James Winter: Beginnings

James was out of breath by the time he got to that Rotwika restaurant. He had spent almost thirty minutes trying to find the highway itself on foot after dropping off a bus. Then he found it, and spent another fifteen minutes trying to simply maneuver himself out of the broad artery.

  But finally, asking help from a couple of sisters, he managed to arrive in front of the Rotwika restaurant.

  He caught his reflection in the large polished window that had Rotwika’s painted on it stylishly in red.

  He was okay looking, but he had forgotten to comb his hair, and the usually close-cropping hair now looked unkempt and shaggy, but it was alright.

  He opened the door, which hit a bell above it and entered. Disco lights filled the whole restaurant as people, especially teenagers danced about happily.

  James eyes searched from table to table very carefully for Cornie. Was she dancing, too? Or had she already left. James couldn’t even hear himself think properly through the loud music.

  Finally, after squeezing his way in between a couple of dancers, he saw Cornie sitting at the last table next to the bar, sipping a bubbly drink out of a straw in a flower shaped glass.

  James grabbed a chair and sat by her and her three friends, one of them, a dark girl who looked totally bored sitting next to her, boyfriend, probably.

  “Hey, Cornie,” he greeted, shouting a little loudly over the noise and said hey to the other three, too.

  Cornie lightened up. “James!” she yelled, but nobody would hear in this noisy place. “You came! I thought you wouldn’t-“

  “Yeah well, I got little lost,” James said.

  “Hm. I should have given you specific directions to this restaurant…”

  “I would hardly call it a restaurant. It’s a dance hall!”

  Cornie laughed. “Anyway, this is Weiler,” she pointed to the boy beside her. “That’s Timmy over there and he lady’s Josephine.”

  “Yo man!” Weiler, a tall boy with even more unkempt and shaggy hair than James, and some cute-ish freckles that changed colours with every passing of a disco light, shouted.

  “I’m going to get us some drinks- today’s special- the Triton Shots, man! I’ll be back, man. Hang in there, man.”

  James smiled a little at all his ‘man talk’ as he disappeared into a group of dancers and vanished.

  “It’s only like this in the night, you know,” Cornie said. “In the daytime it’s usually almost a classic restaurant.”

  The girl and boy opposite her chatted away happily now. Then the girl turned to him and said, “Aren’t you the James Winter that fought a Germ all by himself?”

  “Well, I did fight a Germ,” James said, “but it wasn’t anything rad.” The girl turned to the black boy and said something, after which both of them smiled. They looked back at James, as if they meant for him to hear whatever they were saying and smile, too, but he hadn’t caught it.

  “They said you’re being modest,” Cornie said from beside James. “And Timmy thinks you should have won the Test competition.”

  The Weiler guy came back again with two bubblier, whiter stuff. It looked like expired milk. “Drink up, man!” he urged as James took his glass. Weiler drained his glass, and licked his lips in relish. “The best you’ll ever get, man!”

  James realized it shouldn’t be that bad if Weiler had drank his in a single swallow, so he upturned the stuff into his mouth, immediately spitting it back out with distaste. “What sort of muck is this?!” he bellowed. “It even smells bad.”

  “Amino acid, with a hint of stabilized bile and glucose for taste,” Timmy said.

  “That also means it has five percent alcohol,” Cornie added nonchalantly.

  Weiler shrugged and Timmy and Josephine followed him into the dance floor to dance, with Timmy holding Josephine’s hand.

  James looked around. This is the kind of place his mother would never let him go to. Too much noise and weird people and alcohol.

  “Let’s get outta here, Cornie,” James said.

  “You don’t want to dance?-“

  “No.”

  Cornie nodded and got up, following James’s lead. “Yeah. This is a stupid place, anyway,” she said, but James thought he caught a hint of disappointment.

  James and Cornie felt a burst of cold air as they exited the noisy restaurant. He didn’t realize how hot the restaurant was.

  Cornie led him through a route to her house when James had asked where she lived. They walked through the light night, with Cornie mostly chatting away breathlessly.

  “I hope to go to the other Family Worlds, someday,” she said.

  James was confused. “Family worlds?” he repeated. There was nothing like that in Seli’s notes.

  “Yeah,” Cornie said. “You know like the Family of Nemo City.”

  “Now James understood somewhat. Cells could travel from one person to another of the same Family. Sort of like a human travelling from one country to another of the same continent. Well, that’s what James deduced. Seli would make better sense of it.

  After a few streets of walk, Cornie got tired and wrapped her arm around James.

  Awkward. James thought as he hung his arm in the air, not knowing how to react with Cornie’s gesture. They walked on until, when they bent a curve, they saw the unmistakable fierce yellow hands of fire erupting out of the sky.

  “What the-“James said as they run towards the flame. A house was burning rapidly in the wicked flames.

  Cells stood a few safe yards in front of the house, some of them crying, obviously inhabitants of the house.

  One of them, a woman, was kneeling on the ground, crying her heart out as James stood by her.

  “My baby!” she cried. “My poor baby!”

  “Your baby is stuck in there?” James asked.

  The woman seemed incapable of speech anymore. She swallowed deeply and just nodded her head.

  “I’m going in,” James said. Already detaching himself from Cornie.

  “What? No James!” Cornie shouted. Even the crying woman stared at James like he had gone mad.

  “I will,” James said. He didn’t even know why he was doing it, but all the training and advice the Brain and commander Josh had given might have been kicking in, he felt an immediate urgency to save that baby. Wasn’t it his duty, even?

  He was in the house before Cornie screamed, “But the Platelets will be here anytime!”

  They won’t make it in time to save that baby, James thought.

  He took a deep breath as he rushed into the burnt up doorway. Heat hit him from all sides as he run deeper into what might have been a sitting room. Black, ashened foams lay in huge lumps from what was once a couch.

  A baby cried in the distance, maybe upstairs, and James rushed up the stairs. A gush of flame burst from the wall beside him, nearly impaling him had he not dived out of the way just in the nick of time.

  He finally arrived at a half burnt door, and the baby’s cries seemed to be emanating from this room. He looked around and finally found a tall drawer in the hall way, and he threw a lamp off of it, yanked the draw up and crashed it at the door.

  Flames roared as the door crumbled into ashes and sparks. He rushed into it and spotted a baby lying in the round circle of fire on the bed sheet. The fire was closing in, almost reaching the baby’s toes, wrapped in a blanket.

  James walked towards the baby and was just about to pick him up when a huge lump f the ceiling suddenly fell inwards and crashed into him. He shouted, making the baby whinge even more.

  The force knocked him backwards. He fell with a crash on his back. He thought nothing had happened to him, he was not on fire, but suddenly his wrist burst into flames.

  “AARgh,” he shouted immediately scrambling to his feet and banging the fire on his sleeve with his hand. It didn’t work. The fire licked his wrist a little.

  He yelped and banged his hand on his trousers, and the fire was snuffed out. He looked up, something was wrong. The baby wasn’t crying anymore.
br />   A huge lump of fire was crowded on the spot just where the baby was.

  “No. no. no. no,” he cried, digging the wood for the baby. She was dead, or he. He had failed, and he baby was burnt alive.

  In frustration, James yanked a plank of unburnt (is that a word?) wood and discovered the baby hidden under it, yelling hisher tiny lungs out. The wood had probably fallen on her and shielded her from the fire. Thank goodness!

  James grabbed her and run downstairs. A great hand of fire burst from the floor and consumed the whole room just as he left it with the baby.

  He reached down stairs quickly, jumping off a stream of flames on the last step. He reached for the doorway; he could see the people staring at the house. He was almost there.

  A little bit more…

  He was just at the doorway, he could have made it. But suddenly, fire filled it, and he recoiled with the baby. Kneeling on the floor and arching his back on her, so that she would be shielded from the flames. He could tell it was a ‘she’ because she was in a baby shirt that said, Mommy and Daddy love you Girl!’

  Maybe she would survive…

  Fire converged around them, and James closed his eyes. He was going to die. The baby had stopped crying. Instead, she stared at James with a curious look, like she was thinking, “Why come in here if I’m still gonna die?

  A heat wave crashed into James. Then suddenly, a foamy white substance burst into the room and extinguished all the fire, making ‘pffst’ sounds. Like when you put a burning match in water. Some of the stuff forced itself into James’ mouth and nostrils.

  Hands suddenly wrapped themselves around James arm, and he was pulled up onto the ground.

  Several men in white shirt jackets with: Nemo Platelet Department- strapped on their chests were standing in front of him. One of them hit him on the back.

  “You done well, mate,” he said in a British accent. Cells had British accents? “But you gotta get ou’. Part of the building is still on fire. We’ll take it from ere.”

  James nodded and walked towards the baby’s mother. She jumped up in great joy and received the baby from James’ hands. Her husband came to her and smiled greatly at his daughter and wife.

  The mother beamed at James. Tears were still making their path across her face. “ Thank you, boy.” She said. Who are you, anyway?” she said.

  “I’m James,” James replied. “And I’m a Guardian.” Man! It felt cool to say that.

  “Yo, boys!” they heard a voice shout in the air. Bring in more fibrinogen!”

  A tube erupted from the huge fire truck and burst with the white fibrinogen stuff. More fire was snuffed out immediately, though the house would not be habitable for the moment, as the fibrinogen stuff hardened and dried itself thickly like glue.

  “Good work, James!” Cornie said beside James. He smiled.

  Being a Guardian was fun, James thought. He would not have thought that after what had happened the next day.

  It was dark when Rozin entered the room. It had been a very busy day. He had to make preparations for the event that was to happen that same night. He had to position Germs well around the site for breaking in and provide them with the appropriate weapons, all without any Guardian seeing. It was tough, but he had done it.

  Singar was standing in the room. A Germ lay almost lifeless at his feet. It was the Germ he had sent to kill that James Winter in the Test the recruits had in the Brain. He had failed, but he had come back.

  And, in Rozin’s opinion, that was stupid. Everybody knew Singar never forgave. If he sent you, you had to do it and do it good, or you would suffer the consequences. Maybe this guy thought he was so special. There was certainly nothing special about him now. If had had been Rozin, he would have moved out of town, got a new name, and lay down so low, he wouldn’t even have a bank account.

  And to cap it all, instead of just knocking the boy out, he had chose to go a few rounds with the boy instead of just bringing him in. Mental.

  Rozin approached Singar fearlessly. He had always been known as the only Germ who did not fear Singar.

  “Singar?” he said. The Germ seemed not to hear him. “Excuse me, Singar?”

  Singar kicked the Germ and looked around at Rozin.” Ah, Rozin, what is it?”

  “I have finished with my work, Singar. We prepare for infiltration tonight.”

  “Good, Rozin.”

  “And Singar? I’ve just got feed that the Guardians’ ordered shipment will be here in less than Twenty- four hours.”

  This news, Singar was wholly interested in. he ignored the helpless Germ completely, and paced up and down, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

  Rozin watched his movement calmly with his cold eyes. Then he abruptly stopped in front of Rozin.

  “Screw it up.”

  The next day, they had been relieved of all classes because most of them had passed their examinations successfully. Ben Diva was appointed Captain of the Recruit Guardians, despite angry protests about how James would have made it were it not to be the Germ, who had escaped without a trace.

  And they said that James had shown more capability as a Guardian than Diva, but whoever was the boss of the Brain, his mind couldn’t be changed. A few other people had been promoted to more or less important ranks, even Leo had been made head of the Recruit Lymphocytes, but most of them didn’t receive any attention. James was one of them, but he didn’t mind. In fact, the whole thing was way past his mind.

  When they arrived in the morning after Seli explaining to him that fibrinogen was like a fire extinguisher that repaired body tissues and stuff, like the human’s own firemen. She said she had a pretty busy day going on in the Heart so she like to leave them dweebs in the Brain and start going.

  James wondered what kind of busy day it was. He felt himself wishing to go visit the Heart one day.

  James and his friends just practiced their shooting and a little combat moves and roamed around the Brain, discovering new stuff like the Number one library in the whole of Nemo, located right in the Brain itself, and then Commander Josh had asked them to help him sort some files in order.

  It was in the late evening, around six, before they finished. The files had contained mostly information on Singar’s dead or severely injured victims. They tried to look for clues as to where he might be or his next plans, but he cleaned up after himself every time, killing the victims at completely random places and never leaving even a fingerprint.

  “How do killers live with themselves?” Leo said as he whistled at the heaping files of Singar’s dead victims only.

  “I know,” James exhaled, looking at his own pile. “That Germ needs to be caught.”

  “He will be,” Commander Josh said in front of James across his table. They were in his office.

  “But I think you boys should get going now, don’t wanna keep you up all night.”

  They nodded and handed Commander Josh the files, then said goodnight and left the room.

  “I wonder why Rognard isn’t here,” Leo said. James didn’t answer. He didn’t want to answer any question about Rognard with Leo and Seli. He would just say something about not trusting him and they would ignore him completely and make him feel like the bad guy.

  But it was quite peculiar. Rognard was here around five sharp everyday. Guess there’s a first time for everything, eh?

  They met Cornie on the stairs leading to the bottom floor and hastily waved her goodbye. But she wasn’t in the mood for talking. She said he grandfather wanted her to pick up some things in the Stomach for him, so she left quite quickly.

  James and Leo had just made up their mind to call Seli’s Neuron number in the Heart. That’s like phone number to you. And phones were called Neurons. James dialled the number when there was a commotion suddenly behind them.

  They turned and saw Commander Josh running breathlessly down the stairs, jumping about five stairs at a time. Finally, shoving two angry cells out of the way, he reached James and Leo, resting his hands on
his knees, breathing heavily. Muttering something like, “I’m so glad I found you. Oh thank Heavens. We need every man we can get.”

  James exchanged looks with Leo. Finally, Josh straightened up and said. “Well, what are you waiting for? Come on! Follow me. Quick!”

  Without explaining further, he ran back up on the stairs like he didn’t almost faint whilst running. James and Leo followed him, trying to keep up with his pace. They stopped in front of a room called Preparation Room. As it said on top of its door.

  “Preparing for what?” James asked.

  Commander Josh looked at James for a moment. “James, Star,” he said. “We’re going into a real fight,” and he shoved them inside, not coming in himself.

  The room was filed with several Guardians, all of them suiting themselves with some white leather jackets with black at the front. A Guardian showed James and Leo to a pair of lockers, to also wear the white thick clothes.

  In about five minutes, James and Leo and almost all of the people in the room had their bulletproof jackets and thick trousers with wellington boots on. Though a cell next to them told them that the jackets didn’t protect them completely from being shot. It just reduced the pain or effect of the bullets against their raw skins. James twisted the badge on his chest up so he could see what was written on it. It had he Brain’s symbol imprinted on it, and under the flaming jets of fire were the words: Nemo City Brain Guardian. And written under that, in much smaller words were: The Daring to Protect.

  Next, to James’ half fright and half astonishment, they were handed real guns, well, Inside world guns, but they looked a lot like real humans guns. The one in James hand was black, about thirty centimetres in length. He suddenly realized the severity of the situation. They were going to attack real Germs. This was not a drill.

  A second Commander ordered them to follow him out of the room. They marched in two straight lines, clutching their guns in their arms. On the way, several cells who met them created way for them to pass and saluted them. The Commander led them outside into the cold night. It was probably around eight, the latest James and Leo had stayed in the Brain. Nemo must be asleep.

  Several black mini vans that looked like SWAT trucks were stood in the compound, also with the Brain’s symbol painted at the sides. The back doors off the trucks were opened wide to allow the Guardians in.

  Josh was standing n front of a truck, also suited in the Guardian vests. He was talking to someone as the Commander led James and the others towards him.

  Now James could see the figure well. It looked like a robot. A very shiny robot. Half of its body, dissecting from the middle of the head, was red, and the other half was black. He looked at them with blue, blank eyes, and seemed to jerk his head downwards for a nod of greeting.

  “This,” Commander Josh said. “Is Zichorophenax. He is a Medicine sent from the Outside, he’s gonna help us in our mission...” and then he explained the whole mission to them.

  Germs had infiltrated ht Liver, probably sent by Singar, and they had captured many hostages and killed many Basophilis, who were like the first cops to attack Germs, the patrol cops. The Germs were to be stopped, before they find some nuclear weapons or something and blasted all cells to dust or destroyed the Liver and make Nemo city collapse.

  “Before we go,” Commander Josh said, looking around. “I need an assistant Commander to myself. The post is kind of open now. Now let’s see...”

  Everyone looked at Ben Diva, who smirked and pretended to be shy. Then a boy beside him, who must’ve been his friend, said. “Perhaps Ben Diva, Sir.”

  Commander Josh nodded. “Perhaps. Or not... James Winter, you are my assistant commander. It took James a moment to realize he was the one chosen. He blinked dumbly as he whole squad looked at him. “Uhh, thanks, sir.”

  “You are all to obey him if there’s no one else of higher authority in charge, alright?”

  “Yes sir!” the whole team chorused. James felt shot. But the look on Ben Diva’s face was not entertaining at all. He looked like he would murder James at any given chance.

  They packed themselves into the two trucks and immediately, it bounded across the Brain’s compound and vanished into the empty streets.

  The truck stopped abruptly in beside a tall wall and its Guardian passengers jerked forwards. Commander Josh and the other one, Commander Fufi, silently ordered them out of the truck. The drivers remained in the trucks, though. Commander Josh, clutching a long gun that looked like an M-16, brought his hands sharply down, and they, having been taught about signal commands in training, crouched down low.

  In the distance, James could see the Liver domed high ceiling rise out of the horizon. They were probably trekking this far from it so that the Germs don’t hear them coming.

  Walking along the walls in the shadows, they approached the Liver warily, everyone looking for signs of Germs around. Guns were ready. Guts were being hardened. Commander Josh, who was in front leading them, suddenly brought a hand up towards them, and they stopped abruptly.

  He poked his head out of the wall and peeked into the compound. The Liver’s main gate was badly crashed open. Half of the gate was merely hanging in its hinges. A slight breathe of air and it would have fallen.

  There seemed to be no one there. Commander Josh turned his head towards the team and whispered. “Ok. Team Shield, led by follow Leonardo’s lead and secure the perimeter make sure no nosy journalist or citizen gets in, and kill any Gem trying to escape. Don’t let anyone in or out, understand?!”

  “Yes Sir!” Leo, captain of his team, said with his team. And they ran across the grounds in the Liver, quickly disappearing behind the building. “Now, Zichorophenax, lead Team Black to the West Wing of the Liver, I’ll lead my Team Arrow to the East Wing to intercept the Germs from both sides and trap them. We meet back here when we’re done. In case of trouble, call us, alright?”

  Zichorophenax nodded slowly and Josh took one sweeping look at James and led his team toward the East Entrance, crouching down, with his gun at the ready.”

  Zichorophenax led his team, which included James and Ben Diva, towards the West Wing. He walked across the grounds quite calmly, like they had been ordered to get doughnuts. Maybe Medicines weren’t fearful, James thought.

  There were signs of fire in this part of the Liver, actually, the main Liver Organ itself was quite unscathed, but the building beside it, which James recognized as the Distribution Centre was blackened with flames that had burnt out maybe some thirty minutes ago. The buildings now looked like an old fashioned, decaying house. Zichorophenax still walked with some vim to who knows where.

  The air was thick with smoke and fire, making the night even darker than it was supposed to be.

  There had obviously been feats of violence in these parts. Several Guardians lay lifeless on blackened ground as pus oozed out of them. Some of them were even drying up. That must be how cells died- they dried up in a matter of minutes- and, James just remembered, created pimples and boils on the Skin.

  Silence fuelled the fear in James. Why was the place silent? Germs weren’t silent. He could hear shots that turned into popping noises with the distance. Either Commander Josh’s team or Leo’s team had encountered some Germs.

  Suddenly, a loud shot was heard from close by, and the team stopped in alarm. Zichorophenax kept on walking though, and a bullet bounced of his shiny armour. Immediately, a hail of more bullets exploded on them, most ricocheting off Zichorophenax’s metallic skin.

  The team scattered, everybody diving for cover. James dived behind a bombed up but otherwise solid car. He heard bullets make ‘chink’ noises as they hit the rusted metal of the car.

  Zichorophenax didn’t dive for cover. He stood on the same spot and suddenly raised his hand. A hatch opened on his wrist and let loose a rain of round bullets. Open contact with the Germs, who were at the distribution Centre, shooting through the windows, the round balls exploded with powerful fury of fire. It knocked half of the building d
own. Half of the building just crumbled away.

  James thought he wouldn’t have to do anything- which would have been boring- he thought Zichorophenax would take care of everything. The battle would soon be over. And that might have been what the Germs thought, too, because they were relaxed hiding in their covers.

  Then some Germs appeared out of nowhere behind Zichorophenax and strangled him. One wrapped his arms tightly around the Medicine’s neck. The second grabbed his legs and the last one held his arms, and together, they dragged him into the darkness. Dang! James thought.

  He breathed in and out, and then calmed himself down, just like he had been taught to shoot.

  Then that feeling overwhelmed him again. His body suddenly acted without permission. Some kind of stimulant or power, seemed to flow from his watch to all parts of his body, and he stood up.

  He could suddenly see everything in bright, 3-D. Every spot and everything around him. He could actually zoom in into the Germs- and he didn’t know how he was doing it.

  He targeted a Germ standing near a window and shot. The bullet hit the Germ right where he wanted to.: right in the neck. The Germ collapsed into the room. The other Germs shot at him. He saw the bullets in slow motion. He was able to dodge them like water balloons. But they were too much, and he dived behind the car again.

  The other Guardians had joined in the fight, too. They exchanged bullets with the other Germ army. One of them was shot in the head. He seemed to freeze where he stood, before he collapsed into the ground. His face was turned to James, so he saw the ‘O’ hole in his forehead as pus emptied out of it.

  James looked away and jumped up. Someone threw a grenade to him from beside him, and he threw it immediately into one of the rooms. The Germ who was standing there didn’t know what to do. He widened his eyes and swallowed, then started climbing the window. But James’s grenade threw him fifty feet in the air as he had crossed his left leg over the window.

  The force of his explosion was all that was needed for building to completely fall apart. James hoped it wasn’t an Organ vital to Nemo’s health. Several of the Germs were buried in the rubble.

  James relaxed and tried to control his harsh, rugged breathing, and waited for someone to issue orders. And when no one did, he frowned, and then suddenly remembered he was just appointed Assistant Commander an hour ago. If Zichorophenax was not here, it meant he was in charge.

  He looked around him. Yep. The other Guardians were waiting for his command. He got up, scanning the place. There was a glass entrance about a few ten yards from where they stood. He motioned for his Team to follow him, and they did, only Ben Diva showed any signs of reluctance, contempt, even.

  He must be jealous, James thought. Now that he properly thought about it, Assistant Commander was probably a position higher than any of them got.

  He halted at the turn to the entrance and peeked inside, just like Commander Josh had done. Through the glass, sliding doors he could see some people on their knees whilst others trained their guns on them.

  Commander Josh was among one of them, the ones on their knees. A tall Germ trained a gun to his head. James scanned the lace fro Leo, but he wasn’t there.

  “What’s wrong?” one of the Guardians named Piper asked. “We’re supposed to go in there!”

  “Yes,” James said. “But look!”

  He pointed Piper in the direction of the Guardian hostages. Piper poked his head around James and widened his eyes. The others looked, too.

  “What do we do?” Piper asked James. Again, James was shocked at why they were asking him. Back in school, his teacher would have never put him in charge like this. But, surprisingly, he had an idea. Maybe they should give him a chance in school.

  He quickly whispered his plan to the others.

  The close door slid open slowly; the Germs heard it and turned. The one with the gun on Commander Josh’s head quickly spun around and pointed the gun at James. “It’s okay,” James said, raising his hands up in surrender. “I’m unarmed.”

  The Germs gave him sceptical looks. The Germ in front of Josh lowered his gun a little. “Well come over ere’!” he said.

  James walked very, very slowly towards him, and then he gave Commander Josh the tiniest of winks.

  Josh quickly understood like it was a mental discussion. He got up and smacked the Germ’s chin in a strong uppercut. The Germ was lifted off is feet, his gun flying in the air. Josh caught it and shot the other Germ.

  The rest of them became alert, they all raised their guns at Josh, ready to shoot, but then the James’s team’s Guardians, who had slipped inside when James had come and hid behind one of the pillars suddenly sprung out and Piper threw James gun at him, and in unison, they shot and killed all of the Germs.

  Commander Josh ruffled James’s hair. “Splendid! Boy!” he said, and James saw Ben Diva look away in disgust.

  “Now let’s move out boys!” he screamed, and they were all about to move away when a voice suddenly screamed, “Not yet!” Dozens of Germs suddenly charged and them and released hails shots. The Guardians did not expect it. Several of them fell like flies. Someone threw a smoke bomb near Commander Josh’s feet, but the person hadn’t banged the hard shell hard enough and it stayed passive like stone.

  Commander Josh, James and the others answered with their own bullets, butt the enemy was winning. “Retreat!” Commander Josh shouted, and the Guardians needed no telling. They all run in the opposite direction, where they would find the front door.

  Behind James, there was a sudden scream and a shot as someone shot a gun. He quickly spun around, and almost ended his life. A bullet had suddenly appeared from Ben Diva’s gun, heading for James’ face, but a Germ had also crept behind Ben Diva stabbed him in the back with his knife, producing a slicing sound that meant the stab must’ve been very painful. Poor Ben tumbled to the ground.

  James, surprisingly, had seen all this in a split second. He just stood there dumbly as the bullet soared straight for his forehead. Some instinct was telling him to dive out of the way, and something told him he could do it, because he was seeing the bullet in a kind of slow motion, but panic got hold of him and rooted him to the spot.

  Suddenly, someone bulky and solid run into him and shoved him into the ground with a scream. “Noo!”

  James cleared the spots in his eyes and looked at the person who had pushed him. It was Commander Josh, and it seemed that he had saved James from a shot. James immediately stood up and emptied a bullet into the Germ’s head, wondering why in the Inside he had done this for Ben Diva, as the latter had tried to kill him.

  He looked down at Comander Josh again. Why was he still on the ground? Was he-? James dismissed fearful thought.

  He knelt down beside Commander Josh and looked into the man’s eyes. There was pain in them. He scanned his body and spotted a wound in the man’s left chest, puss(the colourless blood all cells and Germs had, meandering out of it.

  He pressed his palms to the wound, trying to stench it. But there was no point. Josh was going, probably already seeing the light.

  Josh raised his hand and caressed James’ cheek. He smiled. “You are a great boy. Never give up hope,” he said slowly, like every word spoken was an excruciating effort. “And... tell-them Commander Josh told you..... in case....”

  And Commander Josh’s eyes remained opened and lifeless until James closed it shut with two fingers. Tears welled in his eyes. More shots nearly missed him, and he awoke to his senses.

  He spotted the failed attempt of a smoke bomb on the floor and picked it up. He crashed it to the floor with all his might he could muster.

  Immediately, white smoke hissed out of and clouded the whole place. It was difficult to even see the Germs anymore, which meant the Germs couldn’t see him also.

  He grabbed the body of Commander Josh and swung it onto his shoulder, then he turned and began running with all his might.

  The Germs shot blind-fully at the James, and, though they didn’t k
now it, most of the bullets almost made it. He continued to run, not stopping or even glance back at a single instant.

  He thought he had almost made it to the front door, though he couldn’t see it well in the smoke, he heard voices coming from somewhere ahead of him.

  Commander Josh’s limp body slowed him down greatly.

  He was running when he abruptly bumped into something heavy, metallic and awfully strong. He collision plus Josh’s weight bearing down n him made him fall backwards unto the ground, Josh’s body was thrown into the air and landed with such a crash, which was gonna leave a mark, even for a dead body.

  James shook his head and looked up. Only a pair of scary red eyes stared into him from above. The smoke and darkness shifted a little and he saw the figure properly. It was Zichorophenax.

  James was glad to see him. But wasn’t his eyes blue a few hours ago? Did Medicines’ eye colour change gradually over time, or was there something deeply wrong with him? Heck, what did he know about Medicine in the Inside world, in any world.

  Zichorophenax held out the red half of his metallic arm silently to James. James frowned, looking from Zichorophenax to his hand.

  “What?” he asked sceptically.

  “Give him to me,” Zichorophenax ordered in a sing song robotic, deeply hoarse voice. “Give him to me.” He repeated and James gave a start. Zichorophenax had never spoken since he had seen him.

  “Why?” James asked, getting to his feet and carrying Josh over his shoulder. “He’s dead. You can’t do anything for him now.”

  “Just give him to me, now,” Zichorophenax insisted.

  James hesitated, but then handed Josh’s body over. Maybe, someway, somehow, Zichorophenax had he ability to revive to resurrect Josh.

  Zichorophenax closed a single hand only around Josh’s torso. James watched what he was going to do, then, right in front of James’s eyes, Zichorophenax tossed the body far away into he fog of smoke. James couldn’t see the body again.

  “Hey,” James protested, what did you do that for?! What’s gotten into-“

  Zichorophenax’s hand suddenly clutched his neck and raised him up steadily. James couldn’t breathe or talk anyway. He felt his face swell with blood as it trafficked around the metallic hand.

  James squirmed and twisted in the strong hand, but Zichorophenax was trying to squeeze the life out of him, increasing his pressure every second or so.

  James choked and tried to inhale air as Zichorophenax said, “James Winter.”

  How did he know his name? “... you are a-“

  James didn’t let him finish. He smacked his elbow against the Medicine’s rather hard face. The metal monster released James and staggered. James was glad Medicines felt pain. Or did they?

  James tried to run around Phenax, but a hand suddenly held his collar back and threw him into the smoke, very hard. James didn’t know where he was flying to or what he was going to hit, he was just gathering speed when suddenly he hit a door.

  The impact was so strong the door neatly off its door frame, making James skid all the way to into the room. His back ached madly: he had already had three crashes on it just a few minutes ago altogether.

  He stood up and straightened himself. He heard a loud crack in his back as he did so. He was right. Something was deeply wrong with Phenax.

  The Medicine came flying into the room, with the help of some small rocket boosters that were affixed to his underfoot and his back. He landed in front of James and stared at him curiously like a curious dog... almost mindlessly.

  He didn’t do anything for moments, so James struck out a fist and crashed it against Phenax’s hard face again. Phenax staggered backwards a little. James thought he had broken his knuckles. He rubbed them, just as Phenax’s fist thwacked his navel. He moaned and felt himself thrown into the air, landing with a loud crash on a table behind him.

  The table broke into two equal halves. Phenax sent two mini sized missiles flying at James, but the latter grabbed one half of the broken table and smacked the rockets away. They exploded in the wall and sent a portrait spiralling away out of the room.

  James leaped about three feet in the air forwards and brought the table crashing down on Phenax’s head. The robot crashed into the wall behind him and sent cracks in the wall. When he got out of the wall, there was a big hole where he had just been.

  Phenax hastily sent three rockets straight barrelling, whizzing through the air for James head.

  James table had broken into pieces after crashing it on the robot’s hard head. But his Transformat did that thing to him again. He saw missiles coming to him in slow mo’ and he was able to dodge them.

  He leaped gracefully over the first one, and it hit a wooden drawer and drowned it in flames instantaneously. He ducked the second one and somersaulted over the third one, but that one had a table flying in it’s wake.

  James didn’t see it in time, and even if he did wouldn’t have reacted to it in time. It crashed into him, sending him through a hole in the wall the third missile had made into another room.

  He fell to the floor, on his face this time- not that it was any prettier- his body ached from head to toe. He rolled over on his back and looked at the room. It was filled with several thousands of some glass vials which contained green murky frothy stuff arranged in shelves all around the room. As he was looking, the whole room shook, probably from another one of Phenax’s missiles. One of the vials tumbled and fell down unto the floor shattering immediately.

  The Transformat suddenly burnt James wrist, like some kind of warning. James yelped. It had never shown this much sizzling hot burning before. He clutched his hand and even tried to blow cool air on it, but it wouldn’t stop. It was almost like it was trying to tell him something.

  Another missile flew into the room and fell in the green liquid, and it burst into flames immediately. James guessed it was highly inflammable. And it couldn’t be bile, it was too thick. Commander Josh had shown them samples of stuff in the Inside, and bile was one of them, so James knew a little about its appearance.

  More of the vials shattered and spilled their contents into the room, so that the whole room was full of flames introducing a blazing heat into the room, making James sweat instantly. Phenax walked calmly and slowly as ever into the room. He stood in the doorway and stared at James, who pretended not to have seen him.

  “Phew!” he said, deliberately loudly enough for Phenax to hear. “I am so glad that that Medicine is out of missiles. Because that would have totally ended me...”

  Phenax stood in the doorway and smiled as best as a mind controlled Medicine could. It ended up like a wide crack in glass. James pretended to have only seen him as Phenax raised his hand towards James. A small hatch opened on his wrist again, and he shot.

  James sprung into action, getting to his feet. The missile barely left the Medicine’s wrist when he grabbed a vial and threw it. It crashed with the missile just inches from Phenax’s gun.

  For a moment, the missile and the vial seemed to freeze in the air, mating with each other.

  “Sucker,” James said, just as the missile and the green stuff let out an ear shocking explosion. James turned to run, but the explosion knocked him backwards. He slammed into a wall, face first.

  Then the explosion affected the other vials, and a more ear splitting explosion erupted. The wall James was stuck to explode into dust, and James was suddenly thrown forwards outside. That room must’ve the last before the Liver’s compound.

  James fell unto the hard ground of the Liver. He rolled over and stared into the smoky sky as a shower of debris rained on him and made him cough.

  The head of Zichorophenax landed near him, smoking like barbeque. The hard, red eyes cooled down and became nothing but dark, lifeless, empty sockets.

  James heard shots from somewhere close to him, but he couldn’t get up. After a moment, just lying there and waiting for what would happen Leo’s face suddenly obscured his vision.

  They
picked James up, wrapping his arm over his head to support him. “You Ok?” Leo asked. James looked at him. He himself was sporting an ugly red angry bruise on the side of his head, just above his eyebrow.

  “Yeah. Yeah,” he said. “You don’t look too good either.”

  Leo smiled. “Thanks. Now c’mon, a driver’s here to take us home. The fight’s over, we won. A lot of thanks to you, though. Knocked off half of Nemo’s Liver, you did. But you took out many of the Germs.”

  “Hey, Nithel!” a Commander’s voice suddenly boomed across the ground. For a split second James thought it was Commander Josh’s voice. Then he put his head down in realization and disappointment, remembering what had happened to Commander Josh. “Help Stardom carry James to the ambulance!”

  A handsome, unscathed boy run over to Leo and James and wrapped James’s other hand over his shoulder. James resisted the temptation to sleep whilst these two carried him. They walked across the grounds quite slowly, because James’s weight bore down upon them.

  But they reached the gate, which had lost its colour to turn a nasty brown like the bombed car James had dived behind for cover. The whole place was quiet. The only sources of sound were the millions of sirens diffusing from all around them, growing louder as they approached closer. The press, the Platelets, and other Guardians were probably the ones coming.

  Over head, helicopters whirred and circled he place like hawks waiting fro prey.

  Outside, millions of ambulances were filled with dead or dying or injured Guardians that needed attention, like James, but it was not, to these ambulances that James went to but a black saloon car parked a little far off.

  Rognard opened the car the back door for them to put James in, looking at James with a filthy strange expression, full of contempt.

  Leo and Nithel slipped James into he seat, with Nithel objecting angrily. “But, the Commander said we should put him into the ambulance!” He cried. Leo patted his back. “Don’t worry,” He said. “He’s not that hurt.”

  And he jumped into the front seat. Rognard immediately sped away, quite willingly, like the Liver had been cursed.

  The blood screeched to a stop right in front of Rognard’s porch. Its headlights died out- darkness had fallen upon hem only thirty minutes before. Leo and Rognard got down from the car first and tried to help James out, but James slapped their hands away.

  “I can walk, “he said weakly. No need to fuss over him. He wasn’t dying. He made it to the front door like a boneless zombie.

  Seli immediately jumped up from her sofa at the sight of James, her papers flying from her lap slowly to the floor. She came around the seats and clenched James’ face in her hands.

  “Are you alright?” she asked softly, looking into James eyes with those bright blue adorable eyes of hers. James thought looking into his eyes was unbearable, but he couldn’t look into Seli’s so close.

  He pushed her gently aside. “I’m fine,” he said, already making his way up the stairs to his room. “Just need some rest...”

  He dragged himself into the room and locked the door, after, making his way lazily into the bathroom, which he also locked, though he didn’t know why. Nobody could pass through his front door, lest enter the bathroom. He just wasn’t thinking straight. His body was as weak as burning chewing gum( ever tried that?)

  He relaxed himself into the calm, warm water, which instantly pierced his sores, due to the salt content in it, but after a brief moment, it stopped. He found himself thinking about how the cells n his own body were coping, then he remembered Commander Josh .

  He was dead. And what were those last words supposed to mean?

  “You are a great boy. Never give up hope. And tell them Josh told you.... Just in case.”

  Tell who Josh told him what now? And how the monster did Zichorophenax turn from mute, good medicine to hateful red eyed evil?

  As James relaxed in the tub, wondering if he could muster enough strength to get out of it, he couldn’t help thinking with a sudden pang.

  This fight... was far from over.