by D. S Mac
“We got in the car, then noticed you were unresponsive. Planned to go to Peter’s, but he got a call from his wife…”
“Amy?”
“Yeah, Amy. St Thomas’ Hospital got attacked. They fucking killed everyone, Ferg.”
“Forrest’s people?”
With a nod, Drake continued, “The one and only! Anyway, fought my way through, got blindsided by some twat called Jason… turns out he was Hannah’s partner gone rogue.”
“Fuck me, so the police are…”
“In Forrest’s pocket, yeah.”
“Don’t know why we didn’t expect that sooner. I take it lover girl saved your ass?” Fergus broke into a fit of struggling laughter, but the pain increased, so he had to stifle the outburst.
“Cheeky prick… but yes, she did; then we went and got Amy. Came back here, we played doctors and nurses, and here we are…” He threw his arms out, then slumped onto his bottom. Kneeling for so long had cut off the blood supply, the tingling of pins and needles slowly forming.
“Ahh, so the patient is awake.” Amy had entered the room. She stopped at the door and leant against the glossy white frame. Her ivory pyjama set hugged her curvy figure so tightly that her nipples became the predominant feature.
“Thank you for all you have done, Amy.”
“My pleasure, Fergus. Can I take a look and redress the wound?”
“Be my guest.” As she walked over, Fergus looked past her at Drake; he opened his mouth to a wide O and darted his eyes jokingly from her breasts to Drake with a cheeky grin spreading across his pale face.
“I’ll leave you to it for a minute.” Drake left the room and found Hannah and Peter at the breakfast bar. Drake caught Hannah’s eye again, but this time was different. The awkward air had morphed into a lustful recognition. Both of them smiled.
“Coffee?” asked Hannah.
“Yes, please, black, no sugar.” Drake took a seat as Hannah poured a cup of fresh coffee from a cafetiere. “Amy seems well, Peter.”
“I know, it’s worrying. She has a habit of compartmentalising. She did it when her mum passed… Forgive me. I don’t need to be dishing out a sob story. Enough is going on.”
“I’m sorry again, Peter—” He was cut off by Peter waving a hand.
“Drake, you have nothing to be sorry for. I made a choice; you saved my wife. For that, I’ll be forever grateful.” A few friendly smirks later, and the kitchen was silent. Drake took several heavy gulps of the strong coffee. His body welcomed the warm black liquid as he welcomed and would embrace his new friends. Finally, he felt like he belonged somewhere.
All three of them made their way to the lounge as Amy was finishing up with Fergus. She turned to the group walking in.
“The wound looks good, no infection. Fergus here will be fine.” She kissed Peter and left the room. “I’m going to go and get dressed.”
Peter grabbed her arm and pulled her back in for a tight embrace. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
His compassionate eyes met hers. With a little smile, she nodded. “I’m fine, Peter… honestly.”
Fergus was the first to speak when Amy had left the room. “What’s the plan, then?”
“If you guys don’t mind, we would like to avoid involving ourselves further. You’re welcome to stay here as long as needed, but we need our normality,” Peter said as he took a seat on the black high-backed computer chair in the corner.
“Of course, I was going to suggest the same thing. What we’re getting ourselves into shouldn’t involve civilians,” replied Hannah.
“Right… okay… well, I will be in the kitchen if you need me. Thank you all—” He was interrupted by three loud knocks at the front door.
“That will be my dad.” Hannah stood up and made her way to the front door. Peter followed her.
Muffled voices worked their way through the hallway and into the lounge.
Drake looked at Fergus, raised his eyebrows and sighed. “Let’s hope Hannah’s dad has a bloody good idea.”
“Aye, let’s,” replied Fergus with a grimace.
Hannah led the way back into the lounge. She stepped to the side and introduced her dad.
“Guys, this is my dad… Eric. He…” The room had gone eerily silent. Eric stood at the door. His mouth had dropped to the biggest O it possibly could. “Everything alright, Dad?”
“My god!” Eric took a few tentative steps closer to Drake and Fergus. He had a slight stoop and was greying, but if you didn’t know any better, you wouldn’t think he was that old. “It’s been eighty-four years.” His eyes welled up, and he produced a huge grin.
“Dad, stop with the Titanic quotes!” Slightly flushed with embarrassment, she turned to Drake to explain but saw that both he and Fergus looked like they had seen a ghost. “Does someone want to tell me what’s going on?”
Drake stood up and walked towards Eric with his arms out in front of him. He pulled the man into a tight hug. “Chase! What the… how…”
“It is good to see you too, boys.” He pulled out of Drake’s embrace and laughed. “You haven’t aged a day.”
Fergus’s eyes were streaming; happy tears poured down his face. “Chase, I… I… thought we lost you!”
“God himself could not sink this ship.” A huge grin spread across his face as Hannah groaned.
“Umm, hello? Fill me in, please. This is excruciating.” Hannah was frantically waving her hands, itching to be part of this reunion.
Chase’s face dropped into sullenness. He slowly turned to Hannah. “Darling… there is something you should know.”
“I’m listening.” She was almost scowling at him, with her hands on her hips.
“Tower Bridge…”
“My cold case?”
Tears rolled down Chase’s face. He was visibly worried about telling his daughter the truth. “Darling, that was us…”
“Dad… what are you saying?”
“Dammit, Hannah, we were in the van on Tower Bridge. Forrest attacked us all, and Drake shifted.”
She was utterly shocked. The entire time she had been investigating that case, he had known. Hannah stormed out of the room, the anger in her steps thumping the hallway floor; then a door banged shut.
“That went well.”
Drake walked over and peered out to the hallway. “I’ll go and talk to her. Don’t worry, Chase.” Drake left the room, reopened the front door and saw Hannah sitting at the end of the garden on a low brick wall. The sun was higher in the sky now, but the morning chill had not yet subsided. “Hannah… it’s a lot to take in, but you need to hear him out.”
Hannah turned, her face red with an angry scowl. “A lot to take in! He has lied to me my entire life…”
“I know, Hannah, but it was to protect you. Forrest is a dangerous man. I wouldn’t want my kid involved in this.”
“Protect me!” Hannah stormed off down the road.
Drake chased after her. “Hannah, please, we need you. At least hear him out.”
She stopped dead, her shoulders slumped, as Drake’s words had won. Hannah spun around and barrelled past Drake.
“Come on then…” They went back into the house. Hannah’s scowl never left her face as she barged into the living room and slumped down like a stroppy teenager. “This had better be good, Dad!”
Chapter 23 - Plan
“I’m so sorry, Hannah. I never wanted to lie to you… every time you mentioned the case, I felt even worse inside.” Chase had his daughter by the shoulders and slowly rubbed up and down, trying to comfort her.
“So let me get this straight… Drake has magical time powers… Forrest is going to end the world… You and Fergus found Drake, got attacked on the bridge, and ended up… where exactly?”
“Well, Fergus and I ended up at the end of time—” Drake was cut off by Chase.
“I would have as well, but the rocket blast forced me back. I felt the heat, thought I was dead, but… I must have let go as we entered the temporal zone—”<
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“Temporal zone? Nice name,” Fergus butted in.
“Yes… so I ended up about a week away from where we were. I spent my life researching and keeping tabs on Forrest’s work etc.” Chase sat down. “I found love and had Hannah. I couldn’t find a way to get to you guys, nor could I do anything about Forrest alone.”
“Dad, you could have told me. I would have trusted you!”
“I know, Hannah. I couldn’t bear to risk your life.” Tears rolled down both their faces; they pulled each other in for a hug. “I’m so sorry for lying, Hannah bear.”
“Dad! I’m not five.” Hannah blushed.
“You’ll always be my little girl.”
Drake abruptly stood up and addressed the room. “Right, so… what do we do?”
Chase looked around the room, gave a curt nod and answered, “Right, so this is what I know. Forrest owns almost everything. Forrest Futures is the most likely place for his ‘experiment’. I know there are some sublevels in that building. However, I also know he frequents an abandoned warehouse on the wharf. It may well be worth checking out first.”
“Dad, do you know when the experiment will happen?”
“I do not know, darling; however, he probably knows you’re all in this time zone, so soon, I’d expect.” Chase moved his attention over to Drake. “Now, Drake, your power… it is temporal, and somehow your body has been able to harness it. With my limited resources, I have deduced that it is likely connected to your cerebrum, ironically enough, the temporal lobe. I believe that you may be able to choose where it takes you, but unfortunately, I’m unsure about control.”
“Thank you, Chase, I believe you are right. On our last shift, I was able to see the ‘temporal zone’, thousands of fractures were everywhere, and I did attempt to will one towards us…”
“Did it work?” Chase’s eyes lit up with curiosity.
“Well, at first, I didn’t think so; it felt like we crashed rather than chose. That being said, we ended up almost exactly where I was hoping for.”
“Marvellous!” Chase boomed at this discovery. “That is good news! Do let me know if you have a chance to test that again.”
“Of course I will… Right, so I think”—Drake looked at Hannah—“you and I should go check out this warehouse.”
“Yeah, I’m with you. I would also like to talk to my chief. I need to know if he knew about Jason, and I need to update him with what’s going on.”
The whole estate seemed abandoned, even in daylight. The wharf was filled with run-down warehouses and storage units. It could not have looked gloomier and more uninviting if it tried.
Chase had said that they would find the warehouse that Forrest frequented amongst the several warehouse units by looking for a worn sign, most of it was missing, so all they had to go on was part of a blue box. Apparently, a logistics company had had the unit until the whole wharf was listed as derelict.
“There, on the right.” Drake had spotted the partial blue box and pointed it out to Hannah through the driver’s side. Hannah followed Drake’s finger and spotted the unit a few hundred yards down. She pulled the car over at the unit next to it.
“What do you think we’re going to find?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. It looks like nothing is here.”
Drake approached the warehouse with Hannah beside him. They tried to peep in through the windows; most of them were broken or boarded up with wooden planks. Drake’s brows furrowed as a loud sigh departed his lips.
Drake pointed to the alley running alongside the warehouse. “I’ll check the front doors. Do you want to go around the side?”
Hannah nodded and disappeared down the side. He made his way to the large sliding doors; his hands slipped into a gap barely large enough. With all his strength, he heaved, face bulging red from the effort. They would not budge.
A loud thud resounded from the side of the warehouse. Hannah screamed, “Draaaaa—”
Drake’s knees buckled. He ran as fast as he could around the side in time to see the side door closing. He caught it with his foot and peeked inside. A large man was walking away from the door with an unconscious Hannah over his shoulder. He walked out to the centre of the warehouse and dropped Hannah with a thud. The crack of her head sent Drake’s stomach turning. The large man fiddled with something metal, but Drake could not see, so he tiptoed inside for a better view. The man slid open a cage door, the type that looked like it was used for dogs. He reached back over to Hannah and probed a sizeable gloved hand up her top. Drake’s pulse stammered. He charged at the man.
“Get your fucking hands off her!”
The man swung around and stood up in a swift movement. Drake halted. The man had pale white skin… almost see-through… Dark red bloodshot eyes glistened with menace. “What the fuck?” Drake took a few tentative steps back. How could one of them be here? The large man ripped off his mask, revealing jagged yellow teeth. His mouth turned up into a snarl as drool trickled down his chin. He ripped off each glove slowly to reveal four-inch talons protruding from each finger.
“How the fuck are you here?” Drake froze. His legs shook from the memory of the last one he’d faced. His mind buzzed with hows, whys and whats. The man charged; his shrill scream echoed throughout the warehouse and sent shivers cascading down Drake’s spine. This wasn’t possible!
Drake had no time to react as the man/creature collided with him. A sharp pain raged through his chest as he went flying back. He landed with a hard thud on his arse and rolled back to his knees. Not even a second had passed, and the creature was at him again, this time throwing a wide arc with its talons. Drake rolled to his left to avoid being split open and frantically searched for something to fight with. It was a large open space with cages! How could there be nothing to use?
The creature charged again, this time with a flurry of short quick swipes with its talons. Drake barely managed to avoid each one and ran back to create some space. He glanced over at Hannah, who was still knocked out on the floor, and he thought to himself, Hannah… cop… GUN!
The creature must have realised his plan because as Drake ran for Hannah, it ran at the perfect angle to cut him off. They collided shoulder to shoulder, and Drake was thrown to the floor again, clutching his arm. The creature hadn’t been fazed. Drake changed tactics; instead of defensive, he ran an offensive and launched himself at the creature’s feet first, hoping to knock it down. It caught Drake by the ankle, its talons dug into the soft flesh of his calf, and it used his momentum to swing him around and sent Drake flying across the warehouse. Drake smashed through a plasterboard wall and landed on a filth-ridden bed. He was covered from head to toe in white dust from the plasterboard; he could easily have passed for a bloody snowman. Drake limped back out of the room through the hole his body had made while he brushed himself down and saw the creature leant over Hannah with its teeth bared.
Drake had never moved so fast; he pushed so hard that he was at the creature in seconds. He jumped and landed on its back. With his left arm clenched around its throat, he threw blow after blow to the side of its head with his right. His hand came away wetter with warm blood each time. The creature reared up and swung around furiously to try to fling Drake off. It lunged back into one of the four supporting pillars and crushed Drake between its large body and the concrete. Pain seared through Drake’s back, but he kept hold. Twice more, he was slammed back hard into the pillar. The force had unsettled the structural integrity; dust and particles of concrete showered down upon them as a large crack appeared right down the middle of the pillar.
As the creature reared up for a fourth lunge, Drake let go, dropped to the floor and rolled out of the way. The creature collided with the pillar, which folded in and collapsed on it in a shower of rubble and deafening screams. Drake was on all fours, beaten and gasping for breath. Bloodied and bruised, he limped over to Hannah.
The concrete grave behind him stirred, and Drake groaned. He turned around to see the creature moving large piece
s of rubble like they were polystyrene blocks. It stood up and screamed at Drake, its eyes bursting with putrid rage as almost congealed blood slid down its face. Its gaping mouth filled with clacking teeth pooled with pungent yellow drool, and once again, it charged.
Drake couldn’t deal with the creature to begin with, let alone now that its rage was approaching god-level anger. He hobbled away from its charge and avoided being hit by the truck of a beast. In doing so, he almost slipped on some bloodied carcass remains that had been left on the floor. It charged again and again, never once losing its energy. Drake noticed that each charge was direct; the beast was so angry its red mist had taken over. Drake thought that could work in his favour. He lined up by a pillar and waited for the next charge, which came sooner than he expected. Drake held his place. He had to dive at the last minute, or it wouldn’t work. The creature came barrelling towards him, head stooped, growling manically. When it was a few feet away, Drake dove to the side; he landed awkwardly on his already beaten body and let out a wail from the pain. The creature did exactly as expected and collided head first at full speed with the pillar. It let out another agonised scream and vanished underneath the debris pile.
Exhausted and aching all over, Drake lay there, unable to move. His worst nightmare came true in an instant. The sounds yet again of concrete being thrown and the creature’s rage-fuelled growling pierced his ears. Drake managed to push himself to his knees as the beast charged yet again.
“Fuck… me…” Drake was interrupted by a loud crack! Followed by another and another and several more, then click, click. The beast, riddled with holes and bleeding profusely, dropped to the floor. Its whole six-foot frame landed with a crack, and it slid about three feet on its face.
Drake, shocked and knackered, looked over to see Hannah propped up on an elbow, holding a smoking gun.
Chapter 24 - Collapse
A faint rumbling shook the floor as Drake and Hannah lay there, beaten. Drake felt like he had gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson, then had been hit by a bus and left for dead. Miraculously, though, that was untrue, and he was still alive. The fight with the creature had well and truly taken its toll on his body. After what felt like an age lying there, he remembered Hannah. He heaved himself over to his front and pushed with shaking arms to prop himself on his knees. Sweat trickled down his dust- and plasterboard-coated face. Each bead stung his eyes from the salty, gritty dirt.
