Shift (13 page)

‘I’m going to look like a mummy,’ she tells him.

‘You will if you don’t hold still.’ He grins, which I can see she enjoys.

I decide to leave them to it and climb down from the train. I head warily for what’s left of Moth Two. It has been decapitated and most of its powerful limbs are severed or broken many
times over. It lies squished, half on and half off the track. I get up as close as I dare. I have no idea what it is, what it is doing here, or why it even existed.

GG joins me, looking like he is about to throw up. ‘There’s itsy bits of him everywhere.’

‘GG, we just killed someone.’

‘Some
thing
,’ Johnson corrects and I’m pleased to see him jump down from the train and head towards us.

‘But it’s still murder, isn’t it?’

‘What do you think he was planning on doing to us?’ Johnson is determined to keep my spirits up. ‘You made a call and you did what you had to.’

‘And thank the Lord,’ adds GG. ‘Because I was all out of speed.’

‘What d’you think it is?’ Johnson can’t resist touching a piece of Moth Two with the pointed toe of his oh-so-cool shoes.

‘An alien?’ GG suggests.

‘Looks like a . . . Actually I dunno what it looks like.’ Johnson frowns hard and then shakes his head. ‘I have no idea. No idea at all. It’s the Moth but it isn’t
the Moth.’

‘Should we keep it?’ GG bends to take a closer look.

‘You’re sick, GG,’ I say.

‘They might want to study it.’

‘They?’

‘Scientists. Zoologists. McDonald’s. Who knows?’

‘Did you say McDonald’s?’

‘I don’t know! Did I? Oh God, I’m falling apart.’ GG holds his hand to his mouth and his eyes bulge. ‘I don’t even like McDonald’s.’

‘It’s got to be an experiment.’ Johnson can’t take his eyes off Moth Two. ‘Maybe these things got out of a lab or something and they had to evacuate everyone.
That’s what it has to be. This is something man-made and they screwed it up and everyone was told to run.’

It’s a good theory. They’d spliced a cheetah with our genes and somehow come up with this.

‘Why do they look like us though?’

There is what looks like blood congealing around the wounds, but it’s too oily and thick to be human. Johnson is about to touch it when I drag his hand away. ‘I
wouldn’t,’ I say and he nods his appreciation and steps away.

‘Hawkings’ll have an idea,’ Carrie’s voice interrupts. I turn to see her limping along the track on her cut feet towards us. ‘Show him. He’s clever.
He’s in all the top sets.’

‘We can’t show the Moth,’ says GG. ‘We can’t show him his own decapitated head.’

‘Maybe we should get moving. That Lucas-thing is still out there.’ Johnson looks down the track as if the non-Lucas is going to be haring down it any second.

Which makes me think immediately of the Ape and what happened to him. I wince inwardly. He was a big boorish lout, but he still stepped up when he had to.

‘Think that Lucas-thing knows where we went?’ Carrie looks panicked.

‘I was sort of yelling my head off about finding a train,’ says GG meekly. ‘He could have super-hearing.’

‘It’s not a he,’ I say quickly. ‘It’s an
it
. Just like Moth Two was an
it
. We can’t think of them as people.’

‘So what do we do now?’ GG asks.

‘Don’t care about you, but I’m getting back on the train,’ Carrie says.

‘Where does this line lead to? London?’ Johnson asks GG.

‘Ah, well, that depends on the signalling and what track goes where. My dad did sort of explain it all but I was too busy sounding the horn to listen.’

‘You don’t even know where we’ll end up?’ Carrie is scornful of GG.

‘I know we’re heading south and that usually means London. But only if the tracks are lined up that way.’

‘Whatever,’ Carrie says as she takes another watchful look along the railway line. ‘I’ll go anywhere as long as it’s as far away as possible from that other
Lucas.’

We board the train and GG dusts the Moth down after he went sprawling along the floor. He still smells strongly of urine and Carrie makes a point of opening all the
windows.

‘Where is he?’ asks the Moth. ‘The other me, has he gone?’

‘I wouldn’t worry, Moth,’ says GG. ‘Half of him is pointed south and the other half is pointing west.’

‘Oh.’ The Moth swallows grimly and decides against asking any more questions.

‘Where’s the Ape?’ asks Billie, her cheek taped over with a bandage. The shock of everything that’s just happened means she’s only now realised that he’s
missing.

I feel a lump swell in my throat. I can’t actually get the words out, but luckily Johnson answers for me. ‘He bought us time to get away,’ he says. The words are laden with a
profound sadness. Even Carrie falls silent out of respect.

‘It got him, then?’ says Billie quietly.

I nod. ‘Yeah. He’s uh . . . He’s gone.’ My voice is small and I turn away as tears fill my eyes.

GG takes a moment. ‘I never minded him that much,’ he says simply. ‘The Ape was what he was.’

Everyone appreciates the simple sentiment but I know we’re all secretly thinking, who’s going to be next? We’re already down two people and I can’t see things getting
much better.

Johnson lets the silence grow for a respectable amount of time before turning to GG.

‘Time to go.’

Before GG can head for the driver’s cabin, a tinny, electronic tune fills the air.

I realise it’s my phone and scramble to find it in my pocket. I almost drop it, I am so stunned. I open my phone and right there, before my eyes, is a message from the Ape.
Where is every1?

We look at one another, stupefied.

‘It’s the Ape!’ I can’t believe it. I’ve gone from despair to elation in half a second flat.

‘He’s OK? I mean he’s not dead?’ Johnson says.

‘That can’t be – can it?’ Billie’s words trail off.

‘Answer him then!’ snaps Carrie.

I text as quickly as my trembling fingers will allow.
Where r u?

In town.

What about Lucas?

Offed him :) One-nil to the Dazman!

‘He killed it?’ Billie asks. ‘Is that what he means? He killed it?’

Where r u?
he texts again.

‘It’s a trap.’ Carrie says this with a huge amount of conviction. ‘It’s not him. Can’t be.’

‘They can use phones?’ Billie says.

‘With those talons?’ quips GG. ‘That’s touchscreen hell.’

‘Test him,’ urges Johnson. ‘Ask him something only he would know.’

‘But he knows nothing,’ Billie says. She sounds weak, not herself.

I tap a message as quick as I can.
What do u want to be?

‘Apart from an idiot,’ Carrie says.

I ignore her as we wait for an answer.

Time seems to crawl to a stop and it’s taking an age for the Ape to answer the question.

‘Just like in school,’ the Moth says. ‘He never knows the answer to anything.’

The silence expands.

‘Text another question, something easier,’ Carrie says.

I rack my brains trying to come up with something the Ape might be able to answer when a text pings back.

King of the ring

Finally, I think.

‘It’s him,’ I say.

W8 there.
I text back.

Carrie looks alarmed. ‘Why are you telling him that?’

‘We’re going back for him,’ I say.

The look on the others’ faces tell me they aren’t so convinced.

‘We can’t leave him twice. He bought us time. Saved us.’

‘No one asked him to.’ Carrie’s voice is emotionless.

I can’t believe we’re even debating this.

‘We have to think this through, Rev.’ Billie’s voice is barely audible. ‘If there are these weird copies of us, then it stands to reason there’s still five of them
out there. Maybe in town, prowling around . . .’ I know Billie isn’t being cowardly and that she is just applying a calm logic, but even so I’m a little shocked she’d
abandon the Ape after what he did for us. ‘We can’t run them all over,’ she adds simply.

Another text comes through.
Rev?

‘Should I answer?’ I look at the others but no one speaks.

REV?
The text pings again. I stare at the small screen on the phone.

‘He bought us time to escape. Which is what we’ve got to do now. Escape,’ Carrie says finally.

‘But we don’t know there are other versions of us,’ I counter, just as another text comes through.

I’ve seen Billie

My heart hits my boots.

She aint seen me tho

‘See? They’re out there.’ Carrie is already heading back to the train.

Before I know it, I text back.
Hang on. We r coming.

The others see me do this and Billie is aghast. ‘What the hell are you doing?’

‘We can’t leave him – we can’t.’

‘Look at my face. Look at it! How am I ever going to get over this? I’m going to look like this for the rest of my life but I’d still take it over going back there any
day.’

‘I know how you feel, I know that but—’

‘Rev, you have no idea what to do, or how to do it. I say we stay on the train and we ride around until we find someone who can help us. There’s got to be people out there. Hopefully
we’re already heading towards London and it’s going to be packed with people. Once we find them then we can go back for the Ape.’

‘Yeah, tell him to stay hidden, to lie as low as low,’ adds GG. ‘But we will, we absolutely will, come back for him.’

‘Rev,’ says Johnson, speaking for the first time in ages. ‘I don’t want to leave him either, but we need help.’

‘No!’ I shout. ‘I’m going back. And you are too. All of you.’

Carrie looks at me with venom. ‘You are such an idiot.’

‘We beat one of them. The Ape beat one of them. How tough are these things? I’ll tell you. They’re not.’ I’m not going to give ground on this.

I look to Johnson and I wonder if I have swayed him. He takes a moment to weigh his options then gives the faintest of shrugs. ‘OK.’

‘OK?’ snaps Carrie.

‘Rev’s got a point,’ he says staring right into me. Our eyes lock and I’m sure something unspoken has just sparked between us.

‘Now we have two idiots. Great,’ Carrie sighs. ‘Well, you two can go back and the rest of us will go find someone sane to help us.’

I look to Billie who, despite the chill in the air, looks hot and feverish. ‘Billie, I know this is right,’ I tell her. ‘We can’t leave the Ape. He’s one of
us.’

As if to underline that sentiment another text comes through.
Hey!

Billie ponders for a long moment, then gathers herself.

‘As much as I’d like to, we’d better not abandon him, had we?’

I turn back to Carrie. ‘You can always stay here. Wait on the track. Out in the open.’

She glares at me.

I get another text from the Ape as I take a seat.
U coming?

I text back.

I smile at his smile, then feel the train move off. It doesn’t dawn on me at first but when I look out of the window I realise we are heading south again, away from town, not back towards
it. I sit bolt upright but Johnson is already on his feet and hammering on the locked driver’s door.

‘GG! What the hell? GG!’

The train gathers pace as it takes us further and further away from the Ape.

‘I’m sorry,’ GG’s voice comes over the tannoy. ‘But we’ll find someone in London, I know we will. The Ape’s tough, he’ll be OK. We can’t go
waltzing back into town, you know we can’t. We’d never get out alive.’

Johnson is hammering on the door, kicking it. ‘Open the door, GG!’

‘I’m a lover, not a fighter.’

‘GG!!’

I start kicking and hammering and shouting alongside Johnson, but the train isn’t going to stop anytime soon. Billie, now drenched in sweat, joins us. She smiles weakly at me.

‘Rev, I don’t feel so good.’