by Gary Denne
In just a fraction of a second—the kind of time that separates gold from silver in an Olympic Games—the Harley crashed onto the road, taking Sean and Violet down with it, as it slid along the bridge lanes with great momentum and then calmly sailed off, over the edge of the bridge.
The machine and its two riders fell in what seemed like an eerie slow motion, the engine still running as the vintage Harley flew through the air. Sean and Violet’s bodies gracefully swayed in the wind like old Oak trees, as they tumbled down towards the body of water below. Then, inevitably, the three objects crashed into the water. The Harley’s impact was like a small depth charge, as spray shot up briefly into the air before quickly fading again. Sean and Violet disappeared with a simple plop into the murky and polluted waterway. They were gone. It was over in an instant.
On the bridge above, the MADDSEC cars slammed on their brakes, as they reached the center span and edge of the bridge. The middle-aged strike team members quickly got out of their vehicles and hurried to the edge of the road, careful of where they were treading, a little unsure if the bridge’s integrity so close to the demolition point had been compromised. They maneuvered their way to the best positions possible, trying to get a view to the water below as they each held onto a suspension wire or anything that would at least give them some grip and peace of mind. In amazement to the preceding events, each of the strike team members simply stood for a moment, watching the water slowly cover up what it had just swallowed.
Out of the murky waters of the East River, Sean suddenly rose up and reached the surface. He sucked in a huge gasp of air and then furiously coughed and spluttered, wiping at his eyes to clear his vision. With the storm above still pounding down rain, he frantically spun around, searching desperately for a sign of Violet as he treaded water. He immediately took another huge gulp of air and then dived back down into the East River leaving no doubt he was a skilled swimmer from his days surfing the Californian coast. There was no sign of either of them now. The water rippled, churned and shook to the strong winds, as heavy rain made visibility all the harder to see a body.
Suddenly, after several more moments of the storm’s fury, Sean shot to the surface again, gasping for another breath. Violet was in his arms. He held onto her limp body as any experienced lifesaver would do, and began to make his way to the shore. At that moment, he was operating on autopilot. This was no time to fall into shock from a fall that high or from the entire events of the last 24 hours. The Bliss had calmed him. The Bliss allowed him to focus. He swam with the energy of an Olympic athlete just having leapt from the blocks. He sucked in as much air as he could, wincing as he pulled the unconscious Violet along with him. Sean was worried by Violet’s lifelessness. The concern was all over his face. She didn’t appear to have any visible wounds from the fall, but he assumed she had smacked into the water and taken in god knows how many mouthfuls of filthy, toxic water into her lungs.
Sean finally reached the edge of the East River. The swim had exhausted him. He had struggled through the water, all the way to the Brooklyn side, and was weak now. As he slowly climbed out of the river, his leg wound troubled him more than ever. The strain was clearly evident on his face. It seemed exerting that sudden burst of energy to pull Violet from the murky depths of the East River, had been enough to wash away the remaining euphoria of Bliss. Or maybe its effects had simply begun to wear off.
Physically exhausted and in pain, Sean made his way to a thin strip of grass on the bank of the river, grunting heavily as he carried Violet in his arms. The both of them were dripping wet, their clothes soaked right through. With no time to waste, he carefully placed Violet down on the riverbank, minding her head as it came to rest.
“Violet! Violet? Come on … can you hear me?” he yelled close to her. But she was not in a good way. He quickly scanned for signs of life, and proceeded to unzip her leather jacket to allow some freedom for resuscitation. Despite his pain and lack of energy, he was determined. Having spent many early mornings in the heavy surf of the Californian coastline, where surfers sometimes dared to go above and beyond their skills and ability, thankfully, he was no stranger to performing CPR on a lifeless body. This was not his first rodeo.
“One-one thousand, two one-thousand...”
Kneeling over Violet, Sean coughed and spluttered as he compressed down on her chest and forced breaths into her mouth. It was tough going. The heavy pollution of the East River made his mouth taste like some kind of toxic-waste factory. Having swallowed several mouthfuls of the filthy water himself, it was a wonder that that right there hadn’t made him drop dead from industrial, heavy-metal poisoning.
“C’mon, dammit,” he calmly said in frustration.
Violet lay there, lifeless on the shore. Her auburn wig was still back in the water somewhere, having slipped easily away in the impact of the fall. Gone was the intimidating, no nonsense girl he had seen earlier. Instead, the girl lying motionless on the patchy and uneven grass of the riverbank looked quite innocent and pure. To Sean, it looked as though she was at peace now. But he wasn’t giving up that easily.
“One-one thousand, two one-thousand...”
“C’mon, come back…”
Violet suddenly spluttered. She spat water up from her mouth like a schoolyard water fountain that was throwing up after a night on the town. Sean quickly eased her onto her side as she coughed and vomited water onto the riverbank. She took in big gulps of air and eventually got her breath back. She was very weak. But she was alive.
Sean sat back on his knees in relief, taking a moment to get his own breath back and relax for a second, knowing they had somehow both cheated death. He briefly looked over his shoulder up at the bridge as Violet regained herself. The shock of what had happened was only now dawning on him.
“It’s alright, Violet,” he said assuring both himself and her, “we’re alive.”
Violet looked up at him, shocked, and thankful to be alive. Between gasps and swallows, she gently told him, “Call me Annie. My name’s Annie Maddox...”
Sean simply stared down at her lying on the ground before him. Before he could say anything, a noise slowly faded in from the distance, carried faintly through the wind and rain.
They both looked at each other, trying to identify what it was. Then it became clear. It was a helicopter; two, perhaps. On her side, recovering and gaining her breath back, Annie knew it could only mean one thing … Maddox. They were coming.
“Go,” Annie said to him weakly. “I’ll be okay.”
“I’m not leaving you here,” Sean protested.
“Do you have the Bliss?” she asked him.
Sean had forgotten about the exchange they had done mid-chase, where he had taken two syringes of Bliss from her courier bag. He felt around to the back pocket of his jeans and yes, he felt something. He pulled out the two small syringes of the bubblegum-pink liquid. Both syringes were intact, despite the thrill ride they had seen.
Annie stretched her hand out to Sean, wanting one of the syringes from him. “You’re going to need these,” she warned.
She grabbed a syringe from his hand, quickly prepping it like a nurse administering an antidote, and then slammed it down onto Sean’s leg without permission, pushing the Bliss into him as he let out a small grunt of pain. He immediately took a huge breath of air in from the rush. Suddenly, he could not feel his leg again. Suddenly, he could not feel a thing but euphoria. He squeezed his eyelids tight as he rode the intense high that was again rushing through his body.
“You’re going to need the other one until you get your leg looked at,” Annie told him, as she collected her wits about her and got back in the game.
Two black MADDSEC helicopters were approaching, having flown from a Manhattan skyscraper, through the storm, through rumbles of thunder and heavy rain. They were close to their position. Violet spotted them. The birds had seen some wear and tear, but were still quite capable as a fast means of transport around the city. She knew there was little time le
ft.
“Get the hell outta here,” Annie told him, “I’ll take care of them...”
Where Sean did not have the energy or will to run anymore since climbing out of the East River, now he was feeling so overwhelmed from a drug named Bliss that he felt he could’ve taken on another round with that lunatic cowboy, Roberts. In what seemed like minutes, but was only seconds, he contemplated all that had happened as though it was a flash before his eyes. He began to wonder if maybe the last twenty-four hours had been scripted by fate, leading right down to this very moment; a final puzzle piece just waiting to slide in and complete the picture.
Maybe he was never meant to be a lottery winner.
Maybe he was never meant to be a part of it all.
Lost in those thoughts for a moment, he snapped to.
It was time to go. But he didn’t want to go without her. He didn’t want to abandon this girl, whoever she said she was, who had put her own life on the line to save his own.
“Come with me,” Sean urged to her. “We can make it.”
Annie formed a slight smile of understanding at Sean. “I can’t,” she said back to him, shaking her head softly and adding, “Now go...”
The helicopters were descending on their location. Low-level spotlights began lighting up the riverbank from a distance, but Sean was in luck … the storm and rain made pinpointing bodies from above difficult for the time being.
He looked at her, trying to understand her frame of mind, but time to think was a luxury he knew he didn’t have. Sean watched Annie remain on the riverbank, comfortable now, not knowing whether he should get up and run like hell or just continue to stare back at her in confusion and stay. And then it dawned on him. This girl knew exactly what she was doing. This girl had a master plan.
“Thank you,” Sean said. “And good luck.”
Annie’s smile sustained and she nodded back at him.
Sean suddenly snapped out of their daydream-like moment and focused back to the helicopters, seeming like hours had passed.
Annie watched him quickly dart away, making a few careful steps to begin with, up the riverbank and into an empty parking lot, ducking under the cover of several large abandoned shipping containers. Sean disappeared quickly from sight. He was gone. He was back in the outside world.
Distant storm clouds softly rumbled as they passed over the city. The storm had calmed now and the afternoon quickly faded into night. Annie turned to the helicopters. They were now traveling the final leg of the river, seconds away from her. As they reached her, the helicopter blades began to gush their wind tunnel down on top of her, blowing her clothes and body somewhat dry. MADDSEC strike team members eagerly held onto the chopper as they stood at its doors, waiting to get on the ground and contain the situation.
Hovering above her now, each of the helicopters soft spotlights shone down though the rain like weak, battery-powered gravitational tractor beams. Rain continued to beat down on her face as she waited, but it did not seem to matter to her. In fact, she seemed to embrace its feeling on her skin. Slowly, she calmly sat up and simply sat there on the Brooklyn riverbank waiting for MADDSEC to surround her.
She knew this was not going to be easy.
But living in this city never was.