Chapter 21 : Into the White Mist Part 3

"Carl Loeb," Jim Gordon's voice spoke harshly into the three-way radio, he moved along the scattered pieces of vehicles, his weary blue eyes gazed at the unconscious officers piled on the curbs. "We need more reinforcements-Tac teams, SWATs, riot cops- get them in marks and in..."

"Woah, Gordon, all the city's riot police is on the island with you!" The Commissioner's voice buzzed through the radio.

"Every officer you sent over has been disarmed and completely incapacitated." He shifted his tense body of a lamp post, keeping his eyes locked on the darkened corners of the clusters of buildings.

Gordon's face paled as he listened to the commissioner's grim reply, " There's nobody left to send in..."

"So I'm on my own-?" Gordon answered, he was the only sane man left on the island. There was no way off the mainland, either. He looked down the street, figuring out his options. He placed a hand on his belt's hostler, and took a few heavy intakes of breath. "No one left," he muttered coldly and rubbed his hands against his face. He turned his head to the direction of Arkham, unaware of a pair of blinding headlights in the midair behind him.

The roaring engine of the Tumbler caught his attention, he turned around and watched the massive black vehicle smash through a balustrade, sending Gordon staggering back. The canopy hissed opened and Batman emerged quickly. His dark silhouette had become a demonic shape to the timid victims of the toxin. He paced forward, his long cloak dragged over the pieces of metal and glass.

"They unleashed Crane's toxin, " Gordon huffed out as Batman closed the distance between them. "Everyone on the island has been infected."

"This is just the beginning. They intend to destroy the entire city with toxin." Batman answered him with a bellowing, raspy growl.

"They've incapacitated all the riot police here on the island."

Batman's concealed hazel eyes burned under the slits of the cowl as he stared intently at the lifeless bodies of GCPD officers on the curbs. He snarled, his lips up into a scowl and spoke with grim words, "If they hit the whole city with the toxin, there is no one to stop Gotham from tearing itself apart through mass panic."

Gordon looked at the raised bridge, with a questioning gaze. "How could they do that? There's no way of giving off the island. Except-"

"They'll be using the train." Batman interrupted gravelly, glaring at the monorail tracks. Gordon stiffened his bristled jaw and listened. "The monorail follows the water mains right into the central hub of beneath Wayne Tower. They drive their machine into Wayne Station, it'll cause a chain reaction that will vaporize the entire city's water supply..."

Gordon nodded. "Covering Gotham with this poison."

Batman tilted his chin up the monorail tracks overhead., considering his options for a full minute. "I'm going to stop them loading that train..."

"And if you can't?"

Again, Batman was deathly silent for momentarily seconds. He looked at Gordon and said, with a gritty voice, "Can you drive stick?"

He tossed the ignition key to Gordon, and melted into the fog.

"Mommy?" A shuddering child's voice screamed in the shadows of a gutter. "Mommy?"

Selina watched Arkham inmates gather the bodies of riot police officers. The bone-chilling laughter of drugged sociopaths and psychopaths made her stomach churn. The area had been blocked off by turning up squad cars, smashed by mobs of the infected.

"We need to clear out of here," Rachel advised, cradling a child in her arms. Her teal blue eyes narrowed at the broken shards of glass from windshields crunching under her heels. "It's too dangerous to pull through."

"I'm going to that chance, Miss Dawes," Selina told her flatly.

"I understand that you're trying to save lives," Rachel replied, breathing a deep breath before adding. " The effects of the toxin are getting worse. We need to return to the safe house and protect the children."

Selina flinched involuntarily as the young cries of distressed echoed behind the barricade. She stared Rachel down with a piercing gleam in her eyes, "There's already enough blood split on these streets. I'm not going to allow this child to become a part of it."

She gave Rachel a nod, and vaulted gracefully over the car, landing on her stilettos. She moved silently in the fog, her brown eyes sharp and blood was pumping rapidly in her veins. She gathered her momentum and swagger, her curves to an enclosed area underneath a stairwell. The Tiny whimper of sobbing caught Selina's attention, she paused in strides and found a small child, frail in the bone shaking amidst piles trash bags.

Her face darkened instantly at the sight of fresh cuts on the girl's legs. She narrowed an infuriated gaze, fighting off the trepidation pounding in her head at the scars below the knees caused by scrapes of jagged bottle caps and curly blonde straggly hair over her bruised shoulders. Her throat closed and jaw tightened as her flaming eyes beheld the abuse of innocence.

The girl tucked her shaking arms into her chest, "Leave me alone," she stammered, voice weak.

Selina placed her gloved hand on the girl's shoulder. "You're going to be alright, sweetheart,"Selina soothed, looking into a teary blue eyes of the child. She crouched lower to her knees, silhouettes of dark figures emerged from the fog. "Take my hand," she spoke with a gentle voice, watching lines of tears roll down the child's grimy cheeks. "You're safe now... With me."

The child tentatively took a Selina's hand, and lifted her body off the trash. She swallowed, lips quivering and eyes searching the darkness. " Why did you look for me?" she chattered her teeth before adding, "No else one cared."

Selina inhaled sharply and looked at her, with a gleam of defiance in the shadows of her eyes. "I know what it's like to be a lost kitten."

The child cleared her throat, noticing a harden regret trapped within Selina's gaze. "I believe you."

Selina smiled weakly, keeping her guarded eyes sharp in the fog. "What's your name?"

"Why should I tell you," the girl replied defensively. "You didn't give me yours."

"Well played, kid," Selina twisted her lips into an impressed smirk, looking at the name stitched in pink on a threaded bracket around the girl's wrist. "You might just survive, Holly."