I had to focus. Pain radiated from my stomach but I had to ignore it. Every one of my muscles tensed with anticipation. I had to focus. I couldn’t see through the smoke. I had to focus. People ran at me, clutched me, and pointed to their bleeding wounds. I could not stop. I had to find them.
I tore around the side of the castle, ducking as things flew at my head. They could have been bullets, bombs, debris… I didn’t stop to find out. Something sharp stuck into my arm, some sort of metal. I yanked it out and carried on running.
“Daniel!” I screamed. “Where are you?”
I ran into one of the weapons barns. Nothing. I searched behind it. Still nothing.
“Hiro!”
A soldier clutched at me, pointing to his head. Part of it was missing and I had to quell the urge to vomit.
“Am I going to die?” he yelled.
“No,” I shouted back. “Just sit down and relax. You’re going to be fine.”
“Really?”
“Yes. You’re absolutely fine. Just sit down and someone will come for you. That’s right. Close your eyes and think of your favourite meal.”
“Chocolate ice cream.”
“No way! That’s mine too. That’s right. Just close your eyes…” I stepped back. He was dead. A sob choked in my throat. I’d just seen someone die, watched the essence fade from them. I stumbled backwards and fell into something. I turned around. It was like a small garage made out of corrugated iron sheets and a large wooden door.
I slammed my fists against the iron sheets. “Daniel! Hiro! Kitty! Mike! Are you there?”
I pressed my ear to the wall of the iron. Silence. Nothing. It had to be here. It had to be. It was perfect. It fit with everything I’d been piecing together in my mind.
I hammered my hands against the iron. “Daniel! Hiro! Kitty! Mike! Are you there? Bang on the walls, do something. Anything please!” I was crying now. I pressed my ear to the wall. “Come on! You have to be here. You have to be.”
And then, the tiniest of knocks. It sounded so weak and limp. I stepped back away from the garage.
“Stand away from the walls!” I yelled.
The tingle came back to my fingers. The rage built in my chest. The power seared through my mind and every hair stood on the backs of my arms and neck. As the iron sheets moved up into the air, systematically deconstructing the garage, I felt power run through my veins that I never believed possible. Some of the iron sheets floated in the air, whilst I pulled the rest apart. I was so involved, so consumed by my task, that I didn’t notice anyone come up behind me. And I didn’t see them coming at me with the butt of their gun…
I fell to the ground, my head throbbing. The iron sheets dropped to the floor. The garage was still half standing. I pulled myself up and a man grabbed me. I kicked him hard between the legs and he fell backwards. Before he hit the floor I kicked him twice in the chest and once on the chin. His head fell back. It was General Lloyd. I snatched his gun from his fingers and aimed it at his head. He was on his knees. He put his hands above his head.
“I should have just killed you,” he said with a sneer on his lips. Blood streamed from his nose.
“I don’t have time for this.”
“Then shoot me,” he said, that grin spreading.
I knocked the safety off the gun and pointed it closer to him. My finger caressed the trigger. But then the words of Dr Woods floated into my mind:
keep believing that there are evil people and good people. See how far it gets you
. Was he right? Did I see people as either good or bad with nothing in between? I thought about the way I’d killed Sun in the Glasgow cult. Had he really deserved it? I’d made a snap decision in the heat of the moment. I’d decided that he was bad and not worthy of a second chance. I’d killed him with barely a thought.
“Too late.” General Lloyd seized the gun from my fingers and jumped to his feet. He aimed the gun right at my face. “Never hesitate when you have the––” There was a bang and his body shuddered. General Lloyd’s face slackened and he fell forward in the dirt.
“––enemy in your sight.”
I turned around. “Ali!”
“You’re welcome, kid.”
I ran towards him and threw my arms around him, squeezing him tight. “Thank you.”
Then I realised what I had… friends. I had people I could rely on, people I would fight for, and fight to save. I pulled away from Ali and turned back to the garage. My mind was focussed now, stronger, and I didn’t even have to summon the twitch in my fingers. It came naturally. The sheets exploded away from the walls. The chipboard fell. The gas nozzle collapsed to the floor. My friends were in the middle of the room, unconscious. I dropped to my knees next to them. They weren’t moving.
Ali helped me. We shook their shoulders, slapped their faces. Checked they were breathing. I cradled Daniel’s head on my lap, tears flowing down my cheeks. I could see the wound above his temple from where he had fallen to the floor in the castle. He’d been through so much; he’d been hurt so many times because of me and what we were. I just wanted it all to stop. I wanted the war to stop. I slapped him again.
“Daniel. Please wake up. Daniel!”
He murmured.
I grabbed his hand and squeezed each finger. “Yes! I’m here. Wake up!” Kitty stirred and I took her hand too. Mike mumbled and his eyes fluttered. I turned to Ali who had Hiro against his chest. “Is he waking?”
Ali frowned. “I dunno, kid.”
Daniel’s eyes opened and I pulled him closer to me.
“You’re awake.” I said.
He blinked and looked at my chains. “What happened to you?”
“Long story.” I laughed.
Kitty moved her legs and rubbed her eyes. She was still on her back, half unconscious. Mike opened his eyes and turned to Kitty. He shook her and she opened her eyes. Daniel sat up. Everyone was awake except Hiro, and all eyes turned to him lying limply in Ali’s arms.
Ali pressed a finger to his throat. “His pulse is weakening.”
“No!” I said. I clasped my hand to my mouth. This couldn’t be happening. “No. Not Hiro.”
“Mina, it’s getting really weak. I’m worried.” He laid Hiro down on the ground.
I looked at his tiny body, so small. Sobs convulsed through my body. He was like a brother to me. He
was
my brother.
Mike kneeled, staring down at Hiro’s body. “He’s fading. His scent––”
“His taste too,” Kitty said.
We all felt it. The pain. It was like a burning in our stomachs. We were all connected and when one of us was hurt we
felt
it. We were a family and if Hiro… I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t even think it. But if he did, we would never be whole again. We would have this huge gap where he should be and it would never, ever be filled.
Ali leaned over Hiro and hovered his ear over Hiro’s mouth. “His breathing is getting weaker.”
“No,” I cried. “He can’t.”
Daniel held me tight. He had tears in his eyes. Kitty wept into Mike’s shoulder and Mike cried into her neck. Ali leaned over and put his mouth over Hiro’s, breathing fresh air into his lungs. He did this five times and then massaged his chest with his hands, trying to re-start Hiro’s heart. My fingers balled into fists, holding onto Daniel’s shirt with all my life. Ali breathed more air into Hiro’s lungs but the boy didn’t move. He remained lifeless. I closed my eyes. Just a few minutes ago General Lloyd had been shot in front of me. Then before that the soldier died by the fence. I’d seen enough. I couldn’t see my brother die too.
But Ali kept going. Even through the noise of the battle I could hear him, counting as he massaged Hiro’s heart. I sobbed into Daniel’s chest.
“It’s not working,” I said. “He’s going to die.”
Daniel stroked my hair. “You don’t know that. Ali’s not giving up, neither should you.”
But they didn’t know what I knew. They didn’t know how unfair the world was, because otherwise my mum wouldn’t have died, Billie’s sister wouldn’t have been arrested for having a baby, my uncle wouldn’t have been taken and that soldier wouldn’t have died right in front of me. Good things didn’t happen in a world like this. Only death and destruction and pain…
He coughed.
Ali jumped backwards. Hiro coughed again.
“Hiro!” I screamed.
The little boy coughed and spluttered and Ali held him up so that he could cough all the badness from his lungs. Daniel hugged me hard and then Kitty wrapped her arms around me, Mike joining in. I couldn’t believe it. Something good happened. Something amazing and beautiful. Hiro was alive.
“We need te get away from here,” Ali said. He bundled Hiro up in his arms.
I helped Daniel to his feet. Kitty and Mike struggled up, weak but able to move. I looked around us. The Castle grounds were filled with smoke and fire.
“Where are we going to go?” I shouted to Ali.
He half shrugged but then picked a course and set off. We followed him, ducking around soldiers and jumping over fires. I clung to Daniel, never wanting to be apart from him ever again. We stepped out through the castle border gates which had been blown clean away. What we saw was chaos.
The trailers were on fire. The wounded lay on the ground. The noise was deafening. We followed Ali as he dodged through the fighting and found an upturned trailer to hide behind. It wasn’t safe from the battle but it did keep us out of sight.
“Hiro are you okay?” I asked as Ali set him down.
Hiro took some deep breaths and blinked. “Yes.” His eyes were wide and bright. They took in everything. I pulled him closer to me.
“Shut your eyes, Hiro. Remember how Dad always tells you to meditate? Remember how he shows you to block everything out?”
He nodded.
“You need to do that now.”
“Okay.” His voice was weak and small. A child’s voice.
“Can you do it, Hiro?”
“It’s hard.”
“You can do it. I believe in you.” I cradled him to me, sheltering him from the sights in the Compound.
“What are we going to do?” Mike said. “It’s just so… I can’t stand it. The smell. The pain.”
“Block it out, Mike,” I said. “You can do it. You’re strong enough.”
He rubbed his face with both hands. Kitty stroked his shoulders. “Mina’s right,” she said. “You’re strong enough to cope with this.”
“I feel sick,” he said.
Kitty squeezed his shoulders. “We can get through this. All of us.”
I turned to Ali. “Are we going to lose? Are the Highlanders winning?”
“I dunno, kid. It’s a massacre. People are dying from both sides.”
Mike moaned and vomited on the ground. Kitty soothed him.
“Did the Perthans come?” I asked.
“I’ve seen Terrifica out there fightin’. They came through fer us,” Ali said.
While Mike got to grips with his gift, I looked out at the castle borders. There was someone stumbling through the entrance. I recognised the shape, the darkness of her skin.
“Angela!” I said with a gasp. “She’s hurt. I have to get her.”
“It’s not safe!” Ali said. He reached for my arms but was too slow.
I jumped to my feet and dashed out from behind the trailer. I felt a hand on my back – Daniel. He hadn’t tried to stop me; instead he was here, supporting me. We ran together through the Compound, zig-zagging through the fighting. One of the Highlanders, dressed in leather, tried to run at me with a knife. He was stopped by a Ned with spiky hair – Spider. I smiled with gratitude and he saluted me. Daniel pulled me to the left and we jumped over a fire. Angela had collapsed to her knees. I leaned down to grab her when I spotted something through the castle gates. It was Cam.
He faced a man who looked familiar and for a fraction of a second I didn’t know how I knew him. Then I remembered. I remembered the scrap of paper that Daniel had drawn on. I remembered the manic grin; the ammunition across his chest and the scars across his face. It was Hamish McAllister and he gurned at his son. He had his hands held high as though in surrender.
I turned to Daniel. “Take Angela back.”
“What are you going to do?” he said.
“I need to get Cam.”
Daniel looked through the entrance. “That’s Hamish McAllister. No. I’m not leaving you.”
I squeezed Daniel’s arm. “Remember when you said you’d never stop me from making my own decisions?”
Daniel swore. “Yeah I know, but I never thought you’d do something so crazy. This is too dangerous. I can’t… Oh, dammit! Mina! Why do you—”
I cut him off with a kiss. “Trust me.”
Daniel lifted Angela and we turned away from each other. What was I doing? I’d just got him back. I just needed to know that Cam was safe. I owed it to Angela. I ran through the gates.
“Come on nae, son. Ah in’t gunnae hurt ye,” Hamish shouted to his son. I noted that he was unarmed.
Cam backed away. He held a handgun aloft with a shaking hand. “Dunnae come any closer. Yer a murderer.” He had tears in his eyes. “Ah promised the Council that ah’d finish ye and ah’m gunnae do it. Ah swear ah’m gunnae do it.”
“Cam,” I shouted. “If you kill him, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
Hamish turned to me and a disgusting smile spread across his lips. “Listen te the lass. She’s a wise one, eh? That ye girlfriend, lad? Ye’ve done well fer yeself.”
“No,” Cam said. His voice broke with emotion. “Ma girlfriend’s black. Ye don’t like black people, de ye dad? Eh? Ah saw ye. Ah saw how ye killed those people in Edinburgh. Yer a monster. A bloody monster!”
“Hey now,” Hamish said in a frighteningly smooth voice. “We all make mistakes. Mebbes if ah met her. Mebbes she’s one of the good ones. Gimme a chance, lad. Come on. Ah’m yer dad!”
“Yer not ma dad. Yer me father but yer in’t ma dad. Ah havnae got no dad.” He pulled the trigger and the gun clicked. Cam looked down at the device in horror.
Hamish laughed. He moved forward towards his son. “So ye’ve fell fer a Darkie, ey? Ah’ll have to beat that kinda nonsense outta ye.”
He punched Cam in the face and the boy crumbled to his knees. “No Daddy, not again. Please.”
Hamish slapped Cam so hard that he fell back and then he started to kick him in the ribs. I stood there, frozen, not believing what I was seeing, not understanding how a father could do that to a boy, to his own son. I had to do something. I ran towards them and Hamish pushed me away.
“Hey! No one touches my daughter like that.”
I turned around and my heart soared. It was Dad. He was beaten up, bruised and cut. He limped over to Hamish.
“What are ye gunnae do old man?” Hamish leaned forward and pulled a knife out of his boot.
“Dad!” I ran forward, the rage building in my chest again. With my power I flung Hamish away from him, throwing him like a rag doll into the castle wall, and then I threw my arms around my dad. “You came for me!”
He wrapped his arms around me. “Of course I did, Minnie. I love you.”
He hadn’t said those words in a long time and it wasn’t until that moment I realised how much I needed to hear them. We helped Cam to his feet. Hamish lay unconscious by the wall of the castle, which was still crumbling from the many blasts. Another bomb sailed over the castle border, heading for the castle. I grabbed hold of Cam.
“Run!” I yelled. We ran away from the castle, through the border gate into the Compound. Behind me there was an almighty BOOM! The castle wall crumbled, rocks falling to the floor, completely covering Hamish. Cam looked away with tears in his eyes. I swallowed, knowing there was no way Hamish could have survived that blast.
“Sebastian!” I called out, remembering him helping me fight off Dr Woods in the castle turret.
“What about him?” Dad asked as we dragged Cam towards the hideout.
“The last I saw he was in the castle, holding off Dr Woods while I escaped.” I held up an arm so he could see the shackles. “He kidnapped me.”
“What the
hell
has been going on? Some army lad roughed me up and kept me in a bloody trailer.”
We found the others and got Cam down to the ground. Daniel was nowhere to be seen, and then I saw him running towards us with a toddler in his arms.
“I saw her out on her own in the Compound,” he said.
The toddler was crying and Mike took her to cradle her. Angela’s eyes blinked open and she saw Cam. They hugged each other.
“Has anyone seen Sebastian?” I shouted. “Or Ginge?”
The others shook their heads and my stomach dropped. I’d hoped that they were okay. I wanted so badly for them to be okay.
“Last time I saw Ginge she was fightin’ like a champ,” Ali said. “She fought harder than any man.”
“We have to stop this,” I said. “We have to.”
“How?” Mike looked at me. “How can we do anything?”
“Use your powers,” Dad said. “You are strong enough. You just need to believe.”
Kitty cried. “Look around, Prof. There’s nothing to believe in. There’s
no one
to believe in. All the adults are tearing each other to shreds. Why should we help them? Why should we when they don’t help us? They just try to kill us.”
“No. We need to try. For the little kids caught up in this. We need to.” I stood.
“Mina, get down,” Dad shouted.
“No. We need to make a stand.” Two people stumbled out of the castle gate. I pointed to them. “Look!”
The others stood and followed my hand with their eyes.
“We thought Hiro was dead earlier. But he survived. Now they’ve survived too. That gives us something to believe in.”
Sebastian and Ginge headed our way, their arms entwined, holding each other up. They were alive.
“We need to do this for them.” I took a deep breath. “Months ago this girl,” I pointed to Angela, “told me that I have to believe in hope, because it was the only thing that kept you going. I thought I’d lost that hope when my mum died. But meeting you all, every one of you, has given me a family again. We all have hope because we have each other. And now we need to give hope to everyone else. So take my hands. We’re going to end this. Come on. Freaks to save the world.”
Daniel took my hand. “I’ve never been so proud.”
Hiro took my other hand. Mike and Kitty joined him. We closed out eyes and the power ran through me like electricity. In my mind I saw the entire compound. I saw it like I did on the television screen, and I concentrated on every single weapon in the hand of every single adult. I thought about the way those stupid weapons allow us to kill each other so easily. I thought about how much I wished that they had never been invented. The power seared through my mind and I imagined what it would be like if every gun, knife, arrow, spear, baseball bat, sword, axe, rifle, machine gun and every other disgusting creation we used to hurt one another were all thrown away – thrown far away. I imagined every bullet plucked from its course and tossed away, away from the people it was designed to kill. I imagined every single bomb thrown miles away from all living things, detonated safely. I clutched Daniel’s hand and used his power, used the power of my family, and the gunshots stopped. The bombs stopped booming. The world went quiet.
“You did it,” Dad said. “You got rid of all the weapons. You stopped the war.”
I opened my eyes. People were wandering through the smoke, weaponless and confused. They didn’t know what had happened and why. I smiled. And then I collapsed.