Ben nodded and they continued onto the Island in silence.
They didn’t want him to come with them. They thought he would be a liability but he argued and in the end who could deny a man who has just lost his family. He didn’t really want to go but staying on the boat didn’t feel like an alternative
(drowning yourself in the river, that’s an alternative)
so he went along.
Ben, Anthony and Daniel climbed onto the decking silently. Creeping weeds had spread between the cracks. The were so dark they were almost black but Ben could see they were red. Blood red veins carrying the poison through the village. He kicked a patch but they didn’t break.
They entered the Village Hall in single file, guns drawn and ready. The place smelled of rancid meat.
“Hello?” said a voice. A girl, young. It was followed by a shuffling sound in the dark. “Is someone there?”
It seemed to Ben that whoever was there should have been able to see them. The room was dark but a lamp on the table in the middle gave off enough light for him to at see at least the shape of the person speaking.
Daniel walked towards the dark shape huddled on the ground by Nicholas’s office. The girl heard his footsteps and moved away, further into the darkness.
“It’s okay,” said Nicholas, “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“That’s what they said,” she said. The lonely desperation was evident in her voice. Ben wanted to tell Daniel to be careful but he couldn’t.
He couldn’t move and he couldn’t warn his friend that she might have a weapon. they had been right, he was a liability and they should have strapped him to a chair and refused to let him off the boat.
“It’s alright,” said Daniel, as if talking to a scared animal.
“Who are you?” said the girl. She sounded less frightened but not by much.
“My name’s Daniel McGill.”
“Mr. McGill?” she said.
“That’s right. Who are you?”
Ben watched her stand, leaning against the back wall for stability. When she stepped closer to the lamp he could see her face and he felt his stomach churn.
“Margaret,” said Daniel. He paused, Ben thought to collect himself. He had seen what Ben had seen; the girls face was streaked with blood and where here eyes had been there were dark empty sockets. Ben had to force himself not to turn away. “Who did this to you?”
She made a sobbing sound and Ben thought about her eyes again. Did she still have tear ducts? Was she still capable of crying? “It was the General,” she said, “everything was the General.”
16
Daniel sat with Margaret while Ben and Anthony searched the rest of the building. They found nothing of any use. As far as they could see the place
(the whole village)
had been suddenly abandoned. Ben found that having something to do, and thinking about poor Margaret rather than his family, made him feel a little better. It cleared his head and by the time they had got her back to the Robinson Crusoe he felt like he could think again. First though Margaret had to tell them what had happened while they were away.
She sat in the largest, most comfortable chair. Mrs Thresher had not skipped a beat when she had been presented to her. She had taken her to the bathroom and washed her, dressed her in clean clothes and brushed out her hair. She had wrapped a flowery scarf around her eyes before sitting her down. Now she made tea for them all while Margaret told them what had happened.
“It was three or four days ago when the sky went dark,” she said. Ben noted that she had lost all of the cocky superiority she had displayed when questioned about Kirsty’s disappearance. He was sorry to see it. “Just in the middle of the day suddenly there were shadows everywhere and when you looked up like bugs or something were blocking the sun.
“More of them came and in an hour it was like night. No one knew what to do, we were all scared. Some people went to the General but he wouldn’t see them.” She shook her head and the end of the scarf swished through the air like a ponytail. “I don’t know, I wasn’t there.”
“Where did everyone go Margaret?” said Daniel, his voice calm and reassuring.
“He took them,” she said in short sobs. “But I wouldn’t go.” Her mouth was twisted in an anguished wail as she remembered what had happened to her. “So he did this?”
“Nicholas?” said Ben.
She nodded, her mouth still moving as if she was trying to speak but nothing came out. Mrs Thresher put an arm around her shoulders and held her tightly.
“Why would Nicholas do that?” he said. He didn’t mean to make it sound like he thought she was lying, he genuinely wondered.
“He just did alright,” she said, thrusting her chin towards him. She seemed to stare right at him and knowing, as he did, that she had no eyes beneath the scarf made him feel very uncomfortable. “Because I wouldn’t go with all the others.”
“Where did they go?” said Daniel.
She shook her head again. “He changed.”
“How did he change Margaret?” said Daniel.
“He was … it was like he wasn’t really there but he was, it felt strange being around him, like you could feel him inside you.” She shook her head. “It sounds stupid.”
It didn’t sound stupid to Ben. It sounded like how it had felt to be in the presence of the King and that scared him. Had something happened to Nicholas, a man with his own little kingdom? He felt weak, his heart was beating too quickly.
Hadn’t Nicholas always claimed to be a member of the monarchy? He had always assumed he was lying but maybe that wasn’t so. There was a twisted swirling mess of thoughts surrounding the ideas that were forming in his head. They seemed at once perfectly common sense but at the same time so outlandish as to be ridiculous.
“We have to go to the dam,” said Daniel.
Ben looked up and saw that he was speaking to Joel. The conversation with Margaret was apparently over because Mrs Thresher was talking to her in a quiet voice now.
“I don’t expect you to come. You and yours have done enough. Seems like this is our fight.”
“Don’t be a fool,” said Joel. “We’ve come this far together haven’t we? Of course we’ll come.”
Daniel smiled and Ben felt sick. He couldn’t even look at the two boys who had been volunteered for the job by their father.
“We’ll take a smaller boat, leave the girls here.”
“Oh no you won’t.” They all looked up, surprised to hear Kris speak. She looked uncomfortable having them all stare at her but she went on. “We can take another boat, that’s fine, but you’re not leaving me behind again. Not this time. This is my home too.”
“Of course,” said Daniel. He paused as if expecting Mrs Thresher and Margaret to announce their intention to come along as well but of course they didn’t. The idea that Mrs Thresher would wield anything stronger than a rolling pin seemed quite ridiculous and Margaret must have know that none of them would allow her to go. “Alright then,” he said. “We’ll need a boat.”
An hour later they were loading weapons onto Ben’s small raft. He had stored it wrapped in plastic behind his home and the weeds hadn’t got to it. There was barely enough room for all eight of them and he would have been glad to leave Kris and the boys behind but they were determined to come along.
They checked and double checked the wooden weapons. Ben once more slung two quivers of feathers on his back and carried a longbow. They left weapons behind, they would have sunk the raft if they’d tried to carry them all, and gave Mrs Thresher and Margaret a quick explanation of how they worked, just in case. They also left instructions that, at the slightest hint of danger, they were to start the engine and get as far away as possible. Under no circumstances were they to come looking for them