Arc-Light wiped her eyes and stretched her legs across the floor. The adults were watching the news from the Dyfatty quarantine zone, but she’d stopped listening hours ago. A bright red beam of sunlight was peeking through the curtains. It was dawn, they were all dead and it was her fault.
The adults were speaking in hushed whispers and had been keeping their own counsel. Gwen had locked herself in the basement with Vue and hadn’t come out. She remembered waking up and the distant, lucid voices in her sleep. Now she was hearing different whispers. The adults wanted to take them all away from Gwen. But there was nowhere to go. They’d be found, rounded up and locked away again. Once an ASBO, always an ASBO, was her mother’s pithy dogma. There was nowhere she could go where she’d be welcome now. Going back to Morriston was out of the question. But she was tall, she looked older than she was – maybe she could fake her age and find somewhere.
They were all dead and it was her fault. There was no way they could have survived this long in the radiation even with Malady firing on all cylinders. She didn’t even know them all that well. There been the time before she went undercover in Sandfields, where it had been Gwen, Malady and Flicker, but after the brainwashing treatment that seemed like an age ago. Malady was so young and Flicker so shy. The boys were just a mystery. Bark was nice enough, and at least he laughed, Squeeze was just bitter and he seemed to wear it like a mantle, as if everything was his fault. She was beginning to see how he felt.
“The Elementals haven’t made contact with HQ since late last night and hope is starting to fade for the young heroes.” The news reporter lamented over live footage of Dyfatty. “Once a quiet suburb, with trees and parks and hundreds of happy families – now a wasteland.” Ha! She thought, ‘quiet suburb?’ who did they honestly think would believe that? “We believe they went in to apprehend a rogue band of ASBO Others who managed to mount a brutal escape at Sandfields Borstal last week. Two officers and a guard are said to be critically ill in Singleton Hospital.”
“What?” She gasped, rushing over to the TV, “That never happened.” She felt a re-assuring hand on her shoulder.
“It’s all right love. We know.” They all nodded at her sadly.
“No!” She spat, “This is wrong. We never injured anyone – that helicopter was unmanned. I didn’t hurt anybody!” Her protest was met with mute understanding but that only made her feel worse. She couldn’t understand their apathy – this accusation, this patent lie was insulting, it was disgusting. “I’ve stolen cars, I’ve been in fights – I deserved the ASBO I got. But I did not do that!” A flash of lightning jumped from the end of her finger at the television and the screen popped, emitting an acrid smoke. She looked down at the floor, which was now a foot below her feet and lowered herself to the ground. Angry and embarrassed she charged past the cowering adults and banged on the door to the basement. “Let me in!” She bellowed. Without waiting for an answer she zapped off the lock and charged down the stairs. Gwen looked up as Arc-Light stormed in, Vue was sitting up in bed and they were chatting.
“Yes?” Gwen asked while Arc-Light seethed.
“I want to go back.”
“Excellent, so does Vue.” Gwen replied. The boy smiled at her, the same impish grin that had teased her last night.
“Pardon?” Arc-Light stammered.
“There’s a catacomb beneath the Dyfatty Complex. Vue said it collapsed, just before you zapped him. He was trying to get to it.” Gwen replied reasonably. “He nearly succeeded.”
“If it wasn’t for you pesky kids,” Vue grinned, popping a grape into his mouth.
“So you want us to go back? Why ? It’s too dangerous.”
“You were all up for it a second ago…”
“Yes, but…”
“Well, first of all I want to know what’s in that catacomb,” Gwen counted on her fingers. Arc-Light wondered whether it was possible for her to be any more heartless. “And secondly – I don’t think the others are dead, so you’ll need to rescue them.” Gwen ate a grape and waited for Arc-Light to respond.
“Right. I still don’t get…” She paused, “Hang about – what’s a catacomb doing underneath Dyfatty?”
“Aha!” Gwen replied, “Well, whatever it was made Helix lose control of his powers. They discovered it, you see, the original Elementals.” Vue nodded and hopped off the bed. He jumped around the room a few times before yawning.
“Shall we go?”
Arc-Light shook her head, “No... I mean yes.” Vue strode out of the room and up the stairs. Arc-Light looked around the sad little base of operations they’d set up. The maps on the wall, the little camp beds and the piles of print-offs. Without the others it looked like a kid’s den. “Not much of a guerrilla hero outfit, were we?” Arc-Light asked. Gwen turned around – she was crying.
“You’ll have time yet,” she replied. Arc-Light gestured at the tears and Gwen shrugged them off, “Ignore me.” She said, “He just reminds me of my brother. You’ll get them all back safe now, wont you?” Arc-Light nodded.
“Good, good.” Gwen turned away, wringing her hands. Arc-Light walked quietly away leaving Gwen in the empty little room.
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1 comment:
Ooh- I sense a big plot revelation coming up, a la enigmatic catacombs.
I felt Gwen was particularly strong at the end of this- and I'm beginning to like Vue more. At first I felt he was a little bit mad and Peevesque- but I think he's going to play a more interesting role when they start investigating the catacombs.
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