Chapter 3: about the explosion
Thursday morning is fated to be a bewildered one.
John felted like he hadn't even closed his eyes for over ten minutes, but is already been told that it's time to get out of bed.
Mrs. Hudson was very excited when she heard that John had gotten himself a job, very excited. She reckoned this must be the best news she had heard in the last few months. She decided that tomorrow morning she will supervise John, so John could be his best self going to his first day of work, that way Mrs. Turner will not be starting with "Poor John" the next time they have afternoon tea together like she always did in the past.
Mrs. Hudson's tenants must be the best of the best, whether it is the old Sherlock or the John now.
Her thoughts stopped there, Mrs. Hudson was a little angry. When Sherlock was famous, everyone was so nice and welcoming to her, and after Sherlock's suicide people became colder, they even started to be a bit bitterly sarcastic.
I Mrs. Hudson finally understood, some people's good intentions are as unreliable as London's weather, maybe even worth.
So full of anger, Mrs. Hudson got up even earlier than usual today, which of course caused more pain for John.
Since he started living with Sherlock, he had always woken up when he wanted to.
The days when he had to wake up early had left John long ago, but it's very seeable that from now on he had to wake up early every day.
John lay with his eyes closed on his bed, fighting with his inner self, he doesn't know what time it is, he doesn't want to open his eyes to see the time.
But there are two things John is sure.
One: It's not yet time to get up. He specially set up his alarm last night. And the probability that the alarm clock is broken is too small.
Two: Mrs. Hudson has enough patience to wait until he gets up
Not to John's surprise, the sound of footsteps echoed by the staircase, Mrs. Hudson's energetic voice is coming closer and closer. "John, wakey wakey!"
Mrs. Hudson tip toed to the door, pushing it open little by little, "John, wakey wakey~~~" Looking inside, she saw John looking back at her with helpless eyes.
Seeing that John had already woken up, Mrs. Hudson pulled the door fully open, looking at this good boy for waking up on time and said, "Oh, John you are already up, then go take a shower, and make yourself all handsome!"
Then before John could protest, she pushed him into the bathroom, "I used to always take showers on the morning of my first day at work. Alright, get in."
With a twist of the hand, she locked the bathroom door, then humming an unknown tune, she went downstairs to prepare John's breakfast.
John struggle to find a word to describe his current feelings. He didn't understand, how did he just get pushed into the bathroom by Mrs. Hudson? He reached out to open the door to discover that it is locked.
"Oh God!" With no other way out, John gave in and turned on the shower. "It's only a shower, won't kill me."
Fog quickly took over the whole room, feeling dizzy, John seemed to have forgotten something, very important.
Kitchen
Mrs. Hudson humming her tune, placed her breakfast full of love on the table.
Looking up on the clock, it's already eight o'clock. How come she didn't see John coming down, Mrs. Hudson felt quite weird. John was always quick with his showers, but it's already been over an hour.
Mrs. Hudson felt she has the need to go check on him, placing an ear on the bathroom door, there is no water running. So she knocked, "John, are you done? Hello? Can you hear me?"
Seconds later, John's voice came from inside the door, "Mrs. Hudson, let me out!"
John remembered what he had forgotten after he finished the shower; Mrs. Hudson had locked the door! After a few attempts at getting her attention and failing, John could only place his dressing gown on the edge of the bath tub and carefully sit on it. This is the only 'dry' place he could find in this bathroom.
Outside Mrs. Hudson gasped with surprise, and tried her best to keep down the scream; Mrs. Hudson couldn't believe she made such a mistake.
"Oh, John. I am so sorry." Mrs. Hudson followed behind John, apologizing.
Keeping his trademark nice-man smile, John said to Mrs. Hudson, "Mrs. Hudson I won't blame you for such a little thing. Now is this my breakfast?"
John pointed at the maybe too fancy a plate of breakfast, trying to change the topic.
"Oh Yes, I made it especially for you." handing the cutleries over to John, Mrs. Hudson continued: "This is the energy breakfast I used to prepare for myself before I go to work, it will keep you up for the whole day."
The plate is filled with bacons, sausages, and a small piece of roast, all meat breakfast.
"Mrs. Hudson, isn't there any vegetables, like corn salad or something similar?" Eating so much meat in the morning, even if John is not a doctor, he knows it's not good for the body.
"John, veges will not give you enough energy, you are a doctor, it's a very energy demanding job!"
As she said so, she got more meat out of the pot, and placed it on the table.
Not wanting to disappoint Mrs. Hudson, John started his mission to finish all the meat on the plate.
Mrs. Hudson sitting across the table, held her chin in one hand, smiling at John, "Looking at you like this John, you are like my child."
John replied after he swallowed the meat still in his mouth, "Having a mother like Mrs. Hudson, I will be very happy."
However, Mrs. Hudson looked sad upon hearing this, she moved her eyes off John.
John could only pretend that he had put all his attention into eating breakfast. About Mrs. Hudson, he only heard something once from Sherlock, a woman needing someone else to ensure her husband's death sentence, the reason behind it must be a very tragic one.
John thought to himself.
Fighting with the last piece of meat in the place, John felt that although Mrs. Hudson still claims that she is very young, her taste had already moved towards one of an old lady, the meat she cooked are tasteless and soft. How could bacon feel like cheese?
John felt he was forced to give in to a lot of things since he got up this morning.
"John, what time are you going to work?" Mrs. Hudson's eyes fell on the clock, suddenly asking John.
"Nine, they said on my first day I don't ––" feeling Mrs. Hudson's question was quite absurd, so John also looked at the clock, and the time shocked him.
How did it go from 8 to 9 without him knowing? Even Sherlock won't do such an absurd thing!
"God sake!" Not having another heart to care about the rest of breakfast, John threw down his cutlery, ran upstairs and started to change.
That's right, because of the shower, John's still in his night gown.
He changed in a hurry and was going to run out just like that, Mrs. Hudson stopped him, "John, your wallet."
He turned around to take his wallet.
Once again going to run out, Mrs. Hudson stopped him for the second time, "John, your cell phone!"
This time John decided not to go back, "No, not taking it today. See you tonight Mrs. Hudson."
Pulling open 221B's front door, John held out his hand for a cab, not looking at his surroundings he crashed into someone.
"Sorry." John said a quick sorry as he was in a hurry to get in the cab that just stopped in front of him.
Suddenly, the person he crashed in to grabbed hold of John.
John sighed, it seemed like he crashed into a very annoying person.
Turning around, he was faced with a huge smile, and this person John is very familiar of.
"Joan, it's you?" John was a little surprised. "It's already this time, and you are not at work?"
Joan shrugged, saying, "Something good is going to happen today, no one will care."
Something good? John couldn't understand Joan's mind.
The two of them got in the cad, and drove towards St. Mary's hospital.
The good thing is, today's traffic was rather good, and once they get through Wood Street East they will be there.
John looked at his watch, maybe this won't take even ten minutes.
Wood Street East is filled with high class shops, and all kinds of banks.
The cab was stopped by a red light.
"Boom…" scary sounds like the crackers the Chinese like to light off during their new years.
The branch of Bank of Barclays on Wood Street East went off in flames along with the explosion.
The shops on either sides weren't very lucky, along with the pedestrians walking past were all affected by the explosion.
In barely a second, the old busy street had suddenly turned in a living hell.
Many people lay injured on the ground.
John without a second thought jumped off of the cab and ran towards the explosion scene. He thought that as a doctor he needed to do something.
The pedestrians affected by the explosion, John was able to check them one by one, stopping the bleeding and applying some simple first aid, the worst was only a slight concussion. Although the shops were badly affected, no one was hurt.
Thus John decided to go into the bank to check. But Joan stopped him. "John, don't go, it will be dangerous."
"At this time I don't care about danger." John escaped Joan's hold, and disappeared in the heavy smoke.
A smirk appeared on Joan's face; he took out his phone and quickly dialed a number.
The old palace like bank is so demolished that it's worth than an abandoned factory.
Smoke occupied every corner and every free space it can find, John covered his nose with his sleeve, using his other free hand as a fan, hoping to make out a clear view.
Broken glass cracked under his feet, occasionally he would step on a piece of something he doesn't want to probe into.
But thank God they are not pieces of human meat.
It was what John had originally thought, and not anymore. He finally found the workers, but they don't need his help anymore.
They are all dead.
All the people seemed to have been tied to a pillar, but unluckily when the explosion occurred, the pole collapsed and no one was spared.
The bank's main hall had four supporting pillars, John discovered that to every pillar there were people tied to it.
What about the survivors? John kept on scanning the hall for any lucky survivors.
He was going to walk deeper into the bank, but something red on the wall caught his eye. John knew it wasn't the same red as blood, it's too bright, he walked toward it to inspect.
But 'boom' once again, following this sound, John's first reflex was to rolled to the corner, only to discover the explosion wasn't in the hall he is in.
No it can't be – a very bad feeling arose in John's mind.
He ran out, and what he saw was that the Bank of Scotland is covered in black smoke; flames quickly expanded to the surrounding shops, all the workers ran from their shop screaming. More explosions came from inside this bank.
John couldn't believe his eyes. Another explosion!
Because of the two explosions, the traffic on the old orderly street was in chaos. The people on the streets are cautious with the way they walk, there are just too many banks on this street, what will they do if there is another explosion?
Plus the people that were in the other banks all ran out, Wood Street East is suddenly put in complete chaos.
John finally thought to call 999. But the moment he reached into his pocket, he remembered he left his phone at Baker Street. "Jesus!" John swore to himself.
Right this moment, Joan walked up behind John, patting his shoulder, shaking his phone, as if asking for praise, "I already called the police, and the ambulance."
He then took out two employee's cards, giving one to John, "Before the ambulance gets here, let's take the frontline for a while."
Then Joan started to direct the people to make a space, and placed the innocent bystanders wounded from the air current created by the explosion on the ground.
The sirens of the ambulances slowly became clear, and people quickly were able to see the ambulances raging towards them.
However, just before the ambulance could get to them, the explosion – like it feel the ambulance getting closer – went off again, the huge current throw one of the ambulances over. Luckily the one behind it was not affected.
With this, the situation became even more chaotic.
The police cars were stopped by the chaotic crowd, not even able to move an inch.
"John, don't you reckon this is like a game, the banks are like traps, and the people inside are like treasures. It's not that easy to move the treasures onto the cars."
Whipping off the dirt on his forehead, Joan joked with John after moving the last wounded onto the ambulance.
John was unexpectedly silent. He doesn't like this, even if he is a soldier, he found it hard to adjust.
"Come on, John. Don't be so mute." Joan pushed John, hinting him to get in the ambulance, "it's going to be busy at the hospital."
John listened this time and quickly got into the ambulance.
Due to St. Mary's Hospital being the closest hospital to the scene, like Joan said, it will be very busy.
John felt his first day at work is a bit too chaotic, he struggles to withstand it.
221B Baker Street
Mrs. Hudson held her knitting needles and sat in her rocking chair, the television is playing morning news.
The journalist stood in front of the Bank of Barclays that was hit by the explosion this morning, reporting with a very serious voice, "Everybody, this is one of the banks that was hit by the explosion on Wood Street East about half an hour ago. We can see that its old majestic look is nowhere to be seen. However this is not the only bank that was victim to the explosion on Wood Street East, there are more further down…"
Looking at the news, Mrs. Hudson remembered John have to go past Wood Street East to get to work, "I hope John is not affected by it."
"*Sigh*, the days are hard to pass, too many explosions, and the government is useless at solving it, they are just wasting the tax payers' money. They were saying people shouldn't go out alone, not they should just stay inside." Mrs. Hudson couldn't help but chattered off.
She was too focused so that she didn't notice the screen of John's phone lit up.
"I'll be back.
Ps: Please get me some dumplings.
S."
A/N: alright, sorry for the long wait, here is another chapter, Sherlock is coming back! Soon! Please R&R!