by KJ Harlow
“All you have to do is press this button,” she indicated a small, circular nub on the left side of the weapon, just behind the trigger. “For our Lucent Guns, pressing that will transport you back to the Underworld.” She paused. “Why don’t you try it now?”
I eyed her with suspicion. Looking around the room, I got double thumbs up from Greg, furious nodding from Tracy and knowing smiles from Silas and Walter. Tor just looked at me with his trademark, deadpan expression. Holding onto the firearm with my right hand, I closed my left hand around it. My thumb hovered over the cartridge release button momentarily, before pressing down.
It was a hugely disorienting feeling. I was surrounded by light and could just make out outlines of people and objects. All I could hear was the sound of rushing wind. It felt like a giant had grabbed my ragdoll of a body and flung it forward as hard as possible. All of this happened in the space of a second. My feet were back on solid ground as I stumbled forward and bumped into a worker with a bad comb over who was rushing by. The worker extended his hand down and helped me up while apologizing profusely.
I gathered my senses and saw Death looking in my direction. His bronze-flecked eyes flashed knowingly as he gave me a nod and turned back to the screen he was looking at. To my right, I saw the glass door to the meeting room disappear as the other six Deliverers filed out. Greg bounded over to me, smiling from ear to ear.
“What a ride right? The first time I did that, I face-planted,” he laughed, slapping his knee as if he’d told the funniest joke in the Underworld. I just caught Tor’s expression as he looked incredulously at the Deliverer he was going to be partnered to in this mission.
“When you’re out there, you cannot leave any man behind. If you retreat it must be authorized from the control room. If we retreat, we retreat together. Do you have any other questions?” Agatha asked me. She seemed to have lightened up a little after coming out from the meeting room. Maybe Tracy had worked her magic on her.
“How do we actually get back to the Overworld?” I asked.
“Come with me,” Walter said mysteriously, leading us across the floor towards Death’s office.
The seven of us stood by the fireplace. I smiled fondly at it, thinking back to when I first came into this room. How long had it been since then? It seemed like all the important things that happened since I died occurred in this room. I managed to catch Tor looking at me with a strange expression. His eyes seemed to flicker as the light from the fire reflected in them. What was going through his mind? I jumped as I heard gunfire.
“The portal has been activated,” Walter announced, holstering his weapon while looking up at the ceiling. Only it wasn’t a ceiling anymore: it was a clear, blue sky with clouds skidding lazily across.
“Deliverers stand here.” He motioned to Tor, Greg, Silas and I to stand in a circle underneath the portal. “Hold hands.” Silas wordlessly reached out his left hand, which I grasped in my right. I reached out to Tor on my left, who similarly threaded his fingers through mine while looking at Walter. Tracy and Agatha stood off to one side watching us.
“Deliverers, may you have unwavering conviction when you shoot,” Walter intoned. Tor, Silas and Greg had looked up. I followed suit. The moment I looked up, it felt like a giant was throwing me back to the Overworld. As the blinding light enveloped the four of us, I could just make out Walter’s parting message above the wind roaring past my ears.
“Godspeed.”
Nine
My legs buckled underneath me when I landed. I stumbled a few steps forward and landed face first in the dirt. Behind me Tor, Silas and Greg had dug their heels into the dirt and remained upright. I spluttered as I inhaled the dry, dusty earth.
“Guess you just came back down to earth!” Greg guffawed at his stupid joke. Despite myself I laughed and inhaled more dust, sending me into another coughing fit. His shadow covered my face when I turned around to look up at him. His laughter was subsiding as he reached down and offered me his hand. I couldn’t hate this guy.
“It will take some time for your body to get used to gravity again,” Tor explained in a low tone. “Your senses will be initially overloaded.” I was squinting at him as he said this. The sun was in the middle of the sky, blazing down on us. It seemed too bright. I was also aware that I had a heartbeat again, not so much because I felt it, but because I could hear it. It was going pretty fast like I’d just finished a sprint.
“As a Deliverer on Earth, your body has now been imbued with greater strength and speed,” Tor said, looking directly at me. So that was why everything was so disorienting. I hadn’t gotten used to the environment assaulting my senses yet. The stimuli was flooding my brain and it was working overtime, trying to process it all.
I looked around us. We were in a clearing surrounded by some trees. The branches reached over us, providing some welcome shade. I didn’t remember the sun being this hot when I was alive. This place looked sort of familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on where I remembered seeing this place. I got up gingerly to my feet, making sure I wasn’t bleeding anywhere.
“Where are we?” I asked out loud. Tracy’s voice spoke through the Light Bug. Even though she was too bright for my liking, I much preferred her than Agatha talking to me condescendingly. “According to our intel, it looks like you’re at a place called the 1,000 Steps.” I spun around in confusion having a look around. The 1,000 Steps was the name people gave to a hill in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. It dawned on me. I had come here with Stan on one of our dates. I smiled at the memory.
“Why are we here? Where is the Tormented hideout?”
“The Tormented are at an abandoned children’s hospital in a place called Carlton.” Tracy read.
“The 1000 Steps was the closest place we could find that didn’t have any people,” Agatha interjected dryly. I was thoroughly confused. From the 1,000 Steps to Carlton was at least a 45-minute drive. I spoke out loud again.
“I understand that we can’t be in contact with people, but being taken out this far is just wasting time.”
“No, it’s not a problem,” Tor interjected. “Agatha, I’ll take it from here.” I glared at Tor.
“Why isn’t it a problem? This is my area, I know how hard it is to get around. We don’t have a car either unless you’ve got one waiting at the bottom of this mountain!” Tor opened his mouth to speak when Greg cut in.
“It’s not a problem because–” he disappeared right in front of my eyes, before reappearing after three seconds, “we can do this.” He said smugly. He was holding cinnamon scrolls in his hands. My mouth dropped. I stared at the delectable baked goods in his hands, which still had steam coming off them. For the first time in a long time, I realized that I felt hungry. Smiling broadly, he put one in his mouth and gave out the rest to the three of us. Tor shook his head. “Suit yourself,” Greg said talking through a bite of the second scroll.
My mind then went back to the night of my death. I remembered lying on the ground, seeing Mortimer disappear then Tor. I looked across at Tor, who was looking busy scratching something into the dirt at our feet. I wolfed down the snack. I’d forgotten how good food tasted. Then something dawned on me.
“Greg, where did you get those cinnamon scrolls?” I asked slowly.
“Just some bakery that I found downtown,” he shrugged. My eyes opened as wide as saucers.
“Greg! You can’t just steal things like that!” I responded, horrified.
“They were good though, weren’t they?” He said, giving me a devilish grin.
Tor cleared his throat loudly. “Greg was just demonstrating to you that we have the ability to move extremely fast between destinations. We call this ‘Soul Stepping’. It makes it easy for us to evade human contact.”
“Effective over long distances,” Greg added, sucking on some icing that was left over on his fingers. Silas quietly munched on his scroll, eyes darting between Tor and me.
“Unfortunately not very effective when fighting Conflicte
d and Tormented, since they tend to inhabit small spaces. But it does help with evading attack,” Tor said absent mindedly, still scratching away at the ground.
He grunted and stood up, hands on his hips and stretching his back. “Rose. We’re going to go through some fundamentals here. Pay attention, OK?” He growled. I was trying to think of something snarky to say but opted just to nod.
“If you see Mortimer or a different Tormented, evade their gunshot at all costs. If you get hit and it’s lethal, you Cease.” I nodded again.
“You will see plenty of Conflicted. I’ve been told you compare them to zombies. They’re not like what you might have seen on TV. They’re more like everyday people, walking around with a blank look on their face. You’ll know they’re Conflicted because they’ll start attacking you.”
“They’re all controlled by a Tormented that’s in the local area as if they’re receiving their instructions by Bluetooth.” Greg said excitedly, spitting a bit of his scroll out in the process.
“They,” Tor said loudly, making Greg cower slightly, “are armed with knives, blades or swords. It will hurt if they cut you.” This time I didn’t nod. I just stared at Tor. Greg looked down at Tor’s scratchings uncomfortably. Tor stared back at me solemnly. He continued.
“Remember, while we’re on Earth, we are human. We bleed, we tire, we get hungry. Sure we can move very quickly, but we’re not invincible. If Tormented shoot us, we Cease.” The trees rustled around us as an easterly wind curled through branches.
Silas cleared his throat. The three of us looked at him in unison. He was so quiet that I forgot he was there. “The best way to Rid a Conflicted is to shoot them in the head,” Silas said softly. “Don’t worry about hurting them. If anything, they feel relief.” Silas looked at me intently through his metal-rimmed glasses.
“You should not retreat unless I give you the order to,” Tor said firmly. He looked around at the three of us, before fixating a stern glare at me. “Is that understood?” I wasn’t scared of him. I glared back at him.
“Yes, sir,” I said derisively. We continued our stare off before Silas took up where Tor left off.
“These Light Bugs are useful. Not only can they be used to talk back with the control room,” he disappeared right before my eyes, “they can also be used for us to stay in touch with each other,” his voice said through my Light Bug. I could hear cars driving past. Did he Soul Step to the bottom of the hill? He reappeared again, crouching in front of me again. I blinked and waved some dust away.
“Those are the fundamentals. Any questions?” Tor asked. This time, he addressed us all without focusing on me. None of us said anything.
“So Rose, do you want to do the honors?” Greg said, beaming at me. I looked at him, perplexed.
“Honors?”
“This is your turf, right? Lead us to Mortimer’s hideout!” Greg grinned. I stood up and looked westward. Carlton was back towards the city. Turning around, I regarded the three men who stood together, waiting for me to say something.
“So how do I do this Soul Step thing?”
“Who does Tor think he is, ordering people like that?” I said sullenly.
Silas and I were hiding out in a balcony on the 9th floor of an apartment conveniently located opposite the hospital. The couple who lived there had gone for their night time stroll right on schedule. We had about twenty minutes, which coincided with when the Conflicted changed their guard. We could see Tor and Greg around the corner of the hospital, waiting for the signal.
“You do know he was in the Norwegian Army, right?” Silas said, without looking away from the entrance to the hospital. I nodded.
I thought back to his hulking back muscles that I stared angrily into after our training session. Tor? More like Thor. I imagined running my hands across his rippling chest and him smiling his cute smile at me. I wonder if he had abs? I blushed, mortified with myself. Lucky it was dark.
“So what?” I continued with my morose tone.
“So,” he started, grunting as he shifted his weight, “he’s used to giving orders. Supposedly, he was a high ranking officer who was used to managing a cohort of soldiers.”
“Well, he’s not part of the Norwegian Army anymore. He’s dead.” I said snidely. This time Silas looked at me, peering at me over the rims of his glasses with a judgemental expression.
“He’s a Deliverer – and a good one at that,” Silas said firmly. “He might not be easy to get along with, but he was chosen by Death for his ability to lead teams and take down enemies.” I didn’t say anything to this. I felt comfortable around Silas, despite barely knowing him. We sat in silence for a few minutes.
“How did Tor die?” I asked out loud. I could almost hear Silas’ brain ticking as he thought about what to tell me. Finally, he gave his answer.
“He died in a military operation gone wrong,” he said plainly. I looked at Silas with a quizzical expression on my face. He didn’t meet my questioning gaze. “If you want to learn more, you’re going to have to talk to him yourself.”
“It sounds like you respect him… or are scared of him.” I said, probing him.
“Everyone deserves the right to keep their history private. Tor doesn’t speak much about his past. If you really want to know, speak with him,” he repeated. I felt like that was the end of that discussion.
“So what about you? How did you die?” This time, Silas didn’t hesitate.
“I was a bank manager in Switzerland. I worked many late nights for several years. I came back home one night and found my wife in our bed with another man. I shot myself in the head.” My mouth was agape. I was staring at him at a loss for words. Should I say sorry? What for? Feeling like an idiot, I turned back to face the hospital. Not noticing my discomfort, he continued.
“I didn’t deserve her. I drove her away. I wasted my life. That’s why now,” he said, looking at me, his glasses reflecting the headlights of a passing car, “I’m making the most of my new one.” He seemed to take enjoyment out of making me uncomfortable with this fact. I closed my mouth and stayed silent. Silas was peering through the scope of his sniper rifle that gleamed silver in the moonlight.
“What happened to your Lucent Gun?”
“Our weapons can take one of two forms. My strength is in long-range attack. I can swap between a hand gun and sniper rifle.” He shifted his position to get more comfortable.
“How do you find out your Gun’s other form?”
“It takes experience. Often the other form will reveal itself to you when the time is right.” I looked at him quizzically in the dark but didn’t ask any more questions.
We had seven minutes left. The couple who lived in the apartment would be coming back any time now. Why weren’t the Conflicted guard changing yet? Surely they couldn’t have a new roster. I could see Tor and Greg getting restless.
“Silas and Rose, any change yet?” Tor asked through the Light Bug.
“No. We’re running out of time. What do we do?” Silas asked. There was silence for a few moments before Tor responded.
“We have to move to Plan B. We have to find a way to distract the Conflicted then take them out before going into the hospital.”
“Rose,” Tor said. My heart skipped a beat when I heard him say my name. I had to get used to having a heart again while I was in the Overworld. “Do you think you could go down to the front and lure the Conflicted out? I don’t think Mortimer knows that you’re a Deliverer yet, so he shouldn’t give any order for the Conflicted to attack you.”
So suddenly I went from being a sentry to being bait. What happened to sticking with the plan?
“Wait. I see something,” I squinted back down to the hospital. A new guard had come out and seemed to be exchanging words with the old guard. The old guard nodded. But something strange was happening: instead of going back into the hospital, the two Conflicted started walking out from the hospital into the street.
My heart was in my throat as I saw them cross paths wi
th a group of university students who looked like they had just finished a late class. Thankfully, they didn’t attack or pay them any attention.
“OK Tor, Greg. Now’s your chance. Go!” Silas commanded.
I saw Greg and Tor slip from around the corner and make their way to the hospital door. The gate was left wide open. They pulled their guns out and surveyed the surroundings. Looking up at us, they nodded before disappearing into the hospital.
Silas let out an audible sigh of relief. He reclined on the chair he had been sitting on. “OK, now we just wait here until–” His head whipped back when he heard screams coming from the front door of the apartment before a loud thump. His Lucent Gun gleamed for a second before changing back into handgun form. He tip-toed silently across the floor towards the front door. I drew my weapon as well, staying close behind him.
The apartment was dark, so we had to feel our way through to the front door. The light from the hallway came through a crack in the corner of the door. The rest of the gap had been blocked by something. Silas put his hand on the door knob, then looked at me. He gestured at my gun and told me to aim it at head height. He started mouthing a count down.
“Three… two… one…” He flung open the door and two people slumped through on the floor. There was no blood. It looked like they had been out cold. It was the couple who lived in the apartment. But who knocked them out?
“Aargh!” Silas yelled.
Someone – something – had Silas in a head lock. His Lucent Gun had been knocked out of his hand. It slid across the tiles glimmering faintly in the dark. I was face to face with a Conflicted. The only light in the room came from the hallway, but I recognized the blank look on its face. It was eerie; they looked more like people, not zombies. Then I noticed the gunshot wound on the side of its head.
