1 Life 2 Die 4 (2 page)

This time I really did trip over my own feet!
There was absolutely no doubt Jessica was staring straight at me.
And for some reason that look of wary protectiveness I’d noticed
earlier had suddenly grown into a sort of frightened hostility!

Unfortunately, I missed exactly what happened
next because I was too busy trying to stay on my feet while I
stumbled awkwardly forward over the zebra-striped bitumen. By the
time I regained my balance and looked up, she was right in front of
me, reaching into her tan, thigh-length coat; her eyes now cold and
deadly. I felt my mouth drop open as her hand emerged holding the
meanest-looking pistol I’ve ever laid eyes on. Then she reached out
anddragged me in tight against her as she raised the gun...

I’ve heard that adrenaline can do strange
things, and as I glanced around, it honestly felt like someone had
pressed a slow-motion button. Like my mind had gone into overdrive.
I had time to take in almost every detail of the people around us.
Most were already reacting to the unexpected sight of the gun, some
frowning oddly, probably hoping this was some sort of tactless
joke, or that they’d accidentally stumbled onto a film set. Others
looked openly horrified as they accepted it was all too real. A few
of the more responsive ones were already moving, doing their best
to put some distance between themselves and this stunning,
gun-wielding goddess.

My head swiveled quickly round, taking it all
in, until I was staring back the way I’d come. Then I felt my eyes
go wide at the sight of the guy Jessica was obviously aiming at. He
was of average build in much the same way Tiger Woods is an average
golfer. Muscles stood out from his arms like mountains along the
Great Dividing Range and I knew the bulk beneath his baggy shirt
had nothing to do with flab. Bizarrely, two narrow strips of hair
arched back along either side of his head and had to be heavy with
gel or hairspray ‘cause they stuck straight out over his ears like
baseball cap brims! If the rest of his head hadn’t been shaved
bald, I’d have thought he was paranoid about getting sunburnt.

The guy was certainly an intimidating sight.
Understandably, however, the thing that really got my attention was
the mother of all guns he was cradling in his arms while he swung
it to point at Jessica. It was roughly the length of a rifle, but
that was where all similarity ended. The thing was thicker than the
guy’s leg-of-ham arms and it bristled with all kinds of knobs,
switches, buttons and odd protrusions that gave the impression it
did a whole lot more than just shoot things.

Even as this thought raced through my mind,
one of his fingers moved inward slightly like it was pressing a
recessed button and the air in front of the gun shimmered. At the
same time, I heard the powerful, yet controlled explosion of
Jessica’s gun firing three times in rapid succession. A split
second later, three bright spots blossomed just in front of the
guy’s chest. I squinted at it and actually saw the bullets Jessica
had fired as they slowed to a stop, one after the other, amidst
brilliant white flares of light! Then the glow vanished and the
slugs dropped towards the ground as casually as coins slipping
through the guy’s fingers!

Who were these people? And what the hell
was going on?

I had no time to think about it now. Before
the bullets hit the ground, we were moving - Jessica and me, that
is. With surprising strength, she guided me away along the street,
glancing warily back over her shoulder as we ran.

Naturally, there was mayhem all around us by
now. Drivers had either hit the accelerator or slammed on their
brakes, and several minor crashes had occurred. Pedestrians had
scattered or dropped to the ground in whimpering huddles, and there
were frightened screams coming from all around. To the left of
where we were heading, people streamed out the far side of a
Council bus, desperate to get away from the woman with the gun and
realising their bus wasn’t going anywhere while people were
swarming all over the road around it.

I thought about pulling away from Jessica and
going my own way. I certainly didn’t want to get dragged into
whatever feud she had with Baseball Cap man. But she was
surprisingly strong, and I figured if I complicated the situation
by trying to go in a different direction, I’d probably just slow us
down enough to get us both killed. I had no choice but to go along
with her for now; and anyway, she was getting us away from Baseball
Cap Man much faster than I could have done on my own!

She glanced over her shoulder then
unexpectedly dropped to a crouch, dragging me down with her as she
raised her gun over my shoulder and pressed a button on the side. I
glanced back and saw smoke streaming from the barrel of Baseball
Cap Man’s mega-gun while he held his trigger finger down. A
heartbeat later I squinted as explosions of light erupted from the
shimmering air about half-a-metre in front of my nose! Instead of
riddling me with hundreds of holes that I could easily do without,
the bullets were being halted by some kind of field, just like the
one the guy had used seconds earlier!

Where did they get this stuff
?

After it seemed like Baseball Cap Man had
emptied more rounds at us than even that bloated mega-gun of his
could hold, he finally worked out he wasn’t having much of an
impact. With an irritable grunt that reminded me of a bad-tempered
gorilla, he released the trigger and unclipped something from the
side of his weapon. I barely had time to register that it looked
like a miniature silver and red missile before he’d aimed it
straight at me. A red laser dot appeared on my chest and I almost
spoiled my good jeans thinking I was dead right there and then! At
the same time, I heard Jessica gasp. I guess she felt responsible
for involving me in this little war of hers, since she didn’t just
abandon me to die. Instead, she yanked me to my feet and started
dragging me towards the front of the now-deserted bus.

Once I’d convinced myself I was still alive,
I threw a look over my shoulder just in time to see Baseball Cap
man lob the mini-missile into the air. It spun lazily upwards, end
over end … then flames suddenly burst from its tail end and it did
a rapid u-turn, racing straight for me with a
whooosh
that
raised the hairs on the back of my neck and left me feeling like my
relief at finding I was still alive was about to be cut tragically
short.

I guess Jessica’s shield-field thing didn’t
have enough oomph to protect us from the missile, since she didn’t
even try using it. Instead she kept dragging me towards the front
of the bus faster than I’d have thought possible. When we were
almost there and it seemed like the missile must just about be in
my back pocket, she veered round the front of the bus and launched
herself forward, lifting me into the air with her so that we sailed
up over the gutter and past the open bus door.

We were in mid-air when the 335 to Carseldine
exploded in a raging inferno of flames.

I was astonished at how much devastation such
a tiny missile could cause. The percussion wave hit us while we
were still in the air, blowing us sideways while the smoking
fireball expanded up and out from the driver’s side. The sound was
mind-numbing, and the added noise of about fifty bus windows
shattering simultaneously didn’t exactly lessen the throbbing in my
eardrums. Then we were plummeting towards the pavement with Jessica
still firmly gripping the back of my red hoodie.

I’d expected to feel a skin-grating,
bone-jarring impact. Instead I felt her arm expertly manoeuvre me
round so that, when we hit the ground, we both rolled smoothly back
to our feet and were running again before I’d even worked out what
had happened! I don’t know how she did it, but it made me realize
she was more skilful than any Olympic gymnast I’d ever seen. I’d
like to see one of them grab some dorky spectator from the crowd
and take the poor dope though their routine with them!

I turned my head away as thousands of window
fragments rained down over us. Once they’d hit the pavement, I
looked ahead again and my eyes were drawn to the left. Amidst the
chaos of fleeing people, the thin, black leather clad figure
walking calmly towards us stood out like a priest at a ‘Living
Dead’ concert … even
before
he’d raised his gun.

This time Jessica didn’t need to drag me into
a crouch – I knew her field-shield was our only chance so I was
already dropping. Two seconds later, the man’s bullets fell
harmlessly onto the pavement in front of us. Then, for the first
time since Jessica had grabbed me, she let go and I watched her lob
something over the shield towards our new enemy.

Everyone else had started running a while
back. Now bad guy number two finally worked out that they had the
right idea!

And so did we
.

I’ve never moved so fast on foot. I was
putting in everything my adrenaline-packed muscles could muster,
yet Jessica was always a step ahead, always dragging me on. I heard
the grenade blow behind us and could only hope we’d put sufficient
distance between ourselves and the lethal shrapnel I knew would be
blasting out through the air behind us. That wasn’t our only
problem though. The flames and smoke from the gutted bus to our
right were already thinning, and I could only pray their fading
cover would be enough to hide us from Baseball Cap man, who was
undoubtedly lurking somewhere just beyond it.

Thankfully, as we flew along the pavement and
ducked left down a wide flight of stairs into the Post Office
Square underground mall, our luck held.

*****

2

There were only
a handful of confused-looking people still milling about down in
the mall. I figured most had done the smart thing and were racing
for their lives, heading for the exit at the far end, away from all
the gunshots and explosions! I hardly touched the stairs at all on
the way down, and once we reached the floor of the mall, Jessica
didn’t slow at all. Together we raced on, veering left round the
big circular staircase leading from the centre of the mall up to
the grassed Square above, before flying on toward the Adelaide
Street exit at the far end.

Before we got there, we were finally forced
to slow as we caught up to the mass of terrified people trying to
escape. Even so, we were ducking left and right past them so fast I
only caught blurred glimpses of their frightened, confused faces.
Then we were through the mall and I spotted Anzac Square on the far
side of the road with Central Station looming up behind it.

On our way through the mall, I’d finally had
a few seconds to think, and it hadn’t taken long to realise my best
chance of survival lay with getting as far away from Jessica as
soon as I possibly could. If she and her friends wanted to play
rough with each other, that was up to them, but it was obvious I’d
be safer somewhere else.
Anywhere else
.

Still, I’d also realised it wasn’t that
simple. I had no idea why Jessica had decided to use me as a human
shield, but I had to admit that some part of my twisted teenage
mind was actually thrilled to be with her, no matter what the
reason. Whether she was an innocent victim trying to escape some
criminal organisation, or a murderer on the run, I couldn’t shake
the memory of her pulling me tight against that amazing body of
hers each time we were fired at by one of those goons. If I went my
own way, she’d be gone forever. If I stayed with her, I might be
killed; but I might also be able to help her stay alive, and it
surprised me to realise the thought of those guys catching up to
Jessica and blasting her to hell was almost worse than the thought
of them doing it to me.

I glanced about, sizing up our options. We
could go left or right along Anne Street, or across the road at
Anzac Square. I figured Jessica would go straight ahead, seeking to
extend her lead over her pursuers. Instead, she caught me by
surprise by dragging me left along the sidewalk and I began to
suspect my personal debate about whether to stay with her had been
a waste of time. She was so strong I felt sure I wouldn’t be able
to break her hold even if I tried! Like it or not, for the moment I
was stuck with her.

While we ran, I noticed Jessica glance up and
realized she was trying to stay under the cover of the overhanging
roof. Of course! The bad guys might not have followed us down into
the mall. If they knew the area, they’d be aware that we could only
come out either here or back at the top of the spiral staircase,
and that both exits could easily be covered from the grassed
rooftop of the Square. If they’d been smart enough to run straight
across, they’d already be waiting up there with guns at the ready.
I swallowed uncomfortably. If I’d decided to go my own way and had
somehow managed to break free of Jessica, I’d probably have been
gunned down in seconds!

Keeping under cover as best we could, we
sprinted along the concrete pavement till we were directly under
the pedestrian overpass. Then Jessica veered across the road, horns
blaring and wheels screeching as the traffic tried hard not to
flatten us. A big green BMW 4WD, tyres squealing, ended up sideways
next to us and the driver and I were exchanging startled looks when
its back window exploded. I didn’t bother searching for the source
of the bullets. It was obvious that at least one of the bad guys
had a bead on us and that pausing to see who it was would probably
prove fatal. Instead, Jessica and I crouched as low as we could and
kept running.

A heartbeat later the bitumen ahead and just
to our right erupted as a cascade of bullets started slamming into
it. While I ran, I watched in horror as the line of tiny explosions
closed in on us. Then we were off the road, racing past one of the
thick concrete pedestrian bridge supports while I listened to the
slightly changed tone of bullets smashing into concrete instead of
bitumen. I couldn’t help thinking how much better it sounded than
the sickening thud of them slamming into our bodies.