Kingdom Of The Nanosaurs (trilogy)

Kingdom Of The Nanosaurs - chapter 8

“What will be a miracle is when the butchers open again. Have you seen how many food shops are closing? It’s a disgrace. That lot in parliament are not doing without, I can tell you,” the pointy nosed man chimed in.

The conversation was drowned out by the appearance of the marching mob, hundreds strong, banners waving, drums thumping and voices chanting: ‘What do we want, our fair share. When do we want it – now!’ Morgan looked at Lin and tried to sidle inch by inch along the wall of the building to the entrance of the narrow lane that was their way of escape. But the crowd blocking the entrance was growing by the minute. The mob had now reached the police barricade. Morgan saw banners proclaiming: ‘Attack the farms’ and ‘Meat is our birthright’ and ‘Destroy the food hoarders’.

One man seemed to be the leader. He swaggered forward with his barrel chest heaving. He was bald with tattoos covering his arms and a row of earrings glinting in the sun. He carried a megaphone that he put to his lips, turning to his followers urging them to scream abuse at the officials on the town hall steps.

“We put you lot in power and we can take it away from you one way or another,” his gravel voice roared through his loud hailer. “Don’t think the long arm of the law is going to stop us getting our fair share of food. We can do this the easy way, which is you tell us where the food is stockpiled, or the hard way which is we take you by force and kick the information out of you.”

As Morgan watched, fascinated by the impending confrontation but with one eye on the nearby lane, the sun burst forth from behind high-flying clouds. Shadows suddenly lengthened and deepened, shifting and moving as the police barrier formed a thin blue line and a uniformed officer signalled for a megaphone of his own.

That’s when Morgan saw them.

Just like the shadow in the supermarket, intense black shapes were rippling across the front of buildings, along walls and pavements mingling with real shadows until they became difficult to spot unless you had to have the eyes to see. Morgan felt a chill, clammy presence behind him. He lurched forward, pulling Lin with him both clinging to their bicycles. He turned to see a shadow form descending from the top of the building towards them. Lin had seen it too and stiffened. Slowly, they edged closer to the town hall steps. As they watched, the god-fearing, red-haired woman moved closer to the wall. Every eye was glued to the drama unfolding out on the street so no one saw it happen: no one except Morgan and Lin. The shadow seemed to reach out from the wall into space and touch the woman’s rough, plaid jacket. It was over in an instant. There was a sucking, slurping noise that was immediately drowned by the smashing of a shop window somewhere behind the mob, and the woman went rigid. Her eyes bulged and she tried to scream but her larynx was frozen solid. Then she simply disappeared into the inky blackness that, for a moment, appeared as a perfect silhouette of her shape before stretching and elongating back up the building and vanishing. Lin’s eyes were wide open and staring.

“Did you see that?” she whispered hoarsely.

“Yes,” Morgan said in a low voice. We’ve got to get away from here now.”

Competing threats and counter threats were being screamed in a battle of loud hailers. Then, like the clicking of a switch, it kicked off in earnest. The mob went berserk, rampaging along the high street smashing windows and looting at will. The mob leader gave a signal and attacked. Within seconds the entire square had become a seething mass of swearing, screaming, fighting and battling humanity. The council leaders took fright realizing the police presence was likely to be overwhelmed but couldn’t escape quickly enough. The mob descended on them and dragged them back into the street.

Morgan could see other shadows flitting at will amid the crowd, totally unnoticed. The crowd jamming the lane surged forward infected by mass hysteria and Morgan saw a gap open up.