THE CLEARING (6 page)

The girls followed Leah to a wide service hatch where three women were dishing out breakfast. Lissy followed what Leah and the others girls did. She took a bowl from a stack on the side and held it out as one of the women dumped a couple of ladles of porridge into it. Then she collected a spoon from a deep cutlery tray. She made sure Annabelle did the same before following their room-mates to the trestle table from the previous night.

Once they were seated, a voice rang out across the room. Liss raised her eyes to see where it was coming from.

At the far end of the room, several women sat at a table on a raised platform. One of the women stood, her voice clear and strong, carrying across the heads of all the girls. It looked like Sarah, the woman from last night.

‘
Father, pardon our sins and accept our thanks for these and all other blessings. We thank you for leading us here to him and for delivering more of your children unto his care. We ask you to help them in this unsettling time and help them tread the path of righteousness to glory. In Christ’s name we ask, Amen.’

‘Amen,’ echoed the voices in the room.

Sarah sat down and everyone began to eat. The porridge was surprisingly good, piping hot and sweetened with a little honey. Liss and Annabelle cleared their bowls quickly. Still nobody talked. Was it always like this? Did nobody ever speak here?

Liss cast quick glances at the other girls on her table. None of them looked her way. They all kept their eyes down, focused on their breakfast. There was the tall girl with the dirty fingernails, the sleepy girl who hadn’t wanted to get out of bed this morning, three outsiders who still had matted hair and dirty faces despite showering, an older girl with short hair and a permanent scowl, Annabelle and her.

At the next table, a small pretty girl with pale blonde hair flashed her a quick smile. This startled Liss and she immediately looked around to see if anyone else had noticed. She glanced back at the girl and gave her a nervous smile in return. The girl raised her eyebrows, smiled again and then turned her attention back to her porridge. She looked a bit older than Liss. Maybe she would get to talk to her later. Find out what was going on.

Chapter Ten

Riley

*

‘Sounds like Fred and whats-her-name are a couple of crackpots,’ Eddie said. ‘We can’t do anything drastic on the word of two people. Especially two people with
their
track record.’

Twenty minutes had passed since we’d been in the cells with Fred and Jessie and we were now gathered in the large formal dining room of our Edwardian family house. Ma and Luc's mother, Rita, were also here, as well as my Uncle Tom, who was a Perimeter guard and Roger Brennan, Head of Perimeter Security.

Everyone was seated around the fruitwood table as Ma served up a hastily thrown together supper of chilli and salad. Luc sat opposite me but we hardly acknowledged each other; this afternoon’s closeness had evaporated.

Eddie had done most of the talking so far. Luc’s parents, Eddie and Rita Donovan were responsible for setting up perimeters around the country - constructing the huge electrified fences, supplying trained guards and constantly monitoring and maintaining them. Eddie had wanted to go straight over to talk to Fred himself, but Pa persuaded him to wait.

‘I’ve told Roger to tap up all our contacts to see if Fred and Jessie’s story checks out.’ Pa said. ‘We need to sit tight for a while longer.’

 ‘Whatever the situation, Grey has to be stopped,’ Eddie said. ‘We’ve let this go on for too many years. The man’s out of control. We need to act. We need to cut the head off the snake.’ He leant across the table and stared at Pa. ‘Johnny, you know what I'm saying. You've never been one to shy away from doing what needs to be done.’

Pa didn’t reply.

‘Okay,’ Rita chimed in. ‘So if we have to eliminate Grey. How do you propose we actually do it? How easy is it to get to the man?’

‘Hold on a minute,’ Ma said. ‘Before we start on the 'hows' and 'whens', we need to agree whether this is the right thing to do. Is there another way that won't involve a war? Can we reason with the man? Offer him an alternative?’

‘Eleanor,’ Pa said. ‘He's not the sort of man you can reason with. And even if he was, you can’t trust him. We've been putting this off for too long, ignoring the danger. It’s been building and building while we’ve been sitting around pretending his plans will come to nothing. But I was wrong to laugh at Fred. He's probably right. We're facing a war and it's one we're not prepared for. Grey’s already on the march, for God’s sake. And if he’s taken a perimeter already . . . well, that’s an act of aggression.’

I didn't know what to think. My head was spinning. I'd lived in the Perimeter my whole life and our safety had never been in such jeopardy before. Were we really in as much danger as Fred had made out?

 ‘We’ll be okay down here though,’ Luc said. ‘We've got trained guards.’

‘Yes, Luc, but thirty or so guards against thousands of brainwashed crusaders with weapons, is not a fight I think we can win.’ Pa's expression became grimmer with every word.

Luc’s expression matched Pa’s.

‘But there must be hundreds of perimeter guards around the country,’ I said. ‘They’ll come and help us, surely.’

‘Riley, we can't bring those guards down here. They're needed where they are. What do you think would happen to those perimeters without the proper defences in place?’ Pa replied.

‘Oh. Yeah,’ I said, feeling foolish.

I stared out of the window. The heavy brocade curtains were still tied back even though it was dark out. The dining room reflected back at me from the cold black glass. Behind our reflections, charcoal clouds skimmed past the moon.

Suddenly, Liam barged into the room without knocking.

‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I’ve got news.’

We stared up at him. His face was flushed, his eyes glittering. ‘Romsey aren’t replying. No one’s on the radio over there. Mr Brennan’s still trying to get through. But worse than that - I spoke to Pete over in the Southampton East Perimeter. He managed to send out a mayday before the channel went dead. And the same thing has happened at Blandford. We think it was a coordinated attack. Grey must’ve taken those perimeters at the same time.’

Everyone was silent for a moment, all eyes locked on Liam.

‘Christ almighty,’ Eddie said, furious.

‘Clever,’ Pa said grimly. ‘A pincer movement. We need to make sure they don’t get any closer. I’m talking about Southampton West and Poole. And we’d better warn the compounds too. Any news to the north?’

‘Ringwood and Fordingbridge Perimeters and Charminster Compound are still intact as of ten minutes ago,’ Liam said. ‘We warned them all and they’re tightening up security.’

‘Damn it!’ Eddie scraped his chair back and stood up. ‘What a mess.’

My mind span. What did this mean? The enemy was sitting to our east and to our west. If Grey captured the perimeters to the north of us too, we’d be surrounded.

‘We have to go north and defend Fordingbridge,’ I said.

‘She’s right,’ said Pa

I glowed under his praise despite the fear in my belly.

‘I think we may be too late for Fordingbridge,’ Rita said. ‘We’d be better off going to Ringwood. It’s closer and that will give us more time to prepare.’

‘Agreed,’ said Pa.

‘We can’t leave Talbot Woods undefended,’ Eddie said.

‘We won’t,’ Pa said. ‘We’ll recruit from Charminster, strengthen our defences here and take a shitload of weapons up to Ringwood. If we can hold them off there, then we can stay safe. He can’t be allowed to get to Hook Island. The oil is everything. I’d better warn Poole to triple security around the Island.’

‘At least there are no more roads from the west,’ Luc said. ‘They’ll have a hard time getting here from that direction. It’ll take days.’

‘But what about the eastern perimeter towns?’ my Uncle Tom asked. ‘Southampton West, Brockenhurst, Christchurch, Boscombe . . .’

‘Yeah,’ Luc replied. ‘They’ll be next on Grey’s list.’

‘I’ll have to send them more guards,’ Eddie said. ‘Christ knows where I’ll get them from. If only the army wasn’t so bloody useless, they could help out.’

‘They’re only useless because we pinched all the good soldiers to work for us,’ Rita said drily.

‘Well, we’ll have to get some help from somewhere.’

‘I’ll see to it,’ Rita said, standing. She kissed Ma on the cheek. Ma, who had begun to look pale and terrified.

‘I thought we were safe here, Johnny,’ Ma said. ‘You promised we’d always be safe.’

‘You’ll be fine, hon,’ Rita said, stroking Ma’s hair. But I saw the look Rita gave Eddie. ‘Okay, Liam and Tom, you’re with me. Roger, you coming?’ Rita swept out of the room. Liam winked at me before following his boss out of the door with Roger and Tom.

Pa shuffled his chair closer to Ma and whispered something in her ear. She looked slightly less worried. They kissed and she left the room.

‘So,’ Eddie said. ‘We go to Ringwood. It's like I said, we cut the head off the snake. It's the only way.’

‘Let's just hope it doesn't grow a new one,’ Pa replied.

Chapter Eleven

Liss

*

Once the girls had finished breakfast, they returned their bowls to the serving hatch and followed Leah out of the dining hall. This time she led them through a different door, out into a long courtyard in front of a grey stone building. Out here, the weather was as bland as the people and the place. Neither hot nor cold. Not sunny or raining. Just a dull day with not even a breeze to ruffle their hair.

Sarah stood at the entrance to the building, in front of a set of thick dark wooden doors. The girls were made to stand in lines.

‘First row!’ Sarah’s voice carried through the courtyard, clear and loud.

The first row of children walked into the building, led by a woman.

‘Second row!’

The second row of children filed inside. This went on until Sarah called out the fifth row. This was Liss and Annabelle’s row, led by Leah. The girls in Liss’s line followed Leah into the building.

Once inside, Liss glanced around and saw several doors to unknown rooms. A wide sweeping staircase curved around away from the entrance. They followed Leah up the stairs and found themselves in a large classroom with wooden desks facing a blackboard. Most of the desks were already occupied with other girls. They all faced forward and didn’t even glance back to look at Liss and the others as they came in.

Liss suddenly had an overwhelming surge of panic. Her stomach lurched and she felt tears building behind her eyes, threatening to spill out. What was she doing here in this weird place? She should be at home sitting at the kitchen table right now with mum and dad and FJ. Dad would be telling FJ to stop drumming his feet against the table and FJ would stop for a moment before starting up again. They would be sipping tea and eating scrambled eggs on toast. And then she and mum would go off to do the milking while FJ helped dad.

They had promised them a trip to the local compound today. Mum was going to trade some of their old clothes for new ones. But instead, she was here in this quiet scary place. She was alone. No one cared about her here. At least she had Annabelle.

A tall woman stood at the front of the classroom. Her hair was as grey as her clothes. Even her face looked grey. Liss presumed she must be some kind of teacher.

‘Find an empty desk and sit,’ she said in a clipped voice.

Liss guided Annabelle to a chair and then looked around in a panic trying to find her own place to sit. She was now the last girl on her feet and broke out in a sweat as she tried to locate an empty desk. No one spoke or tried to help her find a place; not even the teacher. Eventually, she spotted a free desk at the back in the corner. She squeezed her way past the other chairs and desks and sat, not daring to look up, the blood roaring round her head.

Staring at the worn grain in the wooden desk lid, Liss tried to make her mind go blank. But the fear and dread would not go away. Why had they brought her to this awful place? There seemed no good reason for it. Why hadn’t anyone told her what was going on? She desperately wanted to speak out and ask questions, but the thought made her legs tremble. The teacher would stare at her, tell her to be quiet or worse. What could she do? How was she ever going to be able to get back home?

Stop thinking like that. She couldn’t start crying. She couldn’t. If she cried they would shout at her or even worse, ignore her. She remembered what mum said to do when she felt scared - To think of nice things. Or, failing that, think of food beginning with A and then B and C and so on. Something monotonous to clear all the nasty things away. It worked and she gradually got her feelings back under control. All the scary thoughts that had threatened to overpower her had been pushed to the side – for now.

After Lissy’s momentary panic, the day passed in a blur of sleepiness and boredom. Lessons were all to do with God and religious stuff. Different women taught them, but their voices all merged into one monotonous drone and Liss could hardly keep her eyes open.

They stopped for lunch – soup and bread. And then for supper – soup and bread again followed by a casserole of meat, potatoes and vegetables.

And as they plodded back to the bedroom with Leah, Liss felt as though she was being smothered by a thick woollen blanket, her mind all foggy and strange.

None of the girls had spoken to each other all day. It was like they were too tired to bother. They hadn’t exactly been forbidden to speak to one another, but everywhere was so quiet that speaking felt wrong. And Liss’s thoughts kept wobbling around, not staying in one place for more than a couple of seconds so that even when she’d wanted to say something, the words just slipped away.

Once or twice, she had caught sight of the blonde-haired girl from breakfast, but there had been no opportunity to catch her eye. It was odd though, because each time she saw her, her mind temporarily cleared and she felt a teensy bit more normal.

Annabelle seemed a little better today. She wasn’t upset anymore and Liss was always aware of her on the edge of her vision, placidly following instructions. She no longer seemed to need Liss’s reassurance. But Liss somehow knew that this wasn’t a good thing. She didn’t know why, but it had been better when Annabelle was crying and screaming. Better that, than this nothingness.

Now, as they were following Leah along the corridor back to their room, they stopped to let another column of girls pass by. Liss stared at them, all silent and similar in their grey pinafores, all with their eyes cast downwards, all clean, pale-faced and expressionless, except for one - The blonde-haired girl.

As they passed each other, the girl whispered something to her, jolting her out of her stupor. It sounded like: ‘Don’t drink the soup.’

Could she have heard right? But what did that mean? Was she trying to be funny?

Don’t drink the soup?

Liss turned back and saw that the girl too was staring back in her direction, mouthing the word ‘soup’ and drawing her finger across her neck while shaking her head.

Liss felt a slice of fear. Maybe the soup was poisonous. And she had wolfed down two bowls of it today. She didn’t feel sick or ill though; just a bit . . . odd. Maybe these people wanted to kill them. But that didn’t make any sense. Why would they bother kidnapping them if they were going to kill them? And then what would be the point of all those boring lessons?

They had reached their bedroom again and the sound of church bells followed her in. All that thinking had tired her out. Liss’s brain felt muddled again. The bells filled up her mind with their chiming echoing sound, chasing away all other thoughts.

A nightdress lay on her bed. She changed out of her clothes and took her turn in the bathroom to wash. Then she climbed beneath the blanket and tried to remember what she had been thinking about, but all she could think of were the ringing clanging bells and the pattern they made in her head. A metallic looping sound that pealed from high to low and back again, in a never-ending cascade.

The following day, Liss found herself staring at the blonde girl again. It was lunchtime already and she was seated at the familiar trestle table in the dining hall. But she couldn’t remember waking up or getting dressed or having breakfast, or even what she had been doing before lunch. It was only now, looking at the girl, that she had some sense of time and of who she was.

Liss’s spoon hovered below her lips and she blew on the soup to cool it. The girl was shaking her head and pointing to her own bowl. Liss then saw the girl tip her soup into her neighbour’s bowl. She did it so quickly, Liss thought she might have imagined it. She gasped and the girl smirked. Leah snapped her head up and Liss cast her eyes down and blew on her soup again.

A moment later, Liss risked glancing back at the girl. Liss saw her rub her nose and discreetly point to her. Did the girl want her to dispose of her own soup in the same way she had? But the soup was delicious and she had been really looking forward to putting the spoon of hot liquid in her mouth. The girl put some bread in her mouth and chewed.

Liss felt her heart beating. How could she tip away her soup without Leah or one of the others noticing? Surely she would get caught. Annabelle sat on one side of her. There was no way she would tip it into her little friend’s bowl. To her right sat one of the outsiders, her face scrubbed clean now, her hair brushed to a smooth caramel gleam. The outsider girl had almost finished her soup.

Everyone at the table was focused on their food. No one was looking in her direction. Quickly, she lifted her bowl and up-ended it into her neighbour’s. Some of it splashed onto the table, but miraculously no one seemed to notice. Liss’s heart thrummed and she felt almost elated. She stuffed a piece of bread in her mouth to quell the urge to giggle.

The blonde girl’s eyes widened and Liss could tell she was really pleased. The outsider was now slurping down her second bowlful without even realising what had happened. Liss felt hunger stab at her belly, but she made do with the bread.

She would have to find an opportunity to speak to her dangerous new friend. Find out what was going on and find out what was wrong with the soup.