Page 36 of The Island

“Of course. We made the mistake and I’m very sorry about it.”

“We didn’t want any of this—” Ma said.

“Sorry to interrupt, Ma, but we have another issue,” Jacko said.

“What is it?” Ma asked.

“We found the Krauts and we’re keeping them up at the house, but they really want to go,” Jacko said.

“Tell them the ferry needs fixing,” Ma said.

“Gotcha,” Jacko said.

“Any other problems I have to solve?” Ma said and took a long drag of her cigarette.

“The children can’t possibly stay in that room overnight. You’ll have to move them,” Heather said.

Oh, shit. We’ve won this. Don’t cause any trouble, Tom was screaming at her telepathically.

Heather amazingly seemed to pick up on his thought. “Well, at the very least, we’ll need some bedding and something to eat and drink, and you’ll have to let us visit the bathroom, otherwise it’s going to be very unpleasant in there,” Heather said.

The motorbike was very close now. It was driving up to the farm. Everything was hushed, waiting.

A line of clouds.

The silent stars.

The silent yellow sickle moon.

“Danny’s gonna lose his shit,” Jacko muttered.

“We’ve done our parley and we made a deal,” Matt said. “Danny’s gonna have to like it or lump it.”

“Yup,” Ivan agreed. “Like Matt said, she wasn’t blood.”

The motorbike pulled to a stop in front of the farmhouse.

The eerie quiet grew deeper.

Flies.

Moths.

Vacuum.

Void.

Everyone waiting.

Suddenly there was a scream. “I reckon they told him,” Kate said.

“You might be onto something there, Katie,” Jacko said with a chuckle.

There was the sound of a scuffle, and the door to the farmhouse burst open with a gift of silver light.

There was a terrible wail, like a dog dying.

The sound of arguing.

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