Free Beyond Evil by Neil White Page A

her head. ‘No, I can’t.’
    ‘Why not?’
    Dawn looked towards Gemma, who was heading for a tumbledown part of the drystone wall and to a path that cut through the northerly woods opposite, which kept the coldest winds away from the house.
    ‘Things are not what they seem,’ she said. ‘You need to get out.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    Dawn wiped her eyes and then said, ‘Tell me what you think of Henry.’
    John thought about what to say. ‘He’s a strong leader, delivers a good message, and I believe it, like we all do.’
    Dawn laughed, but it was bitter and hollow. ‘So we’ve no need to talk.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘I thought we weren’t about leaders.’
    ‘We always need leaders.’
    ‘I thought we were about freedom,’ she said and then walked quickly ahead, to catch up with Gemma.
    John followed them, curious, wanting to find out more, but Dawn was with Gemma now, and he knew the moment had gone.
    He looked around as he walked, at the roll of the fields and clusters of trees that dotted the green hills. He stepped over the fallen down rocks by the wall and into the shadows of trees, where the soft swish of the grass was replaced by the echo and snap of the woodland path. Patches of bluebells glimmered in the shafts of sun and he caught the scratches of grey squirrels clambering up the bark. The path would take them lower down the hill, to the stream that trickled and gathered pace until it ran between the stone sides of the Oulton buildings.
    As he emerged back into the daylight, Dawn and Gemma were ahead, but apart from each other, Gemma turning as she walked, playful, young. Dawn looked down, her step leaden.
    ‘How far now?’ he shouted.
    ‘Not far,’ Gemma yelled back. ‘More of the men should do this. If it wasn’t for the women, you’d all starve.’
    John laughed. ‘Hasn’t that always been the way?’
    He turned to look back towards the house, and saw that it was hidden now. Two rabbits chased each other in the long grass on the other side of a low wall. The sun felt warm, the blush of early summer on his cheeks. It felt good, free and easy. John felt the same surge of happiness he had felt when he first arrived, the simple contentment of belonging.
    The path followed the line of a wall and then reached the top of a small rise, where the view changed. He looked ahead and saw Oulton. The buildings in the centre were tight together, the grey stone rising higher than the others around, with tall windows and ornate facades, boasts of Victorian wealth long since gone. A disused railway line ran away from the town and down the hill, towards the towns in the valley, now part of the commuter spill over from Manchester, driving up the house prices and sending the locals further north.
    The town fanned out like a flower, with the closed-in centre, and then the swirls and curves of the newer housing estates on the edges. The peace of the countryside was replaced by the sounds of lorries rumbling along the roads or straining up the steep hills.
    ‘There,’ Gemma said, and pointed. He looked and saw the corrugated metal roof and tarmac car park just below them, the first part of the town they reached. A supermarket.
    ‘We’re going shopping?’ John said, confused.
    Gemma giggled. ‘Not exactly.’
    They followed a path that was long and steep, curving down the side of the hill until it ended by a high wooden fence made up of strong horizontal laths with gaps in between, perfect for footholds.
    Gemma turned to Dawn. ‘Have you got your bag ready?’
    Dawn held up her rucksack.
    ‘Come on then,’ she said, and the two women scrambled over the fence, their long skirts riding high on their legs, Gemma’s bare, Dawn’s clad in torn black leggings.
    John peered through the fence to the rear of the supermarket and saw large open doors, through which he could see high shelves of stock. A forklift truck lay dormant just inside.
    ‘Wait,’ he said. ‘Are you going to steal?’
    Gemma