Subject Nightingale 1: Birth and Death (20 page)

As the man who had shot her loaded the bullet into his magazine, he asked, “How'd they find this girl, anyway? Last I heard, the trail had gone cold.”

“One-seven-three found her,” another squad member answered. “Been tracking her brainwaves or some $#!%.”

“
Lock it up,” Tommy said. “We're here.”

Once the holes in her throat closed up she gasped for breath, and cringed at the taste of her own blood as she accidentally swallowed a mouthful. She spit out what was left and grabbed the door to pull herself to her feet, her senses slowly returning.

She shut her eyes and laid out her web, but couldn't reach too far past Baker Street. She didn't feel anyone from ECHO—they were all gone, dead... She could feel fear; her neighbors, everyone who lived in the park or along Baker Street, cowering in their homes, or still running from the trouble.

But she still couldn't sense Whisper or Elise.

She grabbed the doorknob to their shack, but it was still locked. Her head ached with a twinge of pain as she reduced the latch to splinters, pulled the door open, and rushed inside.

“
Whisper, Elise!?” she shouted, her eyes immediately widening as she looked all over.

She had entered just in time to hear a quiet, gentle exhale; she looked down, and witnessed Whisper take her last breath. There was a bullet hole in her throat, and she was covered in blood.

“Nightingale?” Elise said, her voice weak and ragged. She was laying beside Whisper, clutching her hand. She had caught multiple bullets in her stomach and was still bleeding out.

“
Elise...?” Nightingale muttered, tears suddenly pouring down her face. She knelt beside Elise and took her other hand.

“
Nightingale, is Whisper okay?” she asked. “She stopped talking, I told her to keep talking...”

“
Elise, she's—” Nightingale cut herself off with a sob. She didn't know what to do. She tried to picture Elise healing, she pictured her wounds closing, but she knew it was useless. Her powers didn't work like that.

She wanted to give her the nanobots. She would trade them in a heartbeat, she would take back all the wounds they had healed, if it meant Whisper and Elise would be okay.

“Nightingale...” Elise tried to lift her hand, but she was too weak. “I think I'm hurt...” She was in shock; she hardly knew what was going on.

“
No,” Nightingale said, “no, you're fine, Elise.” She reached out to brush some hair out of her face, and whispered, “Feel no pain.” With a bit of concentration, she was able to suppress Elise's pain. She knew it worked when she cracked a smile.

“
Thank you,” she said, her voice a bit stronger than before. It was quickly fading, though. “Thank you for looking out for me and my sister.”

“
Don't thank me, Elise,” Nightingale said. “I don't... I don't deserve it.”

“
Of course...you do...” She managed to raise her hand high enough to grab Nightingale's hair and give it a weak tug. “You're our guardian angel.”

Nightingale choked out another sob and shook her head. “I'm so sorry, Elise... I'm so, so sorry! I was just trying to help!” Tears were pouring freely down her face as Elise squeezed her hand.

“I can't see Whisper,” Elise said next. She craned her neck, but her vision was failing. “Is she here?”

“
Yeah,” Nightingale muttered. “Yeah, she's here, Elise... You two aren't gonna be apart, okay?”

“
Good... That's good...” Elise smiled again. “She needs me to look after her. She's kind of a brat sometimes, but I love her, you know?”

“
I know...” Nightingale clenched her eyes shut and wiped her tears with her free hand.

“
Oh... I see her...” Elise's grip on Nightingale's hand eased, and then she exhaled one last breath. Her body went limp, and Nightingale immediately recoiled.

She found the doll Whisper had made her, spotted with blood, and her entire body began to quiver. Her eyes went wide and she stared down at her hands, stained in her sisters' blood, and then grabbed her head when a sudden and intense migraine seized her entire brain. She let out a shriek that shook the very ground beneath their shack, and hurled a powerful shock wave with her at the epicenter.

The roof and walls were demolished, reduced to mere splinters, but the floor she, Whisper, and Elise were on remained untouched. The neighboring shacks began to burst one after the other as the shock wave erupted outward, and then the tall apartment buildings on the other side of Baker Street began to quake and crumble. Anyone unfortunate enough to still be in range was tossed like rag dolls, and the destruction didn't die down until the nightingale's singing cut through her own shrieking.

The gentle chirps grabbed her attention and she shot her gaze toward the sky, where she saw it fluttering just overhead. She panted in deep breaths as she tried to regain her senses, but it was no use.

She didn't know what to do.

She didn't know where to go.

She was only trying to help, but Whisper and Elise...

Nightingale sprung to her feet and sprinted away from where her home used to be.

Away from where she used to live.

Away from the family she used to have.

Nightingale just ran.

Chapter 30
Next Time...
 

“
With the proper devotion, dedication, and a bit of extra time in the day,” Boldwin explained, both hands atop his cane as Nightingale patted down the soil, “you'll find yourself capable of growing the most beautiful things.”

*                            *                            *                            *

“This isn't your home, get out!” The entire house rumbled with Nightingale's shouting, and Boldwin rushed to the foyer from the other room.

“
Nightingale, what's going on?” he asked, waving his cane left and right, feeling for the source of the trouble.

“
It's nothing,” Nightingale replied, putting herself between Boldwin and the mess. “They're gone now, they won't be back...”

*                            *                            *                            *

“You recognize me?” Nightingale asked.

“
I do,” the child replied, “you lived in this room before me.”

“
What happened?” Nightingale took a step closer. “Why did I leave?”

“
The Matron gives us all away in the end...”

*                            *                            *                            *

Tommy leaned his head back against the brick wall, sucked a slow drag from his cigarette, and muttered, “%$#@!^& glitches...”

*                            *                            *                            *

“Our guardian angel...” Elise's shaky voice rang in Nightingale's head.

“
No...” Tears gathered in the corners of Nightingale's eyes. “I'm not... I'm not an angel!” she shouted.

*                            *                            *                            *

Subject: Nightingale, Volume 2:

Death and Resurrection

About the Author
 

Tim Cody is an avid gamer and comic-book reader. He believes that to spend an evening in the TARDIS would be a wonderful adventure, and if he could choose one superpower to have of his own, it would be...

Acknowledgments
 

A Big Gulp-sized thanks to Dan, the world's most fantastical editor and someone who truly knows how to best utilize the remaining space on a page. A great big thanks to Grant Lamb, the extraordinarily talented artist who provided me with the wonderful art for this trilogy. And thanks to everybody else,
not
sitting on a cushion!

Would you like to know more? Check
www.amazon.com/author/timcody for more Subject Nightingale.