Days Like This (18 page)

‘Where did they recruit the Blacktroopers from?’ Lily said.

‘They were misfit’s, violent criminals. The Committee gave them a choice – death or the chance to serve in a private army. They are answerable only to the Committee. Absolute loyalty is mandatory. The Blacktroopers’ reward is serum, but their serum is laced with drugs like amphetamines that induce psychosis.’

‘How does the Committee control them?’ Lily asked.

‘Disobedience earns a death sentence. This is carried out by fellow Blacktroopers, with relish, we hear. The Committee maintains an army of about a thousand Blacktroopers – huge, compared to the number of civilians now remaining inside the Wall. A percentage of children born to breeders is earmarked for Blacktrooper service, too. None of them has reached adulthood yet, obviously, but they are said to be kept inside Blacktrooper barracks.’

‘That’s revolting,’ Lily said.

‘Yes, everything the Committee does is revolting,’ Peter said. ‘When the Wall went up, people on the outside panicked. They knew there would be minimal food and water because they would have no access to the food production facilities in the Wall. They tried to climb back inside the Wall, but the Blacktroopers drove them out. If they kept trying, they were killed and their bodies were buried outside the Wall.’

‘That’s awful, oh God, terrible,’ Lily said. She squeezed her forehead with her fingers, remembering the noise of the heavy machinery after the Wall had gone up.

‘How do you know all this?’ she asked.

‘We’ve made it our business to know,’ Peter said. ‘We have reconnaissance people. We’ve gleaned information from those who’ve escaped. Some of the rescued floaters have knowledge gathered before they were taken for harvesting. And a rich source of information has come from people put over the Wall, who we’ve rescued. It’s been a long process and it’s ongoing.’

Rosemary was back. ‘I’ll take Lily now,’ she said, sounding anxious.

As Rosemary led her away, all Lily could think about was the horrific things Peter had told her.

‘This is where I stay,’ said Rosemary. It was an alcove like Peter’s, but this one had two beds and the walls were draped with material the colour of the sky.

Rosemary helped Lily out of her sweat-stained, bloodied gown. She crumpled it in a ball and threw it in the corner. There was a bowl of water on a table and Lily washed off the dirt as well as she could.

‘You can wash properly tomorrow,’ Rosemary said, giving Lily one of her own shirts.

Lily fell asleep almost straightaway. She dreamed she was climbing Meredith’s fence, but however hard she tried she could not reach the top. Creepers twisted around her limbs. When Lily turned her head she saw it was not the creepers hampering her progress, but Meredith, who held onto Lily with her bony, papery hand, her one whole hand. The more Lily struggled, the more she became bound to Meredith, whose amputated arm hung useless and whose glazed eyes stared at Lily with such dead horror.

Rosemary sat with her through the night, her hand on Lily’s forehead, and it was this tenderness that finally soothed Lily into a dreamless sleep.

Lily rubbed her eyes and looked around the little blue-swathed cave room. It was like being in an underwater grotto. She didn’t know how long she’d slept, but it felt like morning. Rosemary’s bed was neatly made up. Lily shivered, shaking away the remnants of her dream. She felt her arm gingerly. The pain was bearable, the arm was more numb than anything and at least she’d slept. The back of her head still throbbed where the tubes had been. She touched it tentatively, thinking with a shudder of revulsion about the alien stent that she would have to live with. Still, the swelling had gone down and, miraculously, there wasn’t much pain there either.

She stretched in her bed and it was an aching kind of luxury; her muscles were tight, but she was grateful to be in control of her own body again. She pointed her toes and then pulled them up, feeling the stretch in her calves and thighs. She hunched her shoulders, hugging her arms to feel the pull across her back. She curled herself up to test her stomach muscles and pressed her head into the pillow, ignoring the sudden flash of tenderness in the back of her head.

I am definitely well enough to go back for Dan and Alice
, she thought.

She knew she was lucky they’d rescued her so soon after she’d arrived at the draining facility. If only Daniel had been so fortunate. Maybe he had. Perhaps he was also free somewhere? Realistically, Lily knew this was unlikely. And Alice was most certainly still at the mercy of those monsters.

There was a wash and murmur of voices filtering through the cave system. The low hum was like an ocean swell, ebbing then flowing. Individual words mingled to form a community of sound. It was reassuring for Lily, who’d experienced silence for most of her life.

Lily slid her legs over the side of the bed and sat up, momentarily dizzy. There was a full glass of water on the table and she drank it thirstily. Rosemary had left a few items of clothing on the end of her bed and some sandals. The shoes were larger than Lily needed, but at least they allowed her to leave on the bandages.

She dressed, smoothed her hair and scrubbed at her eyes before pushing aside the screen and walking up the passageway towards the main cavern. Her dizziness had subsided, but she was lightheaded, as if she were floating somewhere outside her own body.

What struck Lily first when she left the passageway and entered the amphitheatre was the sound of children’s voices. They seemed to be coming from a section near the entrance of the cavern that sloped down beside the rock staircase. Even having seen the cavern the night before, she was still amazed at it’s size. Lily headed towards the voices, walking as quickly as her bandaged feet and over-large sandals allowed, passing the floaters and the living areas. She rounded a high set of wooden shelving and stopped abruptly.

Babies and small children were gathered in a natural rock depression that was obviously a play area. The children were absorbed with one another and with toys, some of which were brightly coloured, some natural wood like Peter’s harps. The play area was carpeted with an array of rugs and sheepskins, so there were no hard edges to bruise small limbs.

The sound of their young voices threw Lily abruptly back to her brief school days, though she couldn’t remember ever having seen such young children; only Alice when she was a baby. Scattered here and there were small groups of people who looked like they were in their late teens or maybe their twenties. Lily supposed they were the parents of the little children who were tumbling about. Some of the women were breastfeeding, others were pregnant. A man was showing a small boy how to play chords on a makeshift guitar. Babies lay on the sheepskins or slept at their parents’ feet.

‘So you found our play area?’ Rosemary put her hand on Lily’s shoulder, making her jump. ‘And I see you also found the clothes I left for you. They’re not very stylish, but they’ll do for now. We’ll get you some others after you’ve had a proper bath.’

Impulsively, Lily threw her arms tightly around Rosemary.

‘Good morning to you, too,’ Rosemary laughed. ‘it’s a bit overwhelming at first, isn’t it? You’ll get used to it soon enough,’ she said, turning towards the play area. ‘These women are having their children naturally, with people they love. No one’s forced to be with anyone they don’t want to be and the babies will grow up in a loving community.’

Rosemary guided Lily to a small table and chairs near the children’s play area.

‘Show me your wrist,’ Rosemary said.

Lily had been so engrossed she’d barely noticed her injuries since she’d woken. Now she saw there was an unappealing seepage from the bandages on her wrist and her arm.

Rosemary took a fresh bandage from her pocket and some kind of salve in a jar. She cleaned Lily’s wrist with water, dressed the wound and then did the same for the back of her head.

‘Rosie!’ A small boy with a long fringe came scampering over and grabbed Rosemary round the legs. He pronounced her name ‘Wosie’, which made Lily laugh.

‘Hello, Sam. Who’s shooting up like a beanstalk?’ Rosemary said to the little boy.

‘Me!’ Sam said.

‘This is Lily, Sam.’

‘I’m four now,’ the boy said. ‘Bye.’

‘He’s a livewire, our Sam,’ Rosemary laughed. ‘He can’t keep still for a second, whereas Bethany over there doesn’t like loud noises. She’s not very keen on Sam. If he comes too close, she tries to pinch him.’

‘How do they learn?’ Lily asked.

‘Everyone contributes,’ Rosemary said. ‘We all have different skills. Even if people just tell their own stories, it’s valuable. Bill over there is a musician. He’s trying to teach guitar to Alex.’

‘Obviously there are no computer screens,’ Lily said, looking around.

‘No, but we’ve got a precious store of paper and writing materials. We try to collect them on missions over the Wall. We try to find books, too, but they are harder to come by. We ask everyone to write down their experiences so no one ever forgets. Anyway, listen to me rambling on again. You must be starving. With all that went on last night, you didn’t get any food, did you?’

Lily shook her head. Now that she thought about it, she was ravenous.

‘Come on, breakfast time. Cheers, kids,’ Rosemary said, waving.

‘Bye, Rosie,’ some of them called, before returning to what they were doing.

Rosemary led Lily from the play area, past the living rooms and the floater alcoves to a dining area with tables and chairs, deep inside the cavern. People sat around the tables on their own or in groups. They looked at Lily, nodded to Rosemary and then kept eating.

Lily was starving, but what exactly was this food? Most of it wasn’t instantly identifiable. The only things she recognised were apples and nuts.

She must have looked sceptical because Rosemary smiled. ‘Yes, it’s not ideal, but we make do with what we can get from our raids on the food-storage factories and hydroponic facilities just inside the Wall. Plus we grow our own medicinal herbs and some fruit and vegetables. You might have noticed the garden doubles as a shield for the entrance to the cave system,’ Rosemary said.

Lily nodded.

‘Everyone here forages for food. You’ll be expected to do it too when you’re well enough. Anyone able-bodied has to contribute because, as you can see, between the children, the elderly and the floater people, we’ve got a lot who aren’t able.’

‘It must be hard to find enough for everyone,’ Lily said.

‘Well, we supplement our expeditions to the food facilities with hunting and gathering, though the warming has left the landscape pretty depleted. Only the hardiest, most adaptable plants and animals have survived out in the open.’

‘Where does the water come from?’ Lily said.

‘We’re lucky because we have our own supply,’ Rosemary said. ‘There’s actually a natural spring that rises at the back of the cavern. It also has a hand in energy generation and ventilation. I’ll show you later, but first you have to eat.’

Rosemary brought her a bowl filled with a kind of muesli of nuts and sultanas in thin, watery milk. Lily picked up a spoon and dived in. She gulped the odd mixture gratefully. The water Rosemary brought was icy and clean-tasting.

A woman with long brown hair joined them. ‘Hello,’ she said, nodding to Lily. ‘I’m Mary.’

Lily introduced herself and Mary turned to Rosemary.

‘Can you please come and have a look at Pam, the girl Sal brought in yesterday? She’s in with me for the time being. She’s listless and I’m worried about her. Maybe there’s some kind of herbal mix that will buck her up,’ Mary said.

‘I’ll come now,’ Rosemary said. ‘Bye, Lily. I’ll catch up with you later and show you the natural spring, maybe even get you something more stylish to wear.’

Once Lily had finished eating, she wandered towards the bedroom alcoves. She thought she’d go and see Peter. She wanted to learn more about the rescue group that was going back inside the Wall the next day and she wanted to make sure he hadn’t changed his mind about her going with them. But Peter wasn’t in his cave room. Lily stood uncertainly in his doorway, breathing in the smell of wood shavings. They smelled like life. Harps in various stages of completion stood against the walls like docile children.

‘How’s it going, Lily?’

She spun around, her heart hammering.

‘Kieran!’

‘That’s me.’

‘You scared the hell out of me,’ Lily scolded playfully.

‘Yes, well, I can have that affect on people,’ he said. ‘Show me your hand.’ He took it without waiting for permission, bending down to examine the parts of her arm that weren’t bandaged.

‘Do you always boss people around like that?’ She pulled her arm away. ‘Anyway, I’m fine.’

He was grinning at her and she couldn’t help noticing his beautiful blue eyes again.

‘Thanks for asking, though,’ she added, smiling back.

‘Has anyone taken you on a tour?’ he asked.

‘Um, no, a bit, not really. I saw the place where the kids play. I was waiting for Peter.’

‘He’s out on a reccy. You can see him later. In the meantime, why don’t I show you around? And you could probably use a bath.’

‘Oh,
really
?’

‘You’re blushing, Lily, under the dirt.’

‘Shall we go then?’ She stalked ahead, but then realised she had no idea where she was going and had to wait for him. He moved ahead of her, his body like a cat; completely lean. But she knew how fit and strong he was. He guided her towards the dark interior of the cavern, greeting people as they went.

‘I’m going to show you our water system, not because you need a bath, necessarily, but because it really is the most important thing about this place. Without it, we’d still be searching for a safe place to live. The water is literally our life-blood and we have to protect it,’ he said. He was deadly serious now, no more teasing. ‘And it provides us with natural ventilation and air conditioning. Come on, I’ll show you.’

‘Kieran?’

‘Yup?’

‘I haven’t thanked you yet for bringing me here, saving me. I know it would have been easier just to leave me.’