Carrying on the story with part 6. If you’ve missed the others, never fear. Here they are…
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
He looked vaguely unimpressed considering we were identical people – well aside from the fact that he carried a little bit more weight around the middle.
He looked me up and down, from head to toe. Then he lifted his hand to my jaw and roughly pushed my head to the left and then the right. ‘Not bad.’ he said.
‘He’s the best I could find,’ pleaded my “brother”. ‘They won’t be able to tell the difference.’
The other me nodded thoughtfully, still staring. It would have been creepy had this not been creepy in itself. ‘Ok, he’ll do.’
I looked at him quizzically as four of the armed guards came to my side and seized my arms, shoving me roughly to my knees. I looked to my “brother”, pleading with him. All he did in return was grin at me in a mix of malice and pity.
‘What’s going on?’ I asked both of them, turning to look at each in turn.
‘It’s simple,’ said the other me, ‘I’m getting out of here and you’re taking my place, for a short time that is.’
‘Why?!’ I asked. I felt I already knew the answer.
‘They won’t look for me when they have you. Who cares about a dead man?’ He gestured to the soldiers and pointed to a metal utility pipe on the wall. They led me to it and secured me to the piping with handcuffs. I didn’t need to be told I was going to be left there, so when they did exactly that, I wasn’t surprised. The last word went to my “brother” he told me that he was thankful for the sacrifice I was about to make. ‘I wouldn’t shout too loudly. Nobody will hear you and if they did, they won’t believe your story. We’re the last to leave London. We’re leaving it to the dogs.’
Great – so I was completely fucked. If I could make anyone hear me, there was more than a strong likelihood that they would want to kill me before I had a chance to open my mouth in protest.
I listened to their shuffling down the escalator, watching the group helplessly. Footsteps disappearing into the distance as they disappeared onto the platform and went silent.
I was alone in an abandoned Tube Station. I could hear nothing except the occasional cheer from above.
Thirty minutes passed. In that time, noise started to converge on my general area. Now, it was closer than what I was comfortable with. Inevitably, I heard something hard and heavy hit the doors above me. A car? Something that big would have made that much of a noise. A secured building would draw attention – what is secured must be unsecured to see what secrets it hides.
The crowd above knows this just as much as the people who left me here.
There was a second crash and a cheer. Something buckled – metal. A third soon followed and all hell broke loose. A vehicle roared into the lobby above me. Human voices followed it, a mass of cheers and chant. I heard something about “taking our country back” and even “find the bastard.”
My blood went cold. There must have been a tip off. I saw breaks in the light at the top of the escalator and then, quickly, feet making their way down it. They knew I was here.
Yes, I was seriously fucked at this point. Chained to a pipe with at least 20 flag wavers racing down the escalators towards me. Nowhere to go. I was probably going to die slowly.
Except there came a deus ex machina moment, quite literally. As the jeering mob charged down the escalator, an enormous security screen slammed shut in their faces. One moment it was wide open, slammed shut the next. The room darkened. A red light above me came on. It was oh so stereotypical.
From the other escalator to my right (one leading down) came more people with guns. They filed out, creating a fan around me, covering the exits. One of them came towards me. An electronic voice asked me if I was alright.
I nodded, still unsure what was going on, and gestured to the handcuffs.
As I turned my head back to the soldier – that was when I saw her… the woman in green.