RAGE (Descendants Saga (Crisis Sequence One)) (15 page)

Nightmares and Dreamscapes

13 Days Earlier

A shot rings out on the Westbourne platform followed by a host of others. Hu Takashi feels Sharon’s weight thrown from him. Several bullets rip through her body. Hu still screams as she rolls away.

Almost instantly,
Sharon scrabbles like an animal on the concrete, looking up to the person who interfered with her attack. Madness and bloodlust shine from her eyes like flares. She leaps toward an Armed Response officer who enters the platform with his team. A shot to the head quiets her mania instantly. Her body falls across Hu.

He screams again
, and it seems to him he has done nothing but this for an eternity. The officer comes to his side the next second, putting his hand out to pull Hu from the ground. Sharon’s body sloughs off him like an old sack of garbage, her eyes open but lifeless now.

Hu sees nothing of the woman she was, the nurse working the same late hours at St. Mary’s he does. She was briefly a monster, a terrible thing that tormented him.
He is glad she is dead. He is free of her.

The officer speak
s to him as his team descends upon the platform with guns. It is hard for Hu to hear the words. Shots are fired at devils in human form that leap at them like rabid animals. Hu shouts his thanks, as the officer who saved his life leads him away from the scene.

The policemen shoots back behind them
, as another infected individual comes across the platform. Hu hurries up the steps and the officer blasts away at the crazed man on their heels. The man falls and writhes upon the ground. Hu pulls on the officer’s arm, wanting him to come also.

The policeman indicates to the members of his team that he’s taking a survivor up and then follows. Hu hear
s rifles going off on the platform below. He feels lucky to be alive.

Sharon
was all over him. He tried to fight her off, turning over and attempting to get back to his feet to run away. She was relentless, clawing and beating upon him. He’s amazed she did not tear his throat out with the ferocity of her attack. Still, he can already feel cuts and bruises crying out all over his body. It will take some time to get over all of this.

“You’re going to need more guns,” Hu says to the officer as they arrive up top in the station proper.

The officer nods to him. “Don’t worry, sir,” he says. “We’ve brought a dozen heavily armed officers. What happened down there?”

“You d
on’t know?” Hu asks. “Why did an Armed Response Team come then?”

“We were on alert because of an attack reported with the stranded train car a few hours ago,” the officer says. “We
are ready to go into the tunnel, if necessary.”

Hu nods. “Very necessary,” he says.

“Were those the people who attacked the train car?”

“Yes, they followed us out, I suppose,” Hu explains.

“Muslim terrorists maybe?” the officer asks. “Could you tell if any of them spoke with a strange accent, maybe Arabic?”

Hu blinks in confusion as they come upon a group of officers and paramedics coming through the station with equipment. The officer waves them past, warning these his team is mopping up down on the platform. People will need medical attention.

“Terrorists?” Hu asks. “No, they were infected. They’ve gone mad.”

“Infected with what?” the officer asks. “Anthrax?”

“No, I don’t know what it was,” Hu said. “I don’t think it was anything like that. Something that drove them insane though. That’s why they attacked. You’ve got to kill them all.”

The officer nods. “Don’t worry, sir,” he says, “we’ll take care of this.”

He hands Hu off to a female paramedic who throws a blanket around his shoulders and leads him back through the station toward an ambulance waiting in front of the Westbourne Station entrance. Hu tries to explain the situation to the paramedic, but she only wants to have him calm down. He sits inside the back of the ambulance where an oxygen mask is strapped over his nose and mouth. She instructs Hu to be calm and breathe deeply.

The paramedic asks him about his wounds, if anything is broken.

“No, nothing broken. Just cuts and bruises, I think.”

“Are you a nurse?” the paramedic asks.

Hu realizes the woman has noted his hospital scrubs. “No, I’m a medical student. I also work at St. Mary’s.”

The paramedic smiles at him. “Well, I guess you would know then if there was anything serious, right?”

Hu nods.

“Stay here
, and I’ll check on you in a few minutes,” she says, then goes back into the station.

Hu tries to calm down. He keeps waiting apprehensively for infected individuals to come running through the station out into the lot where he sits breathing through the oxygen mask. However, after about ten minutes, the policeman who saved him from the monstr
ous version of Sharon Ashburn walks through the entrance door and finds him at the ambulance.

“How are you feeling then, sir?” the officer asks.

“Much better,” Hu says, removing the oxygen mask. “What happened in there? Did you kill all of them?”

“I’m afraid they didn’t give us much choice,” the officer said. “When they wouldn’t stop attacking our officers, we had no choice but to put them down. I’d say you’re lucky we came upon you when we did.”

Hu nods. Images of the attack on the train and of Sharon chasing him, both in the tunnel and leaping upon him at the platform, are fresh and terrifying. He shivers just thinking about it, wondering if he’ll ever be able to sleep again.

“At least they’re all dead,” Hu whispers to himself, trying to push out the scenes and reassure himself the danger has passed.

“If you feel up to it, sir, we’ll need you to come down to the station and submit to some questioning about what happened,” the officer explains. “You may be the only witness who survived. That is, if you don’t need to go to the hospital at this time.”

“I’m fine, I think,” Hu says. “Just bumps and bruises. I’ll get checked out better later on.”

“Very good, sir,” the officer says. “My name is Officer Chambers, by the way.”

“Hu Takashi,” Hu replies.

“Very good, Mr. Takashi, if you’ll just come with me, I’ll give you a ride down to our precinct.”

Officer
Chambers leads the way to one of the patrol cars waiting with blue lights flashing. The entire entrance to Westbourne Station is awash in strobing blue and red lights from the police and emergency vehicles. The white lights of news cameras shine in several places, as reporters speak to audiences on their handheld microphones.

Hu briefly wonders if he’ll be called upon to do any interviews in the days to come. Surely, one of the local news channels will seek his name as a survivor of the Tube attack. All this seems a huge price to pay for five minutes of fame. Still, the world will want to know what happened here.

Officer Chambers opens the rear door, and Hu slips inside with his blanket still wrapped around him. He doesn’t think to ask if he should leave it, but it’s only a blanket anyway. The door closes behind him. The officer speaks with two others before joining him. At least, he’s left the car running. The heat inside feels very nice in the chill night air.

Hu lays his head onto the seat back and closes his eyes. His head is practically spinning with an onrushing headache. The stress of this night catch
es up to him fast. His body aches. He’s not used to all of the running and physical stuff he’s been put through tonight.

His body shakes with what feels like rushes of adrenaline, yet he’s so tired. Hu feels like he could sleep for a year. Right now, he would like nothing better than to crawl into his warm bed at his flat and crash.

The driver’s door to the patrol car opens, letting the cacophony of the scene outside into the vehicle. Officer Chambers gets into the car and closes the door. He and Hu are separated by a protective Plexiglass barrier.

“We’re on our way,” Officer Chambers says, putting the patrol car into drive. “All right back there, Mr. Takashi
?”

“Fine, thanks,” Hu replies without opening his eyes.

Multicolored lights wash over him, flashing his vision even through his lids. The engine whines and the car moves beneath him. He feels the inertial forces on his weary body as the officer backs the car, and then takes off for the police precinct. Hu falls asleep wrapped comfortably in his warm blanket.

Hu stands on a Tube platform in a fresh pair of scrub clothes. He’s back at Paddington. The train that brought him across London departs behind him. Around him, the bustle of others going to and from various destinations is like white noise, going unnoticed. He is one among thousands in the famous station.

He walks up to the
concourse from the lower platform. The faces of people are indistinct, but Hu is not concerned. He doesn’t take time to converse with anyone in particular. He is a part of the human ocean, a little fish in a big pond swimming on his way to his place among so many others doing the same.

Paddington Bear waves to him. He is wearing a floppy hat and little coat, holding to the hand of a child who is a little taller than he is. Hu waves back with a smile on his face.
Paddington goes with the child who doesn’t notice who the bear is waving to.

Hu watches the sun shining through the frosted panes overhead. It
will be a warm day. He can’t remember what month it is, but it doesn’t seem to matter. He knows where he’s going, but not the name of the place.

Sharon Ashburn waves to him up ahead. She
’s dressed in scrub clothes of her own, rather than those provided by the hospital. A lot of the female nurses do this. Sharon wears a print that has ice cream cones on it. The top has a background of pink with cream colored cones and scoops of vanilla and chocolate and strawberry. The bottoms are almost hot pink.

Hu waves back to her. She likes him. She’s been waiting for him. He’s not sure she is Mrs. Right, but she’s at least Mrs. Right Now. There’s no hurry, after all. He’s an eligible bachelor and a successful orthopedic surgeon.

He walks toward her. The crowd passes between them and he makes his way, having to dodge around people who step into his path. It’s crowded at Paddington today. It’s crowded here everyday.

After what seems like a very long walk, Hu finally reaches
Sharon. She smiles at him in her pink scrubs. She has a nice figure. He thinks scrubs flatter her appearance, even though they don’t flatter everyone.

Sharon
steps close to him, throwing her arms around his neck to pull him to her. They stand nose to nose as he places his hands on her hips. “Were you looking for me?” he asks.

Sharon
smiles with perfectly straight, white teeth. “You know I was,” she says playfully.

She kisses him then. He enjoys this.
Sharon is a good kisser. Her hands caress the nape of his neck as the kiss grows passionate. Then the kiss turns rough almost painful.

Sharon
becomes very forceful, and Hu wants to pull away. She bites his lip hard enough to really hurt. His eyes fly open as he pushes her away.

Sharon
smiles playfully with blood on her lips. A single rivulet of red runs from the corner of her pouting mouth to her chin. Hu isn’t sure what to say. His fingertips come away from his lip with fresh blood on them. Why would she do that?

Hu looks around. The noise of the station has quieted. A pin drop c
an be heard. Every person has paused in place. They all look at him.

He should feel embarrassed
by all this attention. Were they watching him and Sharon a moment ago? They look at him disdainfully. Sneers crease their mouths and guttural noises rumble in their throats, like growling dogs warning of imminent attack.

The crowd of people are completely focused upon him now. They tak
e steps in his direction. All of them are on one side of the station and he is set apart. Sharon stands with them at a distance. The look in her eyes becomes hungry, ravenous.

Sharon
growls audibly, and fear creeps along Hu’s spine in response. Her hair is ragged now, hanging like wet threads of yarn from her head to her shoulders. When her eyes come open, they are extremely bloodshot, the pupils completely dilated.

Her crimson lips part and Hu sees her teeth are now jagged and set at odd angles in her mouth. The teeth are stained red with his blood.
Sharon hisses at him, and the other station patrons do likewise.

Standing in front of them, like a general
leading a charge on a battlefield, Sharon breaks into a run. Her army surges forward with her. They run after him. Hu turns to flee.

The train tunnel stretches before him. There is light at the end and people who appear to wav
e him on. Hu cannot hear their voices, and they do not come to help him, but they encourage him not to give up.

He run
s with all the speed he can muster, but his legs are very heavy. Hu feels as though his feet are slogging through mud. They are hard to move, and he seems to be making little progress toward the light.