Dog Blood

wherever we’re needed. As a result our numbers are increasingly spread out, and the enemy has taken advantage of this.”
    “What’s he talking about?”
    Preston glares at me. “Just shut up and listen.”
    “They’ve pulled back into the hearts of their remaining cities, pulling their people closer together and drawing them in from the outside. There’s strength in numbers, and we need to do something similar. We need to stop fighting as individuals and form a coordinated attack force, an army if you will.”
    “But they’ll hunt us out. If we start grouping together in large numbers, they’ll find us and-”
    Preston sighs and pauses the video. He rubs his eyes and shakes his head.
    “This is so much bigger than you and me, Danny,” he says. “We’re just cogs in a machine, and we’re expendable. Ankin’s not talking about setting up a military force with sergeants and captains and the like. He’s just trying to get us to work together and coordinate our efforts.”
    “I understand that, but-”
    “We have to start making better use of the people and resources we’ve got, and start hitting the enemy where it hurts. If we can do enough damage to start them off, they’ll destroy themselves. You heard about London, didn’t you?”
    “No. I haven’t heard anything for weeks.”
    “It happened incredibly quickly. We lost thousands that night but they lost many, many more.”
    “How? What happened?”
    He seems surprised that I don’t know.
    “The mother of all battles,” he explains. “We came at them from all angles, caused so much panic and confusion that they lost control. In the end the only option left for them was to destroy it completely.”
    “Jesus…”
    “And we can make the same thing happen again and again if we learn to fight smarter. We don’t have any choice. Our only alternative is to wait out here in the wastelands until they decide to come out into the open again and hunt us down, but by then it’ll be too late. We have to act now.”
    “So what do you want from me?”
    He looks straight at me and puts down the laptop, giving up on the video. This feels ominous. He’s going to ask me to sign up and join his happy brigade of killers, I know he is. Thing is, apart from Adam, I’ve spent weeks fighting alone. Do I really want to go back to being one face in hundreds again? I’ve never been any good at taking orders.
    “We want you to fight with us,” he says, unsurprisingly. I bite my tongue. “The more of us there are, the better our chances will be. Tell me about yourself, Danny. What your skills are, where you’re heading…”
    “Don’t know where to start.”
    For a moment I truly am flummoxed. No aspect of my former life has any bearing on me today, and as far as skills are concerned, what does he expect me to tell him? That I’ve got a Certificate in Dismemberment? A PhD in Asphyxiation Techniques? The sudden protracted silence is uncomfortable.
    “Well, what did you do before all of this?”
    “I worked in an office.”
    “Okay, what line of business?”
    “Processing parking fines.”
    Preston pauses to try to get his head around the banality of my prewar existence.
    “Not much call for that these days,” he sighs without a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “Any special skills? Military or police experience?”
    I feel suddenly inadequate. What we do is instinctive, not taught. My answer is automatic and stupid.
    “I was in the Scouts for a while.”
    “Don’t screw around,” he warns. “I’m serious.”
    “No, nothing.”
    “So now you’re just drifting without a purpose? Spending your time hiding behind the corpses of our people?”
    “I wasn’t hiding,” I snap quickly, annoyed by his tone. “We were just passing through.”
    “That’s what they all say.”
    Truth is, I have been as directionless as he’s implying-but now I’ve got a reason to keep moving.
    “Actually,” I announce, “I’m heading home.”
    “Home? Why the hell would you want to do that? What possible reason could you have for wanting any connection with your past life?”
    “I want to find my daughter.”
    He looks up, his interest suddenly piqued.
    “Why?”
    What do I tell him now? Have I made a mistake admitting I want to look for Ellis? Does he think I’m less of a man because of it? A weaker fighter? That I’m in league with the enemy even? Do I even know why I want to find Ellis? What am I hoping to achieve? Life with her could never be like