start growing their own food . . . and so on and so on; there were going to be work groups, task assignments; everybody was going to have to contribute something to their long-term survival.
And then, to clarify the point that this really was Day One of a new regime, Gunner Simon Lawrence was brought out and executed for the rape and murder of the girl.
Adam looked up and watched the backs of the two praetorians walking dutifully a dozen yards behind Maxwell, guns slung casually on their shoulders.
He’d even decided to choose the youngest of his boys to pull the trigger. A little pyschotic fucker who swaggered around under the name ‘Notor-ius’ these days.
The two praetorians and Maxwell slowly patrolled the edge of the field, heading towards the guards standing around the hut at the front gate.
You’re a shrewd cunning bastard, I’ll give you that.
Maxwell knew his recent history; of course he did, he was once a history teacher an’ all.
Child soldiers.
Always the most ruthless. Always the most biddable.
Leona heard movement outside her room. It was a small stifling space, the walls concrete breeze-blocks painted a hospital mint green, above her a fizzing strip light, the cold cement floor beneath her feet covered by a scuffed black rubber mat. There was a mattress on the floor and a bucket in the corner. It was meant for her to use as a toilet. She’d held off using it for as long as she could, but in the end she’d had to. Now the smell of it was thick inside this place, almost as bad as the slurry room back home on the rigs.
She heard a girl’s voice coming from the room next door, muffled through the wall. She sounded compliant, single grunted syllables. Another voice, a boy’s voice, young enough that it sounded as if it had yet to break and deepen. He was giving her instructions and she sounded as if she was obeying. It was quiet for a minute or two, a solitary bump against the wall, then she heard the boy’s voice once again; a short shrill yell that sounded painful.
She wanted to think the girl had hurt him, kneed him in the balls, jabbed his eye with a fingernail. But she knew it wasn’t that. He’d got what he came for.
Her eavesdropping was interrupted by the sound of a key in her door. She took several quick steps from the wall and backed up into the corner of the room beside the toilet bucket.
She knew who it was before the door swung open. It was the boy who treated her like a caged pet - his own little plaything. It was the boy who had ushered her into the camp, the short stocky runt with his one shaved eyebrow, his neck weighed down with bling, with his peaked white Nike baseball cap and that we’re-going-to-play-some-more twinkle in his eyes.
‘Hey, honey! Dizz-ee’s home!’ he sing-songed. ‘Sup? How’s my bitch. A’ight?’
‘Fuck off,’ said Leona through swollen lips.
‘Fuck off is it, eh?’ He stepped into the room, closing the door behind him and locking it. ‘We’re goin’ to try again, love. An’ this time you’re going to be a good little bitch, right?’
He was about Nathan’s age, maybe a year older - nineteen, twenty. A short little runt but surprisingly strong. Much stronger than her. She’d managed to keep him at bay last time with her nails and bared teeth, earning a livid bruise and swollen mouth for her efforts. But the time before, he’d managed to wrestle her down to the mattress and nearly managed to get inside her. But she thrashed and wriggled and slapped so much that he lost his concentration. She paid for the struggling that time with a swift hard kick to the stomach. He left her doubled over, struggling for breath and retching bile onto the floor.
Leona had lost count how many nights she’d been in here, how many times she’d had to wrestle the evil little bastard off her. But she knew she was running out of time, running out of fight, and he knew it, too. Soon he was going to be coming in here and she was going to be like the girl next door, mutely nodding, lifting the torn rags of her shirt and letting him get what he came for.
But not tonight, she wasn’t giving up tonight. ‘You touch me again and I’ll rip your thing right off.’
Dizz-ee laughed. ‘Thing?’
He stepped into the middle of the small room,