Hooded Man (5 page)

There was a nod from their leader, and Tanek turned in Granger’s direction. Quicker than anything he’d ever seen in his life, the larger man had fired, the bolt catching Granger’s gun hand, sending the pistol flying out of his grasp and pinning his hand to the wall. He shrieked in pain as the bolt drove itself through his palm. Tanek then turned the crossbow – so unusual in its design, not needing to be reloaded, it seemed – back on Ennis. He looked up pleadingly at Granger for a moment before the bolt was shot directly into his head.

Granger howled, the pain in his hand forgotten for a moment. His friend, his ‘second in command’ was dead. The girl in the shirt was shaking and crying, and the other members of The Jackals – how stupid that name sounded now – gawked at Ennis’s body in disbelief.

“You bastard!” Granger spat.

The man in combats pointed to his chest with one finger, like it had nothing to do with him. “You asked. We gave a demonstration. As simple as that.” His accent grew thicker with each word. “Now, what you have to ask yourself is, can we get past this and work together?”

Work together? He had to be joking. After what he’d just done to Ennis... But Granger knew what the option was. When this man had said there was a choice, he’d been lying. Really there was no choice at all.

“So, your answer, if you please.” The man clasped his hands behind his back, tapping one booted foot. “I am waiting.”

Granger, still in agony from the bolt in his palm, hung his head, nodding.

“Excellent, then allow me to introduce myself. My name is De Falaise. My aim is to bring order to this country,
oui
? Like your comrades here, England is on its knees. I intend to offer it the same choice I gave you: a killing blow or the chance to serve.”

Granger stared at him; this guy was insane.

“Myself and my men are heading north,” De Falaise continued, visibly enjoying his speech. “As my ancestors recognised, the seat of true power is not the capital at all. That,
mon ami
, is just for the tourists. It is from another place entirely that we will expand. We will reach out to every corner of this island, crushing any form of resistance. You are now a part of my army, making history, as it was once made long ago. In years to come, people will look back on this moment as the start of something truly wondrous.”

He actually believes what he’s saying
, thought Granger.
He wants to become like the King of England or something
... But then, stranger things had happened. And wasn’t it only what Granger himself had done on a smaller scale? Hadn’t this been his kingdom until De Falaise came along? Now, instead, he was one of the subjects in another man’s realm – or maybe even the fool?

De Falaise returned Granger’s stare. “So, do we understand each other?”

Granger nodded reluctantly again.

“Then answer me.”

“Yes,” Granger whispered. “We understand each other.”

“Louder.”

Granger gritted his teeth then raised his voice. “I said we understand each other.”

De Falaise grinned. “Good.” He reached up and yanked the bolt out of the wall, and Granger’s palm. The younger man screamed again as blood flowed freely from the wound. “You may want to bandage that before we set off.”

Granger, breath coming in hisses, gasped: “S-set... set off?”

“That is correct. We leave for the army base at Hendon within the next half hour,” De Falaise informed Granger, then told the rest of them: “Make yourselves ready.”

As his men escorted The Jackals out, Tanek joined De Falaise standing in front of Granger. De Falaise handed the bloody bolt back to its owner, who wiped it with a cloth. “Do you know, I can see this being the start of a beautiful business arrangement,
non
?”

Granger sneered at him and De Falaise laughed.

He laughed long and hard, almost until it was time to leave the council offices at Whetstone.

CHAPTER FOUR

A
T FIRST HE
thought they had come for him, finally.

Robert was aware of voices before he saw the group of men. They were skirting the edge of the woodland, about seven or eight of them in total. He’d been checking some of his snares when the sound of their talking carried to him. Robert had frozen. He hadn’t heard another human voice in as long as he could remember – not since the men in the yellow suits...

“You must be O-Neg... Completely immune, you lucky bastard...”

“He’s too valuable...”

“Get him!”

Surely they couldn’t have tracked him down after all this time? There would be a certain irony to it if they had. If the hunter was again being hunted.

Leaving the looping trap, and stuffing the last wild rabbit into his skin-pouch, he’d moved swiftly and silently along the edge of the wood, before climbing up a tree to gain a better view. The first time he’d tried this it had been like being a kid again, doing something forbidden, and he heard his late mother’s words in his head:
“Come down from there at once, Robert, before you really hurt yourself!”

There was a part of him that wanted to get hurt this time, wanted to get hurt severely, in fact. Fall down and crack his skull open; wouldn’t that be nice? But there was just as big a part of him that really didn’t want to break his back and not be able to move, laying there dying slowly. Not a good end.

Better than Joanne’s. Better than Stevie’s.

It was like the bow and arrow: the more times he’d done it, the better he’d become. Now, Robert was so used to it, he could scale even the largest of oaks. Up through the branches he went; strong hands, roughened by the elements, hauled him higher and higher. The tips of his boots found notches and ridges, like a mountain climber scaling a rock face.

When he was high enough, he looked down at the sceneand saw the men. No yellow plastic suits, no gas masks or flamethrowers. Just blokes dressed in ordinary clothes, if a little the worse for wear: trousers, shirts, some in jumpers. They were carrying bags, had backpacks slung over shoulders. They knew each other well, were chatting and... yes, even laughing once or twice. Robert’s eyes scanned the men but he could see no sign of rifles, automatic or otherwise. Which begged the question, who were they and where were they going?

He decided to find out. Call it a policeman’s curiosity, which he didn’t even know he still had, or an attempt to find out as much as he could about a potential enemy. Whichever way you looked at it, he was on the move.

Robert leaped from one tree to the next, trailing the men at height until they headed out across a field. If he wanted to know where they were going now, Robert had to break cover and follow on foot. But this didn’t mean exposing his position. The men would still have no idea he was behind them.

As he crested a small hill, Robert saw where they were making for. In a big field just off the road, folk were gathering in fairly large numbers – large for post-virus times, at any rate. Dozens of them: men, women and children. Some brought sacks, some trunks, some holdalls. From his hiding position behind a hedgerow, Robert saw a couple of cars, a couple of vans, but these were few and far between. He guessed petrol was a rare commodity these days, with nobody to keep refilling pumps, without anyone to bring it over from abroad.

Some had reverted to using horses for transportation. Robert watched as a woman dismounted from her steed, swinging a bag down as she went. Set up here and there were makeshift tables, trays with legs, or blankets laid on the ground. People were getting things out of their bags to place on them, arranging them carefully.

My God! It’s a bloody car boot sale
. Robert thought to himself. To his surprise, he found the corners of his mouth curling up.
An honest to goodness car boot sale!

Only there weren’t enough ‘car boots’ to justify the name. It was more like a market, just not as well laid out as those in Mansfield. The purpose was the same, however. Except that here the traders were swapping items rather than paying money for them. In this ‘society’ what use were coins and bits of paper with the Queen’s head on them? This part of England, at least, appeared to have regressed back to the barter system. Having seen nothing of his fellow man in an age, Robert was suddenly engrossed in the unfolding dramas, the flurry of activity as people from miles around gathered to do business. He’d completely forgotten what it was like to be in the proximity of other human beings, to have that contact with them. Was there a part of him now that missed it? No, it was better that he shut himself away, pretended the rest of the world didn’t exist. Live out the remainder of his life ignorant of how the human race was getting along. It had no need for him and vice-versa.

But the same twist of fate that had saved him, killing the two most important people to him in the process, had other ideas.

Robert had been so distracted by the ad hoc market, he didn’t notice the man behind him until it was too late.

“What ye doin’ skulking about there?” said a voice with a thick, Derbyshire accent. “Aye, you there – you with the hood on. Get up and turn yessen around. And don’t get any funny ideas about that bow yer carryin’.”

Robert rose slowly, trying to stop himself from shaking. Was it fear or just excitement at being addressed after so long, at having someone other than a wild animal acknowledge his existence? He heard the distinctive click-clack of a gun being primed for action. And, sure enough, when he turned around, he was greeted with the sight of a man – early forties, though he might have been younger, it was hard to tell after what he must have gone through in the past couple of years – and he was holding up a double-barrelled shotgun. It was a farmer’s weapon, probably wielded by an ex-farmer. There’d certainly been enough of them round these parts. The ruddy complexion had faded somewhat, but Robert could tell that he must still spend a lot of his time outside. The pigeon-chested man wore a checked shirt beneath a tank top with holes in it, his trousers were loose as if he’d lost weight, and his boots had definitely seen better days.

“I’ll say it again. What ye doin’ spying back here?”

Robert said nothing, not even when the man lifted the shotgun higher, not quite aiming at him, but not pointing it away, either. Robert held up his hands to show he meant him no harm.

“What’s a matter, can’t ye speak or summat? Bit slow, eh?”

Robert shook his head. There was nothing wrong with his faculties. It had just been so long since he’d spoken, he wasn’t even sure if he could anymore. Carefully, he began to reach across into his open coat.

“Keep yer hands where I can see ’em,” instructed the man, moving forward.

“I...” began Robert. The sensation of talking felt odd; alien even. The look of shock on his face must have registered, because the man frowned.

“Just what’s yer game? We don’t want no trouble at the market.”

“No game. No trouble,” Robert assured him. With each word, his voice grew stronger. “I’ve just come along to trade.”

“That so?”

“It is. If you’ll let me...?” Robert reached into his coat again, very slowly, the shotgun trained on him the whole time. “Easy... easy... See, in my pouch.”

The man drew nearer to get a better look. “Rabbits?”

“Rabbits,” repeated Robert.

Then the ‘farmer’ began to laugh: long, hard chuckles that caused his frame to shake. “Oh, that’s a good un,” he said eventually. “Rabbits... Judas Priest! What yer thinking of swappin’ for them scrawny devils?”

Robert shrugged, pulling down his hood. “Whatever I can.”

Lowering his shotgun, the other man wiped the tears from his eyes. “Aye, I’d be interested to see it an’ all. Well, come on. Let’s take yer down there, then, before all the best bargains are gone.”

For a second, Robert hesitated, the very thought of meeting, of mixing with that number of people was terrifying. What if the men after him should happen by? “Is... is it safe?” asked Robert.

The man frowned. “Safe? What yer talkin’ about?”

He didn’t have a choice, he had to ask. “The... the men in yellow suits. The ones who set fire to the bodies.”

He looked at Robert like he was insane. “Where yer bin, on Mars or somethin’?”

“Something,” admitted Robert.

“They haven’t bin round for ages, that lot. Not since the early days.”

“What happened to them?”

“Dead,” said the man, his face stern. “Like everyone else.”

“So there was no cure?”

“Cure?” He laughed again, but there was a bitterness to it this time. “There were never any cure. Look, are ye comin’ to the market or not? I haven’t got all day.”

Robert gave a small nod, and they began to walk across the field. The closer they came, the more he wanted to run – even though he knew the fear was irrational.

What if he’s wrong – what if they’re still out there somewhere, looking for you?

You heard what he said, they’re all dead. Only the O-Negs are left. It’s the grand total of the human race.

But...

“So, yer a poacher?” the man said, interrupting Robert’s argument with himself. He nodded at the bow to emphasise what he meant.