Rewired: Project Insula

Chapter 11

Meera's eyes frantically darted from left to right as everything passed her at speed. The taxi ride had consisted of a fidgety and stressed performance from Daniel, who sat in the front seat, his gaze facing out onto the dark streets of Camden Town.

She had been lost in meaningless thoughts during the journey, mostly thoughts of needing a drink. Realising that she hadn't drank anything since the morning, when Daniel had “saved her”, only exaggerated how thirsty she really was. Her throat felt as though it was clinching together with every swallow; even worse was most billboards relentlessly advertising a new energy drink which she had never seen before. The sleek advertising promised a refreshing product and Meera was sold. Putting on her smartglasses revealed even more cleverly worded propaganda, clearly designed to play tricks on a parched mind. It also revealed that the drink would be in all major stores from 26th February 2032 which was tomorrow. You were able to claim a free one with a unique code generated through your glasses; 7816675G was copied to Meera's virtual clipboard automatically.

Meera and Daniel were en route to a police checkpoint, which had been recently set up 1km away from where they had already been – the tower block. Reportedly, the attackers hadn't ventured away from the scene and had instead stayed inside the tower block. A perimeter had been set up and they were to watch the block until suitable back up arrived and a plan was derived. This decision was made by Triller, but heavily influenced by Daniel.

The Met Police were treating the crime as a gang related attack, although Meera and Daniel were certain it was related to the Hospital attack.

Meera had surprisingly not been too affected by the news of the decimated squad of police officers, she found it difficult to do so with her attack still very fresh in the back of her mind, secretly controlling her emotions like a puppeteer in the shadows.

She had quite selfishly been more impressed about her action of standing up for herself earlier in Triller's office. She felt empowered and stable after doing so and less selfishly hoped it would mend Daniel and Triller's relationship. It had seemed to of had a small part to play, due to Daniel influencing Triller's decision about the perimeter.

“Just here is fine.” Daniel suddenly spoke, shaking slightly.

The taxi driver nodded and pulled over to the side of the road. The flashing lights and digital signs of the checkpoint could be seen just a few hundred feet down the road.

“That's £18 please mate.” The gruff taxi driver said, flicking on the interior lights.

Daniel had already begun getting out of the car when he handed the taxi driver a £50 note without looking back at him.

“Ughh..?”

“Oh” Daniel said poking his head back into the car.

“Keep the change!” He said, smiling.

Daniel then turned his head to the back seat, towards Meera.

“You coming then?” He said, sounding slightly nervous.

Meera had been daydreaming about this new Vita energy drink, fantasising about how delightful the sharp crisp fluid would feel as it went down her throat.

“S-sorry! Right behind you!” She said, snapping out of it.

The long Camden highstreet was lit up as usual for a night of drinking, partying and doing lots of drugs; the only thing missing was the partygoers themselves. The street had been evacuated and closed off, a sight reminiscent of the terror attacks back in the early 2020's.

Meera stepped out of the taxi and joined Daniel on the pavement outside of a nightclub. She felt like a young girl, clumsily stepping out of a taxi into town and over to her date, who in this case was Daniel. He looked over at her and pointed towards the checkpoint.

“Right. We are meeting Triller down here in about 20 minutes.” Daniel said.

Meera, who hadn't removed her glasses, looked down at her wrist to display the time. It was just coming up to 9:30pm.

Daniel then took his glasses from his pocket and put them on.

“I am patched in with the guys on sight who are currently watching for any movement or abnormalities.” He said.

“They will share any footage that they think is necessary and will also keep me updated on anything else.”

“So they trust you now?” Meera quizzed.

“Oh absolutely not.” Daniel replied.

“These are George's glasses. He gave me them just before we left.” He continued.

“Ahh okay. So HE trusts you now?” She replied lightly.

“Water under the bridge for the moment. More important things to take care of, than our personal disagreements.” He said.

Meera nodded acknowledging his answer and the two began their walk down the highstreet.

…

“What is this Vita energy stuff anyway?” Daniel said, as they walked on past another nightclub.

“Hmm?” Meera asked.

She knew exactly what he was asking, but she fancied hearing what he had to say first.

“Just a bit weird really! Hadn't heard a thing about the stuff, and now its everywhere!” He said, pointing at a sign reading “Mixing with Vita all day today! 24 hours early!”.

“Right!” Meera agreed excitedly.

“I saw at least 5 billboards for it on the way here.” She continued.

“Well the advertising is working!” He said jokingly.

The two chuckled as they approached the perimeter. The faces of the officers stationed there soon brought them back to the reality of the situation.

One of the officers saw the two approaching and began to walk over to them.

He was a larger man, shaped like a bowling ball. He sported a long black ponytail along with a long goatee.

“Daniel Green is it?” He said with a heavy London accent, extending his hand out to shake Daniel's.

Daniel returned the shake with some physical timidity before responding with his typical verbal confidence.

“Good evening sir, great to meet you, just a shame for it to be in these conditions.” He replied.

“Yeah weather is a bit s**t innit!” He said, bellowing a laughter into the face of Daniel and Meera.

“And you are?” He said, looking at Meera.

“I'm Meera Patil, I…” She stopped and looked at Daniel.

“She's my intern.” Daniel replied for her.

“Intern eh?” The man said, pulling an exaggerated curious expression.

“That's right” Daniel replied, nodding once.

“Didn't know you government lot had an internship programme!” He said loudly, acting rather animated for a man of his size.

“Yes. We do.” He replied coolly.

Meera could tell that he was trying to move on from this meeting as soon as possible.

“Huh. Well if I had known that, I woulda done it! Good on ya!” He said, pointing his gaze at Meera.

Daniel shook his head dismissively.

“So is Superintendent Triller here yet?” Meera suddenly asked out loud, letting her impatience known.

She saw Daniel glance at her through her peripheral vision, but she continued to look forwards at the man.

“Ughh yes.” The man said, fumbling around with his high vis jacket pockets.

He pulled out a folded piece of paper from his inside pocket and went to pass it to Meera. He stopped before she could politely take it and gave it to Daniel.

Luckily Meera's skill of being able to subtly roll her eyes had been mastered over the years of her training, allowing her to mentally get through any patronising or condescending happenings.

“He didn't stop for long. He gave me this note to give ya. f**k knows why he didn't just send it over to your glasses.” He said, nodding towards the glasses Daniel was wearing.

Daniel seemed to jump at this, removing the glasses from his head quickly, holding the folded piece of paper in his other hand.

“Oh. See my glasses aren't picking up any signal at the moment. He knows of this.” Daniel said, placing the glasses in his pocket.

“No signal? Sounds expensive to fix!” The man shouted, even louder than anything he had shouted so far.

“Very.” Daniel said, flinching slightly.

“What does the note say?” Meera asked.

“Well I don't know!” He replied, keeping his condescending tone reserved for Meera it seemed.

Daniel put his hand out, almost as though he was signalling the man to stop with the attitude. He had unfolded the paper and was scanning through the scribbled words, eyes darting from left to right.

“Thankyou sir, we will be on our way now.” Daniel said, his eyes still poised on the note.

The man nodded at Daniel, before giving Meera an awkward hesitant glance and walking off towards a Police van consisting of three other officers who seemed to be sat checking some footage on a portable screen.

“Well what does it say?” Meera asked.

Daniel didn't say a word and placed the piece of paper in his pocket. He shook his head and looked to Meera sympathetically.

“Meera, I think you should go home. Get out of here” He said calmly.

“What?” Meera asked, almost laughing.

Daniel breathed in deeply and exhaled.

“Please Meera.” Daniel replied.

“What the f**k is going on?!” She seethed, trying to keep her voice down.

“I don't know.” He replied, shaking his head.

Meera opened her mouth to talk when she noticed a brightness light up everything in front of her in a freeze frame. Before she could even acknowledge the sudden light, she felt a sudden vibration by her feet as if something heavy had been dropped on a hollow floor.

These two seconds of time went past like a lifetime, the image of a nervous Daniel lit up in front of her, captured in her head forever like a picture.

The booming sound that followed burst through the cold evening air followed closely by a strong, hot presence that rippled through everything in sight, moving every possible molecule like a wave.

Although sudden, Meera knew exactly what she had just witnessed. You would see them on the news, in movies and games; you'd read about them in books or on blogs and articles.

An explosion had taken place around four hundred meters down the road, the titanic mushroom of orange quickly disappeared into the night sky, before being engulfed in smoke.

She watched as the surreal scene played out before her eyes, her knees buckled under the moment and she fell back onto her behind; bits of metal and brick raining down onto the road in front of her, making up the calming rhythm of aftermath. She wasn't scared for her life, but more in awe of what she could see in front of her.

Meera felt something under her arms and was quickly hoisted up onto her feet. She continued facing forwards, hypnotised by the terrifying, but beautiful combination of energy and gasses.

She couldn't hear Daniel calling her name at first, even though he was inches away from her ear. It wasn't until the imagery of the blast stagnated that she would begin to come around, sounds of panic and sirens started to bring her back to reality; along with the sound of her own name, being spoken soothingly in her ear by Daniel.

Meera closed her eyes and laid her head back into Daniel's chest, allowing the world to gently come back to her.

“Are you okay?” Daniel asked, noticing that she was no longer stunned from the explosion.

Meera nodded in response, swallowing a pronounced gulp down her throat, her eyes still closed shut.

Daniel wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head, tears ran down his face as he stared down the c*****e that was being revealed with every second of clearing.

Behind them the fat patronising man was running screaming down a mouthpiece, whilst the other three officers that had been sat in the van were nowhere to be seen.

Daniel's shaking hand reached into his pocket and pulled out the now vibrating set of glasses, belonging to Superintendent Triller. Looking through the alerting eyewear showed him something far worse than the explosion. The twelve assailants from the Tower Block were more like twenty and they were not only loose, but en route to their position.