14) Code Blue

Artemis and the strange girl are attacked

14) Code Blue

"You know Chloe?" I stutter. I can’t believe it. "How?"
Blue Haired girl reacts surprisingly; tears form in her eyes. "Long story short, I’ve met her a couple of times." She blinks back the tears and sparks dance across her fingers. "She's a great girl. You were lucky to have her. I'm sorry." She rushes to the toilet.

I stare into space. This strange Blue Haired Girl with lightning at her fingertips knows Chloe. Knows about Heaven, and knows about everything that has happened in the past twenty-one months. Thoughts rush around my head. Mainly involving Chloe. The idea that she chose to live life again, and... and if what this stranger said, about her saying that she chose to live life again because she hoped one day she'll meet me in it, then, then I don't know. My entire life has been shattered. I've lived my entire life not believing in Heaven or Hell, or God, or anything. And now, I know there's a Heaven, a Hell, an Afterlife, Gods. Another question to ask Blue Haired Girl pops into my head. The waitress comes over and says something. I don't hear it. I don't even respond. All I can think about is Chloe. I can see her sat in front of me, smiling and laughing. I can see Max and James, and Ellie too. They live. I live. Chloe lives on. The idea that somewhere out there, Max, James, and Ellie are alive, fills me with a burning happiness. But the fact that Chloe lives on in the Afterlife is what I can't believe. Blue Haired Girl reappears, she sits down.
"Chloe speaks a lot of you." She says gently, "Every time I see her, it's always Artemis this, Artemis that." Her eyes bloodshot, "She loved you, you know?"
"How many times have you met her?" I ask, shattering the thoughts.
"Only a handful, six at the most."
"Since when?"
"Since..." She seems unsure of how to answer. "Since she turned twelve... and a couple of times after she died."
"Since she turned twelve! That was four years ago! You were in Parlor!"
"I didn't live in Parlor, I passed through a couple of times, and each time Chloe always saw me and spoke to me.
"What were you, some kind of secret lover?"
"No, no, no. She loved you Artemis. Her and I only spoke, for very brief minutes. And since she died, whenever I see her, it's always you we speak about. Always you. Don't you understand, that even in death, you're all that's on her mind." She says. I don't understand. If this stranger had know Chloe since she was twelve, why didn't I know? Did Max, James and Ellie know? "She never lied to you. She didn't tell you, cause it was nothing. We'd be walking down the street and bump into each other. See each other shopping. We never purposely met." She speaks her voice faint. "She loved you Artemis, you were her best friend. She loved you. Artemis?" She taps my hand with a finger, sending sparks shooting through me.
"Ow!" I yelp. "After she died, how do you... you know?"
"I can't explain."
"You've been to Heaven?"
"Yes, a couple of times." She stares out behind me. "Artemis, we really need to go."
"Why?" I look behind me. Four armed officers have walked in, they don't look our way, they just sit down and order coffee.
"Satuska." Blue Haired Girl whispers. "We need to go." She seems frightened. We hurriedly step out of the booth, we stride towards the door.
"Hey! Where you two going? You haven't paid!" The waitress shouts.
"Don't look back." Blue Hair hisses. I hear the sound of the officers turning.
"Hey! You two stop! She's speaking to you!" One of them says.
"Keep going. Don't stop. Don't look back."
"Hey!" A hand grabs my shoulder, spinning me around. "Pay the nice lady and we might let you off." The officer doesn't recognise me. Why would he? His colleagues on the bus were dead. Another officer grabs Blue Hair's shoulder and spins her around.
"Oh f**k." He shouts as he recognises Blue Hair. All the officers recognise Blue Hair. They reach for their guns, but before they can do anything, Blue Hair raises a hand and electricity leaps from her fingers, wrapping itself around the officers, and, well, frying them. The smell of burning hair and flesh fills the restaurant. The waitress screams.
"Run!" Blue Hair shouts. We sprint through the doors. Five other officers are stepping out of their cars as we enter the parking lot. They stare at us. One grabs a radio.
"Code blue!" He yells. That's as much as he can manage as two-hundred thousand volts of electricity sizzle through his body. His body launches one hundred-meters. The other officers raise their guns; only four bullets are fired. All four narrowly miss us. Then the officers are on the floor sizzling like sausages.
"Can you drive?" Blue Hair asks leaping into the car.
"No." A thought occurs to me. "Can you?"
"Sort of." She says turning the key.
"Good thing the keys were still in the car." I say and with that Blue Hair slams the car into 'go' and speeds towards the exit. We sail across the road, with a sharp pull of the steering wheel we break onto the motorway.
"This thing feels like a whale with an eating disorder. Unless all cars are like this."

We speed down the motorway; no other cars were on the road. The radio speaks to us. Asking stuff like, 'What's the situation?', 'Report', the kind of things you'd expect to hear in a movie. Then more seriously, "Code Blue. All stations, Code Blue."
"That's me." Blue Hair yells with joy. "I'm code blue. Blue for my hair. And for my lightning." She sends sparks crackling across her fingers, "Did you know that I can make them any colour I want?" And to prove her point she sends red sparks dancing across her fingers, followed by orange, then yellow, green, blue, indigo, and finally violet. Soon a rainbow is dancing across her hands, moving at such speed it looks like one. "Not only does this kill, but it also contains memories, allowing me to make it do absolutely anything, as long as I remember it." And with that music starts playing. "Do you have a cell phone?" She asks, and for the first time, I remember the cell phone that I had when I was blown up. Did it survive?
"No."
"Eh. Perhaps Dante does." We sit in silence for a couple of songs.
"That tattoo, what is it?" I ask.
"This?" She says pulling down her sleeve.
"Yeah."
"Oh. It's a tattoo.” She points a finger at the window and lets a bolt of lightning fly. It engraves the tattoo into the glass. "The four lines represent The Four, and the triangles represent some bullshit that triangles are the strongest shape found in nature." It’s two triangles minus the bottoms, one above the other, with a little curve at the end of each of the four lines.
"How old are you?" I ask.
"Why?"
"You just murdered like thirty people."
"You've killed around the same amount." She thinks for a second, "I turn sixteen this year."
"What's your name?"
"Would ruin the surprise, but most people call me Blue."
"Alright, Blue. Where we going?"
"Santa Monica of course."

We drive effortlessly down the road. Of course effortlessly is an exaggeration, Blue really has never driven a car, and it also seems like she’s have never played Mario Kart. I have questions bobbing around my head, each one slightly different. I know I could ask anything I wanted, but I can’t think of the perfect question. No question that I have seems good enough. And the more I think about the questions, the less questions I come up with. Eventually I give up on asking questions. I stare at the cuts engraved in the window.
"What are The Four?" I ask.
"Now, I would normally look at you. But seeing as I can't drive for s**t, you're gonna have to make do with these sarcastic words." Blue replies instantly. "The Four, are a group of Four people. They can be anyone." She stops, “They’re born, but they remain normal humans until the universe is in great peril. Then The Four's powers appear. But if during the time of The Four, the universe doesn't fall into peril, then The Four remain human and die, and then as soon as The Four die, another set are born. And so forth and it repeats. But, if the universe is in danger, then The Four get their powers and their destiny is to either destroy the universe or save it." She pauses, "And right now, The Four are a group of idiots with no clue on what's going on. And due to the not knowing, we don't know where they are, so we can’t do s**t." She draws a smiley face in the glass.
"So what, The Four are universe destroying, or saving, deities?"
"Yes and no. The Four were created at the same time The Elders were. And since then The Four have been on Earth 'Safeguarding' it, but there has never been a time when they've been needed, until now. And now we can't find them."
"What are The Elders?"
“Ah…” Blue says, “Uh… The Elders are eight beings created by God. One of those eight �" destruction decided to destroy everything. The other seven were like nah. Split themselves, creating the minor Gods. Zeus, Poseidon. Them lot.”
"What can you tell me about you?" I ask. Blue sits there in silence for a couple of minutes.
"I work with The Children of Eden, and that's all that I can say."
"Can't you give me something about The Children of Eden?"
"No."

The radio buzzes.
"All units report, we have a possible sighting of Code Blue, heading west, outskirts of Santa Monica. They are armed and deadly, kill on sight. They are believed to be travelling with Code White, utilise extreme caution."
"Uh oh.” Blue says glancing in the mirrors. "That sighting is most definitely not a possible. We might have a problem."
"What kind of problem?"
"As in, the bad guys are right behind us." She says, I look behind us, and sure enough, a group of five cars are right behind us.
"Well, do something then." I hiss.
"Do what? Zap 'em with lightning? These cars are built to resist electricity, due to me. So as long as they're in those, I can't do squat."
"What's Code White?"
"Dunno. And I ain't just saying that, I seriously don't know."
"Unit Nine-Three-Five. Hurry the f**k up." A voice crackles over the radio.
"Is that us?" I ask.
"I assume so." Blue says stepping on the gas. The car leaps forward, nearing one-hundred-and-forty miles per hour. "I was not expecting this to go so fast." She squeals in delight. "I can't drive for s**t, but this may at least make it fun." We hurtle down the road, with the other cars right behind us. They don't seem to have realised that we're in the car. Within moments of Blue speeding up, I can see the lights of a city twinkling. "Santa Monica." Blue whistles, "My least favourite place in the whole world." By now, the moon has set, and the sun is half-way to its highest peak.
"Nine-Three-Five, who is in the car?" The radio buzzes.
"And not a moment too soon." Blue says grabbing the radio, "This is Code Blue speaking. Surprise boys." As soon as the words Code Blue are said, the cars behind us swerve so quickly that three out of the five flip. "Three down. Two to go." A wailing sounds. "These cars have sirens?" Blue gasps, "Aye, Artemis, try to turn ours on."
"Don't we have bigger problems?"
"Nah. They ain't gonna ram us while we're in one of the most expensive cars in the world. These babies cost almost three million." Blue is right of course. The cars behind us make no attempt to ram us, instead they just follow. "You bullet proof?" Blue asks.
"What?"
"Never mind. How about shatter proof?"
"Whatever you're thinking about doing. Don't do it. I'm human." I say. Blue looks at me, with a face that seems to be saying 'seriously'
"You can't be that f*****g naive." She says slamming on the brakes. Normally slamming on the brakes whilst going a hundred miles per hour would cause serious injuries, and most likely death. The car stops, almost instantly. I am flung forward and my head smashes against the window. Blue’s sent flying through the glass and across the road. I watch as the cars brake and face us. Blue lies in the middle of the road covered in blood. The world goes black, just for a split second. Then it's back, Blue stands in the middle of the road, no blood, no broken bones. She stares the cars down. The officers know if they step out they'll be fried, but as long as they're in the cars, they're fine.
"Wankers." I hear Blue shout. She runs over to me. "You okay?" I hear her say. I can't feel anything, so I doubt im okay. "Aye, you'll be fine, just a bit of blood." She grabs my arms, yanks me out of the chair, and dumps me onto the floor. She points a finger at me and lets a couple of sparks leap onto me. I feel them wiz over my body. And before I know it, I can feel, I can hear properly, I would say, and I can see. But even the sparks don’t fix that. The Shadow People stand in the middle of the road, as if daring the officers to get out. "We'll be fine." Blue says, then the world goes black.

When I wake, I find myself quite comfortable. I open my eyes and am surprised to see Dante staring down at me. "Surprise." I say.
"Blue! They're awake!" Dante shouts, "You okay? I heard about what happened, hell everyone did." He whispers. Blue appears at the door,
"Alright f**k off lover." She orders. Dante walks out, head hanging, like a sad puppy. "How are you?"
"Good." I say, and I’m surprised to find, that I am in fact feeling quite good.
"Sorry about the car. Had to do something."
"How are you okay?"
"I get some tricks up my sleeve." And to prove her point she sends sparks across her fingers. "Good thing I can heal with these as well. They can literally do whatever I want them to do. It's incredible."
"How long was I out?"
"Like three hours. Don't worry you didn't miss much. Satuska left after a bit, I brought you here."
"Where is here?"
"Dante's Aunt's."
"How did you know where this was?" I don't remember Dante ever telling me. "Do Dante and you know each other?"
"God no. I met him two hours ago, and since then he hasn't left your side."
"Where's Ben?"
"Who?"
"Benjamin Cevolt. Dante and I came here with him."
"Dunno. Why don't you go down and ask. It's not like you're crippled or anything. Might be a bit dizzy."

I stumble down the stairs after Blue. Dante and his Aunt are in the kitchen making food.
"Pancakes alright?" The Aunt asks, "Call me Shellie."
"Alight Shellie." I say sitting down, "Dante, where's Ben?" I look at Dante; he looks sheepishly at the floor.
"I don't know. I lost him coming out the bus."
"F**k."
"Language." Blue and Shellie both say in unison. They look at each other, and Blue laughs. I look at Blue,
"Is she part of... you know..." I say gesturing to my wrist.
"God no."
"Part of what?" Dante asks.
"Blue'll explain later." Blue says.
"Who's Blue?"
"I'm Blue you tosser."
"Oh." Dante says quietly.

Breakfast. Lunch. Whatever time it is, goes down well. Blue fills Dante in on Satuska, but neglects to mention gods or anything. Does mention The Children of Eden, but doesn't reveal any new information.

"We need to find Ben." I say to Dante.
"Of course. But where do we start?"
"I don't know. When'd you last see him?"
"In the buffet. Then im out a door and you and him are gone."
"He could be anywhere." I hiss. Blue appears at the door,
"Try in those." She says throwing a book at me. I read the title.
"Care homes in Santa Monica. What?"
"Don’t ask. Just an instinct." Blue says leaving.
Dante must see something on my face, because he asks with fear in his voice, "What?"
"Blue, she hasn't been wrong yet."