The one remaining Blood Hunter, bladeless, tried to reach for this gun. But suddenly he jerked and wretched as his eyes went wide and a torrent of blood gushed from his mouth. Haycox pulled his dripping machete free of the man's ribcage and pushed him back over the tailgate.
Job done.
I reached down past Rowles, who was still punching, and grabbed the machine gun from the unconscious Blood Hunter beneath him. I pushed my way through the crowd to the front of the truck.
'Everyone brace yourselves,' I shouted.
'Lee, hang on, do you think…' said Norton.
But I didn't let him finish. I popped the catch and emptied the entire clip through the canvas in front of me, riddling the driver's cab with bullets and killing Wylie, Pugh and Speight instantly.
'Should have done that in the first place,' I said, as the lorry swerved violently off the road. I was flung off my feet in a tumbled tangle of limbs as the lorry hit a ditch and rolled over onto its side. There was a monstrous crash, a chorus of cries and then stillness and silence.
I'd come to rest under a pile of bodies, my nose buried in somebody's armpit. It took a few minutes for everyone to untangle themselves and climb out of the lorry onto the road. We took stock.
Russell and Jones were dead, and a young girl from the Woodhams farm had broken her neck in the crash. Otherwise it was all just scrapes and strains. I pulled the clip out of the machine gun. It was taped to another, which was still full, so I reversed it and slammed it home.
Norton was incandescent.
'What the fuck was that, Lee?' he yelled. 'Why the fuck did you shoot them up? That was the most insane thing I've ever seen you do.'
I grasped the gun tightly, my finger itching at the trigger.
Calm down. Things to do.
'Look at where we are,' I said patiently.
Norton glanced down the road.
'So?' he said, confused.
'The school is about a mile down the road. We'd have been there in two minutes. They were taking us to the school.'
'Oh.' He realised what I was getting at. 'Oh shit.'
I turned to address the other boys, who were sitting in the road, catching their breath. 'Listen everyone. Wylie was taking orders from the Blood Hunters. His job was to lure me away from the school and then deliver me to them. But they were taking us back to the school.'
'So?' said Rowles. 'They were going to let us go?'
'Don't you see? While we've been gone the Blood Hunters have attacked St Mark's.'
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I gave a machine gun to the Woodhams party, so they had some means of defence on their journey home, and they carried away the dead girl. One of them, a young man, had to be restrained from attacking me. He was still shouting after me as he was pulled away: 'Murderer! Psychopath!' I couldn't blame him. I'd caused the crash that killed her. But what choice did I have? I could have shot above the officers' heads and told them to pull over, but in moments we'd have been within earshot of the school. If I'd had to fire again then the Blood Hunters would probably have heard the shots and come running. Assuming I was right, and they were at St Mark's.
It was one more death on my conscience, but I could worry about it later. Things to do.
I walked around to the front of the crashed truck and peered into the shattered cab. I could see that there were three bodies inside, but I didn't look too closely. They weren't moving, so I was satisfied they were dead. (When had I started taking satisfaction in killing?)
I was starting to appreciate Mac's point of view; perhaps I wasn't ruthless enough to be a leader. My decision to let the officers go had led directly to four deaths. Wouldn't executing them have been better?
Three months ago I was unable to contemplate such a thing, but now I found that I could. Perhaps it was because of what we'd achieved in the last three months. When I was planning to topple Mac and take control it was in the hope of building something good, but my aims had been intangible and distant. Now it was a reality. We'd achieved so much, built something so valuable. I felt as if I was willing to go to any lengths to protect it.
I dispatched Haycox and Rowles back down the road to collect the guns from the bodies of the dead Blood Hunters. When they returned we had five machine guns and six machetes, and enough ammunition to pick a fight. Green, Norton, Haycox and Rowles each took a gun; we shared the big knives out amongst the remaining members of Green's troupe.
'We have to assume they've taken control of the school,' I said. 'And they probably have lookouts and sentries posted. We need to know what's going on inside, and we can't approach mob-handed. So Norton you're with me. We'll cut across country and come at the school from the river. Haycox and Green, I want you to get behind these hedgerows and follow the road, out of sight, until you can see the school gates. Only approach if you're absolutely certain there's nothing wrong. This is just a recce, right? We don't get involved, we don't show our faces. Rowles, take the rest of the boys to Hildenborough and wait for us. We'll rendezvous back there when we're done. Everyone clear?'
Nods all round.
'Good luck everyone.'
It took thirty minutes to reach the edge of the school grounds, but the sight that greeted us was not what we expected at all. We crawled through the undergrowth until we could just make out the first pillbox. We could see the muzzle of the GPMG poking out, but it was trained towards the school. I couldn't work out why that would be. We needed a closer look.
Leaving Norton to cover the pillbox, I crawled back out of sight and stripped to my boxers. I discarded my gun but kept the machete, then I ran to the river's edge and slipped into the water. I let the current take me slowly downstream, along the edge of the school grounds. As I drifted past the first pillbox I could see the body of a boy lying against one wall. He'd had his throat slit. I was right, the Blood Hunters had attacked, and they'd taken this pillbox. But why train the gun on the school… unless they hadn't succeeded in capturing it!
I drifted further. I couldn't see anything at the second pillbox, but two Blood Hunters were sitting outside the third, looking towards the school, smoking. There was no sign of a corpse anywhere, but their hair shone slick with fresh blood. I grabbed the bank of the river and hung there for a moment, considering my options: sneaky or direct? I could return to Norton, head to Hildenborough with what I'd learned; or I could choose to kill without mercy. Three months ago I wouldn't even have had to think about it. But I thought again about where my reluctance to kill had brought us and my resolve hardened. There was no longer any point pretending that I wasn't a stone cold killer.
Time to start acting like one.
I climbed out of the water as quietly as I could, and crept towards them, knife in hand. The secret to stealth in woodland is to tread straight down, not to roll your feet with each step as you do normally. That way you avoid snapping any twigs you stand on. Barefoot, I stalked my prey.
As I approached I could hear them gossiping. They were trying to decide whether a girl called Carol fancied the one on the left. He thought she didn't, but his mate was sure she did, and was urging him to 'get in there'. Murderous religious fanatics, coated in human blood, wittering about dating. They were so engrossed in their debate that they didn't become aware of me until I pressed my cold wet blade against the throat of the one on the right.
'Hi,' I whispered in his ear, as he stiffened in fear.
His mate exclaimed loudly and jumped up. He brought his gun to bear on both of us.
'Now, now,' I said conversationally. 'Don't be hasty. Pull that trigger and your friend dies.' Plus, every Blood Hunter in the area comes running. 'So put it down, eh?'
He hesitated, unsure what to do. I pressed the knife harder into the throat of the man in front of me, and he moaned. His mate cocked his gun, chambering a round. 'So?' he said, trying to sound more confident than he was.
