'Now, most of you were in the CCF under me, so you know how I like things done. Those of you who were fucking flyboys will learn.'
I'm sure we will, I thought.
'Keegan!' he bellowed suddenly, making me jump.
'Yeah?' I stammered. He glared at me dangerously. 'I mean, yes sir?'
He nodded, letting it go this once.
'You showed a lot of initiative this afternoon.'
'Thank you, sir.'
'For a flyboy,' he added. 'And a fifth-form scrote. Bloody good shooting too. Almost as good as mine, eh?' He laughed at his little joke. Pugh sniggered sycophantically until silenced by a contemptuous look from Mac.
'We're going to need you, Keegan, if things get sticky,' he went on.
He turned his attention to the others and I sighed heavily, suddenly aware that I'd been holding my breath.
'The rest of you could learn from this one. Proactive is what he is.'
He leaned in close to me, his hot sour breath in my face, and hissed: 'But not too proactive, yeah? Don't want to be too smart for your own good, do you, Keegan?'
'No sir,' I said, crisply. He leaned back and smiled.
'Right, let's get you lot into patrols.'
As the briefing got underway I realised that I was being given an opportunity. If I was to be part of the officer corps then I could get close to Mac, and if I could get close to him perhaps I could influence him, divert him, maybe even, if the need arose, deal with him.
I prepared myself to be Mac's bestest of best mates: reliable, steadfast and sneaky as a bastard.
Speight and Zayn got first watch, the rest of us were dismissed. I'd be reporting for guard duty with Wolf- Barry first thing in the morning so I wanted to get my head down.
The difference between night and day used to be blurred by electricity; streetlights turned the night sky orange and blotted out the stars; electric lights in the home allowed people to keep doing whatever they wanted all night long; car headlights made travel in the darkness a cinch. Things were different now. Battery torches were only used when absolutely necessary, so any light after dark had to come from flame. People were returning to the old rhythms of day and night, rising and retiring with the sun.
Nonetheless, the old term-time routine of lights-out was still being being preserved by Bates; juniors in bed at 8, fourth and fifth-formers by 9:30, seniors by 11. So normally I'd need to be tucked up by 9:30, but I'd been told that as an honorary senior – with all the duties that implied – I could observe senior bedtime, so I had some time in hand and there was someone I wanted to see.
The door of the sanatorium was closed, but the candle light flickering through the frosted glass windows revealed Matron moving around inside. I knocked and I saw her freeze. She didn't respond. Perhaps she wanted to be left alone. I knocked again.
'Matron,' I said, 'It's me, Lee. I just wanted to see how you are.'
Her silhouette relaxed.
'Come in Lee,' she said.
I pushed open the door and entered to find Matron standing at the side of the padded table she used for examinations. There was a livid purple bruise on her forehead where the horsewoman had clubbed her, and for an instant I was so furious I wished I had shot the bitch after all. Matron was dressed in medical whites and an apron stained with fresh blood. Her sleeves were rolled up and she was wearing thin rubber gloves which she was removing as I entered. Her face was as white as her clothes.
Four bodies lay on the floor, covered with sheets. Both boys had died then.
I stood there in the doorway, unsure what to say. She broke the silence.
'Too many pellets,' she said simply. 'Not enough anaesthetic.'
Next to the table stood a complicated system of tubes suspended from a metal stand. She must have been giving transfusions.
She followed my gaze and nodded.
'Atkins gave blood first, then Broadbent, Dudley and Haycox. They were so brave, but it just wasn't enough.' Her voice caught in her throat and she leaned against the table as if light-headed. Then she looked up, remembering.
'Oh Lee, I forgot to thank you. You saved my life, didn't you?'
I nodded, still unsure what to say.
'Bless you. You saved me, but I couldn't save them.' She slumped to the floor. 'What a fucking waste. To survive the end of the world just to be murdered for a Mars bar.' She hid her face in her hands and wept.
I walked over to her, knelt down, and gingerly reached out to touch her shoulder. As I did so she leaned forward and embraced me, burying her face in my neck, soaking it with tears.
We sat there like that for quite some time.
With the bodies buried, one horse butchered and salted, and the other released ten miles down the road, we removed all evidence of the confrontation on the school drive.
The minibus that had been abandoned in Hildenborough was thankfully not one of those with the school name and crest painted on the side, so no-one could trace it back to us without checking the registration plate with the DVLA, and they weren't taking calls. We just had to hope that McCulloch or Fleming hadn't revealed our location to our neighbours before they were hanged. However, Bates wasn't prepared to take any chances, and the next afternoon he called all the officers to the common room. He got straight to the point.
'We need ordnance,' he said simply. 'Our armoury holds ten rifles and a few boxes of rounds, but if it came to a shooting war we'd be lucky to last a day. Of course with law and order entirely broken down there are weapons and ammunition there for the taking, if you know where to look. And I do. So we're going on a field trip.'
He took out his whiteboard pen and started drawing a map.
Pugh and Wylie stayed behind to guard the school. Mr Hammond was planning to teach a class, so most boys would be safe inside. Meanwhile the rest of us hit the road, with Mac and Bates each driving a minibus. In full combats, all armed, and with mud and boot polish rubbed into our face, we were off to get ourselves an arsenal and we were ready to meet resistance.
Giving Hildenborough a wide berth we headed out into darkest Kent. The only cars we passed had been abandoned, and the roads were well on their way to becoming impassable. With no council workers to operate the hedge trimmers or clear fallen trees, the narrow country lanes were rapidly disappearing under the greenery. On some roads the hedgerows scraped along both sides of the bus. A couple of summers and they'd be buried forever.
We passed through picturesque villages with large greens, their cricket squares so neat for so long, now shaggy and unkempt. We saw ancient churches with their stained glass windows smashed and their huge, centuries-old oak doors hanging off thick, bent hinges. We drove past fields of cows, most dead or dying, suffering agonies because they'd been bred to produce milk that nobody was around to extract.
There were some signs of life: a man driving a horse and cart carrying a crop of leeks; the occasional cottage with a column of thin smoke snaking up into the dull grey sky; a village hall ablaze. In one hamlet a gang of feral children heaved bricks at us as we drove past. Mac fired some warning shots over their heads and laughed as they ran for cover.
When we were half a mile from our destination we pulled into a farmyard. Mac and I swept the buildings to ensure they were empty, and then we stashed the buses in a barn. From here we were on foot. We split into two groups. Me, Mac and Green went one way, Bates, Zayn and Wolf-Barry went the other. Speight and Patel stayed to guard the transport. The intention was to approach the target from different directions.
We headed off into thick forest. One startled, honking partridge could reveal our presence, so we trod lightly. We did startle a small family of deer, but they ran away from our objective, so we reckoned we were okay. Off to our right a brace of pigeons noisily took flight and flapped away; Bates' group were clearly less covert than they thought they were.
As we approached the edge of the trees we fell to our stomachs and crawled through the wet, mulchy leaves, rifles held out in front of us. Eventually Mac held up his hand and we stopped. He took out his binoculars and studied the terrain beyond the tree-line for a minute or two before handing them across to me.
