Forgotten People

Chapter 5 – Signals

About 130 miles from where the young survivors were staying, the city of London was in ruins, even after a fortnight. Buildings had crumbled, fires were spreading, and dormant dead roamed the streets. The main dreadfulness though was that Big Ben had fallen, striking a major blow to Britain’s tourism, if it ever returned.

In a still, barely-standing building in Westminster, a couple of MI6 Operatives were searching for any signs of life or power in Britain’s crumbling remains. Just outside the barricaded door of the office were a couple of creatures clawing to get in.

“Find anything yet?” one of them asked, hammering a nail into the supports.

“Bah, nothing. There’s a few clusters here and there, but nothing major.” The main agent replied, scanning through the map of Britain. Any dots on the map indicated some sort of life, physical or electrical. There weren’t many, but there were a few scattered around and a large cluster in St Ives. But then a loud beeping went off.

“Shut that thing up! You’ll have the whole city on us!” the hammering one hissed as the clawing got louder and faster. The main agent shut off the ear-piercing noise. A large dot covered the small town of Quorndon.

“What’s this? There’s a ton of energy in this small village here!” the main agent pointed out, shoving his finger onto the dot, “We need to check this out, it could be the source of power that we need to survive!” they both nodded in agreement.

“But…how are we gonna get there? You know, this door and all.” The hammering one asked in uncertainty.

“Just grab a shotgun off the wall and get ready to spray. Come to think of it, why didn’t I think of that earlier?” the main agent asked in reply. The other smacked his head into his hand as he trudged over in boredom.

***

“Will you hold the damned board steady?” Josh snapped at Oliver. Oliver sighed and pushed against the board harder to support it.

“Sorry Josh. I’m so tired, that watch I did last night really ripped my energy out of my body.” Oliver replied in mild stress. Josh waved the talk away and continued to barricade the windows. In the meantime, Alec had finally convinced Rainbow Dash to start using guns. Luckily, the ones they were practising with were silenced to stop any unnecessary attention.

As Rainbow Dash took her first shot, the kick of the gun made her jolt, dropping the gun in the process.

“You alright?” Alec asked, picking the gun up.

“My hooves hurt Alec. I don’t like this.” She whimpered.

“Come on Dashie, at least try to hit the target?” Alec pleaded with her. Rainbow sighed and took the gun out of his hands and lined up again. This time her shot went through the ‘7’ marker on the target.

“Good effort Dash, for a second shot that’s some good accuracy.” Alec smiled. Dash smiled back.

“Thanks Alec. I’m  starting to get used to these…I guess.”

“Just keep that one with you. You know, just in case.” Rainbow nodded and slotted the gun into a small holster around her waist. They walked back up to the top of the garden where Hamish was carrying some wood to a small pile he was making.

“What are you doing?” Alec asked. Hamish gritted his teeth.

“There’s been a power-cut to the house.” He quickly stuttered.

“What?!” Dash shouted in disbelief. Hamish continued.

“Don’t worry Rainbow, it’s only a minor one. Cami can actually fix it, but it’ll take a day. So for tonight, I’m making a fire for warmth.”

“Not a bad idea actually. Need any help?” Alec asked. Hamish shook his head in a friendly fashion and kept working. The silence in the atmosphere was almost creepy. There wasn’t the smallest piece of background noise anywhere, and the only breaking of the silence was the sound of breathing.

Not for long.

Without warning a car pulled up in the front drive covered in congealed blood and dried dirt. Then out of it stepped two MI6 agents, each armed with shotguns. They breached the front door and scanned the room for any signs of life. They encountered Oliver and Josh, and pointed their guns at them.

“Get on the ground, hands on head.” The main agent ordered. The teenagers obeyed and got on the floor slowly. Then Hamish burst in with a knife in his hands with a threatening look.

“Who the hell are you? And why are you here?” Hamish demanded, his fist keeping a sharp grip on the knife. It was now that the guns were turned to him.

“Drop your weapon. We don’t want any trouble.” The second agent ordered. Hamish lowered his fist slightly, but didn’t let go.

“I said drop it!” The agent spoke again. Hamish lowered his fist again, but still didn’t drop it. It was now that one of them shot at his hand, spitting the blade out of it in the process while causing a hole in his hand. He gripped the wound, stopping any fluids escaping or entering it. It was now that Luna ran in to help him.

“Hold still Hamish, this won’t take long.” Using her magic, she healed up the missing flesh and disinfect anything that needed it. The two agents lowered their guns and pointed at Hamish.

“We need to chat to you. It’s very important.” Alec came inside with his gun in his holster with Dash trailing behind. They pointed at him too.

“You, come with us too. We need to talk.” Alec raised an eyebrow, but Hamish shook his head before his friend said anything. With reluctance the four stepped into the hall.

“We’re from M16, down in Westminster, London. We understand that there is a large power source being transmitted from this exact location. We believe that your horse is transmitting that signal.” Hamish clenched his fists in anger at the word ‘horse’.

“She’s not a horse for your information, she’s an alicorn. What’s she got to do with you?” he demanded.

“We need to examine her further, see if she truly is the source of power we need to help this country get on its feet again. Dissection if necessary.” This enraged Hamish further.

“You think you can just waltz in here and say, ‘Oh hey, I’m gonna stick a knife in your best friend to see her innards!’ That’s sick and horrid!” Luna was listening in horror outside of the door, with Rainbow Dash trying to calm her down.

“Right!” Alec spoke for the first time, “It’s clear you both have your demands. So I’ve got an idea on how to settle this.” He finished, taking out a pebble from his pockets.

“Now, I’ve got a pebble in one of my hands. You will both guess which hand its in. If you guess correctly, we all do what you say. If you don’t, then we do what the other says. Agreed?” Everyone nodded. Alec put his hands behind his back and shuffled.

“Hamish?” Alec asked. Hamish just stared blankly at the two arms. How was he mwant to know which one was right? But then he noticed something. Alec was looking to the left , observing a crack on the wall. Then his eyes dunked down twice very quickly. Could it be Alec was communicating with him?

“Left.” Hamish guessed.

“So you’re right?” Alec told the agent. He nodded. Alec held out his arms and opened both of his hands.

Left.

The agent grunted in anger, knowing he’d lost the bet. Alec put the pebble back in his pocket.

“Right, Hamish was right, so you two have to leave.” Alec firmly said. Then one of the two whipped out his gun and threatened Alec with it.

“Give us the fucking horses or we’ll kill everyone in this house.” He hissed. Alec took a step back, not reaching for the gun in the holster. Things were already bad enough.

“Well?” they both ordered? Alec and Hamish both shook their heads.

“You’re not taking them.” Hamish shouted. The gun was now lined up at his head, square between the eyes. Hamish didn’t show any aggression, he was ready to die if necessary.

“Fine then, you lose kid.” He sneered, clicking the hammer. But then, two gunshots smashed through the glass of the door, killing both of the agents. Alec turned to see who had done this. It was Rainbow Dash, with tears welling in her eyes. She dropped the machine in her hooves and ran to her friend, who opened his arms.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” She sobbed into his shoulder. Alec embraced the Pegasus gently.

“It wasn’t your fault.” He tried to reason with her, but she shook her head.

“Shooting someone alive...It’s not like a target, or a creature.” She sobbed again.

“It never should be Dashie, it never should be.”