Why am I such a coward? Why can’t I make a move? Skye had more guts than me. She made it clear to Luc how she felt and was brave enough to risk his rejection. If she hadn’t died, I know she would have gotten over it quickly. That was the type of person she was, not one to hold grudges or sulk and cling to past hurts. She and Luc would have been back to their old selves almost straight away.
But if I give Luc the chance to reject me, I know I won’t be able to handle it with such ease and grace. I’ll be humiliated and devastated. That’s why I’m so scared to show my feelings. Maybe if he showed me something to make me believe he feels the same way… but I never get a glimmer of anything more than friendship.
We’ve got no plans of action left. We’ve got no new leads to follow. Our prime goal was Century Barracks, relying on the soldiers to point us in the right direction. Now we’ve reached a dead end. We’ll have to keep going onwards to my grandparents’ house.
Maybe we can stop at settlements along the way and show Chambers’ picture to everyone we meet. He is, after all, rumoured to be somewhere in the West Country and we are heading west, so it’s possible someone might recognise him. But I don’t really believe this is going to get us anywhere. It’s hopeless.
I feel deflated. My bones are damp and I feel grubby and irritable. Watery sunlight filters through the trees and into the hole in the warehouse roof, but it isn’t enough to warm the chilly space. As well as everything else, I’m really conscious our parents will now be sick with worry. I’ve got to face it, this trip has been a hideous mistake causing nothing but grief and distress. I shiver for the millionth time and try to think of something to make me feel less miserable. But I’m on a real downer.
Luc has been rummaging around for ages in the front, trying to find something. It’s getting on my nerves and I snap irritably.
‘What are you doing?’
He lifts his head and passes me a large bar of whole nut milk chocolate. ‘Breakfast? Half each?’ he grins.
I feel horrible. As usual, he’s trying to do something nice for me and I’m being a cow.
‘Damn good idea,’ I say, a reluctant smile escaping at the thought of such decadence.
At seven o’clock we risk opening the garage door. The sunshine streams into the gloomy warehouse. The brightness, combined with a sugar rush from breakfast, does a lot to lighten my mood.
‘Wait here,’ says Luc. ‘I’m just going to have a little scout around and make sure there’s no one about.’
‘I’d rather come with you, if that’s okay?’
‘Yeah, come on then.’
We crawl under the garage door and stand up, blinking and squinting in the light. The sun on our skin feels good and I stretch my body, catlike in the warmth. Then I turn around three hundred and sixty degrees to take in our surroundings. We’re standing in a sun-drenched clearing encircled by trees and bushes. The vine-covered warehouse has almost merged into the surrounding forest.
Last night’s storm has washed away our tyre tracks, so we head towards a gap in the foliage. We walk for only a few seconds before finding ourselves back on the narrow main road.
Gentle birdsong permeates the air and a startled squirrel spirals up a tree next to me. It’s like we’re in a completely different place to the eerie ghost town we reluctantly entered last night. This morning we’ve awoken to the heat-hazed jungle of a lost civilisation. A magical, dappled light plays through the trees and I half-expect to see fairies and goblins or perhaps a unicorn come trotting through the forest. Steam from last night’s rainstorm rises in soft billowing puffs from the drying land and the morning air smells fresh and loamy. We stand for a minute, looking down along the track at the shimmering, half-ruined buildings that have sunk back into the soft embracing earth.
‘I don’t think there’s anyone here, do you?’ says Luc.
‘Doesn’t look like it. But what if we start up the engine and someone hears?’
‘Mm.’ Luc pauses in thought. ‘The thing is, I don’t think it’s a good idea to hang around here for much longer. We’re too close to Warminster. They might come back when they don’t find us to the south.’
‘You’re right,’ I say, feeling a momentary braveness. ‘Let’s just go. Come on.’
Luc looks at me for a moment and then catches my infectious urgency. We run back to the AV, laughing hysterically and almost tripping ourselves up in the process. I’ve got that silly-scared feeling, like when Skye and I were young and Pa would pretend to be a bear, chasing us up the stairs and we’d scream and squeal in terror. Only this time, the terror is partially real. Well on my part, anyway.
We push up the warehouse door, jump into the AV, breathless with recklessness, and Luc starts up the engine. Bouncing back onto the track, we drive lightning fast out of Westbury, hearts pounding, hoping to God no one’s following us.
Chapter Thirty Five
One hour on the road and we start to relax and to believe we might have eluded the soldiers. Denzil has saved our lives and we’re indebted to him.
We drive through beautiful open countryside swathed in rolling hills of pale green, cinnamon and gold, textured like billowing raw silk. Bottle-green woodland pins down the edges of the landscape with not even a hint of autumn in the leaves yet. After our exhausting confrontations and escapes, I suddenly feel exhilarated and untouchable. The road widens out, smoother and less-potholed, so we fly over the tarmac at nearly forty miles-per-hour in some places, laughing at the freedom.
At this point, I think we both realise our mission is doomed to failure due to a complete lack of information. Also, if I’m totally honest, we’ve got no real plan for what we would do if we did happen to stumble across our fugitive, other than pull out a gun and shoot him, which now seems like another unrealistic piece of fantasizing.
After a majorly depressed start to the day, I quickly reconcile myself to the fact that there are too many elements beyond my control and the best I can do is to soak up this adventure to the full. Skye would understand that events have conspired to work against us. Perhaps it’s her, protecting us from crossing paths with this evil man. I know we won’t find him. Maybe I knew this all along, but refused to accept it.
In my new realistic frame of mind, I try to kid myself that what I feel for Luc is circumstantial lust – he’s the only person I’m with, so of course I’m attracted to him. There’s no one else to compare him with. But one glance across at him and I’m in freefall.
We change places so Luc can have a break from driving. He immediately falls asleep and I enjoy the drive, looking out of the window at the endless scenery. I spot a small bright shape on the horizon and try to work out what it is. It doesn’t look like a helicopter and it’s too large and slow to be a bird. Soon it’s out of sight behind a distant hill. I dismiss it and don’t think it’s important enough to wake Luc. Ten minutes later and I see it again, only this time it’s much closer and I think I now know what it is.
‘Luc, look!’
He opens his eyes, on instant alert.
‘A hot air balloon!’ I say.
‘What? Where?’
‘There, over to your left. I saw it a while back, but I couldn’t work out what it was. It’s amazing.’
‘Mm,’ says Luc, stretching. ‘I hope it doesn’t get any closer.’
‘What do you mean? Why?’
‘Nothing, I’m just being paranoid. It’s just a balloon.’