The Girl by the Thames by Peter Boland Page A

fake fake, fake,” they chanted as they ran, banging their batons against their shields in time. The noise was thunderous and seemed to make them move faster, like a tribal beat. Tanya could hear them closing the gap. Running was becoming harder. Her legs moved but her feet kept slipping on the pavement, like the tarmac was made of Teflon. Any second now and they would be on her.
    Tanya ran onto the road hoping the grip would be better. As she put her feet on the grey mottled surface, she fell straight through. It was liquid, but not like water, this stuff was thick and jelly–like. She struggled to stay afloat and panicked.
    “Help,” she shouted, slipping under. 
    The police stopped and looked at her, impassively. Their faces were strangely blank, emotionless, like zombies. None of them made an effort to help her.
    “Help, I’m drowning,” Tanya shouted, nearly slipping under.
    The coppers didn’t seem to notice she was in trouble. All at once, their heads swivelled to look at something further up the liquid road. Tanya managed to turn herself round while trying to keep afloat, to see what they were looking at.
    A large black shape flew towards her through the greyness. It was mostly submerged, an island of black flesh skimming above the surface. It was the whale.
    Tanya screamed and tried to swim for the pavement. Her arms and legs flailed uselessly. Instead of moving forward she got sucked further out. As the whale was nearly upon her it suddenly dived beneath the surface pointing its great tail in the air. Tanya watched in awe as it slid beneath the strange dark water. 
    All round her the liquid gradually calmed. Tanya looked to the pavement but the policemen had gone. Everything around her began to spin, making her revolve like water down a plug hole. The whirlpool got faster and faster, and the street around her began to blur. Tanya opened her mouth to scream but before the sound could escape she got sucked down.
    Then it went black.
    There was no light coming from anywhere, not even the smallest chink. At least she could touch the bottom of wherever she was and keep her head above the liquid sloshing around her chest. She was in some sort of cave.
    “Hello,” she said but the sound of her voice didn’t seem right, it was muffled and odd. She moved her feet and found that she was standing on something soft and spongy. A deep, groan came from all around her, enveloping her like loneliness. And then she realised.
    She was inside the whale.
    Her mind went into a tail spin while her body went wild with panic. She had to get out or she would go mad. She waded around screaming, trying to find some edge to this prison of flesh. How long did she have before she was digested? Minutes? Hours? Days? What if it was weeks? It was too horrific to think about.
    Tanya found the walls of the whale’s insides and began clawing and scratching. It was slimy and her fingers sunk into its flesh without effect. As she desperately scratched away, the level of the liquid began to rise. Tanya’s arms flailed wildly, windmilling everywhere. The liquid reached her shoulders and then her chin. In a few seconds she’d be drowning. It was up to her lips now, she gasped for one last breath. But it was too late and she took in a mouthful of fluid. She expected to retch, thinking it was the whale’s digestive juices. But the taste was familiar. It was alcohol. The liquid she was drowning in was not stomach fluids, but beer. This would be the biggest and last binge drink of her sorry little life.
    Tanya screamed.
    She opened her eyes and sat bolt upright in bed.
    “Whoah, easy.” Lena was sitting on the bed in front of her with an opened can of lager. She’d been wafting it under Tanya’s nose, using it like smelling salts to wake her up. “What’s the matter with you?”
    “I just had a mental dream,” Tanya said, trying to swallow huge gulps of air.
    “I thought you was possessed or something, here.” Lena tossed Tanya a cold