Shift #2

by Jeff Povey

  Johnson grabs GG. ‘Stop the train. They’ve got the Moth.’

  ‘What?’ GG wails.

  ‘Do it, GG, now!’

  GG glances out of the smashed window and sees the remaining Moth Twos racing back into suburbia. One of them has our Moth but they are already fast disappearing into the distance.

  I put a hand on GG’s shoulder. ‘GG, you have to stop the train,’ I say quietly.

  ‘We can go back and get him,’ Johnson adds.

  I have no idea if we can or not but that’s not going to stop us at least trying.

  If my dad doesn’t ever wake, the Moth’s our only ticket home. I don’t tell anyone that but GG breaks from his panic and heads quickly down the aisle.

  ‘Must save the Moth, must save him,’ he repeats over and over.

  Non-Ape emerges from the driver’s compartment as GG squeezes past him. ‘Coming through.’

  GG notices the cuts to Non-Ape’s skin and can’t believe it. ‘You got hurt.’

  Non-Ape looks down, frowns, then shrugs. ‘That’s nothing.’

  The train ploughs onwards, unrelenting. Wind whips in through the windows and the open door.

  GG is in the driver’s compartment now, but there is no sense that we are slowing down.

  The Johnsons sense it as well. Billie is still hiding under the table and maybe she’ll stay there for ever. Half of me wants to join her because I can’t believe we’ve lost the Moth.

  ‘GG!’ Johnson and Other-Johnson yell at the exact same time. There is no reply from the driver’s compartment and I’m already moving for it, Johnson one step behind.

  ‘GG?’ we call.

  I quicken my pace, fighting the bone-rattling speed of the train as it shakes from side to side. ‘GG!’

  GG finally appears, standing in the doorway to the driver’s compartment. He looks deathly pale and for a second I think he’s been stabbed by a Moth Two who got left behind.

  But it’s far worse than that.

  ‘Brakes, GG, use the brakes. What are you waiting for?’ Johnson urges. ‘We need to get the Moth.’

  GG looks shrunken and cowed as he steps to one side to reveal crushed and twisted controls. All of them are beyond repair thanks to the fight with the Moth Twos.

  ‘Sorry but it’s all wrecked in there.’ GG’s voice is faint, barely audible. ‘This train is a straight-through non-stopper.’

  London is probably less than ten minutes away. King’s Cross lies in wait. We are doing over ninety miles an hour and impact is imminent.

  ‘Could jump.’ The Ape is at the door he opened with the emergency switch and stares at the ground as it rushes past.

  ‘Some of us could,’ I respond, thinking of Johnson and Non-Ape.

  ‘Some is better than none,’ GG adds.

  ‘Isn’t this where you usually do your swap?’ Johnson asks Other-Johnson. ‘When you think you’re about to die?’

  Other-Johnson seems keen to make up for leaving Johnson under a collapsing hotel. ‘Not me, but if you want to abandon us and get free, don’t worry. I’ll take my chances.’ He glances my way and I know he is trying to prove something to me. Or have me all to himself – at least for the limited time left before impact.

  Johnson heads down the carriage and opens the connecting door to the second carriage that trails behind us.

  ‘GG,’ he calls. ‘How do you uncouple this?’

  GG follows him. ‘You can’t. Not at this speed.’

  ‘There’s got to be a way. C’mon, think.’

  GG takes a moment, pinching his thumb and forefingers together like someone in a t’ai chi class.

  ‘Let me centre myself.’ He closes his eyes and breathes out. ‘Let GG see the rabbit.’

  ‘C’mon.’

  GG’s eyes spring open. ‘OK. The carriages are coupled using a hook and links with a turnbuckle. It’s called a screw coupling. If we can reach that, we might have a chance.’

  ‘Let’s do it!’

  ‘Teeny prob. The coupling is on the outside. Sort of under the connecting doors.’

  ‘I can get out there.’

  The train is going so fast it’s rocking from side to side, and I can’t see Johnson being able to hang on and even if he did would it work? Would the second carriage slow in time? What’s to stop it?

  ‘How long have we got till we hit the station?’ Other-Johnson asks.

  ‘You’d need the Moth to work that out,’ GG replies. ‘His little space brain would do it in nanoseconds. I’d still be on one plus one when we smacked into the platform.’

  Other-Johnson sees Non-Ape rest his bloodied bulk on a table.

  ‘Forget the coupling, Ape could drag the carriages apart.’

  I look at Non-Ape. He must have been bitten and stabbed a thousand times over and he looks disoriented. And worse. He looks weak.

  ‘He’s out of it,’ I say.

  Non-Ape hears me and gets to his feet. ‘Not me.’ But as soon as he stands, he staggers and he has to sit back down again. Black blood is pooling at his feet. I’m worried that even if we get out of this he might be too weak to move the rubble. Everything is going spectacularly wrong.

  ‘You know how to uncouple the train, don’t you, GG?’ Johnson’s taking command now.

  ‘I think so.’

  ‘Then climb on my back.’

  GG pretends to go weak at the knees. ‘Johnson, I thought you’d never ask.’

  ‘We’re going out there,’ Johnson explains.

  Billie has climbed back into her seat but she looks horrified.

  ‘You can’t do that,’ she tells Johnson. ‘You’ll both be killed.’

  ‘I can use the talons like the Moth Twos did.’ Johnson unsheathes his claws. ‘I’ll hang on to the train and GG’ll hang on to me.’

  ‘Can we get engaged after?’ GG asks.

  ‘I’ve already got a ring in mind,’ Johnson responds and I get a glimpse of the old Johnson. The one who promised me we’d get home. He must sense that I’m looking at him because he turns to me and gives me the Johnson salute.

  ‘All aboard,’ Johnson quips. ‘The rest of you get into the rear carriage,’ he instructs. Non-Ape is the last one to cross through the tiny connecting doors and it takes whatever strength he has left. The Ape helps him to a seat as I watch Johnson squat so that GG can climb onto his back.

  GG squeals. ‘Be gentle with me.’

  ‘Johnson, please don’t go out there,’ Billie pleads. There’s an exhaustion to her that I don’t understand. She did nothing but hide during the fight.

  ‘Got no choice, Billie. We’ll all die if we don’t do something.’ Johnson easily hefts the lightweight GG.

  There’s no time for last-minute declarations or soliloquies but a look passes between us and I know that Johnson has shaken off all residue of the fake five months and is back to who he was.

  I sense Other-Johnson watching me, taking it all in and storing it away. He made clear his intention to be with me at any cost and I wonder if he is thinking that by remaining in the human body it’ll make me like him more.

  ‘Maybe,’ he says in my head.

  ‘If you want to impress me, then stay out of my mind,’ I tell him. ‘Don’t do what I’m thinking, do what you’re thinking. At least make it natural.’

  ‘You only had to ask.’

  He breaks the connection.

  I snapped at Other-Johnson. I don’t think I’m quite the same person any more either.

  ‘Let’s get lucky,’ Johnson declares, then with GG clinging on for dear life, he opens the rear carriage doors and climbs out.

  ‘Eeek!’ GG offers shrilly.

  Johnson jams his talons into the side of the train carriage and inches along the coach. I can see the tips of his talons penetrating the steel bodywork but it is slow going. I have no idea how GG is hanging on when the onrushing wind must be buffeting him so hard.

  I can’t help myself and get the Ape to hold my hand so I can lean out of the open doors and watch. �
�Don’t let go.’

  ‘Of what?’

  Which is when he does let go, and for a split second I am tipping head first out of the train until he grabs my hand again and laughs. ‘Gotcha!’

  One day I will hit the Ape so hard.

  The roaring wind thuds into my face and I have to bow my head and try to suck air in through tightened lips. Johnson is edging along the train, one talon at a time, while GG half chokes him, his legs and torso nearly prised from Johnson’s back by the violent wind.

  ‘You’re choking me,’ Johnson squawks.

  GG changes his grip. ‘But what a way to go.’

  Johnson glances back down the train and sees me watching him. I don’t know if it helps but he redoubles his efforts and climbs steadily along to the end of the carriage.

  They are near the coupling as we flash through Finsbury Park station. That’s usually a five-minute journey to King’s Cross but at this speed it’s probably half that.

  ‘You need to go quicker!’ I call out. As if that’s a help to anyone.

  The hurricane wind nearly tears my hair out at the roots and GG is losing his battle to stay with Johnson.

  ‘I can’t do it, Johnson. I can’t hang on.’

  GG’s fingers slip and slide, numb from the strain of clinging on.

  ‘We’re there,’ Johnson shouts to him. ‘What now?’

  ‘Johnson!’ One of GG’s hands is wrenched free of Johnson.

  ‘GG, show me the coupling!’

  ‘OK, OK—’ GG’s other hand is torn free from Johnson.

  ‘GG!’ I scream.

  Johnson moves like lightning to catch him. He grabs GG’s wrist. ‘Whoa!’

  Johnson has saved GG but they’re totally stuck now. Johnson, with one hand holding GG while the other hand’s talons are dug deep into the side of the train, can’t move without letting GG go.

  ‘Oh God. This was not a good plan,’ I whisper.

  ‘What is it?’ Other-Johnson tries to lean out to see but the wind buffets him back.

  The Ape has both hands on my wrist now and I can feel my shoulder socket starting to pop, so who knows what agony GG is enduring as the ferocious wind tries to tear him from Johnson’s grasp.

  Johnson doesn’t know what to do.

  ‘GG!’ he yells. ‘Any ideas would be good!’

  ‘You’re going to have to let me go!’ GG calls out.

  ‘Apart from that one!’

  ‘Pull me in,’ I order the Ape, who does so with a yank that makes my eyes water. I march through the ferociously rocking carriage towards Non-Ape. ‘Get up.’

  Non-Ape tries to get to his feet but as soon as he does he sinks back down again.

  I grab him and try and pull him upright. ‘We need you.’

  ‘I’m trying.’

  Even his deep rumbling voice is weak.

  Other-Johnson tries to take control of Non-Ape. ‘Let me in, let me see if I can move you.’

  Non-Ape has no idea what Other-Johnson is talking about.

  ‘Let me in!’ Other-Johnson shouts.

  I’d forgotten that Other-Johnson said it was almost impossible to get inside Non-Ape’s mind.

  ‘Can you do it?’ I beg him.

  ‘Open your mind, Ape, don’t resist me.’

  Non-Ape blinks his heavy eyelids and nods. ‘Whatever,’ he mumbles.

  Other-Johnson focuses as hard as he can. ‘It’s like trying to cut into a bank vault with a penknife.’

  I stagger back to the open door. ‘Hold my hand again,’ I tell the Ape and lean out.

  But time is running out.

  ‘Hold on!’ I yell. ‘We’re going to help you!’

  GG is being thrown around like a kite in a hurricane. Johnson is holding on as best he can but I can see his metal talons are starting to slide free of their mooring.

  ‘Whatever you’re going to do, Rev, do it now,’ he calls back to me.

  ‘There’s no time,’ GG calls, as his legs flail around in the wind like a crazed puppet. ‘You’re going to have to let me go!’

  Johnson’s talons are working loose. The relentless rattling of the train is shaking them free. ‘Not your best joke, GG.’

  ‘Let me go and then slice through the coupling; you’ll have to try and just cut the thing apart.’

  I look back into the carriage. Other-Johnson, nose bleeding now, has managed to get Non-Ape to his feet.

  Billie watches but I’m not sure she is too aware of what is happening. She has zoned out again and looks weak and ill.

  ‘What’s the plan?’ Other-Johnson calls to me.

  ‘Get him to the connecting door and tell him to tear the carriages apart,’ I say.

  Other-Johnson mentally heaves and Non-Ape is turned towards the connecting carriage doors.

  I look back outside but we’re surely too close to King’s Cross now. Johnson and GG are trapped in their ugly wind-thrashed tableau.

  ‘Johnson!’ I shout.

  GG is starting to slip free of his grip.

  ‘Johnson, hold on!’

  ‘Move it!’ I hear the Ape shout at Non-Ape; even he understands we’ve only got seconds to save GG.

  ‘Listen to me, Johnson,’ GG yells. ‘You’ve got to let me go.’

  ‘No way.’

  GG knows it’s the only answer. ‘Johnson, we’re out of time.’

  ‘Hurry!!’ I scream through the airwaves. But Other-Johnson’s so busy struggling to move Non-Ape he can’t hear me.

  ‘Do this for little GG,’ GG tells Johnson.

  No.

  Don’t.

  You can’t do this.

  ‘Time’s up, Johnson.’ GG starts twisting to get free of Johnson’s grip.

  Tears are filling my eyes.

  ‘I’m light, I’ll float.’ GG is adamant. ‘I will, I’ll just float away.’

  ‘Rev – update!’ Johnson calls to me, desperation in his voice. He’s going to be rattled free of the train any second.

  ‘We can’t lose both of us,’ GG says.

  And with that GG twists mightily and slips from Johnson’s grip. He flies free, bangs into the end of the carriage and then he’s gone, spinning through the skies before a bend in the track takes him out of sight.

  There is no scream or panicked yell from GG; there is just the roaring wind and the beginnings of emptiness.

  I look back at the Ape and can’t speak. He pulls me back into the carriage. I can’t look at him. I can’t meet his eyes.

  Other-Johnson, nose pouring blood, breaks his grip on Non-Ape, leaving him to crash to the floor, and kicks open the connecting door between the carriages.

  ‘Can you do what GG said? Cut through the coupling?’ he yells at the frozen and shocked Johnson. ‘Hey! Johnson! Don’t waste what GG just did.’

  Johnson gathers himself and drives one set of talons into the carriage and with the other set he reaches for the coupling and slices with all his might, over and over. He uses every ounce of alien strength and speed that he possesses. But more than that he uses his absolute and total grief at what just happened. We hit the outskirts of King’s Cross when the carriage comes free.

  Johnson has to leap back towards us because already the momentum of the second carriage is slowing. He almost doesn’t make it because he’s leaping against the momentum but Other-Johnson shoots out an arm and catches him. For a second Johnson is between the carriages with only Other-Johnson holding him. I know that in that second Other-Johnson debates letting Johnson go. It would be so easy to do. Wiping out his rival.

  But he hauls him inside as the first carriage roars onwards, less than half a mile from the suburban platforms. It rockets forward, creating an ever-increasing distance between us. Other-Johnson gets a thanks from Johnson but there’s little any of us can say.

  All we can do is wait and hope we slow in time.

  The Moth has gone.

  GG has gone.

  I can’t believe we’ve lost both of them.

  ‘Rev,’ the Ape says finally. />
  I go to him as an almighty collision between the fast-moving train and a stationary platform happens some way down the track. There’s a seismic boom and I swear I can hear metal crying as it concertinas and compacts before the first carriage ends its journey mashed into the concrete and earth that used to be platform nine.

  Our carriage keeps slowing – the momentum is dying – and I have my head on the Ape’s shoulder and I feel his clumsy hand cup the back of my head. Tears shake from me in great heaving sobs but the Ape stands tall, allowing me to dissolve into him.

  I can feel his mighty heartbeat and it slows over the minute or so it takes for the carriage to decelerate enough for Other-Johnson to get control of Non-Ape again and force him to leap out onto the adjacent rail tracks.

  We’re still going too fast and a dreadful impact is imminent until Non-Ape grabs hold of the train and starts dragging it back. But the momentum of the train is too much for him and as he digs his great feet into the tracks the train pulls him along.

  Other-Johnson grits his teeth and redoubles his mental control over Non-Ape. ‘C’mon big man, c’mon.’

  It’s not going to be enough; we’re going to crash into what’s left of the first carriage.

  Johnson pushes me into a seat and then climbs into the seat beside me. He grabs me and pulls me into him, ready to protect me as best he can. ‘Brace yourselves.’

  The Ape sees him do this and tries to do the same with the catatonic Billie, pulling her head under his sweat-drenched armpit.

  Other-Johnson screams with one last monumental effort and ignites the last remaining residue of power in Non-Ape’s limbs as he is dragged alongside the train. Non-Ape responds and bringing all of his prodigious strength to bear he begins to slow the carriage. A gouged trail ripples along the track in Non-Ape’s wake as he heaves and strains and begins to overpower the carriage. The momentum is bleeding away and Non-Ape roars to the heavens as he wrestles the carriage to a skidding, skewing halt. He can’t stop it thudding into what’s left of the front carriage and we are thrown back and forth but Non-Ape does it, he stops the train.