Дэвид Муди - Strangers

‘So why don’t you just piss off and hand yourself over? I didn’t ask you to come in here. If you’re staying, you do what I say. Now get your bloody head down.’

‘All right, Scott, man… no need for that. All the trouble’s out there. Don’t want anything kickin’ off in here.’

Time crawled. The world beyond the flimsy walls of the prefabricated building continued to be full of noise and activity; a constant, muffled din. Most sounds were indistinguishable, the noise occasionally punctuated by things they were able to make out more clearly, sounds of suffering and panic that they didn’t want to hear. It seemed the worse the noise got, the louder it became.

Dez tried to talk to Scott and plan a way forward, but he had nothing. And the frustration and the fear combined to leave both men feeling increasingly lost. Scott’s helplessness manifested itself as anger. By contrast, Dez tried to remain positive for the sake of his family. ‘We might’a made a mistake here, Scott.’

‘What?’

‘I don’t reckon we’re gonna get far like this.’

‘So what are you saying? Give ourselves up?’

‘Least we’ll have a chance of talkin’ then. What good’s this doin’ us?’

‘I can’t believe I’m hearing this.’

‘An’ I can’t believe any of this. Look, mate, this ain’t just about us. We’ve both got families to look out for.’

‘What the hell do you think I’m doing?’

Dez’s silence spoke volumes. ‘I don’t know, man… There’s a lotta firepower out there. Seems to me we might not have a lotta options.’

‘So you’re just going to hand yourself over? Hand your kids over?’

‘I never said that…’

‘You didn’t need to say it. Jeez, what kind of a man are you?’

‘One who knows when he’s beat. One who knows when what he’s doin’s gonna cause more harm than good.’

‘You’re fucking pathetic.’

‘That’s fuckin’ rich. You don’t even know—’

Their argument was truncated by the classroom door flying open again. A soldier scrambled up the steps then shut the door behind him and leant against it, facemask pressed up to the glass. What the hell was he doing? Whatever it was, Scott quickly realised he hadn’t yet noticed there were other people in the classroom. He went to get up. Michelle grabbed his arm but he shook her off. He gestured for Dez to go the other way around the outside of the small, dark room. Dez’s scrambling movements were more obvious than Scott’s and as the trooper turned around, panicking, Scott lunged at him and grabbed him from behind, taking him by surprise. Dez ripped off his facemask. Jesus, he was little more than a kid.

‘Don’t hurt me,’ he begged. Stripping him of his breathing apparatus had stripped him of his bravado too. He looked broken, close to tears. ‘Please don’t hurt me, mate. I’m on your side. I’ll help you.’

‘Bullshit,’ Scott said. ‘Why should we believe you? You’ve rounded up the entire town and held us prisoner for most of the day. Why should we believe anything you say?’

Scott pushed the soldier into an empty corner and squared up to him for the first time. He had a pistol in a holster, no rifle, but he made no attempt to reach for it. ‘I was just looking for somewhere to hide, same as you.’

‘Ask him what’s going on,’ Jackie shouted. The soldier looked startled. He hadn’t realised there were others there. His demeanour changed when he saw there were kids too.

‘We were just following orders,’ he said, his voice full of emotion. ‘We didn’t know…’

‘Didn’t know what?’ Dez asked.

‘What we were dealing with. What you were dealing with. They didn’t explain. They just told us there’d been a chemical spill in the town and that we had to round everyone up and keep them safe, that’s all.’

‘And you believed that?’

‘Wouldn’t you? Ask yourself, mate, what’s more believable here? Some bullshit story about a chemical spill or the truth?’

‘And what exactly is the truth?’

The soldier looked around with frightened eyes, wishing there was more light so he could see how many people he was up against, and at the same time praying for the darkness to swallow him up. He licked his lips and took a deep breath, figuring he had nothing left to lose. ‘They don’t know where it came from. They don’t even know what it looks like. Fuck, they’re not even sure what it is yet.’

‘What’s he talking about?’ Tammy asked.

‘It’s a parasite,’ the soldier explained. ‘We were laughing about it when we first heard, ’cause it sounded so bloody unbelievable, like something out of a horror film. It found the perfect way to make sure it kept itself alive – making people have sex. No one’s gonna say no to a quick fuck, are they?’ He grinned, the strain and surreal desperation of the moment beginning to show.

‘Wait,’ Tammy said, looking at her mother. ‘Is that what happened to Dad this morning…?’

‘I don’t know…’ Michelle answered.

‘It has to be, doesn’t it? So what happens to them?’ she asked, demanding an answer from the soldier. ‘Once they’ve got this thing inside them, what happens?’

‘It takes what it needs,’ the soldier said, still watching Scott’s every movement, ‘then it discards the rest.’

‘What do you mean, discards ?’

‘Did you not see what happened to that fella back there? It forces its way out. There’s not a lot left when it’s finished.’

Tammy stared into the darkness, letting the full enormity of what she was hearing sink in. Her dad was dead. She didn’t need any further confirmation, she just knew it. The lack of any comfort or explanation from either her mum or Scott was enough to convince her she was right. She began to sob. Next to her, Phoebe wailed.

‘Keep the bloody noise down,’ Scott hissed at them both.

‘You bastard,’ Michelle said. ‘You absolute, heartless bastard. You knew all along, didn’t you? You let them spend the day thinking he was okay, worrying about him… and all the time you knew he was already dead.’

‘What else was I supposed to do? I’m trying to keep us all together here.’

‘Like hell. You’ve never given a shit about anyone but yourself.’

Scott grabbed the soldier by the collar of his protective suit. Focusing on him made it easier to shut out the rest of the unwanted noise. ‘Why did you keep us isolated? That’s the real question.’

‘Because isolating everyone in Thussock meant we’d isolate the parasite too.’

‘I get that, but why? Was it for our benefit, or yours?’

‘Why else would they do it?’ Jackie asked.

‘To keep it safe,’ Scott answered quickly.

Michelle laughed with disbelief. She’d seen and heard it all now. She looked at the young soldier, waiting for him to start laughing too, but he didn’t. His expression remained unchanged. ‘I swear I don’t know,’ he said. ‘We was just told to stop people getting away, that’s all, but it all went tits up when people started panicking. That’s why I’m here. I wasn’t gonna be a part of that. I couldn’t. And…’

‘And what?’

The soldier paused, choosing his words, knowing he’d said too much already. ‘And something wasn’t right. Something changed.’

‘What do you mean? What changed?’

‘I don’t know, I swear. You ever been in the forces? It’s just something you learn to pick up on. Usually happens when things are about to go shit-shaped.’

‘What the hell are you talking about?’

The soldier shook his head, struggling. ‘The orders changed, and no one would say why. We felt it filtering through the ranks. There was a shift in focus. The priorities were changing…’