Caroline Clough [Red Fever 02 Black Tide (retail) (epub)

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.”“Oh,” said Toby lamely.Had he really been that useless? “What do you mean ‘station’? What is this place?”“Don’t you know anything?” she said crossly.“This is a collecting station – these men —”“I call them raiders,” interrupted Toby.“Whatever! Call them what you like, but they’re evil.Come on – I’ll explain later!”Just then a blood-curdling howl vent the air.It sounded very close.“The dogs are here?” Toby clutched at the girl’s grimy arm.“What are you talking about?” she looked at him as if he was the mad one.“We must go!”The girl slinked out of the door again and this time Toby made sure that he was right behind her.“I’m taking you to somewhere safe just now,” she crept along the wall.“This is a good time to move.Most of the men drink at night and are useless by morning.”Toby concentrated on following her closely as she slipped in and out of the shadows.Then they climbed up a grassy rampart, which took them onto the huge broad walls of the fort at the level of the house roofs.They silently trotted along the top of the wide parapet, carefully keeping to the wall on the seaward side.On the other side the grass fell steeply down a bank to land in the inner yards.They slowed to negotiate a slippery grass rampart that led to a smaller courtyard.In the centre was a large sandy-coloured church.The girl sprinted towards it, leaping over the grass and disappearing into a side porch.Toby followed, tumbling in behind her.“Wow!” he cried.Inside the church the hazy light streaming through the side windows lit clouds of dust, throwing a smoky aura down the transept.He ran to the end of the aisle and peered up at the stained-glass windows.One had a picture of an angel playing the bagpipes.It was a long time since he had been in a church and he’d forgotten how beautiful and peaceful they were.“Are we safe here?” he turned to ask the girl.“Yes, the raiders don’t come here.I’ve made them think it’s haunted.” Toby could just make out the glimpse of a smile from under her wolf get-up.“And some are scared of facing their God because of the things they have done since the red fever.”Toby followed the girl into the rear of the church where she pulled back a thick brocade curtain.Behind it was a heavy wooden door that she unlocked to reveal a small vestry.Built into the floor was a trapdoor, which the girl lifted to expose a flight of steps going down into the bowels of the church.She signalled Toby to follow.Pulling the door quietly closed behind them, they took the steps down and down into a narrow passageway that smelt of dust and old bones.The staircase was lit by small electric lights that came on when they approached and went off as they passed, leaving the passage behind them in the dark.Toby realised that they were going down into a cave system.The stairs got shallower and the path widened out.“Amazing!” he exclaimed as he climbed downwards.It was like being in the tunnel in Alice in Wonderland.The walls were strung with equipment: reels of pipes and hoses, skeins of rope, anchors, fishing rods and nets, gas cylinders, water carriers, spades and forks, boxes of nails, bundles of wire, a long ladder and even a wheel barrow.At the end of the steps the tunnel opened out into a large cave, which was lit with coloured fairy lights strung along its wall.This gave it a Christmassy look, like a fairy grotto.The cave was laid out as a living room with proper chairs, a coffee table and even a battered leather settee complete with fluffy cushions.In the corner sat an old TV with a picture of a Santa on his sleigh stuck to the screen.To one side of the cave was a small kitchenette with a sink, cooker and a hot-water boiler.On the other side was a glass water distiller, and at the back of the room sat a huge generator, quietly humming.“Gosh! I’m impressed,” Toby swivelled on his heels to take it all in.“How long did it take you to do all of this?”The girl was busy fiddling with a gas canister connected to the cooker.“My father made it.You hungry?” she asked.Toby sat down on the leather settee and stroked a fluffy cushion that reminded him of Henry, Sylvie’s rabbit.“My name’s Toby Tennant, what’s yours?”She turned to stare at him as if he had just landed from outer space.Toby could see her better now and under the soft, coloured lights she looked even weirder than he first thought.Draped over her shoulders was a huge, grizzled grey wolf skin that hung way down past her knees.It was complete with the head of the wolf, which perched on top of her head.The whole thing was attached to her body at various places with old baler twine.Toby wondered whether this was where the smell came from: the skin looked moth-eaten and mangy.The wolf’s head had been stuffed so that the yellowing fangs gaped open in a vicious snarl and the beady glass eyes stared at him in animosity.The girl untied the skin cloak and, lifting the wolf’s sneering face from hers, hung the whole thing up on a coat stand.“My name is Natasha Marie Anya Gablinski, but my mates call me Tash — I mean, my mates used to call me Tash; I don’t have any now.” She expertly lit the gas stove, and placed a pan on the hob.“Me neither.Well, I do have Jamie, but I don’t know where he is right now…” Toby muttered.“Can I help?”“No, thanks.I can take of everything myself.I’m going to cook us some food.”“Ok,” Toby wondered at the slightly stilted way she spoke.Maybe she hadn’t spoken to anyone for ages and had forgotten how.He watched her opening some tins and packets and mixing stuff up in the pan.She could be about his age.She was slight but athletic.Her face was smeared with black gunge, presumably for camouflage, but beneath it Toby could make out a rich amber skin tone, which showed off her very white teeth.Wonder how she keeps her teeth so nice? Toby self-consciously rubbed his with the cuff of his grimy boiler suit.He couldn’t remember when he had last given them a good brush.Since his mum was no longer around to remind him, he’d given up.“How did you get me out of that guardroom? It must have been locked,” he asked.Tash jangled a bunch of keys that were tied to a belt on her waist.“My great-grandmamma was in France during World War Two, and was in the freedom fighters – the Resistance.They gave her these skeleton keys.They’re very old so they only work on old locks.”“Wow! What an exciting great-grandma! I think mine spent the war knitting socks for the army.”“Mine was very brave, and these keys are very handy.”“So how do you know my dad and sister have been moved already? Have you seen them? Are they ok? The raiders haven’t hurt them, have they?” Toby asked.As he blurted out his fears, it was like opening the floodgates of his emotions.He started to sob – great big wrenching sobs tearing a pain in his chest.He’d been bottling everything up inside and, now that he felt safe, it was all coming out.Must be that whack I got on my head.It’s turned me into a gibbering wreck! What must she think of me?5.In the Wolf’s LairTash said nothing.She left the cooker and came over and sat beside him.Taking his scarred filthy hand into her small brown one, she sat quietly and held it until he had cried himself out.Then she reached over to the coffee table and passed him a big box of soft tissues.Toby took a handful and blew his nose noisily.“Thanks,” he blubbered, sniffing hard.“I’m so sorry.”“You’ve no need to be sorry,” said Tash, returning his hand to him [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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