The Power of Five Oblivion

pistol. When the Traveller had given it to me, I’d doubted that I’d ever be able to use it. But if Major Higham or his charming wife had come anywhere near me just then, I’d have gladly blown their heads off. I saw that Jamie had his gun too. I did wonder if he couldn’t just tell the entire village to drop dead, but I wasn’t sure if that was how his power worked and this probably wasn’t the time to ask.
    We ran across the village green, keeping our heads low. We could see lights behind the windows of the Punch Tavern but there didn’t seem to be anyone around. The canal was right ahead of us – and there was the Lady Jane , waiting quietly, moored to the side. I was doubly glad now that we had gone through the locks. Opening and closing gates in the darkness would have been impossible.
    Jamie had the key to the boat door. He took it out and handed it to the Traveller.
    “As soon as I start the engine, they’ll hear us,” the Traveller warned. “Be ready with your guns.”
    “Will they be able to follow us?” I asked.
    It was probably a stupid question and I never got the answer because at that exact moment the entire scene lit up. We hadn’t seen them in the darkness and I’ll never know why we hadn’t heard them. Maybe it was because they were parked in the distance, on the other side of the locks.
    There was a ring of police cars. The headlamps had been turned on and they were focused on us, hemming us in, blinding us. As I stared – completely shocked – a woman walked forward, crossing the canal and continuing right up to us. At first she was silhouetted against the light and I could only make out her long hair and her coat flapping around her legs. But then she reached us and I recognized the woman who had come out of the helicopter and who had given the orders for first Miss Keyland and then everyone else in my village to be killed.
    “Well, well, well,” she said. “A canal boat. Who would have thought it?”
    Jamie opened his mouth to speak and I knew he was going to use his power to make her go away. But before he could say anything, she hit him with her fist. She was surprisingly strong. Jamie was knocked to the ground, dazed. At the same time, a whole crowd of police officers closed in. They were all carrying weapons. There were more than a dozen of them. We had nowhere to run.
    “Kill the man and the girl,” the woman said. “And then let’s take the boy.”
    I still couldn’t see. The light was dancing in my eyes. The Traveller reached out and took hold of me and together we waited for the end.

THIRTY-EIGHT
    There was a burst of gunfire, a thousand bullets being fired at the same time. But it wasn’t the police firing at us. The shots were coming from behind us and as I turned round I saw the crowd from the Punch Tavern, a whole line of them, firing at the police. They had finally figured out that we’d slipped away and they had come slithering into the night, carrying weapons that they must have collected from their houses. I don’t know why they had chosen the police as their targets instead of us. Maybe they were protecting themselves. After all, the police had completely destroyed my own village and perhaps word had got round. Alternatively, given that the major and his friends were both horrible and sick, it could be that they saw a year’s supply of prime steak inside those blue uniforms. In any event, they had decided that the police were their main enemy and so that was who they were taking out first.
    The police had no time to react. They had been aiming at us and hadn’t seen the figures rising out of the darkness. There was a crowd of villagers firing at them simultaneously and at least half of them were blown off their feet in the opening salvo. At the same time, the headlights were blinking out, one by one, as they were hit, which was good for us because darkness would be the one thing we would have on our side. I glanced at Jamie, who was still lying on the grass, half-hidden in shadow and to some extent out of harm’s way. Maybe he was making everyone fire in the wrong direction because, miraculously, neither the Traveller nor I had been killed.
    Not yet, anyway.
    “Get down, Holly!” the Traveller shouted at me and although I hardly heard his words above the roar of the gunfire, I pitched myself forward onto my stomach even as bullets streamed over my head. I was lucky. There was a trench in the ground, barely more than a few inches deep, but the