The Escape - Robert Muchamore Page 0,10

put Marc down for lying about getting off with a girl would have worked with teenagers, but Marc’s audience was younger and in their eyes throwing a girl into a slurry pit was way better than kissing her.

‘Totally worth the beating,’ Jacques said loyally. ‘Welts heal, legends live for ever!’

The rest of the crowd murmured in agreement and Lanier was furious. ‘Well, you wait, Marc,’ he said, wagging his finger. ‘The director will find you a new job now and it’ll be so much worse.’

Jacques shot Lanier a look of contempt. ‘How could it be worse than mucking out cows?’

‘I don’t know,’ Lanier said defensively, as his face reddened with anger. But he knew he was losing the argument so he dropped through the narrow gap between two mattresses and retreated between the tightly packed beds to his own on the far side of the room.

Meanwhile a scrawny fourteen year old called Gerard had stepped in and stood near the door unlacing his muddy work boots. He was the oldest boy who still slept on a lower bunk. He was jealous of Marc, but too weak to challenge him physically.

‘You’ll never believe what I saw,’ Gerard told the room, with an air of sarcasm. ‘The director had me repairing the front fence where that army truck clipped it. I came back in to put the tools away. You know that little cupboard under the stairs, opposite the sick room?’

There were a few nods and yeses as Marc realised what was coming.

‘I could hear little Marc with Sister Madeline,’ Gerard beamed. ‘He was sobbing his heart out. Oh Sister Madeline, I’m so sad. I don’t like it here. Jae was really sweet and special. Nobody loves me. I can’t stand it any more. I want to run away. Boo, hoo, hoo! ’

A few nervous laughs erupted as sets of eyeballs turned on Marc.

‘You’re so full of shit,’ Marc tutted. ‘I might have moaned a bit when she put the iodine on my cuts, but no way was I crying.’

‘You looked like you’d been crying when I passed you on the stairs earlier,’ Jacques noted.

‘I need to get out of here,’ Gerard teased. ‘I’m so worthless. I can’t stand my life any more.’

Marc could see that most of the room believed Gerard’s version of events and the pressure not to admit weakness felt like a vice crushing his head. Under normal circumstances he would have settled it by planting his fist in Gerard’s face, but right now he wasn’t even sure he could stand up straight, let alone fight.

To make matters worse, Lanier sensed that Marc was now on the back foot and moved in for the kill.

‘You’re such a girl, Kilgour,’ Lanier said, rushing back towards Marc’s bed. ‘Remember at Easter, the last time Tomas really caned into you? You were practically crying then. And you were going on with this big rant about how you were gonna get Tomas back and how you were gonna run away. But nothing happened, because you’re all mouth.’

‘I’ve thought about running,’ Marc said. ‘You never know, I just might some day.’

‘Full of crap,’ Lanier shouted. ‘Stick to crying for Sister Madeline.’

Everyone laughed except Marc and his loyal bunkmate Jacques.

‘We’ve all thought about getting out of here,’ Jacques said. ‘But there’s no point running away. Everyone gets busted and Tomas batters them and puts them on bread and water.’

‘I know that,’ Lanier said. ‘But it’s the way Marc goes on about it all the time, like he’s some Mr Big or something.’

‘You’re lucky I’m injured, Lanier,’ Marc shouted. ‘Remember when you were down in the grass begging me to stop pounding your weak arse?’

‘I’ll fight you right now,’ Lanier shouted, as he clambered over the mattresses.

A couple of jeers went up and Jacques summed up the mood. ‘I could beat Marc up, the state he’s in at the moment.’

But the other boys backed away as Lanier crawled across the mattresses. He ended up kneeling across the tiny gap between Marc’s bunk and the next with his fists bunched. Marc was in no state to fight, but Lanier clearly wasn’t in the mood to show mercy.

As Lanier wound up his first punch, Marc kicked out. His foot connected with enough force to knock Lanier off balance, while at the same moment he grabbed the frame of his bunk and threw his weight to one side with enough force to shift the metal bed off its feet and several centimetres to one side.

It wasn’t much, but it