Dying to be Cured – VIII

Dying to be Cured is set in a modern-day Britain where the Roman Empire still rules. Dai and Julia take on a fight against institutional corruption whilst dealing with the demands of family, friendship and domestic crises.

Just as she slid from the bed, the room was filled with the screaming of klaxons, immediately followed by sound of running feet. Gwen turned a startled face to her.

“Don’t worry. If I’m not very much mistaken, that’s our boys.”

 On the heels of her words the door burst open and a man fell heavily into the room with a neat hole in the back of his head. Gwen gasped and a familiar voice called softly.

“Julia. You in there?”

“We are. Safe and sound.”

Edbert  came in and behind him, filling the doorway, Julia saw Gallus keeping an eye and a weapon levelled on the corridor. It was he who now spoke.

“We need to get you out of here. There’s been a development. Your man’ll explain later. For now, we need to get moving. There’re a lot more security people here than we expected.” 

Gwen had started shivering. “It’s just the drugs,” she said stoutly, “I got given an injection about twenty minutes ago and it’s making me feel very odd.”

Edbert grabbed the thick blanket from the bed and wrapped her securely.

“Okay, I get to carry the lady.”

Gallus nodded. 

“Domina Julia, will you take point? I’ll have the rear. There’s some fighting in the corridor but it’s mostly the other end.”

Julia nodded just once. Taking her gun in one hand and the nerve whip Gallus held out to her in the other, she stepped cautiously into the corridor. She could only wonder how the temple shrine had become some kind of armed compound without anyone noticing until now. Having checked the way was clear she beckoned the others to follow her. “Come on.” 

It was not too far to the big double doors by which she and Gwen had entered the complex so she decided that was to be their way out. Almost immediately they set off there was the sound of running steps and a man in security guard uniform bore down on them screaming obscenities, nerve whip in hand. Julia dropped him with a head shot, his brains spraying the wall behind him. 

The quartet kept moving, with Julia checking each room they passed was either empty or held only a sleeping supplicant. A couple of times, she heard running feet from behind, but knew Gallus to be more than capable of dealing with any threats from that direction. When they rounded the dogleg turn before the doors, two shaven-headed men, wearing the tabards that marked them out as security and armed with nerve whips, barred their way. 

“Move,” she demanded. “Move or die.”

The two men looked at each other and moved. Only they moved towards her. Fast. Nerve whips gripped in clawed hands and faces of fury. Julia knew she couldn’t hope to down them both before they reached her. But her assailants counted without Gwen who still had the tranq pistol.

She shot them.

She shot completely without science, or much in the way of aiming skill.

And she didn’t just shoot once, she emptied both the magazine and the cylinder of compressed air that operated the gun.

The two guards recoiled at the ferocity of an attack from what must have felt like an army of stinging insects, and before they had chance to recover their wits they staggered back and slumped to the ground as the drug in the darts took effect.

“Unconventional. But effective,” Gallus grunted from behind. “Domina Julia. Mind the corridor please, while we get these doors open.”

Julia did as she was bid, listening with half an ear to Gallus’ creative swearing while she watched for attacks from behind. There were none, and then she felt Edbert’s huge hand in the small of her back.

“Inside the nearest room please, Gallus is doing a plastic job on the door. Seems it has a central locking system with no manual override.”

They had just stepped inside when Gallus joined them and pushed a button on his wristphone. There was a flat crack, and he looked around the door jamb.

“That’s done it,” he told them, and Julia could hear a thread of boyish glee in his voice.

Out in the corridor once more she could see why. The lovely ornate doors were completely splintered and there was nothing left except an irregularly shaped hole. 

As they moved towards the now unguarded entrance, a familiar stocky figure appeared in the aperture.

“Is Gwen all right?” Bryn could barely keep the worry from his voice.

“I’m fine. Just a bit wobbly-legged, so young Edbert is giving me a lift.”

Bryn strode forward and peeped inside the warm cocoon that sheltered his wife.

“Well he can carry on carrying you. You’re much too fat for me to hump around.” But even as he spoke he kissed her with a tenderness that all but brought Julia to her knees. Before anybody else could speak, Dai appeared and swooped his wife off her feet, kissing her soundly before setting her gently back on the ground.

“Can’t stop. We need to make sure we have all those involved. Edbert will take you home and I promise to fill you in as soon as we’re done here.”

He kissed her once more before grabbing Bryn and leaving at a run. Gallus didn’t wait on the social niceties and pushed past to rejoin his men who were running to secure the inside and the outside of the building.

Dying to be Cured by Jane Jago and E.M. Swift-Hook first appeared in Gods of Clay: A Sci Fi Roundtable Anthology.