Free All or Nothing by Stuart Keane Page A

pulled. A huge creak shattered the tranquillity around her. The whole situation was eerie. The silence reassured her, though. Reassured her that she was alone. Of course, she was aware that the situation could soon change. The groan of the gate could mean that company was arriving sooner rather than later. Kathryn thought about ducking out of sight. But she didn’t see the point. With this lack of light, she would be hard pressed to find anyone who could actually see her.
    Stepping through the gate, her bare feet touched asphalt and she immediately knew she was on a basketball court. Faded white markings were sketched beneath her feet, and she mused that a respray would do them a world of good. Looking up to her left, the moon was backlighting a solitary hoop made of cheap steel and plastic. No net or chain link hung from it. Stolen or torn off? Maybe a slam dunk, maybe some scummy kid needed it for his collection, who knew?
    Kathryn walked straight across the court and reached the other side before realizing that there was no high fence over here. The court was open in front of a seating area, with a few picnic tables and benches around.
    The tables had holes drilled in them for umbrellas, and weights underneath to hold the umbrellas in place. Despite these, the umbrellas were missing, again, presumably stolen by youths. Or maybe they were not installed in the first place, in anticipation of theft? The benches had mud and dirt scuffs underneath where, for many years, hundreds of people had swung their feet aimlessly. The surrounding grass was dishevelled.
    This place needed a hell of a lot of work , she thought.
    Kathryn carried on past the area and emerged in an alley, a wide alley with fences on both sides and a huge stone archway about thirty feet ahead of her. She decided she needed to find somewhere that sold shoes and fast, for her feet were raw from the constant exposure to hard surfaces. Heading for the archway, she saw a solitary blue car parked just to the right of it. Its windows were caved in; glass littered the passenger seat and wires hung out from the stereo compartment. The glove box was open and papers were strewn out all over the place. A typical break-in: the scum of society strikes again, she thought.
    Kathryn carried on.
    Once she was through the archway, she saw a well-lit town centre ahead. It was a stark contrast to the park she had just walked through. To her right was a huge multi-storey car park. It was a concrete structure with no windows, nothing but pillars and floors built to hold tons of automobiles of all shapes and sizes. She saw striped barriers blocking the entrance. She noticed that no vehicles were parked on the ground floor; the place looked desolate and unused.
    Further on, to the right, a road led off past a few charity shops, one of which had a full size figurine of a monkey on the pavement outside it. The monkey wore a top hat and a red two-piece vest. It was smiling and holding a banana.
    Creepy, thought Kathryn. Of all the things to see on a night like this .
    The road itself was empty, and as she looked to the left it led off past a huge theatre, opposite which was a hotel. The theatre was lit up in red, white and yellow. On its sign above the entrance, the letters G, J and O stood alone, the intervening letters missing. Maybe the signwriters hadn’t finished the job?
    The hotel sat in darkness, a solitary light illuminated its porch, which was hardly welcoming. Further on, she could make out a crossroads, with traffic lights and islands in the centre of the road. No cars were parked anywhere.
    The whole town looked deserted.
    She heard no sounds of people chattering, or footsteps or buskers playing or kids screaming or car horns or engines.
    She was entirely alone.
    Kathryn decided to head off towards the theatre, as it was well-lit and looked to be relatively safe. Carefully, she trod along the sidewalk, watching out for anything sharp that might injure her bare feet. Within a