The Sacrifice (42 page)

‘I’m OK.’

‘We’re going to get away.
You’ll be all right.’

Charlotte hoped Adele was telling the
truth.

‘Where are we going to?’ said
Sam.

‘The Wobbly Bridge,’ Adele
explained. ‘It’s how we got here. If we can just cross the river we’ll
be fine.’

‘There’s so many of them,’
said Sam. ‘We’ll never make it to the bridge.’

‘We will. Somehow. Don’t
worry.’ Adele smiled.

‘How can we?’ Sam said.
‘There’s millions of them. How can we even get out of here? They’ll
kill us. We’re trapped here. We should have gone into the cathedral.’

‘Is that really what you
wanted?’ Charlotte asked.

‘No,’ said Sam quietly. ‘I
never want to see Matt again.’

‘Ed will think of something,’
said Adele. ‘He always does. You’ll see.’

She knelt by Sam and Charlotte. ‘I
need to go and check how the others are doing. You be brave now, yeah?’

Charlotte nodded. Watched Adele hurry to the
front of the building. She and Sam were alone in the darkness now. She could feel him
shaking, hear him sniffing.

‘Sam?’

‘Yes?’

‘Don’t be sad.’

‘I’m sad for The Kid,’
said Sam. ‘He was my best friend and I don’t know where he is. What happened
to him? It was empty when we went down there. I hope he got out. I hope he’s all
right. But if he did get out where is he? And what happened to the sicko man? All those
grown-ups out there. The Kid’s got no one to look after him. I was happy when I
thought he’d escaped. But I’m never going to see him again, am I?’

‘I liked him,’ said Charlotte.
‘That’s why I’m here with you and not back there in the Temple with
Matt. I don’t like Matt. But it was safe and there was always food. The Kid was
funny.’

‘Yeah,’ said Sam and he gave a
quiet little laugh.

‘I think he was brave,’
Charlotte went on. ‘When Matt whipped him, he hardly cried at all. Matt was
horrible to do that. I think The Kid was better than him, better than all of
them.’

Charlotte ran out of things to say and
stopped. It was quiet back here. The floor was cold.

A voice came out of the darkness behind
them, making Charlotte jump. A boy’s voice.

‘Don’t stop now, Yo-Yo,’
it said. ‘You’re only just getting going.’

Sam turned to see a ragged figure in the
murky depths of the hallway. Small and dark with wild hair. It could only be The
Kid.

‘I almost wish I
was
dead and
daisies,’ he said. ‘If you’d make more pretty speeches like
that.’

Sam jumped up, ran to him and threw his arms
round him. Charlotte joined them, hugging the both of them.

‘What are you doing?’ Sam said.
‘Where did you come from? How did you get here?’

‘I been hiding out here in these
buildings,’ said The Kid. ‘Trying to figure out what to do. I eyeballed Ed
and his soldierboys strolling up and going to church. Waited for them to come out. Only
you’ve all come out. Couldn’t risk getting into the clutches of Mad Matt and
his Clickee Cult again, could I? Stayed put. Then along come the sickos and all hell
breaks loose. Never thought to see the likes of it. Saw you fighting your brave and
foolish way round here, battling like banshees against them buggers. Been scuttling from
building to building trying to keep up. And at last you come in here and here I am and
here we are.’

‘You got out through a tunnel,
didn’t you?’ said Sam.

‘Yeah,’ said The Kid,
grinning.

‘I knew it!’

‘Told you I would, din’t I?
Nobody can hold Harry the Houdini Kid.’

Sam slipped off The Kid’s leather
jacket and handed it back to him.

‘I kept this for you,’ he said
as The Kid wriggled into the jacket. ‘I knew you’d make it.’

Ed came hurrying back from the doorway, his
torch beam piercing the darkness. He gave a shout of happiness and also gave The Kid a
big hug.

‘Where the hell did you come
from?’

‘The gutters and drains,’ said
The Kid. ‘The wormholes beneath. Found a way back up and out in the
underneathlings of a burger house down the way. Went up top for a better
view.’

‘But what happened to the
sicko?’ Ed asked. ‘How did you get away from him?’

‘I didn’t,’ said The
Kid.

‘Don’t talk in your crazy
riddles.’ Ed gave him a little shake. ‘How did you get away from
him?’

‘Ain’t no riddle, Scarface. I
got him with me.’

‘You what?’

‘Promised him I’d set him free.
Only we been stuck here till you turned up. He’s down below beneath the burger bar
still, too frighted to come out and face the music.’

‘Well, for God’s sake,’
said Ed. ‘Leave him there and let’s try to get out of here.’

‘No can do, Mister Boo.’ The Kid
shook his head. ‘I made a promise and The Kid keeps his word. Keeps it in a box
with a tight shut lid.’

‘Look, I’m sorry, Kid.’ Ed
sounded like he was getting worked up. ‘It’s going to be hard enough for us
to get out
– it’s mad out there – but if we’ve got to drag
some bloody sicko along with us … ’

‘Then I’ll have to say
goodbye.’ The Kid folded his arms. ‘The Kid stays in the picture.’

Sam went and stood next to The Kid. From now
on he was sticking close to him. He felt brave around him. The Kid might not be a
fighter like Ed and the others, but he sure did keep bouncing back. He was a lucky
charm. Maybe Matt had been right to think that there was something special about him.
Sam wasn’t special. He knew that much. Sam was just a boy. But The Kid? The Kid
was … 

Well, he was
The Kid
.

‘If The Kid stays I stay with
him,’ he said. ‘I’m not losing him again.’

‘Bloody hell. Bloody hell.’ Ed
was banging the wall with his fist.

‘Ed!’ Kyle shouted from the
front. ‘It’s getting hairy. We gotta do something. We’re running out
of time here.’

‘One minute,’ Ed shouted back
angrily. ‘Just hold them off, Kyle. There’s something I need to sort out
first.’

‘Well, hurry, cos we are trapped, man.
We are stuck here. We have run out of options … ’

Ed and Sam followed The Kid to the back of
the building, through some offices. They’d left Charlotte behind with Adele. She
hadn’t wanted to come and meet the sicko. Ed couldn’t really blame her. He
wasn’t sure about this himself. He remembered what Archie Bishop had told him
about Wormwood. About how dangerous he was. He knew Sam would rather have stayed behind
with Charlotte and Adele, but he obviously didn’t want to get split up from his
friend again.

A fire had partially destroyed the rear of
the offices and some of the walls at the back had collapsed, meaning you could easily go
from one property to the next. They picked their way through the rubble until they
reached the burger bar, where The Kid showed them to some stairs that led down from the
kitchen.

Ed shone his torch down to make sure it was
all clear.

‘Careful with that beam,
Eugene,’ said The Kid. ‘When we get down below, put your fingers over it,
yeah? Wormy’s like ET. He don’t like the bright light, bright
light.’

Ed pointed his torch at the floor and raised
his sword. ‘This is stupid,’ he said, somehow feeling more scared of what
waited below than he was of the army of sickos waiting outside. ‘What if he
attacks us?’

‘Yeah,’ said The Kid. ‘There
is that. He’s a sick Rick. A flesh-eater. A carnivore, a cannibal and a carnival
all in one.’

‘Great.’

‘But he’s OK around me. You
could say we’re pals. We speak the same language.’

‘Gobbledygook,’ said Sam.

‘Stow it, morsel,’ said The
Kid.

‘So you reckon we’re
safe?’ Ed asked, taking an uncertain step down the stairs.

‘Can’t promise how he’ll
be with you two muffins.’

‘Look, Kid,’ Ed snapped.
‘For once tell it straight. Is it safe?’

‘Don’t worry,’ said The
Kid. ‘This will all work out for the best in the long run, just you wait and see,
brother. He’ll be our ace in the hole. Our toad in the hole. Our hole in the
road.’

‘That’s enough, Kid.
That’s enough.’ Ed passed the torch to Sam. ‘You’re in charge of
the lighting,’ he said. ‘I need to concentrate.’

Ed held his sword tight in both hands and
went slowly and carefully down.

There was the unmistakable smell of sicko
down here and Ed’s throat was very dry. They reached the bottom of the stairs and
went past some staff toilets and into a small utility room full of boxes and cleaning
equipment. There was a steel door at the back that was closed. The Kid nodded to Sam and
he shielded the light.

The Kid went over to the door.

‘Open Sesame Street,’ he said,
pulling the handle. The door creaked as it swung out. The three of them went
through.

Ed saw pipework, big tin cans, a boiler and,
sitting on a bench, a naked man.

His skin was covered in a fur of green mould.
He had big pale eyes, a bald head, long stringy arms and legs, and a round, swollen
belly. His nails had grown into horny claws that he was rattling together between his
knees.

He turned away and hissed as Sam let the
torch beam crawl over him.

‘It’s OK, Reverend Green,’
said The Kid. ‘They’re on our side. We got ourselves a posse and we’re
gonna save your hairy green butt. Now let’s get up and at ’em.’ The
Kid clapped his hands.

‘I don’t want to go
outside,’ the Green Man whined.

‘You got no choice, Rasputin.
Ra-ra-ra-ra wrecking ball. The devil is letting off out there. If you stay here I
can’t protect you.’

‘I’m a fallen star,’ said
the father, sounding like a spoilt kid. ‘I deserve some respect.’

Ed kept his distance. Archie had said the
sicko could strike fast when he wanted.

‘Just get up,’ said The Kid as
if he was talking to a naughty dog. ‘I got you this far, didn’t I?
Don’t you trust me?’

‘I’m so hungry.’

The Green Man turned his wide, watery eyes
on Sam, licked his lips, his tongue bright pink. The Kid grabbed the torch and shone it
straight in his eyes; the man hissed and cringed away from the light.

‘No, you don’t, Gobbo!’
The Kid screamed at him. ‘We’re your friends, not your dinner. Now get up
and come with us or I’m locking the door on you.’

‘All right, I’m
coming.’

He got up slowly and stood there with
shoulders hunched, arms hanging down straight at his sides.

‘Just show me some respect.’

‘Chew it, clown,’ said The Kid.
‘You go ahead so we can keep our peepers on you.’

The three of them picked their way upstairs
and back to the office building, the Green Man groaning and muttering all the way, and
when they got into the hallway, he froze and refused to walk any further.

There was no sign of Adele and Charlotte.
From outside came the sound of the sickos clattering and banging. The Green Man was
rubbing his hands together, fingernails scraping.

‘It’s too noisy out
there,’ he said. ‘They’re all shouting at me; they won’t leave
me alone. My head is filled with the buzzing of bees.’

‘Shout back at them,’ said The
Kid. ‘Tell them to button it.’

‘Maybe I will.’ The Green Man
gave a sly smile.

‘Try it,’ The Kid urged him.

The man closed his eyes, tilted his head
back, held out his hands in front of him and went very still. Ed held his breath.
Wormwood was pointing. Like the others. Was it possible he could communicate with the
sickos outside?

‘What’s he doing?’ said
Sam.

‘He looks like a pointer,’ Ed
replied.

‘A what?’

‘He’s doing a Doctor
Dolittle,’ said The Kid. ‘He can talk to the animals.’

‘Do we have to take him with
us?’ Sam asked. He was daring himself to properly look at the manky creature.

‘I think we do.’ Ed was staring
at the Green Man, his brain working hard.

‘He ain’t just a pretty
face,’ said The Kid. ‘He just might be our ticket out of here.’

There was a commotion from the doorway and
Kyle came running in, his own torch beam swinging wildly.

‘I don’t know what’s going
on, Ed,’ he blurted. ‘It’s gone very quiet out there. I think we
should go now … holy crap!’

He had spotted the Green Man. He made a
disgusted face and swore.

‘Want me to take him out?’ he
asked, but The Kid jumped in front of his sicko, arms spread wide.

‘Leave him alone,’ he shouted.
‘He’s with me.’

Kyle looked to Ed who shook his head.

‘This is one freaky day,’ said
Kyle.

The Kid prodded the Green Man.

‘Oi, Wormfood,’ he said.
‘Time to go.’

The Green Man slowly opened his eyes and
blinked, for a moment seeming not to know where he was.

‘They salute me,’ he said.
‘I can feel their insect love. They salute me. At last some respect.’

As Ed and his crew emerged from the
building, they were met by a strange sight. The sickos were all standing there, frozen,
staring in their direction. The music had stopped. Everything had stopped, even the
rain. Many of the sickos stood in the familiar pointer poise. Others just waited, mouths
hanging open.

It was unnerving, so many faces turned
towards them, so many eyes fixed on them. Was this really the Green Man’s doing?
Did he have a hold over them? Could he control them in some way?

This was no time to be asking questions.
They had to take advantage of the situation. They held their weapons steady and started
to walk.

They kept in a tight bundle, the Green Man
and Adele in the middle with the three youngsters; Ed, Kyle, Hayden, Tish, Brendan,
Macca and Will on the outside.

The packed bodies of the silent sickos
radiated heat. Steam rose off them. Ed stepped lightly, afraid to make any sound or do
anything to startle them into action. He realized he was holding his breath, the blood
throbbing in his skull, his throat painfully tight, his heart thumping in his chest. It
seemed to him to be the loudest noise in the world. Would the sickos hear it? Would it
disturb them? Break the
spell? Cause them to wake up and come tearing
at them? There were far too many to fight.