Tabitha (64 page)

‘With us inside
it,’ Tabitha added.

‘We’ve got that
thing to fly us out of there,’ said Alex, nodding at Seven with a kind of
reverence.

‘Why don’t we
just risk it and attack the place from the air, and rescue them that way?’ said
Tabitha.

‘You haven’t
seen those air defences,’ Alex said grimly. ‘You’re lucky you didn’t trigger
them already actually, flying in here like that. They’d blow us to pieces
before we even got close.’

‘He can walk us
in then,’ Tabitha suggested, patting Seven’s neck.

‘Really? Does he
walk quietly?’ Alex said with a grin. ‘I think he’s great, don’t get me wrong,
but something tells me that sneaking isn’t his strong point. If we’re going to
get those people out we need to do it without getting seen. Otherwise they’ll
probably kill them before we can get to them.’

‘So you’re
saying that we need to
walk
in there? Right into the hive?’ said Tabitha.

‘It’s the only
way we’re going to get in,’ Alex replied with a shrug. ‘We’ll take out the air
defences when we’re inside, and then we can get your friend here to help us
out.’

‘It’s suicide,’ said
Tabitha. The film lover in her had always wanted a good reason to say that. The
rest of her was too busy being terrified.

‘So? These days,
just falling asleep is suicide,’ Alex replied. ‘Taking a crap is suicide.
Standing out here in the open talking… everything’s suicide.’ He made a good
point, Tabitha told herself reluctantly. He was too confident about his plan
though. Like talking about it was a guarantee they’d survive. The man didn’t
move like he should have, either; he was too quick and graceful for his frame.
She could kind of understand why Sylvia used to feel uneasy around her, if that
was how she moved too. But the thought of Sylvia just pissed her off. All of
Tabitha’s bitterness came rushing back in like a tide.

‘You still don’t
trust me?’ Alex asked her, stepping closer on the road.

‘What gave it
away?’ Tabitha replied, still aiming the pistol at him.

‘Well at least
tell me your name,’ he said with a smile. ‘I can’t just call you
hot redhead
on a magic space dragon
.’

‘Don’t call him
that,’ Tabitha snapped defensively.

‘Alright,
sorry,’ Alex replied, holding up his hands.

‘He’s Seven. I’m
Tabitha,’ she said flatly. She’d never had time for cocky men.

‘Well it’s a
pleasure to meet you, Tabitha,’ said Alex. ‘Hey… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to
piss you off. Don’t take me too seriously.’

‘Don’t worry, I
won’t,’ Tabitha replied, holstering her gun and jumping down from the saddle.
She led Seven closer until Alex grew uneasy, and he backed away nervously from
the dragon’s snout. Seven lay down on the road then, basking in the sunlight.

‘I don’t like
the way he’s looking at me,’ said Alex, keeping his distance. Seven’s white
eyes were staring at him, huge and predatory. ‘What does he eat?’

‘He doesn’t eat
anything,’ Tabitha replied, stroking Seven’s shoulder. ‘He’s solar powered. So
you really don’t need to be such a pussy around him.’ Alex laughed.

‘Anyone would be
a pussy around him, look at him!’ he said. ‘So
this
guy is solar
powered? I can’t believe it… I mean, look at those teeth.’

‘He’s got a bite
on him,’ Tabitha said proudly. ‘You should see what he can do to his brothers
and sisters.’

‘I can imagine,’
Alex replied, awestruck as he looked at him. ‘So what about you, what do you
eat? Are you hungry? Let me guess – spider meat, rare and bloody, right?’

‘No,’ Tabitha
replied. ‘I’m solar powered too.’

‘Great, so I’m
stuck with a pair of fucking hippies,’ he chuckled. Tabitha didn’t see the
funny side. Alex watched her while she made herself comfortable against Seven’s
wing. She closed her eyes for a while and felt the warm sun on her skin.

‘So what, you’re
recharging right now?’ said Alex. Tabitha nodded restfully. ‘And you never need
to go find any food?’ Tabitha shook her head. ‘How did you learn to do that?’

‘I just touched
Seven on the nose,’ she said, eyes closed, skin soaking in the light.

‘So, you rubbed
a magic space dragon on the nose, and now all you need to live is sunshine?’ he
chuckled.

‘I said don’t
call him that,’ Tabitha snapped. ‘He gets more pissed off than I do.’ Seven was
staring at him.

‘Alright,
alright,’ said Alex, exasperated. ‘So your body learned his solar power,
right?’

‘Yep,’ she
replied. ‘You’re welcome to try. I don’t think he’ll bite you.’

‘You don’t
think
he’ll bite me?’ said Alex. ‘That’s reassuring.’ Tabitha shrugged her
shoulders, sunbathing. Alex approached cautiously. Tabitha had her eyes closed.
Seven started growling; a huge deep rumble that Alex felt in his chest. Tabitha
opened her eyes and saw Alex standing over her, blocking out the sunlight. He
had a hand held out to Seven’s skin, hesitating.

‘I don’t think
he likes me,’ said Alex, stepping back. Tabitha looked up at him and laid a
hand on Seven’s side.

‘Probably
because you’re standing so close to me,’ she observed. ‘He’s defensive.’ Alex
stepped back a little more until Seven’s growling quietened down.

‘It’s ok,’
Tabitha told her dragon, stroking a scale. ‘Just let him touch your nose for a
second.’ Alex looked to her uncertainly and then back to Seven, and stepped a
little closer. He reached out his grey hand and placed it gently on Seven’s
snout.

‘I don’t feel
anything,’ he said, his voice wavering nervously.

‘It should
tingle, like electricity,’ said Tabitha. ‘Does it feel hot?’

‘I can’t feel anything,’
he replied. ‘Nothing’s happening.’

‘Maybe you just
don’t work that way,’ said Tabitha, shrugging her shoulders. ‘How did you get
your abilities?’

‘Eating stuff,’
Alex replied with a black-fanged grin. ‘I got my new hands here from eating a
spider, when I was in pretty bad shape. The meat and blood fixed me right up.
The rest I got from eating a big black thing that the army shot up to pieces
before they left. I don’t think I could eat all your friend here though. He’s a
little on the big side.’

‘I don’t think
he’d let you eat him, somehow,’ Tabitha replied. She had a thought. ‘You said
the hive was like a garden, didn’t you? Maybe you could eat some of the alien
plants if we find any, for solar power,’ she suggested, feeling refreshed from
the sunlight.

‘Do you think
that’d work?’ said Alex, suddenly intrigued.

‘No idea,’
Tabitha replied, standing up and dusting off her alien catsuit. ‘It’s worth a
try though, isn’t it?’

‘I’m not sure,’
said Alex, looking her body up and down when she stretched in the sunlight. ‘I
like eating meat, not rabbit food,’ he said with a grin.

‘Suit yourself,’
Tabitha replied. ‘Can you show me how to get inside that hive then?’

‘What, right
now?’ said Alex, sneezing at the bright sky.

‘Well, unless
you’ve got anything better to do out here, instead of rescuing your own kind?’
Tabitha replied, looked around at the ruined city. Alex grinned.

‘Let’s do it,’
he said, glancing at the desolation that he used to call home. Tabitha nodded
grimly and thought about the dangers to come, and went over to stroke Seven’s
snout.

‘Stick to the
rooftops, ok?’ she told her dragon, stepping back as Seven climbed to his feet.

‘He’s going to
watch over us, right?’ said Alex, watching Seven stretch out his vast
rectangular wings. ‘Tell him that he can’t fly over the hive, or they’ll shoot
him down.’

‘Did you hear
that?’ Tabitha asked Seven. Her dragon grunted a growl and took off from the
street, his beating wings blowing a tide of dust across the road.

‘Jeez,’ Alex
mumbled, shielding his eyes from the dust as he watched Seven take off into the
sky.

‘Shall we get
going?’ Tabitha asked him.

‘Let’s do it,’
Alex replied, watching Seven as he landed down on a ruined office block
overhead. ‘Follow me.’

‘First things to
change were my hands,’ said Alex, making conversation, as he lead Tabitha down
a ruined grey high street.

‘Yeah, me too,’
Tabitha replied, looking down at her metal palms. The breeze rustled warped
sheets of newspaper along the pavement around them.

‘It happened the
same day that the world ended, actually,’ Alex continued, thinking back. ‘Seems
like a lifetime ago now. That was the day my brother died, and my girlfriend
told me she was cheating on me. Some people get all the luck, huh?’

‘Well, you’re
still alive,’ Tabitha replied, looking up at the ruined skyscrapers. They must
have been a hell of a sight when they were still standing. Now they tilted and
crumbled like towering tombstones. A graveyard of giants, standing haunted and
annihilated in the stark sunlight.

‘No, you’re
right,’ Alex considered, leading her on around a street corner. ‘I
am
still alive, I should be grateful. Maybe you and me, we made our own luck. How
about you, you must have had a pretty tough time?’

‘I don’t want to
talk about it,’ Tabitha replied flatly.

‘That bad, huh?’
said Alex. ‘Well, I’ve seen everything since the invasion. Things I never
thought civilised people could do. I saw this one guy who went crazy and
started eating his own –

‘I don’t want to
hear it,’ Tabitha cut in. ‘Just… tell me about the hive.’

‘Alright,’ Alex
chuckled. ‘Well, down the bottom there, that’s Central Park. The hive pretty
much starts on the other side of it.’ Alex noticed Seven swoop down onto a
blown-out tower block right above them.

‘It’s probably a
good idea for your friend up there to stay right where he is,’ said Alex. ‘If
he gets any closer to the hive they’ll shoot him down.’

‘You’re
paranoid,’ said Tabitha. ‘How do you know that, anyway?’

‘I’ve seen
airplanes trying to bomb that hive every day for weeks,’ he said grimly. ‘They
don’t try
any more
.’ Tabitha looked from Alex up to
Seven on the top of the apartment block, and whistled up to him. His white eyes
stared down at them.

‘Stay there ‘til
I whistle for you, ok?’ she called up. Her voice echoed in the empty street.
Seven looked at her and then turned away, watching the skyline.

‘Is that
actually going to work?’ said Alex, swatting away a fly. ‘He’s really going to
come for us when you whistle?’

‘Of course.’

‘So, how did you
end up with that thing for a pet?’ Alex said with a grin.

‘It’s a long
story,’ Tabitha replied. ‘And he’s not my pet.’

‘Well, I’ve got
a lot of time for a long story,’ said Alex, picking his way over a pile of
rubble. Tabitha thought about Jim then; he’d said exactly the same thing when
they’d first met. The memory of him stung, hard. Memories of everyone.

‘Entertainment’s
been a little thin on the ground lately,’ said Alex, breaking Tabitha’s sad
train of thought. ‘Go ahead, give me the whole long story.’

‘Maybe we should
just keep our voices down and look out for spiders?’ Tabitha suggested.

‘Fine,’ Alex
said dismissively, leading her on down the street. ‘I mean, you were the one
shouting to a big old dragon on a rooftop just then, but whatever.’ Tabitha glanced
at him and felt awkward. Maybe she owed him an apology. ‘So, I get through
about five or six spiders a day,’ said Alex, changing the subject. ‘Unless I
can get all solar powered, like you.’

‘You don’t sound
too keen about it,’ Tabitha replied, walking on down the dead street beside
him.

‘Keen? What does
that mean?’ he said.

‘You don’t sound
like you like the idea,’ Tabitha explained.

‘Oh, right,’
Alex said with a smile. ‘British English, language barrier, you know?’ he
chuckled. ‘Uh, nah, I kind of like the hunt,’ he said, scratching a stubbly
cheek. ‘Must be pretty dull, sitting around in the sun recharging all the
time.’

‘I’m recharging
right now,’ Tabitha replied, watching her corners as they crossed a road packed
with dead taxis. ‘I don’t need to sit around.’

‘Well, I just
hope you don’t fight like some lame-ass hippie sun-feeder,’ Alex teased her.
‘If you do, we’re screwed.’ Tabitha flashed him a look and said nothing. There
was an awkward silence as they picked their way through the sea of taxis; Alex
whistled quietly to take the edge of it. He was starting to grate on her.

‘Seriously
though, I appreciate you being here,’ he said, leading her on towards the park.
‘I couldn’t do something this crazy without someone else like me to help.’

‘No, me neither,’
Tabitha admitted. She walked on beside him and cooled off a little from her
mood. Some people were just wankers, she supposed; they couldn’t help it.

‘I’m just glad
that there’s other people like me, you know?’ said Alex. ‘It’s been lonely.’