, sinewy black kid in his early twenties, the sick bastard grins with excitement as he sprints toward me, high on the thrill of the fight. He swings out wildly, and at the last possible second I manage to react. I lean over to one side and the crowbar misses me. I feel the rush of wind and hear it whoosh through the air as it whistles just inches past my ear. He lunges at me again, fired up with the adrenaline rush of battle, intoxicated by the sudden release of long-suppressed frustrations.

“Wait!” I shout at him. “Spencer, don’t. I’m on your side. Hinchcliffe sent me here.”

He doesn’t recognize me, probably doesn’t even hear me, and he swings the crowbar through the air again, this time catching me hard on my right shoulder. My padded backpack strap absorbs some of the impact, and I drop to my knees, landing close to the dismembered remains of yet another dead Southwold resident. I scramble back up and run for cover, the fighter still in close pursuit. I weave around the hood of a reversing truck with him gaining fast. I break right, desperate to shake him but knowing I can’t keep this speed up for long, then run straight into another one of them who blocks my path. Now I’m really fucked. I drop to the ground and cover my head, anticipating a barrage of strikes.

“Not this one,” a familiar voice says. I cautiously look up, still expecting to be clubbed, and see that it’s Llewellyn. He reaches down and pulls me up onto my feet like I’m a half-stuffed rag doll.

“What’s going on?” I ask him, gasping for breath and desperately trying not to start coughing again.

“What do you think’s going on? Just carrying out the boss’s orders,” he answers abruptly.

“But this is fucking madness.”

“You tell him,” Llewellyn says, looking me straight in the eye. “I’m just doing what I’m told,” he says again. “Now get in the truck or I’ll personally beat seven shades of shit out of you.”

Relieved, I start to do as he says but then stop.

“Wait, Hinchcliffe’s car. I left it just outside town. He’ll want it back.”

Llewellyn looks at me for a second, then nods his head. “Go and get it, then get yourself straight back to Lowestoft. Any fucking around and you’ll have me to answer to. Right?”

I don’t need to be told twice. I start running, though I’m not sure which direction I need to take, just desperate to get away. I glance back as I run and see that the center of Southwold has quickly degenerated into a depressingly familiar sight. Broken bodies are scattered across the pavement, the dead and dying side by side, and there are people fighting and running in all directions like a scene from any one of a hundred battles I’ve seen before. Except this battle is different because there are no Unchanged here. It makes me feel ashamed, responsible almost. I’m ashamed because of my connection with the man behind this bloodshed, and equally ashamed because all they’re doing is the same thing I’ve done countless times before. A different class of target, that’s all.

I hear the smashing of glass and see a sudden flash of flame, brilliant yellow lighting up the early morning gloom. It’s the hotel. Hinchcliffe’s men are firebombing it. So that’s his tactic this morning—eliminate the figurehead in charge of Southwold, take anything and anyone of value, then do enough damage to render the village uninhabitable. That will leave the survivors of the massacre with only one remaining option: It’s Lowestoft or nothing.