Chernobylite: A Fast-Paced Kidnap Action Thriller

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

From the freedom of a country primary school, Tommy was thrust into the mayhem of a tough inner-city high school. Yet to hit puberty, Tommy was a weedy whip of a kid who had no experience of bullies or gangs and was easy prey, fresh meat for the local kids. From the very first day when he tentatively wandered into the schoolyard, not knowing even one person, and having no experience of a city, he was running scared.

‘Hey, who’s this? Where did you come from, dickhead?’ sneered a brute of a kid who was a head taller than Tommy and flanked by a cohort of snivelling disciples. Tommy looked up, dumbfounded at this unlikely welcome, and stayed silent.

‘Hey!’ the kid shouted again. ‘Don’t ignore me, you little rat turd! Answer me when I talk to you! What’s your name and where are you from?’

‘Um... my name’s Tommy and I come from Brooms Head,’ Tommy stammered in response.

‘Ahhahahahahah!’ roared the bully in derisive laughter. ‘Brooms Head? What the hell? What kind of dumbass name is that for a town? b****y stupid. Never heard of it. And what’s wrong with you, talking like that? Are you some kind of retard, Tommmmeeeeee?’ drawing out the name in a mimicking, insulting tone. ‘Is that how they teach you to talk up there, you dumb country hick? You’re in the big smoke now, Boy and you better get used to it. Learn to speak properly, you moron!’

‘Welcome to High School,’ mumbled Tommy under his breath. This was not going to be easy. He was not looking forward to spending the next six years of his life among these bullying halfwits.

‘Okay, retard, let’s get something straight. YOU are a piece of s**t,’ crowed the g**g leader, punctuating every word with a poke of his fat finger into Tommy’s chest. ‘You are worthless, the lowest of the low, like the remains of a piece of dog crap I couldn’t even be bothered scraping off the bottom of my shoe. Remember that and we won’t have a problem. Me, I’m the king around here and these are my men. Nobody messes with us. Watch your step, dickhead, because if you get out of line you are going to cop it something terrible. Now get out of my sight before you make me throw up in my mouth.’

Tommy turned and bolted, relieved that he had escaped the confrontation without copping a beating but having the sinking feeling that wouldn’t be too far away in his future. Unfortunately, he was right. The verbal a***e soon escalated into bumping and pushing and before too long, into full-on beatings. The g**g would regularly lay in wait for him in the schoolyard and on his way home, taunting him and then torturing him.

It was brutal.