The Perimeter (14 page)

Liss knew where they should go. She led Annabelle toward the tunnel they used for getting in and out of the farm. It was concealed behind a dense clump of bushes and was hard to find in the darkness. Her hands tore at grass and brambles before finally locating the wooden board which served as an entrance hatch. They crept down, under the ground, into the cold, dark passageway and waited.

 Chapter Sixteen

Riley

Pa and I stood as Liss and Annabelle entered the kitchen, awkward and uncomfortable, wearing the clothes I’d laid out for them, hair damp from their showers.

‘Come and sit down, ‘Ma said, ladling out a couple of bowls of porridge. ‘You girls need some nice warm food. You look half starved.’ Ma was right. They were nothing but skin and bones. The fact they were wearing my clothes highlighted this: baggy and rolled up at the cuffs and trouser bottoms, they hung off them like children wearing adults’ clothes.

Annabelle and Liss sat hesitantly at the table. They seemed eager to eat, but the porridge was blisteringly hot and they could only manage tiny amounts off the tip of their spoons.

‘Are you feeling any better?’ Pa asked.

The girls nodded.

‘Where are your parents?’ he asked Liss.

Liss stopped eating, but continued to stare at her porridge. After a heartbeat of silence she spoke: ‘They’re dead.’

‘What?’ I sat down heavily on one of the kitchen chairs. ‘No. I don’t believe it. What happened?’

Liss continued to stare down at her bowl, dry-eyed.

‘I’m so sorry, Liss,’ I said, thinking of Fred and Jessie and how happy they had been to get their daughter back after so many years. To think they were now dead and unable to live the kind of family life they’d been dreaming of was awful.

 ‘I’m sorry,’ Pa said.

‘I’m sorry too,’ Ma said. ‘That’s terrible. You poor things.’

‘What happened?’ I asked Liss. ‘Are you okay to talk about it?’

‘It was a while ago,’ she said. ‘Grey’s men came to the farm.’

‘You stayed on at the farm?’ Pa said. ‘But you were told how dangerous it was to carry on living there.’

‘No,’ Liss said. ‘We were only there to finish off the harvest. We’d moved to the compound. We’ve got a house there.’ Liss stopped eating and went on to tell us exactly what had happened. How her mum had been shot and how she and Annabelle had hidden in a tunnel.

‘I was sure they’d find us,’ she said, ‘but they never did. We waited down there for hours. We were too scared to come out.’

‘I don’t blame you,’ Ma said.

‘We waited till the next day. By then, the soldiers had gone, so we crept back to the farmhouse. Mum and dad were in the kitchen. Dead.’

‘Liss, I am so sorry.’ I put my arms around her small frame, but she stayed unmoving, her arms wrapped around her body. I was pretty sure she was still in shock.

‘We didn’t know what to do,’ Liss said. ‘Or where to go. But eventually we decided to come here. I hope that’s okay.’

‘Of course it is,’ I said. ‘Of course. You did absolutely the right thing to come here. Did you walk all the way?’

Annabelle nodded. ‘It took us weeks. We got lost a few times.’

‘You were lucky you didn’t get attacked by raiders,’ Pa said. ‘It’s dangerous out there.’

‘We kept off the roads,’ Annabelle said. ‘And we hid if we saw anyone.’

Ma put the kettle on, shaking her head and muttering something to herself.

‘You okay, Ellie?’ Pa asked.

 ‘I just . . . Sometimes I forget what kind of world we’re living in. It’s barbaric.’

 ‘I’m so, so sorry about your parents,’ I said, knowing how inadequate those words sounded. ‘FJ has a lot to answer for. I know he’s your brother, but . . .’

‘FJ is coming here,’ Liss said, cutting me off.

‘What!’ I wasn’t sure I’d heard her right.

‘Liss!’ Annabelle cried.

‘He’s coming here,’ Liss whispered it this time. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘FJ’s coming here? When?’ I asked. ‘ Now? To rescue Grey? Or is he after you?’

‘No,’ she said, looking up at me for the first time. ‘Riley, he’s coming after
you
.’

A chill entered my bones. I glanced from Liss to Annabelle and then back to Liss again. Ever since that evening when FJ had caught me in the clearing, I’d had nightmares about him. In my dreams I would be running away from him, but at the precise moment I thought I’d got away, I would realise that I was running
toward
him. And he’d be standing there in front of me, waiting, with a half-smile on his face.

‘FJ’s coming after
me
?’ I said. I don’t know why I sounded so surprised. Back in the clearing when he’d had me in cuffs, the look he’d shot me was one of pure hatred. I guessed that sooner or later he would be coming for me, or that I would go to him – after what he’d said about knowing Skye’s killer it was inevitable – but it still sent chills down my body to know that he was possibly on his way here right now. That he was thinking about me with revenge on his mind.

‘What are you talking about?’ Pa said, getting to his feet and glaring at Liss. ‘Why is FJ only going after Riley? I can understand him wanting revenge, but it wasn’t only my daughter responsible for Grey’s capture. There was Luc and Denzil. Connor. Why Riley? Why’s he singled her out?’

‘I . . . I don’t know,’ Liss said, her face flushing. ‘I don’t even know why I said that. I must’ve got things mixed up. I’m not thinking straight. I was wrong. Sorry.’

‘Don’t lie,’ Pa said. ‘You seemed very clear a minute ago. Just tell us what you know.’ His face darkened. ‘If that boy wants trouble, he’s found it.’ His jaw clenched tight and his eyes narrowed.

‘Pa, it’s fine,’ I said. ‘I’m here aren’t I? And I’m perfectly safe.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Liss replied. ‘His disciples mentioned something when they came to the farm but, like I said, I must’ve got it mixed up.’

‘What exactly did they say?’ I stood up shakily and took a step closer to Liss. She seemed vague. Exhausted. Perhaps, like she said, she wasn’t thinking clearly.

‘That can’t be right,’ Ma said. ‘What would Liss’s brother want with you, Riley?’

‘I . . . I don’t know,’ I replied. I’d kept Ma in the dark about most of what had gone on since Skye’s death. She couldn’t take anymore trauma and I’d been scared that if she knew FJ was out to get me, she’d have another breakdown. Likewise, Pa would go ballistic if he knew FJ had a personal vendetta against me.

 ‘No, no. I’m sorry,’ Liss said. ‘I made a mistake.’ She picked up her spoon again and scooped up some porridge, but her hand was shaking uncontrollably. Something wasn’t right. She was hiding something.

‘Annabelle . . .’ I turned to the younger girl. ‘Did the soldiers say anything to you about wanting to find me?’

She shook her head and carried on eating.

‘There,’ Ma said. ‘I told you it was a mistake. Why would the boy be interested in you, Riley? If he wanted anyone, it would be that dreadful James Grey.’

‘Pity he’s dead then isn’t it,’ I said.

‘Riley,’ Pa warned. It wasn’t common knowledge that Grey was dead and I shouldn’t have said anything in front of Liss and Annabelle. But the words had slipped out.

‘What!’ Liss dropped her spoon and it clattered onto the tiles.

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Grey died in custody after he got here. I think the trip from Salisbury made him weak . . .’

‘But he can’t be dead! He can’t. No!’ Liss was crying now, almost hyperventilating. Annabelle tried to calm her, whispering soothing words, her arm around her shoulders.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘I didn’t realise Grey meant so much to you. I thought you hated him.’

Liss stood up and looked around wildly. Ma kept telling her to calm down while Annabelle held her arms and told her it was all alright, but by now she was completely hysterical, sobbing and shaking.

‘Liss,’ Pa said, trying to get her attention.

‘What’s wrong?’ I asked her. ‘This is Grey we’re talking about, the man who had you kidnapped and brainwashed. You can’t be upset he’s dead, surely?’

 ‘Liss!’ Pa’s deep voice cut through the hysteria in the room. ‘Tell us what’s going on. Is there something you’re hiding from us? We’re your friends. But we can’t help you if you don’t tell us what’s really happening.’ He splayed his hands on the table and stared at her.

Liss looked up at him, tears streaking down her face, her whole body trembling. But still she didn’t speak.

‘Annabelle?’ I said. ‘What’s going on? Why is Liss so upset?’

‘Liss,’ Annabelle said. ‘Liss, it’s no good. We’ll have to tell them.’

‘No!’ Liss cried. ‘You can’t. They’ll kill them. What are we going to do?’

‘They’ll help us, I’m sure,’ Annabelle said. ‘I’m telling them.’

‘Telling who? Kill who?’ I said. Why was Liss so upset over the death of a man she hated? ‘Annabelle?’

‘We don’t have any choice,’ Annabelle pleaded with Liss.

‘Alright, alright,’ Liss said, wiping the tears from her face. ‘I’ll tell them. I’ll tell them.’

‘Please,’ I said. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Just understand,’ Liss said. ‘I didn’t have a choice.’

‘Tell us,’ I said, sitting back down. Ma came and sat next to me and Pa, and we all three fixed our eyes on the girls.

‘Mum and dad aren’t dead,’ Liss said.

‘What!’

‘They’re alive? I lied to you before.’

‘Why? Why would you lie about something like that?’ I asked.

Liss stared down at her porridge.

‘Is this a joke?’ I said. ‘So that story you told us before – about Grey’s men coming to your house – that was all a lie?’

‘No,’ Liss said. ‘Not a lie. Just . . . just not the whole truth.’

Chapter Seventeen

Liss

Cold terror and shock permeated the tunnel as Liss and Annabelle crouched in the slimy darkness waiting to be discovered. Their frightened breaths amplified in the small space.

‘Will they find us?’ Annabelle whispered.

‘No one knows about this place,’ Liss said. ‘We should be safe. This tunnel leads to the outside.’

‘So why don’t we just keep going then?’ Annabelle asked. ‘We could go outside and get as far away from them as we can? Run back to the compound? Get help . . .’

 ‘We can’t leave mum and dad behind,’ Liss said. ‘They shot my mum, Annabelle. They shot her. Do you think she’s dead? What if they’re both dead?’ Her last word came out as a shriek.

‘Shh, shh,’ Annabelle soothed, putting her arm around her friend. ‘They’ll be alright. You saw your dad, he was fine. And your mum will be too . . .’

‘Do you think so?’

‘Yes. Yes, definitely. We’ll stay here till the soldiers have gone and then we’ll go and help your parents, alright? Are you sure they won’t find us in here?’

Liss stifled a fresh onslaught of tears. ‘Maybe we should go and help them now. Sneak back. Save them. We could get my dad’s shotgun. Kill them all.’

‘We’d never be able to kill them all,’ Annabelle whispered. ‘There’s too many. They’re too strong.’

‘We have to try. We have to do something. We can’t just save ourselves and leave them to . . .’

Annabelle shook Liss’s shoulders. ‘Keep your voice down. They’ll hear.’

‘We should never have come back. Mum was right. We should’ve left the harvest and stayed safe in the compound. And now it’s too late.’ A chittering squeak came from the ground and Liss felt something small scuttle past her legs. Probably a rat, but she didn’t care. What was she even hiding for? If her parents were dead, she had lost everything and there was no point in anything anymore.

‘I’m going back,’ she said, feeling behind her for the narrow steps which led back up. ‘You stay here, Anna.’

‘No. Please, Liss. Don’t go. Don’t leave me. You’re all I’ve got in the world. If you let them take you, I’ll be alone. I’ll have no one.’

‘Go back to the compound. You’ll be safe there. They won’t take me. I’ll kill them first. Or they can kill me. Either way . . .’

‘Liss, please.’

‘If I stay here and my parents die, I’ll never forgive myself.’

A sniff in the darkness. ‘Well then I’m coming with you.’

‘No . . . you stay and  . . .’

‘I’m coming, Liss.’

But they were saved further debate about whether to stay or go, for at that moment the wooden board to the hatch was removed and a beam of light found their frightened faces. Liss’s shoulders drooped.

Grey’s soldiers had discovered them, and there would be no rescuing anybody.

‘We can get out the other way!’ Annabelle cried. ‘Come on, Liss!’ she tugged at her friend’s arm.

‘The other exit has been blocked.’ A monotone voice filtered into the tunnel.

Annabelle let go of Liss’s arm and sank to the ground.

‘Come on, Anna,’ Liss said, pulling her upright again. ‘It’s no good. We’re caught.’

The two girls trudged up the steps and back out into the hostile night, a phalanx of robed soldiers awaiting them. The men formed a tight circle around the girls and herded them back across the field toward the farmhouse. Lights, once
cosy
and welcoming, now flickered threatening and harsh. Their home had been violated.

As they crossed the yard and approached the back door, Liss saw dark, robed shapes moving about the kitchen through the lamp-lighted window. But there was no sign of her parents within. Her footsteps faltered. What would she find inside? Would her mum and dad be there? Please God let them be okay. Tied up, injured. Anything was better than dead. A prod in the back got her moving again. She lowered her eyes and clenched her fists, steeling herself against what she would discover inside.

‘Good evening, sister.’

FJ.

‘You,’ she spat as she stumbled through the door and entered the kitchen.

‘I’m glad to find you unharmed, Deborah.’

‘That’s not my name. My name is Melissa. What have you done to mum and dad? Where are they?’

‘Your parents are fine. They’ve been taken to one of our vehicles for their own comfort.’

‘They’re
our
parents, not just mine.
Your
mother.
Your
father. Have you no memory of our childhood? Of their love and care for us? They adored you, FJ. But you throw it back in their faces like the spoilt brat you always were. And you talk about their
comfort
? What’s your definition of comfort? A bullet in the back? Kidnap? Murder?’

‘Careful, sister. If you want to keep your little playmate safe, you’d better watch your tone.’

‘And now we see your true Godly self,’ Liss said. ‘Bullying threats.’ Liss knew her pleas and accusations were falling on deaf ears. She had to try to reach him. To make him remember his younger self. ‘They’re our parents, FJ!’ Liss cried. ‘And I’m your sister! Your blood! Does that mean nothing?’

FJ nodded to his soldiers.

Liss struggled against the flowing black shapes which came to her with rope to bind her and cloth to silence her, but it was like trying to fight steel with paper. Within seconds, she and Annabelle were trussed like sheep, as they had been all those years ago. Would she never be free of Grey and his minions? The girls locked eyes, but there was no point in the sorrowful looks they cast each other, so Liss closed her eyes and turned away.

They were carried outside, back the way they had come. Liss in the arms of a huge, robed warrior. Annabelle next to her in the arms of another. Carried easily, as though they were no heavier than freshly-shorn wool. Her captor’s breath came even and steady as he made his way through the yard, across the field, down into the tunnel and finally up to the outside. This was the way FJ must have entered the farm.
Of course
. FJ knew about their secret entrance-way. Stupid of them. They should have blocked it up ages ago. Too late now.

Bundled into the back seat of a waiting vehicle, Liss cast her eyes about wildly, but even in the darkness she could tell her parents were not here. Two figures slid into the front – not FJ though. Car doors slammed. The engine started up and they moved off into the night.

Liss and Annabelle were delivered back to Salisbury, to the Cathedral Close. The place they had hoped never to see again. Carried down to the stinking cells, they were untied and locked up. FJ hadn’t shown his face again and the guards said nothing to tell them why they were here or what was to happen to them. But there was one consolation – a few hours later, two new prisoners were led into the cell – Liss’s mum and dad.

Liss fell into her father’s arms, sobbing. Grim-faced, he held her. She would’ve hugged her mum too, only she saw that she had a bandage taped across her shoulder and carried herself awkwardly like she was in great pain.

‘What happened, Mum? Thank God you’re okay. I thought they’d killed you.’

‘I’m fine, Lissy,’ she said with a trembling voice. ‘It’s just my shoulder. Thank God you two are okay. I wish you’d got away though. What happened?’ Ashen, she looked like she was about to keel over. Annabelle helped her down to sit on the cold, wet floor.

‘It’s disgusting in here,’ her dad said. ‘Not fit for beasts. What sort of a boy has our Freddie Junior become?’

‘Are you okay, Dad? Does your head still hurt?’

‘I’m alright. Bit of a headache, that’s all. It’s your mum I’m worried about.’

‘They bandaged her up though . . .’

‘Yeah. Kind of ‘em wasn’t it,’ her dad growled. ‘They obviously don’t want us dead yet.’

‘Why couldn’t they have just left us alone?’ Liss cried. ‘We weren’t doing them any harm.’

‘Some people can’t leave things alone. They pick and pick, until the world turns from a thing of beauty into a festering scab. I’m afraid our FJ has become one of those people.’

Liss shivered. ‘They caught us in the tunnel. It was how they got into the farm. FJ showed them the way.’

‘We’ve got to get you out of here,’ her dad said. ‘We’ll work out a plan.’

‘But no one knows where we are,’ Liss said. ‘And this place . . . We’ll never get out.’

‘Don’t worry, girl,’ her dad said. ‘I’ll get you out. Whatever it takes. You’re not going to end up rotting in this hellhole. You’re going to have a beautiful life, somewhere good.’

‘We all will, dad,’ Liss said, resting her head on his shoulder.

But several weeks later, still locked up in the rancid underground cell, their defiance had vanished, their hope dwindling to a pinprick of nothing. The guards gave them just enough food that they didn’t starve and just enough blankets that they didn’t freeze. And that was it.

Annabelle had used one of the blankets to mop up the slimy floor and try to make it a little more comfortable, but after a few weeks, they had given up on trying to improve their surroundings, and reluctantly succumbed to the filth. Liss tried not to torture herself with thoughts of warm baths and clean sheets, but some days she would give in to the seductive images, letting herself wallow in the unobtainable fantasy.

She, Annabelle and her dad were holding up better than her mum, whose shoulder didn’t seem to be healing. A doctor had visited her on a couple of occasions, but he was cold and unapproachable, treating her wound roughly, with no thought of the additional pain he might be causing. Liss’s dad had to be restrained by a guard during these visits, threatening to break the doctor’s neck if he didn’t treat his wife with more care.

As the days rolled on, Liss was convinced they’d been forgotten. That they’d eventually die in their cell. A slow uncomfortable death. The lack of natural light meant they had no idea whether it was day or night and so found themselves dozing on and off, rather than enjoying a full night’s sleep. It was disorienting and Liss felt as though trapped in a dream, unable to distinguish between waking and sleeping nightmares.

The day things changed was not a good day. Liss’s mum had fallen into delirium, moaning and muttering in her sleep. Her wound had become infected and her skin burned with fever. They had been calling and yelling for hours, for someone to come and help. Banging on the door to their cell. But no one came. So Liss cried into her father’s chest and decided she’d better prepare for the worst. At least her mother was asleep, unable to witness their distress. Pretty soon, they all fell into their own versions of sleep. Light slumber and tortured dreams. Shallow breaths and fractured nightmares.

Liss awoke to brightness. A lantern flooding their cell with yellow light. She blinked and squinted, shielding her eyes against the glare. A hooded figure pointed at her and beckoned with a long pale finger. She stood shakily and turned back to see the frightened faces of Annabelle and her dad. Her mum still slept, head resting on her husband’s lap. Liss knew she had no choice in the matter. She would have to go with this figure to wherever it was he wanted her to go. Back to her old life at The Close? She didn’t think so. To her death, more like.

It was worse.

He took her to FJ.

‘Sister, I hope you appreciate the weeks of silent reflection you’ve been given.’

Liss had never felt such burning anger as she did then, faced with this smug creature who shared the same blood as her. How could someone so radiantly perfect on the outside have such an ugly soul? And this room – so obscenely opulent, alien in its beauty. Its warmth and fresh clean scent. The rich furnishings, lush paintings and soft carpet. She hated this room more than her prison cell. It signified all that was wrong with this place.