Home by Robert Muchamore Page B

fighters, but Amo and Beck and all the little kids as well.’ ‘But what good does whipping you do?’ ‘If you’re stupid, you get punished,’ Sami said. ‘It’s called discipline. The commander we had before Dad took over this unit would have smashed all our fingers for a stunt like that. If Dad wasn’t here, Don would run the unit. Do you think you would have walked out with a couple of little burns if he was in charge?
    ‘You’re right, I suppose. It just doesn’t seem fair. You tried to do something nice for me and you got punished.’
    Sami smiled, ‘Don’t worry about it. I stopped expecting anything in life to be fair the day I came home from a piano lesson and found my Mum’s head cut off and stuffed in the kitchen sink.’
. . .
    Sami kept sobbing from the pain. Neither of us could really sleep that night. ‘I’m not going without you,’ I said. Sami had been dozing off, ‘What?’ ‘You know earlier, in the village? You said you’d be sad if I left.’
    ‘Yes.’ ‘I’m going to find Adam. Then I’m going to find a way out of here and you’re coming with me.’ ‘OK,’ Sami said, but I could tell she didn’t believe me. ‘I swear on my life. I won’t go without you.’ Her hand glided gently over my thigh. ‘Maybe none of us will ever get out of here,’ Sami yawned. ‘Try and go to sleep. I’m sick of thinking about stuff.’

13. FISH
All the rebel leaders had code names. Captain, Blink, Dickens, Sunflower and Casino were the ones I’d heard of. Messages went back an forth all the time. When someone went off to meet with another group, gossip always travelled with the messages: who’d been killed, where the mercenaries were, who was shagging who. I’d never met any of the people they spoke about, but I’d heard so much about them, it felt like I did.
    At afternoon briefing, Captain announced he was having a face to face meeting with Casino and Sunflower in a few days time. It almost certainly meant a big raid was going down. Everyone reckoned it was linked to the rebel push we kept hearing about.
    Everyone sat in their normal spots under the trees, tossing around theories about what the mission might be. Nobody would admit to being scared, but you could sense it in people’s voices.
. . .
    Grandma spent all day sitting under a tree watching the world pass by. The baggy camouflage with rolled up cuffs and ankles hung off her like a clown suit. She’d been motionless for hours, with an insect covered orange resting in her lap. She seemed happy and I was proud we’d rescued her. It was the one decent thing I’d done since I got here. I crouched in front of her. ‘Do you mind if we talk now?’ I asked. She smiled, but didn’t open her eyes. ‘It’s a big joke to them,’ she mumbled. ‘They spat in my food.’ Sometimes Grandma made sense. Other times she mumbled out of control, trapped in her own
    nightmares. ‘The man who took my brother,’ I said. ‘What was it you called him?’ ‘The fish soldier,’ Grandma said. ‘The most beautiful silver fish.’ ‘Why didn’t you hide Adam from him?’ ‘I couldn’t keep Adam safe. Fish soldier could.’ ‘Do you know what base he would have taken my brother to?’ ‘He came to see me with fish. He didn’t hurt me like the others. It’s a big joke to them.’ Grandma started to cry. She slumped forward and I put my arm around her. ‘I asked them not to hurt me,’ she sobbed. ‘It made them laugh when I cried.’ ‘We won’t hurt you here. You’re safe now.’ ‘You and Adam are nice boys. You wont hit me, will you?’ I took the half eaten orange out of Grandma’s lap and replaced it with a fresh one, then I wandered into the trees to Sami. She was depressed and didn’t want to sit with the others. Her cuts had scabbed over, but she was still in pain and ashamed that she’d lost the messages. ‘Got you an orange,’ I said, kissing her on the cheek. ‘Fantastic,’ Sami said sarcastically. ‘All my