‘Oh no,’ said Everett. ‘That’s not how this works at all. You never move for someone else again.’ He took another swig of his pint, stood up, and Matt watched in horror as he went over to Lauren’s table with a big shit-eating grin on his face. He tried to shrink further into the corner as words were exchanged, faces turned his way, and Everett came quickly back towards him with an apologetic shrug and four furious-looking people close behind. ‘Sorry, Matt!’ he called. ‘I tried to tell them but they’re just too stupid to listen!’ Everett plonked himself back down in his chair, took a drink, and winked at him.
Lauren’s face was like thunder as she stormed up to their table. ‘Who the fuck do you think you are, giving orders?’ she yelled at him.
‘What? I—’
‘And who’s this twat you’ve got delivering your messages?’ By this time Darren Turner and his two mates had arrived, and they were both bigger than him.
‘I think it’s his new boyfriend,’ sniggered one of them. Everett tipped him a salute with one finger, still smiling serenely.
‘Your fucking pub, is it?’ Darren shouted. ‘Your fucking pub?’
‘Listen, Daz—’
Then Daz grabbed a fistful of Matt’s t-shirt and instinct took over. He was hardly aware of what he did next. This wasn’t one of those choreographed fight scenes from films, this was the ugly, free-for-all scrapping that he’d learned in the school playground, all flailing fists and lashing feet. If it had been a Friday night and the bouncers had been there he’d have stood no chance. Even so, outnumbered three-to-one, he should have been getting the shit kicked out of him but, impossible as it seemed, he was winning. Fists came at him and he felt nothing. Someone’s nose crunched beneath his forehead and he laughed at their squeals. Someone else was on the floor, curled up around his foot and vomiting and Lauren was screaming at him to stop but this felt good, for the first time in his life he felt like he could dole out some of what he’d always had to take and it felt good, and then Everett was pulling at him and they had to leave before the pigs were called.
* * *
‘You’re stronger now,’ Everett said, as he pulled the van into the farmyard and killed the engine.
‘No shit.’ Matt had blood all down the front of his t-shirt and covering his hands, but he was grinning like a loon. ‘Want to tell me why that is?’
Everett shook his head. ‘You need to come in and meet Mother. She’ll explain everything.’
He led Matt towards the farmhouse, past a couple of old farts that Matt recognised from the allotments, who were painting one of the outhouses.
‘What are they doing here?’ he asked, pointing.
‘They’re doing here what we hope you will be doing here: helping us to build a new church.’
Church. So, they were a cult. That explained a lot. He was led into the living room, where a young woman with dark hair was sitting at the big table, working at a laptop. He recognised her from the barbecue, though he couldn’t remember her name – she’d been the one handing out the food. She closed her laptop as they entered, rose and embraced Everett. ‘My darling!’ she beamed. ‘Have you found him?’
‘Yes, Mother, I have. This is Matt. Not Matthew.’ He called her ‘mother’, but the way they kissed was not any way a son should kiss his mum. There was some seriously fucked-up shit going on here.
She turned from Everett, and welcomed Matt with a little bow of the head. ‘Matt. We have so longed to meet you,’ she said.
‘Who are you people? What is this place?’
‘With respect, those aren’t the questions you most want an answer to, are they?’
‘I’m pretty fucking sure they are.’
‘How about “why can I do what I can do”?’
‘Okay, yeah, let’s go with that.’
‘You are blessed, Matt. You have been sanctified through the consumption of the first flesh, and it has made you strong. Do you like being strong?’
‘Well, I have to say,’ he said, looking around at the huge fireplace in its naked stone wall, the massive ceiling beams, and the kitchen counters busy with pots and pans, ‘it makes a pleasant change.’
‘We’ve made you strong, and you can strengthen us in return. We need people in the community who can be our eyes, ears, and hands. In return, we can offer you money, power, influence, girls.’ She shrugged. ‘Or boys. We have room here for you if you want, unless you like still living at home. More importantly, we can offer you purpose. You can help us to build something truly great. When have you ever had any of those things that you didn’t have to fight for?’
‘Not very often, that’s for sure. I got to be honest with you, though, whatever religious thing you’ve got going on here, I’m not into that. So, if you’re thinking of going all Wicker Man and dancing around naked and burning cops and shit, you can count me out.’
‘Don’t worry,’ she smiled. ‘We don’t do that kind of thing. We’re really very normal people once you get to know us. We’ve been watching you for a while, and we think you’re just the sort of person we need.’
‘Right.’ He looked around some more, spotting a shelf crammed with bottles of fancy-looking booze. He turned back to her. ‘Can I have a car?’
‘Everett will go shopping with you tomorrow.’
He grinned. ‘Great. I’m in.’
10
INFECTION
DAVID MET DENNIE KEELING AT THE ALLOTMENTS ON his way back from work. The message that he’d got from the regulars at Rugeley police station had said that she’d called in a report of a missing man, and uniforms had checked his address but found no sign of him. Could he, as the Neighbourhood Watch Liaison, have a follow-up chat with
