Garth Nix - Lord Sunday

“Miss?”

A voice behind her made her turn round. Two soldiers stood there. They had no rank badges, but they did have name tags on their suits. One read PENHALIGON and the other read CHEN.

“I’m Major Penhaligon and this is Sergeant Chen,” said the shorter figure. “I understand you’re from a private hospital closer towards East Area?”

“Yes,” said Leaf. “I was kind of there by accident on Friday night. I know one of the…nurses, but there’s no other staff there and about a thousand old people—”

“We have no information on this hospital,” said the Major. “It’s not listed at all, anywhere, so this had better not be some sort of crazy—”

“It is there!” protested Leaf. “Come with me and I’ll show you. Then if you find out it’s not true, you can shoot me or blow me up or whatever else you’re all so good at. You’re not much good at helping people!”

A ripple of applause answered this loud speech. Leaf looked over her shoulder and saw most of the closer people in the queue were clapping, and one man was even shaking his fist in the air. A woman called out, “You tell ’em, girl! We want help, not bombs!”

“All right,” said Major Penhaligon. He clicked a switch under his chin so that his mask amplified his voice, making it loud enough for the people in the line to hear him. “We’re going to look into it. Keep in line and stay calm.”

He turned the amplification off when he spoke to Leaf. “Where is this hospital?”

“The main entrance is that way, on the corner of Grand Avenue,” said Leaf. “I’ll show you.”

“That’s on the edge of the kill zone,” said Sergeant Chen. She was considerably taller and broader than Major Penhaligon, so until Leaf heard her voice, she’d thought it was a male soldier inside the suit. “Were you inside when the strike happened, miss?”

“Yes,” answered Leaf. “Underground, with some of the patients. But a lot of them were on the ground floor. What do you mean, the ‘kill zone’?”

“If you were underground you’ll probably be OK,” said Major Penhaligon. He hesitated, then added, “The initial burst of radiation would be lethal anywhere within five hundred metres of the target point, and if there is a hospital there it would be on the edge of that. I suppose we’d better go and take a look. Chen, you better give Miss…uh, Miss…”

“My name is Leaf,” said Leaf.

“Give Miss Leaf a shot of CBL505.”

“This is an antiradiation drug,” said Chen as she slapped an auto-injector against Leaf’s neck. She felt the sting of the needle before she could flinch away. “Same as in the take-home packs we’re giving out. Uh, sir, if we’re heading closer to ground zero we should put Miss Leaf in a suit.”

“OK,” said Major Penhaligon. “You double back to…Decontamination Four is for female personnel, isn’t it? Get her cleaned and suited up and then call me. I’ve got to go take care of something anyway.”

“Yes, sir,” said Chen. She took Leaf by the arm and started to lead her away.

“Thanks,” said Leaf. Then, because she was wondering about Arthur and where he was, she added, “Are you related to Arthur Penhaligon, by the way?”

Major Penhaligon swung round. “He’s my little brother. Do you know him? Do you know where he is?”

“He’s a friend of mine,” said Leaf. “But I don’t know where he is.”

“When did you last see him?” asked Major Penhaligon.

“Er…sometime last week,” hedged Leaf.

“Did he mention anything strange?”

“What do you mean?” asked Leaf. She tried to keep her face from showing anything. By any definition, everything Arthur had been involved with in recent times was strange.

“Dad’s house is gone,” said Major Penhaligon. “Not destroyed. Just plain gone. I’ve tracked down Michaeli and Eric – they’re with friends, they’re OK – but I can’t find Arthur or Emily.”

“A lot of weird stuff has happened around here,” offered Leaf.

“That’s for sure,” said Major Penhaligon. “Where did you see Arthur?”

“In the hospital,” said Leaf. She hadn’t been ready for the sudden question. “Friday’s hospital, I mean. With the old people. But he left.”

“Where was he going?”

Leaf shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“When was this?”

“Friday night. Uh, after you called him.”

“After I called him?” asked Major Penhaligon. “But I called him on the home number! He wouldn’t have had time to get anywhere near here from home and according to the neighbours the house was already gone…”

“The phone was switched through,” said Leaf, which was true. She just couldn’t say that it was switched through to a telephone that materialised out of nowhere.

“I guess that kind of explains how the house could be gone, but I still spoke to Arthur.” Major Penhaligon shook his head. “This just gets weirder and weirder. I don’t see how there can be an entire hospital full of patients that’s not on any database or map either. I’ll see you at Decon Four in fifteen minutes, Sergeant Chen, Miss Leaf.”

He turned around and strode away. Chen pulled lightly on Leaf’s arm, directing her towards one of the side streets.

“This way,” said the soldier. “It’s not far.”

“OK,” said Leaf. She was quiet for the first few steps, just thinking about Arthur, and her family, and all the sleepers back at the hospital. There was so much to do. For a moment she wondered why she was bothering, since it seemed the whole Universe might get snuffed out by Nothing anyway.

But the Universe might not end, Leaf thought. And then where would you be? Better to do something, because it might just work out.

“What other weird stuff is happening?” she asked Chen.

“Plenty,” the soldier replied, but she didn’t elaborate. They walked another twenty yards or so, around the next street corner. Leaf saw that the whole avenue ahead was full of dozens of Army and Federal Biocontrol Authority vehicles. The car parks for the shops and buildings on either side of the avenue were occupied by five huge pressurised tents, soon to be joined by three entire prefab structures the size of Leaf’s house, which were in the process of being off-loaded from oversize semitrailers.

Ominously, the prefab buildings had large red crosses on them, and Leaf noted that beyond the Army vehicles, there were at least twenty big, six-wheeled hazardous environment ambulances.

Everyone working wore full protective suits with masks. The whole place added up to an expectation by the authorities that they would have to deal with a very large number of dead and dying people. Chen pointed to the closest pressurised tent, which was pitched in a supermarket car park. The tent had a newly painted sign in front of it, staked into the pavement. The sign had a cartoon picture of a smiling fat man scrubbing himself in a bubble bath, and read: 11TH CBRN BATTALION PRESENTS DECONTAMINATION STATION FOUR.

“Got to have a sense of humour,” Sergeant Chen said with a sigh as soon as she saw the sign.

“Why?” asked Leaf.

“You’ll see,” said Chen. “I guess a small laugh helps everyone cope with the serious stuff. Come on.”

As they walked over and Chen waved to the soldier on guard outside the big tent, Leaf asked, “You know the weird stuff…does it involve anyone with…uh…wings?”

Chen stopped and gripped Leaf hard. “Who told you about the General?”

“No one!” said Leaf. “But I’ve seen…uh…winged people.”

Chen released Leaf. “General Pravuil, who was in charge of this operation, disappeared at midnight last night. The sentries outside said they saw people with wings fly him out of an upstairs window and disappear into thin air. Where did you see them?”