Chapter Seven

A/N: I'm trying my best to make this as real as possible. Thing is, these things have happened all over the world and still are, after wars and disasters. So if I get a few more reviews that would be appreciated. Thanks.

When the children were let out of the attic, it was past midnight.

When Kazima, Floss, Toni and Billie had got back to their room, they saw the girl and the pregnant woman there.

They were holding onto each other, scared. Kazima immediately went over and told the confused women, "It's OK. It's not your fault."

The girl asked, "Who are you? The men said there were others here."

Kazima told them their names and how they got there. As she looked back over at the three younger girls, they were already in bed, tired and just wanting to get the day over with.

The pregnant woman told Kazima, "I'm Tania and this is Britney. Our friend, Maria, where is she?"

Kazima looked down at the ground before she answered, "A very bad place."

Tania then began to tell them how they got here.

Tania had lived with her boyfriend in a flat in London. They had been very excited about the birth of Tania's baby; she was five and a half months gone when the disaster happened.

When the disaster happened, quite a lot of people where she lived assumed it would be dealt with quickly. But when it emerged that this was a problem, she went to a riverboat with her boyfriend and his parents. His parents were both over fifty-five, so they weren't allowed on board, but Tania and her boyfriend left.

The boat was forced back to shore near King's Lynn. It had run out of fuel. When they were there, the infected attacked, forcing Tania and her boyfriend to hide below deck. The boat moved on northward, but stopped near Edinburgh, where Tania met Britney, her grandmother and Maria.

They'd stayed in Britney's grandmother's flat for around a month before they picked up a radio signal from the mansion. They'd gone north in Britney's grandmother's hatchback, but while they were in Inverness, Tania's boyfriend had fallen from the top of a supermarket where they had stopped.

He had died almost instantly.

Refusing to let the infected hurt him, they buried him in an abandoned church down the street.

Then Britney explained what had happened to her.

Britney had lived with her grandmother since her mother had died of cancer when Britney was five. Her father had refused to have anything to do with her and lived with his other family in Glasgow.

Britney had been at school when the disaster began. In her English class, the headteacher had called everyone to the main hall, where they said everyone had to go home and close all windows.

When Britney had returned, she and her grandmother spent ten days with the windows and door shut. Britney had got bored, going outside after a while. She'd seen a few infected on the ground from a balcony. What had been one of her friends was lying on the ground.

Britney found that a neighbouring flat had been empty – her neighbours, as far as she knew, were still in Devon. So she asked her grandmother about the food.

She didn't want to steal it, neither did her grandmother. But they had to.

They'd survived another two weeks before the food ran out. They needed help.

Britney's grandmother said a boat had recently left the docks, so maybe there was help there. That night, they'd gone out and raided a newsagents, although Britney really didn't want sweets or biscuits.

The notice at the docks said the next boat from Edinburgh was over a month away, so they went back to the flat.

On the way, they'd found Maria, who had worked at a local library that they both visited. She'd been stuck in the library the whole time.

When they got back, they'd waited a few more days before Tania and her boyfriend arrived.

When Faith, Elektra and May-Li reached the lounge, they saw Maria, weeping, in a pink short-sleeved dress. Her face was stained with tears and her plait was fraying. She looked over for a second at them when they entered with Theo and Dave, then back at Headmaster Rhodes.

Rhodes told the three that entered, "This is Maria. She will be living here."

Then he walked out.

Maria fell to her knees, tugging on Dave's trousers.

"Please, please, please, don't let me live here! Please! Don't hurt me! I'll do anything, anything! Please!"

But she was pulled up, then taken to a room down the corridor, with May-Li. Maria was flung onto the mattress opposite the door, while May-Li was pushed to the mattress beside the door.

The door shut behind them while Maria whimpered. Schmuel grabbed onto May-Li and pushed her down. He was a lot smaller than her, so this was awkward, but he held a wrist each.

Maria kept on struggling and kicking, pushing at Ewan with her feet, shaking her head round, her eyes screwed up in terror. But he slapped her across the face and shrieked at her, "Shut up!"

May-Li managed to get the strength to say, calmly, "Maria, please. Don't fight them, it'll make it worse."

Maria looked over at May-Li, asking, "How?"

May-Li struggled to tell her what she could say, but she managed to tell her. "I asked them not to hurt the younger girls, they haven't since we came. I told them to have me rather than those two other girls, so they aren't hurt as much. I have done all that I can to help."

Day Forty-Nine

As the days passed, with three new residents, it had changed during daytime.

Because Tania was seven months pregnant, she had to avoid doing strenuous tasks, so she attended the schooling. She sat with Britney, who kept looking at the floor and hardly talking.

The men had worked out a 'schedule'. As there were ten of them (Rhodes never took part) and now four women available, the men were assigned a different girl per day. Tee thought it was sick, but she knew the men would get violent if she argued.

Today, she was sitting by the window again, as she saw Leroy, Theo and James in the trees in the large, spacious back garden. They were with Elektra, Jody and Carmen, in pairs and carrying large, wicker baskets. She saw that Jody had dropped her basket of fruit on the ground, to which James was yelling at her for.

Carmen had run up and held Jody close as the younger girl was crying.

This was what the situation had made them.

On the Faroe Islands, Mike was talking with an officer at the hall. He and the five other men who were representing their cases were talking over to some UN visitors about why they thought they mattered.

They seemed to listen thoroughly with Mike's story, especially since this was considered a 'war crime', as they termed it, but said it would need to go through to the proper authorities first.

They told him they had no idea how long it would take, but they would try.