The Other Harry #Wattys2015

Chapter 20

-Chapter 20-

The smiles don’t even leave their faces as they rush at me, ready to kill and die if that’s what the Harry clone wants them to do. From a tannoy system in the far corner and dotted throughout the building, the sound of a fire alarm begins to wail. The lights darken and their dull eyed beams are illuminated by flashes of red.  

Clutching the little blade tight between my fingers, I take a swing at one of them.  I scrape across cotton and skin belonging to the dark girl gripping my arms. She doesn’t seem to notice or care , even as the blood starts to flow from just below her collar bone. There are fingers digging into me from all directions, nails ripping into my skin as I put all of my strength into trying to pull away from them.

But it’s no use. I cry out as I hit the floor, primal terrified grunts falling out of my mouth as I kick against the rush. For a horrified moment I wonder if they are going to rip me apart with their teeth and their hands. My shirt rides up over my stomach, exposing the skin and the flesh that cover my insides and they begin to claw frantically at me. But it’s the girl with the black fish tail plait who pulls away from the group and when she returns, she is holding a chair.

The steel frame of it shimmers above my head, she raises it. Pulling my head back, I see the clone Harry watching, waiting for the moment when steel collides with skull.

The sirens coming out of the tannoy speakers are replaced by a crackling. And then a high pitched, shrill squeal. The chair drops to the floor with a clatter, mere inches away from my face as the girl with the black fish tail squeals and holds her hand to her ears trying to block out the noise. The hands loosen around me as the other's do the same and the not-Harry drops to his knees, eyes clenched tight in agony. The sound burns up the inside of my skull and makes me want to retch as I can feel each shrill note trembling in the pit of my stomach. Over the noise comes another crackle, a muffled voice coming from the sky,

"For God's sake run."  Dr July. She's not alone though; there's a gasp and then sound of fumbling.

"No...no.....please...no...."

Gritting what's left of my teeth, I kick one of the girls, hear the sound of bones cracking as my foot connects with her nose. She smiles through tracks of blood seeping into her mouth. 

Dr July's scream is cut short and the high pitched squealing is replaced by sirens once more. Before Harry has a time to recover, I ball both of my hands into a fist and send it into his head. It's not him, I remind myself, just a copy. The real Harry is somewhere in Scotland by now, its fine. He swings for my legs as I leave, but he misses and I manage to pull myself through the door, biting back the stomach bile, fighting the pain roaring through my head.

They’ve opened up the stitches on my arm and I'm leaking through the bandaging, tasting blood in my cheeks from where I was forced against the floor, feeling the sting of exposed flesh where they bit and scratched me. Head down, I wrap the lab coat around my body as I run down the corridor.

In the dim red glow of the alarm lights, I pray that the lab coat is enough to hide my identity, that I’ll be able to slip easily into the crowd. It’s a false hope. One that I don’t quite believe in myself.

The sound of footsteps charging down the hall has me flattened against the wall, hand wrapping tighter around the knife. But it won’t be enough. Their footsteps come first, followed by the sight of their bodies rounding a corner. Louises this time- four of them, enough to take me down even if they were unarmed. Which I am certain they aren’t.

My feet feel fixed to the floor.

Something knocks against my shoulder. I find myself staggering backwards, body slamming into the white, sterile walls. “Move,” comes a mutter as they push past me. Running in completely the opposite direction. Maybe I really am a master of disguise, but I don’t stop to think about it, taking the opportunity to follow the signs marked ‘Fire Exit’. Even in secret research bases, it seems like health and safety is of utmost importance.