CH21
Was it the power of those last words that blinded him, or was it the physical things in the universe, the dead things that lay scattered about the earth like toy soldiers stuck by friendly fire? For nothing moved, nothing except his heart, it seemed, and at this rapid pace it fleeted uncontrollable and caused him to see nothing, nothing except her face.
He stumbled across Westminster Bridge and ignored the sound of the water crashing against the banks underneath. A buoy rang in the distance, but her voice was the only sound he heard, it whistled in unison with the wind and called his name.
A fog slipped in low, it passed over a lifeless SSU guard and covered the secret beneath like a dead man's shroud, though not an adequate substitute, for it revealed the face of aguish when caught in the slightest gust. V advanced. Each soldier mimicked the one previous. Their petrified hands clutched for their tormented minds--struck by agonizing, instant death. Their bodies succumbed to the mud and mire of the hospital garden that the steady rain had left in its wake.
The circular pool that had once trickled with life and water now resembled a sanctuary for a lifeless soldier that hung over the side. His head submerged in the pool, may have drowned as an effort to quell the pain.
V's steady footsteps told a story of their own. They told the story of a man, a masked man, whose inner fear now demanded a victim. One look, just one. A lifeless stare of his Evey would cause him to fall prey to this absolute fear. His footsteps fell in constant rhythm as that fear tried to hold them back; a protection to postpone what he could not bear. Then his footsteps stopped.
St. Thomas Hospital rose huge before him, an empty black hull. Once a place of hope for the ill, now bared the resemblance of a necropolis or something from a nightmare. Someone had shut off the light, or maybe it was something. For anyone who could take his precious Evey, the life, the beauty, the innocence away from him, was not human. V stood with his legs apart, his cape rode the wind. He reached into his belt, whipped a dagger in each hand, and held them low with flexed arms to reveal the threat.
Eyes watched from somewhere inside the building. He didn't have to see, he knew they were there. The mask rose from underneath the Jacobean hat in acknowledgement; the grin was now something unholy, something of a terror.
Across the garden, within the main entrance, the inner darkness loomed. He stormed inside in attack mode through the revolving doors into the reception area. To the right, the North Wing Gift Shop remained empty of any patrons, or at least any live ones, for dead soldiers inside the hospital seemed to double in amount. V stepped over them and went in further past the vacant information desk on his left. The faint emergency lighting flickered and afforded little. Shadows receded in dark corners everywhere, so he was careful to examine each possible hiding place.
The hospital morgue was on the basement floor. V swallowed hard. A lit sign read, "Lower Level" and there were steps that led downward. He went through a hallway and cautioned past multiple elevator doors. At any time, one of the doors could slide open and his assailant could burst through.
A sound echoed. V stopped. It was a small sound close by. He scanned the area, and satisfied that nothing but death lurked here, he rushed down the stairs. The landing opened to a passage that stretched in both directions. A set of swinging doors with a "No Admittance, Hospital Personnel Only" sign waited directly in front of him. This must be it; this must be where they kept the bodies. He hesitated, then pushed the doors open and wavered in.
The sound of a heartbeat drowned the stillness down here. Was it his? He swallowed again; the tightness in his throat wouldn't go away. He almost lost his footing. Was it the narcotic that affected him or was it his heart that ached for the sight of her?
A lengthy passage distorted before him with doors on either side. In front of the first door, he turned the handle and entered a dark office, it was black inside, yet he could still make out the desk and furniture. Closing the door, he went for the next. V peered into a window along the hallway that showed the deceased laying on gurneys inside. The door read "Autopsy". He opened it.
In the small available light, V could make out over a dozen bodies covered with white sheets all lined in rows. He heard himself gasp under the mask, but he had to know, he had to. One by helpless one he pulled back the covers to reveal the faces. Some he recognized, at least two-- Inspector Finch and then…Dominic. He shut his eyes for a moment of silence. The others he did not know, but the task was not yet complete. He held his breath for another and reached for the cover.
Someone coughed, not in here, in the other room next to this one. There it is again! V bolted for the sound and stopped in the adjacent room doorway.
"Evey?"
"V?" Her low voice muted. "Is that you?" She scrambled.
"Evey! Evey! I'm here! You're alive!" His voice cracked as he put his mask against a cold steel door. "You're alive!" Evey was behind it, trapped in a cell once more. A rush of relief flushed though his body and he slid to his knees, his hat fell to the floor. She coughed deep and throaty. The rasping sound of her breathing frightened him.
"Evey, are you alright?"
"Oh, V!" she cried, "I should have done what you told me. I should have stayed and waited for you. It was an accident."
"Shh! Don't concern yourself with that now Evey my love." His gloved hands were flat on the door as if they could defy the laws of physics and touch her.
"It was so dark in that tunnel! I was so scared! I called out to you and I couldn't see anything! It was so black in there. Like death."
Death? Yes, my beloved Evey, yes, it's like death, and I would have taken you there my love, I would have taken you there.
V surrendered and leaned his back against the door, his eyes shut tight. He would do anything to let her know the secrets of his life and death, of the things that he experienced. He wanted her to know them as well as he did. Fears release…death, all of it. He would have showed her everything.
Silence.
"V?"
"I'm here Evey."
"V, listen to me," she pleaded, "He's out there."
"Who?"
Just then, a laugh cackled though the hospital speaker system. No, it wasn't a laugh, it was more like the shake of a rattlesnake's tail. It seemed to echo from everywhere, like he was listening.
"He's out there."
"Stay here, Evey." He said distracted, for he knew she wasn't going anywhere. "I'll come back for you."
"Be careful!"
He stood and put his hand out behind to silence her as he faced the enemy. A Marine, in all probability armed and trained in survival and combat, now daunted him. Four thousand marines seemed trivial now compared to the one that hid and mocked him in the shadows.
Through the entrance door of the autopsy lab, and out into the long corridor, V moved forward. Different office doors passed on either side of him. Dead soldiers grew in number down here as V looked into an office opening and understood the reason why.
Computers and communication systems, tracking equipment filled the room. Voices from the other side asked for a response, then hissed static between. The lack of life here could only have one meaning: there would be more SSU coming. They would never stop. The force would be much more powerful than before, a scourge that would sweep through England like no other, in pursuit of them. They didn't have long, a few hours.
More laughter.
The voice sounded closer. V rushed towards the laughter to a reception area and ambulance receiving dock. Cold air penetrated through light swing doors and shuffled papers on a desk, a telephone left off the hook made a busy signal. He was here, as were more dead soldiers. Their bodies coiled and twisted in misery, with eyes rolled into the back of their heads. V pursued with caution, slower this time. This soldier was playing a game, waiting for something, a moment of disadvantage for his kill. Like any animal regarded as prey, this waiting, this expectation distracted V, and yet, it put him on alert. This marine had set the stage confusing the victim by roaring to the ground the way a lion would. Clever. He's in here somewhere.
Something crashed in the direction of the autopsy lab. An instant and V was again at the lab entrance. A metal pushcart lay on the lab floor turned over on its side, the instruments were scattered. V stepped over and went to the large metal door in front of the cell that held Evey. He removed the clip from the handle and pulled the heavy door.
Evey looked up at him from the floor. In this light, her face appeared pale and ashen.
"V." She cried as he bent down to hold her shivering half-naked body.
Her arms went around him as he removed his cape and wrapped it around her. V gestured his gloved finger in front of his mask, advising her to stay silent. He then lifted her and carried her out to the corridor. After looking both ways, they went toward the exit.
Evey's body stiffened. She shrieked. "V!"
V turned.
A corpse came alive on the floor and aimed a pistol. A shot fired.
They shifted to avoid the onslaught. Evey dropped to the ground as V whipped two daggers and flung them at the soldier, hitting him in the shoulder and forearm. The gun flew out of his hand. He cried out with a loud shrill. V raced over to the soldier and landed on top of him, pinning him to the floor. The two struggled. V gave the soldier two defeating blows to the head. He then lifted a dagger with both hands above and wavered.
It was the soldier's face that caught his attention, or the lack thereof. Blackened charred skin surrounded light blue eyes that stared at him with hatred. Pins and needles crawled up his spine as he wrestled within to remove the horror of this vision. V yelled out as he plunged the knife down into the marine with a power that brought instant death with it. Scurrying off the body, V sat and leaned against a wall while he caught his breath.
Evey lay on the floor with the cape draped over her. She appeared so fragile in the darkness. She smiled and then V crept to her.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
She nodded and closed her eyes.
"We don't have very long Evey. We can't stay here." He carried her in his arms and secured the cape around her for warmth. With the detonator in his tunic, they ran up the stairs and then to the outside of the hospital entrance. V stopped for a moment, removed the detonator from his tunic, and dropped it on the grassy ground. With Evey in his arms, there was no way he could exercise his plan effectively. His vendetta still needed some finishing preparation.
Past the circular pool to a lush patch of ground, he laid Evey on her back. V then started back for the detonator, and noticed moisture on his tunic as he walked. Searching himself, he stopped to locate any wounds underneath his clothing; there was nothing, nothing on him.
He turned back at Evey's slumbering body a few meters away.
V raced over to her frantically searching and removing the cape as he cried out with irony. It was then he found the bullet hole. The bullet had gone into her abdomen through the other side, causing the massive amount of blood that soaked through the cape.
His head lifted again and looked toward the patchy grass where he dropped the detonator. A fleeting, a moment, just a moment. His vendetta. No. He couldn't forget it, the brilliant idea that he had to win, and yet, the thought of her kiss before he went down that darkened tunnel and the choices he made. He chose death over her--he chose to die. Then he danced with her once more and gazed into her eyes, marveling at how they captured the flickering candle light. His hand extended to her in that alley and the wonderment overpowered him. What would her love would be like? Her embrace, her touch…it lingered as if he could still feel its sensation. Her voice, "I don't want you to die," burned his heart with regret. That dreaded choice caused him to freeze once again, his vendetta or his precious Evey, for if he went for that detonator, she could die.
He bent down lifted her head with his hand and holding her in his arms and whispered, "Evey." Stupid, stupid stupid!
Her eyes opened to look at him, her expression conveyed understanding and knowledge. She smiled and opened her mouth to speak.
"No. Evey don't talk my love. It's my fault. I'm so sorry." He grimaced under the mask the tears stung his eyes. "I'm so sorry." He looked to the sky.
"It's like bricks in your stomach."
"What?" V moved in closer. Evey shook her head and the strength on her face told him not to fear.
"Mum said love. It's like bricks in your stomach." She smiled again and then closed her eyes and went slack.
"No. No. No." V held her close and rocked her.
He ripped his mask off wailing in frustration, kissing her soft skin to quench the longing and feel her warm face against his. "You can't leave me. I won't let you leave me! EVEY!"
Enraged he picked her up and ran, carrying her to fight a different battle, an endless war that waged on and on with the greatest enemy of mankind, death.