The Undead Day Nineteen (10 page)

‘Will you feed and give shelter tonight?’ She asks, looking back at Sierra.

‘Oh you’s a dumb cunt,’ Sierra shakes her head and smiles at Lilly as she takes a step back, ‘Skyla…’

‘Fuck yeah,’ Skyla rushes in, slamming her rifle into Lilly. Battering her down into the ground.

‘Sam no!’ Lilly whispers at the two women. Pea’s hand grips Sam’s wrist as it moves towards the gun. The rifle hits down. The hard butt slamming into Lilly’s shoulders, chest and head until she goes down into the deep puddles. Feet come next. Hard feet that kick into her ribs, arms and legs.

It’s just pain. Lilly curls into a ball. Taking the beating. ‘Sam no,’ she whispers again, hoping and praying Sam can hear her.

‘Dumb cunt,’ Skyla kicks again, aiming the shots into Lilly’s thighs knowing it’ll hurt like hell.

‘Enough,’ Sierra says, feeling powerful and strangely serene at seeing Lilly get beaten to the ground on her orders.

Skyla gives one last kick and steps back breathing hard with a nasty grin showing her crooked teeth.

‘Fix the hole and you eat,’ Sierra says, staring down at Lilly.

‘We…’ Lilly coughs and wheezes through the pain radiating in every limb, ‘…we cannot fix it tonight…’

Sierra’s nostrils flare. Her already frayed temper snapping as all reason flees her mind. She runs at Lilly who tries to scurry backwards on all fours but the hand that grips her hair is strong and heaves her up onto her feet.

‘Get her in there,’ Sierra screams, kicking hard at Lilly’s legs and sending the girl flying forward at Skyla, ‘In the fucking pig rooms…get her in…’

Nine

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Lilly stands in the corner of the room staring down at her feet with her hands clasped in front.

‘Posh Bitch,’ Skyla calls out almost politely, ‘May I have another can of finest Coke please may I, Posh Bitch?’

Cackles break out, rippling with delight through the older youths gathered in the room. All of them ceasing conversation to turn and stare at Lilly who steps away from the corner towards the table at the side loaded with food and drink.

‘Whoa!’ Skyla shouts, ‘what the fuck?’

‘What?’ Another girl asks, laughing hard at Skyla’s shocked expression.

‘You’s gotta say it,’ Skyla shouts. ‘Posh Bitch…say it…’

Lilly stops midway across the floor, holding position with her eyes averted downward, ‘Of course,’ she mutters and takes a breath. ‘It would be my delight to serve you,’ she adds, forcing the words to come out neutral and flat.

‘Fuck yeah,’ Skyla laughs and looks round at the others, ‘she’s my bitch now.’

Lilly gets the can of Coke from the table and moves silently across the room to Skyla seated next to Sierra at the head of the table. The room falls silent with loaded humour as everyone watches Lilly and Skyla.

‘Thank you,’ Skyla says, adopting her posh voice, ‘put it on the table.’ Lilly places the can down and steps back, ready to turn back to her corner. ‘Ahem,’ Skyla says, prompting a fresh wave of laughs, ‘open it then you dumb fucking bitch,’ she slides back into her own rasping voice with a theatrical roll of her eyes.

Lilly shows no reaction but steps back to the table and reaches out to pop the lid from the can and the room fills with the hiss of bubbles rushing to the top of the aluminium casing.

Her upper lip is swollen. Her cheeks bruised. The soft flesh round her left eye starting to show purple. Her arms marked with welts from the beating that continued when she was dragged into the police offices.

‘You scared?’ Skyla asks, staring up at her with malicious intent clear in her eyes.

Lilly looks away, dropping her gaze. ‘No.’

‘No what?’

‘No, Miss Skyla,’ Lilly says, her tone perfectly polite.

‘Should be,’ Sierra mutters. The room falls silent in deference of the new number one speaking out. Sierra stares ahead at the same spot on the wall she has been staring at since night fell. Glued to her chair with the constant replay going over and over. Everyone waits, expecting more but Sierra stays silent and sullen.

‘You may go,’ Skyla says, waving her hand in a way she thinks posh people wave when they dismiss their servants.

Lilly walks back to her corner and steals a glance to the open door and the night sky outside. The rain is heaving down harder than it was before. She assumes her position, back to the corner and her hands clasped in front.

She knew from the conversations inside the room the people outside were not being fed or given shelter.

‘Is the wall fixed?’ Sierra had asked her on being brought into the room.

‘No, we were told to…’

‘Shut up,’ Sierra whispered at Lilly, her voice dangerously quiet, ‘I aksed you a question…is the wall fixed?’

Lilly simply shook her head and kept her voice as polite and passive as possible, ‘no.’

‘They’s don’t eat then,’ Sierra said, glaring with undisguised hatred.

‘Will they be given shelter?’ Lilly asked again and took another beating as Sierra launched up with fists hammering into Lilly’s face.

‘DON’TS FUCKIN’ SPEAK TO ME…’ She screamed, beating Lilly to the floor and yanking her head back with a fistful of hair, ‘you’s hear me, Posh Bitch?’

‘Sierra please’ Lilly begged, ‘some of them will die if they don’t food or shelter…’

Sierra spat in her face at that point. A full drawing of phlegm from her throat that was gathered in her mouth and propelled out with force to land on Lilly’s cheek where it slid down thick and globular. She was wrenched to her feet, kicked and punched back down then heaved round the room by her hair before finally being shoved into the corner and made to stand with her hands to the front. Sierra glared for several long seconds before stalking back to her chair where she slumped down and once again lapsed into staring at the wall.

Nobody spoke to Lilly at first. None of them daring to cross Sierra or be seen to step out of line. It was during that period of being ignored that Lilly heard the conversations that guards were to be kept on the people all night who would not be fed until the wall was fixed and the work done.

Lilly thought some of the others might question Sierra or at least Skyla and ask for the people outside to be given food, but none of them did. Instead they mocked the stupid, the weak, the idiots and the pathetic scum that were too dumb to do anything. It was a whole transference from a cooperative group working together to one of supplicated men, women and children cowering from armed oppressors.

‘Posh Bitch?’ A girl sings Lilly’s new name, holding an empty packet of crisps in the air, ‘I require more crisps,’ she lets the packet go, watching as it wafts to the ground a few feet from the table, ‘oh dear, I have done littering innit,’ the girl says, trying to do a posh voice. Sniggers in the room but not as much as when Skyla makes a joke. Mouths grinning with teeth coated in bits of crisps and smeared with chocolate. Legs bouncing on the spot with hands fidgeting from the amount of sugar ingested. Voices too loud, laughing too much.

Lilly goes to the table and picks the same packet as the one the girl dropped.

‘No,’ the girl says. ‘Salt and Vinegar.’

Lilly puts the first back and with a stomach rumbling she selects the chosen flavour and moves wordlessly to deliver the item.

‘Open them,’ Aaliyah says, copying Skyla’s display of power and watching as Lilly cinches the packet together and pulls the glued seam apart. A twinkling in Aaliyah’s eyes and she looks round the room to make sure everyone is watching, ‘feed me,’ she says and opens her mouth while trying not to laugh.

Lilly hesitates. Not quite believing this is happening and that hesitancy brings Skyla to her feet and a hand once again gripping Lilly’s hair as a foot is kicked into the back of her knees. She does down, landing hard and jarring her knee caps on the concrete ground.

‘Feed her, Posh Bitch,’ Skyla seethes with instant snarling anger, hissing the words into Lilly’s ear.

Aaliyah’s smile freezes in place. The humour draining from her eyes. She only meant to get Lilly to feed her one and was going to tell her to fuck off and the sudden explosion of violence startles even her. That uncertainty spreads through the room as smiles are held in place and glances are cast to others to see how they’re reacting.

Lilly has no choice. The pain in her knees is immense but the pain coming from her hair being pulled so hard is worse. She pushes her hand into the packet and with trembling hands she draws a single crisp out.

‘Hold it out then,’ Skyla yanks on her hair like someone yanking on a dog lead. Lilly clenches her jaw shut. Her eyes filling with tears from the pain but her arm extends towards Aaliyah who grins and leans forward.

‘Cheers then,’ Aaliyah snaps the crisp away, munching noisily.

‘Fucking bitch,’ Skyla pushes Lilly roughly, jerking her head forward before slinking back to her chair.

‘Give it here,’ Aaliyah says, holding her hand out for the packet.

‘Oi no,’ Skyla cuts in, ‘make the bitch feed you.’

‘Nah,’ Aaliyah sneers, taking the crisps from Lilly. ‘I don’t wants her hands touching my food…she probably touched Zay’s prick innit…’ Aaliyah looks round, clearly pleased with herself for making everyone laugh, ‘wanked him off yeah?’ She adds, trying to keep the joke going. She puts a crisp in her mouth and pulls a grim face, ‘they’s salty alright.’

Lilly stares down at the floor listening to the cackling and booming laughter from girls and boys alike. Her cheeks burn with shame. In her mind she holds two images. Billy and Nick. The image of Billy keeps her quiet and passive. You do what it takes to protect your own. Billy is outside in the pouring rain with an empty belly but he’s alive. Keep him alive and wait for an opportunity. Nick’s image is for herself to keep that knowledge that there are decent good people still left in this world.

‘Where’s Zay?’ A boy asks, twisting in his seat to look round.

‘Guardin’ those dumb fuckers,’ Skyla replies, ‘he can’t come in here…he’d be humping Lilly in the corner.’

Fresh laughing, faces going red as they spray drink and food out and cough cigarette smoke into the air.

‘We’s should get him in here then,’ Aaliyah says, ‘be funny as fuck watching his zits pop all over her.’

‘Urgh that’s fucking so gross,’ a boy grimaces.

‘Zay’s ugly as fuck,’ another girl says, showing disgust on her face.

‘You fancy Zay?’ Aaliyah asks Lilly, reaching out with her leg to tap Lilly’s thigh, ‘Oi, Posh Bitch, you fancy Zay?’

Lilly thinks fast. To say yes could prompt something dangerous to happen. To say no will prompt a response of an assumption that she thinks she is too good for him. ‘I’m too tired to fancy anyone,’ she says, still with her eyes averted. She wants to get up and retreat to her corner but the tendrils of power play keep her static on her knees.

‘You’s fancy Nick though,’ Skyla says, ‘yeah? You fancy Nick?’

‘I’d fuck him,’ Aaliyah announces.

‘You’d fuck anything,’ someone retorts and the conversation moves on. Lilly waits a few minutes then quietly slips back to her corner with dread in her stomach that knots and gurgles with anxiety and tension growing by the second.

Her mind works constantly. Ten people in this room which leaves about twenty others. She knows two are in the hospital stopping anyone entering or leaving. She knows two more are at the old armoury. Another two at the new armoury. Some are asleep and the rest are watching the survivors.

Minutes go by. The jokes and laughter fill the room and thinking she is unseen she lifts her head by fractions until she can see the layout and the weapons resting near to chairs. Her eyes flick left to right taking in the assault rifles and knowing both Sierra and Skyla have got pistols hanging from holsters on their hips. There must be an opportunity. There must be something she can do. Her heart jolts and misses a beat when she looks up to see Sierra staring right at her. The girl’s dark eyes fixed and staring and it’s only after several seconds that she realises the gaze is unfocussed and again she drops her head in supplication.

‘Alright, Zay!’

Lilly looks up as a soaking wet Zayden walks into the room with a broad grin etched on his face. He looks round at everyone then straight to Lilly as the room erupts with jeers and shouts.

‘You’s come for Posh Bitch then?’ Aaliyah asks.

‘Yeah,’ Zayden grins stupidly but with eyes lingering as water slides from his greasy hair. A fresh knot of fear tightens in Lilly’s stomach. Being humiliated and beaten is something she can take but Zayden is a whole new dangerous threat. ‘So’s like…’ Zayden says, flicking his gaze at Sierra, ‘she come to my room then?’

The room rings with the sound of laughter. Hoarse braying as Zayden fails to notice they are laughing at him. His mind on the prize he has been coveting all day.

‘You dumb fucker,’ Skyla bursts out laughing, ‘you dirty boy…Zay wants to fuck the posh bitch.’

‘Can she?’ Zayden asks again, happy to take the abuse if it means he can take Lilly to his room.

‘No,’ Sierra cuts through the laughing and watches as Zaydens face falls in disappointment. ‘You’s can fuck her but she sleeps outside with everyone else.’

Lilly listens. Dreading what is to come.

‘So like,’ Zayden says, having to think, ‘so’s she can come to my room then yeah?’

‘Fuckin’ hell, Zay,’ Skyla groans, ‘you’s can fuck her in your room but then she goes back outside.’

‘Oh right, yeah sweet,’ Zayden says.

‘Fuck me you’s a dumb ugly fucker, Zay.’

‘Fuck you, Skyla.’

‘He’s a virgin anyway. You’s a virgin, Zay?’ One of the girls asks, sneering in malice.

‘Fuck off,’ Zayden sputters, blushing deep.

‘Who’d fuck that ugly…’

‘I will,’ Lilly says, lifting her head up to look round the room.

‘Oh my God!’ Skyla stares in shock, ‘posh bitch wants to fuck Zay!’

‘She sleeps outside, Zay,’ Sierra glares hard at him, ‘you’s hear that?’

‘Yeah, yeah sure,’ Zayden nods eagerly. His grin stretching from ear to ear. Lilly fancies him. He knew it from the way she’s been looking at him all day.