by KJ Harlow
I couldn’t even hear myself talk; I tried anyway. As I was put on the gurney, the frantic face of Constable Peterson loomed up to mine. With my last ounce of effort, I spoke to him.
“I told you there was a bomb.”
Seventeen
“Retreat…”
What? Who said that? The ringing in my ears was too loud. Maybe I was just hearing things. I closed my eyes as tight as I could. Red – all I could see was red.
“Rose… retr–”
My body rose into the air before being unceremoniously placed onto a gurney; I opened my eyes. Faces were looking down at me; none that I recognized. My body couldn’t move. It felt… restricted. I flexed my fingers. It felt like someone had injected concrete between every joint.
“Jane Doe, late 20’s, found at the scene of a bomb blast. First degree burns to her face…” Wow, a bomb blast. Poor girl; hopefully the burns weren’t too severe. Oh wait…
“What do you want us to do with her? We’re out of room here,” the doctor said exasperatedly.
“That’s what the other five hospitals up the road said. We’ve done our job; now you do yours.” The paramedic shoved some forms to the doctor, who glared at him while he signed off on them. I was being wheeled inside.
“Don’t worry, we’re going to take good care of you,” the doctor said. I could tell from his strained face that he didn’t believe his own words. My eyes tiredly rolled in their sockets until they were looking up at the ceiling. Light – light – light; it was relaxing. I closed my eyes again. The nerves in my body were starting to scream.
“Rose,” Agatha said urgently. “Go and find your…” I turned a corner sharply and came to a waiting room. There was screaming, crying, yelling and ordering; it was too loud. I furrowed my brow as I tried to focus on something else. I just wanted to lie here for a while.
“On my count. One, two, three,” the male doctor and his colleagues lifted me off the gurney and transferred me onto a bed. A female’s voice, calm and reassuring, swam into my consciousness. It was firm but pleasant. I drowned out all the other noise and focused on it.
“OK, what do we have?” She said.
“This woman was in the General Register Office when a bomb went off. Can you believe it, the GRO of all–”
“Any soft tissue injuries? Signs of trauma? Loss of memory?” My eyelids were parted by fingers that felt cool against my skin. A torchlight shone in, making me jerk my head back. “She’s alert, pupils are even,” she said, standing back as I scrunched my eye closed. “What’s your name?” I knew she was talking to me, but I didn’t feel like answering.
“Monitor her and dress her burns. If there are any sudden changes in her vital signs, page me.”
“R…” I tried to say my name, but it got stuck. The doctors looked at me and waited. “Rose…” I finally managed to get out. Why was it so hard to speak?
“Your name is Rose?” The male doctor asked.
“Y-yes,” I said. “Eav…ing.” The doctors looked at each other.
“That’s good, very good,” the female doctor said. I liked her. I slowly opened my eyes again, letting them adjust to the light in the room. She was in her late 40’s. She had high cheekbones and a strong chin that commanded authority. Her blond hair was neatly tied back into a practical ponytail. My eyes flew open. Blond…
“Tracy!” I shouted. I erupted in a fit of coughing.
“Rose, you have to lie down!” The male doctor said. He put his hands on my shoulders and tried to push me back down onto the pillow.
“Have you seen my friend Tracy? She has blond hair. She was in the building with me when the bomb…” I stopped abruptly as my mind finally caught up.
“Look on the board and see if a female patient with blond hair by the name of ‘Tracy’ has come in,” the female doctor ordered to an intern standing behind her. I patted my hand to my holster; my Lucent Gun was gone.
“My gun, have you seen my handgun? It’s silver –”
“Rose, you really have to lie down –”
“I’m fine, I need to –” I felt a pinprick on my arm. By the time I pulled it away, the male doctor had already emptied the contents of the needle into my system. “…go.” The last thing I saw before my eyes closed was the concerned face of the female doctor.
“Tracy!” I said, sitting bolt upright. I was covered in sweat. I looked around; the curtain had been pulled around my bed. I grimaced as I swung my legs off the side of the bed. I brought my hands up to my face and yelped. My forehead and cheeks were raw from the blast. I looked at a chair on the right side of my bed where my top, leather jacket and jeans were folded up. My shoes were underneath while my glasses sat on top. I hurriedly got changed, ignoring the goose bumps that dotted my skin. There was a crack on the right lens of my glasses; nothing going back to the Underworld couldn’t repair.
I flung the curtain back and looked around. The waiting room was still full but thankfully, there was no more screaming or yelling. There were people slumped over in hard, plastic chairs as they spent the night by their loved ones in bedside vigil. I didn’t know how many people the Conflicted had hurt before I got to them but apparently, it was still enough to fill up all the hospitals in Southport.
“Rose,” the male doctor said, striding towards me. I took half a step back. “You shouldn’t be up, you’re–”
“I have to go,” I said flatly. I tried to step around him but he barred me from moving past him.
“We just put on the first layer of your dressings for your burns, if you go out now, they’ll get infected.” I suppressed a sigh and looked at the doctor’s name badge.
“Dr. Hodge. I’m prepared to take that risk. My bed could be put to better use by giving it to someone who truly needs it.” He looked at me with a slight smile on his face.
“You’re someone who truly needs it.” I couldn’t help it; I rolled my eyes.
“I need to go and find my Lucent Gun. There are some bad guys called Tormented who have turned all the MPs in the UK to zombies. I’m actually already dead but I signed a contract with the Angel of Death to come back up to the Overworld to kill off these zombies and the Tormented and then I’ll get a second chance at life.” I could see Dr. Hodge’s eyes widen as he realized that he had overlooked head trauma in his initial diagnosis.
“OK Rose, let’s sit back down on the bed first,” he said slowly as he gently shepherded me back towards my bed. “I’m going to get Dr. Levinia then we’ll let you go, OK?” I smiled up at him and nodded stupidly. “Good, don’t go anywhere.” He smiled and closed the curtain around my bed again. I listened until I couldn’t hear his footsteps. This time, I slid the curtain open carefully. Checking the coast was clear, I left the room, walked into the lift and pressed ‘G’.
I walked out and kept my head down as a couple doctors walked past me, looking at a clipboard. Looking up at the signs, I found the entrance to the hospital. A wintry chill greeted me once the automatic doors closed behind me. I hugged myself as I looked around to try and find my bearings. It was night time. The moon was hiding behind some clouds. There was a big, backlit sign about 10 yards in front of me.
“Ormskirk and District General Hospital,” I said to myself.
“Rose, do you read me?” Agatha said, tiredness marring her voice.
“Agatha, yes I’m here,” she clucked indignantly.
“What took you so long to respond?”
“I was in a bomb blast.”
“I know you were; Tracy died. She’s back down here. I’m taking care of her.” My heart skipped a beat; it was good to know that she was safe, but I couldn’t imagine what condition she would have been in when she came back to the Underworld.
“I can’t find my Lucent Gun.”
“The policemen took it,” Agatha said. “I watched them confiscate it after you were put into the ambulance.” Damn it; that would make things difficult. At least I knew where it was now. “Try Ainsdale Police Station. It’s 12 miles to the north
west.”
“Read my mind.” I walked back out to the main road. The wind picked up and cut into my face. I clenched my teeth as my burn wounds screamed in protest. “We couldn’t stop Matylda from blowing up the GRO, I’m sorry.” Despite the gale of the wind, I could still hear Agatha sigh.
“Not much we can do about that now. Go and find your Lucent Gun then make your way back towards London. We still have Sid.” I nodded. I shrunk into the shadows as a car sped by. I looked down the road in the opposite direction from which it came. Seeing there weren’t any more cars coming by, I Soul Stepped away from the hospital.
“What on earth–” the policeman swore as I pushed open the door, letting the wintry winds blow loose papers that were neatly stacked on the desk onto the floor. He bent down to pick them up as I came in, brushing the rain off the sleeves of my jacket. I walked up to the desk and waited for him to straighten up.
“Next time, don’t open the door so –” it looked like the policeman had only joined the force recently. He was young, freckled and pale as he jumped back. “Jesus, ma’am are you OK? I didn’t mean to jump, I just…” he started mumbling as he averted his eyes from my scarred face. He cleared his throat. “How can I help you?”
“Does Constable Peterson work here?” The young policeman blinked. I couldn’t help but smile; his youthful appearance and sandy hair reminded me of Greg.
“Y-yes, he does but he’s gone home for the day.” Excellent; that would make things easier… assuming my Lucent Gun was actually here.
“Sergeant Peterson took something of mine earlier today,” my eyes flicked up to the square clock in the corner: just past 10. “I’ve come back to reclaim it.” I looked down at the young policeman’s name tag on his desk. He stood up straighter and cleared his throat.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. We’re not a lost and found. When we confiscate things, they are the property of the police until we release them.” He was trying to sound authoritative but based on the tremor in his voice, the appearance of a woman with wild hair and burn scars on her face had unnerved him.
I looked him up and down, appraising him. He was about 5’ 9”, maybe 10”, not much taller than me. He was gangly. I spotted his firearm resting in its holster on his desk. He watched me warily.
“Constable Fester, listen to me carefully,” he raised his eyebrows at me in surprise, as if nobody had called him using his title before. “My name is Rose Eaving. I’m a member of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.” I kept a straight face as he stared at me with increasing suspicion. “No doubt you have heard about the massacring that has occurred in London over this past week?” I waited for him to nod and continued.
“We have tracked the body responsible for the crimes. They planted a bomb at the General Register Office to destroy all records of UK citizens to prevent us from finding information about their chief,” I put my hands on the table and leaned into him conspiratorially. He inched back slightly. “Sergeant Peterson confiscated my gun, a gun which I need to protect myself with as I continue to pursue these terrorists. I have already alerted my superiors to his crime of perverting the course of international justice.” He swallowed.
“If you give me back my handgun, I can put in a good word for you to the Chief Constable. Make sure that you have immunity from any organizational backlash that would be sure to eventuate from this... mess.” I could practically see the gears behind his eyes whirring overtime as he considered what I had just said. I put on my best, ‘I’m an impatient, big shot, secret agent’ look as I waited for his answer. Finally, he spoke.
“Can you describe your handgun to me?”
“Not bad, Rose,” Agatha said through the Light Bug. I was standing outside the police station, my Lucent Gun humming on my hip, pleased to be back in its holster. The wind had picked up again. I pressed the Light Bug into my ear, trying to stop my teeth from chattering.
“I got lucky. That kid was a lightweight.” I turned my head away from the gust of wind that just blown into me. “So back to London now, right?”
“Yes,” Agatha said, raising her voice. “But before you go and find Sid, you need to provide back up to Walter and Silas. Dante and Matylda are amassing a small army of Conflicted at Trafalgar Square. It looks like several of the MPs that were turned in the House of Commons are in there. They’re arming them with weapons right now.”
“Is Mortimer there?”
“No, we haven’t seen him,” Agatha paused. “Rose, this is a mission fraught with danger. If Dante himself is here, your risk of being Ceased is high.” I drew my Lucent Gun out and Soul Stepped back towards London. My face wounds starting weeping blood again as the wind cut across them; I paid them no attention. A few seconds later, I was standing under the London Eye again. I breathed a sigh of relief; more buildings in London meant more windbreaks.
“Trafalgar Square is to the north, right?” I said.
“Yes. Silas has taken his vantage point on top of The National Gallery. Walter is keeping an eye on them from a restaurant called ‘The Trafalgar Dining Room’ about 150 yards to the south west.” I heard two clicks as Silas and Walter joined the conversation.
“Rose, how are you feeling?” Walter murmured.
“Much better than how Tracy’s probably feeling right now,” I quipped. There was no laughter, but I could imagine Walter smiling wryly.
“Silas, are you there?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said, his voice a little more than a whisper. “Ready to take out Dante.”
“How many Conflicted are there?” It was quiet for a while as Silas counted.
“500, maybe 550,” he said grimly. I swore out loud; we were greatly outnumbered. “There are half a dozen trucks here. Dante and Matylda are taking weapons out from the back and giving them to the Conflicted.” No one spoke as we considered how we were going to take care of the Tormented with so many Conflicted defending them. Finding Sid had been shoved to the back of my mind. What if Mortimer wasn’t there because he was looking for him?
“I’m going to keep looking for Mortimer. Let me know if you need me.” There was a click as Agatha’s transmission ended.
“How are we going to do this?” I asked. There wasn’t any response from either Silas or Walter. “Silas, if you were to snipe Dante right now…”
“He would be stunned for approximately half a second; he’s got a comparatively faster rate of recovery. A hand gun would be able to keep him down if two shots were fired into his vital regions every second.” My finger twitched as it tried to simulate that speed.
“The problem is that even if one of us was to keep Dante down, that would still leave Matylda and over 500 armed Conflicted to kill or Cease us.” Walter rumbled.
“I could keep Matylda down from my position. Her rate of recovery is approximately four seconds. That’s enough time for me to reload and keep shooting her.” Silas said.
“We need something to distract them. Something that will give us time to take out Agatha and Dante at the same time and keep them out of action but also give us time to Rid all of these Conflicted.”
“I’ll go,” I said. Silas and Walter were silent. “I’ll be the bait. I’ll go straight to Dante and talk him. Buy you guys some time. I’ll take him out and keep him down. The moment I shoot him, you take out Matylda, Silas. The Conflicted will be confused. Walter, that’s where you come in with your machine gun and go on a Ridding spree. You’ll have to take them all out before they have time to kill me.” There was radio silence as the other two Deliverers considered my highly audacious plan. There was a click in my Light Bug.
“Absolutely not,” Agatha said flatly. “I won’t allow it.”
“I thought you were meant to be looking for–”
“Tor’s already been filled with bullets, we don’t need another Deliverer in the same state!”
“The Conflicted are mobilizing,” Silas said. “They are filing out from Trafalgar Square, moving south.”
“Damn it,” Walter growled.
“Rose, if you’re sure about this, I’ve got your back.”
“Walter–”
“Do you have any better ideas, Agatha?” He rumbled. There was no response.
“Rose… I hope you know what you’re doing,” Agatha said, before ending the transmission once more. I exhaled and drew my Lucent Gun.
“OK guys. I’ll be in Trafalgar Square in a second. When I take out Dante, Silas takes out Matylda. Walter then comes in and blasts the Conflicted. Is that clear?”
“Yes,” the two Deliverers said in unison. I looked north and sped along the length of the River Thames, turning left and flitting across the Golden Jubilee Bridges. A second later I stood at the front of Nelson’s Column, a statue at the front of the Square. I spotted Walter to my left as he waited outside the restaurant.
“Remember, he can make you do things you wouldn’t normally do. Don’t forget who you are,” Walter warned. I nodded and turned back to look into the Square.
The Conflicted still couldn’t see me; the moment I stepped out from behind the status, all hell would break loose. I pushed up against the statue, heart in my throat. It was now or never. I spotted Dante at the back of the Conflicted. In a blink, I was standing inches away from him, my Lucent Gun jammed up behind his chin. My finger hovered over the trigger as Lucent Gun hummed excitedly. His eyes swivelled down to me and I greeted him.
“Good night.”
Eighteen
“No one shoot,” Dante commanded, his voice calm yet authoritative. My finger trembled a fraction of an inch away from the trigger. I could feel over 500 weapons pointed at me, ready to send me back to the Underworld. Matylda had her Ombre Gun pointed at my head. She too was moments from ending my existence. Why did I hesitate? He had no authority over me. I dug my Lucent Gun deeper into Dante’s neck. He looked down at me, the corner of his mouth lifting in a lopsided smile before he looked back up.
