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Back The Enemy Save as PDF
Chapters (69)
  1. Table of Contents
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“I don’t know nothing about all that,” said Freak. “I only know that the real enemy is the grown-ups.”

“And we have to unite if we want to defeat them,” said Ollie. “If we can’t unite, then they win. It’s as simple as that. I’m sure these squatter kids will see reason. I’m sure we won’t have to fight them.”

“Do you really believe that?” said Maxie. “You don’t know them.”

“I’ve made up my mind,” said Blue. “I’ve listened to enough yak-yak-yak for one night. I’m going down there tomorrow to take a look. Check these squatter dudes out. I’ll take anyone who wants to come with me. Anyone wants to stay here, that’s cool. I’m not forcing no one. But let’s see what these guys have got to say for themselves.”

“And how do you think they’re going to react when you go marching down there armed to the teeth?” said Whitney.

“We’ll leave the heavy stuff behind,” said Blue. “We won’t take no spears or swords and knives. Only wooden tool handles—you know, ax handles, stuff like that. Just in case. If it does kick off we want to scare them, not kill them.”

“That sounds like a good enough plan,” said Ollie. “I’m with you.”

“I still don’t like it,” said Maxie. “But okay. Let’s at least check them out.”

41

Callum was running around his track. A circuit of the supermarket floor, in and out of the aisles. He’d done sixteen laps and was going for twenty. He hadn’t slept well, and even now it was barely light outside. He’d had a good day yesterday. He’d found a stash of old magazines he’d forgotten about, and leafing through them had helped take his mind off his loneliness. Before going to bed, he’d gone up to the crow’s nest to watch the sunset and to see if the grown-ups were still hanging around.

They were.

Dumb jerks.

And then he’d seen a new grown-up arrive, and everything had changed.

He was a father. Fat and lumpy with boils. He wore shorts and an England vest with a cross of Saint George on it, and had little patches of hair sticking out from his huge bald head. So big it looked swollen. He had a pair of wire-framed glasses with no lenses in them and seemed more intelligent than the others, even having some sort of control over them. Callum had never known grown-ups to have a leader before; they usually just hunted in loose packs. This father seemed to be rallying them, organizing them. He had even turned up with a weapon. Just a club, but it was something else Callum hadn’t seen before.