Days Like This Read Free Page A

questioning this now? It hasn’t changed in three years and it’s time you accepted it. You know it’s dangerous out there, anyway.’
    ‘But he’s right, Mum.’ Lily appealed to Megan. ‘We’ve been stuck inside for three years. It was dangerous before that
and
we were younger, but you still let us go out. What changed? You’ve never explained that to us properly. The Wall was supposed to make it safe for us to go outside.’
    ‘Quiet, Lily. Don’t you start,’ Pym said. ‘And pick up that chair, Daniel.’
    ‘Make me,’ Daniel said.
    Lily watched the flush rise in her brother’s cheeks. His lunch lay forgotten on his plate.
    Pym clenched his fists.
    Megan rose quickly, putting a calming hand on her husband’s arm. ‘Come, Pym,’ she said.
    ‘You just pick up that damn chair,’ Pym said, glaring at Daniel before turning to go.
    ‘And you just answer our questions,’ Daniel yelled after them.
    Lily and Daniel listened to their parents’ retreating footsteps, followed by the sound of a door closing firmly. These confrontations were nothing new, though they were happening more often. Lily thought their world was like a pressure cooker with the steam building inside.
    ‘Seriously, it’s like we’re in prison,’ Lily said.
    Daniel shrugged, flipping his chair upright with a deft flick of his foot and flopping down on it. He picked up his fork and prodded at a potato. There was a muffled burst of sound from outside. They both looked towards the commotion. Lily heard a girl screaming, followed by the staccato thump of guns and frenzied shouting. Then nothing.
    ‘It does sound dangerous out there, Dan,’ she said. ‘Maybe Pym and Megan have a point about keeping us inside.’
    ‘There’s more to it than keeping us safe. I don’t buy that,’ Daniel said. ‘It all goes back to the Wall. Didn’t the Committee build it to keep the violence
out
of the city?’
    Lily nodded.
    ‘So how come since it’s gone up all we ever hear is Blacktroopers beating people up? Blacktroopers,’ he spat out the word, ‘
inside
the Wall, terrorising people. And then coming here every week, giving us all nightmares, force-feeding us drugs, killing Sherbet.’ His voice was full of pain and rage.
    ‘I want to know what them and their precious Committee are up to,’ he said.
    Lily nodded. She knew he was right. From the top of the bathroom window she often watched how harshly the Blacktroopers dealt with people.
    ‘But Pym and Megan keep telling us the Committee’s there to protect us. And they give us the drugs to prevent disease,’ she said.
    ‘Get real, Lil. If you believe that, you’ll believe anything,’ Daniel said. ‘The Committee are thugs, just like their Blacktrooper security force. We’re being kept inside for a reason and it’s not good. We have to find out what’s going on before it’s too late.’
    Their mother stood in the doorway. She’d moved so silently, they hadn’t heard her return.
    ‘It’s time to get back to your schoolwork,’ she said. ‘Clear up now and go to your screens before your father comes.’
    Lily got up, listlessly stacking the lunch plates. Daniel was right to ask questions. He was right about the Wall, which had been designed to keep out the ‘undesirable people’, but instead just seemed to bring the violence right into the streets. He was right about the unfairness of their house arrest when their parents were still allowed out. He was right about the Blacktroopers, who were frightening when they were supposed to be there to help them; to give them the pills they needed to fight disease.
    But what disease? Lily couldn’t believe she had never questioned this before. They couldn’t catch anything from the water because it came from deep underground, sucked up by the pipes at each of the eight phases of the moon, from new moon to full moon and back again. Their food came from the sterile food-production facilities. And the only other people they saw were the