Chasing Imagination

Amy

The police separated out slightly so that everyone could see the us: the intruders.

‘Casper!’ It was Matt who called out his name, right at the head of the Dreamer group. He was bleeding badly from a wound in his head.

‘Linzy!’

‘Dan!’
The voices resounded across the room, and the twenty plus police officers looked momentarily startled.

‘Momentarily’ was certainly enough for Matt.

He bent down and grabbed a gun from the ground—now I looked; there had to be at least twenty weapons scattered on the concrete floor that the Dreamers had been forced to sacrifice—and shot one of the distracted policemen in the back. He staggered forward, and as several more lurched forwards towards Matt, he shot them all clumsily, sending a symphony of screams echoing round the room.

A police man struck him in the back with a powerful Taser, causing him to collapse forward.
Most of the police, it seemed, only had stun guns. They were going for numbers, not advanced weapons. They were here to kidnap; not to kill.

Chaos erupted.

It seemed that the police had literally cornered them all in this room, expecting them to follow peacefully. That wasn’t going to happen, and, like a chain reaction, the Dreamers leapt forward, not caring that they were without weapons, just kicking, punching, strangling, pushing—anything and everything.

‘Get off!’

I watched in horror as a man gripped Imogen from behind, marching her out of the room as she tried to struggle. She screamed out and struggled like crazy as he threw her face-first into the wall, but another man came forward to aid the first, and she stood no chance. It seemed they had failed at calmly rounding up the entire group in one go; now they were just going for kidnapping anyone and everyone they could lay their hands on.

Casper was fighting whilst discussing something with Matt. Dan and Linzy had already launched themselves fully into the battle. Leah was already standing triumphantly over a man who had collapsed on the ground, his lifeblood flooding the floor.

Everyone was fighting but me. That meant that I was the only one who could help Imogen.

My feet were marching me over to the doorway back out of the room before I could comprehend what they were doing.

I held up my gun. My real, bullet gun.

‘Let her go,’ I ordered.

The two men turned to me, and light ignited in Imogen’s eyes, which had thick snail trails of mascara running from them down her cheeks as she cried out in pain.

The smug grins on their faces faded when they saw my gun.

‘You touch her and I shoot,’ I said smoothly. I didn’t yet know whether I would have the courage or not. I’d shot the man earlier, but he had already been shot once. Even if he hadn’t strictly been dying, there was a chance he wouldn’t have made it through the night.

‘Who are you, blondie?’ the man said, jeering. ‘Didn’t see you in here a moment ago.’
I took a step closer. Behind me, there were screams as Dan produced his gun. In that room, though, guns were too dangerous. All the Dreamers could see that, and so could the police. Stun guns might work, but not bullet guns. With so many people fighting in such a small space, there was too big a risk of hitting someone on your own side.

‘Let her go,’ I warned, practically growling the words.

Imogen looked as startled as the policemen. She knew what I’d been like the last time I’d so much as stunned another person.

‘You seem inexperienced,’ the man said, his tone mocking. ‘Using a gun in here is most definitely not a good idea.’

‘In there, yeah,’ I agreed, gesturing with a nod back into the room they had just dragged Imogen out of. ‘Out here though, there’s no one but you two. And I’m standing, what, a foot away from you? I can’t miss.’ I hoped I sounded more confident than I felt.

The men exchanged glances, reluctantly taking their hands off of Imogen. She staggered forwards, breathless and terrified, edging away from them.

‘Come on, Amy,’ she said frantically, peering into the room, where a great, ugly brawl was taking place.

Giving the men a wary glance, I turned and followed her back in.

I was grabbed from the back so fiercely it knocked all the wind out of me, shoved forwards into the wall.

Instinct took over. I was an animal, and I twisted my arm behind me, firing the gun clumsily in every direction.

But I heard a cry.

The arms released from me, and I stayed just long enough to turn and see that the first guard was bleeding badly in the shoulder, right near the base of his neck. The other was rushing to his aid.

I probably hadn’t killed him...in a way, I really hoped I hadn’t. But I didn’t wait around this time; I stored the gun away and dived back into the room.

‘We’ve got to get out of here!’ Casper was yelling to anyone who would listen. I didn’t know what to do...I had no experience with physical combat. I was lost and confused in the middle of a warzone.

Casper

The police woman staggered backwards, winded from my well-aimed punch, collapsing into another and taking him down too. Two in one; wasn’t bad.

And then I heard it...so close to me, but I reckoned everyone in the room heard it.

Thunder.

Followed by silence.

I turned, apprehension paralysing me, to the centre of the noise.

Wolfie gasped, clutching at his chest. He staggered backwards, too shocked to even scream, the pain obviously not quite registering yet.

A policeman stood, infuriatingly smug, with a gun in his hand.

A gun he had picked up from the floor.

A gun which they had suggested shouldn’t be used in a situation like this.

The world went into slow motion, but it seemed that everyone had the same idea. I launched off my back foot, tearing towards the bastard, at the same time as Jay, Phil and Tom all did.

‘You bastard!’ Felix snarled over the commotion which erupted around Wolfie.

Jay reached the policeman first, practically tearing off his head, knocking the gun to the ground and ripping at him, more of a beast than a man. Phil got there too, pushing the man over, kicking him in the stomach, in the head, in the shoulder. I ran instead to Wolfie, skidding down on the ground beside where he had collapsed against the wall, crimson blood leaking out around him, flooding the floor in a hot, sticky puddle.

There was another gunshot. Jay had reached the weapon the policeman had dropped, and, in a flash, the policeman was no more. It wasn’t half of what I wanted to do to the monster.
I watched as two men lurched at Phil from behind, grabbing one arm each, shoving him towards the door. Phil was big and beefy, but these two were huge, and, outnumbered as he was, he stood no chance. Jay aimed the gun with a shaking hand, but it was too risky—he had as much chance of hitting Phil, or indeed anyone else who got in the way—as he did the men he was aiming at.

‘Wolfie!’ I cried in desperation, ‘somebody help!’ I pulled off my jacket and used it to press against his chest. He gagged as I increased the pressure on the wound, lurching forward and coughing violently, his phlegm splattered with blood.

Amy came, tears already streaking down her face. Kira and Sammi came running too, holding onto each other. When Felix arrived, looking bruised and bloody from a tough, physical punch-up, his hand wound its way into Kira’s.

There was nothing any of us could do.

I was watching the rest of the room through a veil. Phil was shoved out the door and carted off down the tunnel as others despondently tried to pull him back, and I saw police doing the same with others—Julian and Isa were next.

That was all they’d needed. One death. One death, and we were all distracted. And they could pick us off, one by one, and we would barely even notice. They weren’t here for a massacre; they were here to round us all up.

A burly policeman grabbed Kira from behind. She screamed out and waved her hands round wildly. Felix leapt to his feet and tried to punch the man, but the officer was good. Sammi joined in, only to get pulled away by two more herself; a man and a woman. She was being dragged across the room, screaming and resisting, but struggling futilely, and there was nothing anyone could do. Jay tried to help her, only for the man to punch him right in the face so that he staggered backwards, clutching at his nose and mouth, which were both already dripping blood.

Wolfie laughed dryly, but I could see the agony he was in. He gasped, clutching at the wound, rolling slowly from side to side. ‘There’s no use, mate,’ he rasped, glancing down at my blood-soaked jacket, barely able to speak properly. ‘I’m gone.’

‘You’re not gone!’ Amy said, clutching at his bloody hand, her tears dripping onto the floor and mingling with the blood I was now kneeling in. ‘I won’t let you.’

Wolfie shuddered, convulsing and coughing up blood once again. I could feel him growing cold. It was all he could do to even keep his eyes open. There was no hope for him, but I wasn’t about to admit that.

‘You’re coming out of here, mate,’ I said, trying to smile at him, ‘like it or not.’

Wolfie gagged again, slumping a little further down the wall. I placed two fingers on the side of his neck, trying to feel for his pulse. When I got it, it was disturbingly slow.

I heard more screams as Kira was finally dragged from the room, despite all of Felix’s desperate efforts. Her hands were forced behind her back as she was thrown face-first into the wall outside. Then, yet another police officer was marching her along and out of sight, along with Phil and Sammi and at least three others.

Matt had abandoned the idea of not using a gun—desperate measures sometimes had to be taken, and there were fewer and fewer left on our team anyway. He was pounding bullets in all directions. I had to admit he was good; three police officers fell in that round alone.

He and I made eye contact across the room.

‘We’ve got to get out!’ he screamed in my direction. ‘Come on!’

Felix and Jay were beside him then, helping him pick off the officers, who were now trying to fire their Tasers in defence. Bodies littered the floor and blood painted the tiles all around us, drowning the room in red.

‘Casper!’ Felix screamed. ‘Come on!’ He shoved two of the girls; Vicky and Danielle, out of the door and they watched us in apprehension whilst fighting off a policewoman that tried to launch herself at them. At the same time, Lazza was carted out of the room by two of the remaining officers, resisting like mad, but he stood no chance.

I tried to hoist Wolfie to his feet, but he just slumped backwards limply. A policeman charged at us, attempting to grab at Amy, but he was collapsing to the ground from another of Matt's well-aimed shots, crying out in pain, before he could even touch her.

‘It’s no use, Casper,’ Wolfie mumbled. ‘Just leave me. Go save yourselves.’

‘I’m not letting you die,’ I said.

‘I’m gonna die anyway,’ he replied, his eyes closing halfway. It was too late. There was nothing we could do.

‘Well,’ I whispered, squeezing his hand and feeling hot tears on my cheeks. ‘Good luck.’

He smirked, but it came out more like a sniff. ‘You too. You’re the one...who’s gonna...need it. Go get ‘em. Go fight a fucking war, Casper.’

His eyes closed fully, and the last strangled gasp was emitted from his mouth, his breathing growing still.

Amy’s face was stained with tears as I hoisted her to her feet, both of us numb to the world.
Imogen came running over, half her pretty face drenched in blood, her hair damp and matted, crying her heart out.

‘Has he...?’ she whispered.

I nodded slightly. ‘He’s gone.’

Before I really knew what was going on, Matt was grabbing me by the arm and shoving me towards the door. A policeman launched himself at me, but Felix managed to twist his arm round and shoot him in the face at close range. Taser volts came down like a lightning storm from all directions as I pushed Amy out of the room, diving out behind her, and then the bedraggled and horrified survivors were skidding round the corner and charging back towards the train station. Maybe the police were following; maybe they were content by the destruction they had already caused. Either way, we had to run.