LIFERS Chapter Forty

Ella took a steel tray from off the set of drawers beside Thomas Martins’ bed then collected a fist-sized sponge before she made her way to the pedestal to snap a surgical glove onto her right hand. She climbed the steps and entered the basement above where she took a flashlight from the table in the corner and used her boot to unbolt the wooden hatch then descended to the tunnel.

She reached the final step of the shaft and stopped to aim the flashlight at her feet where she found a puddle of around six inches in depth. She tried to follow the puddle’s outward progress until it shallowed to nothing but the flashlight’s beam was swallowed by the dark long before the puddle ended. She picked up the sponge and dipped it into the murky water until it soaked up all it was going to and then returned it to the steel tray and left the tunnel.

Back upstairs she took another look at Thomas Martins and noted the heart monitor had slowed since she last checked and his breathing had become shallower. She hoped by this time tomorrow he’d be well on his way to recovery, and if all went well with the transfusion, her hopes could be realised.

The sodden sponge sat in the centre of the tray where gravity had allowed some of the liquid to escape its grip. Ella traced her left forefinger through the cloudy pool and a wisp of white smoke rose into the air along with the odour of singed flesh. She then dipped her gloved forefinger into the pool and managed to get a small droplet of light-brown water to cling to the latex.

She swept the hand over Marianna’s face and tapped the loaded finger against her thumb to make the drip lose its cohesion and fall onto Marianna’s forehead. Ella wasn’t surprised, however, to see it just sit there, trapped by the tiny blonde hairs on her flawless skin.

She turned back to the tray and picked up the sponge to squeeze it dry over her face, the shock of which brought Marianna round and she began to struggle with the straps.

‘What the … what the hell’s going on? What are you doing to me? Who are you? Where am I?’

Ella moved to the side of the gurney. ‘So many questions,’ she said, in a calm, relaxed manner.

‘Let me go, I’ll have you arrested for this you─’

‘Be quiet, Marianna.’

And on hearing her name, she was.

‘In answer to your first question, you’re here to help someone in need.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘In answer to your second question, you have something I want and I intend to have it.’

‘Look,’ Marianna said, her struggle renewed. ‘I’m not rich, so no one will pay you a ransom.’

‘Your third question, the answer to which might become self-evident after I answer your fourth question. Where are you, Marianna?’ she said. ‘Martinsville.’

Again Marianna stopped pulling at the straps; realisation evident on her face. ‘Are you...?’

‘Third question answered, then. So you could say that ultimately I gave you life, and, whether you agree or not, you’re going to return that favour.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘You’ll see, soon enough.’

Ella walked to the head of the gurney and Marianna’s eyes rolled to the top of their sockets watching as she reached down to take hold of two restraints and tried to fasten them around Marianna’s forehead. Marianna shook from side to side in a bid to thwart her efforts but Ella was just as strong and just as determined as she and managed to fasten the buckle. Marianna again shouted and again demanded to be released, but her demands were ignored as Ella went to a cupboard at the back of the room and retrieved a rag and a bottle of chloroform. Not long after, Marianna was silent once more.

..

Gregg stood by the oil truck as he put together the final draft of the plan he held in his head to get the girls out the town hall. He looked round to see Jill inside the 4x4 with Alicia, talking about her school, her friends, and her family; something he suggested she do just to distract her from the situation they were in. His gaze moved to the right to see Nick stood by the oil drum thumbing through his batch of photographs, probably choosing the order in which to use them for the slideshow he had planned for the convention in two days time; should he ever get there.

He went over to him. ‘In order for me to get into the town hall I need to get that lot out first, Nick.’

‘I couldn’t agree more,’ he said. ‘But how?’

‘We need to get them somewhere they’re going to feel safe, and the only place big enough to hold them, outside the town hall or the schoolhouse, is the cinema, and it’s built from wood, including the pillars holding up the roof. Do you think you’d have enough explosive power to take out a few of those pillars?’

‘It’s possible; they’re bound to have weakened over the years. But how are you going get them out of the town hall in the first place?’

‘I’ll use two of nature’s most fundamental instincts, fear and self preservation. If they fear for their survival they’ll run and keep running until they’re out of danger. All we need to do is set a few well-placed fires around the outside of the town hall to make them think the place is burning down. Hopefully that will be enough to get them into the tunnels, which are so wet right now they’ll need to keep moving just to get somewhere dry. Then when I go in to free the girls you blow out those pillars and bring the place crashing down around their ears.’

‘And what makes you so sure they’ll head for the cinema and not the schoolhouse, or even here for that matter?’

‘Because the steps to the schoolhouse are rotten, and they’ll know that. So I can’t see them attempting to get up there. Here we can bolt the hatch and pile all kinds of crap over it to block their exit, and that will leave them only the cinema. But we have to make sure they know that’s the only choice left open to them.’

‘And how do we do that?’

‘With a few well-placed explosions in the tunnels we make all other available routes unavailable.’

Nick nodded. ‘Limit their options with explosives, my kinda fun.’

‘If it works.’

‘If what works?’ Jill said, coming up behind them.

Gregg looked over to the 4x4. ‘How’s she doing?’

‘Believe it or not she’s fast asleep.’

‘I’m not surprised, it’s probably the first time she’s felt safe enough to sleep since they took her.’

Jill agreed. ‘Probably, so, what is the plan, then?’

‘We’re gonna try to get them all into the cinema,’ Nick said. ‘And then blow the place up.’

‘Your fireworks can do that?’

‘Pretty much,’ he said.

‘And how are you getting the fireworks in there?’

‘Carry them,’ he told her, ‘through the tunnels.’

‘Won’t that take a lot of time? Plus, you’ll have to spend more time rigging them up, I presume, and by then the sun will be baking the street and that lot could be on us like a bad rash.’

Nick shoved his glasses up. ‘She’s right, if we can’t get it all in there and set up before the rain stops we’d be wasting our time.’

Gregg had other ideas about that. ‘I might have a faster way of getting it inside,’ he said. ‘And with ten times the blast-power, but it’ll only work if the fireworks can be set off without having to use a lighted fuse. Can they, Nick?’

‘What I use can only be set-off by using a small electrical charge sent from a console that’s wired up to the rig.’

‘What if distance prevents you from using the console, can you do it then?’

Nick eyed left then right. ‘Well, I can, but I’m not supposed to because the IFA haven’t got back to me yet with an okay for the remote detonation device I’ve invented.’

‘But does it work?’

‘Yes, of course it does, though I’ve never tried it out on a scale as big as we’re talking about.’

‘Well now’s your big chance.’

Jill stepped in again. ‘But you’re still left with the problem of getting the stuff into the cinema in the first place.’

‘If what I have in mind works,’ Gregg said, ‘that won’t be a problem.’

‘And that lot up there?’ said Jill, pointing north. ‘How do you plan on getting them in the cinema?’

Gregg explained his idea as he’d done with Nick. ‘…and once we get them in the tunnels we keep them moving until they realise the only dry place left for them is the cinema.’ He turned to Nick. ‘But we need to block two routes off before that happens.’

‘I’d have to see the structure of the tunnels first,’ Nick said. ‘See what’s needed down there. But I’d like to hear how we get the gear into the cinema so quick, and, like you said, with ten times the blast power.’

‘All in good time, Nick, all in good time.’