‘I’m glad you said that, Doc,’ Sergeant Ross admitted. ‘I’d been thinking along the same lines myself. I thought it was just me going mad. Do me a favour, you two, keep a lid on this. People are already scared. If word gets out, this place’ll be out of control.’
‘So what are you going to do about it?’ Scott asked.
‘Me? What can I do? Have you not noticed, we’re all in the same boat here. I’m not in charge anymore. The investigation was taken out of my hands, shall we say. I’d tell you who by, but I honestly don’t know. Like you lot, first I knew about all this was a knock on my door from a soldier who’s face I couldn’t see. All I could see was his bloody rifle and I wasn’t taking any chances.’
Mr Renner, the school pastoral teacher, spotted Tammy and Phoebe in the crowd and came over to speak to them both. He told them about Heather, though Tammy had already suspected something had happened. She’d seen Chez sitting alone with his head in his hands and had feared the worst. Mr Renner told her where she’d find Jamie and she went to look for him. He was sitting on a bench at the side of the gym with Joel. Tammy positioned herself between the two of them, hoping they’d distract her with pointless rubbish and immaturity, but fearing they were already past that.
‘Got anything to drink?’ she asked hopefully. Joel shook his head, Jamie didn’t even look up.
‘I can’t take no more of this,’ Joel said, getting up. ‘You deal with him.’ And with that he was up and gone, relieved to be away. Tammy cautiously put her hand on Jamie’s leg.
‘I’m sorry, Jamie. I’m really, really sorry…’
He lifted his head and looked at her, wiping his eyes. ‘We thought she was with Chez. Dad was doin’ his bloody fruit tryin’ to find her. We called Chez and he said he thought she was with us.’
‘What happened?’
‘She was all fucked up, Tam. Like the others…’
‘Where?’
‘The pub.’
‘My dad stayed there last night…’ She stopped herself. She didn’t want to think about what might or might not have happened in the Black Boy. Did it have anything to do with what happened to Dad this morning? Did he have anything to do with what happened to Heather? He couldn’t have, could he?
Jamie wasn’t listening. He couldn’t take anymore of this in. He reached out for Tammy and held her, pulled her close. And she responded. All she’d had from pretty much everyone since first arriving in Thussock was constant grief, and this sudden unexpected physical contact seemed somehow to make it all a little easier to cope with. She held him tight, then tighter still, both of them sobbing as they leant against each other, his face buried in her chest. Huge amounts of previously suppressed emotions were released, let out at long last after having being locked away for too long.
Tammy kissed the side of Jamie’s face. He looked up at her. Oh, those eyes… those deep brown, hurting eyes… she’d thought him good looking the first time she saw him outside the Co-op, a class apart from the other boys, but she’d not wanted to get too close because he was from Thussock and she didn’t want to be here and because it felt like there was a world of difference between them and… and none of that mattered now. She’d just been looking for excuses before, avoiding reasons to form connections with this hellish place. Jamie looked so pale and drawn, racked with pain, and yet he was still attractive. She felt his hands on her and it made her feel alive. She really needed to be held like this… to be wanted. They parted for a moment, then kissed – soft, light and unsure, then stronger. Eyes closed now. Tongues touching, lips locked. She reciprocated his every move, finding such unexpected comfort in his touch and—
—and they separated when someone screamed. Tammy pulled back and felt her bladder weaken. The space around the bench where they’d been sitting had emptied, people scrambling away from them in absolute terror as soldiers rushed towards them. Hundreds of them it looked like, sprinting through the crowds with their rifles raised, all of their weapons pointing at her and Jamie. Jamie slipped off the bench in panic, landing on his back with a sickening thump and winding himself. Stunned, he lay there helpless as they surrounded him.
Tammy couldn’t see what they were doing to him. There were hazmat suits all around her now too. She tried to look for Jamie, but all she could see now was her own terrified face reflected back in the visors of the soldiers encircling her. ‘Name?’ one of them demanded.
‘Huh?’
‘Tell me your bloody name?’
‘Tammy Williams,’ she answered, voice shaking.
‘Did you have intercourse with this man?’
‘What?’
‘Have you had sexual intercourse with this man?’ he shouted, pointing at Jamie, still on the floor, still surrounded.
‘No.’
The soldier took a step back. Tammy remained exactly where she was, feeling as if her legs would buckle with nerves at any second. The rest of the leisure centre was silent. It was as if everything and everyone else had frozen. Everything except Scott. He shoved his way through the stationary crowds to reach Tammy, only to find his way forward blocked by more armed guards. The harder he fought to get through, the tighter they closed ranks. He pulled back a fist, ready to punch, but a soldier dismissively shunted him away then raised his rifle.
Scott froze.
The stand-off was unbearable, the pressure increasing by the second.
‘No reaction, Sir,’ a mask-muffled trooper shouted.
‘Clear,’ another soldier confirmed, and all of the faceless, suited figures stood down. Scott pushed his way through them to get to Tammy who’d dropped to her knees now, sobbing. He picked her up and no matter how much she hated him and how sick he was of her, they walked back to Michelle together.
27
The waiting was endless, unbearable. It was late now, dark outside. Their interminable incarceration had lasted most of the day and showed no signs of ending anytime soon. Frustrations were beginning to show. There were occasional glimpses of trouble, only for those involved to immediately separate when military interest was aroused. Much of the bad feeling seemed to be down to the dwindling level of supplies. What had appeared to be a virtual mountain of cardboard when Scott and Michelle had first arrived had been reduced to a few remaining boxes. There was a sudden change in mood when a door opened and the stocks were replenished. The smell of hot food temporarily soothed the tensions within the leisure centre.
There was an initial crush but the ever-present threat of military intervention kept things moving with civility. Scott fetched enough for him and his family. He found himself sitting close to Dez, Sergeant Ross and Dr Kerr as they ate.
‘Can’t say they ain’t lookin’ after us,’ Dez said.
‘They can stick their fucking food,’ Scott said, poking with a plastic spoon at his dish filled with some kind of meat stew. His stomach was churning. ‘I’d rather be hungry and out of here.’
‘I don’t think you would,’ Dr Kerr said. ‘They’re keeping us safe until they’ve got this thing under control.’
‘Like hell.’
‘Much as I hate to admit it,’ Sergeant Ross said, ‘I think you’re right, Doc.’
‘I know I’m right.’
‘I’m not so sure,’ Scott said.
‘Why not?’ Sergeant Ross asked.
‘Think about it… why are they really keeping us here? Why would they want the whole of Thussock locked up in one room?’
‘To keep us safe,’ Dez quickly volunteered. Scott looked at him in disbelief.
‘You’re so bloody naïve. It’s never about us, it’s always about them. If the doctor’s right and there is some kind of fucking weird, previously unheard of, sex-starved parasite-thing running loose around here, where do you think it is? Do you think there are even more soldiers outside trying to hunt it down?’