Scout's Honour - Origin

Chapter 6

The sun was already casting a morning heat as Nathan quietly took his bag and left his house. He'd said his goodbyes to his mom last night so all that was left now was to wait and see if the others would turn up.

He stood at the door for a moment, hoping to hear his brother stir upstairs, but the house remained silent and he left, feeling rather deflated.

The park was almost deserted except for a man walking his dog and two ladies jogging on the opposite side. As he walked by the scout's den he leaned over and lifted up the flower pot. Henry's key sat underneath, Ben had already left.

Park Street was as empty as the park itself, and as Nathan approached the bus stop, he glanced around for any signs of life.

"Psst!"

He looked over and found Ben hiding behind a wall on the opposite side of the street.

"You're up early" Nathan said as he ran across the road and crouched down beside his friend.

"I've been here since 6" Ben told him, peering back over the wall "Rory better hurry up, it's nearly 8:30"

Rory turned the corner at that exact moment, his pale face had turned red and his messy black hair was sticking to his forehead.

"It's fuckin' roasting" he gasped, pulling out a bottle of water and squirting half of it over his head.

As they all hunkered behind the wall, it was evident that they were all thinking the same thing.

"So nobodies heard from Teddy, then?" Ben asked, taking another look over at the bus stop.

Nathan and Rory shook their heads and Nathan felt a wave of remorse that he hadn't tried harder to convince Teddy that this was in fact a good idea.

As the trio waited, occasionally stealing a glance across the road, the clock continued to count down until finally a small bus chugged up the empty street.

"Is that him?" Ben asked and Rory stood up.

"Get down!" Ben snapped, grabbing Rory's arm, but he shrugged him off.

"Dude!" Rory sniggered "even standing up I'm barely taller than the wall! Anyway, it's Rocko"

Rocko was Rory's uncle and a stranger character, none of them had ever met. He pulled up to the bus stop with his arm out the open window and a song that none of them had heard before, blasting from the radio.

Rory looked up and down the street before, much to Ben's discomfort, he ran across and spoke briefly to his uncle.

"Okay, he knows where to go and I've given him the map" Rory said, returning a moment later "knows not to say anything to them about where they're going either".

"Isn't he curious as to why we're asking him to do this?" Nathan asked.

"Nah" Rory told him "he doesn't ask questions. Spent nine years in a prison in Belfast so he's learned that the less he knows, the better".

It didn't surprise either Ben or Nathan that Rocko had been in prison, but as silence fell between them again, the tension was obvious.

"What time is it now?" Ben asked, peering over the wall for the hundredth time.

"Three minutes since the last time you asked" Nathan said.

By 8:57 there was still no sign of anyone and Ben sat with a deep look of failure on his face.

"Don't worry about it, Ben" Nathan said, patting him on the shoulder "maybe it's for the best".

Rory pulled a cigarette from his sock and began smoking it until they heard something. They glanced at each other, their eyes widening as Ben slowly peered over the wall, a moment later he shot back to the ground again and held his finger to his lips.