The Third Day, The Frost by John Marsden Read Free Book Online Page A

sure he was the one
who’d caused Kevin’s loss of colour, and shaking lips. He hadn’t
yet thought that there might be anyone behind him; hadn’t yet
thought to turn around. I began moving forward with Lee. I knew
what I had to do: get the man’s gun arm. I tried desperately to
move as quietly as Lee. Kevin was turning round as ordered; slowly,
but he was turning. ‘Hand up, hand up,’ the soldier yelled. Lee and
I were only a couple of steps away now, and I thought that we
should strike while the man was yelling; he would be less likely to
hear us while his own voice was filling his ears. I had an awful
moment of hesitation when I didn’t think I was going to be able to
do it; I wanted to freeze but knew I simply couldn’t. The only way
I could make myself act was to count: I went, ‘One, two, three,’
very quickly to myself, and dived.
    Lee launched himself a split second later.
Kevin fell sideways, desperate to avoid the aim of the gun. But the
man didn’t shoot Kevin by reflex, which is what I’d most feared. He
didn’t shoot anyone. He didn’t even pull the trigger. He did what I
suppose most people would do in that situation: he started spinning
round to see what was going on behind him. That was the way his
reflexes worked. I rabbit-chopped his arm as hard as I could hit,
then grabbed the gun and swung it upwards. I’d been hoping he’d
drop the gun with the shock of my hit; he didn’t, but he lost his
grip on it and had to snatch at it to try to get it back. At that
moment, Lee knocked the man’s cap off and dropped the belt over his
head. Now, fighting two battles at once, the man got confused; he
tried to push me away and at the same time turned to attack Lee.
Then Homer arrived with a rush and, between us, we prised the gun
out of the man’s grasping fingers. He knew he was in trouble then.
Lee was tightening the belt fast. The man tried to get his hands
onto the belt but Homer and I grabbed an arm each and dragged them
down again. Lee started to put all his weight on the belt. The
soldier tried to call for help. Too late. I started getting
hysterical myself but some force within me made me hold on. The
soldier was pitching to the right, staggering. I lost my grip on
his arm and he brought it up to his throat but it did him no good;
Lee was implacable. The man’s face was mottled now, dark red with
patches of white, getting darker by the moment. A horrible gurgling
noise came from his mouth, like someone trying to gargle but doing
it in the mouth instead of the throat. I didn’t, couldn’t watch any
longer, but looked away, towards the beautiful bush, the bush that
I loved. Did these things happen in the bush? Did animals and birds
kill each other in cold blood because of fights over territory? You
bet your life they did.
    I had hold of the soldier’s arm again, feeling
the strength in it: its desperate struggle as it flailed and
writhed and fought. The fight was lasting much longer than I’d
expected. I could feel the veins swell in the tortured arm. Then,
suddenly, it was over. The arm went limp. A terrible smell filled
the air and I realised the man had fouled his trousers. I stole a
look at his face and quickly looked away again. It was the most
revolting sight I’d ever seen. His tongue hung out like a giant fat
bullboar sausage. His skin was purplish black. And his eyes ...
those eyes will follow me to my grave and beyond. They were the
eyes of a staring devil; a man sent mad in the last minute of his
life by the knowledge that he was dying, and by the manner of his
death. Every time I close my eyes, his open in my mind.

Chapter Six

    ‘What do we do now?’
    The only ones who seemed able to function at
all were Robyn and Homer. I had the shakes badly and much as I
tried to stop them I didn’t seem able. Kevin was lying on the
ground. His face was grey. I’d only seen that colour in a human
face once before: when I’d visited Mrs O’Meara in hospital just
before she died. She