Free The Perimeter by Shalini Boland Page A

risk driving up close to the gypsy camp.
    Before continuing on, I stopped the truck for a moment and scanned the area. No one appeared to be around, so I hopped out and reached in for my Saiga, slinging it across my body. Despite the sunshine, the wind was vicious. I walked around the back and checked the tarp was still fixed on properly. I didn’t want any of my precious load to be visible when I rolled up to the camp. Either way, it wouldn’t make too much difference – a truck loaded up with anything was fair game out here.
    It was always a rush to be alone out on the heath. The raw silence, terrifying yet beautiful. Inside the perimeter I was safe. I could walk around unarmed and relaxed. But outside, the safety catch was off. The silence deceptive. Anything could happen.
    I wondered about before, when people had been able to walk around the country freely, unarmed with no fear of attack. As relaxed as if they were inside a perimeter. Apparently, there had been a proper army and a police force who would actually come to your aid if someone did something wrong, or even if they spoke to you in a threatening way. I wasn’t sure I believed those tales. I suspected that memory made it all seem rosier than it really was. People couldn’t have changed all that much, could they?
    Well, whatever things had used to be like, they certainly weren’t like it any longer. And I doubted they ever would be again.
    Satisfied the tarp was adequately secure, I climbed back into the truck, restarted the engine and continued on my journey.
    Within a few minutes, the patchwork walls of the compound came into view, a huddle of dark shapes at its base. I decided to park up close to the settlement and wait for someone to approach me. Then I could ask them about Lou and hope they’d fetch her for me. I wish I’d thought to ask what her last name was. As I drew closer, I made out the shapes of makeshift dwellings – the tents and shacks and low barbed wire fences. Several gypsies with rifles stood and stared as I came closer, their faces weathered and impassive.
    I drew up as near as I dared, not wanting to be perceived as a threat and risk them firing on me. I stopped the truck, but left the engine idling, and waited. One of the men leaned across to another and said something. They sidled through a gap in the wire and headed towards me. My heart sped up, but strangely my mind felt quite calm. I had to keep telling myself that I was doing them a massive favour by coming here. I was doing something good. Even though it didn’t feel like it.
    The two men were youngish with beards, wearing layers of filthy clothing. One of them had a face-full of piercings – lip rings, eyebrow studs and a hoop through his nose. They were both skinny and hollow-cheeked with deep-set eyes. As they drew closer, I saw pure hostility in their faces and it took all my strength of will not to throw the truck into reverse and gun it all the way home.
    ‘What’s your business here?’ the man with the nose hoop called out.
    I lowered the window a fraction. ‘I’m a friend of Lou’s.’
    ‘Lou?’ They took a few steps closer, their weapons still lowered.
    ‘Yeah. Fair-haired girl with two younger brothers. Lives up close to the compound wall.’
    ‘I know who Lou is,’ nose-hoop replied. ‘What d’you want with her?’
    ‘She helped me out yesterday. I’ve come to say thanks.’
    ‘Get out of the truck and I’ll fetch her over.’
    ‘I’d rather stay inside till she gets here if that’s okay.’
    They stopped a few yards away and talked to each other in low tones so I couldn’t hear. By now, several other gypsies had come close to the wire fence to see what was going on. I’d started to cause a bit of a stir – exactly what I hadn’t wanted to do.
    ‘Out of the truck,’ nose-hoop repeated, aiming his rifle at the windscreen. ‘Slowly. Hands in the air.’
    I hadn’t come here for a gunfight, so it didn’t look as though I had much choice. I