The Sacrifice by Charlie Higson
It was a tiny plan, but it was still a plan.
The danger, of course, was letting the rest of them get closer at the same time.
Oh well, at least, if nothing more, it gave him another few seconds to rest his knee. The young father came closer, leaving the rest of his gang further behind.
‘Yes, come on, here I am … ’
The father was unarmed, but looked strong and determined, breathing through his mouth. The rain was making his pale, swollen face look mushy, as if the skin was dripping off.
Shadowman let him come right up until he was in reach of the machete and then ducked down and swiped the blade at his ankle. He didn’t need to kill him, just put him out of the race. The father hissed and stumbled sideways, hitting the ground with a splash.
One down.
Shadowman turned and limped off. Jesus, his knee hurt. He wondered if he’d ever be able to walk again after this. The rest of the pack was frighteningly close. He would have to force himself to speed up a little if he wanted to try that trick again. He could hear their footsteps behind him. Bare soles as hard as leather slapping on the wet ground.
55
‘I should have killed you a year ago, Matt.’ Ed’s voice was cold and flat. ‘On the boat, when I had the chance. And I should kill you now, but I gave an order that no kids would be hurt. You’re bloody crazy, you know that? What are you doing farting about in here with all your made-up religious crap when all hell’s breaking loose outside? I mean, have you seen it? Have you seen what’s out there? There’s an army of sickos surrounding this place.’
‘They can’t get in,’ said Archie Bishop.
‘They will eventually,’ Ed snapped. ‘There’s too many of them.’
They were sitting at a round table in a little wood-panelled room built into the wall of the cathedral behind the choir stalls. It was one of Matt’s private rooms.
‘The Lord will protect us,’ said Archie.
‘No, he won’t, you jerk.’
‘The Lord protects those who protect themselves,’ said Kyle.
Matt’s security, completely taken by surprise, had done nothing. Ed’s crew had stormed down the aisle towards the throne with such an air of menace and pent-up violence that Nathan and his guards had hesitated, not wanting to risk a fight here in the cathedral that they had no sure chance of winning.
Ed had been so angry he’d been fully prepared to ignore the order he’d given and cut Matt down there and then. But Matt had ducked behind Nathan who at last drew his own sword. Ed had glared at him and Nathan had instantly lowered his sword, terrified.
Sometimes it helped having an ugly scar disfiguring your face, and when that scar was backed up by a genuine berserk fury, only a very brave or a very stupid kid would stand in his way.
Nathan was neither. These intruders were street-hard, dripping wet and armed to the teeth. In the end Matt had been the one to tell his troops to stand down. The fact that Ed had put a sword point to his throat helped more than a little.
Everyone had then started shouting at once until Matt had suggested that they go to his rooms to talk. So it was that Ed, Kyle and Sam were sitting across a round table from Matt, Archie Bishop and Nathan in something like peace and quiet, lit by several church candles that flickered and danced in the draughts.
They’d left Hayden in charge of the rest of Ed’s team, who were drying themselves round a smoky brazier while the cathedral kids talked excitedly among themselves, nudging each other and pointing towards the new kids.
‘We’re doing all right here,’ said Archie. ‘If you can believe that.’
‘I know.’ Ed was trying to hold his anger back. ‘I know all about your secret stash, your Tree of Life, or whatever the hell you bloody call it. You always were a little chunky, Archie, but just look at you now. You’ve grown fat while everyone else in London is starving.’
‘Yeah, all right,’ said Archie, blushing. ‘You don’t have to get personal.’
‘I’ll get bloody personal if I want to, Archie!’ Ed shouted. ‘You bastards have been kidnapping little kids.’
‘We didn’t kidnap Sam,’ said Matt. ‘He chose to come here.’
Ed looked at Sam. ‘Well?’
‘I didn’t choose to come here,’ Sam said, wide-eyed at the cheek of it. ‘I mean, they rescued us, we were stuck in this tube station and they got us out, but I didn’t know what was here; if I’d have known I’d never have come. Specially after what they said about The Kid.’
‘OK.’ Ed stared Matt down. ‘Is anyone going to tell me where he is?’
‘The Kid, as you call him, is important to us,’ said Matt. ‘You wouldn’t understand.’
‘Try me.’
‘They killed him, Ed.’ Sam’s voice was very small and quiet.
Ed jumped up from the table, knocking his chair over, and launched himself across the top, going for Matt’s throat. Matt managed to scramble out of the way and Nathan got up to help him. In a moment Kyle had come round the other side and was standing over Nathan with his axe.
‘Stop,’ said Archie. ‘We don’t need this.’
Ed ignored him. ‘Is that true?’ he snarled at Matt, climbing off the table. ‘Have you killed The Kid?’
‘No,’ said Matt calmly. ‘I haven’t killed him. None of us have.’
‘They’re lying,’ Sam shouted. ‘They did. They took him away; they said they were going to sacrifice him; they said he was this, like, demon thing, said he was the Goat, that he played tricks on us. Him there.’ He pointed a shaking finger at Nathan. ‘He took him away, to a place they called the Abyss, under the food place. They said he was going to be sacrificed there.’
Ed advanced on Nathan, who backed away.
‘Is this true?’ he said.
‘Sort of,’ said Nathan. Ed raised a hand to hit him.
‘Stop it,’ Archie said again. ‘Look, Ed. Let me explain.’ He had a quick whispered conversation with Matt, who at first looked cross but eventually nodded. Archie then addressed the room. ‘Everyone except me and Ed should just leave, OK? Before there’s a fight. I want to talk to him alone.’
Ed thought about this. Archie had always been more sensible than Matt. He didn’t hide behind twaddle and bullshit. He knew that if Matt and Nathan stayed in here sooner or later he was going to attack one of them and do some real damage, if Kyle didn’t beat him to it. The important thing was to find out exactly what had happened to The Kid.
‘OK,’ he said. ‘Everyone else out.’
Kyle protested, but Ed convinced him that he’d be OK and the others all filed out.
Now there were just the two of them left in the room. Ed and Archie. Outside, the storm was passing away. The thunder was just a distant rumble, but the rain was still hissing on the walls and the wind moaned at the windows.
‘I know how this looks,’ said Archie.
‘Yeah. It looks bad. Don’t see how it can be any other way, Archie.’
‘Maybe Matt is mad,’ said Archie. ‘I can say that now he’s gone.’
‘Is that meant to be an excuse?’ Ed shook his head. ‘Just tell me, Archie, what is going on?’
‘A few months ago we found this sicko,’ said Archie. ‘He wasn’t like the others. There’s a strange energy around here. Matt says it’s spiritual, the power of God. Maybe he’s right. How do I know? But we’re at the centre of it here or near the centre anyway. Even if you don’t believe in any religion, or stuff like that, you have to feel it – things are different.’
‘Yeah.’ Ed was cold, very aware of how damp he was, sitting there with his pants sticking to his arse. ‘I’ll give you that, Archie. But what’s this got to do with The Kid?’
‘I’m getting to that. But you have to understand.’
‘Go on then.’
‘We found the sicko living in some offices. We were going to kill him like all the others, but he was different.’
‘How?’
‘He could talk, Ed. He still had his brains in his h
‘A talking sicko?’ Ed leant back in his chair, thinking this over. ‘After all this time?’
‘We sometimes find them in the City or we used to before the Wall went up and we shut them all out. There were ones who stayed in the dark, underground, and the sickness didn’t seem to affect them so badly. Anyway, this one, he could talk all right, but he wasn’t exactly sane. Spouted a whole load of nonsense. Matt latched on to it, reckoned it was speaking in tongues, messages from God or something; he just had to understand it all. He was obsessed with him. Called him Wormwood, the fallen star. We caught him and locked him up out of the way in an old cellar underneath the warehouse. It wasn’t easy. He’s dangerous. Very strong and very quick when he wants to be. He sits there doing nothing and then – BANG. He killed two of our kids early on. Begged us to let him have them. And we wanted to keep him alive, so in the end we had a ceremony. And Matt gave him the bodies of the two dead kids.’
‘You what?’ Ed couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
‘Yeah. I know. Matt said it was God’s plan. Everything that happens Matt explains as God’s plan. I just thought – they were dead – what difference did it make? I mean, it was that or throw them in the river.’
‘He fed dead kids to this sicko?’
‘Yeah. And it kept Wormwood happy. It was like he came alive. After eating them what he said made a lot more sense. And now we keep on feeding him.’
‘With children?’
‘Most of the time we give him other stuff, from the warehouse, or dead animals.’
‘Oh, that’s OK then. You only feed him children some of the time.’
Archie couldn’t look at Ed. He stared at his hands on the table and spoke very quietly. ‘Sacrifices Matt calls them. The next ones we gave him were some kids from outside. A gang of them turned up and tried to break into our supplies, tried to steal stuff. There was a fight. We killed one, badly wounded another. The rest of them ran off into the City. We never saw them again. Probably some sickos got them, but, whatever, they didn’t come back.’
‘So you fed the dead one to this Wormwood?’
‘Yes. Him and the wounded girl.’
‘She was still alive?’
‘Barely. He liked that. Prefers them alive.’
‘Jesus, Archie, this is sick. I can’t believe you’re sitting here calmly telling me all this. Why’d you go along with it? How can you?’
‘Because when I listened to Wormwood’s babble, it didn’t sound like the word of God, it sounded like something different. It began to sound a bit like the truth.’
‘What truth?’ Ed asked. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘I reckon that somewhere in all that noise there’s clues to what’s going on. He knows stuff, Ed. From what I can work out, before the sickness he was working for some kind of biological medical-research type place, not sure exactly what it was. And I think he knows something about the causes of the sickness. Matt’s kept him down there for religious reasons. I go along with it, but what I really want to find out is what’s going on. What it’s all about. And he might know the answer. I mean, isn’t that more important than … Than anything?’
‘No. No, it’s not. I get it now. What’s the phrase? The carrot and the stick? Matt bribes you all with food and if you don’t go along with it he throws you to his pet sicko. Who else has he killed?’
Archie sighed. ‘The next one was a kid from here who got killed in a fight with some sickos when we were building the Wall,’ he said. It seemed to Ed that he wanted to get all this stuff out, that it was bugging him more than he was letting on.
‘Then there was another live one. A boy called Nev had an accident, fell off one of the balconies in the cathedral. Broke his back. He was one of the most religious kids here. Even more fanatical than Matt, went along with everything Matt came out with. Begged Matt to sacrifice him. Said God had chosen him. Said it was an honour. Didn’t stop him screaming when we put him in there.’
‘Nice.’
‘The last one that went down before today was a girl. She was always trouble, always getting into fights, never settled down or made friends. There was something wrong with her if you ask me. One day she took it too far, killed this younger girl. Drowned her. Matt had to punish her in some way … ’
Ed was too numb to feel anything. Or say anything. He wondered if what Jordan had done to Brendan was really any better. He didn’t know any more.
‘All right,’ he said at last. ‘So are you telling me that’s where you took The Kid? That little boy? Nine years old? Fed him to a bloody monster?’
‘I know,’ said Archie. ‘Today was different. It wasn’t a punishment as such. We had to sacrifice the Goat. Matt wanted to make this big show. We’ve been waiting for the Goat and the Lamb to show up since we got here. And there they were. Matt was so sure.’
‘And you let him do it?’
‘The thing is, Ed,’ said Archie, leaning forward, ‘it’s important what Matt’s doing here.’
‘Killing kids?’
‘No. Saving them.’
‘How does killing The Kid save him?’
‘Not him. He was a sacrifice, for the others. For us. People need something to believe in. That’s what Matt’s given us, something outside ourselves. So that kids don’t just sit around thinking about themselves and all their problems. Without it, there’s nothing, no hope for any of us. If you stopped to think about what’s happened you’d go nuts. It’s a nightmare. Matt offers something different, though. The way things are, we need crazy bastards like him to hold us all together.’
Ed thought about Jordan Hordern at the Tower, with his rules and his training and his military obsessions. Nicola at the Houses of Parliament, with her voting system, her new government …
Something to believe in.
Did it make any difference whether it was the Lamb, democracy or military order?
But that didn’t excuse what they’d done to The Kid.
‘How long ago?’ he asked.
‘What?’ Archie finally looked up at Ed.
‘How long ago did you take The Kid to Wormwood in the Abyss?’
‘Well, I don’t have a watch any more, but I’d guess a couple of hours.’
‘How long would it take for, you know … ?’
‘He’s strong and fast and he’s always hungry. The last time we took him a kid was a month ago. Since then he’s only had scraps.’
‘How long, Archie?’
‘It’s usually over in about five minutes.’
Ed stood up, started pacing the room. ‘Maybe I should just feed Matt to Wormwood,’ he said.
‘Don’t, Ed,’ Archie pleaded. ‘Leave him. The kids here need him. We’re surrounded by sickos. Without Matt this whole place would fall apart. There’d be panic. Matt’s convinced himself and everyone else here that The Kid was a demon, the dark twin of the Lamb, and that once he was sacrificed to Wormwood everything would be all right. Our war against the sickos would be won.’
‘Jesus!’ Ed slammed his fist against the wall, cracking a wood panel. ‘This is all so messed up.’ He turned on Archie. ‘You almost had me thinking it was OK. But it’s not. I keep coming back to that poor little boy, all alone with that freak. That’s what this is. Nothing more.’
‘It’s over, Ed. You can’t do anything.’
‘Can’t I? You’re gonna take me there, Archie. Maybe he’s still alive.’
‘He won’t be. Leave it.’
‘I have to try,’ Ed yelled. ‘You and me and Matt are gonna go there, and I’m gonna see for myself, and I’m gonna decide. Maybe I shut Matt in with Wormwood, maybe I just kill the sicko so that you screwed-up jerks can’t feed any more children to him.’
‘He knows stuff,’ Archie protested.
‘I don’t care what he knows. As long as he’s there, he’s a threat to children. So get Matt and let’s get this over with.’
56
‘Come on then, you bastards, here I am.’
And Shadowman wanted that stick. His knee had locked and was now just a cold lump of agony.
There was a mother trying to keep up with Stickboy, only a few paces behind. Shadowman took careful aim and fired the crossbow directly at her chest. She came on a few more paces then slowly went down, turning round and round on the spot in her confusion. Stickboy was almost on Shadowman now and he had to hurriedly put his crossbow back over his shoulder without reloading. He drew his machete and swung it all in one movement. Stickboy was ready for him, though. He held the stick up two-handed to ward off the blow, but Shadowman went in low, slashed him across the belly. Stickboy wasn’t going to go quietly. He was tough and, as dark blood soaked his ragged trousers, he came on, jerking the stick up and down in front of him. Shadowman didn’t have time for this. He took aim at Stickboy’s knee and let fly with the machete.
‘Yeah,’ he said as the father fell over sideways. ‘Hurts, doesn’t it?’
He grabbed hold of the stick and tried to wrestle it from Stickboy’s hands. Stickboy held on with an iron grip. He wasn’t letting go of his precious stick and the rest of the pack was getting dangerously close.
‘Look, just let go of it, will you?’
He hacked at the father’s fingers with his blade, like a chef chopping vegetables, until Stickboy had nothing to hold on with any more. Shadowman pulled the stick free and propped the curve of it under his shoulder. It wasn’t the best crutch in the world, but it was better than nothing. He hobbled off, trying to keep the weight off his bad knee, the rain washing the blood from his machete.
The strangers weren’t going to give up. They must have been miles from the rest of The Fear by now and still they came on.
That was Bluetooth’s doing. He was a tough bastard and Shadowman had noticed before that he never gave up. If he could only stop and shoot him or cut his bloody head off. Anything. Then the rest of them might stop chasing him.