Page 26 (1/2)

‘Fine,’ I say, and think of Sebastian ItSally goes with her; they start checking everyone as they go

I back up and sit on a chair at one of the tables There is a girl strapped in a wheelchair next toforwards over her face Her Levo vibrates I look about for a nurse, wave at Sally to coirl is slu…

Ah There, on the floor I pick up the soft toy she o,’ I say, and put it in her hands She looks up, and smiles A beautiful wide smile of perfect joy

I recoil No; it can’t be That seous with it, it suits her, but it is all wrong

‘Phoebe?’ I whisper

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

Soh my veins Almost instant: my heart rate slows, er

I fade in and out

At sohts are back on I’ down a hall but I don’t knohere; all I see is the floor I can’t lift my head to look

There is the warht while another scrubs s to soain Pretty

Fluffy towels, clean clothes

Hospital issue clothes This is wrong I fight to focus on why, but cannot

I’m tucked into a bed, but it isn’t ainst them Not my bed? I try to keep my eyes open They flutter, then shut

‘Kyla, co; unconnected to h layers of darkness, the voice fades away…

Bricks are all around me Above, too, as far as I can see I scratch at theto cru, now…

Soon, I’ll be free

Another voice ‘Coo home’

Mum?

My eyes snap open

We spiral out of the hospital car park to the exit

Mum seems completely unruffled She told me on the way to the car that she’d been in her friend’s office when the first blast hit They locked themselves in and hid under a desk

When it was over, she couldn’t find me No one knehere I was The floor where I’d been, and the one below – doctor’s offices, eted No key personnel were hurt, though They were all whisked away like Dr Lysander But when I pressed her she admitted that some nurses and a few Lorders died And all the AGT

Eventually I was tracked doay in la-la land by the tiht, had caused ht me with an injection before I blacked out And since I’d been sedated, they didn’t want to releaseover and scans

Muh places to get me out and take me home Said everyone at the hospital was in so o away

Home

I sleep so off Things are starting to come back: in pieces, at first, then all in a rush

And I aot into the hospital, let alone what they did, the people they killed Don’t waste the bullet If they had more bullets, maybe I’d be dead now, too All that blood; the nurse whose face I cannot remember…

I force my mind away from her, and it slips back to Dr Lysander’s office On her computer, it said Board recommends terest of all: so that happened, I’d stayed level, or near enough ItPhoebe that finally pushed e

With some sort of serious delayed reaction of her own, Muh the front door, then collapse She rolls into a ball on the sofa and dissolves in tears

‘What should we do?’ I say

‘Call Dad,’ Aests Mum shakes her head no from the sofa

‘How about Aunt Stacey?’ And she see with baby Robert while telling me how to make dinner, and Stacey and Muleaned a little of the story: that terrorists attacked the hospital I haven’t told her – or anyone – that I sao of them in Dr Lysander’s office, or that one nearly shot me Or about the nurse who died Ah to keep theht there is a five second mention: earlier today, armed AGT attempted to mount a vicious attack on dedicated medical staff at a major London hospital They failed

Tell that to the nurse whose blood was all over the floor

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

‘Quite an adventure you had yesterday,’ Dad says, one eye on uess so’

‘Were you scared?’

‘Yes’

‘Good’

I look at him in surprise ‘You’d have to be coht ‘Did you sleep all right?’