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23:00 Thursday 18 March 2077
The four fugitives had made good progress, mostly thanks to good fortune and a densely clouded sky that had prevented any glimmer of moonlight from sneaking through and announcing their presence as they snaked their way through the dark streets towards the safe house. A cat unexpectedly sprinted across their path and caused a sharp intake of breath. Liam pointed at a building in the near distance.
“See that house over there? Third from the left? About three hundred yards away? That’s where we’re heading. We can’t stay there long, but it’ll do us for a few nights. It’s stocked with food, has a comms link set up, and – more importantly – weapons.”
Jazz liked the sound of that.
“What kinds of weapons?”
“All kinds of stuff. Pistols, rifles, grenades. Anything we might need?”
Rebecca was nervous.
“What’s the end game?”
Liam turned to her.
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. The whole city is crawling with Defenders. It’s a bloody miracle we haven’t been caught already. How the fuck are we going to get out of here?”
“You’ll see.”
“Is that it? You’ll see?”
“Yes. You’ll see.”
“Well, I’m sorry but ‘you’ll see’ doesn’t fill me with confidence. I want to get out of this alive, thank you very much. I don’t have the luxury of past life recall like you lot.”
“Rebecca. Trust me. Please. You’re not going to die.”
The young girl wasn’t so sure of that. It had been fun earlier when she had helped kill Alice and there was little or no risk, but she couldn’t see a way out of the situation now. Sure, her new friends were Recarns and had a lot of past life experiences to call upon, but it was she who had provided the group with shelter at her grandfather’s house. It was she who had provided the change of clothes. More importantly, the boys didn’t see death as an ending. They just saw it as an alternative escape route and would reincarnate with their memories intact, but Rebecca wasn’t a Recarn and would only remember this one life whilst she was living it. She didn’t want to give up on it so early.
Under normal circumstances, the last part of the journey would have taken a matter of a few minutes, but these weren’t normal circumstances. The group had to take extra care, dipping in and out of hiding places, acutely aware that any mistake could cost them their freedom or even their lives. At one point they were almost caught when a Defender patrol passed within thirty feet of them and they were forced to hide in a wheelie bin outside a restaurant. The smell and the slimy texture of rotting food almost made them regret leaving their refuge in the sewers but they knew that they couldn’t have lasted much longer in that place. Besides, they were nearly at their destination.
Finally, they were within a few feet of the front door. Liam whispered to the group to go around the back but before they could make a move they were suddenly bathed in a bright white light. A disembodied voice told them to stand still.
“Don’t move, put your hands in the air, and nobody will get hurt.”
The group looked around them. They were surrounded by half a dozen Defenders, their faces masked by their protective visors, pulse rifles pointed at the small group of children. Jazz slowly raised his hands and whispered to Liam from the corner of his mouth.
“What do we do now?”
Liam didn’t answer but hissed at him, a response that was clearly designed at telling him to shut up. The twins also gingerly raised their hands, following the Defender’s orders but Rebecca just stood there.
Tears started to trickle from her eyes and began their short journey down her cheeks, before dropping to the ground by her feet. A Defender moved towards her. The little girl’s face screwed up as she started to sob uncontrollably. The Defender could just about make out what she was saying between sobs.
“I thought I was going to die. They made me go with them. They threatened to kill me.”
The Defender bent down and put his arm around her shoulder.
“Don’t worry little girl. You’re safe now. Nobody’s going to hurt you now.
Rebecca decided to lay it on a bit thicker.
“They touched me too. They touched me where my mum said nobody should touch me.”
“Who touched you?”
Rebecca pointed at Liam. Another Defender marched forward and pushed Liam to the ground.
“You little shit.”
He grabbed the boy by the scruff of his neck and hauled him to his feet before pushing him back to his knees again. He pushed the nozzle of his pulse rifle so hard into the back of the boy’s neck that Liam almost fell forward. The first Defender, still comforting the tearful Rebecca, felt that he should do something. Or at least say something.
“O’Rourke! Get your gun away from the back of that kid’s head and cuff him.”
“Kid? Kid? You think he’s a fucking kid? What kind of kid kills his parents and then kills a bunch of other kids?”
“He’s seven years old. He’s a kid. And our orders are to take this lot in, in one piece.”
“Fuck our orders. He’s not a kid. He’s a fucking monster. Kids don’t do what he did. And his mates.”
Connor and Jazz had been almost forgotten about as the dramatic scene unravelled, but they were suddenly thrown back into the ring as co-conspirators. If they had been fully grown adults they would have fancied their chances at perhaps overpowering the troops and escaping, but still being children they just didn’t have the physical strength to overcome even one of the soldiers, let alone six of them. Liam glared at the Defenders surrounding the group and then a grin turned into a sneer.
“Yeah. I killed mummy and daddy. And I enjoyed it.”
Jazz and Connor looked at each other, wondering what on earth Liam was up to. What benefit could be gained from antagonising the Defenders? Rebecca had stopped crying now, her crocodile tears dried up, and she stood blinking at the boy as he continued his impromptu confession.
“And the kids too.”
The other four Defenders became restless.
“But I didn’t kill all of them. Jazz and Connor did their fair share. Grant and his sister Marcia were mine, cousin Ronan and Philip are down to my bro’, and David and Stephen were done by Jazz. Put up a bit of a fight that Stephen. Surprised really – he always seemed a bit of a wimp at school but got in quite a good punch on Jazz before he died.”
Defender O’Rourke pushed his rifle more forcefully into Liam’s neck, who took no notice. Liam gestured with a slight movement of his head towards Rebecca.
“And I fucked her too.”
Rebecca had no idea why he had just confirmed her lie. She felt a need to put the record straight, or at least to make the lie tie in with her own.
“No, he didn’t. He fucking touched me in my private place, he didn’t do anything else.”
Trigger fingers were getting itchy and grips were tightened on the pulse rifles. Another Defender spoke up.
“And what about Alice? Alice Sedgeley?”
“Wonderwoman? That was a group effort. We all joined in stringing her up.”
One of the Defenders lifted his rifle to his shoulder and the cross-hairs of his rifle sights settled upon the seven year old’s forehead.
“Alice was my kid sister, you twisted fuck.”
“Hello, big brother. Want revenge, do you?”
Clive Sedgeley’s feet shuffled slightly but his rifle was as steady as a rock. Liam was on a roll.
“She begged for mercy as we set up the hanging. Cried her little eyes out, calling for her mum and dad she was. Nearly worked too. I almost felt sorry for her.”
Two more rifles were lifted to two more shoulders and trained on the remaining two boys.
“Nah. I’m kidding. It was fun. I’d do it again if I got the chance.”
The gruesome details of how the children had died were too much for the Defenders. First, a bolt of red light shot from Clive Sedgeley’s pulse rifle and pierced Liam’s forehead, frying his brain, and then Jazz and Connor suffered the same fate. Orders had been to take the boys alive, but the Defenders were only human and couldn’t take any more of the boy’s jibes. They deserved to die.
As Rebecca was taken away by the Defenders, not as a prisoner but as a rescued hostage, it suddenly dawned upon her as to what Liam had been up to, baiting the Defenders like that. Shit, he was a clever sod that Liam. Almost as clever as she was.
Death was just another escape route for a Recarn.