forward, sniffing the air as they went. The food disappeared rapidly. They turned to the tiny figure.
The dying dog seemed to sense the child’s danger, and jumped away from its attackers, three rodents still clinging to its body. It fell upon one huge rat which was already biting into the baby’s leg. Shane threw the monster high into the air with its last remaining strength and turned to face the others. The little dog lasted a few seconds more, fighting with frenzied desperation, and then its body was torn to pieces under a black, writhing mass.
When Paula Blakely rushed into the room, she screamed in horror and utter panic. The scene didn’t quite register in her brain. All she saw was a room teeming with bestial, furry shapes, tearing at something bloody. And then a small white shape. A tiny hand quivering above the mass of black.
‘Karen,’ she screamed.
She ran into the room, kicking, screaming, her blind panic giving her added strength and speed. She clutched at the arm and pulled. The little body came up but with two of the monsters clinging. Paula beat at them as she made for the door, her own legs already covered in blood from the bites she’d received.
The two rats fell away, not from the blows, but because the soft flesh of the child separated from her body.
Paula ran from the house with her dead baby, screaming, holding the bloody body to her breast.
The rats finished eating the dog, then scurried back into the cellar, the larger ones first.
Chapter Four
Harris took Keogh to theLondonHospitalto have the boy’s hand seen to. He needed a chance like this to get on more friendly terms with his pupil, and as he had a free period for the next hour, he decided to take the boy himself. Already, on the way to the hospital he seemed more relaxed towards the teacher.
When they got there, they were told to wait in the busy casualty department.
‘Well, Keogh, how did it happen?’ asked Harris.
‘I was late, so I took the short cut by the canal,’ Keogh replied.
‘Yes, I know it,’ Harris said.
The boy raised his eyebrows, but went on. ‘It was just under the bridge, you know, where the old lock- keeper’s house is. Well, there was a dead cat, see, and these two rats dragging it along. Christ, you should have seen the size of them, Mr Harris. Looked as big as the cat itself. Anyway, they weren’t eating it, just sort of dragging it along, you know. So I slung a brick at them.’ He paused, studying his bloody handkerchief. ‘Well, instead of running off, they just turned and looked at me. I’d hit one, but he didn’t seem bothered. Then, fuck me - oh, sorry, they came at me. So I ran, didn’tI. Not before one had taken a bite out of me hand, though. I kicked him into the canal and jumped over the wall and ran. But the funny thing is, when I looked back, there’s this other rat, sitting on the top of the wall, watching me.
He must have run right up it after me. Anyway, I didn’t hang around, I cleared out.’
Harris smiled at the thought of rats big as a cat. Probably it had been a kitten anyway, and Keogh’s nimble mind had done the rest. But that canal wall was high, he remembered it from when he was a kid, and even Keogh would have a job getting over it. But a rat? He knew some could climb, some species were arboreal, but to scale a six foot high brick wall? That took some doing.
Just then, all eyes in the casualty department turned as a hysterical woman, clutching a bloody bundle,was half carried in by two ambulance men. A nurse dashed forward and tried to take the small shape from her, but she held on to it fiercely, her sobs racking her whole body.
It was then that Harris realised what she was holding. It was a baby. But by the look of its blood-soaked body, it couldn’t possibly still be alive. Oh, the poor little sod, thought Harris. A doctor came along and tried to soothe the distraught woman, speaking quietly and calmly, making no attempt to relieve her of her burden. Then, with his arm around her, and the nurse on the other side, he led her away. Everyone in the room appeared shaken by the drama.
There was silence for a few seconds then everyone began to talk at once, although their voices were hushed. Harris turned to Keogh whose face was drained of blood and his knees trembled visibly.
Not as tough as you pretend, thought Harris, but he said nothing to the boy.
It was a while before they got in to see the doctor, who was very young, much younger than Harris.
When doctors and policemen look like boys, old age must be creeping in,mused Harris.
‘Right, let’s have a look,’ the doctor said, beginning to unwind the makeshift bandage from Keogh’s hand. ‘Nasty,’ he examined the large teeth-marks. ‘What did it?’
‘Rat,’ answered Harris, for Keogh.
’More rats?’ The doctor began to clean the wound, causing Keogh to flinch involuntarily.
‘What do you mean?’ asked Harris.
‘Oh, that woman brought in earlier. Her baby had been attacked by rats. Dreadful state.’ The doctor dabbed ointment on to the wound and began to bandage the hand. ‘Dead of course, had no chance really. The woman’s in a state ofshock, blames herself for the whole thing. We had to put her out just to treat her own wounds.’
Harris found it hard to speak for a few moments. Any-thing nasty happening to kids always affected him this way; he’d seen too many of them mistreated to be unaffected by their misfortunes.
He said, ‘But surely it’s unusual for a rat to attack a human being? I mean, I know they can attack very small babies, and even fully-grown men when cornered, but this is different. When they chased the boy here, they could have got away. But they didn’t choose to. They attacked instead.’
‘Yes, I know,’ said the doctor, taking a syringe from a tray. ‘Just a quick jab now and you’re done,’ he smiled at Keogh. ‘But as I understand it from the ambulance men they killed the family’s dog to get at the child. Tore it to shreds according to the neighbours who went in afterwards. There was no sign of them though, just a few half- eaten carcasses, presumably killed by the dog, and gnawed at by then’ canibalistic chums. The cellar door was half open, but nobody ventured down there. That’s a job for the police, I suppose.’
He placed the syringe in a jar. ‘There we are. Come back tomorrow and we’ll see how it’s getting on, all right?’ He turned to Harris. ‘The whole business is very strange. We’ve always had a few cases of rat bites and even some diseases from them, this being that sort of area, but nothing like this. It’s quite incredible. Let’s hope they’re just isolated incidents and nothing more.’
As they left the hospital, Harris noticed Keogh was still trembling.
‘What’s the matter? Did it shake you up?’ he asked kindly,
‘Nah, it wasn’t that. I just don’t feel so good that’s all’
Keogh wiped his good hand across his brow.
Skiving?wondered Harris. No, he did seem a bit white, and he couldn’t fake the perspiration on his forehead. Perhaps it was the after-effects of the injection.
‘Okay, you run along home, and take the day off tomorrow if you still feel the same. But make sure you go back to the hospital to get your hand looked at.’ Harris knew he wouldn’t see Keogh tomorrownow, he’d never miss the opportunity of a day away from school. Ah well he’d been the same as a boy. A chance for a day off couldn’t be ignored.
‘Cheers,’ said Keogh, and disappeared around a comer.
On the way back to the school, Harris thought about the rat incidents and the possible implications. He’d seen plenty of the disgusting creatures when he was a boy. He remembered the time years ago when he and his family had sat down to the Sunday lunch and their cat had appeared at the open window, carrying a dead rat in its jaws. They’d laughed at the idea of the cat bringing home its own Sunday lunch as they all jumped up and shooed it away. Another time, one of the neighbours had claimed she was chased down the street by a rat. Her husband had come out with a poker and had run after it, but it had disappeared into one of the bombed houses.
Harris thought they were a thing of the past now, which showed how out of touch you could get living in the top fiat of a house in King’s Cross. He supposed they existed just as much, but sanitation experts had driven them literally right underground. Lots of companies had sprung up and made quite a profit out of their extermination. Still, he supposed there wasn’t too much to it, it was just that both incidents had happened on the same day. This wasn’t the 14thcentury!
Chapter Five
The old warriors used to gather every night on one of the few remaining bomb-sites left in the East End of
