Harvest (54 page)

There wasn’t a pink elephant in
sight.

Hands grabbed at her, a scrawny
boy of about twelve shouted in horror at her, and pulled her away
from the burning heat, but she didn’t hear his words. He fell to
the floor, his nose spread across his face in a bloodied mess, his
face blanked by shock. Only then did she realise she had punched
him out. She stared at her fist, speckled with his blood and
watched the boy scrabble away and a burly man run towards her, his
gruff face snarled up in anger. She didn’t hear him but read his
lips as he shouted; “FUCKING BITCH.” Then he was running away from
her and she found that she had the pink elephant of a petrol can in
one hand and her lit lighter in the other, brandishing them both
after him as a deterrent. She dropped them both, not understanding
the slips in time and her trips in and out of awareness. Mr
Sinclair was motionless within his smouldering prison, all colour
and detail burnt into blackness.

It seeped out of the thing that
called itself Zoe Sampson and drifted into the head of the creature
called Peter Sinclair. The bonding was different – difficult. After
all the trials It had put flesh through It had found that It could
soak back into the flesh, even when flesh was dead. It could become
one with it, control it, animate it, create with it or give it life
again. This time It could not enter the flesh. The skin was ash.
The flesh and muscle carbonised charcoal. The habitat that was
Peter Sinclair had been destroyed.

Zoe spun round, surveying the
wide ring of terrified and angry people that drew close to her with
their hands gesturing for her to be calm, or pulling people back
that got too close to her.

“
Don’t do it!” A kind
looking man begged her before terror spread from face to face among
the onlookers and the circle of people broke and fled. Don’t do it?
She already had – she had torched Mr Sinclair. She didn’t
understand what the man had meant until she watched herself ignite
her lighter and apply the flame to the chest of her uniform. The
pain was instant and winded the air from her lungs as heat dug
itself into every millimetre of her body. Zoe Sampson bucked and
thrashed within the suit of flame and heat that clung to her and
devoured.

It abandoned her. Unable to
stay within the flesh as the flame consumed it. It watched them
both burn. It felt diminished – part of itself trapped within the
burning flesh. It understood the limits of the flesh It needed for
form, but now It understood and shared her fear of fire.

The smoke rolled up into
the air and broke against the face of the East Tower of The
Heights
. On the seventh floor Mrs Sinclair
cursed the youths she suspected for the bonfire and shut the window
against her husband and his nurse drifting into her
home.

Chapter
Forty

Kelly walked up the path behind
Craig and shook her head at him and the way he coveted the nail gun
like a baby. He had opened it and assembled it in the car, but she
had insisted that he kept it unloaded while she was driving. All
she needed was a nail in her foot. Rachel answered her door and
appeared a little wary of the heavy-duty power tool. Kelly nodded
to Rachel. “You would think he saw this as his chance to satisfy
his inner child.” Kelly followed Craig into Rachel’s flat. He
seemed his usual self, she joked with him to get out of the mood
she had with him, but she was sure her attitude had ruined things
between them.

Craig passed the nail gun from
one hand to the other, inspecting it and testing its weight. “I
know, but I saw it used in a few films.”

“
I would think you would
avoid trying anything from films after your track record of
shoulder barging doors,” Rachel teased.

“
Ha-de-ha-ha.” Craig
responded flatly before shaking the gun in the air and adopting a
more up-beat tone. “Argos. Cost me a bit, but if it does help slay
our monster then I can take it back on the sixteen-day no questions
asked money back guarantee. God, bless Argos and my statutory
rights. Flippancy aside though, we can’t get our hands on anything
like proper guns, so this could be the next best thing.”

Kelly winced as the guns
nail-spitting eye pointed in her direction, she pushed it aside.
“Well, I wouldn’t like to be on the receiving end of that.”

“
Hopefully ‘
it
’
won’t want to be on the receiving end either.”

“
Surprised you didn’t go for a chainsaw;
Evil Dead
style.” Cat gave a smile
that attempted to be as genuine and friendly as her tone, but just
looked awkward and anxious as she entered the lounge from the
kitchen with two mugs of tea.

“
I love those films,”
Craig enthused.

“
Me too,” Kelly lied
weakly. She had only seen one of them. Her comment drew no
attention from Craig, only a curious glance from Cat. What was the
point. Kelly had lost that competition.

“
Yeah, but a chainsaw or
something like that would involve getting up close and personal, I
don’t like that idea – I want to be able to bring it down from a
distance!”

“
Tough guy,” Cat said
playfully.

“
Not quite.” Craig
answered quietly.

Kelly decided to address the
elephant in the room that was being ignored. “Cat, you’re
back?”

“
Yeah;
me and the kid just went out to clear our heads before…” Cat
widened her eyes in mock drama;
“the big
showdown.

“
Yes. We went for a walk
together,” Jason jumped in quickly but sounded like he was reading
from a script.

Cat put the mugs down heavily on
the table as an audible full-stop on Jason’s explanation. He was a
bad liar, he was clearly covering up for Cat but Kelly couldn’t be
bothered to play Cat’s games.

Rachel wrung her hands as she
watched Cat take a seat with Jason. “Yes, I went out to get some
breakfast stuff and they were here when I got back.”

Jason pointed to an array of
different empty bottles on the coffee table. “I found plenty of
bottles to use for the Molotov’s.”

Rachel smiled sourly. “I
don’t know what frightens me more, the fact that this is a twelve
year old talking about Molotov’s, or that I found he had tipped a
bottle of my fifteen-year old single malt down the sink. I had
thought that he would apprise himself of milk bottles from the
neighbours, but no;
he’s far more
resourceful.
”

“
You guys get any other
stuff?” Jason cut in.

“
We got
the gas cylinders earlier;
‘Goldie’
has been dragging her arse all the way here. We will have to
meet you down there.” With everyone’s attention momentarily upon
her Kelly felt a coldness in her gut. She felt like an outsider in
the group again now that Cat had returned.

Craig deposited the nail gun on
the table, “Our version of a gun.” He pulled the carrier bag that
he had tucked into his jeans and from the bag he produced a compact
red plastic gun. It looked like a toy gun, but it was a flare gun
they had picked up from an army and navy surplus store on Chalk
Farm Road. “Something a bit more explosive.”

“
That should pack a
punch!” Jason whooped.

Craig nodded. “And we have
Rachel’s hefty sword, and there’s an axe we can pinch from the fire
point in the lobby.”

“
Which one do I get?”
Jason asked excitedly.

“
Er! – None of them,”
Kelly was quick to counter.

“
I’m not just saying this
to be argumentative; you have put him out of the way of the action
in our little gunpowder plot and I’m fine with that, but he’s still
gonna be on his own,” Cat’s objection actually sounded diplomatic,
and reasonable.

“
Well, you are going to be
safely locked away.” Kelly watched his face turn down with
disappointment and Cat bristle. Kelly pulled the heavy crow-bar
from under her arm and gave it to Jason. “Only, and I repeat only
if someone is clearly under the influence of the thing in the
basement or you are in danger from someone do you use this. If you
need to you swing it as hard as you can and they won’t be messing
with you for long.”

“
Only if they deserve it,
of course.” Cat added quickly.

The smile that Cat flashed at
Kelly wasn’t smug, sarcastic or cruel. The only interpretation
Kelly could make of it was that it was to show Kelly she was on her
side, that she didn’t want Jason hurt either. It was too little too
late. Kelly didn’t bother smiling back. Jason shouldn’t be
involved. Cat’s face hardened and she folded her arms as she too
gave up.

Chapter
Forty One

Craig stood in the lobby of The
Heights alongside Kelly, Jason, Cat and Rachel. Rachel’s secret
army. This was it. They stood for what seemed like forever,
listening to the silence of the building. The quiet was so strong
it was almost tangible like white-noise. The emptiness of the lobby
drew in around him; its familiarity reminded them of the normal
lives they had once led in contrast with the disturbing memory of
their escape the night before. Even on the quietest days you
usually heard some background noises; kids on the green, the whir
of the lifts, fire doors banging, footsteps echoing down the
stairs. Today the green was empty. He had noticed that two patches
of the grass were scorched and smoked. He had never known anyone to
have a bonfire there before. There were no sounds of movement from
the floors above. No sounds at all.

When they had been making their
plans they had reasoned that it could be watching them and they
wouldn’t know, that it could strike anywhere and at anytime. He
realised they were all waiting because they expected to be repelled
by an instant confrontation. The anticipation was horrible; it felt
like he was holding his breath constantly, although he could feel
his breathing alongside the pounding of his heart.

Kelly was the first to act,
dragging her cylinder to the lift in a prolonged eruption of noise
as the cylinder sang out its hollow ring. Cat, Craig and Rachel
followed with theirs while Kelly called both lifts to the ground
floor, she motioned to Rachel and Cat and then at the cylinders.
“You two okay with this bit?”

They both nodded and started
following the plans they had made the previous night. Craig
wordlessly followed Kelly as she headed to the caretaker’s office
behind the lifts, and Jason followed him. They were confident that
Alec had finished his daily duties an hour ago and would be in his
flat for lunch. Kelly reached without looking and Jason knew to
pass her the crowbar then stand further down the corridor as
lookout into the lobby.

The door opened with a deep
crunch as the crowbar did its work and chewed the fibres of the
wood into ragged splinters. Kelly leaned heavily into the lever and
the door gave up it’s resistance in a loud crack and swung abruptly
inwards. The crowbar fell clanging to the floor but the noise that
gave them away didn’t seem to faze Kelly and she just swiped it
back up from the floor. Craig moved past her and gave the cluttered
room a cursory inspection before searching out the keys they
needed. Finding them clearly labelled and hanging on the wall he
snatched them and called Jason back from his look-out duty to the
lift maintenance cupboard behind the lifts.

Hastily unlocking the cupboard
he found there was no light within. He grabbed the torch that stuck
out from his jeans pocket and shone its puddle of light into the
small room, scanning it over the grey concrete walls run with a
black wash of damp and mould. He settled the torch light on the
trip switches and fuses for the lifts. He listened to the lift
doors shut on the ground floor and waited until Cat and Rachel
appeared in the doorway of the cupboard.

“
It’s done,” Rachel
hushed, flushed from the exertion of moving the payload into the
lift with Cat.

With that confirmation Kelly
reached past Craig and tripped the switches, cutting the power to
the lifts. Jason got his mobile phone out and made a show of
checking that Cat’s, Craig’s and Kelly’s mobile number was stored
safely, demonstrating he knew what he was doing.

“
I’m all ready.” He stated
confidently.

Cat ruffled his hair. “Hey, I
know you know what you’re doing. You’ve come through for me before.
I trust you. I’m sure my back’s safe with you watching it.”

Craig felt a panic rise in him.
What did Cat mean? He looked to Kelly hoping she wouldn’t bite at
the comment. He couldn’t face them all having a row now; he just
wanted to get this done and over with one way or another.

Kelly spoke directly to Jason.
“As soon as one of us calls just send the first lift down, don’t
answer the phone I doubt we will have any time to answer or talk,
then once you have sent that lift down count for thirty seconds and
send the second lift down.”

“
Proper seconds too, I
want a Mississippi between each one. Cat does not want you sending
that second lift down while she is still on that floor.” Craig
added.

No one seemed to mind hearing
Jason’s part of the plan again. Kelly handed Jason the long silver
key to the cupboard. “Lock it behind you. Don’t open it to anyone
but us,” she instructed firmly.

Craig felt a surge of
protectiveness towards Jason and nudged him playfully. “I hope
you’re not claustrophobic, kid.”

Jason flashed a tight smile, but
there was no humour in his pale face. He looked scared. He stepped
into the cupboard and shut the door behind him. Craig heard the raw
bite of the key securing the door. Brave kid.