Scott Andrews - School_s Out

I was starting to appreciate Mac's point of view; perhaps I wasn't ruthless enough to be a leader. My decision to let the officers go had led directly to four deaths. Wouldn't executing them have been better?

Three months ago I was unable to contemplate such a thing, but now I found that I could. Perhaps it was because of what we'd achieved in the last three months. When I was planning to topple Mac and take control it was in the hope of building something good, but my aims had been intangible and distant. Now it was a reality. We'd achieved so much, built something so valuable. I felt as if I was willing to go to any lengths to protect it.

I dispatched Haycox and Rowles back down the road to collect the guns from the bodies of the dead Blood Hunters. When they returned we had five machine guns and six machetes, and enough ammunition to pick a fight. Green, Norton, Haycox and Rowles each took a gun; we shared the big knives out amongst the remaining members of Green's troupe.

"We have to assume they've taken control of the school," I said. "And they probably have lookouts and sentries posted. We need to know what's going on inside, and we can't approach mob-handed. So Norton you're with me. We'll cut across country and come at the school from the river. Haycox and Green, I want you to get behind these hedgerows and follow the road, out of sight, until you can see the school gates. Only approach if you're absolutely certain there's nothing wrong. This is just a recce, right? We don't get involved, we don't show our faces. Rowles, take the rest of the boys to Hildenborough and wait for us. We'll rendezvous back there when we're done. Everyone clear?"

Nods all round.

"Good luck everyone."

It took thirty minutes to reach the edge of the school grounds, but the sight that greeted us was not what we expected at all. We crawled through the undergrowth until we could just make out the first pillbox. We could see the muzzle of the GPMG poking out, but it was trained towards the school. I couldn't work out why that would be. We needed a closer look.

Leaving Norton to cover the pillbox, I crawled back out of sight and stripped to my boxers. I discarded my gun but kept the machete, then I ran to the river's edge and slipped into the water. I let the current take me slowly downstream, along the edge of the school grounds. As I drifted past the first pillbox I could see the body of a boy lying against one wall. He'd had his throat slit. I was right, the Blood Hunters had attacked, and they'd taken this pillbox. But why train the gun on the school… unless they hadn't succeeded in capturing it!

I drifted further. I couldn't see anything at the second pillbox, but two Blood Hunters were sitting outside the third, looking towards the school, smoking. There was no sign of a corpse anywhere, but their hair shone slick with fresh blood. I grabbed the bank of the river and hung there for a moment, considering my options: sneaky or direct? I could return to Norton, head to Hildenborough with what I'd learned; or I could choose to kill without mercy. Three months ago I wouldn't even have had to think about it. But I thought again about where my reluctance to kill had brought us and my resolve hardened. There was no longer any point pretending that I wasn't a stone cold killer.

Time to start acting like one.

I climbed out of the water as quietly as I could, and crept towards them, knife in hand. The secret to stealth in woodland is to tread straight down, not to roll your feet with each step as you do normally. That way you avoid snapping any twigs you stand on. Barefoot, I stalked my prey.

As I approached I could hear them gossiping. They were trying to decide whether a girl called Carol fancied the one on the left. He thought she didn't, but his mate was sure she did, and was urging him to 'get in there'. Murderous religious fanatics, coated in human blood, wittering about dating. They were so engrossed in their debate that they didn't become aware of me until I pressed my cold wet blade against the throat of the one on the right.

"Hi," I whispered in his ear, as he stiffened in fear.

His mate exclaimed loudly and jumped up. He brought his gun to bear on both of us.

"Now, now," I said conversationally. "Don't be hasty. Pull that trigger and your friend dies." Plus, every Blood Hunter in the area comes running. "So put it down, eh?"

He hesitated, unsure what to do. I pressed the knife harder into the throat of the man in front of me, and he moaned. His mate cocked his gun, chambering a round. "So?" he said, trying to sound more confident than he was. "He gets his eternal reward a little early. He'll thank me when I see him again."

"Um, Rob," said the man in front of me. "He's gonna slit my throat, man."

"He's right, you know," I said. "I am. So if you don't want to break poor Carol's heart, best drop the weapon."

Rob stared at me, trying to maintain his cool. But eventually he bent down and placed the gun on the ground.

"Thanks," I said, and smiled at him. "Now kick it away." He did so.

A minute later I had them both on the ground, face down, hands behind their heads. It didn't take much to persuade them to talk, but it took me a lot longer to believe what they were telling me. When I'd learned all I could, I had a choice to make. I'd been quite prepared to kill one of them to make the other one tell me what I needed to know, but to kill them now would be murder, plain and simple.

Nonetheless, the best course of action was clear. Kill them, bleed them, cover myself in their blood, dump the bodies in the river, then saunter up to the next pillbox and kill the occupants before they realise I'm not really a Blood Hunter. Repeat for all remaining pillboxes. Even the odds while I had the chance. It was the safest thing to do.

I tightened my grip on the knife, gritted my teeth and prepared to strike, but I had a sudden flash of the confusion and fear in Wolf-Barry's eyes as I'd plunged my knife into his chest. I choked. I couldn't do it. Even now, after everything I'd done, I couldn't conceive of embarking on that kind of killing spree, no matter how necessary it was.

I felt like I'd failed some kind of test.

I made them undress, cut their clothes into strips, and bound them tight. Then I swam upstream and rejoined Norton.

I had a lot to tell him.

I couldn't sleep at all that night. In the pub at Hildenborough we'd talked ourselves hoarse trying to come up with a plan of action that didn't leave us all hanging upside down with our throats slit. By the time we finally agreed on a plan of attack it was dark and everyone was exhausted. Norton accepted his role without complaint and walked out into the night to do his part. Bob had prepared beds for us in the big house where three months ago I'd fought for my life. Strange to be sleeping there as a guest of honour.

But of course I couldn't sleep. I ran the day over and over again in my mind. Killing Wolf-Barry, shooting the others, the head of the dead woman hanging limp as she was carried away, the stench of the Blood Hunters, the sense that I should have killed them there and then, the nagging feeling that I still wasn't as ruthless as I needed to be. The knowledge that, had Mac been in charge of us, things would have been a lot simpler. Not to mention my anxieties about the coming day, the probability of battle, the anticipation of more killing, the possibility of my own imminent death and those of my friends. I was afraid of the nightmares sleep would bring.

Plus, it felt wrong to be sleeping safe and sound while Norton was risking his life out there in the darkness.

So I lay there, listening to the owls and the foxes, wishing that my father were here to take charge on my behalf. I wished I could go back to being a boy again, that I could retreat to a world where my only worries were acne, BO and whether that girl from the high school would laugh at me if I asked her to meet me at lunchtime for a bag of chips at the bus stop. That was what my life should be like. I was fifteen, for God's sake. Whoever heard of a fifteen year-old general? Well, Alexander the Great, perhaps. Whatever happened, things would be settled once and for all by the end of the day. Either I'd be dead and the school would be destroyed, or the Blood Hunters would be wiped from the face of the earth like the plague they were. When dawn finally broke I greeted it with a kind of relief; waiting to fight is far worse than actually fighting.