THE RACES

Chapter 54

54

It was the day of the races. It was warm and sunny and there was a party atmosphere. Ed was up in the grandstand of the Ascot racecourse with all the other kids, waiting, praying that somehow he was going to pull off his plan. It had been a risk. He’d had to balance waiting a few more days here in Ascot against hurrying back to town and seeing what was going down with the sicko army.

In the end he’d decided to risk staying here. If it went his way it would mean he could return to London with a proper fighting force.

And Ella.

All the best fighters from all the kids’ settlements were going to be here. So that meant two things. If Ella was around in this part of the world someone here would know about it. And if Ed wanted to put together a crack squad this was the place to do it.

Only thing was, he was going to have to somehow win the races.

At least he’d had some time to get things ready.

A couple of days after they’d arrived, once they’d felt rested enough, Ed’s team had joined up with some of Sophie’s archers and they’d gone out to find the car. It was much quicker and easier in the daylight, with no sickos around; the countryside seemed mostly empty. They’d spotted one stray grown-up in the distance, limping across a field, and that was it. When they got to the car they were glad that Ebenezer had thought to shut the door behind him when he got out.

The car was a mess. It was covered in filth from the sickos, dried pus and blood and crusty streaks of saliva, as if it had somehow caught their disease. There were dents where the sickos had taken out their rage on it, plus some unidentified lumps of pinkish grey stuff that looked like growths on the metalwork.

But none of them had had the sense to open the doors.

Lewis climbed into the driver’s seat and fished the key out of his pocket. ‘Hope it starts,’ he said, putting the key in the ignition. The kids had all cheered when the engine rumbled into life.

Lewis put it in reverse and as many kids as could get around it had pushed and shoved until it came up out of the ditch and on to the road.

A load of them had crammed inside it and the rest had walked behind as Lewis had driven it slowly back to Ascot.

When Ed left Ascot, he hoped to have a lot more vehicles with him. And a lot more kids.