Joseph D'Lacey - Meat

‘What is it?’

‘Take a look… we’re exhausted.’

Behind Bruno the Magnus contingent, allegedly among his best men, were strung out like a caravan of refugees. Even Shanti could see they were easy prey.

He stopped and Bruno caught up to him. The big man couldn’t regain his breath. By ones and twos the others joined them. It took several minutes for the last man, shorter and fatter than all the others, to arrive. All around him the Meat Baron’s men sat or lay down on the churned debris.

‘Let’s go,’ said Shanti.

There were ill-tempered shouts of protest.

‘Let them rest,’ said Bruno.

‘For how long?’

‘As long as it takes for them to be ready for a scrap. We can’t lead them into battle in this state.’

‘No. They’ve rested enough. We have to move now.’

‘Who the fuck put him in charge?’ someone shouted.

‘Here,’ said the last man in, still struggling to breathe. ‘Let’s tie his ankles together so he can’t run. Use my tie.’

‘Let’s just go back and say we couldn’t find anything. Magnus’ll off this one and his family and it’ll be business as usual.’

The grumbling increased in volume.

‘Shut up, all of you,’ shouted Bruno. ‘You’ve got five more minutes to rest and then we move on. Save your breath.’

Shanti was aghast.

‘Five minutes? It’s too long.’

‘It’s what I’m giving them.’

‘Bruno, I’m begging you. You know what he’s doing to my family. To my girls. Please.’

Bruno sat down on a tilted slab of concrete and ran his hands through the oily mess of his hair.

‘You brought all this on yourself, you know, Shanti. Acting weird with the Chosen, this running crap you do every day, not eating the flesh. Torrance told me all about you. If it wasn’t for your usefulness in the plant, your status would have been revoked a long time ago.’ Bruno rummaged in his coat pockets and brought out tobacco and papers. He proceeded to roll a ragged cigarette. ‘I’ll tell you something about my boss, Shanti. When he gets an idea into his head, he can’t get it out until he’s made it happen. The moment he thought about taking your family, they died. Right in that instant. He’s not going to keep any promise he’s made to you. He’s going to use you, use your wife and daughters, and then he’ll kill you. All of you.’ He lit the cigarette and took a long pull. It seemed to calm his breathing instantly but Shanti noticed that his fingers trembled as he smoked. ‘I’ll tell you something else. I’m going to make sure he sees his plan through to the end. I can’t wait to see you gone. You don’t belong in this town.’

Shanti turned away and looked out into the Derelict Quarter. Ruination stretched to the horizon. Perhaps it extended far beyond. He was one man against many and he was leading his worst enemies to the hideout of Abyrne’s saviour. Not only was John Collins his ally, he had also become a friend. They believed in the same things, held the same dreams dear. Was he really going to sacrifice the man to save his children from Magnus? How many more children, hundreds of thousands more, had been killed already in the pursuit of meat and the assuaging of the town’s deep hunger? Collins’s death would be a far worse sacrifice to make than his daughters’. Collins’s end would signal an end to hope. Shanti knew it, could not deny it. But things were in motion now that he could not stop. Without his guidance, Bruno might be too slow. He might not even find Collins. It was his girls who needed him.

When he skipped away from Bruno, leapt a few chunks of broken concrete and tore off back towards the town, none of the men stood up to chase him.

‘Fuck it,’ said Bruno.

‘What do we do?’ asked the fat straggler.

Bruno checked his watch.

‘We finish our break and then we go find Collins.’

‘What about him?’

Shanti was already a small figure against the backdrop of rubble.

‘There’s more people at the mansion. Enough to take care of him.’

‘Magnus is going to be raging.’

‘True. But he’ll be even worse if we don’t finish what we came out here to do.’ Bruno stood up with a grunt. ‘Come on you lot, on your feet. Let’s get this job done.’

‘How will we know where to find Collins now?’

‘I’ve got a feeling about where he is. Just a hunch really, but I think there’s a good chance he’ll be there. At the back of the arena, where they train the fighting bulls, there’s a breach in the wall that leads to a lot more caverns and tunnels. If I’m right and we keep heading out this way, the way Shanti’s been leading us, I think we’ll find the place where those tunnels come out. If we don’t, we’ll go to the bullring and do it the other way round. Can’t go wrong.’

He slapped the shorter man on the shoulder and led them all deeper into the ruins.

Magnus grunted and sweated and shook in his frustrated desire for them. He didn’t need to use force with these little ones. That was too easy. With children it was always words that were his weapons. He sat on the wooden coffer at the end of his huge bed, his dressing gown open to reveal his hairy, plump gut and the tumescence below it.

By the window, as far from the bed as they could get, Hema and Harsha held onto each other, their small fingers clenched painfully over each other’s skin. The first part of his game had gone well. Cajoling and chastising them he had persuaded them to remove their dresses and under-things. It had taken only a few minutes. Now his captives trembled in misery like sallow, cornered prey.

‘Good little girls love lollies. Are you good little girls?’

Confused, they neither nodded nor shook their heads. Perhaps their tears flowed a little more freely, and the clear mucus from their snivelling noses. Lubricant!

How he ached for the game to progress.

‘Lovely, lolly-loving, luscious little girls. My lolly-licking lovelies. Doesn’t it look tasty?’

This time both girls shook their heads.

Magnus roared out delighted laughter.

‘Well, now,’ he said. ‘You must both be bad girls in that case.’ He paused to light a cheroot. There was plenty of time. ‘And you know what happens to bad girls in this house, don’t you?’

They didn’t move. They didn’t want to know.

They were right not to. He loved each moment of their terror.

The cheroot twitched between his fingers but he didn’t even notice any more. His head vibrated as though he was repeatedly shaking it – ‘no’ – in the tiniest movements.

Their little solar plexuses quivered as they tried not to let out their sobs. Their lips were sucked in and out by their hitched breathing.

‘In this house,’ he said. ‘I eat bad girls. I chop them up while they’re still begging me to stop and then I eat them. Raw. By the handful.’ He made the motions of chopping and picking up and chewing and wiping his mouth on his sleeve. ‘Mmm. Delicious. Lovely, luscious, tender little girls. My… FAVOURITE!’

At his shout they started back against the glass of the window. It rattled in its old frame. And then the sobs came out loud and long and he pressed home the advantage.

‘SHUT UP THE PAIR OF YOU. Shut your nasty little gobs or I’ll cut you up and eat you right now.’

They clasped their hands over each other’s mouths to stifle the sobs.

‘Now then, who wants a lolly?’

Like wan Siamese twins they approached him. Like calves.

He licked his lips.

Luck, or rather misfortune, brought them to the opening Shanti had told them about. Reluctantly, they’d pressed on past the tower blocks and out further than any of them had been before. In the distance they saw the giant outline of structures built into the air. All of them, even Bruno, were belittled by the vastness of the ruination. They could see no end to it. By comparison the town behind them seemed small.