Desperate Measures Read online

  Jamie looked uncomfortable. I ran into the cave and grabbed his torch from the shelf, glancing at the rabbit. It was still curled up in the tin next to the little penguin ornament. I could see its ribs faintly moving as it laboured to breathe. I didn’t need to be a vet to know things looked pretty pear-shaped.

  Outside the cave, Jamie was scuffing the dirt with the toe of his trainer. He looked upset.

  ‘I’m going to find her,’ I said.

  ‘I want to come with you.’

  ‘No. You’ve got to stay here. If she does manage to find her way back, she’ll wonder where we are.’

  I turned on the torch. Its faint beam lit up a tiny circle of ground. Jamie pulled a face.

  ‘The batteries are run down. I let Re play with it.’

  I quickly turned it off, thinking I might need it more later. I glanced around me. The woods looked different in the dimming light. Unfriendly and unwelcoming. I set off alongside the stream half wishing I’d asked Jamie to come with me.

  Then I thought of Re and I felt sick. I didn’t like the dark much, but ever since Mum died Re had been absolutely petrified of it. I had to find her quickly.

  I scoured the woods calling out her name. There was no reply, only the rustling of leaves and the snuffling of what I hoped and kept telling myself were just cute little woodland animals. Once or twice I allowed myself to get spooked and swung round, terrified and convinced there was someone or something following me. Then in the distance I heard the faint whine of motorbikes. Thinking I must be nearer the road than I realised, I turned away from the noise but must have misjudged where it was coming from as the whine became louder and more insistent and grew into a roar. It was then I saw Jamie about ten metres behind. The little tyke had followed me. I was furious and about to lay into him when, through the darkness, two separate headlights beamed around the woods illuminating trees and bushes. I motioned angrily to Jamie to hide and we both ducked down low so whoever they were wouldn’t see us. Two dirt bikes threaded their way through the trees, revving as they mounted each slope and screeching down the other side. I knew Jamie would have been impressed and just prayed that he had enough sense to keep his head down. We couldn’t afford to be spotted by anyone. I watched the riders weave their way into the distance. At one point, one of them tried to swerve round a bush but he misjudged the angle and nearly came off the bike, swearing noisily as he got his balance back and revved off. At last they were gone, the whining sound slowly faded and I got up from my hiding place. Without their headlights it was frighteningly dark. I called softly to Jamie and he emerged from the shadows. He was soaking wet.

  ‘Couldn’t you have found a dry place to hide?’ I hissed angrily.

  ‘I couldn’t help it . . . I slipped over.’ He was shivering and his teeth chattered uncontrollably.

  ‘I told you to stay at the cave.’

  ‘I was worried about Re. It was my fault she ran off.’

  His grimy face was streaked with the tracks of his tears. I softened.

  ‘Come on. We’ll find her.’

  I turned on the torch. Its faint beam was pathetic but it was all we had.

  Chapter 31

  It was too dark. And everything looked different. The cave wasn’t where it was before so I didn’t know which way to go. I wanted Vicky but I was too scared to shout for her in case they heard me. You know who I mean. The things with sharp teeth and claws, the things that come out from their hiding places just when you’re on your own and suck out your insides before you even see them. The shadow things. I knew they were waiting. Hiding. They like the dark. They want you to think they’re not there because you can’t see them. But I knew just where they were. They were behind the trees. When the branches tap on your window in the middle of the night. That’s them. They used to tap on the window outside Mum’s room at the hospital but I always asked one of the nurses to leave the light on all the way through the night. Maybe one night they forgot so that was why Mum wasn’t there in the morning. Maybe it was the shadow things that took her away.

  I didn’t want to think about this so I kept walking really quietly. Then through the trees I saw some really bright lights moving about and it suddenly got noisy. The monsters were coming to get me! The lights got nearer and nearer and then I saw it wasn’t shadow monsters at all, it was people on motorbikes. It was too late to run off. One of them shouted at me and pointed and then they both started riding their bikes round and round me in a circle like they were playing a game. I didn’t like it. They didn’t have helmets on so I could see their faces. It was the boy and girl that got off the bus. They rode their bikes closer and closer. I was scared they were going to run me over.

  I told them to go away but they didn’t take any notice. The girl looked at the boy then turned round and with a nasty smile started to drive her bike straight at me. I shut my eyes and felt her whoosh past. The boy followed. The front of his bike scraped against my legs and I fell over backwards into the mud. They both laughed. I got up and ran. They chased after me for a bit but then I tripped over a big sticking-out tree root and fell on the ground again. Now I started yelling and yelling as loud as I could. I didn’t care any more if the shadow monsters heard me or not.

  Chapter 32

  We heard Rhianna’s shouts and found her cowering in a ditch between some tree roots, crying uncontrollably.

  ‘Re! Are you OK?’ I asked as Jamie pulled her to her feet.

  ‘I told them to stop but they wouldn’t. They wouldn’t stop!’

  I put my arms round her and hugged her tightly. Gradually the sobbing slowed to a few random hiccups. She grew calm and we helped her brush the mud from her clothes and hair.

  ‘It’s all right now. They’ve gone. Let’s get back to the cave. We’ll be safe there.’

  We started to retrace our steps, but it was harder than I thought and we seemed to be going round and round in circles. It was more by luck than judgement that we eventually found our way back. After seeing the same fallen tree for the second time, I was just beginning to give up when I spotted a stream. With our fingers crossed that it was ours, we started to follow it. We were lucky. It was our stream and it led us all the way back to the cave. Jamie was quiet as he pulled off his wet clothes and crawled into his sleeping bag.

  ‘I’m sorry, Vicky,’ he muttered as he snuggled down inside.

  I heard a muffled sob from his direction and saw him turn his head away from me. I remembered he was only a kid.

  ‘It’s all right. Forget it now.’

  ‘But what are we going to do? We haven’t got anything to eat. We’ve got to eat.’

  ‘Go to sleep now. Things’ll look better in the morning.’

  I slept really badly that night. I had dream after dream about food. Plates of bangers and mash, school dinner sponge and custard, piles of cakes and biscuits – lovely, luscious, delicious food but always out of reach, either on the other side of a ravine or suspended over a pit of snakes or guarded by a pack of vicious wolves. I was just about to get my hands on a huge double cheese and pineapple pizza when I woke to find Rhianna shaking me. I looked out of the cave entrance and saw it was morning already. Jamie was awake too and the pair of them were staring down at me as if I had the power to produce a full-blown fry-up from inside my sleeping bag.

  ‘I’m starving. And so is Peter.’ She thrust the rabbit under my nose. Its eyes were glazed and its nostrils caked with brown gunk. Food was probably the last thing on its mind. I looked at Re and Jamie, expecting, depending on me to do something. But what? I thought about Daniel. What if he had gone away for a few days? He and his parents had left carrying a holdall and rucksack. And they’d taken Jip. Even if Daniel was back now, he’d been really angry with us yesterday. What if he didn’t want anything more to do with us? I sighed.

  ‘OK. We’ll go to the shop. But we’re going to have to be very, very careful.’

  I reached over and found my purse. Hopefully, I emptied the contents on to my sleeping bag. M
y heart sank. We had precisely fifty-five pence. At least we could buy some matches so we could light a fire and cook the last few potatoes.

  We reached the village just as the shop was opening up. We hid behind the old village hall with its painted corrugated iron walls and watched as the lady in the flowery apron darted in and out, carrying boxes of fruit and veg which she placed on a slatted bench in front of the window. As she worked, she greeted people as they passed and still managed to keep up a monologue to someone inside.

  ‘Alf, these carrots are on the turn! Morning, Mrs Gratton – not looking so good today, is it? Alf, bring me out some of those bananas, would you? Still, if we get a bit of rain it’ll do the garden good, won’t it? They’re in the back storeroom! Mr Gratton all right, is he? Nasty thing arthritis. My mother suffered terrible. That knitting pattern’s in . . .’

  It was now or never. I turned to Jamie and Re.

  ‘Wait here,’ I told them.

  ‘But I want to come too,’ pleaded Re.

  ‘No. Stay here with Jamie.’

  ‘Please!’

  ‘People are looking for three runaway kids. Our pictures have been on the telly and in the papers. If I’m on my own, there’s less chance I’ll be recognised.’

  ‘But what if you get caught?’

  I hesitated before I replied, hoping neither of them detected the worry hiding in my voice.

  ‘I won’t. Now stay out of sight. I’ll be back in a minute.’

  I smoothed down my matted hair, brushed a patch of dried mud off my jeans then took a deep breath and started walking as calmly as I could towards the shop. I knew I had to behave as normally as possible but felt as if there was a hammer banging away in my chest that could be heard a mile away.

  ‘Morning, dear . . .’

  ‘Hello,’ my voice wobbled. I pushed the corners of my mouth up into a smile as I tried to stop myself shaking. I quickly walked past her and into the shop.

  ‘Be with you in a moment,’ she called after me.

  The shop was empty. No sign of Alf. Near the door was a wire stand with fresh loaves of bread, cakes and sausage rolls sitting on white doilies. The smallest loaf cost eighty pence. As I looked at it hungrily, my stomach gave out a huge rumble in sympathy. The delicious smell of fresh baked bread filled the tiny room. I stared at the golden bumpy crust just waiting to be torn apart to reveal the soft white inside, and my mouth watered like it had never watered before.

  Peeping through the door, I saw the woman with her back to me, chatting nineteen to the dozen with someone. I knew it was wrong but we needed food to survive. We were desperate. I reached out, snatched the loaf and tucked it under my arm. There were three sausage rolls on the rack underneath. I grabbed them too and stuffed them in my jacket pocket. Unable to stop myself, I wheeled round and filled my other pocket with several bars of chocolate. Then I shoved a packet of biscuits and a tin of ham down inside my jacket, bracing my arm across my stomach to stop anything falling out. I was about to take a block of cheese when the woman bustled back in. I froze in panic, my face burning. I felt sick as I looked down at my scruffy clothes bulging with the things I’d stolen.

  ‘Now then. Just the loaf was it, dear?’ she asked.

  She hadn’t noticed. I had to stay cool.

  ‘Um . . . and a box of matches, please.’

  She turned momentarily to take down the matches from a high shelf. This was my chance. All I had to do was run past her out of the door and I’d be safe. For what seemed like an eternity but must have been only a nightmare split second, I hesitated, my feet rooted to the spot. The moment was lost as she swung round, blocking the shop doorway behind her. I was trapped.

  ‘On holiday, are you dear?’ she said pleasantly as she handed me the matches.

  I nodded dumbly, acutely aware of my bedraggled appearance and desperately praying she wouldn’t notice my bulging pockets. The packet of biscuits had worked its way round to my hip and was threatening to slip out from under my jacket at any moment. I tried to edge it back up with my elbow.

  The shop door opened. Someone else was coming in. I didn’t dare look. It was probably Alf. There were now two of them to catch me. I wouldn’t stand a chance. Another second and they’d put two and two together and realise something wasn’t right. Another two seconds and my stash would come slipping out from under my jacket and cascade on to the floor. Angrily, they’d bar the door, Alf would call the police, they’d arrive in a flash, Re and Jamie would be rounded up and we’d all be sent back in disgrace to Mrs Frankish who would frostily dispatch us to wherever she felt fit without a qualm. This was it. The end of our journey. The end of us as a family.

  ‘Lovely part of the world, isn’t it? Wouldn’t live anywhere else if you paid me,’ the woman was saying. ‘That’s one pound and five pence, please.’

  Sweating and playing for time, I fumbled in my half empty purse then gave all the money I had to the woman.

  ‘Ooh. There’s only fifty-five pence here.’

  ‘Think you might have dropped this outside,’ said a voice from behind me. I swung round. It was Daniel. He was holding out a fifty pence piece. I had never been more glad to see anyone in my whole life.

  ‘Oh yes . . . Thank you.’

  He handed it to the woman who was now staring at me oddly.

  I didn’t wait for her response. Red-faced with shame, I quickly scurried past them to the door and ran out across the road and round the back of the village hall where Jamie and Re were waiting.

  ‘What’s up, Vick?’ asked Jamie when he saw my face.

  I shook my head. I couldn’t speak. If I’d have tried to say anything I knew I would have burst into tears there and then.

  Chapter 33

  Daniel came out of the shop a little bit after Vicky. I waved to him. He stopped, looked round then walked over to us. I gave him a big hug.

  ‘We thought you’d gone away!’ I said.

  ‘I went over to my gran’s for the night. We got home about half an hour ago.’

  ‘Come back with us to the cave, Daniel, I want to show you Peter.’

  ‘Who’s Peter?’

  ‘My rabbit.’

  I asked Vicky if it was all right and Daniel could come with us. She didn’t say anything. She just nodded.

  ‘We can all be friends again,’ I told her.

  She still didn’t say anything.

  ‘Don’t you like Daniel any more?’ I asked her.

  ‘It’s not that,’ she said, kicking the ground.

  ‘Didn’t you get any food?’ I asked.

  ‘Yeah I got some.’

  She wouldn’t tell me what she got. She was in a right moody. I don’t know why. Jamie wasn’t talking to Daniel either, so I walked with him and told him all about Peter.

  Daniel said he’d show us a short cut. As we walked past an old church we saw two dirt bikes on the ground.

  Then we saw them. They were sitting on the steps at the back, smoking and laughing.

  ‘It’s them from last night,’ I said, moving closer to Vicky.

  Daniel was worried too. He looked round as if he wanted to run away. The girl looked up and stared straight at him.

  ‘Hey, it’s Lurgy Boy!’ she shouted. She threw her cigarette on to the grass. ‘How’s your lurgy, Lurgy Boy?’

  She laughed and turned to the boy. He nodded back at her. Then they got up and started walking over to us.

  ‘Who are your saddo new friends, Lurgy Boy?’

  The girl stared at me. I tried to hide behind Vicky.

  ‘Hey, it’s that retard from last night – you want to watch where you’re going if you don’t want to get run over . . . Retard.’

  Jamie looked really angry – he was ready to whack them both. Vicky caught his arm and pulled him back.

  ‘Let’s just walk the other way,’ whispered Daniel, turning round.

  ‘You’re not running back to Mummy today, Lurgy Boy. You stay right where you are!’

  Daniel started to turn awa
y.

  ‘I said stay, Lurgy Boy!’

  Daniel stayed. He looked very small. The bullies went up to him.

  ‘Now then, what are you Lurgy Boy?’ said the girl. ‘Tell these saddos what you are.’

  ‘He’s our friend,’ I said to the girl. ‘Stop teasing him!’

  ‘Stay out of this retard,’ said the girl, spinning round to me.

  Daniel stepped forward. ‘Leave her alone,’ he shouted in a wobbly voice. ‘She hasn’t done anything.’

  ‘Ooooh . . . Come over all brave, have we now? That’s new. I wonder what’s got into Lurgy Boy?’

  ‘I’ll find out,’ said the boy. He leapt on Daniel’s back and locked his arms round his neck. Daniel struggled with him but the boy was much bigger and stronger. Daniel started making coughing noises.

  ‘Nope! Same old Lurgy Boy!’

  ‘Stop it!’ Vicky shouted.

  With a roar Jamie ran forward, grabbed the boy and ripped him off Daniel. The boy yelled. He thumped on to the ground. Jamie dived on to him and sat on him so he couldn’t get up. He was much smaller than the boy but he was really really angry now. When Jamie gets angry you don’t want to mess with him. Really you don’t. He pushed his face close up to the boy’s. His caterpillar eyebrows were nearly touching him.

  ‘Don’t you ever pick on him or my sister or anyone, ever again!’ said Jamie.

  The boy looked scared now. ‘He’s hurting me! Get him off!’ he wailed. He started wriggling and kicking his legs around trying to get away from Jamie. The girl grabbed at Jamie’s hair with her hands and started pulling it.

  Now Daniel tried to pull her off Jamie but she punched him away like he was a little fly. Jamie shouted at her but she carried on. He swizzed round and was going to hit her but suddenly the boy kicked her right on the nose. I don’t think he meant to do that. She let go of Jamie’s hair. A trickle of red dribbled down on to her white top.

  ‘You idiot! This is brand new!’ she screamed at the boy. She whacked him over the head.