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Back The Enemy Save as PDF
Chapters (69)
  1. Table of Contents
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Arran would have been impressed with this.

Arran ...

Maxie was overcome with a bittersweet feeling. Like when a small cloud drifts over the sun on a summer’s day. She knew that elsewhere in London terrible scenes were being acted out. Kids were lost in a world of pain and misery. She wasn’t sure she deserved this level of peace and contentment. She sat down on the grass and let herself go. Tears pouring down her face. She looked around. She wasn’t alone. Other kids were sitting there, overwhelmed by it all. All the tension and fear of the last two days was coming out. Kids were hugging each other or sitting alone with their thoughts. Like her, many were crying.

She also spotted some of the palace kids in little teary huddles. They had lost friends too, from Jester’s scouting party.

Maeve came out of the building. She saw Maxie and sat down next to her, putting her arms around her.

“Is this really happening?” she whispered.

“I hope so,” said Maxie, and they laughed through their tears.

“I’ve just been upstairs, speaking to a girl called Rose,” said Maeve. “They’ve got a proper sick bay and a sort of clinic. She’s been telling me about the medicines they’ve got. She even wears a nurse’s uniform. You should have seen how well they dealt with that poor girl we rescued. Oh, Maxie. It’s amazing. I never thought I’d see anything like this ever again. For the first time since the disaster I really feel like we might have a future.”

“I know,” said Maxie. “And after what we’ve been through, I reckon we can cope with anything. We’re going to survive, Maeve.”

Ollie was walking alone by the lake. There were ducks on it, probably fish swimming down below. He felt neither happy nor sad. He was thoughtful. This all looked fantastic on the surface.

Franny had given him a small piece of lettuce to try. It had tasted delicious, but when he had pulled off one of the leaves he’d found a small slug on it.

There was always a slug on the lettuce.

This was too good to be true.

He had never trusted Jester, and he didn’t trust David.

He wasn’t going to let his guard down just yet.

Being careful had kept him alive this far.

There was no reason to stop being careful now.

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