The Radical (Unity Vol.1) (17 page)

‘Oh,’ he coughed, ‘right.
By the way, best breasts I have ever seen, as a doctor or otherwise.’

I smiled behind my hand with my back turned to him and chewed my lip. I couldn’t have been more horrified.
He turned and walked away and I missed him the instant he was gone.

After a recce, Ryken returned and told me he had found a vehicle so I started getting myself together. I had no energy to change, except to throw my leather jacket on top of his borrowed undershirt. I hoped the thought of my tits swinging freely would drive him nuts.

Walking past modern
as well as Tudor buildings, we trudged through litter and rubble scattered here and there, and eventually stumbled across the vehicle he had found, sat in the remnants of a garage. It was an old Nissan Aura, a puny and pathetic little shoebox of a vehicle for the likes of us to be squeezing ourselves into.

A
mazingly, there were sterile pouches of water in the back. Someone had obviously abandoned the car in a hurry – and more recently than 40 years ago. We each took one and drank with the thirst of 30.

Ryken
told me he had fiddled with the electrics to get it going but I had no faith in that ancient shit tip taking us anywhere. However, I would accept a wing and a prayer if it meant us reaching a proper bed at some stage.

‘I’ve worked on these old engines, if you’re wondering, and it’s a good job too, don’t you think?’

‘No matter how old you men get, you still need your toys, and your praise.’

‘Praise never goes amiss, it is true.
Just look back at history to all the world leaders spurred on by their ambitious parents.’

‘Fuck all it did for me,’ I retorted.

‘Me too,’ he added. ‘I mean, Mum hated me going in the Army and Dad fucked off when I was a teenager.’

‘Oh,’ I managed to say, too weary to deal with his shit on top of mine. ‘Well, anyway, let’s not celebrate anything until we get this shit heap somewhere more
civilized. Then maybe I will bow down to your mechanical skills.’

I sat in the chair uncomfortably and allowed
the seat belt to pass over my arm, feeling almost certain the vehicle would be the death of me. It was certainly a relic of another time, a jalopy of destruction!

Ryken opened a map he had
retrieved from his bag and scanned it.

‘And they thought I was an idiot for buying one of these old things. People just don’t think they can survive without their
xGens, but sometimes you have to.’

I couldn’t survive without my
xGen, it was my link to the entire world. Then I had a thought.

‘Do you think this death trap could take us as far as
London?’

‘I don’t see why not. What have we got to lose? Why
London?’

‘My aunt used to say the Ritz was the best place in
England to find anonymity. They don’t let anyone disturb their guests. And I mean,
anyone
.’

‘O
ur U-Cards would still give away our location when we check in.’

‘We just need to get there, that’s all. I can’t think of anything else.’

‘Okay, but I really don’t think I should use any of my U-Cards. They will be tracking my own for sure, and I don’t want them to know my alter-ego, you get me? Sorry to be so ungentlemanly but I might have to get you to pay…’

‘Ha. This gets better. This co
uldn’t be any more wild if we had planned this ourselves,’ I shook my head and found humor in our situation.

‘What? What is it?’

I hadn’t told him yet but this was probably as good a time as any.

‘I’m
a millionaire thanks to my aunt… though I may not be able to spend a fuckin’ cent of it the way we’re goin’.’

‘You
are
kidding, yeah?’

I
looked at him with all seriousness, explaining, ‘I am not exactly happy or pissed about it… just… whatever… it came as a shock so I clean forgot. I mean… yeah it may help us. I’ll have to find out when the funds are goin’ through, but I’m sure I can hurry the probate along. Then we’ll have no problem gettin’ out of the country. But I think it’ll be safer to call the lawyers from the hotel once we arrive in London.’

‘Err, yeah, agreed, okay then, let’s get going.’ He had to pause a few moments
longer before driving off. ‘You did say… she was a dressmaker? Yeah?’

‘It’s taken me about three days to get used to the idea too. Welcome to my bizarre world.’

With that, Ryken drove off in a daze, using only deserted country roads and farm tracks. He often looked across at me still in disbelief.

W
e inched across the landscape on the country roads but it meant not having to hit a motorway. In our shed of a vehicle, we’d have no chance on a cruise-controlled motorway. We would be dead within seconds. We made it to the outskirts of the London suburb of Watford, when the car spluttered and died. Ryken had not the energy to fix it. We could see the town in sight anyway and I reassured him I was fine to walk. The car journey had given me a chance to rest my eyes.

Even in
such a broken-down environment, we realized we looked disheveled and might draw unwanted attention if we didn’t clean up a bit. Our shoes were filthy, our hair had bits of earth encrusted in it and our pants were splattered with mud up to our knees. So we snuck into the public loos to get washed and scrub down our clothes.

I
went in the more private disabled cubicle and stripped off, splashing water on my face, underneath my arms and across my chest. I still felt half-dead from walking through sewers, sleeping rough and traversing the landscape for miles and miles in darkness. I remembered having the funeral clothes in my bag still and decided they would have to do, despite not being my usual style. So I pulled on my cream camisole and after wiping the muck off my leather jacket, I threw it back on. I discarded my trusty black jeans before teaming the purple skirt with my slightly improved biker boots. The combination seemed to work.

After freshening up and smoothing do
wn my clean-ish clothes, I went outside to see Ryken waiting impatiently. He noticed my garb and smiled, but I pretended to ignore him. Feeling slightly improved, we headed towards the rail terminal in the town.

It was a
grayish, to-the-point kind of place, but it hadn’t been as badly ruined as York had. A lot of the houses nearby had managed to stay intact, although even more had been packed in crudely wherever there existed a bit of spare land.

Arriving at t
he station, I decided whichever way we looked at it, we would have to risk using a U-Card. I got out mine and looked at Ryken.

‘Look, we have no choice, we have to try.’

‘Yeah, but once we get into King’s Cross, no doubt there will be emissaries waiting to pounce on us. It’s futile. We could try to hide amongst the crowds, but we can’t risk it. If we get caught, there really will be no chance of escape. No chance of getting out alive, even. You are not strong enough, Seraph. You need rest.’

I wanted to tell him that there would be people watching us (the resistance that is) and they would protect us. Perhaps they would pave the way, or clear a path, or something. I couldn’t let him in on my affiliation with
UNITY, not yet. We had to find faith from somewhere else.

I
paced about outside the station, wracking my brain for a safe course of action, when a thought hit. I had a scrambling device in my purse that the
Rascal
had developed. I began searching for it and slipped it into my xGen.

‘They’ll never trace this,’ I
smiled.

My device booted up but with a blank profile, the scrambling stick acting as another ID card.
Luckily I had memorized Camille’s ID, so I keyed it in and pressed call. After several seconds she answered, appearing nervous on the screen, ‘Hello?’

‘Camille, it’s me.’ There was a blackout for
a few moments. ‘Are you still there?’

There was rustling
on the other end, clunking and then she came into focus and spoke, ‘Seraph, I had to just go somewhere private. Your picture is all over the news. They’re after you and Doctor Hardy. You need to get somewhere safe and stay there.’

My hand went to my
forehead. ‘Fuck. I don’t understand, what are they saying we’ve done?’

‘They say
you’re wanted for murder.’

Ryken
looked perplexed but I thought it was better that he couldn’t quite hear the conversation over the din of the crowds passing by. He impatiently waited for an explanation nonetheless.

‘Camille, you know…’

‘Of course, you’ve done nothing. Where are you now?’

‘Fuckin’
Watford.’

Ryken sniggered, obviously having caught that.

‘Listen, I need the money and I need for you to call ahead to the Ritz for us. We’re heading there now and need some special treatment, if you know what I mean?’

‘Okay, I’ll arrange everything. Get to the
Green Park tube station. We’ll be watching. Just be careful, Seraph.’

After hanging u
p, I told Ryken we were wanted. He reacted by hitting the wall and breaking the skin of his knuckles. He was so angry; he turned a violent purple color.

‘We haven’t done anything wrong!’

I tried to calm him down. Grabbing his arms and pulling them down by his sides, I looked him straight in the eye as if to betray my similar despair. ‘We’re screwed… so we may as well risk the card.’

We checked the timetables
and found that there was a train to King’s Cross in five minutes. That would be enough time to get our tickets and get to the platform. We went to the kiosk and I scanned the card, doing so precariously, knowing such a simple action would have far-reaching consequences. Ryken’s protective hand around the nape of my neck spurred me on. Meanwhile, his eyes were darting frantically, always seeking potential threats.

I bought two day-passes
and a couple of tickets to other locations in the hope of confusing our pursuers. As soon as the tickets came out of the machine, we ran down to the platform. When the train turned up seconds later, we boarded, swiping our tickets as we embarked.

Ryken gestured for us
to head to the back of a carriage and for me to look as inconspicuous as possible. Yeah, like how was I gonna do that?

We held our
breath and kept a watch on the carriage doors throughout the journey; our hearts racing each time the train creaked to a stop at a station along the way.

When a suspicious
character started wandering toward us, Ryken turned his body to mine in my window seat, eclipsing me. Protecting me.

‘Play along,
’ he said.

I saw new intent in his eyes and it frightened me. His warm palm came up to my cheek while
his other slid its way under my skirt to grab my thigh.

‘No‒’ I tried to protest.

His mouth came down on mine and he sucked on my top lip, pulling savagely so that my flesh hit the underside of my nose. I heard the sound as he pulled back and he grunted after letting me go.

‘No?’ he countered.

I grabbed his cheeks and brought his mouth back on mine, slicing my tongue between his lips to enter his mouth. We both had terrible breath and his stubble grated. However, my blood started pumping faster than ever before. I relaxed into my chair and he took over, pressing his chest against mine, lifting my thigh into his hand to stroke the underside. Shit, I wanted to fuck him so bad.

‘Seraph, Jesus…’

When I felt relaxed, I put my arms around his deluxe shoulders, allowing him to continue kissing me passionately. My hand strayed into his hair and a thumb rubbed the edge of his ear, while my leg moved in sequence with his touch. I was almost lost to deep, sensual yearning. When he slowed down to plant a delicate butterfly kiss on my bottom lip, we eyed each other closely and I felt a seismic tremor shudder through me.

‘This cannot be happening,’ I pleaded. I looked into his eyes and saw a rich passion I wanted to find out more about.

‘I just needed some praise. That will give me enough bolster to get by with. Put your faith in me, angel.’

I nodded and gave him a smile, tugging gently on his silky hair.

When a guard started walking down the aisle, Ryken went back to assessing whether there was any danger and I merely stared out of the window as though I was just another ordinary woman on a day trip.

As s
oon as we heard over the tannoy that the next stop was King’s Cross, we stood together and he took my hand, his fingers through mine tender and reassuring.

I
began preparing myself for London – that heaving metropolis of sweaty, agitated bodies crammed into as many tight spaces as possible. There was absolutely no population control. From what I had seen on that video in York and online, the skyline was littered with dozens and dozens of tower blocks, skyscrapers and multiple recycling plants.

Room was so tigh
t people could no longer afford bathrooms of their own and had ended up having to use public baths to cleanse themselves. Most of these establishments had turned into centers for drug runners and small-time hoodlums to doss about in.

Traffic jams were never-ending, black smog left the place in perpetual darkness, and the river clung to itself in a congealed cesspit of excrement and fly-tipping.
It is going to be hell itself
, I thought. We would be lucky to escape. Lucky to survive the radioactive abyss.