Fic: The Days We Break (part 3)

[myrimidryad]

"Al?"

“Yeah?” Alo looked round at Nick, who was peering under his bed.

“Why is there an axe and army food packages under your bed?”

“Ahhh.” Alo spun around to face him and fixed him with an intent look. “Are you prepared, Nicolas?”

“Prepared?” Nick raised his eyebrows and sat on the floor, leaning against the bed.

Across the room, Rich groaned from behind the pages of the magazine he was reading. “Oh here we fucking go.”

“Don’t take that attitude, Richard!” Alo barked, pointing at him. “That kind of shit will get you eaten.”

“Eaten?” Nick repeated, looking between them incredulously. “The fuck?”

“Nicolas.” Alo once again fixed him with his intense stare. “Are you prepared for when the dead rise?”

Nick stared at him and opened and closed his mouth once before deciding what to say. “You mean vampires?”

“He means zombies,” Rich told him pityingly with the air of someone who had suffered this lecture one too many times.

“Are you prepared for the zombie apocalypse, Nicolas?” Alo asked loudly, and winced when there were four sharp bangs from the floor - a broom smacked hard against the ceiling. “Sorry, mum!” Alo yelled, and rolled his eyes. “As I was saying - are you prepared, Nick? Are you ready to wake up one fateful morning to a no-longer-dead corpse crawling in through your window, hungry for your brains? Are you ready to fight off the undead army that will rise as surely as the sun? And are you ready to survive in the wild with no technology? Do you know how to light a fire and kill a rabbit to survive? Are you prepared to drink your own piss?”

Nick tried to contain his laughter in the face of Alo’s serious expression. “Are you serious?”

Rich groaned again. “Don’t ask him that!”

Alo sat up straight and glared at Rich. “As someone who should be as ready as I am, you -”

“Alo, you wouldn’t last three days without porn, and you know it,” Rich said bluntly. Nick laughed explosively, and Alo glared at both of them.

“Oh, mock me now, gentlemen, but I’ll be the one laughing when they’re eating your brains!”

“Whatever, Alo.” Rich snorted. “Just because you’re good at Left 4 Dead, doesn’t mean you’d actually be able to fight off any zombies.”

“I’m more likely to survive than either of you,” Alo retorted, and Nick cocked his head curiously.

“How come?”

“Guns,” Alo answered promptly with a smug smile. “This is a farm, Nick. My dad’s got guns, and I know how to use them. Much easier to kill zombies with a gun than a knife, let me tell you. Also, I live out in the middle of nowhere, so I’m less likely to be overwhelmed by an army of the undead.”

“Just put the bloody film on, Alo.” Rich butted in before Alo could go on.

“Fine,” Alo huffed, turning around again and rummaging through his DVD box. “But don’t come crying to me when your brains have been eaten.”

“We’ll be zombies coming for your brains if that happens,” Rich reminded him, and Alo threw a DVD at him over his shoulder.

“Shut up.”

Mini barely made it home before the curfew on the night before Franky’s birthday. She’d been at the bunker, touching up the last details for the big moment. She was determined that it would be the best birthday Franky had ever had. She peeked in the living room and recoiled with an expression of disgust when she saw her mum engaged in a game of tonsil tennis with a guy she had never seen before on the sofa, the noise of the film they weren’t watching drowning out the slurping sounds.

Mini considered vomiting for just a moment, but then retreated upstairs, shaking her head in an effort to rid the images from her mind’s eye. As she undressed, she went over the details for tomorrow’s unveiling in her mind.

Matty had managed to do something with the generator, so it now produced electricity. He had explained it to them briefly, something to do with self-sustaining mechanisms and water and wheels and cogs inside it, but all Mini cared about was that he had managed to fix up a couple of extension leads to it. Very fortunately, it turned out that there were a number of tiny, fist-sized tunnels leading from the pipe room, as they now called it, to the backs of all the rooms along the wall behind it. Unfortunately, that didn’t include the T (which was what they had dubbed the ‘waiting room’ area), but a wire could be fed into the back of Matty’s lab and an extension cord passed through the corridor and into the T. From there, more extension cords and they had rigged up Liv’s ancient disco ball in the middle, and the walls and ceiling had been festooned in streamers. Mini pulled her sleep mask over her eyes and smiled with satisfaction - everything was ready for tomorrow, she hadn’t overstepped her calorie allowance and she was sure Franky would love it. It was going to be perfect, or so help the others.

Franky lay awake in bed for a few minutes before her alarm went off. Seventeen, she thought to herself. She was seventeen years old. One more year and she could vote. One more year and she could be entered for the lottery, her name pulled out for anything from cleaning graffiti off public walls to hard manual labour. It could be anything. That was the point of it being a lottery.

But today she was just seventeen. And finally, the surprise would be revealed. Three long weeks she had waited, feeling a little neglected despite the frequent reassurances. Whatever it was the others had been working on, it had to be pretty impressive to need so much attention. She didn’t think they’d even been to any clubs or parties, which had to be a record for Liv.

Her alarm went off, and she sat up slowly, looking at her knees through the duvet. “Seventeen.” She said to herself quietly. Here went nothing.

Jeff and Geoff bounded into her room just after she’d finished getting dressed and hugged her, beams on their faces. “Alright, love?” Jeff grinned, rubbing her shoulder. “Ready for presents?”

A smile sneaked onto her face and Franky ducked her head.

“Course she is,” Geoff said gruffly. “Come on - Jeff’s done breakfast.”

“Just something small,” Jeff said modestly. Franky scoffed and he blushed a little. As expected, the table downstairs was groaning under the weight of his efforts. “Egg?” he asked, and she nodded.

“Yeah, please.”

Poached on toast, just the way she liked it, and she smiled. Today was starting out well, if nothing else.

“Here you go then, Franky.” Geoff placed two packages and an envelope down on the table between the plates. She grinned, guessing what they were already. The bulky big one would be a new camera lens, the thick flat one would be books and the envelope would be the card. She opened them after she finished her egg, feeling a thrill of satisfaction as she was proved right.

“Thank you,” she breathed as she turned the chunky lens over in her hands. One this big and this good would have been expensive, she knew, but she didn’t say so. The books were both on filming, one on stop-motion techniques, and she grinned. The envelope did indeed contain a card, but her eyes widened as she saw the wad of twenty pound notes in there as well. There had to be over two hundred pounds in there, and she stared up at Geoff and Jeff. “Are you serious?”

Jeff nodded and smiled, and Geoff coughed. “Well, it’s not for spending all at once, mind.”

“And it’s also a well done,” Jeff added.

“What for?” Franky pulled the money out and flicked through it.

“For doing so well,” Jeff said proudly. “For settling in and…well…”

“Because it’s your birthday, that’s why,” Geoff finished and picked up her empty plate. “Now hurry up, or you’ll be late.”

“Right.” Franky jumped up and hesitated for a second before hugging them both quickly, grabbing her presents and running upstairs, pretending not to hear their delighted laughter behind her. She wasn’t exactly the most forthcoming with physical affection, after all.

She arrived at the same time as Liv and Matty outside the college, and they both grinned and wished her a happy birthday.  “You’ll have to wait till after school for the surprise,” Liv told her excitedly. “But seriously, you are gonna love it.”

“It’s perfect,” Matty agreed, and Franky felt a light, bubbly feeling begin to circulate her body. She was really looking forward to this surprise, she realised. There was barely a hint of wary anticipation. She trusted her friends here.

The others sang Happy Birthday to her in the common room before the bell for lessons rang, and she felt her face burn as she tried to stop laughing. As they finished, Alo and Rich pulled a couple of party poppers and Mini hugged her from behind. “You think this is good?” she sang in Franky’s ear. “You wait till later.” She pulled away and winked as the bell rang, and Grace grabbed Franky’s hand and swung it happily half the way to English until Mini told her to stop being gay, Gracie.

The school day was a blur as the bubbly feeling settled and tightened to a ball in Franky’s stomach. She could barely eat she was so wound up. Finally the last bell rang and the gang piled into Alo’s van. “I brought a blindfold.” Mini waved her sleeping mask in front of them and gave Franky an understanding look. “Don’t freak out, okay? It’s just to make the surprise even better. We’re not going to drop you down a mineshaft or anything, okay?”

The wariness rose in Franky like a tide, but she pushed it down. She could trust these guys. She knew that none of them would play a mean trick on her on her birthday. She would be fine. “No problem,” she said, smiling falsely. No problem at all.

Still, she had to force herself not to rip the blindfold off when Grace explained that they were going down a hole, but not to worry because Mini would be right under her and Grace would be right above, so it would be alright. “Fine,” she said, with obvious difficulty. “No problem.”

“Here we go then.” Mini, now at ankle-height, took her foot and guided it gently to the top rung of a ladder, or something similar.

“Don’t worry, little’un.” Alo’s voice whispered in her ear. “No tricks, promise.”

That reassured her just enough to allow Mini to guide her down into the hole completely. The blackness pressed against her already darkened world, against the mask that smelled of Mini and Mini’s night-time makeup. Powdery and a little comforting. It would be okay, she told herself over and over. It would be okay.

Mini guided her with voice and hands to the bottom and out into a large space, and then through a door and a corridor, which had lights that made her feel a little more secure. She could still hear the others all around her, so that was okay. And then there was another corridor, a much longer one that only ended with Mini’s hands on her shoulders. “Ready?” She sounded like she could barely contain her excitement, and Franky nodded.

“Ready.”

“Okay then.” Mini turned her to face the wall, which turned out to be a door - she heard it open. And then Mini’s fingers pulled the mask gently off her face, and Franky let out a relieved breath -

- that caught in her throat as she saw the short passageway ahead of her that had coloured fairy lights pinned to the walls, creating a beautiful kind of tunnel that led to a larger space at the end.

“We call it the T,” Liv whispered. They were waiting for her to go forward, Franky realised, so she took a step, faintly noticing the small narrow spaces either side. The narrow passageway was a gap between two rooms, she saw.

“What is this place?” she asked softly.

“It’s an old bunker,” Matty told her as she took another step forward, and then another. They all followed behind. “I found it when I was a kid, and we’ve been fixing it up for you. This is only one room - there’s much more than this.”

“More?” Franky could barely comprehend it. She came to the end of the passage and stared at the streamers falling in shimmering curtains from the walls and ceilings, the worn sofas and chairs. “Wow.”

“It’s for you.” Grace was smiling, Franky could hear it in her voice. “Do you like it?”

Oh god, she was going to cry, Franky thought. Her throat was all tight and everything. She turned to face them, their hopeful, happy faces and laughed. “It’s perfect!” she cried. “It’s amazing!”
Nick and Alo whooped and Mini bounded forward with a happy laugh that mirrored Franky’s.

“We knew you’d like it!” Grace carolled as Liv yelled, “Didn’t I tell you you’d love it?”

Alo picked her up and spun her around so her face was covered in streamers, and Franky laughed and threw her arms out as Liv dragged a cooler box from the corner and started chucking drinks at people.

It was the best birthday she had ever had. The gang showed her the rest of the bunker, they screamed as loud as they could in the big hall to hear the echoes and they played music as loud as the speakers allowed. Someone called Jeff and Geoff to let them know Franky wasn’t going to make it back in time to beat the curfew and put her on for a minute to prove she hadn’t been abducted. Franky assured them she was fine and went back to dancing with Nick up and down the corridors, pausing every now and then to fall against the walls and giggle.

“This is the best birthday ever!” Franky told them all loudly near midnight to a resounding cheer - even Rich was having a good time, having finally caved to Grace’s insistence to dance. He twirled her around the T and pulled her down onto a sofa when he got tired. Alo and Nick hoisted Mini up on their shoulders, only putting her down when she screamed, and Liv and Matty danced and watched and pulled Franky into their circle every now and then to press another drink into her hand and make her dance with them.

Franky had never been so happy in her entire life.

“Oh, god.”

Alo looked up in surprise as his mum sank into a chair, her face paling rapidly. “Mum?” She didn’t reply, but kept reading the letter she was holding in her hand tightly. He could see the insignia of the regime at the top and frowned. “Mum?”

“Go get your father,” she said quietly, and Alo stopped eating.

“What is it? Ma, what is it?”

“Go and fetch your father, Aloysius Creevey,” she said, her voice steely, and Alo hesitated for a second before getting up to obey her.

His dad and Dewi were out on top field, and Alo ran over to them, not realising he was stepping on new seedlings as he did. “Da!” he yelled, ignoring Owen’s pained expression. “Da, mum’s got a letter and she wants you to see.”

Owen frowned. “A letter?”

“Yeah.” Alo gestured back to the house. “She looked a bit…come on, da!”

“Alright, alright.” Owen swung himself clumsily down from the tractor and gestured for Dewi to continue whatever he’d been doing before Alo had interrupted. “What’s this about a letter then, bay?”

Alo shrugged. “I dunno, she wouldn’t tell me. But it’s got the regime thingy on it.”

Owen didn’t say anything more, but picked up the pace. Alo had to actually jog to keep up. “What’s going on, da?”

“Prob’ly nothing,” Owen said unconvincingly. “Go back and help Dewi.”

“No!” Alo was outraged. “I want to know what’s going on!”

“See what your mum says,” Owen told him half-heartedly as they reached the yard. Catherine was still sitting where Alo had left her.

“Go to your room, Alo,” she said when she saw him.

“No!” Alo drew himself up and scowled. “I want to know what’s going on! What’s the letter?”

“It’s none of your business,” Catherine snapped as Owen took the letter from her hand and began to read.

“I live here too!”

“Not that you’d know it! You don’t do a lick of work around here, young man, so you can drop the high and mighty tone with me!”

“But ma -!”

“Quiet.”

They both stared at Owen, who was still looking at the letter, giving no sign he had actually given an order.

“What?” Alo was the first to recover.

Owen pulled out the chair next to Catherine and sat down heavily, seeming to crumple into it, all the life draining out of him. Alo backed up a step, a bit scared now. “Da? What’s wrong?”

“We have to tell him,” Owen muttered to Catherine. “He does live here. Better sooner than later, eh?”

“What is it?” Alo was frantic now.

“Sit down, bay.” Owen motioned the seat opposite them, and Alo lowered himself into the chair slowly. “Here.” He passed the letter over, and Alo took it hesitantly, no longer so sure that he wanted to read whatever had caused this change to come over his parents.

It was a regime letter. Alo frowned as he struggled his way through the jargon. Phrases swam in front of his eyes - ‘for the betterment of the public order’ ‘at the insistence of President Carver’ ‘compensation of a fair amount’ ‘the Land Reclaim Edict will affect a number of small farms such as yours’

“They’re taking the farm?” he said hoarsely, looking up at his parents, begging them to say no, that it was a mistake, that something could be done. He may complain about it every day, but Creevey Farm was his home, where he had grown up. And most importantly, it was everything to his parents. They were both farmers - they didn’t know how to do anything else.

Their silence was all the answer he needed.

“No!” he threw the letter away and got to his feet in one rough movement. “They can’t do that!”

“They already have.”  Catherine sounded smaller, somehow. Defeated. “We have a week to sell up and move out.”

“No!” Alo shook his head. “There must be something we can do! We can’t just, just sit here and let them take the farm!”

“It’s done, bay.” Owen sounded like Catherine. Old and broken. “There’s nothing we can do. If we don’t do it, we won’t get the compensation.”

“Fuck the compensation!” Alo pleaded. “Come on! We should chain ourselves to the tractors or something! What’ll happen to Dewi?”

“We don’t know.” Catherine lowered her head and Alo wanted to scream. She hadn’t even told him off for saying ‘fuck’.

“But we can’t leave.” Alo thought if only he could get them to understand, if only they saw sense…

“There’s nothing we can do, Alo,” Owen said slowly, emphasising each word. Alo stared at them, feeling like he was about to explode, and turned and ran out without a word. He felt for his keys and jumped into the van, noticing distantly that he didn’t have much fuel left. He decided to coast most of the way into Bristol and started the engine, unable to look at Dewi as he rolled into the yard and waved a hand in greeting. What would happen to Dewi? He had never worked anywhere else, as far as Alo knew. He was family as much as Rags and his parents.

He pulled up outside Rich’s house on automatic and felt sick as he realised that Grace might be over. He needed Rich on his own right now, the way they’d always been. He prayed she wasn’t there as he knocked on the door. Kevin opened it and smiled when he saw who it was. “Hey there, Alo. Rich is upstairs - don’t think he’s up yet.”

“Thanks, Kevin,” Alo said honestly, slipping in and taking the stairs three at a time. He burst into Rich’s room without knocking as Rich was pulling on his jeans. “Alo?” He pulled them up and frowned at him as he did up his belt. “What’s wrong?”

Rich knew him so well.

Alo flopped down on the bed and dropped his head into his hands. “They’re taking the farm, Rich,” he told his knees miserably. “The fucking regime. They’re taking the farm.”

“What?” Rich stood still for a moment and then dragged a t-shirt over his head before sitting next to Alo. “What the fuck? Were your parents doing something dodgy or something?”

“No,” Alo shook his head and didn’t raise it. “It’s a new law or something, the regime has the right to take any land they want, and they’re taking ours.” He sounded like he was about to cry, and Rich put his hand on his shoulder without thinking.

“Can they do that?”

“Yeah.” Alo scrubbed his hands through his hair and sniffed. “We’ve got a week, or we don’t get any compensation money.”

“Fuck.” Rich was aghast. “Fuck!”

There wasn’t much more to say, Alo thought. His dad was right - there really was nothing they could do. If they resisted, the regime would take their farm and land anyway and not give them any money for it. There was no way out.

“I don’t want to move out, Rich.” Alo continued to speak to his knees. “There’s nowhere for us to go, ‘cept maybe my Aunty Pippa’s.”

Rich was silent for a long time. “There must be other farms they’re doing this to,” he said finally. “Other people - if everyone stood together…”

“It’ll never work,” Alo told him sadly. “If we don’t get the money for the farm, we’re broke, forever. No one will risk it.”

“Fucked then,” Rich muttered, and Alo made a dejected sound of agreement. “Right - it’s Sunday, so I’ll get beer, and you’ll stay over and we’ll do fuck all and watch films and play games, alright?”

“Cheers, mate.” Alo said quietly.

“Shut up,” Rich nudged him. In context, ‘shut up’ roughly translated to ‘I’m really sorry it’s going down the shitter for you, so I’ll try and take your mind off it’. “I’ll be back in a bit, yeah? Have breakfast or something.”

“Cheers.”

Rich made the fastest beer run he’d ever made in his life and forced Alo to watch movies with him until the early hours of the morning, when they finally went to bed, slightly drunk. Alo lay out next to Rich’s bed in the caterpillar sleeping bag he always used and patted the side of the bed unsteadily.

“Your brill, Rich, y’know that?”

“Yes.” Rich replied simply, less drunk than Alo.

“Can I live here?” Alo asked sadly. “I mean, if I’ve gotta leave the farm now…I need somewhere to live.”

“Sure,” Rich agreed. “Ask Kevin though, yeah? Or, or we could try moving you in secretly. Like, a sock at a time.”

“I could live in the van.” Alo considered.

“Nah,” Rich frowned. “Need an address for college and shit, don’t you?”

“I’ll drop out then.” Alo snorted. “S’not like I’m any good at it. Farm was all I was gonna do.”

“You could get a job,” Rich suggested.

“Maybe.” Alo didn’t sound very enthusiastic. “Hey, I know - I’ll live in the bunker, with Rags, right, and you guys can feed me!”

“Yeah, we could do that.” Rich went along with it. “I mean, if we all chipped in a little bit…and people chuck out mattresses all the time, and we could get an old microwave from somewhere or something like that so you could have actual food, not just crisps and shit…”

“Sounds like a plan,” Alo mumbled, dropping off.

“Yeah.” Rich rolled over and looked down at his friend, eyes closed with small lines still etched into his forehead. He looked scared, maybe, or angry. Frustrated was a better word. A little desperate too. And there was nothing he could do to help. There was nothing anyone could do to help.

His parents were both out when Alo went home the next morning, not caring about college. Out, and there was a note left on his bed. He picked it up silently and unfolded it - it was written in Catherine’s handwriting.

We’re selling what we can of the furniture and whatnot, so you had better decide what to do with your things. Your father and I have decided to go and stay with your Aunty Pippa until we get things sorted out. After that, we’ll make a proper decision. Love, Mum.

His things. Alo looked blankly around his bedroom, already calculating what his computers would fetch, what he could get for his PlayStation, his stereo, his CD’s, DVD’s and games.

No, he thought, backing out of the room unsteadily. Not yet. He would talk to his parents first, find out what they were going to do. And then he would decide what he was going to do.

One thing from yesterday had lodged firmly in his mind - the bunker. He could do it, he could live in there with Rags, walk him on the Downs. He could take his own mattress. He could live there, live off the proceeds of his stuff, which he would sell. He could do it. He knew he could. And his parents wouldn’t be able to stop him. He could stay in college for a while until they caught on, and who knew? Maybe they never would. Maybe he could actually finish the year out, even do the next one. Get a job.

No, you needed an actual address for that.

He could use Rich’s address! Rich wouldn’t mind, he was sure. He could do it, he could really do it, he could -

The front door opened and slammed closed. Alo paused outside his room and listened. His parents were back - he recognised their voices, but he couldn’t hear what they were saying.

“Mum?” he said loudly, jumping down the stairs. “Da?”

They turned to face him in the hall.

“You’re back then.” Catherine looked tired, Owen too. “A text or something would’ve been nice, Alo, we didn’t know where you’d gone.”

“Yeah you did.” Alo was taken aback. “I was at Rich’s - I always go to Rich’s when…” he trailed off and looked down. There was a long silence. “What’re you gonna do?” he asked eventually, looking back up at them.

“Didn’t you read your note?” Catherine snapped and sighed, frowning. “We’ll sell up what we can quickly, get the rest over to Pippa’s, and then…”

“We were thinking a fresh start,” Owen said quietly. “Somewhere where this can’t happen.”

“But the regime’s everywhere, Da, you can’t get away from it.” Alo frowned, not understanding.

“Regime’s only here in the UK, bay,” Owen said gently. “We were thinking somewhere beyond. Europe, maybe. Ireland’s close.”

“What?” Alo couldn’t think, could only stare, dumbfounded. “Ireland?” A million miles away from home! He screamed mentally, curling up in a ball and clinging to the banisters like he had when he was a baby and hadn’t wanted to go to bed. A million miles away from Rich, Franky and the others. Miles away from everything he knew, everything familiar.

“If Ireland’s too close, we thought p’rhaps Germany or summit,” Owen continued. “America if we’re really ambitious.”

“America!” Alo shouted, as his brain protested that none of them could actually speak German. “I’m not going to America!”

“You’ll go where we tell you to go, my lad,” Catherine said sharply.

Alo snapped his jaw shut and narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t a baby hanging onto the banisters anymore, he thought. Mumgabe’s scare tactics weren’t going to work this time. “I’m not going.”

“Well you can’t stay here.” Catherine drew herself up to her full height, which didn’t really have much of an effect. “So I don’t see that you have much of a choice, Aloysius Creevey.”

“I do, actually.” Alo crossed his arms. “And I choose to stay here.”

“Bay,” Owen stepped forward, his voice soft like he was trying to calm a frightened animal. “They’re gonna tear the house down. Build on it, like. You can’t stay here.”

“Not here here,” Alo clarified. “I mean in Bristol. I’ll live there, and sell my stuff like you, and…I’ll see you around.”

“Oh don’t be stupid, Alo.” Catherine scowled. “You’re coming with us, whether you like it or not.”

“Or what?” Alo felt a steely calm envelop him. “You’ll take my stuff? You’ll stop giving me petrol money? Make me work more on the farm? You can’t. I’m staying here, and you can’t stop me.”

“Just you watch me!” Catherine shouted furiously. “I have not cared for you all your life to have you waltz out on us whenever you please, my lad! We have not slaved away on this farm to watch you bugger off without so much as a by-your-leave when it gets hairy! You are sticking with us like a good son, and that’s final!”

“No!” Alo shouted right back. “I’m not going! I’ll live with my friends till I can get my own place, and you can go wherever you’re going without me! We can’t even speak German!”

“Bay -” Owen started, but Alo cut him off.

“No, listen, Da. I’m staying. If you really want, you can sell my stuff, but I want my mattress. And I’m keeping Rags,” he added firmly. “He’s my dog.” As if he’d been called, the old mongrel trotted in and sat happily at Alo’s feet. “See?” Alo looked down at him as though presenting irrefutable proof. “We’re staying.”

“This is the thanks we get?” Catherine advanced dangerously. “We’ve given you everything, and this is how you repay us!”

“I’m sorry!” Alo cried. “That what you want? I’m sorry, but I can’t leave! All my friends are here, and what about college? And…I’m sorry.” He looked at them, and then down at Rags. Catherine started to speak angrily, but Owen put a hand on her shoulder.

“Go to your room, Alo,” He said quietly. “We’ll talk.”

“Alright,” Alo mumbled, and went upstairs, Rags at his heels. He stayed up there for a good hour, rifling half-heartedly through his things and wondering how much he would be able to get for them on eBay, or pawn shops. After a while he got tired of that and lay down to listen to some music on his bed. He didn’t want to hear it if they started shouting at each other. It had never happened before, but everything had changed now, and he didn’t think he would be able to hold himself together if his parents started to crack.

Finally, there was a knock on the door, loud enough to be heard over Wolf Parade, and Alo sat up and slid his headphones off in one movement as the door opened, pushed by Owen. He gave Alo a long, steady look, and neither of them said a word for a moment. It was Owen who broke the silence.

“You mum and I have decided that you can stay,” he said quietly, and Alo jumped up.

“Yes!” he flung his arms round Owen’s shoulders and squeezed, ignoring his father’s discomfort. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“You gotta keep in contact mind,” Owen said sternly once Alo had let go.

“Yeah, ‘course, you know I will.” Alo grinned, breathless with relief.

“We’re going to let you sell your own stuff too,” Owen added. “But you gotta understand one thing, Alo.”

“Yeah?”

“We’re only letting you do this because, well…with the farm gone you’d prob’ly move back here in a couple of years anyway, and we don’t want to interrupt your education…and what with the regime being the way it is…” He frowned and rubbed the back of his head in a troubled way. “We just don’t want you gettin’ in trouble, bay.” He sighed. “We don’t want you gettin’ hurt. You gotta promise to be careful if you stay here, alright?”

“No problem,” Alo gabbled, over the moon. “Whatever you say, Da, I mean it.”

“Good.” Owen frowned some more and then stood back and jerked his head at the corridor. “Come an’ talk to your mum then.”

“Right.” Alo’s tone changed abruptly from happy to resigned. “Yeah, alright.” He let Owen lead the way downstairs. “Da?”

“Mm?”

“What’s gonna happen to Dewi?”

“He’ll be alright,” Owen assured him, though he sounded sad. “He’s got contacts with other farms, he’ll find work.”

“Have you told him?”

“After you ran off yesterday.”

“Oh.” Alo paused just before they reached the kitchen. “Sorry about that, Da.”

“S’alright, bay. It wasn’t a nice piece of news.” He pushed open the door and stayed outside as Alo went in and saw Catherine sitting at the table. As she looked up, he pretended not to see that her eyes were a little red.

“Your father’s told you our decision?” she said briskly, as though nothing was wrong.

“Yeah.” Alo nodded, keeping his eyes fixed on hers. This was the real moment of truth.

“Well then.” She breathed in deeply and let it out in a slow sigh. “We’ll let you sell your things your own way, but just be aware that it needs to be out by Friday.”

“I’m sorry, Ma,” Alo whispered.

“Yes, well.” She looked down and swallowed before continuing, the tone of her voice staying firm. “We’re trusting you, Alo. And it’s not because you’re grown up, or because we’re losing the farm - it’s because you’re not giving us much of a choice.”

“Sorry,” Alo said again, shamed.

Catherine hmphed and crossed her arms, frowning at him. “So help me, my lad, if you don’t call us. I don’t care if we go all the way to Canada - we’ll write, if needs be.”

“Yes, Mum,” Alo said obediently.

“I’m not pleased it’s come to this,” Catherine told him quietly, getting up. “But if we have to let you go…well, it’ll be on good terms at least. Now get a good price for all your rubbish, or take it with you.” Her voice wobbled a bit at the end, and Alo almost hugged her, but she brushed past him and out of the kitchen. Like he was going to walk out of their lives, he thought distantly. He’d never really expected to truly fly the nest, but the regime was practically shoving him out - what else could he do but fall?

He rang Rich that night and told him everything. Rich was ecstatic of course, not that he showed it - to anyone but Alo he would have sounded as grumpy and pessimistic as ever, but Alo could tell how happy he was. He could hear it in his voice, and it made him smile, the feeling of relief buoying him up, helped by the remains of the hash in his bong, probably, but that wasn’t important. The important thing was that not only was he staying in Bristol, but he practically had his parents’ blessing. All was right with the world. He grinned and fell asleep with Rags snoring on his chest. Everything would be fine.

“You what?”

“Come again?”

“No way!”

Alo sat back in his seat, surprised at the strength of the response from Nick, Franky and Mini. “Um.”

“Can they even do that? You can’t tell me that’s legal?” Liv asked incredulously.

“It’s legal,” Alo told them gloomily. “We get compensation, but…the farm was all my folks had, really. They’re going to live with my aunt for a bit and then they’re going to leave the country, they said.”

“Wait, are you going with them?” Franky asked, horrified.

Alo smiled slightly, a little flattered by the reaction. “They’re letting me stay. I was going to ask you about that, actually, since it’s technically yours.”

“What?” Franky looked confused.

“Can I live in the bunker?” Alo asked tentatively. “Not forever, or anything, but till…well, for a bit, anyway.”

“Sure.” Franky grinned. “No problem. But…what’re you going to do for food?”

“I reckon I can persuade my parents to give me a few things,” Alo explained. “And I can sell a lot of my stuff. I’ll keep coming to college for as long as I can, but they kind of need an address and phone numbers and stuff, so I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep that up.” He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

“We’ll help out.” Nick looked around at the others. “Won’t we, guys?”

“Of course we will.” Grace nodded. “You can use one of our addresses if it comes to it, can’t you?”

“I can try, I s’pose.” Alo grinned, unable to believe his luck. A few short months ago, he would have only had Rich’s help to deal with this. Now he had a whole pack. He beamed at Rich as if to tell him what he was thinking, and Rich gave him a wry look back, understanding perfectly. It was happening, this awful thing, but because of his friends, he wasn’t losing everything.

Only mostly everything, but at least they would be there for him. Alo just wanted to hug them all, so happy they said they would help, that they would be there for him. He was sure it would all turn out, if not brilliantly, then okay, which was a definite step up from where he was standing. He had friends. It would be fine.

“Fucking hell, Farmboy!” Mini stood back with a huff of relief, surveying the mattress she’d helped to shove in the van. They’d had to strip the inside to make enough room, and it was still a very tight squeeze.

“What?” Alo frowned slightly, noticing how pale Mini had become. “I like a big bed.”

“Well some of us can make do perfectly well with a single.” She sounded fine and she sashayed round to the passenger seat, so Alo followed suit.

“Yeah, but I need a big one for all my lady friends,” he teased, leering at her as he climbed in.

“Ewwww!” she cried, but couldn’t help laughing. “Gross, Farmboy!”

“I take it you’re not up for joining them then?” Alo pulled an exaggerated sad face as he started the engine and shifted gears.

“Uh, no, shockingly.” Mini snorted. “Hurry up, this is going to take ages to get into the bunker.”

“On it.” Alo reversed out and spun the van around carelessly, making Mini grab the dashboard to steady herself. “You alright?” he asked once they were on the road.

“Fine, fine.” Mini let go of the dashboard slowly and pulled her seatbelt on. “Do your seatbelt up, Farmboy, you drive like a nutcase.”

“I happen to be a professional,” Alo told her mock-snootily, but yanked the belt on to please her anyway. “Nick’s there to help us get it in, right?”

“Yeah.” Mini checked her watch and shook her head. “You’re lucky we’re both early risers, you know.”

“Well so am I.” Alo grinned at the sky, which was pink with sunrise. They had decided that the best way to get Alo’s things into the bunker was to sneak them in early in the morning, before any people were around. Hence the slowly lightening sky and the four thirty start.

They made it to Bristol in good time because of the lack of traffic, and stopped on the road next to the scrubland where the entrance to the bunker was hidden. Nick was waiting, leaning against a tree with a cigarette pinched between his lips, huddled into his hoodie. “Alright?” he asked, jogging over. He threw the end of the fag on the road and crushed it out with his toe. “You wrapped it up, yeah?”

“Like a Christmas present.” Alo nodded and opened the back of the van. To stop it getting covered in dirt on the way down, he and Mini had wrapped it tightly in cling film and plastic bags. “I just hope it’ll fit down the hole.”

“Hurry up,” Mini hissed, looking around anxiously.

They dragged the mattress out into the trees and waited while Alo drove away to park the van and ran back to them. Then they carried the unwieldy thing down the steep slope to the hole. “How exactly do you plan on doing this?” Mini asked breathlessly as she hauled the cover off.

“Um…” Alo squinted at the hole, pursed his lips and turned back to the mattress. “Okay, I’ll be right back.”

“Why?” Nick asked, his eyes wide at the prospect of having to wait alone with Mini, who had narrowed her eyes at his tone.

“Getting rope, you’ll see.” Alo stumbled back up into the trees. “Back in just a second.”

Nick watched him crash away and swallowed anxiously as he turned to Mini. “Um…”

“I don’t bite, you know,” she snapped, and he backed up a step.

“Sorry,” he muttered, digging around in his pockets for his packet of cigarettes and his lighter. He didn’t think he had ever needed them more. “Uh…fag?” he offered, trying to be polite.

“Inhale nicotine, tar and carcinogens into my lungs?” Mini shot him a withering look. “No thanks. They won’t help your breathing when you work out, you know,” she added snidely.

“Not a problem,” Nick said as he lit up and inhaled deeply. “Ahhhh…”

“Why not?” Mini frowned.

“Kicked off the team, remember?” Nick tried to sound careless, but he winced slightly as he realised he sounded sad instead.

“No excuse to let yourself go.” Mini recovered instantly. “I wouldn’t. All that crap you put in your body -”

“Well it makes me feel better,” Nick snapped, and was bitterly gratified when Mini fell silent.

“Can I ask you a question?” she asked a minute or so later.

Nick blew smoke out of his nose. “Sure.”

“Did you ever actually fancy me?”

Nick looked across at her, surprised at the quiet, vulnerable tone of her voice. She didn’t look confident and sassy anymore either - she was leaning against a tree, her legs pressed together and her arms wrapped around herself. She was looking down so her hair mostly covered her face. “Of course I did,” he told her honestly.

“Then why did you fuck Liv?” Mini looked up at him angrily.

Nick frowned, stalling for time by taking another drag. “I don’t know,” he said finally, wimping out. “I just don’t -”

“Bullshit!” Mini said indignantly, standing up straight. “You said you fancied me, so why did you fuck her?”

“It’s complicated.” Nick wondered desperately when Alo would come back.

“Don’t give me that.” Mini scowled. “Tell me the truth. Give me a straight answer for once.”

“Look, Mins…” Nick fidgeted awkwardly, flicking the stub of his cigarette away and lighting up another. “It’s just…I don’t know, I don’t know how to explain it.”

“Try,” she demanded, crossing her arms stubbornly. “You fancied me, but you fucked her - why?”

“Because I liked her!” Nick burst out. “Alright? She was…more like me. I didn’t understand you, Mins! I didn’t know anything about you other than how fit you were! And Liv, I don’t know…she was there, and she got it, and…”

“And she put out,” Mini concluded coldly, and Nick pointed his fingers holding his cigarette at her accusingly.

“And you lied.”

Mini opened her mouth to snap back, but paused and closed it before saying anything. “I didn’t,” she said finally, and Nick snorted.

“Come on. You were a virgin. You could have said, you know.”

“No I couldn’t!” Mini hissed. “And I wasn’t.” She added hurriedly.

“You were,” Nick said flatly. “Why couldn’t you say?”

“Because you would’ve broken up with me!” Mini stalked over and poked a perfectly manicured finger into his chest. “Or laughed at me or told all your stupid rugby mates or something. You didn’t want a virgin! You wanted a fucking sex kitten! You wanted someone like Liv,” she finished sourly.

“Well you know what? I did.” Nick snapped. “I still do, actually. Do you know why guys like Liv more than you?”

Mini swallowed but kept holding his gaze furiously. “Why?”

“Because she isn’t fake,” Nick said nastily. “She knows what she is and what she’s like and she doesn’t pretend to be anything else, but you do. All the time, Mins, you’re always pretending. And people can tell, you know? It’s like…Liv invites people in but you’re like an ice queen or something, you don’t want anyone to get close.”

“That’s not true,” Mini protested quietly.

“Yes it is!” Nick protested. “I could tell you were making up excuses to get out of having sex with me, how do you think that made me feel? It was really fucking confusing, Mini - you kept saying you loved me, like, all the fucking time, but you never actually let me anywhere near you. And now I don’t have you, and I can’t have Liv because she’s with Matty, and Matty’s back and better at everything just like before.” His tone turned harsh and bitter. “And now my dad hates me and I’m off the rugby team and everything’s shit, so why not drink and smoke?” He lifted his cigarette, which had mostly burned away while they’d been arguing. “What’s the fucking point anyway?”

They glared balefully at each other, and Alo watched from behind a tree, having heard the raised voices and crept back quietly, the rope slung over one arm. He knew he was intruding, big-time, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He was too intrigued by the information he’d just heard and too sorry for his friends. No wonder Nick was always drunk these days, or why Mini had boy issues.

He could show her boys weren’t all bastards, a part of him whispered. He could prove to her that he wasn’t a wanker like the rest of them, that he would treat her well and not be nasty to her.

But saying that right now would be a really stupid idea, even he knew that, so he lobbed a stick into the bushes behind him and waited for a second as Nick and Mini looked away from each other and Mini went back to the other side of the mattress before he slid down into the clearing. “Got it.” He held out the rope and grinned at Nick. “Help me, yeah? If you fold it over, we can tie it down.” He smiled at Mini, who smiled back half-heartedly.

“Right.”

“Cool.” Nick nodded and hauled one side of the mattress on top of the other, folding it in half lengthways, to make a long, thin sausage shape.

“Right, if I lift it up, can you slip the rope under?” Alo handed the rope to Mini, who nodded.

“Yeah, fine. No problem.”

Once the mattress was all tied up, it wasn’t too difficult to lower it slowly down the hole and manoeuver it through the tunnels and into the bunker. They paused to catch their breaths in the T for a few minutes before shoving it down the stairs into the lower levels. Past the offices and down to the floor below where they hauled it into the closest room on the left. It took up most of the floor, but Alo said that would be alright because he didn’t plan to do anything in there but sleep.

By then, it was almost six thirty, and they relaxed in the T for a while, lounging on the sofas to wait until they could go into college.

“I’m starving,” Nick moaned. “Didn’t have time for breakfast this morning. Reckon we could go to the shops?”

“Why not?” Alo nodded. “I’m feeling a bit peckish. What about you, Minerva McGuiness?”

“I’m not hungry.” She shook her head and smiled.

“You’re never hungry!” Nick cried disbelievingly. “I swear, you never eat.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Mini snapped defensively. “I eat plenty. Ask Grace and Liv. I just don’t eat crap, that’s all. Do you know how many calories there are in shit like McDonalds? And even in shop-bought salads, it’s insane.” She spoke with authority on this subject and Alo shook his head sadly.

“Mini, you are taking all the fun out of eating by counting shit like that.”

“Well it takes effort to look this good, you know,” she shot back at him, and he raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.

“And you look gorgeous all the time, but I am hungry, so let’s go, yeah?”

Nick nodded and jumped to his feet. “Yeah! I could murder a fry-up.”

“You’re disgusting.” Mini tossed her hair disdainfully. “Come on then, you pigs. Let’s get out of here.”

Alo stood next to Owen and Catherine outside their house, staring at the stones and windows as if they would suddenly form a creature to stop the regime from demolishing it. Vain hope. Alo felt a bit like crying now the moment was here. He didn’t want to live underground. He was used to wide spaces and big fields and glorious sunrises in the morning.

“Your granddad lived here, you know,” Owen said suddenly in an incredibly sad voice. “And my grandda too. I always thought…” He trailed off and Catherine took his arm. Alo bowed his head, suddenly angry beyond belief that the regime had done this. How dare they take what they had no right to take? How could they live with stealing his home and destroying it, and by extension their lives, his and his parents’? All their animals, gone. This year’s crop, worthless, not allowed to grow to be harvested. All their old, familiar belongings, sold or scrapped. And his own family, thrown out to rely on others for shelter before starting their whole lives from scratch. It was so unfair.

“You’ll visit this week,” Catherine told Alo firmly. “At Pippa’s.”

“Course, Ma.” Alo turned to her and was shocked as she wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. Hesitantly, he hugged her back for a second before she pulled away, sniffing loudly.

“Right then.” She surveyed the front door determinedly. “No point beating around the bush. They won’t need keys,” she added bitterly. “So let’s get going. Come on.” She took Owen’s arm again and pushed him round gently. “Come on.”

“I’ll see you on Thursday?” Alo asked as they walked to the car.

“Six o’clock.” Catherine nodded over her shoulder. “And god help you if you’re late, my boy.”

“See you there,” Alo said quietly, watching as Catherine pressed Owen into the driver’s seat and herself into the other side. She had to nudge Owen before he started the engine and pulled out of the yard. Dewi had left the day before, so now it was just Alo, and Rags of course, shut in the van. He waited until his parents had driven away before going over and letting his dog out. “Come on, boy,” he whispered, whistling so Rags wouldn’t run off. He stuck to his heel as Alo unlocked the front door and stepped in, not closing it behind him.

The house was bare and empty. No ancient pictures on the walls, no dusty chairs and sofas in the sitting room or kitchen. The cutlery was gone, all the appliances with it. Some of the rooms echoed slightly without furniture to muffle the sound. Alo ran his hand over the radiator in the hall, speckled with faint purple paint from an artistic break-out he’d had as a toddler. He’d been smacked for that, he remembered.

“Heel, Rags,” he muttered, going upstairs to his bedroom. All his things he hadn’t managed to sell yet were down at the bunker, including his dismantled bedframe and CD racks. His room was bigger than he remembered it, without the bed and all the usual crap on the floor. It looked sad without all his stuff in it, he thought. Rags yawned behind him, and Alo turned to look at him, trying to smile. “Least I’ve still got you, eh, Rags?”

Rags made a whining sound as if he was agreeing and Alo bent down to ruffle his ears the way he liked it. “Good boy, Rags,” he crooned. “Gooooood boy.” Rags licked at his hands happily and Alo straightened up with a sigh, turning to go back downstairs. He ran his hand over the banisters as he went, one slow step at a time.

He was halfway down when the sound of steps outside made him pause. Rags’ ears went back, but he didn’t bark, and Alo felt the sudden wild desire to hide. It faded just before the door was pushed open properly and two men in suits walked in. “Oh.” One of them saw Alo and stared in surprise. “We thought everyone had gone.”

“I’m just leaving,” Alo said quietly, carefully not glaring at them or doing anything that might seem threatening. He didn’t want his parents to lose the compensation money because he’d done something stupid.

“You lived here?” the other man queried, and Alo nodded. What was it to him? “Ah, well.” The man paused awkwardly, but then met Alo’s eyes again as he stepped aside to let him through the door. “I’m sorry about this.”

Alo bit his tongue to stop himself saying something like, “Well why don’t you do something about it then?” Instead, he just whistled. “Come, Rags.” He was a shade taller than the suited man, and he held his gaze as Rags trotted down the stairs and slipped through their legs into the yard. He didn’t say another word, but gave them both one last, hard look before stepping out and closing the door sharply behind him. He didn’t feel any better, or any angrier. He didn’t think that was possible. He wanted to scream like a child and punch both their stupid, smart faces over and over until they were just a mess of blood and bruises and broken teeth.

But instead, he whistled again for Rags, climbed into his van and drove away, not looking back. He wanted to remember his home the way it had been. He knew he would never see it again. From now on, he lived underground in a bunker that still smelled funny in most places, with his dog and the help of his friends.

Part 4

Diagrams for the bunker and the tunnels are here.