Othergirl

by Nicole Burstein

  ‘Help!’ I scream, getting his attention. I don’t even have to think about yelling it.

  The guard turns to face us but there’s no time for him to act. Whippet fast, Blizz has come out from behind Toby and charged, a palm reaching out and striking the guard right in the solar plexus, freezing him statue-like in an instant.

  ‘Don’t do that!’ Jay snaps at me, before catching himself and regaining his composure with a sly smile. ‘Let’s keep moving. And no funny business from either of you.’

  I turn to look at Toby, whose face is ashen and terrified, his good arm supporting the numb one.

  Sidestepping the frozen guard, Jay leads us down deserted corridors, some curved and reminiscent of their underground-station heritage, others stark and modern. All the time the siren is wailing and red emergency lights flash, making us look like red ghosts as we roam. Blizz and Jay are ahead of us now, both prepared for any more obstacles, while Toby and I linger behind, scared to do anything but follow.

  When we get to an intersection, I take the risk. I grab Toby and dart down a side passage. Once we’re out of sight, we run on, turning random corners and losing ourselves in the labyrinthine tunnels. I realise that Jay must know that we’ve gone, so I look for a place to hide, trying the doors on either side of us. Most are locked, no doubt because of the shutdown procedures Erica instigated, but finally, amazingly, a door opens. Toby shoves me into the darkness and then, with his good hand, he closes the door behind us.

  Finally, in the dark, we can breathe. I feel for Toby, who is directly in front of me, but as I touch him he steps backwards with a jolt. My head fizzes with panic and I step back too, stumbling against some shelves that seem to be laden with boxes. We must be in some sort of supply cupboard.

  ‘Sorry,’ Toby stutters, his voice so quiet, still so scared.

  ‘No, don’t be sorry,’ I say, even though I can’t be entirely sure what it is that we’re talking about. I desperately wish my hands were free right now, to push some hair back or rub my forehead with, but it’s a little difficult, what with the cuffs. And boy, do they hurt. It’s like shards of ice are permeating my skin, seeping through my veins.

  ‘It’s just, my arm,’ Toby explains. ‘I don’t know what she’s done. It’s making me feel so cold.’

  He stumbles further backwards, and even though I can’t see him, I know that he’s fallen to the floor.

  ‘Toby?’ I whisper.

  ‘So cold,’ he replies.

  This can’t be good. However much pain I’m feeling in my hands, Toby must be suffering worse. From what I can tell, Blizz has actually frozen his entire limb. What if his body can’t cope with that? What if the cold sets in further and causes him permanent harm?

  ‘Toby,’ I say, ‘I’m going to go and find Erica. She can warm you up and everything will be fine.’

  ‘D-don’t go,’ Toby stutters, except it’s not a stutter, but his teeth chattering from the cold.

  ‘I have to. You’re going to freeze to death or develop frostbite or something if I just stay here with you. I’m going to go and find Erica and stop all this madness, and then she’ll save us both, OK?’

  I don’t wait for his reply. Somehow not being able to actually see him makes this decision a whole lot easier. If I can’t see him, then maybe I won’t feel so guilty about leaving him alone. I feel around for the door, and brace myself for the return of the red light and the siren sound. I lever my elbow down and the door opens. I work it slowly, aware that Jay could be waiting for me right outside. He’s not. The wailing of the alarm hits me like thunder but thankfully the corridor is deserted in both directions. The red lights reflect off my manacles and they almost seem to glow.

  I summon up all the ninja strength I had when I escaped from my own house earlier this morning, and I run. I need to find Erica, and get her to burn these things off me and save Toby.

  Is it too much to hope that there’s an evacuation map somewhere? Apparently so. But there is a familiar green fire-escape sign above the doorway at one end of the corridor, so presumably if I go the opposite way I’ll be heading into danger – and therefore towards Erica. I ponder the ludicrous nature of actually seeking danger instead of going away from it. Little me, who doesn’t go near the school playground in case of wayward footballs, and who always starts her homework the night she gets it for fear of running out of time.

  I run. I run down the corridor and through a set of fire doors that swing themselves shut again behind me. The place is a warren, but I charge through the abandoned network of corridors and tunnels because I know that Erica is here somewhere, and that I have to get to her before Jay catches up with me.

  And then, breaking through one last set of double doors and into a giant cavern of a room, I find her.

  I’m standing on some sort of gallery or balcony that looks down into a vast pit of a room. I can still hear the alarm but it sounds like it’s outside; the noise is muted in here. This is the Vigil nerve centre. I know it is. One wall is taken up by a vast projection screen, inset with live feeds tracking Vigil activity all over the world, and a giant map showing all the global Vigil headquarters. There are rows and rows of deserted desks in the centre of the room, with partitioned offices and cubicles around the sides, and then, off in one corner, some sort of laboratory.

  This room is what I’ve been dreaming of for the last couple of years. This is where it all happens, where decisions are made and lives are changed. Everything I’ve been searching for, all those Vigil secrets I’ve been dying to know, and now I’m here, right here in this room. It feels like that moment when you first enter a cathedral and can’t quite take in the magnificence and scale of everything around you, and you can feel your heart beating in your chest.

  ‘Erica!’ I yell down. She’s standing by a desk near the front, waiting for the phone to ring with Jay’s command.

  ‘Louise?’ She’s squinting as she peers up at me on the balcony; her mask has been laid aside nearby. ‘What the hell are you doing here? You have to get out! Now!’

  ‘No, Erica. Jay lied to you! He wants to trap me and Toby in here with you! You wouldn’t have known…’ My voice tails off as Erica flies up to meet me.

  ‘Oh my God,’ she sighs, placing her warm hands on either side of my face, holding me there as if checking that it’s really me. ‘Your hands!’

  ‘Yeah, Blizz’s handiwork. And she’s done something to Toby too. He’s hiding in a supply cupboard. We have to get to him so that you can warm him up. I think he might be seriously hurt.’

  ‘And where is Jay now?’

  ‘I don’t know. We got away from him and hid, but I knew that I had to come out and find you. Erica – this all has to stop now. Jay is properly crazy! The Vigils need to get back here and arrest him or do something – you know, whatever superheroes do to super-villains!’

  ‘First, your hands.’ Erica propels herself over the railing so that she’s standing with me on the balcony. She pauses, looking worried.

  ‘What is it?’ I ask, holding my hands out towards her. ‘Please just defrost me already!’

  ‘I don’t want to hurt you,’ she replies, obviously scared. ‘How will I know when to stop the heat?’

  ‘You’ll be fine. I’ll tell you when. Just please get them off me!’

  She clasps her hot hand around my cuffs and almost instantly they melt away. Water drips and pools on the floor at my feet as slowly, carefully, Erica works at the ice. I suddenly regain feeling in my little finger and, looking down, I can see the colour of my hands is changing, no longer that sickly green-blue, but now blotchy red. Heat blooms through my bones and at first the feeling is akin to hugging a hot-water bottle on a cold night. It’s comforting, and a huge relief. Except that as she continues, with the ice nearly gone and Erica still working at getting the heat through to my extremities, I start to feel pain. The sudden flow of blood to my fingers burns with the worst chilblains I have ever experienced. The pins and needles tickles like scurrying beetles
across my palms, and as feeling comes back to my fingertips, they ache and cramp.

  ‘OK, stop!’ I warn, tugging my hands away from her and bringing them close to my chest for some comfort.

  ‘How do they feel?’ Erica asks.

  ‘Fine,’ I lie. ‘Now let’s go back to Toby!’

  ‘Wait!’ says Erica. ‘I can use the computers here to get a message to the Vigils. We need to tell them what’s going on. It won’t take long, I promise!’

  Launching herself over the railing, Erica glides down into the pit with the grace of a cat, all sleek energy and smooth lines. I, however, clang and rattle down the metal stairs. I couldn’t feel more clumsy and cumbersome if I tried. When I’m down with her, Erica leads me through the maze of desks, stopping at one to input her password.

  ‘You know how to use these computers?’ I ask, nervous because Erica’s never really shown much affinity for technology before.

  ‘What do you think I’ve been doing these last few weeks? I even have my own personal Vigil email address!’

  ‘Who could you possibly give that to?’

  ‘It’s more of an internal thing, to be honest. I can’t even access it from my computer at home. But still – having it is pretty cool.’

  Erica starts tapping away at the computer while I nurse my hands. The feeling is almost totally back now, but my wrists are still red and raw from the ice burn and my fingertips are bruised and sore. I take the opportunity to look around the room, padding carefully between the desks and glancing up at the massive screen displaying all the information. So much information. Some desks are piled high with files and paperwork, some are starkly empty. One has a vast chart with a supersuit design, complete with weapons schematics. I know that I shouldn’t be here, that I shouldn’t be snooping into all this top-secret knowledge, but the further away I wander from Erica, the bolder I feel in looking. I even sit down at one of the desks.

  ‘Are you nearly done?’ I call, thinking about Toby, hoping that he’s OK and that I can remember the route back to him.

  I swivel a bit in the chair and pretend to type at the keyboard (careful not to let my sore fingertips actually touch anything). My eyes flick up to the wall with the screen every now and again, as if I’m imagining that I really do work here. It would be so amazing if I did, for even the tiniest bit of this to be mine.

  Then I shiver. I shrug it off at first, because obviously my body temperature is still adjusting due to my hands, but it happens again. The air in here is definitely colder, and by now I know what that means.

  I make a split-second decision not to call out to Erica. She hasn’t sensed that Blizz is close, but I figure that I’m the most vulnerable here and I need to hide. I slink down in the chair and under the desk, hoping that Blizz hasn’t seen me yet. Once again the adrenaline surges, making me itchy and jumpy, and as I wait I notice my breath clouding out in front of me.

  ‘Erica!’ It’s Jay. He must be with Blizz. I didn’t get a chance to look up to the balcony and I can’t see anything from my hiding place, but I can hear the staircase giving its metallic rattle as they descend.

  I wish I could see where Erica is, because I don’t hear her answer. But now, from my position curled on the floor, I can see Blizz. She glides by the desk next to me, and as her fingers dance over the surface, it crusts over with ice crystals, beautiful like diamonds. The air around her shimmers with frosted dust. I curl myself up into the tightest ball I can manage, trying to keep myself warm.

  ‘It’s over, Jay,’ I can hear Erica call. ‘I’ve sent out an alert and told the Vigils everything. They’re heading back here. You’re in big trouble.’

  ‘Oooh, I’m scared,’ Jay replies, half laughing. Voices carry in this cavernous space, and his laugh echoes.

  ‘Keep away from me,’ Erica warns, but I can hear the wobble in her voice. I want to tell her that it’s going to be fine, that she can take both Blizz and Jay down if she really wants to, and that she shouldn’t be scared. ‘I mean it. Stay back!’

  There’s a rumble behind me, and the desk shakes with pressure. It’s heat. Erica, out of my sight, is fighting back. I’m desperate to get out of my hiding place and see what’s going on, but the thought of Jay catching me and doing something terrible to distract Erica forces me to hold on and stay hidden. I nearly bite right through my lip with the tension.

  And then Jay’s right there. He’s still wearing his stupid trench coat, and his boots are only inches from my face. All he has to do is look down and I’ll be caught. I can’t let that happen. He’s stopped right next to me and is spouting off to Erica about his vision or purpose or something. I haven’t got time to listen to another one of his maniacal speeches. As I shove my sore hands into my pockets for warmth, I find the USB cable I stowed in there earlier. If this was a cartoon, a bright light bulb would have popped up over my head right now.

  In one swift and silent move, I reach out and wrap the cable around one of Jay’s legs. Before he’s even registered that something’s amiss, I tug with all of my strength and Jay topples, crashing to the floor and flat on his face. Yes! And then, in my own version of a crazy awesome ninja move, I kick out the wheelie desk chair – with enough force that it ploughs straight into him. There’s an audible oof of pain.

  I crawl out from under the desk, scampering as quickly as I can to get away from Jay, aware that as thrillingly awesome as my ninja moves are, they’re hardly going to take him out of action for very long.

  I look over to Erica. It’s like watching a film. I can’t believe that this is anything other than some incredible, computer-generated effect. Blizz is sending a charge of frozen air out from her hands towards Erica, and in retaliation Erica’s hands have manifested the largest flames I’ve ever seen her produce. It’s as if she’s got blowtorches for fingers and she’s trying to push forward, forcing Blizz back. It’s an intimidating sight, watching someone try to destroy your best friend, but I have faith in Erica and I know that she’ll win.

  Except I can see the pain in her face, and the exhaustion this whole thing is causing. In comparison, Blizz looks comfortable, like she’s finding this easy, a wicked smile creeping across her face as Erica strains to throw all she can muster at her. In response, Blizz starts pushing forward, the cold air whipping about her in white flurries. Erica’s whole body is glowing with effort, her hair a wild halo behind her as every part of her distorts through the haze of heat. It’s fire versus ice, and where their powers meet there is a swirling vortex of red-gold and blue.

  I’ve forgotten about Jay. He’s up again, and lumbering towards me, his hands tensed into claws and dripping something – it’s ink. That dark revolting stuff is seeping from his pores, and as he stumbles against desks he leaves behind handprints like demonic ink blots. I’ve got no superpowers to help me. I’m trapped, and the only way out that I know of is back up those stairs to the gallery.

  I look around me for something I can use. The desk next to me is cluttered with files and folders, but there’s also a mug of tea just sitting there, probably left to get cold when Erica evacuated the place. I pick it up, and in what I already realise is a rather futile move to gain some time, I chuck the contents at Jay. Unfortunately he is not a storybook witch and he does not fizzle to his demise. He just leers at me and wipes the cold tea from his brow.

  ‘Someone’s got themselves caught up in a game they can’t handle,’ he says, edging closer.

  I force myself to break my gaze with him so that I can see what’s going on across the room. Erica and Blizz are still fighting, but it looks more like dancing, one creeping forward as the other retreats. But it’s Erica who is dominating, taking the lead. This gives me confidence.

  ‘Just give up, Jay! You’re bonkers, you know that? Sure, you have some good ideas, but you don’t get what you want by blowing stuff up! That just makes people angry, and scared. It doesn’t make them listen!’ I yell.

  I look around me again, wondering if it’s even in me to do something violent en
ough to put Jay out of action. And then I remember Toby, probably dying of hypothermia in a dark cupboard in a corridor I can’t even remember how to get back to. If he was here instead of me, he’d be fighting – maybe flailing – but definitely trying to win. I can’t give up. I guess this is what the expression ‘do or die’ means.

  My eyes fall on a staple gun. I’m gripping the handle before I can even think this through, and then surging forward with one arm outstretched, ready to pull at the trigger when I get close enough.

  Jay’s trying to grapple at me with his disgustingly slimy hands, and I can feel them sliding around over my top, but all that ink means that he’s not able to grip. I reach under and around him and fire the staple gun, right into his neck, under the jaw. And then again, striking him on the forehead and behind the ear. I nearly get the gun tangled up in his ridiculous hair, but I shuffle and pull free with just enough time to get him right on the cheek. Each click of the gun gives a satisfying release until finally he has to stagger back, feeling himself for injury with hands that leave smears of dark blue all over his face.

  ‘What the hell?’ he asks, before one of Erica’s heat pulses finds him and he falls forward, flat onto his face for a second time, only now he doesn’t get back up.

  I turn back to Erica. By taking one of her hands away to pummel Jay, she’s given Blizz some leeway. This isn’t good. Now it’s Erica taking steps backwards, and Blizz driving forward with all that cold shooting out from her.

  Heading to another desk, I see that it’s frustratingly sparse and tidy, and at first I fear that there’ll be nothing there to help me, but then I see a stationery organiser. And in there is an ordinary rubber eraser. I reach around the desk to pick it up, along with a plastic ruler. Blizz is standing about five metres away and is far too focused on Erica to notice anything in her peripheral vision, but Erica spots what I’m up to – I’m almost directly in her line of sight.