Дэвид Муди - Strangers

‘Gender?’ Scott interrupted. ‘What’s that got to do with it?’

‘Male, female, male, female… it’s what we were saying earlier. This thing is a parasite, transmitted sexually.’

‘We were almost there,’ the policeman said. ‘We’d found foreign DNA traces on all the bodies, but we didn’t spot the pattern.’

‘What pattern?’ Scott asked.

‘On most of the bodies we found traces of the DNA of someone else, but we didn’t know who because none of them were on the database. It took us a while to work it out… longer than it should have. The DNA belonged to the next person to die, you follow? But there were never any signs of a struggle, that’s what threw us. Just blood and genital mutilation.’

Dr Kerr took off his glasses, breathed on the lenses, then cleaned them on his jumper. ‘Scott here saw an attack today. Tell him, Scott.’

‘I wouldn’t call it an attack,’ he said, picturing Jeremy and the woman. ‘It looked like…’

‘Like what?’

‘Like consensual sex, just out in the open. Two people having sex, oblivious to everyone and everything else. It was after they separated, though… it was like he’d been torn apart. Just like all the others.’

‘Who?’

‘My wife’s ex. Jeremy Williams.’

‘He was staying at the pub last night, and I’ll put money on him having been with young Heather Burns,’ Dr Kerr whispered. ‘It’s like I said, some kind of parasite. Will you listen to me now?’

‘Explain,’ Sergeant Ross said.

‘The parasite needs a body to survive. When it’s taken what it needs, it has to find another host. What Scott saw this morning, what you’ve seen the aftermath of, was that transmission.’

‘So what you’re saying,’ Scott interrupted, ‘is that this thing needs blood or whatever, and when it’s taken what it needs from one body, it’s passed on to the next through sex?’

‘That’s exactly what I’m saying.’

‘You make it sound like a vampire,’ he laughed, unable to quite believe what he was hearing. The doctor looked serious.

‘Vampyrrhic. That’s actually a pretty good way of describing it.’

‘I’ll go get a fucking crucifix,’ Scott said, and he almost walked away from the ridiculous conversation.

‘I’m glad you said that, Doc,’ Sergeant Ross admitted. ‘I’d been thinking along the same lines myself. I thought it was just me going mad. Do me a favour, you two, keep a lid on this. People are already scared. If word gets out, this place’ll be out of control.’

‘So what are you going to do about it?’ Scott asked.

‘Me? What can I do? Have you not noticed, we’re all in the same boat here. I’m not in charge anymore. The investigation was taken out of my hands, shall we say. I’d tell you who by, but I honestly don’t know. Like you lot, first I knew about all this was a knock on my door from a soldier who’s face I couldn’t see. All I could see was his bloody rifle and I wasn’t taking any chances.’

Mr Renner, the school pastoral teacher, spotted Tammy and Phoebe in the crowd and came over to speak to them both. He told them about Heather, though Tammy had already suspected something had happened. She’d seen Chez sitting alone with his head in his hands and had feared the worst. Mr Renner told her where she’d find Jamie and she went to look for him. He was sitting on a bench at the side of the gym with Joel. Tammy positioned herself between the two of them, hoping they’d distract her with pointless rubbish and immaturity, but fearing they were already past that.

‘Got anything to drink?’ she asked hopefully. Joel shook his head, Jamie didn’t even look up.

‘I can’t take no more of this,’ Joel said, getting up. ‘You deal with him.’ And with that he was up and gone, relieved to be away. Tammy cautiously put her hand on Jamie’s leg.

‘I’m sorry, Jamie. I’m really, really sorry…’

He lifted his head and looked at her, wiping his eyes. ‘We thought she was with Chez. Dad was doin’ his bloody fruit tryin’ to find her. We called Chez and he said he thought she was with us.’

‘What happened?’

‘She was all fucked up, Tam. Like the others…’

‘Where?’

‘The pub.’

‘My dad stayed there last night…’ She stopped herself. She didn’t want to think about what might or might not have happened in the Black Boy. Did it have anything to do with what happened to Dad this morning? Did he have anything to do with what happened to Heather? He couldn’t have, could he?

Jamie wasn’t listening. He couldn’t take anymore of this in. He reached out for Tammy and held her, pulled her close. And she responded. All she’d had from pretty much everyone since first arriving in Thussock was constant grief, and this sudden unexpected physical contact seemed somehow to make it all a little easier to cope with. She held him tight, then tighter still, both of them sobbing as they leant against each other, his face buried in her chest. Huge amounts of previously suppressed emotions were released, let out at long last after having being locked away for too long.

Tammy kissed the side of Jamie’s face. He looked up at her. Oh, those eyes… those deep brown, hurting eyes… she’d thought him good looking the first time she saw him outside the Co-op, a class apart from the other boys, but she’d not wanted to get too close because he was from Thussock and she didn’t want to be here and because it felt like there was a world of difference between them and… and none of that mattered now. She’d just been looking for excuses before, avoiding reasons to form connections with this hellish place. Jamie looked so pale and drawn, racked with pain, and yet he was still attractive. She felt his hands on her and it made her feel alive. She really needed to be held like this… to be wanted. They parted for a moment, then kissed – soft, light and unsure, then stronger. Eyes closed now. Tongues touching, lips locked. She reciprocated his every move, finding such unexpected comfort in his touch and—

—and they separated when someone screamed. Tammy pulled back and felt her bladder weaken. The space around the bench where they’d been sitting had emptied, people scrambling away from them in absolute terror as soldiers rushed towards them. Hundreds of them it looked like, sprinting through the crowds with their rifles raised, all of their weapons pointing at her and Jamie. Jamie slipped off the bench in panic, landing on his back with a sickening thump and winding himself. Stunned, he lay there helpless as they surrounded him.

Tammy couldn’t see what they were doing to him. There were hazmat suits all around her now too. She tried to look for Jamie, but all she could see now was her own terrified face reflected back in the visors of the soldiers encircling her. ‘Name?’ one of them demanded.

‘Huh?’

‘Tell me your bloody name?’

‘Tammy Williams,’ she answered, voice shaking.

‘Did you have intercourse with this man?’

‘What?’

‘Have you had sexual intercourse with this man?’ he shouted, pointing at Jamie, still on the floor, still surrounded.

‘No.’

The soldier took a step back. Tammy remained exactly where she was, feeling as if her legs would buckle with nerves at any second. The rest of the leisure centre was silent. It was as if everything and everyone else had frozen. Everything except Scott. He shoved his way through the stationary crowds to reach Tammy, only to find his way forward blocked by more armed guards. The harder he fought to get through, the tighter they closed ranks. He pulled back a fist, ready to punch, but a soldier dismissively shunted him away then raised his rifle.

Scott froze.