Read Online The Enemy by Charlie Higson - Free Book Online

since he’d been touched like that. It was kind and soft and gentle. Maybe he’d blushed. He hoped she hadn’t noticed anything.
    He tried to imagine what it would have been like if he’d met her before. Putting on his best clothes, going on a date, maybe to see a film or a band.
    He imagined kissing her.
    Don’t go there, Arran, you’l only make yourself sad.
    The noise died down and Whitney took charge. “Let’s hear what the scarecrow’s got to say,” she said, turning her hard stare on the patchwork boy.
    “Thank you,” he said.
    “So, for al your clever talk, you don’t know what caused it, then?” Whitney asked. “The sickness.”
    Patchwork shook his head. “No one knows. How could we? We’re just kids. Adults used to tel us things, in newspapers, on TV, at school. But now there’s no adults left to tel us anything. And you can look at that as a good thing or a bad thing.”
    “It’s a disaster,” said Maxie.
    “Is it? This is our world now.”
    “It’s a crap world,” said Cal um, and a few of the kids laughed.
    “Not where I’ve come from,” said Patchwork.
    “So where have you come from?” said Ol ie.
    “Buckingham Palace.”
    There was a snort of laughter fol owed by a chorus of jeering and mocking from the assembled kids. Patchwork just smiled.
    “It’s true,” he said. “Why not? The Queen’s dead, al the people that looked after her, al the guards in their bearskin hats, the police, the tourists . . .
    No more adults tel ing us what to do. There’s just us kids. And we can do what we like.”

    Y ou realy trying to tel us you live in Buckingham Palace?” said Whitney, her deep brown eyes softening into a smile.
    “Yeah. It’s cool. It’s got a lake and a garden with a big wal around it with spikes on the top. It’s safe. We grow food in the garden, we drink water from the lake, we sleep in the Queen’s beds. Nobody can get in and there’s enough of us to keep the place secure. We got our own guards now. We’re making a fresh start.”
    “So what are you doing here, then?” said Ol ie.
    “We figured there must be other kids like us out there,” said Patchwork. “Kids who survived. And the more of us we can get together, the better it’l be.
    It’l be safer. We can grow more food and work together to gradual y rebuild the city. We can start to make London new again. Next to the palace is St.
    James’s Park; there’s enough space there to plant fields, if we’ve only got enough people. So I was sent to find other kids, tel them about what we’re doing, and bring them back.”
    “Yeah, wel , we’ve got news for you,” said Cal um. “We ain’t going. Why would we ever leave this place? We don’t need your Buckingham Palace, thank you very much. We got Waitrose.”
    “Shut up, Cal um,” said Achil eus. “Let’s listen to the man.”
    “You’ve come al the way across town by yourself?” said Ol ie, not convinced.
    Patchwork’s face clouded over.
    “There was five of us to start with,” he said. “We thought al of London would be like where we come from—organized. We didn’t realize how dangerous it was out here. How many Strangers there are.”
    “Why?” said El a. “What’s it like where you come from?”
    “I told you. It’s safe. Most of the Strangers have disappeared from the center of town. We kil ed loads of them early on. Those that are left keep out of our way. They’re beaten. But it was mad getting here. We had to come through the badlands. They picked us off one by one. I lost Alfie just today. He was the last one. There’s only me left.”
    He swal owed hard. It was obvious he was trying not to cry. Nobody spoke for a while. In the end Ol ie broke the silence. He squatted down and spoke gently to Patchwork.
    “How many other kids have you found on the way?” he said. “How many have you sent back?”
    Patchwork sniffed. “None. You’re the first. The original plan was to keep going around London recruiting al the kids