‘It was horrible,’ the Headmaster said, raising his head from his hands. ‘Frightful. Those foul creatures were waiting for me. They weren’t running away at aft. They were at the top waiting for me.’
Harris didn’t know what to say. How could you comfort someone you knew was going to die within twenty-four hours?
‘Let’s go upstairs, sir. We’ll be safer there.’ Help the Headmaster to his feet. They walked down the corridor towards the door leading to the stairs.
When Harris tried to open it, he found it was locked.
‘Come on, they can’t turn bloody door-knobs, you know!’ he shouted, banging on the door with his fist.
They heard the sound of footsteps and then bolts drawn back.
‘I’m so sorry, we didn’t realise anybody else was still down here,’ Ainsley apologised, his bald head peeping round the door. ‘Oh, dear, is everything all right?’ he asked, anxiously looking at their bloodied clothes.
They half-carried the Headmaster through, closing the door behind them.
‘Are the children okay?’ Harris asked.
‘The girls are beginning to get a bit hysterical, but the boys still have plenty ofswagger in them,’ replied Ainsley, catching his breath under the weight of the Headmaster.
‘They’ll need it,’ muttered Harris.
They took the injured Headmaster to his study and laid him in his armchair.
‘I’ll be all right now. Go and see to the children.’ His face was pale, and Harris wondered if it was imagination or could he actually detect a tinge of yellow in the injured man’s face? And did the skin really look tight or was it just the stiffness of pain?
‘Mr Ainsley will treat your cuts, sir,’ he said. ‘I’ll go and find out what’s happening.’
He left the study, feeling pity for the man he’d never liked, but had at least respected. The sight of him grovelling on the floor like a frightened child would stay in his mind for a long time.
He entered a classroom full of teachers and children and all heads turned towards him. He noticed the door to the adjoining room was open and anxious faces peering in. He beckoned the teachers to gather round him.
‘The Headmaster’s been injured,’ he said quietly, sothez but we’ll barricade the doors just in case the rats get up the stairs. Get all the girls in one comer and away from the windows. The bigger boys can help push the desks and chairs against the door.’
Grimble, a beak-nosed, sparrow of a man, pushed forward. ‘Really, as Deputy-Head, I...’ he began.
‘We’ve no time for internal politics now, Grimble,’ Harris snapped, making some of the younger teachers hide smiles of pleasure behind their hands. Grimble was well-known and disliked for his conniving and petty ways. He turned away huffily.
Harris went over to a window and opened it. He saw many police cars, among them a van-load of dogs.
Some of the police were donning protective clothing. Two fire engines rounded the comer at the end of the road, their frantic sirens adding to the noise. Crowds had gathered in the narrow street.
Below, he saw that the number of rats had thinned out considerably. Then he discovered why. They were disappearing two or three abreast through the small ground level window to the boiler-room. Others were making for the narrow passageway at the side of the building. He assumed the staffroom window was their target.
He heard screaming behind him. Turning, he found one of the girls had become hysterical and was sitting at a desk while some of her classmates and one of the women teachers tried to comfort her.
A voice hailed him through a loudspeaker, sounding mechanical, inhuman: ‘Axe you all right up there? Is anybody injured?’
Harris cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted:
‘Yes, we’re okay so far. One man injured though!’
‘Right. Well, barricade yourselves in. We don’t know what the rats are up to yet, but they may try to reach you.’
Of course they’ll try to bloody reach us, Harris thought to himself. What does he think they’re here for?
A school outing? He fumed impatiently as the policeman turned and waved his arms at the squad cars, instructing them to clear the way for the fire-engines.
He turned back to the school and raised the loudspeaker again: ‘We’re going to set the dogs on them first, and while they’re occupied we’ll try to reach you with ladders from the fire-engines.’ He obviously knew of the lethal bite of the vermin and wasn’t going to risk his men against them.
‘No!’ Harris shouted back. ‘You’ll never get all these children down those ladders. And your dogs won’t last five minutes against those rats!’
‘Do not panic up there. I repeat: do not panic. The experts will soon be here.’
Harris swore under his breath as the voice droned on: ‘We believe they are bringing gas to deal with the problem. Please keep calm. They will not be very long.’
The teacher groaned aloud. How long would it take those monsters to gnaw their way through a door?
They weren’t ordinary rats; they had intelligence, system. It would only take one of those monsters to get through to create havoc amongst these kids.
‘Listen,’ he called out again. ‘The hoses! Flood the basement! Flood the lower classrooms! At least it’ll panic them?
He saw the policeman, whom he assumed was a Chief Inspector conferring with a fireman. The firemen suddenly burst into activity, and began unwinding the long, thick hoses. Meanwhile the dogs were yelping excitedly, straining at their leashes, eager to tackle the black creatures. Two burst loose and streaked across the playground towards the thronging rats. The first, a hefty Alsatian, picked up one of the rats by the neck, shook it violently, and threw it into the air. The second dog, a massive Doberman leapt into the thick of the furry mass, snapping its huge jaws in all directions.
But they were soon covered by the rodents, being pulled down, their coats covered in blood. Several times they rose, but always they were dragged back to the ground. The other dogs were turned loose, about ten of them, and they flew into the melee. One actually trampled over the backs of the rats and scrambled through the small basement window.
Harris, watching from above, shuddered at the thought of its fate.
Although the dogs were brave, they were no match for the vast number of giant rats. Soon they were either lying on the ground being torn apart or trying to hobble back to their grief-stricken trainers. The men themselves had to be ordered back by their Chief-Inspector. He alone amongst them knew the risk involved, of the deadly disease carried by the vermin, and had no intention of allowing his men to lay down their lives until it was entirely essential for the sake of the children.
Suddenly, the hoses came into action. They swept through the playground, icy torrents of water, clearing a path clean through the rats, tossing them against the brick wall of the school building. They scampered in all directions, scrambling over each others backs, fighting amongst themselves to get away. The blood from the dogs was soon washed away by the steady flow of water.
A jet was aimed at the basement window, pushing several rats inside but preventing any more from entering.
The children, who had by now crowded round the windows, cheered at the sight of the disrupted vermin.
As the rats began to disperse, most running towards the coal bunkers, another jet of water was directed at the downstairs windows. The crash of glass as it showered into the classrooms brought grins of delight to many of the pupils.
Harris turned away from the window and walked across the room, gently pushing his way through the throng of children.
‘Where’s the Headmaster?’ he asked Grimble.
‘You should know. He was with you,’ was the curt reply.
‘Pull some of these desks back. He must still be in his study with Ainsley.’