The Rats (14 page)

‘Go on, boy, it’s for Queen and country.’

The pup squatted on its haunches and looked up at him.

‘Oh Christ,’ muttered Harris, ‘it’s going to be more difficult than I thought.’

Howard reached into the basket and brought out some raw meat. ‘This should tempt him. It’s meant as rat bait, but I don’t see why these little blighters shouldn’t enjoy a last meal. I’ll entice him along to the bridge and leave him there with enough to feast on. Here boy, come on.’ He bumped the meat against the pup’s nose and trailed it along tantalisingly just above its snapping jaws.

’Don’t go too far!’ shouted Harris, as the strangely-clad figure disappeared underneath the bridge. He and the others began to scatter more raw meat around the two remaining puppies, feeding them a little to keep them happy.

They looked up at the sound of running feet to see Howard coming towards them, waving his arms excitedly.

At first, they couldn’t understand his shouts, but as he pointed back towards the bridge they realised why he was making such haste to get away from it.

In the gloom under the bridge they saw several black-shaped creatures surrounding the pup, which had begun to whine piteously. Harris made as if to move towards it, but a restraining hand was placed on his arm. He nodded, seeing the sense of it. What did it matter if a pup lost its life when countless people were to be saved because of it? But it was a horrible way for the poor little mite to go.

Suddenly they saw a line of rats break out from the dark interior of the bridge and streak out after the lumbering researcher. The leading rat swiftly caught up with the suit-clumsy figure and leapt at the plodding legs. It clung to the material of the suit but its razor-sharp teeth failed to penetrate. Howard continued to run, dragging the persistent creature along with him.

‘Your visor,’ shouted Harris. ‘Close your visor!’

Howard heard him and snapped the glass protection shut.

He stumbled as another rat attached itself to his other leg, but managed to keep on his feet. The group of men looked on in horror as another scaled his back and perched on his shoulder, snapping at his head covering. He went down heavily, one arm splashing into the canal water. He raised himself to his knees, rats swarming all over him now. He tried in vain to brush them off, but they clung to his body like giant leeches.

Harris saw what he feared most–a tear beginning to appear in the tough material. He ran forward, the three other men following. Reaching Howard, he began pulling at the rats which were now tearing at the cloth in frenzy, oblivious to the blows being dealt them. Harris kicked two into the canal, hoping they were stunned enough to drown, and ignoring the clinging creatures, he dragged the researcher to his feet and pulled him along the canal bank.

All the men were fighting for their own lives now as more of the rodents poured over them. They staggered on, hack towards the gap in the fence that would allow them to escape from the death-trap canal. Some of the pressure was taken off them as they passed the two howling pups and the littered raw meat, for the rats pounced on the easier prey with relish.

‘Back to the vans!’ Harris heard a muffled shout. ‘We’ve got the gas cylinders there!’

They kept going, the way easier now for most of the rats were converging on the animal flesh. Helping one another, they reached the gap and climbed through. Abruptly, the rats still clinging dropped to the ground as if they sensed the danger to themselves once outside the boundary to the canal.

Harris lunged at one before it could escape, ignoring the revulsion within him caused by the squirming creature. He held on to its neck with one hand, its back legs with the other and lifted it high into the air.

‘Here’s a live specimen for you? he cried, struggling to keep his grasp.

‘Good man,’ shouted Howard and dashed forward to help the teacher. The giant rat was immensely strong and struggled fiercely in their arms, but the two men held on grimly.

The other rats, which had not fled, but had remained on the other side of the gap, suddenly came through and began to attack the two men.

The other three kicked and pulled at the vermin, trying to beat them off but it soon became apparent that their efforts would be wasted unless they had more help. Their companions in the nearby vans started their engines and roared towards them, screeching to a halt by the side of the mêlée.

The back doors of the walk-through vans were flung open and the struggling men began to clamber in, the rats clinging to them and leaping into the two vehicles. The noise was deafening to Harris, even through the protection of the helmet; the pups in their baskets barking furiously, the vermin squealing in their peculiar high-pitched fashion, the shouts and cries of the men. He realised the driver of the van he’d made for wasn’t wearing his helmet or gloves. He shouted at the man to cover his head and hands but the driver failed to hear above the clamour. Two men were inside the first van now and were swiftly unpacking the gas tanks, kicking at the rats as they leapt into the interior.

Harris and Howard climbed in holding their captive between them, ignoring the pain of bites that did not penetrate, but squeezed their flesh in excruciating pinches. The van began to move forward, the rats chasing it and trying to leap through the open back doors, some making it, others being kicked back on to the road. The doors were slammed shut, jamming in the middle on the body of a rat which fell out again with the help of a sharp kick from one of the men.

The gas in one of the cylinders was released to deal with the vermin left inside the van and still persisting in their attack.

‘Not this one!’ ordered Howard. ‘Find something to put it in. We want it alive!’

A metal box of tools had its contents emptied and the frenzied rat was placed roughly inside. The lid clicked firmly shut. The van’s sudden swerving caused them to look anxiously at the driver. He was trying to shake off one of the black beasts from his exposed hand. A jet of gas was aimed at the rat and soon it flopped to the floor at the feet of the driver, whose arm now hung limply at his side. He kept driving, moaning with the pain, but steering with his right hand only. The gas was aimed around the large interior of the vehicle, dealing death within seconds to the vicious rats.

”Not too much gas!’ shouted Howard. ‘We don’t want to kill off the dogs as well!’

As the last rat staggered drunkenly then stiffened and died, the men removed their protective helmets and looked towards the injured driver, knowing he was doomed.

‘The other van is close behind,’ said Howard, peering through the back door window, ‘We’re far away enough now,’ he called to the driver, ‘so let’s pull up and we’ll deal with your wound.’ He looked across at Harris shaking his head in despair.

The van pulled over to the kerbside, the other stopping close behind. The doors were opened and the men wearily climbed out, glad to breathe the fresh morning air after the acrid fumes of the gas. Harris, feeling sick and slightly dizzy, leaned against the side of the van.

‘Too much of that gas can kill a man,’ Howard told him, ‘especially in a confined space like that. It was lucky we were wearing the helmets. The driver has just blacked out, not from his wound I suspect, but because of the gas–and he was near an open window.’

‘Does the poor sod know he’ll die?’ asked Harris, his mind still fuzzy.

‘Everyone knows about the disease now, Mr Harris. He was aware of the risk, he should have protected himself.’

‘Well maybe you haven’t been too lucky either,’ said Harris, pointing at the rip in Howard’s suit.

The researcher paled and put his hand to the bole. ‘I don’t think I’ve been bitten,’ he said, ‘but I’m bruised all over from their teeth. Oh Christ.’ He fumbled at the zip in the grey suit and managed to pull it down haltingly. To his relief, he found the clothes he wore underneath undamaged.

With a deep sigh, he too leaned against the side of the van.

After a while, he said, ‘Let’s take this poor blighter to the hospital, not that it’ll do him much good, and then get on with the rounds. Only this time I’m going to get us more protection from Foskins. I mean, this is only the first location. I hope you’ve chosen some safe places for us, Harris, in the next nine.’

Harris smiled thinly at him. ‘Are there any safe places around here any more?’

They suffered attacks from the vermin on three other occasions that day. Harris returned to the fiat in the evening completely exhausted, both mentally and physically, his nerves almost numbed by the terrors the operation had held. He sank into an armchair and told Judy of the day’s events.

‘The canal was about the worst. It shook us up pretty badly, especially the driver being hurt, so after that we were a bit more cautious. From there we went to the dock area–I’ve never seen the streets so deserted–left the bait and got out fast? He carefully avoided mentioning the pups, not wanting to upset her, knowing her love of animals.

‘But at one spot, we stopped the vans at the entrance of an alley leading to the river, got out and carried the bait to the end of it. We dumped it and turned to make our way back and found our exit cut off by the bastards. They were streaming from a basement grid. We didn’t stop to think Howard was off like a shot, right through them, and we all followed en masse, kicking and stomping, thanking God for protective suits. We bundled into the vans and got away fast.

‘It’s funny, but sitting there in the Town Hall, making plans, hearing all the reports, even my own first-hand experiences of the rats–we didn’t realise just how bad the situation was. It took today’s events to really bring it home. In the morning, the streets were practically deserted, and later on, people were only travelling around in groups or in cars and vans.

‘Anyway, after that we met up with our escort promised by Foskins. He’d brought the army into it. Two truckloads of troops armed with water-cannon, flame-throwers, gas, the whole bloody works. It certainly made us feel a bit better.’

’You should have started out with them,’ interrupted Judy, cross not with Harris but at Foskins, who was in control.

‘Yes, I know,’ said Harris, ‘but we’ve done it all along.

We’ve underestimated them. Despite all the reports, we’ve just thought of them as highly dangerous pests, not as the overwhelming force that they seem to be becoming. Even after the tram massacre and the attack on the school we didn’t expect to meet up with so many of them in one day.

True, I’d chosen the most likely places–I had to if our part was to be effective–but even I wasn’t prepared for the number of times we came face to face with them. I tell you, Jude, if this doesn’t work, that whole area will have to be razed to the ground.’

Judy shuddered. ‘What if it’s too late? You told me how fast they breed. What if they spread all over London?’

Harris was silent for a while, then he said: ‘Goodbye London.’

‘Oh, darling, let’s go now. You’ve done all you can, you’ve helped them as much as possible. You said yourself you’re not really necessary, you’re just there for Foskins’ ego. Well let them get on with it. Let’s go before it gets worse.’

‘Come on, Jude, you know we can’t. Where would we go?’

‘Aunt Hazel’s for a while. You could be transferred to a local school and I wouldn’t mind working in a shop for a while. With all the schools overflowing with evacuated kids they’re crying out for more teachers to come out of London.’

‘No, love. I couldn’t leave now. You see, as we drove on today, dressed in those ridiculous space-suits, escorted by soldiers armed to the teeth, and I took them all to places I knew, places familiar to me, places that had been part of my life, I knew I had to see it through. If you like–and I know it may sound silly–it was my patch. The men with me were strangers to it. As far as Foskins and his ministry are concerned it could be a foreign land. Oh, I’m not saying I love the area or it’s in my blood. Nothing daft like that. But I do feel some responsibility towards it–like it’s my old school and it’s being demolished by age. See?’

‘Yes, I see.’ Judy smiled at him, holding his hand to her cheek. ‘You dope.’

He shrugged, smiling to himself.

‘Any more incidents today?’ she asked.

‘Yes. In a children’s school ground we saw a score of them attacking a dog, so we drove in and went straight through them, dropping the bait without stopping.’ Into his mind crowded the terrible sight of his companions dropping the pups from the vans into the midst of the rats, something he’d been unable to take part in. ‘Later we went into a bombed-out church and discovered the flesh-cleaned bones of two people. Who they were and how long they’d been there we couldn’t tell; the skeletons were too clean to have been there too long and there wasn’t a trace of clothing. The strange thing was that they were locked in a tight embrace like lovers. We began to unload the bait when we heard a scream. One of our men had a rat clinging to his neck and was running around like a madman. Fortunately, his suit saved him from serious injury, but his fear was contagious. We all made for the exit. Two men went to the attacked man’s aid but soon found they had their own problems. The three of them ran from the opening, rats clinging to their bodies and as soon as they were clear, the water-canon were directed at the gap to stop anything else coming through.

The soldiers helped the three men get free of the rats by using their bayonets. The army wanted to fill the place with gas, but Howard wouldn’t let them. It was the one time we wanted the rats to live, so they could spread the virus.

‘After that episode, we didn’t have too much trouble although we still made contact with them. We’d learned to be cautious and kept as close to the vans as possible, leaping inside at the first hint of risk.

None of us were very brave, I’m afraid. We were too aware of the consequences.’

‘I don’t want a dead hero, Harris,’ said Judy.

‘Believe me, you won’t get one.’

’So what happens now?’

‘We wait. We wait to see if the virus takes effect and if it does, then it shouldn’t take long for it to spread. They reckon within a couple of’ weeks we’ll know one way or another.’