TimeLabs Inc (Romantic Sci-fi - LGBTQ)

Fiddler's Green - End

Lost in his thoughts, it was a few moments before Cal realised the train was slowing down. Had they reached their destination already? He looked out the window but saw a village instead of the city suburbs he was expecting. What was going on? The train drew slowly into a tiny station and Cal grabbed his jacket and stood up, ready to jump off if necessary. Fiddler's Green, said the sign. Quaint. Definitely not a major stopping point. Cal couldn't help wondering if they had tracked him down, somehow. 

Anxiously, he hovered by the door, prepared to leap out and run. Though quite where he was going to run to, he hadn't the faintest idea. As if to fulfil his worst-case scenario, he saw several uniformed policemen standing on the platform, waiting. And standing with them in plain clothes, was a man who looked remarkably like Rob Martin. 

He must have it bad, Cal scolded himself, if he was seeing the man everywhere. 

He couldn't help craning his neck to catch a second glimpse back along the platform as the train slid to a stop.  

Fuck! It was Rob Martin. A civil servant he had said! Well, Cal supposed a police officer was a civil servant of sorts - no wonder he had been reluctant to pick up Cal last night! Life couldn't be much fun for a gay police officer. 

But why was Rob here? Did he know the man they were chasing was Cal? Even in his wildest paranoid dreams he couldn't believe last night had been a setup, but maybe Rob had recognised the name when the alert had gone out. Despite the closeness they had shared last night, they didn't really know each other - it was stupid to feel hurt that Rob was chasing him - but he did. 

He saw an expression of horrified disbelief cross Rob's face as his eyes met Cal's. He opened his mouth but Cal couldn't hear if he said anything or not. 

Before he had time to think anymore about it, Cal opened the carriage door on the far side of the platform and jumped down to the ground. In a matter of seconds he was up and over the grassy embankment, seeking a way over or under the fence. There! A hole where kids had presumably torn a gap in the wire fence. As he slithered under it, the thought occurred to him for the first time, that this was an awful lot of trouble to go to to catch a hacker's accomplice. Stopping a train. Sending at least six police officers. Either Gary had tried to hack into a secure facility - MI5 perhaps - or else they weren't after Cal at all. It was just a ghastly co-incidence. 

~~~ 

The next minute, all hell broke loose. 

Crummppp!  

Cal covered his head, burying his face in the grass - reacting instinctively to the deafening explosion. He looked up to see a hole gaping in the side of the very carriage he had been travelling in. Then he heard the screams. 

Rob!  

Forgetting all thoughts of his own problems, Cal scrambled back under the fence and ran toward the carriage. He pulled his phone from his pocket as he ran, his fingers fumbling for 999, the emergency number. 

Bomb. His mind grappled with the thought. Someone had detonated a bomb on the train. The police must have been there responding to the bomber - not Cal at all. 

He thought back to the passengers. Who could have been responsible ... the lad in the hoodie? It was scarcely likely to be the woman with the children. Oh God, the two children! He hoped desperately they were not badly injured.  

Dreading what he would find, Cal opened the door he had jumped out of only moments ago and peered inside. 

The door opened into the centre of the carriage and his eyes were drawn immediately to the jagged hole at the end. He felt sick as he realised he had been sitting right next to it. 

The lad in the hoodie was beyond his help - whether he had been the instigator or not. Cal could see the top half of him lying on the floor, soaked with blood. The large woman with the carrier bags had been in the seat behind and she hadn't fared well either.  

Cal heard banging as two of the uniformed men tried to force open the carriage door on the platform side which was jammed shut.  

Where was Rob? As if his thoughts had conjured him up, Rob appeared on the other side of the window, one hand clasping a phone to his ear, the other rapping frantically to get his attention.  

"Cal!" Cal could see his name on the other man's lips although he couldn't hear him. He could see the dread in Rob's eyes. 

"Get out now!There's another bomb!"