BooksBarbecue
Back The Enemy Save as PDF
Chapters (69)
  1. Table of Contents
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. 10
  12. 11
  13. 12
  14. 13
  15. 14
  16. 15
  17. 16
  18. 17
  19. 18
  20. 19
  21. 20
  22. 21
  23. 22
  24. 23
  25. 24
  26. 25
  27. 26
  28. 27
  29. 28
  30. 29
  31. 30
  32. 31
  33. 32
  34. 33
  35. 34
  36. 35
  37. 36
  38. 37
  39. 38
  40. 39
  41. 40
  42. 41
  43. 42
  44. 43
  45. 44
  46. 45
  47. 46
  48. 47
  49. 48
  50. 49
  51. 50
  52. 51
  53. 52
  54. 53
  55. 54
  56. 55
  57. 56
  58. 57
  59. 58
  60. 59
  61. 60
  62. 61
  63. 62
  64. 63
  65. 64
  66. 65
  67. 66
  68. 67
  69. 68

“They’re not as bad as they look,” said the girl. “When you cut your face there’s a lot of blood. Rose fixed me up pretty well. I’m going to look like hell, but it’s only skin. David didn’t want me mixing with you all, though. He didn’t want me talking. Once it was clear they were keeping me prisoner, I made sure I didn’t speak, hardly even moved. Just listened.”

“I don’t get it,” said Blue. “Where are you from?”

“The museum.”

“Museum?” said Blue. “What museum?”

“Natural History Museum,” said the girl. “Loads of us live there. It’s better than here, there’re more houses around, more places to find food. Though we do grow stuff as well.”

“Just like David?” said Blue.

“Just like David,” said the girl. “But he didn’t want you to know that.”

“For sure,” said Blue.

“And it’s not just us,” said the girl. “There’s kids all over London, set up, in safe places. Surviving. We’ve tried talking to David before, about all linking up and sharing, but he wasn’t interested. He wants it all for himself.”

“King David,” said Maxie.

“Me and my friends from the museum,” the girl went on, “we were searching for some friends of mine who I’d split off from last year. We’d heard they might be on the other side of town. We thought it was going to be easy. We got careless. It’s mostly safe around here now. There’s a few adults, but it’s not like it used to be. Or so we thought. We hadn’t been going more than an hour . . . and then . . . we came across those ones ... hunting ...”

The girl broke off. Stared at something a thousand miles away.

“It’s all right,” said Maxie.

“I just want to go home.”

“To the museum?” said Blue.

“Yeah. If you get me out of here, I’ll take you with me.”

“If there’s kids everywhere,” said Blue, “nicely set up, why should we come with you?”

“Because . . . well, just because . . . I can’t give you a reason other than a selfish one, other than I just want to get home.”

“That’s good enough reason for me,” said Maxie. “If you’d given us a load of bull I wouldn’t have trusted you.”

“We’ll do it on one condition,” said Blue.

“Which is?”

“That you don’t never tell anyone anything about what I was talking to Maxie about just now.”

“It’s a deal.”

“Okay,” said Blue. “We’re on our way.”

“The only problem is,” said Maxie, “we do have to actually get out of here first.”

62