Chasing Imagination

Casper

Our ranks had been decimated. Barely half of the people who had started the fight still remained.

‘Did you bring a car?’ Matt was asking me as we ran up the steps, close to the station...so beautifully close. His question seemed unimportant, therefore it took too long to register in my mind.

‘Yeah,’ Linzy answered for me. ‘We’re just outside.’

‘We’re a little further away,’ Matt said, ‘we came in a different entrance.’

We burst out into the station, virtually deserted at these ridiculous hours. Newspapers and plastic bags danced a silent waltz around us in the breeze blowing in from outside, the lights now mostly off, the people long since gone. After the commotion beneath the ground, the sudden silence seemed to scream at us.

‘This is us,’ breathed Linzy, practically slamming into the car with the force of her sprint. ‘We’ll see you back in Kingston.’

‘We’re not going to help Nightshade?’ Felix asked. He certainly looked in no position to fight; a bruise was swelling up around his eye, he was limping slightly, and was also clutching at a rather angry wound extending right across his shoulder, staining his white t-shirt with splashes of crimson.

Matt shook his head in dismay. For once, I actually agreed with him. ‘We can’t. There’s nothing we can do. What are we?’ He scanned the ragged group briefly. ‘Eleven of us. What can eleven already injured people do?’

Felix sank down, leaning his hands on his knees as he tried to get his breath back.

‘We’ve just got to go back to Kingston,’ said Imogen, sighing as though admitting defeat.

‘We have no choice,’ Nina agreed, blood dripping across her face. ‘And we have to tell them...tell them what happened.’

I nodded, silently contemplating. There really was nothing we could do.

‘Well...come on then,’ said Jay, his voice hollow in the eerily quiet night. He nodded to me, ‘see you back at Kingston.’ They all began to head off, too tired to run, down the road and round a corner.

We sped through deserted London in total silence, taking the western route onto the M25 in order to miss out all the little, crowded roads of the city centre. I stared out the window the whole time, my hand loosely clasped around Amy’s, neither of us meeting the other’s eyes. I’d heard nothing more from Nightshade, but I didn’t know whether that was ultimately a good or a bad thing.

Right now, we just had to make it through the night.

Linzy took things slower on the way back; there was far less reason to rush. Kingston was safe; for now at least. The police were concentrating all their forces on Tottenham Court Road and the surrounding area; they may not even know a Kingston Dreamer base existed.

We had long since lost sight of Matt’s group. In fact, we hadn’t seen them since they left us at the car. Presumably, they had two cars between them, and were following each other back to Kingston. I didn’t know if they were ahead of us or behind.

We were about halfway back when my phone rang. It practically made me leap out of my seat, but I managed to answer it with fumbling fingers. It was Markus.

‘Hello?’ I said into the phone.

‘Casper.’ Markus’s tone was so severe that it made me flinch, my heart pounding. ‘Where are you?’

I glanced up to catch sight of a sign rushing past the window.

‘Close,’ I said. ‘Be about ten minutes.’

‘Casper,’ Markus repeated, his voice catching. Now, he not only sounded severe, but afraid. ‘They’ve found us.’

I froze, a lump forming in my throat. ‘What?’ I rasped.

‘The government sent some police down here too. Quite a lot of police, in fact. I had no idea they even knew we were down here, but apparently they've been watching us for some time. And they’ve forced their way in. They’ve invaded us too, only, unlike London, we were completely unprepared.’

The world came crashing down.

Judging by the horrified glances being exchanged around the car, everyone had heard. Kingston...Kingston had been invaded. Our home was crumbling and our friends were fighting for their lives as we spoke. London was terrible, but Kingston was something else.

Linzy stepped on the accelerator so hard that the car screeched forward along the motorway.
‘We’re coming,’ I said into the phone.

‘It’s no use!’ Markus said fiercely. ‘Get out while you still can.’

‘We’re coming back!’ I roared into the phone. ‘Don’t tell us to run away! This is our home!’
I hung up, and Linzy pressed down even harder on the accelerator. We had to be way over 100mph by now, pushing the car to breaking point. I didn’t care. My heart was hammering. I couldn’t breathe. Kingston had been invaded. Our home was being destroyed.

‘Casper,’ Amy stammered. Her eyes overflowed with tears, and I completely understood. It was too much for any of us to take tonight, let alone someone as unused to the situation as she was.

I put my arm round her shoulder and held her close, my insides burning with fury as I allowed the car to throw us through the country at incredible speeds.

‘Faster...’ Linzy growled. ‘Fucking hurry up!’ She slammed on the steering wheel in her frustration, pushing the speed dial to the maximum strength. It still didn’t seem fast enough.

Amy

I was genuinely beginning to wonder whether this was all a nightmare. This couldn’t be real. First London, then Kira and Phil and all the others, then Wolfie, and now our home had been invaded too. I was beginning to feel like I was going to wake up soon, and it would still be back this morning, and none of this would be real. This wasn’t reality. Even reality wasn’t this harsh.

But as we sped into the abandoned streets of Kingston, the world around us oblivious to what was going on beneath their feet, I didn’t wake up. As Linzy screeched the car to a halt and Casper practically dragged me out of my seat, I didn’t wake up. And as we sprinted down into the underground, charging through tunnels until we reached the main entrance into the foyer, I still didn’t wake up.

But the door was hanging open. And thin plumes of smoke were dancing out of the doorframe and into the underground.

People were running, screaming, and, as we stepped inside, more police officers than I thought possible were charging around, throwing people about, firing Tasers and even proper guns.

They were all fighting down the main tunnel; I could hear them. Where we stood in the foyer, we were right on the edge. We could still get out if we wanted. Most people weren’t that lucky.

‘We can’t stay,’ Dan whispered, looking upon the sight in a ghastly trance. The first of the flames licked their way up the main tunnel, igniting everything in their path, coming closer to the archway that joined the tunnel and the foyer.

‘We have to go,’ Linzy agreed, backing out of the room. Casper remained where he stood. Leah looked torn.

At that moment, a man charged out of the delirium, clutching at his face, falling to the ground as soon as he was in the foyer and away from the flames. Linzy ran to him, followed by Dan, and together they hoisted him to his feet. He staggered sideways, and Dan caught him just before he fell.

‘Zach!’ Dan cried, hoisting him back up and holding him in place. ‘What the hell is going on?’

‘Get out!’ Zach screamed maniacally. ‘Get the fuck out of this place!’ He staggered blindly in our direction, towards the door, and Linzy and Dan took one arm each, helping him out into the tunnel and away from the chaos. They were the only reason he didn’t fall over again.

That left three of us.

‘What do we do?’ I begged Casper, watching people running in all directions in the main tunnel. They were mostly ignoring the foyer; the flames were beginning to lick the door that led between the two, making it hard for anyone to get through here. How had things escalated so quickly? How long had the fire been raging, and who had ignited it? Screams and gunshots proved that there were plenty of people alive back there, but we were separated from them by the risk of going through the ever-advancing flames and not being able to get back out again. There was virtually nothing we could do.

He was scrolling furiously through his phone. I saw him click Felix and hold the receiver up to his ear. I silently prayed that they weren’t back yet; that they were still safe.

‘No answer,’ Casper said, swearing loudly and cursing the phone. He clicked Imogen next and phoned her, pressing himself back against the wall, closing his eyes and praying for her to be safe as I was.

‘Hello?’ said a fuzzy voice on the other end, the line crackling.

‘Imogen!’ Casper screamed, turning it onto loudspeaker so that Leah and I could hear it. ‘Where are you? What—‘

‘Are you back yet?’ Imogen’s voice said faintly from the other end. ‘Oh God—‘

‘We’re at the edge of the base,’ Casper replied in a low voice. ‘Where are—‘

‘Don’t come in!’ she cried. ‘Get out Casper, you have to get out!’

Casper and I looked at each other ominously. Dread swirled in my stomach.

‘Are you...inside?’ Casper whispered.

‘Yeah,’ Imogen said. ‘We arrived back before you—Matt took a shortcut. Oh God Casper, get the hell out!’

The line crackled and then went dead.

Casper staggered backwards in shock.

Leah yelled out.

‘Get down!’ she screamed, leaning suddenly out of the main door that led from the outside tunnel into the base and firing her gun repeatedly. There was a female shriek as a police officer was shot down by Leah, but then, as she turned to face the other way, I watched as if in slow motion as a policeman struck her round the face. She staggered backwards into the doorway, her gun falling to the floor beside her, and he grabbed her.

‘Leave her alone!’ I shrieked unprecedentedly, my voice rough and ragged with the force. I charged at the man, and so did Casper, who knocked him sideways—a tiny, dark haired bullet—and I helped Leah to her feet. I watched as Casper charged out of the base, firing at the man, until there was a clatter and a thud and the hailstorm of bullets stopped.

Casper clumsily staggered back in at the same time as Leah ran back out the door, pointing her gun in both directions down the underground tunnel, which was comparatively safe, to check for police arriving at the base and warn us about them.

I turned back to the wisps of smoke that were beginning to obscure the wide archway through to the main tunnel, screams still echoing along its entire length.

I saw a terrified face look out at us.