Johnny and the Bomb (20 page)

Bigmac was on the floor with Wobbler on top of him. Wobbler might not know how to fight, but he did know how to weigh.

‘Get off!' said Bigmac, flailing around. Trying vicious street-fight punches on Wobbler was like hitting a pillow.

‘I'm still alive in 1996, aren't I?' said Wobbler. ‘'Cos I've been born, right? So even if I never time travel back
I
ought to still be alive in 1996, right? I bet you know something about me!'

‘No, no, we never met you!'

‘I'm alive, then? You do know something, right?'

‘Get off, I can't breathe!'

‘Come on, tell me!'

‘You're not supposed to know what's going to happen!'

‘Who says? Who says?'

There was a yowl behind him. Wobbler turned his head. Bigmac looked up.

Guilty the cat stretched lazily, yawned, and hopped down off the bags. He padded confidently alongside the mossy wall, moving in his lurching diagonal fashion, and disappeared around the building.

‘Where's it going?' said Wobbler.

‘How should I know? Get off'f me!'

The boys followed the cat, who didn't seem at all bothered by their presence.

He stopped at the church door and lay down with his front paws outstretched.

‘First time I've seen him go away from the trolley,' said Bigmac.

And then they heard it.

Nothing.

The faint noises of the town didn't stop. There was the sound of a piano from a pub somewhere. A door opened, and there was laughter. A car went by slowly, in the distance. But suddenly the sounds were coming from
a long way off
as if there was some sort of thick invisible wall.

‘You know those bombs …' said Wobbler, not taking his eyes off the cat.

‘What bombs?' said Bigmac.

‘The bombs Johnny's been going on about.'

‘Yeah?' said Bigmac.

‘Can you remember what time he said? It was pretty soon, I think.'

‘Brilliant! I've never seen anywhere bombed,' said Bigmac.

Guilty started to purr, very loudly.

‘Er … you know my sister lives in Canada,' said Wobbler, in a worried voice.

‘What about her? What's she got to do with anything?'

‘Well … she sent me a postcard once. There's this cliff there, right, where the Indians used to drive herds of buffalo over to kill them …'

‘Isn't geography
wonderful
.'

‘Yeah, only … there was this Indian, right, and he wondered what the drive would look like from underneath … and that's why it's called Head-Bashed-In Jump. Really.'

They both turned and looked at the chapel. ‘This is still here in 1996,' said Bigmac. ‘I mean, it's not going to get bombed …'

‘Yeah, but don't you think it'd be better to be sort of behind it—'

The wail of a siren rose and fell.

There were faint noises in Paradise Street. Someone must have moved a blackout curtain, because light showed for a moment. Someone else shouted, in a back garden somewhere.

‘Great!' said Bigmac. ‘All we need is popcorn.'

‘But it's going to happen to real people!' said Wobbler, aware that real people could include him.

‘No, 'cos the siren's gone off. They'll all be down their bomb shelters. That's the whole point. Anyway, it'd happen
anyway
, right? It's history, OK? It'd be like going back to 1066 and watching the Battle of … whatever it was. It's not often you
get to see an entire pickled onion factory blow up, either.'

People were certainly moving. Wobbler could hear them in the night. A sound from this end of the street was exactly like someone walking into a tin bath in the darkness.

And then …

‘Listen,' said Bigmac, uncertainly.

Guilty sat up and looked alert.

There was a faint droning noise in the east.

‘Brilliant,' said Bigmac.

Wobbler edged towards the side of the church.

‘This isn't television,' he mumbled.

The droning got closer.

‘Wish I'd brought my camera,' said Bigmac.

A door opened. An avenue of yellow light spilled out into the night and a small figure dashed along it and came to a halt in the middle street.

It shouted: ‘Our Ron'll get
you
!' The drone filled the sky. Bigmac and Wobbler started running together.

They cleared the churchyard steps in one jump and pounded towards the boy, who was dancing around waving a fist at the sky.

The aircraft were right overhead.

Bigmac got to him first and lifted him off his feet. Then he skidded on the cobbles as he turned and headed back towards the church.

They were halfway there when they heard the whistling.

They were at the top of the steps when the first bomb hit the allotments.

They were jumping behind the wall when the second and third bombs hit the pickle factory.

They were landing on the grass as the bombs marched up the street and filled the air with a noise so loud it couldn't be heard and a light so white it came right through the eyelids, and then the roar picked up the ground and shook it like a blanket.

That was the worst part, Wobbler said later. And it was hard to find the worst part because all the others were so bad. But the ground should be the ground, there, solid, dependably under you. It shouldn't drop away and then come back up and hit you so hard.

Then there was a sound like a swarm of angry bees.

And then there was just the clink of collapsing brickwork and the crackle of fires.

Wobbler raised his head, very slowly.

‘Ugh,' he said.

There were no leaves on the trees behind them. And the trunks
sparkled
.

He got up very slowly, and reached out.

It was glass. Bits of glass studded the whole
trunk of the tree. There were no leaves any more. Just glass.

Beside him, Bigmac got to his feet like someone in a dream.

A frying pan had hit the church door so hard that it had been driven in halfway, like a very domesticated martial arts weapon. A stone doorstep had smashed a chunk out of the brickwork.

And everywhere there was glass, crunching underfoot like permanent hail. It glittered on the walls, reflecting the fires in the ruins. There seemed far too much to be from just a few house windows.

And then it began to rain.

First it rained vinegar.

And then it rained pickles.

There was red liquid all over Bigmac. He licked a finger and then held it up.

‘Tomato sauce!'

A gherkin bounced off Wobbler's head.

Bigmac started to laugh. People can start laughing for all sorts of reasons. But sometimes they laugh because, against all expectations, they're still alive and have a mouth left to laugh with.

‘You—' he tried to say, ‘you— you— you want fries with that?'

It was the funniest thing Wobbler had ever
heard. Right now it was the funniest thing anyone had ever said anywhere. He laughed until the tears ran down his face and mingled with the mustard pickle.

From somewhere in the shadows by the wall a small voice said, ‘'Ere, did anyone get any shrapnel?'

Bigmac started to laugh on top of the laugh he was already laughing, which caused a sound like a boiler trying not to burst.

‘What, what, what's shrapnel anyway?' he managed to say.

‘It's … it's … it's bits of bomb!'

‘
You want fries with that?
' said Bigmac, and almost collapsed with laughing.

The siren sang out again. But this time it wasn't the rising and falling wail but one long tone, which eventually died away.

‘They're coming back!' said Wobbler. The laughter drained out of him as though a trapdoor had been opened.

‘Nah, that's the All Clear,' said the voice by the wall. ‘Don't you know nuffin'?'

Wobbler's grandfather stood up and looked down the length of what had once been Paradise Street.

‘Cor!' he said, obviously impressed.

There wasn't a whole house left standing. Roofs
had gone, windows had blown out. Half of the buildings had simply vanished into rubble, which spilled across the street.

Bells rang in the distance. Two fire engines skidded to a halt right outside the church. An ambulance pulled up behind them.

‘You want—' Bigmac began.

‘Shut up, will you?' said Wobbler.

There were fires everywhere. Big fires, little fires. The pickle factory was well alight and smelled like the biggest fish and chip shop in the world.

People were running from every direction. Some of them were pulling at the rubble. There was a lot of shouting.

‘I suppose everyone … would've got out, right?' said Wobbler. ‘They
would
have got out, wouldn't they?'

The siren's wail slowed to a growl and then a clicking noise, and then stopped.

Johnny felt as though his feet weren't exactly on the ground. If he were any lighter he'd float away.

‘They must have got out. They had nearly a whole minute,' he said.

The sergeant had already headed toward Paradise Street. The three of them had been left
with Tom and the captain, who was watching Johnny thoughtfully.

Things pattered onto the roof of the police station and bounced down into the street. Yo-less picked one up.

‘Pickled onions?' he said.

They could see the flames over the rooftops.

‘So …' said the captain. ‘You were right. A bit of an adventure, yes? And this is where I say “Well done, chums”, isn't it …'

He walked to the yard door and shut it. Then he turned.

‘I can't let you go,' he said. ‘You must know that. You were with that other boy, weren't you. The one with the strange devices.'

There seemed no point in denying it.

‘Yes,' said Johnny.

‘I think you might know a lot of things. Things that we need. And we certainly need them. Perhaps you know that?' He sighed. ‘I don't like this. You may have saved some lives tonight. But it's possible that you could save a lot more. Do you understand?'

‘We won't tell you anything,' said Kirsty.

‘Just name, rank and serial number, eh?' said the captain.

‘Supposing we … did know things,' said Johnny. ‘It wouldn't do you any good. And those
things won't help, either. They won't make the war better, they'll just make it different. Everything happens somewhere.'

‘Right now, I think we'd settle for different. We've got some very clever men,' said the captain.

‘Please, captain.' It was Tom.

‘Yes?'

‘They didn't have to do all this, sir. I mean, they came and told us about the bombing, didn't they? And … I don't know how they got me down here, sir, but they did. 'S not right to put them in prison, sir.'

‘Oh, not prison,' said the captain. ‘A country house somewhere. Three square meals a day. And lots of people who'll want to talk to them.'

Kirsty burst into tears.

‘Now, no one's going to
hurt
you, little girl,' said the captain. He moved over and put his arm around her shaking shoulders.

Johnny and Yo-less looked at one another, and took a few steps backwards.

‘It's all
right
,' said the captain. ‘We just need to know some things, that's all. Things that may be going to happen.'

‘Well, one thing …' sobbed Kirsty, ‘one thing … one thing that's going to happen is … one thing is …'

‘Yes?' said the captain.

Kirsty reached out and took his hand. Then her leg shot out and she pivoted, hauling on the man's arm. He somersaulted over her shoulder and landed on his back on the cobbles. Even as he tried to struggle upright she was spinning around again, and caught him full in the chest with a foot. He slumped backwards.

Kirsty straightened her hat and nodded at the others.

‘Chauvinist. Honestly, it's like being back with the dinosaurs. Shall we go?' she said.

Tom backed away.

‘Where do girls learn to do
that
?' he said.

‘At school,' said Johnny. ‘You'd be amazed.'

Kirsty reached down and took the captain's pistol.

‘Oh, no,' said Yo-less. ‘Not guns! You can get into real trouble with guns!'

‘I happen to be the under-18 county champion,' said Kirsty, unloading the gun. ‘But I'm not intending to use it. I just don't want him to get excited.' She threw the pistol behind some dustbins. ‘Now, are we going, or what?'

Johnny looked around at Tom.

‘Sorry about this,' he said. ‘Can you, er, explain things to him when he wakes up?'

‘I wouldn't know how to start! I don't know what happened myself!'

‘Good,' said Kirsty firmly.

‘I mean, did I run down here or not?' said Tom. ‘I thought I saw the bombing but – I must've imagined it, because it didn't happen until after we got here!'

‘It was probably the excitement,' said Yo-less.

‘The mind plays strange tricks,' said Kirsty.

They both glared at Johnny.

‘Don't look at
me
,' he said. ‘I don't know anything about
anything
.'

Chapter 12
Up Another Leg