Free Boy in the Tower by Polly Ho-Yen

called them that once on TV and it stuck.

Chapter Twenty-four
    No one knew about the Bluchers for what seemed like a long time.
    There were all kinds of reasons and ideas about why our buildings were falling down and why people were collapsing. After what happened to the two men and the policemen, people were being attacked every day.
    It was a horrible, horrible time.
    I could see from my window if there was a little blob of a person who was not moving. Then I would see an ambulance arrive and people in brightly coloured jackets would swarm around the body and carry it away.
    I hadn’t left our flat for a really long time since school had shut down. I got into a rhythm each day which revolved around food, looking out of the window and television. The first thing I would do when I got up was to make breakfast for Mum and me and tidy up anything from the night before. I’d take Mum’s plate into her bedroom and leave it on her bedside table because she’d always be asleep. Then I’d watch the morning news for a few hours and find out anything new that had happened.
    One day, I thought I’d switch on the news and they’d say that they’d found a way to make it safe for everybody again. It had to happen sooner or later, didn’t it?
    After that, I would sit and look out of the window. From where I sat, I could see the little holes left by fallen buildings, as if someone had come along and taken bites of brick and concrete here and there. I’d spend some time updating Gaia’s map with any more buildings that had fallen. There were more and more dots to make each day.
    I’d make lunch next. Something simple like crackers and cheese or a tin of soup. Then more television and window-watching before dinner.
    It always felt like I was waiting for something to happen, whether it was for someone to make everything safe once more or something as simple as seeing Mum awake. I would be sitting watching television and then I would hear the sound of the door handle squeaking from her bedroom. I tried to stop myself from running up to her and asking her a hundred questions and giving her a hug, and instead I would just sit where I was, in front of the television.
    I ran up to her like that once before, and she didn’t like it.
    I sprang up as soon as I heard the door opening. ‘Mum!’ I said. ‘I’m home all the time now. They closed the school down because it’s not safe any more. There’s lots of people leaving. Do you think we should go? We’d have to be careful because there’s something that’s making you fall over and die . . .’
    I was excited, I hadn’t spoken to anyone since the day Michael’s mum had tried to take me with her and I’d been to the shop for some food. That tall, nervous-looking man who served me in the shop was the last person I had spoken to. It had been six days.
    Mum was saying something under her breath which stopped my flow of words.
    ‘Stop, stop, stop,’ she was saying.
    She turned towards the bathroom and shot me the same look she’d given me the day I asked her to come shopping with me. Her eyes looked small and weren’t open properly, as if all the sleeping was making her eyelids stick together. But I could still see what they were saying:
Stop talking. It’s hurting me
.
    She went to the bathroom and I heard the sound of the toilet flushing and then she went back inside her bedroom.
    I knew better after that. I stayed still if I heard her come out. I might have turned my head towards her and sometimes she might have given me a little nod, but that was all.
    I really missed being able to talk to Gaia. Especially with everything that was happening. I wished I could have talked to her about it and heard what she thought. Did she still think that the fallen-down buildings had something to do with the collapsing people? Did she think it was funny, like me, that they were using the name of Blucher Road in all the news reports now? Didn’t she think it was actually quite a