everything that had happened so far seemed out of her control. Her uncle being kidnapped and murdered, the Lamina, it all seemed like they were being controlled by variables that were out of her sight. She was losing grasp of her reality, and it was starting to get out of her control. There was just a matter of time until something bad happened, and she feared it would be tomorrow, the moment when it was most crucial.
25
TO SAVE THE WORLD
Time seemed to work at an unusual pace, slowing and speeding throughout the entire journey. Patience sat in the back with Mercy, while Mortus sat in the passenger seat and Grim driving. He mainly kept his eyes focused on the road, Mortus was silent, as always, and Mercy was joking around with Patience.
“And she literally had a foot the size of a boulder,” she said, “it just grew and grew until she couldn’t even stand. She had to have someone cut it off and replace it with an awesome metal limb.”
“They can do that?”
“Cyborgs aren’t the future, not with magic.” They both looked at each other for a moment before bursting out into horrendous fits of laughter. Her face had gone a bright red and she was biting her lip to try and control herself.
Mortus looked around. “Can you two quit it,” he said, angrier than she had ever heard him before, “we are driving to what could be all our deaths, and you two are just joking around, telling stupid stories.”
“You really are depressing sometimes,” said Mercy, “yes, we are going into a dangerous situation, but excuse me for not resigning myself to my fate. I’m sorry if I’m not brooding enough for you.”
Grim turned sharply, throwing them against the edge of the car. A part of her suspected that he did it on purpose, but he made no comment towards it. “Look, just stop arguing because it’s not helping anyone.
True, we could possibly die, but also true, there is no point sitting here and being all depressed about it. I know you’re probably sat there thinking ‘that’s rich, coming from the guy who is quite obviously the most likely to survive since he is filled with immense skills and dashing good looks’. But really, let’s just save the world and be done with it.”
Patience laughed. “Yeah, no biggy.” Despite what her laughing might suggest, she was feeling fear creeping up on her like a shadowy panther, ready to strike. She thought about her parents, and the fact that she might never see them again. But she couldn’t give up. She had to do it for her uncle, and to prevent any future harm coming to her family. It was just one of those things, and she could hardly leave this useless lot to fend for themselves.
They parked the car up in the ‘out of order’ petrol station, as they had before. But before Grim could reach for the pump, Mercy stopped him. “When I escaped, they were watching the entrance like hawks.
There’s no way we’re getting in that way. Especially if Magnum is still sat up there with the Lamina.”
“We could go through the foot entrance,” suggested Patience, sitting forwards from the middle seat so that she was placed between Mortus and Grim.
Grim turned to her over his shoulder. “They come out in relatively the same place, it won’t help us.”
They all thought for a moment, but it was Grim who seemed to stumble upon a trickle of thought first.
“Well, there is one thing we could do.... but it could be considered fairly dangerous, maybe even reckless.”
“Dangerous, reckless, I like it.”
Mortus, the symbol of reasonable thought spoke up. “What is this plan you’re suggesting?”
“Simple, so as you all know I am an elemental. Fire and wind are a fairly common ability that you’ve seen me use quite frequently. Water, while less practiced, is also quite self explanatory. But there are four elements.”
“Earth,” said Patience, “are we going to go in through the ground?”
Grim looked.... well grim. “I haven’t tried it before. I’m basing this purely on theory and grand ideas, though normally my ideas turn out to be good ones.”
“And what happens if this idea doesn’t turn out to be a good one?” said Mercy, “what if it goes wrong?”
“Now who’s depressing?” Mortus shot Grim a look of anger. “In theory, if we were to get half way through the ground and the powers started failing..... then the tunnel would probably cave in on itself, and we would all be buried alive under hundreds of metres of dirt. If the sheer weight of it doesn’t crush us into pieces, we will hover there until our organs shut down from lack of oxygen.”
Patience didn’t like the sound of it. There were some things you just don’t do. Yes, she (once eighteen) is perfectly in her right to enter the lottery, but that doesn’t mean she will, and that is for the very simple fact that while it might go in her favour, it probably wouldn’t. Grim’s plan was like the lottery, except instead of losing money they would be subjected to a horrible and painful death. Damn. It sounded so exciting when she put it like that.
“I’m in,” she cried, and they all turned to look at her. All with the eyes of surprise as she had made the final decision. Oh God. If they died it was on her.
Mortus sighed and resigned himself towards Grim. “If this goes wrong, it won’t be lack of oxygen that you need to be worried about. It’s my hand wrapping around your throat.”
“Which technically would still be loss of oxygen that kills me, nice try though,” said Grim, “and besides, you’re already dead. You’d probably just end up lying down there for centuries until someone digs you up.” Patience had the amusing image of a middle-aged man walking above with a metal detector, getting excited when he realised he discovered something, and then his look of terror as he realised that he had uncovered a living, dead zombie.
“Let’s do this,” said Mercy, being the first to climb out the car. They followed around the back of the petrol station, where it was more secluded, and waited for the final car to pass by. When they were certain the area was deserted they formed a circle and all locked their hands.
“Is this necessary,” said Mortus, “we look ridiculous.”
Mercy started singing. “Ring a ring a roses....”
“Shut up.”
Grim finished the circle by filling the space. “Okay, so no one let go while we are going down or you might be lost, or killed, or one of the other numerous painful ways your life could end. Just keep hold of one another, and let me do all the work – as you normally do.”
With that last final word, they all muttered a ‘good luck’ to one another before planting their feet firmly on the ground. A moment later and it began to shake like an earthquake was beginning. Cracks began to form beneath them, slowly spreading like thin tendrils branching out. The cracks expanded, forming a gaping hole beneath them. Patience had one last moment to observe the beautiful sunlight before her stomach lurched, and she fell into darkness.
She looked down to see the ground opening up beneath them even as they fell, whereas the earth above her head sealed itself back up as though it had never even opened. She tried to remain calm. If the magic stopped now then they would be lost in the middle of the ground, with no way out.
Grains of dirt flooded up her nose and scoured her face. She closed her eyes to stop it filling them, wanting desperately to use her hands to protect her skin, but knowing that she couldn’t risk letting go.
There was one final crack as they collapsed out onto some kind of solid surface. At first she thought his magic had stopped working and they were lost underground, it was certainly dark enough. But then as she glanced upwards, she realised they were in the corridors of the Imperium.
“Okay,” he said, “I expect Magnum is in the Luminary’s chamber, so I suppose we’ll head straight there.”
“Do we even have a plan?” asked Patience.
“What do you mean?”
“He kinda has the most powerful weapon in the universe.”
“And you have me.”
“Not filling me with confidence. I can’t believe I am s
aying this, but I think we need a plan.”
Mortus sighed, and then said one of the things she thought him most unlikely to say. “As you just pointed out, he has the most powerful weapon known to man. How do you propose we come up with a plan to fight it? We can’t, that’s the point. Our only bet is to get in there and improvise, there’s no other way.”
That wasn’t really what she was hoping for. All of these adventures she had been having with Grim, not one time did she stop and think it would be better if they planned. Every time they walked into it blindly and came out for the better, but this time she wasn’t so sure. So much was riding on this, and the odds were stacked against them. Surely there was something they could do to guarantee their victory. She just didn’t like leaving it to chance, and a very slim chance at that.
“I have to do something first,” said Mercy, to everyone’s surprise, “I left Doc Remedy in the medical wing and told her I would be back. I have to check on her.”
Grim nodded. “If I’m not mistaken, that’s not far away, and more or less on the way. So, we can make a slight detour there first.” It was agreed. Not really a plan, but at least they had something to focus on before the big moment. Also, Doc Remedy had been hiding out here for a good day now, maybe she’d heard something or caught a rumour of what was going on. They might find that it could help them.
They entered the medical wing to find it was completely deserted. No deceased