To Be A Warrior

Chapter 2: Talk Talk

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The timer of the bomb beeps away, each short sound signifying a second lost, a second until death. My breaths come out in shaky puffs as I look over to Nicole and Jody, desperate and anxious.

"Okay, we can figure this out," Jody says, more to herself than to us. "There's a bomb here reading twenty-seven minutes and counting. There's a V-Type heading up the Thames toward us. We can't evacuate the House of Commons because the Last Riders are outside firin' Molotov cocktail arrows. There must be a tactical solution." She chews on her lip for a moment. "Janine would think of one. Maybe we can diffuse the bomb really quickly. Nicole-"

"I already told you. I can't with my bad hand, and-and this bomb is more intricately made than any of the simpler ones they had me disarm at the A.M.T.B. This would require an expert in explosives."

"Steve here, expert in explosives," Steve chimes in smoothly. "Jody, I'm afraid that's a negatory on disarming it quickly."

Of course.

"Cursory look at that explosive device tells me it doesn't come with an off switch. It has a remote detonator, too. Sam, have you seen anyone carrying a transmitter with a large aerial?"

"Oh, well, like the Rider on the bike with a demon painted on it and the big aerial sticking on the back?"

"Good spot, love. That's it. Okay, Jody, Five, Nicole, good news. Those remote detonators only have a range of about twenty yards. He can blow it up at any time, but if you keep the Rider away from the bomb-"

"Of the bomb away from the Rider!" Jody interrupts, her eyes lighting up.

"You catch my drift."

"If we do that, we've got-" She glances at the timer of the bomb, "oh, lovely! Twenty-five whole minutes to work out what to do with it. Five, you grab that handle and I'll grab this one. Nicole, you keep that pistol ready just in case any Riders come along. How many bullets do you have?"

"Nine," She replies, patting the pistol strapped to her hip while Jody and I lift the bomb. I let out a little grunt. I didn't expect it to be this heavy.

"Okay. We can work with that." We start moving, and she purses her lips together in discomfort. "We're runnin' with a bomb-which is always a good idea-towards the world's end."

"Literally," I joke, although it comes out forced.

"I do mean that literally. There's a bit of west London called World's End. It's away from both the V-Types and the House of Commons. We've got to get that bomb away from here right now."

I nod in agreement, picking up the pace. The bomb is heavy and uncomfortable. It only takes a few minutes for my fingers for begin to ache, but I just use my other hand to help carry it. We can't risk dropping it. I don't want to imagine what might happen if we did.

Nicole eyes it warily, the beeping seeming to get to her just as it gets to us. I know she feels bad that she can't help, but she's smart enough to know that she only has one good hand, and it's not extremely strong since it is her non-dominant hand.

Luckily, she's a good shot. It won't slow the V-Type down if it manages to catch us, but it will definitely stop any Riders we come across. I can't hear the V-Type, or see it, but it'll find us. Things just have a habit of working out that way. We never have to worry about the danger moving away from us.

I was hoping things would turn for the better, now that Sigrid is gone and she's no longer testing on babies or creating weird fly masses to spread a fungus that kills you in less than half an hour...