Shift (9 page)

Johnson looks around the room at us. We’re all still hungry, tired and shell-shocked. ‘What about looking first thing in the morning?’ he offers. ‘We can eat now, shower
and whatever, work out who’s sleeping where, then soon as it’s light we get going. Sound like a plan?’

GG holds up his hand as if he’s still in school.

‘Yes, GG?’

‘I like that plan, but I’m not sleeping alone.’

‘Me neither,’ echoes Carrie. ‘That was horrible out there.’

‘So you
were
crying,’ says Billie triumphantly. Carrie gives her the middle finger treatment.

‘OK, let’s get the mattresses and duvets and drag them all in here,’ says Johnson.

‘Orgy!’ is the Ape’s predictable response.

‘Maybe you could take first watch,’ says Johnson to the Ape. The Ape couldn’t look more delighted and grabs his weapon.

‘First shift is eight hours long,’ Carrie tells the Ape. She follows it with a cruel giggle and the Ape doesn’t quite get what she is really saying.

‘Eight hours. No problem,’ he says with a deep pride, then leaves the room.

‘What an idiot,’ Carrie mutters to herself.

I’d usually agree with her, but as infuriating as the Ape can be, she shouldn’t be making fun of him like that.

‘I’ll go relieve him in a couple of hours,’ I tell the room.

‘Already on it,’ says Johnson, and once again his eyes meet mine.

The night passed without an attack from monsters. I took over the watch from Johnson at around two in the morning and he stayed to talk for a moment.

‘We’ll be all right,’ he told me.

‘That a promise?’

‘I’ll do my best to make it one.’

Johnson and I seem to have got in sync without any real effort. I always thought he’d be unapproachable, that someone like me would never get picked up on his radar, but it’s a
pleasant surprise to find that, for now at least, he’s making sure I know we’re in this together.

I watched him walk back to the lounge where everyone was sleeping and when he opened the door I heard the Ape fart loudly in his sleep. Then someone got up and opened a window and muttered
something about too much chicken.

‘Lucas’s surname is Lopez,’ Billie says.

GG turns to L in the telephone directory. ‘It’s like a treasure hunt,’ he says. It’s just gone six in the morning and everyone is up, fed and dressed.

‘We can rule out any of the addresses that aren’t in the school catchment area.’ Johnson looks over GG’s shoulder as he flicks through the pages of the telephone
directory. GG senses Johnson’s breath on his ear and giggles.

Johnson, unlit cigarette in his mouth, scans the page with the surname Lopez on it. ‘There’s only three possible Lopezes it could be.’

‘Mr Sherlock, meet Mr Holmes,’ says GG, impressed.

Billie peers at the telephone directory but I can’t get a look in with them all crowded around, so I stand to one side with Carrie who makes a big point of stepping away from me.

‘
So
not going to be your friend, not even with all of this going on,’ she whispers.

The Ape walks into the lounge to the accompanying flush of the toilet next door. ‘That’s better. Got to lighten the load.’ No one can bring themselves to comment.

‘We’re going to have to split up,’ Johnson announces. ‘Three addresses, three couples.’

‘What about the Moth?’ I ask. ‘Where does he live?’

‘Does anyone know his surname?’ Johnson asks.

‘I did know it, but I can’t remember,’ says Carrie.

‘I barely knew him,’ admits Billie.

‘I just sort of said “hi” now and then,’ I offer weakly.

‘Scratch one Moth,’ says the Ape bluntly.

We all feel pretty bad about this, but I try to make excuses. ‘He never came out much, never really made himself known.’

‘Yeah, it’s all his fault,’ says the Ape even more bluntly.

‘Let’s find Lucas first – he’ll definitely know where the Moth lives.’ Johnson knows we need to keep focused. ‘Who wants to pair up with me?’

‘I will,’ Billie says before I can even take a breath.

Johnson glances at me, and I wonder for a moment if he’d hoped I’d step forward, but when I stay rooted to the spot he turns to Billie. ‘Cool. We’ll take the one on
Turing Avenue.’

‘Me and Rev’ll team up. We’ve been pretty good so far,’ the Ape says.

‘We have?’ I respond.

‘Yeah, we took down the burned man.’

‘He was already down.’

‘But we made sure he stayed down.’

‘What burned man?’ asks GG. ‘No one mentioned a burned man.’

‘It was just this man we, uh, we
met
, at Tesco,’ I say.

‘That’s pretty big news to keep to yourselves,’ says Carrie, glaring at me. ‘Are you saying there’s someone else?’

‘Not any more,’ replies the Ape.

‘He died,’ I explain.

‘So where did he come from? What happened to him?’ Carrie is all over this, getting in my face.

‘We don’t know.’

‘But someone else survived?’ GG says, getting involved in the interrogation.

‘No. No he didn’t. He died. In front of us,’ I tell them.

‘He was all burned up,’ says the Ape.

‘Really badly,’ adds Billie.

‘And I sort of got burned as well,’ I tell them.

‘They’re burns?’ asks Carrie. ‘I thought you had some disgusting skin disease.’

My burns are beginning to sting again and I’m wondering if Johnson will take note and rub more of his magic ointment into them. Maybe if I start grimacing more he might get the
message.

‘He’s gone, so forget it.’ The Ape looms over Carrie and GG as if he wants them to back away from me.

‘But you don’t know who he is or where he came from?’

Johnson has had enough. ‘The burned man isn’t the issue. We don’t know anything about him right now. So let’s concentrate on Lucas.’

Carrie keeps staring at me. ‘Anything else we should know?’

Before I can reply the Ape takes my arm and steers me away. ‘We’ve got Jenner Avenue.’

‘We’ve all swapped phone numbers, right?’ asks GG who is fast becoming Johnson’s second-in-command and rather enjoying it. He made us Bluetooth all our phone numbers to
each other last night. ‘We’re all logged into one another, yes? Is that a yes for GG? I can’t hear you.’

‘Yes,’ we all echo.

‘Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We’re logged and blogged.’

GG turns to Carrie and gives her the sweetest smile in the world. ‘You and I are going to have just the best time ever.’

‘You are so annoying.’

‘I know. Isn’t it wonderful?’ He beams at her.

Johnson glances out of the flat window, casting his eyes over a town that has turned completely alien. It doesn’t matter that I know it inside out, every street and building, it’s
really not the same town any more. I know he senses it too.

‘We should stick to texting,’ he says. ‘Put your phones on vibrate.’

‘There’s no one around to hear them ring, stupid,’ Carrie says.

‘You don’t know that,’ he replies.

‘I think I do, all the evidence is there. And anyway, we want to attract attention, don’t we?’

Billie has also stepped over to the window to gaze at the strangeness. ‘But do we?’

Everyone knows what she means apart from Carrie and the Ape, who is scratching his hairy belly and yawning.

GG produces his phone with a flourish, delicate fingers tapping rapidly. ‘I’ve just gone to vibrate, better to be safe than sorry.’

‘There’s nothing out there.’ Carrie is adamant but no one listens.

We’re too busy changing our phone settings.

When we get outside, the morning has yet to heat up and Billie shivers. As soon as Johnson sees this he drapes his jacket round her shoulders. ‘Here.’

Underneath he’s now wearing a faded black Palma Violets T-shirt and I watch Billie wrap herself into his jacket, like it’s the cosiest thing in the world, and the smile she gives
Johnson is wide and too warm.

‘Thank you.’

‘Anytime.’

For some reason I feel a stab of jealousy and have to turn away in case I wrench the jacket off her. I’m not sure what to make of my reaction, after all I have a boyfriend so why should I
care if Billie and Johnson like each other? And why am I even thinking about them when the end of the world is upon at us. I try and ignore my feelings and hurry to catch up with the Ape.

The Ape really needs a shower but I don’t know how to tell him. Jenner Avenue is at the top of a steep hill and the climb is making him sweat and breathe heavily. There
are small houses lined up on one side and a grass-covered hill on the other. When it snows, half the town gather here with sledges and zoom down it. Everywhere I look I’m reminded of how
empty the town is now. My mind is willing me to spot someone, but as hard as I try I can’t see anything but an empty silent world.

The Ape takes a long moment to grope for words that are probably way beyond him. ‘You know. This is weird.’ He’s only just noticed? ‘Not your average day, is
it?’

Finally it seems to have sunk in and he looks ever so faintly troubled. I fight every instinct to reach out and try and offer him comfort. If I did, he’d think that I was deeply in love
with him and try to grope me or something.

‘No,’ I agree. ‘It’s not even close.’

He stays silent for a long time and I try and force the pace a little because having nothing to say is awkward and embarrassing. And I admit I want to get back to Johnson – and everyone
else of course – as soon as possible.

‘I’m going to be a boxer,’ he suddenly says. ‘I am. Heavyweight division. King of the ring.’

‘Right,’ I say, not really knowing why he’s sharing this with me.

‘I like fighting.’

You don’t say
, I think. But I’m not really listening because I’ve started scanning the area in case there is someone, or some
thing
out there. It should come
as a relief to see someone else, it really should, but my instincts, for what they are, are telling me that if there is someone then they’d be only too keen to make contact with us. So why
haven’t they?

The Ape has brought his weapon with him and he grips it in both hands. ‘I’ll fight anyone or anything. Bring it on. I’ll smash them all.’

‘Can we talk about something else?’ I stare ahead, trying not to think about how quickly Billie latched on to Johnson. I don’t understand why it’s bugging me so much. We
used to talk about him sometimes, and wonder what we’d do if he ever noticed either of us, but other than that I have never really given him much thought. Least I don’t think I
have.

‘Like what?’ the Ape asks.

‘Mm?’ I have completely lost track of our conversation.

‘What d’you want to talk about?’

‘Anything but fighting.’

The Ape takes a long time to try and dredge up another subject. But fails. ‘I will. I’ll smash them.’

It’s clearly down to me to change the subject. ‘What would you have now if you could have anything?’

Like say our family, friends and relatives
, I think.

‘I’d get an escalator,’ says the Ape after a moment.

‘An escalator?’

‘This hill is steep.’

The Lopez house is locked up tight. No one answers when we knock. We look in a few ground-floor windows but there’s no movement and no sign of anyone.

‘No one home.’ As is his way, the Ape states the obvious.

I fish for my phone so I can tell the others that this isn’t the house when glass shatters behind me. I turn and see that the Ape has picked up a white stone garden statue – Eros
holding a birdbath, as if he was always washing birds in mythology – and hurled it through the glass patio door.

‘What the hell are you doing!?’

‘Going inside.’

‘You did that just because you wanted to.’

‘What if he’s stuck?’

‘Stuck? How could he be stuck? You just wanted to smash that door. Admit it. You couldn’t resist. There’s nothing you don’t want to break. Give it a week and you’ll
have broken the entire world.’

But the Ape is already stepping over the smashed glass and calling out. ‘Luke?’

I hang back, not wanting to cut myself on the broken glass. This wanton destruction is really getting to me now.

‘Rev!’ The Ape bellows louder than anyone I have ever heard. Already he is charging out of the house, almost tripping over the fallen stone bird feeder in his haste.

‘Man, it’s not good!’

He drags me into the house, not caring that my jacket catches on some glass, and leads me into the kitchen where I come face to groin with Lucas.

‘Look!’

Lucas is hanging from the ceiling. It isn’t a high ceiling but it is enough to keep Lucas’s dangling feet from touching the linoleum floor. He’s tied a dog lead to a light
fitting and then hanged himself. A stool lies on its side under his feet.

It’s the worst thing I have ever seen in my life and I groan inside and out, the breath leaving me and not coming back. Lucas is wearing his school football kit. Football boots with metal
studs, shin guards under yellow socks. White shorts with yellow trim and a yellow top, short-sleeved.

‘Oh my God.’

I refuse to believe this is happening. Any of it. It’s just some nightmare, that’s what it is, some weird stupid joke nightmare. Tears are in my eyes and I don’t know how
I’m not screaming.