The lights dimmed. The music swelled up and the crowd erupted as the curtain rose and the actors and dancers took to the stage. A musical number was energetically performed to wild applause.
'This is really good,' Ty said, having to shout to make himself heard. 'But I have the feeling I may be dead already and this is just a weird dream.'
Claire closed her eyes and was almost — almost — able to imagine that the weird dream was not what was going on on stage, but everything that had happened in the past few months. That her parents had taken her to see a Broadway musical but she was coming down with the flu so that while she was enjoying the show she was also drifting in and out of lucidity. The plague and the Titanic and the cannibals were all fantasies brought on by her fever. When the show was over her mother would shake her back to reality and they'd drift out into a neon-lit Times Square and her father would hail a cab and they'd go back to a nice, comfortable hotel.
Almost.
As the closing bars of music faded the crowd, clearly familiar with the performance, began to chant, 'Slash, Slash, Slash, Slash!' Claire was quite familiar with the film version, she'd watched it repeatedly on DVD as a kid, but she couldn't place this moment in it. Not the darkening stage, not the huge throne now being pushed forward by heavily muscled men in loincloths.
'Slash! Slash! Slash!'
A man in a wolf mask stood at the opposite side of the stage and rammed a spear down on the fake savannah.
'All praise King Slash!'
'Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!' the audience screamed. Many of them surged out of their seats to line the foot of the stage, clapping and cheering as the throne emerged into the brightness of a single spotlight.
Sitting regally — Slash, the Jungle King!
Or a man in a lion mask, with a rifle across his lap. He stood, he held the gun aloft, shook it at the crowd. In response they punched the air, yelling, 'Slash! Slash! Slash!'
Slash turned towards his prisoners on the side of the stage. They could not see his real eyes, only the huge painted ones on his mask, and it made him even scarier. It was as if he was studying every single one of them individually, yet somehow also all of them at the same time.
'Oh God,' Ty whispered.
Slash raised his free hand and ushered them forward.
First Officer Jeffers led the way; jungle drums broke out as they stepped on stage. The crowd roared in response. But then Slash raised a hand for silence — and it came instantaneously, as if he had flipped a switch. They were totally under his spell.
Slash turned his false eyes upon his subjects.
'If you enter the city of the Jungle King,' he cried, 'you must suffer the wrath of the Jungle King!'
They roared in response. With the clapping and screaming and thumping of feet and drums it felt like the entire building was shaking.
'Prepare the fires! Tonight we feast!'
29
Decisions
Jimmy and Ronni, propped up against each other in the thick branches of a pine tree, woke damp and sore to a grey, misty dawn. They had just kept running until they could go no further. When, in the early hours, all sound of pursuit ceased, they could only presume that the soldiers had given up and returned to Fort Hope.
Jimmy lowered himself cautiously down on to the forest floor. As he yawned and stretched — while looking vigilantly around him, obviously — Ronnie slithered down the trunk, completely out of control, crashing through branch after branch and snapping each and every one of them before landing in a heap at his feet.
'In case any of you weren't aware until now,' Jimmy announced to anyone who might be in the general vicinity, 'we're over here. Hiding.'
'Sorry,' said Ronni.
By way of further apology she delved into one of the pockets of her khaki jacket and produced a small plastic bag, inside of which were two large, round, chocolate-chip cookies. She took one out and offered it to Jimmy. 'Breakfast?' she asked.
Jimmy took it and immediately bit into it. He gave her the thumbs-up. 'Well done,' he said, spraying her with crumbs. 'But is this all we have to get us to New York?'
'If you remember I tried to suggest—' And then she stopped. She swallowed a mouthful of biscuit, but having bit into it with enthusiasm it suddenly looked as if she was forcing herself to swallow sawdust.
Jimmy's cookie was delicious. 'What's wrong, has it gone off or . . . ?'
Ronni shook her head. 'I'm not going,' she said.
'You're not what?'
Her eyes flitted up, then down again. 'I'm not going — to New York. You never mentioned New York. Not once. You never said it. I'm not going.'
Jimmy gave a short laugh. 'Why not? What's the problem?'
She kicked at a dead fern on the ground. 'It's not funny!'
'OK — I didn't mean . . . it's just—'
'I'm not going. Not back there.'
'Oh. Right. I see. That's where you came from. That's why you were so upset when you arrived at Fort—'
'I wasn't upset! I was . . .'
'Traumatised. Yes. I know. I'm sorry.'
They both looked at the ground.
'Do you want to tell me about it?' Jimmy asked after a bit.
Ronni shrugged. Then, 'If you want.'
'Let's walk while you do. At least we'll be further away from the fort.'
'I'm not walking in the direction of New York.'
'That's fine. I've no idea which direction it is. We'll just go . . . this way.' He walked forward.
Ronni watched him for a moment, then shook her head. 'No.' She nodded in the opposite direction. 'That way.'
'That would be back to the fort. This way.'
Ronni changed her stance some forty-five degrees. 'This way.'
'No — that's back where I came from. This way.'
'That's towards New York.'
'You don't know that.'
'No I don't,' she admitted. 'But you do.'
She studied him for several long moments.
Jimmy threw his hands up. 'OK, you got me — that way's probably New York. But Ronni, please listen to me. We escaped together. We're a good team. I think wherever we go we can probably look after ourselves pretty well. I have to go to New York. The Titanic might not even be there, but if there's even a small chance that she is, then I have to warn the captain that the President and his stupid army are going to try and seize the ship. It's my home, it's my life, and I think you'll love it too. To get there we have to go through New York. If you don't want to go, that's your choice. But I have to.'
Jimmy gave her an encouraging smile, but when she didn't respond he just gave a disappointed shrug before turning and walking away.
Towards New York.
She stood where she was.
He didn't look back.
Ten minutes later, walking down a hill only sparsely covered in trees, with a cold rain falling and a breeze making it feel even colder, Ronni fell into step beside him, only slightly out of breath, and said, quite simply, 'Cannibals.'