London Wild

by V. E. Shearman

  ‘My pleasure,’ the Major replied. The picture seemed to hold for a few seconds and then darken slowly.

  A few seconds later it was back to the main menu screen and Judith was moving the little cursor down as she selected the next story.

  Jhosatl sighed inwardly and let his mind drift. According to the clock on the wall behind the couch, it was now ten in the evening. Three and a half hours had passed since they had had dinner. Three and a half hours since he had had a legitimate reason for going to visit his wife. He had visited a few times since anyway, but despite the fact that he always felt he was in the way there, he still found it hard to keep away. It didn’t help that the evening itself seemed to be dragging; three and a half hours had seemed like days. If only Sult or Starlight would come out of that room and tell him some good news. He tried to convince himself that he was better off sitting out here on the couch. They would come and tell him if there was any improvement. But it wasn’t working. If anything, thinking such thoughts were only making him more aware that he wanted to spend more time with his wife.

  Jhosatl was dimly aware of the newspaper screen as Judith watched a news story about a hurricane that had been moving towards the coast of Florida. Hurricane Lorelei had apparently appeared out of nowhere. They were saying most hurricanes built up slowly. Lorelei was different. It had suddenly appeared just to the south and west of Cuba as a class four hurricane and, having increased to a class five, it had now dissipated just as strangely. There had been no doubt in the minds of many that it would have dissipated anyway once it hit the hurricane shields that surrounded that part of the coast, but this hurricane hadn’t gotten within two hundred miles of the coast when it had suddenly vanished.

  At one time this sort of thing might have interested Jhosatl, not just because he enjoyed trying to figure out the occasional mystery but also because the hurricane had been bound for Florida. More accurately, it had been heading for the small colony of Herbaht that had existed over there up until the U.S. forces had moved in and effectively evicted them. At the moment, though, he couldn’t concentrate on the screen properly, and his mind kept traveling back to his wife.

  On the newspaper screen they were interviewing a small group of meteorologists that were looking into the phenomena, but Jhosatl just drummed his fingers on the edge of the couch and pined.

  Judith moved the little cursor down to the next story with a sigh. She glanced in his direction, and perhaps there was empathy in her eyes for a moment, but then she shrugged her shoulders. ‘I’ve heard of people dying from that sort of melancholy.’

  Jhosatl looked at her as if she had just brutally invaded his thoughts and said, ‘If Amba dies, I’ll have nothing to live for.’

  ‘Do you think you’re the only one who cares about her?’ Judith snapped angrily.

  ‘She’s my wife,’ Jhosatl replied stubbornly, getting gradually louder as he spoke. ‘I think I have more of a right to be upset than anyone else. I have tried to move heaven and Earth to save her, and now what? She’s in there,’ he pointed towards the bedroom, ‘lying on the bed with three broken ribs, a ruptured lung, and bone splinters near her heart. And I feel as if I’ve been relegated to sit in here and stare at the ceiling while Sult and Starlight do what they can for her in there. I feel helpless. I feel that her chances would be a lot better if we just went and got proper medical help for her. I doubt Sult even has the proper tools to remove the splinters, even if he knows how to fix the lung. Oh, I’ve no doubt he’ll do what he can, but I feel as if I should head to the nearest hospital now and maybe bring back someone skilled in the art who can help her, and to hell with the consequences. I know Sult would never agree to the risk that that would pose to us all, and I’m certain you wouldn’t. I feel I’ve a right to feel a little bit down, thank you.’

  If Judith had a reply, she kept it to herself; instead she turned her attention back to the newspaper. The next headline read, ‘Cats Attacked in Northern France.’ Although she had been choosing each title one after another just for something to do to fill the time, she seemed to skip past that one. Perhaps she skipped it because it was clear from the title that the Herbaht had been on the receiving end of something else yet again, and perhaps Judith had decided that Jhosatl really didn’t need any more bad news.

  The title after that read, ‘Checkpoints Attacked.’ Judith seemed to skip past this one too but then hesitated and, highlighting it again, she made the verbatim selection.

  The image on the screen was replaced by one of a large wide road; everywhere there appeared to be devastation. A large number of cars were scattered here and there, having lost virtually any semblance of order. Windows were broken, buildings were covered in burn marks, and there was no sign of life whatsoever. Even the usual line of bodies in bags were absent and had obviously been removed before the camera team had been allowed in to film. A voice cut in as the camera panned the area. ‘At about five o’clock this morning, as rows of cars queued up to pass through the checkpoint, the day had every sign of being an average, normal day. Not so.’

  The camera turned towards a nearby hill that overlooked the road and ran alongside it for what was probably several miles. ‘Before daylight had fully arisen, a small army of cats came scurrying down that hill, using the advantage of surprise and night to attack the soldiers on duty at the checkpoint. The soldiers, armed with night vision equipment, fought back valiantly but were overwhelmed by numbers.’

  The camera turned back to the mish-mash of cars. ‘Once they had dealt with the small force of soldiers on guard at the checkpoint, the cats turned their murderous intent on the occupants of the cars. Witnesses report seeing the cats walking calmly between the rows of vehicles, first shooting the drivers and then any passengers in the vehicles. Aware of what was happening, some of the drivers tried to cut and run, but only those at the very rear of the lines stood any real chance.’

  The camera showed some images of cars that had collided with each other. ‘In most cases, it seems the drivers were too much in a panic to turn off their automatic collision sensors, and obviously with them on it was much harder for the cars to maneuver, especially with the cats getting in front of them. In the few cases where the drivers did remember, though, there still didn’t seem to be enough room to get out.’

  The images on the scene kept coming randomly every five seconds or so. Some of them seemed to be repeated, but there were plenty of new ones. A second speaker, one with authority in his voice, made a few comments. It was clear from the fact that they didn’t show him that he didn’t want to be seen. ‘The cats paid a heavy price for this attack. We think at least half of their numbers were wiped out in the first few minutes, more than three times the number on duty at this particular checkpoint. However, it is clear from this that the cats are not restricting their activities to the city of London, and as we feared, they have started to follow the majority of the population towards the north of the country.’

  The scene changed to a studio image. The original speaker and a guest sat at opposite sides of a studio in black chairs that only seemed to have one silver colored leg that widened as it reached the floor. From his demeanor, this guest was obviously not the same man as the second speaker.

  ‘So, are the cats getting more brazen in the targets they are picking?’ asked the interviewer.

  ‘Well, Russell,’ the guest replied, his voice confirming that this was someone different than the previous speaker. ‘The cats usually pick their targets carefully. If they attacked this checkpoint, then they had a good reason to do so. Maybe they had something heavy they wanted to move to the north, and with all the routes blocked, they would have to make their own path.’

  ‘But the road was littered with cars,’ the interviewer commented. ‘Surely they still wouldn’t be able to get anything really big through.’

  ‘It could be something simple, such as the Matriarch and her entourage wanting a clear path to the north,’ the guest replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

&nb
sp; ‘Oh, I see,’ the interviewer offered.

  ‘Or it could have been intended as a punitive strike, to remind us that they are still a force to be reckoned with,’ the guest suggested in much the same tone.

  The interviewer started to ask another question, but both Judith’s and Jhosatl’s attention was dragged from the screen by a loud ruckus coming from the bedroom. Another argument had broken out between Sult and Starlight, and as seemed normal, Sult’s was the only voice to be heard.

  At first Jhosatl looked around, hopeful that maybe it was his wife making the noise and that she was finally showing some sign of recovery. But it didn’t take long for him to realize what was actually happening, and he sank back into the couch with a sigh.

  ‘You’re useless; you’re utterly useless!’ It was only too clearly Sult’s voice.

  ‘Go,’ Judith commented, watching Jhosatl’s face, suddenly so full of hope, return to its previous expression of helplessness. ‘Go and find out what’s going on. This is a decent excuse to pay your wife a visit at the same time.’

  He didn’t need any more encouragement than that. Quickly he got up and made his way behind the couch towards the bedroom door. Before he opened it, though, it was opened from the other side and Sult stepped into the casual room with Starlight just behind him.

  Sult didn’t seem to notice Jhosatl at first, instead ranting at the woman behind him. ‘I thought you said you had medical training, yet in the two days I’ve known you I don’t think you’ve gotten anything right except with luck. When we brought Amba into this hotel in the first place, I told you to be very careful about how we moved her. If I hadn’t been there with you, I think she’d probably already be dead.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Starlight replied, her voice little louder than a squeak.

  Sult stomped over to the kitchen and began to pour himself a glass of water from the cooler that the hotel had so thoughtfully supplied. ‘I’ll bet you never had anything to do with the great Slim Dorris. It was all just a story you made up. You saw an opportunity and you took it.’

  Jhosatl looked longingly through the open door into the bedroom at the prone figure of his wife. He so wanted to see her, to check she was all right, but somehow he felt he daren’t move.

  ‘No,’ Starlight insisted. She almost seemed afraid to raise her voice. ‘I was Slim’s pet, that much was true. I spent most of my life as his pet. I had two siblings, both of whom were killed on their first day in the Cattery. I intend to make it my life’s work to find out where Slim is now and then kill him for what he did to us. I used to have the address of his London apartment on a business card, but that was confiscated from me when I first arrived in the Cattery. I-I think I could still find the place, though.’

  ‘Slim is on the moon,’ Judith put in absently. ‘It’s on the news somewhere, on one of the networks. I’ll see if I can find the story for you if you like. He’s been summoned to the moon to act as bodyguard to the Prime Minister, who is apparently engaged in some high level talks up there with various foreign powers.’

  ‘Never mind that,’ Sult interjected stubbornly. ‘Okay, so say, just say you were his pet before you ended up in the Cattery. How much did he really teach you about medicine?’

  ‘Well, nothing,’ admitted Starlight, ‘but I thought I might be able to help anyway.’

  ‘Nothing,’ Sult repeated, his voice calming a little. ‘I was beginning to guess so. Why the hell did you lie to us?’

  ‘I would have done anything to get out of that truck. And I’m pretty sure you would have too. So I lied a little. If I hadn’t, I would’ve been left in the middle of a forest with the others. I’d have nowhere to go, and I’d look very feline to anyone who I might happen to walk past. I wouldn’t have stood a chance alone, and I knew it.’

  ‘If you’ve hurt Amba…’ Jhosatl told her firmly and accusingly.

  ‘She hasn’t hurt her,’ Sult replied a little more calmly, like a doctor explaining the situation to the next of kin. ‘She came close a couple of times, but Amba lives. Unfortunately I’ve done all I can, and I’m afraid it’s been precious little. The ribs alone I could fix given time, but the rest is beyond my ability, especially with the tools at hand. If only we hadn’t had to move her from the truck in the first place, I might have been able to do more. I think it was that that pierced her lung and maybe even caused the splinters. But I don’t have the equipment or the experience, and I’m not a miracle worker.’ He slowed right down. ‘I’m sorry. I’ve done all I can and I will continue to do what I can for her, but I expect her to be dead before the end of the week.’

  Jhosatl refused to listen at first. Then his legs went wobbly and refused to support him. He slumped against the wall next to the bedroom door. Mostly to himself he commented, ‘There’s nothing you can do for her? Nothing at all, mate?’

  ‘I’ve done all I can,’ Sult repeated once again, but Jhosatl shook off the words, refusing to accept them, and entered the bedroom.

  Amba was lying on the bed exactly as she had been the last time he had been here. She was plugged into two makeshift drips, one feeding her water and the other removing her waste material. There were some nearly dead flowers in a vase on a small table next to her head. She had a gentle smile on her face, but her eyes were closed and there was no sign that she was even aware of his presence.

  ‘I love you,’ he told her pitifully, ‘and I’ll do all I can to save you.’

  There was no movement from Amba, no sign that she had even heard him. If it wasn’t for the rhythmic movement of her stomach as she breathed, he might have been forgiven for thinking that she already resided in the arms of the Goddess.

  ‘I will do all I can,’ he vowed to her.

  He stepped out of the bedroom. Somehow a single tear had escaped from his left eye, and he wiped it away. It was good to have these three people as friends. But more than anything in the world, he wanted his wife back, and if that meant he would lose his friends, then so be it.

  Sult was standing in the kitchen. He was drinking a glass of water and trying to calm himself down. He had stopped shouting at Starlight for now anyway.

  Starlight seemed unsure where she should be after recent events. She looked very nervous and was standing just behind the couch in a position that suggested that her legs were a little wobbly and that she needed support. Occasionally she would look at the newspaper screen, but the rest of the time she was looking at Sult, perhaps hoping for forgiveness or another chance.

  Judith still sat on the couch. The story on the newspaper had changed again. This time they had a virtually empty studio with one person sitting on a tall chair in the center, and he was answering questions fired at him from a disembodied voice offstage. It took Jhosatl a moment to recognize the man in the chair. No wonder the room had suddenly gotten so quiet. It was Colin.

  ‘No, I don’t know why they didn’t let me in on their little plan. I could make a good guess, though. I would have told them not to do it. Amba was a good member of our band, but she was still a cat, and the law is the law,’ he was saying.

  ‘Do you have any idea where they might currently be in hiding?’ an interviewer was asking. ‘Any clue they might have left? Something one of them might have said the last time you saw them?’

  ‘I’m afraid not. The last time I saw them was at a concert a week ago. It was the same night that Amba was collected. I haven’t heard from any of them for over a week. The only time I realized that something was going on was when I called round to Sult’s place and found he had gone. When I tried to check with Judith, she too was missing. I didn’t have Joseph’s number.’

  The interviewer put in, ‘Police have since searched the apartments and houses of the three and have made some quite startling discoveries, but no sign of the musicians themselves. And just before they committed this crime, it seems that they stripped all the money out of their various accounts, a combined sum of more than three quarters of a million which they collected as cash.’

  As t
he program continued, the images of Sult, Judith, and Jhosatl in his human disguise appeared in the top left-hand corner with a number to call should anyone spot them.

  ‘That’s just great,’ Sult muttered angrily. He poured himself a second glass of water. ‘Well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised after everything else that’s been going on lately.’

  ‘How do they know it was us?’ Judith commented, concerned.

  ‘We must have left some clues behind, mate,’ Jhosatl explained, ‘enough for them to put two and two together.’

  ‘We have to run then,’ Judith stated. ‘We have to go overseas. We have to find a country somewhere that has no extradition treaty.’

  ‘The moon,’ suggested Starlight hopefully.

  ‘Amba is in no condition to travel overseas,’ Jhosatl snapped, ‘or to the moon.’

  ‘Look, I’m sorry, Joseph,’ Sult replied almost patronizingly, ‘but as I told you, Amba won’t survive to the end of the week anyway.’ He sighed. ‘We should cut our losses and go.’

  Jhosatl shook his head emphatically. ‘You said so yourself; you don’t have the equipment or the experience. But I’m sure I could find someone who does. There’s bound to be a hospital in the town somewhere. All I have to do is find the right doctor and bring him back.’

  ‘And add kidnapping to our ever-growing list of crimes?’ Sult replied.

  Jhosatl sighed. ‘I’m sorry, but Amba means the world to me. If I was willing to give up just like that, then I probably wouldn’t have bothered to try and rescue her in the first place. She is my world. You might be a good friend, but without her I am nothing. Don’t you see I have to at least try?’

  Sult nodded slowly but reluctantly. ‘Very well, but be very careful. Hospitals, even at this distance from the center of London, are well guarded. It’s not normal for any Elite Guard to be on duty at one, but it’s always possible that someone else might see through your disguise, especially as your current face has just been broadcast all over the newspaper screen for the whole world to see.’