“Maybe the shock knocked you out. Do you remember what happened?”
“I think I was hit by a lorry. I was crossing the road.”
“Impossible.”
“I’m certain!”
“You were found down a back alley. A moped would have trouble getting down there.”
Scarlett was very confused. None of this made the blindest bit of sense. All she wanted to do was find her friend and get out of there.
“Where’s Alex?”
“Who’s Alex?”
“My friend. He was with me.”
“No one was with you… sorry, what’s your name? You didn’t have any ID on you.”
“Scarlett.”
“And do you have a surname, Scarlett? So we can contact your family.”
“Shortt.”
The doctor scribbled it down on a piece of paper and handed it to the nurse, who strode out of the room and slammed the door behind her. Something told Scarlett that the nurse didn’t like doing extra work.
“Now, Scarlett, I need to run a few final tests to make sure you’re fully OK now you’re awake.”
“I thought you said I was fine?”
“Just normal procedures, such as blood tests… Is that OK?”
It sounded anything but OK, but Scarlett nodded all the same. She was desperate to get this over with and leave. This hospital was giving her the creeps.
Ten minutes of being prodded and measured later, he’d finished.
“OK, we’re done,” he said.
The doctor carefully placed several blood samples into plastic envelopes, then washed his hands. As he was preparing to leave, the nurse came running back in.
“She doesn’t exist.”
“What?” asked the doctor.
“What!” Scarlett yelled. “What do you mean, I don’t exist?”
The nurse looked at Scarlett suspiciously, like a teacher who suspected her pupil of playing a heinous prank. “Just that. Your name isn’t listed on any files anywhere. You don’t exist.”
Scarlett scowled back at her.
“There must be some mistake…“
“The system doesn’t make mistakes. Are you sure your name is Scarlett Shortt?”
“Yes, of course I’m sure.” she sighed. She realised there was no point in arguing with these crazy people.
“Look, young lady. I don’t know what you’re hiding, but we need your real name so we can call your parents.”
The teenager sighed in frustration. “Scarlett is my real name. Try looking up Alice and Tom Shortt. They’re my mum and dad.”
“OK.” They both looked at her sceptically, then went to check out her claims.
Scarlett glanced around the room. This was the dodgiest hospital she’d ever seen. It was damp, dark and totally run-down. Where was she exactly and why did the doctors think she didn’t exist?
She noticed her clothes were hanging in some kind of excuse for a wardrobe in the corner. It looked like rickety 1970s shelves with a pole stuck near the top.
“Forget this,” she said.
She leapt out of bed, yanked the tatty hospital gown off, then strode across the room and pulled on her skinny jeans and T-shirt.
As she got dressed, she counted all the reasons why she should do a runner. The doctors didn’t know who she was or what kind of an accident she’d been in. The whole place was a shambles, so she’d might as well sneak out, head home and get her parents to take her to a proper hospital.
Scarlett zipped up her leather bomber jacket, ran her fingers through her black bob in a bid to look presentable, then scanned the room. Where were her Converse?
Suddenly, she heard footsteps approaching. She needed to get out of here, but she wouldn’t be able to run very far in bare feet. The steps were getting louder – as were the nurse and doctor’s voices.
“Please don’t come back in the room yet. Pleeease,” she silently prayed. Her heart was racing.
“Think straight, Shortt. Calm down and think.”
Scarlett spotted her shoes by the door. “Phew!” She raced over and picked them up. At that exact moment, the footsteps stopped and the door handle started to turn.
Her body tensed up as her eyes glared at the handle.
“Doctor Johnstone?” she heard another voice say.
“Yes?” he barked.
“We need you and Nurse Cook over in the Nightingale ward. It’s an emergency.”
The handle moved back to a closed position.
“Very well, come along nurse.”
Scarlett listened intently to them walking away, then pulled on her shoes, crept out of the room and tip-toed down the corridor. She panicked as she wondered which way to head next. These places were always such mazes.
Her eyes darted around looking for a clue. She almost jumped for joy when she spotted a green-and-white sign saying ‘Exit’ at the end of the corridor, then hurried towards it as urgently as she could without drawing too much attention to herself.
“Thank goodness,” she thought as she approached the door, happy to be almost back in reality. She couldn’t bear to be in this hellhole a second longer.
And then she stepped outside.
It didn’t look like anywhere she had been before. Where the hell was she?
Scarlett stood on the main road outside the hospital and stared in disbelief at the world before her. This couldn’t be London. Could it?
Everything was so filthy and grey, a million times more so than usual. All the shops she could see were boarded up and barbed wire ran along the high concrete walls and metal gates that lined the rest of the street. This was not a good place to be.
As she crept past a menacing gang on a street corner, she wondered if it was such a smart move leaving the hospital on her own. She didn’t know what part of London she was in and she wasn’t sure how she could even find out. Sticking to the main road should be her best, and probably only, bet.
Scarlett kept walking for 30 minutes, desperately staring at the street signs in the hope she’d recognise one, but everything seemed so strange to her and the people were unsettling too. She felt uneasily on edge and turned to look over her shoulder every two seconds to be sure she was safe.
A car full of boys slowed down as they drove past.
“Alright, love? You looking for a good time?” one of them drawled sleazily.
Scarlett ignored them and quickened her pace.
“Hey, baby, don’t be scared,” he said.
She chose not to acknowledge them in the hope that they’d go away.
“Oi, you stuck-up snob!” another shouted. “Think you’re better than us or something?”
She wanted to shout and tell them to get lost, but she knew that would make things worse and one girl didn’t stand a chance against five boys.
The traffic lights ahead were turning red, so she ran for her life while they were stuck in the queue of cars. She heard them shouting something, but she was sprinting too quickly to listen.
As she raced round a corner, she saw something that made her hope her luck had finally changed – the entrance to London Bridge Station. Hopefully, she could find a payphone inside and get a train home to East Dulwich too.
“Spare 50 quid, love?” a homeless man on the steps asked her.
Fifty pounds? Cheeky devil. Did she look loaded?
Then she looked down and realised there were at least 20 homeless people outside the station. She felt terrible.
“Sorry, sir,” she said, avoiding his gaze, then quickly made her way inside.
The station was completely empty. Scarlett looked at her watch – by her reckoning, it was 5.30pm on a Friday evening. Shouldn’t the place be hustling and bustling with eager commuters all desperate to get home? She usually felt claustrophobic and angry crossing this station, but tonight there was no one here. The concourse was eerily empty. Just then, she saw a member of staff appear from one of the platforms.
“Excuse me,” she yelled as she ran over.
He growled and walked away.
“Excuse me!”
He was gone.
She trudged round to the ticket office, only to find it closed. Scarlett screamed in frustration. A bedraggled woman leaning against the wall pointed at a useless-looking machine a few feet away.
“Thanks,” Scarlett muttered.
The woman stuck her hand out, thinking that pointing out the obvious deserved a reward. Scarlett fumbled around in her jeans pocket, but all she could find was 50p. That was better than nothing, right? Clearly not. The woman snatched the coin, spat at her and stomped off.
“Well that was rude,” Scarlett said before turning to the ticket machine.
Out of order.
“Argggghhhh!”
This was not her day. She dashed over to a payphone she spotted on the wall, but that was broken too.
“For goodness sake!”
Then she saw a cash point. She figured she’d might as well try to get some money out, but despite squeezing her eyes tightly shut and wishing intently that the machine would work, it swallowed her card.
“Account not recognised!” the screen flashed up.
Scarlett kicked the wall in anger, then nursed her throbbing toe and walked back onto the street, darting past the people outside. She stopped and sighed wearily once she was away from the station. She had never felt so lost and, as much as she hated to admit it, scared.
Spotting a group of people staring at her, she figured it was best to keep moving and walked towards the river.
Wandering beside the Thames always cheered her up, so she strolled along the South Bank until she reached the National Theatre. She was surprised to see that all the glass-fronted restaurants were closed, she was sure they’d all been open when she’d visited just weeks ago. The world had turned very, very strange.
Exhaustion suddenly washed over Scarlett, so she sat down for a second to gather her thoughts.
“Give me your money,” snapped a gruff voice behind her just seconds later.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
She looked up to see a boy a few years younger than her holding a knife.
“Give me your money,” he said again, much more sternly.
“I don’t have any money,” she snapped.
She’d had just about enough of today and there was no way she was letting this kid get away with mugging her.
“Don’t give me that,” he snapped. “You look rich enough.”
Scarlett stood up and emptied out her pockets.
“Look. Three pounds and a button. Take them.”
“Don’t lie, who comes out without money?”
“I am not in the mood for this,” she yelled, while performing a perfect spinning kick that landed squarely on his chest and knocked him to the floor.
Scarlett was pleased her mum had made her take those self-defence lessons now. There was no time to stand around and bask in the glory of her expert ninja moves though. She realised it would be wise to put as much distance between herself and the mugger as possible, so she started running across London for the second time in as many hours. She snaked into a back street to make sure she lost him and several twists and turns later, she felt safe enough to pause for breath. Finally, she’d given him the slip.
“Alert! Alert! Alert!”
“What now?” she gasped. “For heaven’s sake, I can’t take any more.”
Scarlett looked up to see a small, spherical, robot-like machine floating towards her. It was about the size of a football and made entirely from metal and shiny wires.
“Alert! Fugitive number 3274 identified.”
“Now, hang on a minute…” Scarlett thought, “a number what?”
“Status: highly dangerous.”
Well, the machine had that right and she intended to show it why.
“Action: neutralise.”
Now that bit, she didn’t like the sound of so much. What exactly was it preparing to neutralise – her?
“This has got to be a dream,” she decided. One of those horrible, relentless nightmares that feel like they’re never going to end. She’d watched one too many sci-fi movies lately that was all. She just needed to wake up.
Scarlett pinched herself, then looked around.
Still here.
She tried a slap round the face.
No joy there either. She was still in the middle of her nightmare and, more worryingly, the weird death robot thingy was moving towards her and it looked set to fire.
Scarlett looked behind her to search for an escape route, but it was a dead end. Great. She ducked under the robot in a bid to run past it, but it was far too fast for her and it had her cornered against a wall within seconds.
“Neutralise!” it shrieked, before opening up to reveal a red laser. Scarlett covered her eyes.
Boom!
She peered through her fingers, which were very much still in touch and ‘unneutralised’.
“Scarlett!” a voice exclaimed from behind her as she stared at the death robot on the floor – she was relieved to see it had exploded into a million pieces. She looked round to see a very hot boy with short, wavy brown hair smiling at her.
“Scarlett!” he repeated. “We thought you were dead!”
Chapter 2
“I can’t believe it!” said the boy, who Scarlett thought looked about her age. He ran his hand through his hair and stared at her in stunned disbelief.
She looked from him to the death robot, which was fizzling and whirring pitifully as its power died out, and back again.
The boy knew her name and he was staring at her like they were old friends, but she swore she’d never seen him before in her life. She was sure she would have remembered if she’d met a boy this good-looking before.
As he got closer, she couldn’t help but notice his gorgeous green eyes and, as he met her gaze, it felt like they were piercing right through to her soul. Scarlett blushed with nerves.
“Wh... what did you do?” she asked, struggling for something to say.
“I iced it,” he said matter-of-factly, like it was no big deal. “And that made it short circuit and explode.”
She must have misheard him. She could have sworn he said he’d ‘iced it’. What on earth did that mean? The hot boy didn’t notice the look of confusion on her face though, he was too busy waving to three other teenagers.
“Team, come over here,” he yelled.
Two girls and another guy ran down the alley towards them.
“Scarlett!”
They were gazing at her happily as though they knew her too, but she didn’t have a clue who they were.
“I can’t believe it,” one said.
“You’re alive!” yelled another.
“Oh my goodness!” the third exclaimed.
“It’s so good to see you,” a beautiful girl with flowing blonde hair said as she raced forward from the group and hugged Scarlett.
Scarlett pushed her off and took a step back. She needed some space. She stared at the four teens suspiciously, trying to make some sense of the whole situation.
“We thought you were dead,” the hot boy said.
“Yeah, I’d kind of guessed that,” Scarlett replied as she peered at him shyly through her jet-black fringe. Her stomach was flip-flopping all over the place and her cheeks were burning with embarrassment. Why did she always fall to pieces when she fancied a boy? She knew she looked dumb just standing there and she had to say something. Anything.
“Well, I’m very much alive,” Scarlett mumbled as she looked down to avoid the boy’s gaze. She noticed a bit of death robot on her arm and brushed it off. It was freezing cold. She hadn’t misheard him – he really had iced it.
“Thanks for saving me from the death robot,” she added.
“Detectobot,” corrected a beautiful Asian girl with long dark hair.
“Yeah, whatever,” Scarlett said shrugging her shoulders. “Look, I really appreciate your help, but I don’t actually know you.”
They all looked at Scarlett like she was crazy.
“Of course you do, you’re one of us,” the blonde said.
“Us?” What were they exactly? She cautiously took a step away from them.
The friendly girl noticed that Scarlett was rattled and took a less intense approach.
“Let us take you for a coffee, you look like you need it.”
Scarlett paused to consider the offer. She didn’t know these kids and she knew better than to go off with strangers. However, the world had gone crazy and she had been attacked way too many times in the past hour or two, so where else was she going to go? These four seemed to think they knew her.
“Come on, Scarlett,” said the boy who’d saved her. “We’re your friends, we’d never do anything to hurt you.”
She turned to look at him and her heart started pounding. She didn’t know why, but she had a strange feeling that she could trust him. As she stared at his 6ft frame and broad shoulders, her mind started to invent sickeningly soppy fantasies of him being her strong hero, who would protect her from anything.
“Scarlett?” he said gently, jolting her back to reality.
She went bright red, hoping desperately that he couldn’t read minds as well as freeze things.
“Are you coming with us?”
“OK,” she reluctantly agreed. How could she turn down such a handsome stranger?
“Shall we go to Two Sugars?” the blonde girl asked the hot boy.
“No way, I’ve seen the cops milling around that place lately. Let’s try Frank’s Café. It’s pretty quiet there.”
The group started walking down the street, so Scarlett followed them.
“Why are you afraid of the police?” she asked. They all turned and gave her that collective look of disbelief again.
“Everyone’s scared of them, Scarlett. They’re evil. You know that.”
Actually, she didn’t know that.
“My uncle’s a policeman. I always thought they wanted to help and protect us.”
“Scarlett, are you crazy?” the blonde asked. “Did you bang your head? Maybe she banged her head. Neelam, do you think she banged her head?”
“Lucy, go easy on her,” said the girl who Scarlett assumed to be Neelam.
Out Of Time (Book 0): Super Unknown Page 8
