Chapter 5
"Sam, SAM!" I shake him awake. The sleeping boy in his duvet cocoon sighs and turns over. "Sam get up! Get the fuck UP!" He rubs his bleary eyes then sits up violently, gathering the blanket around him to hide his bare chest. "Wa?" He questions, leaning over to turn on the bedside lamp. His blonde hair sticks up in daft clumps; it would have been funny in any other situation. Now I just explained. "Caine, up at Coats. He's setting all the freak's hands in cement. I'd go up there myself but I can't drive." He stares at me in bewilderment at first then snaps into action mode. "Okay. Edilio can drive the best. He's in the room along the corridor and on the left. You wake him up and I'll get everything else sorted" I nod in response and make my way to the described room.
Edilio was in pretty much the same condition as Sam, and by the time I'd got him up and explained the situation, Sam was already in the kitchen. He chucks me a bread roll and we make our way out onto the drive when clumsy footsteps stop us. Quinn stands there, dressed in jeans and a slightly dorky coat. He asks where we're going brightly enough but I can tell he's hurt by the prospect of Sam not asking him himself. Sam recognises this and bundles him into the back of the range rover. I'm sat in the passenger side, directing Edilio. He drives like a mental, sleep deprived teenager, which I guess he is.
As we drove up the gravelled path we were all wishing we hadn't picked such a gas guzzling machine. I was sure someone would wake up and sound an alarm but thank god the Coats kids slept deeply that night.
We snuck past the front door and slipped into the large patch of turf I'd seen them lining up in. There they were, shivering in the cold night air their hand sunk deep in dirty grey cement. I gasp, feeling sick at the sight of them. "Shit" Sam mutters under his breath. No one moves. Their skin glows pale green in the moonlight and bones seemed to jut out randomly, almost tearing their papery skin. Great raw rashes protruded from the brick sized cement blocks and their eyes stared wide in their sunken in heads.
I made the first move, rushing over to a small girl with lank red hair. She flinched, backing away like I was going to hurt her. I don't blame her, in a way I was Caine's sidekick. If I wanted to help them I would have done it before. Should have. I reach under her arms and help her to her feat but she flops to the floor immediately. By now the other three are doing the same but without success. I try to carry her but the cement weighs triple what she does and I end up half lifting half dragging her to the van. I want to lie her down carefully over all three seats but I can tell by the heaving mass of children, this van has got to take nearly thirty. I place her tentatively at the very back, her floppy head leaning against the window. I risk the van's dull roar and turn the heat on then take my jacket from around her shoulders and place it on the next child.
We heave, drag and care for just over fourteen of the weakest most fragile kids and place them in the van. We have to leave space for Edilio but still he has a pair of shivering legs on his lap. I, Sam, Quinn and the rest of the kids watch the van drive off. Edilio promised he'd drive back up to collect us but by the time he'd have sorted out the kids with Dahra and found a somewhere for them to stay, it could be an hour or two, and by then the early dawn light would betray us. Some of the older ones were able to drag their cement block on their own, but obviously couldn't keep it up for two or three miles, while others were close to collapsing as they sat. I took a deep breath, supporting a child with each shoulder and made my way slowly, cautiously down to Padido beach.