‘Hurry up!’ the woman called. She glanced up the street. ‘I can hear something coming.’
Leaf heard it too: the low, ground-vibrating growl of very large vehicles. She quickened her step, getting into the house just as a tank came around the corner at the far end of the street, its left track locked, the right bringing it around. Leaf stared through the window in the door, surprised by how loud the tank was and how much the house around her shook as it passed.
Six more tanks followed the first, all of them fully buttoned up, no one sitting up out of the turret or peering out through open driving hatches. Leaf had never seen real tanks before. These were twice the size of the light armoured vehicles she’d seen the Army and FBA using.
‘What’s your name, then?’
Leaf turned around. The old woman was very old and quite hunched over, but she moved deftly and was very alert.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Leaf. ‘I was distracted. Thanks … thanks for warning me. My name’s Leaf.’
‘And mine is Sylvie,’ said the woman. ‘You’ve been in the wars, haven’t you? You’d best come into the kitchen and I’ll clean up your head.’
‘No, I have to … I have to …’
Leaf’s voice trailed off. She didn’t know what she had to do now. Get back into the hospital? Even with full-on tanks heading there now?
‘A cup of peppermint tea, some cleaning up, and a bandage are what you need,’ said Sylvie firmly. ‘Come on.’
‘What’s going on?’ Leaf asked as she obediently followed Sylvie down the hall and into the kitchen. ‘Those were tanks… ’
‘There’s been some sort of biological attack at the hospital.’ Sylvie got a first-aid kit down from the top of the fridge and reached over to flick on an electric kettle. ‘Though I haven’t really been keeping up with all the developments. They re-established the city quarantine this morning. We can go and watch the television in the lounge room, if you like. Just sit near the window, so I can see what I’m doing with your head.’
‘Thanks,’ said Leaf. ‘I would like to know what’s happening. You said they re-established the city quarantine?’
‘About two hours ago, dear. This way.’
‘But you let me in,’ Leaf pointed out as she followed Sylvie into a small but comfortable living room. There was a screen on the wall. Sylvie clicked her fingers and it came on, the sound too low to hear, but Leaf could read the scrolling type across the bottom. It said RED LEVEL QUAR-ANTINE IMPOSED ON CITY. ARMY AND FBA SEAL OFF EAST AREA HOSPITAL. PSYCHOTROPIC BIOWEAPON BELIEVED TO BE BEHIND FIRST ATTEMPTED BREAKOUT, ANOTHER IMMINENT.
There was a picture of perhaps a dozen people coming out of the hospital doors. They weren’t walking properly, with their legs trailing in weird ways and their arms flailing about. The camera panned away from them to the soldiers and FBA agents, who were shouting and waving their hands and then lowering their weapons, the turrets on their armoured vehicles traversing. Then they started shooting. It took Leaf a moment to realise that she could hear that shooting, the sound coming in distantly from outside, not on the television.
It was live coverage.
‘Yes, I know I shouldn’t have let you in,’ said Sylvie, who wasn’t watching the television. She lifted Leaf’s hair and started swabbing the cut on her head with a stinging disinfectant. ‘But I’m very old, you know, and I didn’t want to see a young girl be shot in front of me. If you do have some nasty disease, I daresay I shall catch it and die quite quickly without causing much trouble to anyone.’
‘I don’t have anything,’ said Leaf quickly. Then she looked at her hands.
Except that’s a lie. I do have something. You can’t catch it from me, though. Only from the Skinless Boy. But soon he’ll know what I know, and I’ll be a puppet. Like those poor people he must have sent out, the ones killed to keep the quarantine.
On the television, two FBA agents with flamethrowers were walking forward now. Leaf looked away as long jets of flame gushed out, towards the people who had just been shot.
‘Keep still,’ admonished Sylvie. ‘More of a bruise than a cut. You probably should have your head scanned. When did you do it?’
‘About an hour ago, I think,’ said Leaf. ‘Maybe two hours. Ow!’
‘I’ve put a little anesthetic gel on,’ said Sylvie. ‘And a skin-seal to keep it clean. You should have that scan, though.’
‘Are you a doctor?’ asked Leaf. ‘Or a nurse?’
‘I’m retired,’ said Sylvie. ‘But I was a pharmacist. Sit there. I’ll get the peppermint tea.’