20 Years Later (32 page)

Eve clapped her hands in delight. “The boys who went to Uppabov?!” she gasped. “You know them?!”

All three of them nodded and couldn't help but smile as she jumped up and down on the spot.

“They live near us,” Zane said. “They're in a gang called the Bloomsbury Boys, but we know they came from the Unders, and that's why we wanted to talk to you.”

Eve frowned. “What's the Unders? What's a gang?”

“The Unders are the people who keep you where you are,” Titus began. “The ones who stole my sister, Lyssa–remember her?”

Eve nodded. “She's gone … don't know where though.”

“She's with us now,” Titus began, but when Eve looked excitedly around the room as if expecting to find Lyssa, he added, “At my house, in the garden–not here literally.”

“House?” Eve frowned. “Gar-den? I don't know what these words mean.”

Titus sighed and exchanged a look with Zane. “What's important,” Zane said, “is that Lyssa is safe with us and isn't being hurt anymore.”

Eve nodded at that. “Yes. This is important–I'm glad. She's nice. Oh!” She pointed at Titus. “You're the one she kept asking about! I understand what a brother is now! It's a you!”

Titus smiled, charmed by her clumsy language. “We need to know why the Unders are keeping people prisoner,” he pressed.

“Why?” Eve tipped her head to the side and regarded Titus with interest.

“Because we want to understand and learn how to stop them,” he replied evenly, as if talking to someone much younger than she looked.

“Stop them hurting us?” Eve watched the trio nod. “Good, they hurt us a lot, it's horrible. But they say that it's necessary. I don't like
necessary
, it hurts.”

Zane looked pointedly at Titus and then asked, “Do you know what the ‘Compound' is? Lyssa said something about it.”

Eve wrinkled her nose. “It's horrible stuff that they put in people to try to stop the air in Uppabov from killing them. They put it in some of the children, but it makes them sick. Sometimes it kills them, and then Hex stops doing things that hurt for a while whilst they talk about it lots. Then when they stop talking lots, it's always bad–then they come and do the really bad tests, where they take bits out of us and put bits in, and there are lots of needles and it all hurts really bad.”

The trio listened with varying expressions of horror. Zane was the very embodiment of sympathetic distress, whilst Titus, at the other end of the scale, simply pressed his lips tight together as he took it in.

“They did this to Lyssa,” he muttered, not at anyone in particular, but Eve nodded all the same.

“It's always worse for girls that they find in the Uppabov, cos girls are special cos of something they carry inside that's important to Hex.”

“Zane?” Erin stepped away from the window. “Do you know why that would be?”

Zane shrugged. “Not sure. But I don't like the sound of it at all.”

“It's to do with something inside that stops the stuff in the air from killing people, I think,” Eve continued. “People in Uppabov have clever bodies. They don't get hurt, but people in Hex do, and if they go outside without these big yellow pyjamas and special hats on, the air gets inside them and they die.

“I saw one of them die once. He fell over and smashed the glass over his face, and so some of the air got in. He was screaming, and this weird kind of gurgle sound was coming out of his throat. And then there was blood coming out of his eyes
and his nose and his mouth. And he coughed and it all went everywhere.”

Encouraged by her enraptured audience, she continued, her voice still scarcely louder than a whisper. “Then he died, and then Hex sent lots of people in suits to the tunnel and they scrubbed everything lots and lots and lots with stuff that smelt horrible. And no-one from Hex went down there for a long time. They were scared to go
down that
tunnel.”

“You saw this?” Titus questioned. “You were there?”

“Yes,” Eve replied. “I was hiding, I saw all of it.”

“And you breathed the same air?”

She nodded. “Yes, it doesn't kill me, or any of the children they hurt. We've got something called ‘Immunity' and it means we could go to Uppabov and not die. But they won't let us go to Uppabov. Cos they want to test the ‘Compound' and find a way to go to Uppabov without dying, see?”

Erin's eyes narrowed slightly. “But you can unlock the doors, can't you? So why don't you just escape?”

“I can't leave my friends!” she exclaimed, appalled. “I'm the only one who makes them feel better. I couldn't live in Uppabov when I knew they were in Hex and being hurt with no-one to talk to and keep secrets with. That would be horrible.”

Erin seemed satisfied with the answer and her suspicion melted away to a look of respect. “Even though they hurt you too?”

Eve nodded and looked down at her toes, just visible past the hem of the pyjama bottoms.

“That's brave,” Zane said quietly and smiled at her.

After a pause, Titus asked, “Do you know where Hex is?” At Eve's confused expression he re-framed the question. “Do you know anything about any places in Uppabov that are close to where you are?”

“Oh,” Eve thought hard. “They talk about somewhere called Green Park sometimes. They talk about going up there,
so that must be a place in Uppabov.”

Titus smiled broadly. “That's great, we have somewhere to start. We'll have to look on a map to see if the places we know they go to are near to this Green Park.”

“How did I get into this room?” Eve asked, flicking a stray blonde hair from her eyes. “I went to sleep and then I was here. I don't understand.”

“You're still asleep,” Titus replied gently, patiently. “Your body is still where it was when you went to sleep, but your mind has come to talk to us.”

Eve nodded, but not in a very convincing fashion. She began to take in the room properly. “It's very strange here … I don't understand what all of those things are.” She pointed at the shelves and the objects on them. “And why does the floor look so … weird?”

Zane looked at the floor. “It's made of wood,” he offered.

“Wood?” Eve crouched down and ran her finger along the grain. “There isn't anything like this in Hex. Is everywhere made of ‘wood' in Uppabov?”

Titus smiled and shook his head. “No, there are lots of things made of lots of different materials. I'll show you, when we get you out.”

Eve looked up at him and their eyes locked in a long gaze. She finally asked, “Are you going to get all of us out?”

“Yes, all of you,” he replied. “All of the children. I promise.”

Her head tipped to the side again as she seemed to study him. “Yes, I believe you.” She stood and smiled. “I like you.”

Titus blushed, relieved that she looked away to Zane and Erin. “I like you both too. I feel a bit funny, you're starting to feel … far away.”

Titus stood too. “You're about to wake up.”

“Oh.” Eve reached out to brush Titus' hand. “Can I come here again?”

All three nodded as Eve's form faded away.

“I like you too,” Titus whispered, as the last remnants of her image disappeared.

“Can you hear something?” Erin asked and Zane strained to listen.

“It's the Bloomsbury Boys' alarm!” he exclaimed. “We need to wake up!”

By the time the children had woken, thrown on shoes, and avoided various adults as they dashed out of their houses, the clanging alarm in Russell Square had stopped and a small crowd of Boys had collected at the edge of Herbrand Street. It was hard to see anything in the darkness; the moon was only half full and shadows clung to every building, every child, as they peered down the street, too afraid to go any farther.

“What happened?” Zane asked the nearest Boy as they ran up.

“Dev saw sommat on his watch, near where the Giants go,” the boy replied excitedly.

“One of the Giants?” Titus demanded, standing on tiptoes to try to see past the throng of heads.

“Nah, some bloke I think. Not big enough for one of them Giants. Dev said 'e were carryin' sommat, then Jay went an' got a torch and now Jay's over there sortin' it out. Dev said this bloke were tryin' to leave sommat in our patch, but Dev yelled and he ran off before 'e could.”

Whilst Zane and Titus quizzed the boy, Erin slipped away to climb up a rusting fire escape and look over the crowd. She saw an amber glow reflecting off the pale buildings at the end of the street. Jay came into view, his burning torch held high and in front of him with one hand, the other holding a knife firm. He swept the torch back and forth, peering in between rusting wrecks of cars and piles of wreckage left at the northern edge of their territory.

“Zane, Titus!” she hissed and beckoned them up to her. The rusting metal steps creaked in complaint as they climbed up to stand next to her and watch Jay's progress.

“Have you seen who it is?” Titus asked, following Jay's search just as keenly.

Erin shook her head. “By the way he's looking though, I think whoever it is has been trapped in that street.”

“I'm going to look too,” Titus said, “I don't want them to get away. They're probably from the Unders.”

“It might be a Gardner,” Zane cautioned, “You don't know who it is.”

“Not likely to be a Gardner,” Erin muttered back. “They never approach from the north. I think Titus is right.”

“Come with me if you want,” Titus said, as he began to climb back down the shaking steps. “But I'm not staying here and missing a chance to learn something about the Unders.”

Erin nodded and leapt down to the ground from where she had been watching. Zane picked his way back down, fretting at the sound of the wall fastenings scraping against their loose housings. By the time he had reached her side, Erin had an arrow notched and Titus had joined her too.

The three children climbed through an overgrown garden to get past the dense cluster of Bloomsbury Boys and hurried down the street to Jay's position. Seeing them do this, a handful of the braver Boys broke off from the front of the crowd and began to follow them, eager to show Jay that they were unafraid.

When they reached the road that Jay was searching, Erin moved to the centre of the street, positioning her body at an angle ready to loose the arrow. “I won't let anyone or anything go past me,” she stated.

Titus and Zane continued past her, but they had only moved a few metres into the road when Zane pointed to a pile of rubbish halfway down the street, close to where they could see Jay searching. “Someone's in pain behind there,” Zane whispered. “I can feel it.”

They watched Jay creep round the wreckage. There was the briefest pause and then he yelled, “What the hell are you doing?! Get away from 'im!”

“He's dying!” a man's voice retorted, but Jay leapt forward, pressing an attack. Both Titus and Zane arrived in time to see Jay slash at a man, forcing him back. He threw the torch down to draw his second blade, planting himself firmly between the intruder and the body of a child in familiar pale pyjamas.

The boy was shivering violently as ragged breaths rattled in his lungs. Zane rushed over to him, focused only on saving his life. He worked swiftly, knowing exactly how to draw the substance out of the boy's lungs.

Titus picked up the torch and held it towards the trespasser to try to identify him. Even though the man's face was barely visible by the flickering light, the resemblance was incredible.

“Zane! It's him!” Titus yelled as the man staggered away from Jay's blade.

“Stay back,” Jay growled as Zane looked up and their eyes met for the briefest moment. When the man didn't withdraw farther, Jay gave a chilling cry and leapt at him, both blades flashing in the amber glow of the torch. Zane stared, struck dumb by the sight of his father desperately holding his arms in front of his head as he stumbled away down the street.

“I was trying to save him!” he cried out as Jay's knives slashed at his arms.

“Liar!” Jay shouted, “I saw you tryin' to kill him–your hands were round his neck!” He repositioned his blades in his palms as he stalked the man, slowly moving him further away from Zane and the new boy. “I'll kill you, Unders scum!”

“I'm not one of them!” he cried, now directing his desperate defence at Zane as well as his assailant. “I was saving the boy from them! You have to believe me!”

Zane stood, finding himself believing him, despite Jay's words, despite what Lyssa had said. He took a tentative step towards him. “Dad?”

“Jay!” Erin called out from the end of the street. “Get out of the way!”

Zane watched his father's face distort into an expression of abject horror. As Jay leapt to one side, Zane turned to see Erin taking aim at his father.

“No, Erin!” Zane screamed, the very moment that her fingertips loosed the arrow.

The arrow hit with a loud thunk and Shannon's legs buckled beneath him. He cried out before collapsing onto his back, the air knocked out of him.

Erin notched a second arrow as Zane hurled himself towards his prone father.

“Erin, wait!” Titus yelled, watching Zane fall to his knees, staring at the point where the arrow was embedded in his chest.

Erin came closer, not moving her aim an inch.

“Get out of the way, Zane,” Jay growled. “He's the one that's been hurtin' my Boys, I know it.”

“He was saving him!” Zane shrieked, glaring back at Jay with glistening eyes.

Titus nodded. “I believe him,” he said, positioning himself between Zane and Jay. “Let us take care of this. The new boy needs you now.” As Jay drew a breath to protest, Titus patted the air and said, “This isn't in your territory, Jay. It's no man's land here.”