Them or Us

feel less ill than usual. Could it be that the drugs Ankin’s doctor gave me are actually having a positive effect? I feel stronger today, and this sudden, drug-fueled change in my health makes me realize how sick I really have become. A hole in the road causes the van to lurch. I hit my head against the window and sit up. Llewellyn looks across and sees that I’m awake.
    “Fuck me, you took your time coming around,” he says. “I was starting to get worried. Thought Ankin’s quack had given you an overdose.”
    The doctor. Injections. It starts coming back to me. I sit up and try to rub my eyes, but my wrist hurts and my hand is yanked back when I try to lift it. Fuckers have handcuffed me to the van door.
    “What’s this for?”
    “Precaution,” Llewellyn says. “I didn’t want you running off on me. Now shut up, wake up, and get ready.”
    “Why, where are we?”
    “About five miles out of Lowestoft.”
    I sit up quickly in panic and look around. He’s right, we’re on the A146 heading back toward Lowestoft, and we’re not alone. There are several of Ankin’s vehicles ahead of us and many more behind, all easily identified by the circular red and white insignia daubed in paint. The crude designs vary in size and shape from machine to machine, but their simple aim is achieved—these markings exist to clearly differentiate them from us.
    “So what’s the plan?” I ask. “I assume there is a plan.”
    “Ankin’s troops are already in place,” he explains, “split between the north and south entrances to town.”
    “Already?”
    “They’re on the outskirts, thousands of them by all accounts, drawing the crowds away from Hinchcliffe’s compound. It’s called tactics, you see, McCoyne. These people are smart, and well tooled. They’ll get the locals on their side, and that’ll leave just Hinchcliffe and the rest of the men for Ankin and us to deal with. I’ll get you in, and while you’re talking to Hinchcliffe, I’ll tell the others what’s going on.”
    “How am I supposed to let Ankin know what he says?”
    “Christ, you’re bloody naive. Ankin doesn’t give a shit what he says. We can all guess what Hinchcliffe’s reaction’s going to be.”
    “So why are we even bothering?”
    “To keep him busy. To distract him from what’s actually happening.”
    “You mean I’m a decoy?”
    “That’s about it.”
    “Shit. Forget it. I won’t do it.”
    “Listen, friend, you’re handcuffed to this van and we’re not stopping until we’re outside Hinchcliffe’s front door. I’m delivering you personally. You don’t have a lot of choice. Do what you’ve got to do, and if you behave yourself and Hinchcliffe doesn’t do you in, I’ll come back and get you out of there.”
    “You bastard. I’ll tell him what’s happening. I’ll tell him what you did.”
    “Do you think I care? Hinchcliffe will be finished before nightfall. You, too, if you’re not careful.”
    “What about Curtis and the rest of them? You think they’re all going to swap sides just like that because you tell them to?”
    “Well, that’s up to them, isn’t it? But wouldn’t you? Let’s face it, with Ankin and all this crew on one side, and a shit like Hinchcliffe standing on his own on the other, there’s no contest, is there?”

 
    37
    THE A46 SPLITS AND we head south, down toward the bottom edge of Lowestoft, passing close to the housing development where I’ve been living. The van is still wedged between Ankin’s trucks and other vehicles, with a tank leading the way. Just over a mile now.
    We’re soon passing through the familiar shanty-town surroundings, but the scene is very different from what I’ve seen here before. More of Ankin’s troops are up ahead, forming a blockade on the A12 just prior to where the first of the underclass hordes are gathered. I understand that this is just one section of this so-called army, but there are far fewer of them than I’d imagined. I’d pictured endless columns of uniformed soldiers, armed to the teeth, backed up with huge amounts of firepower. The reality is unsettling. There are just hundreds where I expected to see thousands. Two or three tanks where I expected to see twenty or thirty. One small airplane …
    “Where’s everybody else?”
    “I think this is everybody else,” Llewellyn replies under his breath, sounding as surprised as me.
    There are several lines of these so-called soldiers blocking the road ahead, each of them