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  It hissed twice into his mouth,

  ‘Higgins said I don’t really need this.’ Allen said showing the inhaler to Cameron,

  ‘That thing still in date?’ Asked Cameron search through a desk draw for some sugar filled sweet that wouldn’t go bad. Allen looked at the label.

  ‘Twenty-ten,’ he looked up to Cameron,

  ‘That bad?’ worry filled his face, more than usual. He tried to spit it out, with no success, he breathed heavily to clear his chest and patted himself down, without thought he pushed the inhaler into his pocket. Cameron kept pulling draws from desks, leaving them open as he went, though Allen kept closing them as he went around.

  Cameron wasn’t sure what he was looking for but knew he’d know when he found it, sadly he never found it. Once the clanging of draws finished and both Cameron and Allen had finished looking, from above the sound of weeping still poured through the sealing.

  ‘Outside?’ Cameron asked pointing to a green fire exit, Cameron hated to hear women cry, it was one of those things he couldn’t comprehend and had to stock reaction to tears.

  The door clicked open which sent a ringing alarm through the building, which quickly died out due to lack of upkeep.

  The night was brisk and icy, the land around the little red building with its huge bell tower where the vases stood uniform inside had become a mass of white and green and glinted in the moon, cracked coffins for those that thought they’d live forever.

  Cameron was the first to step out into the cold world outside, the cold didn’t affect him, probably because the protein that stopped him from dying in those chambers, was still cycling through his system. Allen stepped out shortly after, he rubbed his arms with vigor.

  ‘It’s freezing,’ Allen pretended to shiver, the protein was still in his system, he pulled at the thread from his sweater. He coughed and pulled out the inhaler.

  ‘should you?’ Cameron said pointing at the little blue tube, Allen offered up for Cameron to take the inhaler. In a swift movement, it was out of Allen’s grip and was flying through the air with some speed.

  The weeping had stopped now, or at least the two couldn’t hear it any longer. A hoot of an owl cleared a nearby tree of wood pigeons which all flew in random directions and regrouped in the air. Allen pulled at his beard. With it he looked much older than the twenty-seven-year-old Cameron guessed he had to be,

  ‘we probably should have shaved.’ Commented Cameron pulling at his own gently to show its length. They were resting on a green handrail that wrapped itself around the building. both stared out into the world, clouds poured over the white moon thinning out the light.

  ‘How’d you get in here?’ Cameron wondered aloud, Allen didn’t turn his head, just stared blankly into the world he wouldn’t understand anymore.

  ‘I made some bad jokes, then I made some bad choices, not exactly the most exciting story I’m sad to say.’ He said as his head sank low, ‘You know, I think you’re the first to ask me since I got frosted you know?’ his naively New Yorker accent came out most heavy when he said the words you know. He rubbed at the bridge of his nose and pulled at its fat base, pushing his glasses back onto his face.

  ‘Oh?’ Sighed Cameron, ‘there a rule against it?’ he scoffed.

  ‘Nah, we get told what each person has done as they join, just in case we want to avoid certain people you know? A guy of my religious disposition wouldn’t want to buddy up with someone of an SS leaning.’ He explained, not phased that he was talking to, as far as he knew, a killer.

  ‘So you know why I’m,’ Cameron Trailed off, as Shields put his hand on his shoulder.

  ‘The doctors said you didn’t do it, a lot of us have made a history of listening to them.’ The crying had stopped from above and had done for some time now, there had been some creaks and doors slamming as the two talked and now the two others came out, Mary’s face was stony but now she’d stopped crying she was rather attractive with pink pursed lips and black flowing hair, her milky skin really made them stand out more so.

  She itched her face under her eye, Cameron noticed this but didn’t understand why. From behind, stepped Simon, he had changed into his normal red velvet smoking jacket and loose brown woolen pants.

  ‘What are you two rapscallions chitchatting about, not me I assume?’ Simon said pulling out a pipe from his pocket and a small pouch, opening the leather envelope he poured out its content, which was a mix of black pipe tobacco and white mould. With disgust on his face, Simon emptied the pouch and returned the pipe to his pocket.

  ‘I think I saw some beers in a rusted fridge, I’ll be back in two seconds,’ Simon left with haste and the three stood in silence, two seconds passed then a handful more and Simon returned with three brown bottles.

  One was handed to Allen another to Mary who placed it still capped next to her feet.

  ‘Perhaps not for you Mr. Bishop,’ Simon said, this is the point at which Cameron noticed that Simon had shaved, he looked at him quickly than thought nothing of it.

  Even Simon knew.

  ‘Gravestones?’ Allen said without reason, which shot silence through the group, ‘What did you guys get put on your stones?’ he changed his wording, being none of them had real graves.

  ‘Why?’ Cameron asked watching other people suck on beers, he missed the fizz of it washed through his mouth.

  ‘Not many people get to choose their own words, you didn’t have a little fun with it?’ explained Shields trying to twist the top off his beer even though they weren't twisted tops.

  ‘I didn’t get to choose.’ Cameron answered looking at Simon,

  ‘Nope me either.’ Replied Simon,

  ‘Mine were, Allen Shields, Husband, Father, Comedian, but no body’s perfect.’ Allen offered up his answer.

  ‘Ah ha, very clever.’ Barked Simon, Cameron joined in with the slight laughs Simon had given.

  ‘I don’t get it,’ Mary said not thinking about people’s nerves.

  ‘No, I didn’t expect you too.’ Allen replied still pulling at his beer top, Cameron without asking had taken it from him, bit off the small cap and gave it back to Allen.

  ‘A trick from my road days.’ He explained. More people smirked at that than anything Allen had said. The one problem that arises when you take a group of famous people and put them together is the fact they are famous and crammed together, which is to say that most of the time people only become famous because they like to be the center of attention, you can’t have a centre of attention if everybody is trying to be in the center of it.

  People laughing at other people made Allen uncomfortable, that was his thing, even if it did make him upset a little when people did laugh at him, he’d got used to that feeling.

  After the short burst of laughter, silence fell, which allowed the two which still hadn’t shaved to sneak off and do so. First Cameron left without a word, this didn’t seem to make any difference and a half silence still fogged through the camp, then Allen left. This gave Simon some time to check how Mary was holding up.

  ‘I’m fine now. I’m sorry, I know it wasn’t my doing but I should have seen something like this coming.’ Mary explained in the stern upper lip way she said everything.

  ‘You put a failsafe in, you did all you could and thanks to you the four of us are still here.’ Comforted Simon, stretching out his bad leg, he hadn’t found his cane yet which made walking a struggle but sitting down a chore of stretching his muscles.

  ‘I know.’ She put her head down in silence, he was right, there was little else she could have done.

  After a couple of minutes, the boys returned clean faced, although Allen had small pieces of paper with red centers all over his face, he’d obviously been quite clumsy with the blade. He gave a soft grin and sat back down on the small square of wall resting his head against the green handle. Allen looked up.

  ‘Mr. Pratchett’s joke and amusement factory.’ Allen scoffed, nobody had noticed that Somnus wasn’t just out in the open.
r />   ‘Huh, who’d have guessed.’ A chilled breeze blew through the surrounding woods which now had overgrown into a thick nest of hoots and scurries.

  ‘Perhaps we should go inside, see what we can do in the morning.’ Simon suggested, pulling Mary to her feet, even though he was unsteady on his own.

  ‘You’re probably right.’ She replied holding him in a way which helped him walk but looked natural. The four of them walked through the fire doors, Cameron closing them as they did.

  The night was unforgivingly cold, once the protein had worn off and they could feel it again, searching through, the place they’d found enough bits and bobs to create a nice set of beds for themselves. Mary, being a lady among gentlemen, was given the only sofa the building had. Allen had crafted a bed from three-fold up seats he’d found on the second floor, which were two uncomfortable to sleep on, the other two had settled for the floor to the bed.

  ‘Do you think people are still out there?’ questioned Allen, as he lay raised from the ground,

  ‘Like has anything changed hugely? Or has nothing moved on at all, when I was frozen till the last wake up, nothing had changed but, like, everything had changed.’ Allen explained.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Cameron asked, from when he froze to him being defrosted nothing had really changed at all, even the prime minister was the same.

  ‘When I was frozen, like three people had colored televisions when you were frozen there was so many colour TV’s people were throwing them out of hotel windows.’ Allen explained what he meant.

  ‘I was asked to do that once, we were on tour in America, they guy behind the desk signs us in, and says, “could you guys do us a favour, if you feel like roughing the place up, go for it, just do what you feel like.” We tried to explain we weren’t that kind of band, and we’d been traveling all day and just needed to sleep. The manager wanted us to wreck the place so he could get the hotel in the paper.’ Cameron was now leaning up from his make shift bed, all the others were listening intensely to the story.

  ‘Our drummer, Spike, he went in the bathroom and snapped a toothbrush.’ The group were a little let down by the story, understandably.

  ‘His name wasn’t really Spike, was it?’ Simon asked,

  ‘no, it was Bill, but bill isn’t a very rock and roll name.’ Cameron rolled over onto his side. The seats under Allen creaked as he did the same. Mary was already fast asleep, Cameron lay completely still but couldn’t really get to sleep, something or someone coughed behind him. A restless creak echoed behind him, another cough burst his ear drums.

  ‘You okay man?’ asked Simon to Allen.

  ‘yeah just feeling a little wheeze coming on.’ He replied sitting up in his chairs.

  ‘I’m going to go out and get that inhaler.’ The seats croaked as he stood up.

  ‘Need help?’ Cameron asked sitting up holding himself up with his arms which shook under the weight of his body, they still weren’t at full strength.

  ‘I should be fine. It couldn’t have gone far.’ Shield replied as the door shut behind him. The cold wind swept through the facility and immediately fell away.

  Dredd filled Cameron, he didn’t know why it was one of those feelings you get in your gut for no reason. It could have been hunger.

  ‘We should probably go somewhere tomorrow, try and find someone to talk to about all of this,’ Simon said after a couple of seconds of silence.

  ‘Get some food.’ Added Cameron patting is flat stomach as he said it. A couple of seconds of silence, the two remaining men shuffled around on their backs.

  ‘Em guys,’ A muffled voice sounded from outside. Allen sounded stressed, Cameron bounded up from the hard floor, he skidded around a bit while his socks tried to find traction and sprinted to the door.

  The green steel door swung open with effort, outside a shaking Allen stood half bent over and completely still other than the shaking which he couldn’t help.

  ‘There’s somebody out here,’ his nasally voice was barely audible, being he spoke from the corner of his mouth in a cartoonish fashion. A chill ran up Cameron’s back, the logic part of his brain told him it was the frosty air running up it, whereas the lizard parts that he couldn’t out evolve told him something odd was happening.

  ‘They’re in the woods.’ Allen mumbled as he slowly turned his head. Cameron looked around as he began taking tiny steps forward, knees bent he tread on. Nothing was out here other than Allen and the small blue piece of plastic in his hand, he’d found his inhaler then, Camron thought to himself.

  ‘Hey Allen, just come inside.’ Beckoned Cameron, something moved in the corner of his eye, a rustle of leaves, probably nothing he told himself as he stepped closer and closer to Allen. The leaves crunched under his feet, that’s all he cared to think about the crunching leaves, compartmentalising, focusing on small things so big things weren’t as scary. Cameron’s drug program sponsor had explained it to him. There was a huge click and a glint of red among the trees.

  Cameron stepped closer until he could put a hand on Allen’s shoulder, he was boiling hot, steam poured from his back even on a night as cold as it was.

  ‘There’s somebody out there.’ Allen whispered again.

  ‘I fucking know that.’ Cameron spoke so fast that a whole sentence became a single word.

  ‘What can we do.’ Shield said from his nose. Americans had a great knack for butchering the English language.

  ‘Slowly we get up. Like we haven’t noticed and head back.’ Suggested Cameron.

  ‘I think they know we’ve noticed we’ve been playing statues for ten minutes now.’ Allen gently rose. Cam rose with him with his hand on Allen’s back he could steadily move at the same pace.

  ‘I said don’t move!’ a voice yelled, it sounded grave and masculine.

  ‘Did he say don’t move?’ asked Cameron to Allen.

  ‘No, I don’t think he did.’ Allen replied.

  ‘We don’t think you did.’ Yelled Cameron in an Omni-direction being he had no clue where the voice came from.

  ‘Well, maybe I just thought it. But still, don’t.’ The voice echoed.

  ‘I say we sprint for it.’ Cameron mumbled.

  ‘No fucking way.’ Shield replied.

  ‘Three’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Two’

  ‘No’

  ‘Run.’ Then there was a silence, one which lasted years freezing both then like they’d been frozen many times before. There was a ringing in Cameron’s ear which slowly arose from nothing. Then without a sensible reason, there was a huge weight in his arms, the full body weight of Allen collapsing back. The ringing in Cameron’s ears rose and rose till it couldn’t get louder.

  Than normal audio resumed as footsteps echoed through his mind.

  In the seconds, which now escaped him something had happened Allen and Cameron had both found themselves on the leave trodden ground. Cameron on his knees while Allen lay flat on his back. He was bleeding.

  ‘For fuck's sake, I’ve been shot.’ Allen screamed. Cameron had blacked out and now the worlds had begun to vignette as he stared at Allen’s blood pouring from him with no sign of stopping.

  ‘Urgh.’ Cameron said before collapsing by Allen’s side.

  Everything was black and cold at this point Cameron was very used to being in the dark and cold to the point that everything else became unnatural to him. After what felt like seconds but turned out to be thirty minutes the pure black became the orange black you get when you close your eyes on a sunny day. The cold went away also but that slowly seeped out of and away from his skin.

  Every so often a leg walked past or a face would glimpse through his eyelid, but other than that the darkness felt like home.

  Chapter 5

  A great stench burnt at Cameron’s nostrils, the world was glazed like he was looking through frosted glass. The smell which still lingered even now had come from something which looked like a stubby pen Simon had pushed back into his pocket.

&n
bsp; ‘Dreadful stuff I know.’ Simon said, licking the left side of his moustache as he finished talking.

  A large clear sheet lay beside Cameron. It did a terrible job of hiding its content and he could tell that it’s content wasn’t breathing either. Allen Shield lay completely still under his clear cellophane coffin. Eyes closed, small smudges of blood framed his face and made the dents in his cheeks more apparent.

  ‘I did everything I could.’ The posh feminine voice which belonged to Mary said from behind him.

  ‘I’m sadly not that kind of Doctor.’ She explained.

  ‘Don’t go blaming yourself there miss. None of this is your doing.’ Simon rushed over given her a huge squeeze, this created mild despair in Mary’s face. She wasn’t pleased to be hugged by anyone but her husband, even if he did it infrequently.

  ‘Thank you, but none of the blame resides on my behalf anyway. I wasn’t the one to cut through three major arteries with a brass and copper bullet.’ She moved herself away from Simon and towards Cameron, being he’d not shown her any affection so far, which she was glad of.

  ‘What happened to him?’ By this point, Cameron had sat up. He’d found himself on the fold up bed Mary lay on.

  ‘Could you not cover him with a white a sheet or something?’ Cameron asked, looking over at the body which now lay on the floor. An odd sensation ran over Cameron. The feeling you get when you see somebody you’ve talked to, and now know you’ll never speak to them again.

  Allen Shield was that now, just flesh and bone without a soul.

  ‘A clear sheet was all we could find.’ Mary said washing her hands with water which had been in the pipes for much too long.

  ‘Maybe we should move him though. We can’t just be leaving him, laying in the middle of the room.’ Suggested Simon as he moved around and sat next to Cameron, over the body.

  ‘What for?’ Mary asked.

  ‘I don’t want to be stepping around Shield every time I come through here.’ He explained.