The Tube Riders by Ward Chris

Author:Ward, Chris [Ward, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: AMMFA Publishing
Published: 2012-03-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-One

Kind Strangers

‘It’s good to see you’re awake.’

Simon squinted, his eyes focusing on the boy who sat beside his bed. ‘Where am I? Is this a hospital?’

The boy shook his head. He was about sixteen, with unkempt mousy blonde hair, a soft, downy face and a carefree smile. ‘No,’ he said. ‘The nearest hospital must be fifty miles away. Father wanted to keep you here.’

‘Where’s “here”?’

‘This is my house. My family owns most of the farmland around here.’

‘Oh. Who are you?’

The boy leaned forward, an eager smile on his lips. ‘I’m Carl,’ he said. ‘Carl Weston. Did you jump off the train?’

Simon couldn’t help but offer a weak smile in return. ‘Something like that,’ he said. ‘I’m Simon.’

Carl nodded as if he already knew. ‘Well it’s nice to meet you, Simon. Do you want something to eat? Something to drink?’

‘Both would be good.’ Simon tried to sit up in the bed, but as he shifted his body he felt an agonizing pain in his side. He remembered the Huntsman’s crossbow, how the bolt had felt in his side as he tried to hold on to the train. Like a red hot scalpel, cutting and scalding him with every movement, causing sweat to wash down over his face, and tears to pour from his eyes. At the moment the train had bumped, he had been close to unconsciousness anyway; he barely remembered hitting the ground, only how peaceful he had felt with the ride over.

‘Thank you for saving my life,’ he said. ‘I don’t remember quite what happened, but I know I should be dead now.’

Carl smiled. He reached out a hand and patted Simon’s knee the way someone might pet a dog. ‘Glad to be of service. The doctor said you should be okay in a few days. I think my father is a little suspicious of you, though. We don’t get outsiders in these parts very often.’

‘Where are we, exactly?’

Carl spread his hands, although all Simon could see was the inside of a rather quaintly decorated bedroom, a little wardrobe in one corner, and a green floral patterned curtain pulled across a small window to keep out the sunlight that pressed in around its edges. ‘This is Reading Greater Forest Area,’ he said. ‘We’re about ten miles from the London GUA perimeter wall. Did you come from in there?’

Simon didn’t remember moving after he fell from the train, so quite possibly they’d found him right next to the tracks. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Last night, I, um, took a train.’ It was only half a lie.

‘The trains don’t stop out here. All the produce from our farm gets taken to a processing plant a few miles from here and then a fleet of trucks deliver it to the GUA checkpoints at London or Bristol. Where were you going?’

‘Bristol.’

‘Why?’

Simon tried to shift his body again. For all the help this boy and his family had given him, they weren’t great carers. He had terrible pins and needles in his legs and lower back.

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