himself.’
‘Well maybe you haven’t been too lucky either,’ said Harris, pointing at the rip in Howard’s suit.
The researcher paled and put his hand to the bole. ‘I don’t think I’ve been bitten,’ he said, ‘but I’m bruised all over from their teeth. Oh Christ.’ He fumbled at the zip in the grey suit and managed to pull it down haltingly. To his relief, he found the clothes he wore underneath undamaged.
With a deep sigh, he too leaned against the side of the van.
After a while, he said, ‘Let’s take this poor blighter to the hospital, not that it’ll do him much good, and then get on with the rounds. Only this time I’m going to get us more protection from Foskin,~. I mean, this is only the first location. I hope you’ve chosen some safe places for us, Harris, in the next nine.’
Harris smiled thinly at him. ‘Are there any safe places around here any more?’
They suffered attacks from the vermin on three other occasions that day. Harris returned to the fiat in the evening completely exhausted, both mentally and physically, his nerves almost numbed by the terrors the operation had held. He sank into an armchair and told Judy of the day’s events.
‘The canal was about the worst. It shook us up pretty badly, especially the driver being hurt, so after that we were a bit more cautious. From there we went to the dock area - I’ve never seen the streets so deserted - left the bait and got out fast? He carefully avoided mentioning the pups, not wanting to upset her, knowing her love of animals.
‘But at one spot, we stopped the vans at the entrance of an alley leading to the river, got out and carried the bait to the end of it. We dumped it and turned to make our way back and found our exit cut off by the bastards. They were streaming from a basement grid. We didn’t stop to think Howard was off like a shot, right through them, and we all followed en masse, kicking and stomping, thanking God for protective suits. We bundled into the vans and got away fast.
‘It’s funny, but sitting there in the Town Hall, making plans, hearing all the reports, even my own first-hand experiences of the rats - we didn’t realise just how bad the situation was. It took today’s events to really bring it home. In the morning, the streets were practically deserted, and later on, people were only travelling around in groups or in cars and vans.
‘Anyway, after that we met up with our escort promised by Foskins. He’d brought the army into it. Two truckloads of troops armed with water-cannon, flame-throwers, gas,the whole bloody works. It certainly made us feel a bit better.’
’You should have started out with them,’ interrupted Judy, cross not with Harris but at Foskins, who was in control.
‘Yes, I know,’ said Harris, ‘but we’ve done it all along.
We’ve underestimated them. Despite all the reports, we’ve just thought of them as highly dangerous pests, not as the overwhelming force that they seem to be becoming. Even after the tram massacre and the attack on the school we didn’t expect to meet up with so many of them in one day.
True, I’d chosen the most likely places - I had to if our part was to be effective - but even I wasn’t prepared for the number of times we came face to face with them. I tell you, Jude, if this doesn’t work, that whole area will have to be razed to the ground.’
Judy shuddered. ‘What if it’s too late? You told me how fast they breed. What if they spread all overLondon?’
Harris was silent for a while, then he said: ‘Goodbye London.’
‘Oh, darling, let’s go now. You’ve done all you can, you’ve helped them as much as possible. You said yourself you’re not really necessary, you’re just there for Foskins’ ego. Well let them get on with it. Let’s go before it gets worse.’
‘Come on, Jude, you know we can’t. Where would we go?’
‘Aunt Hazel’s for a while. You could be transferred to a local school and I wouldn’t mind working in a shop for a while. With all the schools overflowing with evacuated kids they’re crying out for more teachers to come out ofLondon.’
‘No, love. I couldn’t leave now. You see, as we drove on today, dressed in those ridiculous space-suits, escorted by soldiers armed to the teeth, and I took them all to places I knew, places familiar to me, places that had been part of my life, I knew I had to see it through. If you like - and I know it may sound silly - it was my patch. The men with me were strangers to it. As far as Foskins and his ministry are concerned it could be a foreign land. Oh, I’m not saying I love the area or it’s in my blood. Nothing daft like that. But I do feel some responsibility towards it - like it’s my old school and it’s being demolished by age. See?’
‘Yes, I see.’ Judy smiled at him, holding his hand to her cheek. ‘You dope.’
He shrugged, smiling to himself.
‘Any more incidents today?’ she asked.
‘Yes. In a children’s school ground we saw a score of them attacking a dog, so we drove in and went straight through them, dropping the bait without stopping.’ Into his mind crowded the terrible sight of his companions dropping the pups from the vans into the midst of the rats, something he’d been unable to take part in. ‘Later we went into a bombed-out church and discovered the flesh-cleaned bones of two people. Who they were and how long they’d been there we couldn’t tell; the skeletons were too clean to have been there too long and there wasn’t a trace of clothing. The strange thing was that they were locked in a tight embrace like lovers. We began to unload the bait when we heard a scream. One of our men had a rat clinging to his neck and was running around like a madman. Fortunately, his suit saved him from serious injury, but his fear was contagious. We all made for the exit. Two men went to the attacked man’s aid but soon found they had their own problems. The three of them ran from the opening, rats clinging to their bodies and as soon as they were clear, the water-canon were directed at the gap to stop anything else coming through.
The soldiers helped the three men get free of the rats by using their bayonets. The army wanted to fill the place with gas, but Howard wouldn’t let them. It was the one time we wanted the rats to live, so they could spread the virus.
‘After that episode, we didn’t have too much trouble although we still made contact with them. We’d learned to be cautious and kept as close to the vans as possible, leaping inside at the first hint of risk.
None of us were very brave, I’m afraid. We were too aware of the consequences.’
‘I don’t want a dead hero, Harris,’ said Judy.
‘Believe me, you won’t get one.’
’So what happens now?’
‘We wait. We wait to see if the virus takes effect and if it does, then it shouldn’t take long for it to spread. They reckon within a couple of’ weeks we’ll know one way or another.’
‘,And if it doesn’t work, what then?’
‘Well it wouldn’t be just theEast End’s problem anymore.
They couldn’t possibly contain the rats in that area. They’d spread throughoutLondon. And if that happens, I don’t want to be around.’
Chapter Thirteen
The rats came out on to the streets to die. It was as though having spent their lives scuffling around in the semi-darkness they wished to breathe the fresh air of the upper world before they perished. They littered the streets, their corpses bloated in the sun, at first causing great alarm to the people who lived in the area. The alarm gave way to relief as the people realised the vermin were dying, the crisis was passing.
The diseased corpses were gathered up in bulk and loaded intolorries and taken to incinerators where they were reduced to harmless dust. It had taken only two days for first signs of the virus’ effect but it escalated rapidly in the week that followed. There were still attacks on people but they were far less numerous than before. And then a remarkable side effect of the virus was discovered.
A soldier was bitten by a rat he’d assumed to be dead because of its prone position. He shot it and reported to the hospital where he expected to die. It was extremely critical for three days but he managed to pull through, his survival being attributed to a reaction on the disease carried by the rat from the virus infecting it. The deadly germ had been halted.
Others bitten by the rats were not quite so fortunate. Some died in the usual twenty-four hours, others
