Haze Bois

Chapter 20

Caleb was walking back from town when the white van pulled up to a stop in the road beside him. He heard the scraping of metal on metal as the doors slid open.

He heard a panicked shout before everything went black. Strong hands grabbed at him, pulling him up off the ground and back towards the van.

His first instinct was to fight, use his feet to kick back against the van and knock the kidnapper off balance.

“Don’t,” the voice whispered with urgency. “Just let them take you. They can’t hurt you. Not with me in here.”

Those words momentarily distracted Caleb from his situation. 'What does it mean? Does this thing truly have the power to make me invulnerable to harm? Is it possible for me to die? Or would these little machines rally themselves, rushing to repair any damage to my cells and organs?'

Caleb, seeing no reason to distrust the word of his friend, did as it told him. He relaxed his muscles and let them take him. There was a scraping sound as they ripped off tape and used it to secure his hands behind his back. Aside from a brief and muffled conversation, the journey was silent.

The van pulled up to a stop after what felt like half an hour.

“Twenty three minutes,” the voice corrected.

After the bag was pulled from his face, it took a couple of seconds for his eyes to adjust. He saw Brummie sitting next to him, looking at him like he had just beamed down from Mars.

“You kidnapped me,” Caleb said. “So why do you look so surprised to see me?”

“Uh, wuh, erm,” Brummie stuttered.

“What you did to my hand,” Brummie said, finding his voice at last. “I need you to do it to my daughter.”

“So, you kidnapped me?” Caleb frowned. “You really thought that was the best course of action?”

“I, I had—” Brummie began to stutter again.

“Tell him he best do it or you’re going to kill him,” a female voice chimed in from the passenger seat. Caleb couldn’t see who it was, but guessed it had to be the wife, girlfriend, or mother of his kid.

Caleb laughed. The situation hardly called for laughter, but he couldn’t hold it in.

“Seriously? If you had just asked me, I would have done it,” Caleb scoffed. “Now, though…”

Caleb looked down and tutted.

“You tell him—” the woman started, but Brummie shushed her.

“This is all bollocks,” the woman huffed, “There is no way that little punk has some sort of magic healing power.”

“He does,” Brummie calmly assured her. “Why would I lie?”

“Desperation?” she suggested.

“Yes. Desperation. I did this out of sheer desperation,” Brummie said to Caleb, eyes filling with tears. “She doesn’t have long left. They can’t operate. She isn’t responding to the treatment.”

Brummie shook his head, breaking loose a couple of tears that fell to the floor. “Can you help her?”

“I mean,” Caleb sniffed, “If you are asking if it is possible, then yes. We both know it is, right?”

Brummies’ entire face transformed as his eyes filled with hope.

“Whether or not I will?” Caleb shrugged. “Well… you did just kidnap me.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Please help her. She’s just a little girl. She’s just,” Brummie said, sniffing back tears.

“I get your gym for the next six months,” Caleb demanded. “I gave you three months rent. I’m not giving you any extra. You can tell the customers you are renovati—”

“You can have the damn gym. Anything. You can have my house and car too. I don’t care,” Brummie interrupted. He pulled the tape from Caleb’s wrists and helped him up.

Caleb squinted as the door opened and the van was flooded with the midday sunlight.

They stepped out into the hospital carpark and began to head over to the children’s ward. Caleb followed the couple through starkly lit corridors that smelled of antiseptic spray and hand gel.

At the entrance to the ward, Brummie’s missus spoke to the nurse to gain entry. The young girl gave a brief, nosy look in Caleb’s direction as she gave them access. A short exchange of pleasantries later and they were in, standing at the base of the girl’s bed.

A plethora of cuddly toys and balloons surrounded the frail sleeping form in the bed, the largest of which was a pink unicorn with a multicoloured horn. Caleb picked it up, made a face at it and placed it back onto the bed.

“Ellie,” the woman gently placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder, rousing her. The mother turned to Caleb and Brummie with the fierce stare of a lioness.

“If this is all bullshit I swear I will skin you alive,” she hissed.

“You are going to have to share saliva to get the nanomachines into her,” the voice whispered as it flashed images into Caleb’s cerebral cortex to highlight the best method.

Caleb spat into his hand, as instructed, aware of the horrified look the mother was giving him. He took the spit laden hand and covered the girl’s mouth, allowing the tiny machines to move into her throat. Once they reached her brain, they would be able to get to work, eating away at the tumour growing from the glial cells of her brains supportive tissue.

The girl began to choke, and though Caleb knew this was a short period of discomfort, the mother did not. She began to panic, shouting at Caleb to get away. As the mother rose to tackle him, he raised a hand to push her back, shoving her into the wall.

“We’re in,” the voice said, and Caleb stood back, ignoring the angry cries coming from the woman. She fell silent the instant the girl sat up in her bed, rubbing her eyes and blinking

“Oh,” the girl exclaimed. “I can see.”

The mother slapped a hand over her mouth and stared at the girl, Brummie and Caleb in turn. She seemed frozen in shock for a moment, but soon became unstuck in a very noisy way. Caleb didn’t have a word for the sounds she was making. It sounded like a cross between yelps of terror and hysterical laughter and was muffled by the hand.

She approached the little girl, stroking her gently on the hand and the face.

“I told you so,” Brummie laughed – a short burst of sound like a gunshot. He started to laugh hysterically, hiccupped, and burst into a fit of tears.

Caleb didn’t have time to stand about and watch their emotional displays. He had too much to do if he was going to stay on schedule.

“You’re welcome,” Caleb said in a loud and sarcastic voice, “But if you tell anyone, and I mean anyone, I will kill every single one of you, including the person you tell. Do you understand?”

The pair nodded, mouths agape, as Caleb left them, feeling the nurses eyes on him as he exited the ward.

“We saved a girl,” the voice whispered. “Do you feel good?”

“Whatever,” Caleb scoffed under his breath.

He turned, looking back at the building, and smiled briefly before waving for a taxi.