The Sacrifice (40 page)

‘You what?’ Ed couldn’t
believe what he was hearing.

‘Yeah. I know. Matt said it was
God’s plan. Everything that happens Matt explains as God’s plan. I just
thought – they were dead – what difference did it make? I mean, it was that or throw
them in the river.’

‘He fed dead kids to this
sicko?’

‘Yeah. And it kept Wormwood happy. It
was like he came alive. After eating them what he said made a lot more sense. And now we
keep on feeding him.’

‘With children?’

‘Most of the time we give him other
stuff, from the warehouse, or dead animals.’

‘Oh, that’s OK then. You only
feed him children
some
of the time.’

Archie couldn’t look at Ed. He stared
at his hands on the table and spoke very quietly. ‘Sacrifices Matt calls them. The
next ones we gave him were some kids from outside. A gang of them turned up and tried to
break into our supplies, tried to steal stuff. There was a fight. We killed one, badly
wounded another. The rest of them ran off into the City. We never saw them again.
Probably some sickos got them, but, whatever, they didn’t come back.’

‘So you fed the dead one to this
Wormwood?’

‘Yes. Him and the wounded
girl.’

‘She was still alive?’

‘Barely. He liked that. Prefers them
alive.’

‘Jesus, Archie, this is sick. I
can’t believe you’re sitting here calmly telling me all this. Why’d
you go along with it? How can you?’

‘Because when I listened to
Wormwood’s babble, it didn’t sound like the word of God, it sounded like
something different. It began to sound a bit like the truth.’

‘What truth?’ Ed asked. ‘I
don’t understand.’

‘I reckon that somewhere in all that
noise there’s clues to what’s going on. He knows stuff, Ed. From what I can
work out, before the sickness he was working for some kind of biological
medical-research type place, not sure exactly what it was. And I think he knows
something about the causes of the sickness. Matt’s kept him down there for
religious reasons. I go along with it, but what I really want to find out is
what’s going on. What it’s all about. And he might know the answer. I mean,
isn’t that more important than … Than anything?’

‘No. No, it’s not. I get it now.
What’s the phrase? The carrot and the stick? Matt bribes you all with food and if
you don’t go along with it he throws you to his pet sicko. Who else has he
killed?’

Archie sighed. ‘The next one was a kid
from here who got killed in a fight with some sickos when we were building the
Wall,’ he said. It seemed to Ed that he wanted to get all this stuff out, that it
was bugging him more than he was letting on.

‘Then there was another live one. A
boy called Nev had an accident, fell off one of the balconies in the cathedral. Broke
his back. He was one of the most religious kids here. Even more fanatical than Matt,
went along with everything Matt came out with. Begged Matt to sacrifice him. Said God
had chosen him. Said it was an honour. Didn’t stop him screaming when we put him
in there.’

‘Nice.’

‘The last one that went down before
today was a girl. She was always trouble, always getting into fights, never
settled down or made friends. There was something wrong with her if
you ask me. One day she took it too far, killed this younger girl. Drowned her. Matt had
to punish her in some way … ’

Ed was too numb to feel anything. Or say
anything. He wondered if what Jordan had done to Brendan was really any better. He
didn’t know any more.

‘All right,’ he said at last.
‘So are you telling me that’s where you took The Kid? That little boy? Nine
years old? Fed him to a bloody monster?’

‘I know,’ said Archie.
‘Today was different. It wasn’t a punishment as such. We had to sacrifice
the Goat. Matt wanted to make this big show. We’ve been waiting for the Goat and
the Lamb to show up since we got here. And there they were. Matt was so
sure
.’

‘And you let him do it?’

‘The thing is, Ed,’ said Archie,
leaning forward, ‘it’s important what Matt’s doing here.’

‘Killing kids?’

‘No. Saving them.’

‘How does killing The Kid save
him?’

‘Not him. He was a sacrifice, for the
others. For us. People need something to believe in. That’s what Matt’s
given us, something outside ourselves. So that kids don’t just sit around thinking
about themselves and all their problems. Without it, there’s nothing, no hope for
any of us. If you stopped to think about what’s happened you’d go nuts.
It’s a nightmare. Matt offers something different, though. The way things are, we
need crazy bastards like him to hold us all together.’

Ed thought about Jordan Hordern at the
Tower, with his rules and his training and his military obsessions. Nicola
at the Houses of Parliament, with her voting system, her new
government … 

Something to believe in.

Did it make any difference whether it was
the Lamb, democracy or military order?

But that didn’t excuse what
they’d done to The Kid.

‘How long ago?’ he asked.

‘What?’ Archie finally looked up
at Ed.

‘How long ago did you take The Kid to
Wormwood in the Abyss?’

‘Well, I don’t have a watch any
more, but I’d guess a couple of hours.’

‘How long would it take for, you
know … ?’

‘He’s strong and fast and
he’s always hungry. The last time we took him a kid was a month ago. Since then
he’s only had scraps.’

‘How long, Archie?’

‘It’s usually over in about five
minutes.’

Ed stood up, started pacing the room.
‘Maybe I should just feed
Matt
to Wormwood,’ he said.

‘Don’t, Ed,’ Archie
pleaded. ‘Leave him. The kids here need him. We’re surrounded by sickos.
Without Matt this whole place would fall apart. There’d be panic. Matt’s
convinced himself and everyone else here that The Kid was a demon, the dark twin of the
Lamb, and that once he was sacrificed to Wormwood everything would be all right. Our war
against the sickos would be won.’

‘Jesus!’ Ed slammed his fist
against the wall, cracking a wood panel. ‘This is all so messed up.’ He
turned on Archie. ‘You almost had me thinking it was OK. But it’s not. I
keep coming back to that poor little boy, all alone with that freak. That’s what
this is. Nothing more.’

‘It’s over, Ed. You can’t do
anything.’

‘Can’t I? You’re gonna
take me there, Archie. Maybe he’s still alive.’

‘He won’t be. Leave
it.’

‘I have to try,’ Ed yelled.
‘You and me and Matt are gonna go there, and I’m gonna see for myself, and
I’m gonna decide. Maybe I shut Matt in with Wormwood, maybe I just kill the sicko
so that you screwed-up jerks can’t feed any more children to him.’

‘He knows stuff,’ Archie
protested.

‘I don’t care what he knows. As
long as he’s there, he’s a threat to children. So get Matt and let’s
get this over with.’

‘Come on then, you bastards, here I
am.’

Shadowman had managed to put two more of the
strangers out of the game and now he was hoping for a fourth. A very tall father
carrying a long crooked stick. Shadowman had clocked that he was eager to get ahead of
the others and close in for the kill. Hunger was making him reckless.

And Shadowman wanted that stick. His knee
had locked and was now just a cold lump of agony.

There was a mother trying to keep up with
Stickboy, only a few paces behind. Shadowman took careful aim and fired the crossbow
directly at her chest. She came on a few more paces then slowly went down, turning round
and round on the spot in her confusion. Stickboy was almost on Shadowman now and he had
to hurriedly put his crossbow back over his shoulder without reloading. He drew his
machete and swung it all in one movement. Stickboy was ready for him, though. He held
the stick up two-handed to ward off the blow, but Shadowman went in low, slashed him
across the belly. Stickboy wasn’t going to go quietly. He was tough and, as dark
blood soaked his ragged trousers, he came on, jerking the stick up and down in front of
him. Shadowman didn’t have time for this. He took aim at Stickboy’s knee and
let fly with the machete.

‘Yeah,’ he said as the father fell
over sideways. ‘Hurts, doesn’t it?’

He grabbed hold of the stick and tried to
wrestle it from Stickboy’s hands. Stickboy held on with an iron grip. He
wasn’t letting go of his precious stick and the rest of the pack was getting
dangerously close.

‘Look, just let go of it, will
you?’

He hacked at the father’s fingers with
his blade, like a chef chopping vegetables, until Stickboy had nothing to hold on with
any more. Shadowman pulled the stick free and propped the curve of it under his
shoulder. It wasn’t the best crutch in the world, but it was better than nothing.
He hobbled off, trying to keep the weight off his bad knee, the rain washing the blood
from his machete.

The strangers weren’t going to give
up. They must have been miles from the rest of The Fear by now and still they came
on.

That was Bluetooth’s doing. He was a
tough bastard and Shadowman had noticed before that he never gave up. If he could only
stop and shoot him or cut his bloody head off. Anything. Then the rest of them might
stop chasing him.

Bluetooth was clever, though. He stayed
back, hidden among the rest of the pack. Happy to let the others get ahead and take on
the danger. He’d be first to feed, but he’d let the others do all the hard
work of actually hunting and killing.

The only way to end this nightmare was to
either kill him or kill them all.

In the end it might come down to the same
thing.

‘It’s a miracle.’
Matt’s voice filled the dark, dusty cellar. ‘We have rolled away the stone
and the cave is empty. The Goat and the fallen star are both gone. They have destroyed
one another, just as it was told. We are rid of two evils. The Abyss is cleaned out.
Wormwood can poison us no more and the trickster Goat can fool us no more. The darkness
will lift and all will be new and bright.’

He went to Sam and held him by the
shoulders.

‘The world is yours.’

‘I don’t want it,’ said
Sam. ‘You can keep it.’

Matt was smiling at him, trying to show that
he knew everything and Sam knew nothing.

What a loser
.

Sam had a smile of his own, but he was
keeping it inside.

The truth was that he knew everything and
Matt knew nothing. If you looked at the world expecting to see miracles and magic and
OTT fantasy things you were likely to miss what was really going on.

People didn’t just vanish into thin
air.

They’d come here through the rain,
under umbrellas, big colourful ones with corporate logos on them for long-dead
companies. Ed, hard-faced, with his five friends from the Tower, Matt trying to walk
upright and uncovered,
refusing the protection of a brolly, the rain
smashing down on to his shaved head. Archie shivering under a bright blue umbrella for
an insurance company. Nathan and three guards carrying spears.

The cathedral kids had been tense,
frightened, as Nathan had unlocked the black door to the cellar. Sam had just felt cold
and miserable.

And then they’d found … 

Nothing.

Just a bad stink.

Ed had seemed pissed off. Matt had started
one of his crazy rants, but Sam had realized there were no signs of any fresh blood
anywhere and had looked a bit closer.

Now he was standing on a piece of wood.
Looked like it might once have been the lid of one of the empty broken chests that
littered the cellar. He’d spotted it straight away. Tapped it quietly with his
foot, heard the hollow sound underneath.

The Kid was the tunnel king, wasn’t
he? He’d promised he’d find a way out.

Sam was beginning to see the light all
right. These pesky mortals would marvel at his wisdom. He had to stop himself from
sniggering.

There was still hope.

Ed did one last final whirlwind search of
the cellar, kicking stuff out of his way. Matt was quoting another boring passage from
his book. No one was listening. The other kids were looking confused and starting to get
bored. They’d hyped themselves up for an action scene and it had been a big
let-down.

‘Let’s get out of here,’
Ed grumbled eventually and they clumped back up the stairs to the warehouse, Ed laying
into
Archie Bishop all the way, telling him he hoped the whole thing
hadn’t been some kind of set-up.

When they reached the warehouse, they found
another surprise waiting for them.

A mob of cathedral kids, most of them armed.
They looked determined. Ready to rescue their leader. When Matt saw them, he smiled.

‘You can’t beat me, Ed!’
he called out. ‘Because I speak the word of God. We are an army. Put down your
weapons, you unbelievers and –’

‘Oh, shut up,’ said Ed. And he
turned to face the kids. Sam could see that most of them weren’t fighters at all,
and now that they had Ed and his crew in front of them again they were looking just a
bit nervous. He wondered how many of them would actually fight.

He knew Ed wouldn’t be worried. He was
a warrior.

‘Listen to me,’ Ed shouted.
‘You kids have got a choice. You can go along with Matt here. I’m not going
to stop you. If that’s what you want it’s fine with me. If you’re
happy taking innocent little boys and feeding them to grown-ups. If that’s what
you think is a good way to live your lives I’m not going to stop you. But
I’ll tell you one thing.
You
are not going to stop
me
leaving
this building. I made a promise to Sam and I’m going to keep it. Me and my friends
are going to walk out of here and we’re taking Sam with us. He’s not what
you think he is. He’s just a boy trying to find his sister.’

‘The Lamb stays here with us,’
Matt shouted.