been roughly in the middle, too close for comfort. Jill’s house and a couple of others, remained prominently untouched amidst the gutted shells of the other homes; they stuck out like a sore thumb.
She watched them as they gathered right outside the gate to Jill’s garden.
Their behaviour was noticeably different from previous nights. Not quite so full of cocky attitude, not so noisy. She sensed the seriousness of the situation had finally become apparent to them. This was no longer about having a larrrf in the absence of the law; things were becoming serious for them now. It was about getting their hands on what they needed to survive; drink, food. The plunder of Tuesday night - what they’d taken from the off-licence - had obviously been consumed very quickly. The subsequent nights of ransacking had yielded barely enough to keep all of them going. Finding enough to keep them all fit and well was going to become increasingly hard for them. Soon she imagined, after the last house had been plundered, they would turn on each other, as the stakes for survival increased.
From what she could see through the slats of the blind, tonight they all looked sober, thirsty, hungry . . . and for the first time, a little frightened. Perhaps the hierarchy amongst their group was already beginning to fragment.
‘They’re back, already?’ asked Jacob, seeing the look on her face.
‘They’re back.’
His face turned ashen.
Leona forced a smile. ‘Don’t worry Jake. We’ve got our special secret weapons. We’ll be fine. Just remember how well that little boy in Home Alone did, eh? He showed them, didn’t he?’
Jacob nodded, trying to match his sister’s bravado.
Outside the pack of Bad Boys grew. She noticed the Smurfettes were no longer with them. What did that mean? That they had been left at what this gang considered their HQ to keep them safe? Because this was men’s work - the hunting and gathering, and their job was simply to lay down and provide gratification for the boys?
Or worse, the novelty factor had been exhausted and they’d been dispensed with?
She spotted the older boy, the one who had stabbed to death the other lad the night before last. He stood in the middle of the street, wearing a vest top sporting the Nike swoosh. She could see him talking animatedly, his hands swooping and flickering around in front of him in that street way. He had clearly assumed the mantle of leadership; the others, younger, shorter and less self-assured, nodded with his every instruction.
And then she knew why he seemed so familiar. She had seen him up close before.
50 Cent.
One of the three who had accosted her and Dan on Wednesday. She leaned closer to the window, trying to get a better look.
Yes. It’s him.
He and one of his Wigger protégés had chased after Dan and - she was almost certain now - killed him.
His wrist suddenly flicked towards Leona, and their heads all turned as one to look in her direction.
Shit.
She pulled back from the window, hoping they hadn’t seen her staring out at them. 50 Cent then gestured towards the house opposite, and they looked that way in unison.
They’re deciding which house to go for first. Eeny-meenyminey-mo . . .
That’s what they were doing.
She reached out for her weapon; a rounders bat, with several six-inch nails hammered through it. She had been too eager to cram the end of it with nails, and the wood at the end of the bat had begun to split. So she’d had to wrap sellotape around the end of it to stop the thing splintering and falling apart. She really wasn’t sure whether it would disintegrate the first time she swung it at something, but it was all she had.
Jacob held a plastic Swingball bat in one hand. Leona had knocked a few short nails through the holes of the grid in the middle. She thought it looked like it could do some harm if Jacob managed to swat at someone’s face with it. During the afternoon he had swished it around a few times, getting some practice. Although she was more worried the clumsy little sod would swat himself with it, and she’d end up having to bandage his face up.
They could have left this afternoon - just grabbed some bottles of water and run for it. But to where? No, she’d decided to stay. This is the only place Dad and Mum would know to come to. If they left, then the pair