Only Lovers Left Alive by Dave Wallis

Author:Dave Wallis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Valancourt Books
Published: 2015-03-23T04:00:00+00:00

9

Out in the street he drifted towards the castle itself. The former car park was full of motor-bikes and captured cars. It was an after­noon of watery sunshine and Kings had gathered at the castle gates. They sprawled across the seats of open jeeps and pos­tured near high-powered bikes. Girls in light, unbuttoned coats hung about or walked past as if unaware of the lazily greedy stares.

He gazed up at the battlements like some rebellious serf. Frayed ropes still rotted dangling from the highest points. A few guards stared down. One turned and vanished and then came back with his arm round a girl and pretended not to be aware of him. They were not so much guarding and running the place as playing the part of soldiers guarding and running it.

He came to an abandoned kiosk, damply sinking into the uncut greensward and about to tilt over.

“Nothing in there, chum,” shouted a girl as he peered through the trap. Among a soggy layer of spilt postcards on the floor he saw what he was looking for and went round to the tiny door at the back. Two wild cats hissed at him and arched their backs but did not attack. Down in the damp shadows lay a sliding pile of papers bearing the words, “Visitors’ Guide and Map of the castle.” He took three or four and stuffed them into his pocket. The wet paper struck coldly against his thigh. He felt he wanted to get back to Julia, no, of course not, to Kathy. Well, away from here to somewhere safe and tell friends about it all.

In Thames St. a row of new bikes of all kinds stood under the casual guard of a King with a tommy-gun under his arm. Robert paused as if in admiration of the machines. Three boys and a rather plain girl were polishing them. Robert strolled over to them. “NNNN-not bad bikes,” he said. They looked at him and went on with their work. He tried another approach, “Get spspspspsps-spares all right?”

The girl looked at him. “Go away,” she said.

One of the boys glanced towards the guard and said, “You’re new in this town.” Robert nodded. The girl stood up and stretched her back and wiped her hands on her cleaning rag.

“You’d better beat it,” she said. “See, we’re like slaves to these Kings now and have to do all the dirty work. The whole castle’s like that. If they see you talking to us they might do their nut and take you prisoner too.”

The boys nodded and then bent to their work again. “How many of them are there?” he asked.

“I never counted,” said the girl.

“Too many,” said one of the boys.

“Maybe about two hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty. Big for a gang, but it’s not that. It’s the stuff they’ve got, ammo, guns, tanks and stacks of food. The only thing they’re short of is petrol.”

“Can’t you make a break for it?” asked Robert.

“If they get you, it’s your lot,” said the plain girl.

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