Half Lost (The Half Bad Trilogy #3) - Sally Green Page 0,3
look at Gabriel and say, “It never crossed my mind to kill the Hunters. Now it wouldn’t cross my mind not to.”
Gabriel says, “We’re in a war now. It’s different.”
“Yeah. It sure is different.” And then I add, “I was the gaunt one then, and now you are.”
“Gaunt?”
And I realize I’ve not told him why I started the story and actually we’re both gaunt and anyway I can’t be bothered to explain, so I say, “It doesn’t matter.”
We sit looking at the fire. The only bit of brightness for miles. The sky’s overcast. There’s no moon. And I wonder where Trev is now, and his mate Jim. And then I remember it wasn’t Trev who called me gaunt; it was Jim.
Gabriel says, “I went to see Greatorex.”
“Yeah, I know.” He came back with packets of soup and the cheese.
It’s about an hour each way to Greatorex. Gabriel must have gone when I was counting the stones and then he collected the wood. I must have been counting for hours.
“Nothing much to report,” he says. And I know that too.
The members of the Alliance who survived the battle are living in seven remote camps spread across Europe. We’re with Greatorex’s camp, a small group in Poland. Only we’re not with them. I stay out of everyone’s way. I have my own camp here. All the camps have numbers. Greatorex’s is Camp Three. So I guess that makes mine Camp Three B or Camp Three and a Half. Anyway, Greatorex is in charge of the camp and communication with Camp One, Celia’s camp, but there isn’t much to communicate as far as I can tell. All Greatorex can do is train the young witches who have survived with her in the hope that someday the training can be used.
I watched the trainees last time I was at Camp Three. I like Greatorex but not the trainees. The trainees don’t look at me, not when I’m looking at them. When I’m not looking I feel eyes all over me but whenever I glance at them suddenly they find the ground dead interesting.
I think it was like that for my father. No one wanted to meet his eye either. But it didn’t use to be like that for me. Before BB I was part of the team, the team of fighters, when me and Nesbitt were partnered up and Gabriel was with Sameen and we used to train with Greatorex and the others. We were a good team. We laughed and messed around and fought and ate and talked together. I miss that feeling; it’s gone and I know it’ll never come back. But still Greatorex is great with her team.
“She’s good at training them,” I say.
“Do you mean Greatorex?”
“That’s who we’re talking about, isn’t it?” And I don’t know why I snap at him.
“You should come into camp with me. Greatorex would like to see you.”
“Yeah. Maybe.” But we both know that means no.
It’s been weeks since I’ve seen Greatorex, or anyone other than Gabriel. In fact, the last people I saw apart from Gabriel were those two Hunters and I killed them. Now I think about it, I generally kill the people that I meet. Greatorex should be grateful that I keep away.
“She wants to show off her trainees to you. They’ve improved a lot.”
And I don’t know what to say to that. What should I say? “Oh?” “Good.” Or “Who the fuck cares ’cause it won’t make any difference to anything?”
I really don’t know what to say.
Then I think of something and I ask, “What day is it?”
Gabriel says, “You asked me that yesterday.”
“And?”
“I don’t know. I was going to ask Greatorex but I forgot.” He turns to me, asking, “Does it matter?”
I shake my head. It doesn’t matter at all what day it is except I’m trying to keep things clear in my head but each day seems like every other, and weeks have gone by but it could be months, and everything is merging in my memory. I need to concentrate and not lose track of things. I killed the two Hunters yesterday. Then I came back here, but already it feels like longer ago. I have to go back and check on the bodies. More Hunters will come looking for their pals. Maybe I’ll get a chance to catch one, question them. Maybe they’ll know something about Annalise. If she is a spy she’ll have gone back to Soul; maybe the Hunters will have seen her.