Shift by Kim Curran

Author:Kim Curran
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, Fantasy & Magic
ISBN: 9781908844057
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Published: 2012-09-04T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Iwoke up blinking at strip lights overhead. Dull pain radiated through my body, mostly in my head. I saw people moving around in the corner of my eye. I tried to turn my head to follow but it wouldn’t move.

“Excuse me?” I said, tentatively, never one to want to make a fuss. But not being able to move seemed pretty damn fuss-worthy.

A fuzzy shape came into view and slowly sharpened into the face of a smiling nurse. She mouthed words.

“I can’t hear you,” I said and realised I couldn’t even hear myself.

I guess I must have been shouting as she put her finger to her lips and mimed turning a volume knob down.

My ears were still ringing – a constant screeching noise that was boring into my head. “Why can’t I move?” I said, hoping it was quieter.

The nurse patted my shoulder and mouthed a word at me. “Explosion.”

She took my hand and led it up to my neck. My fingers met with a foam ring of material around my neck. The nurse smiled again. “The doctors say you’ll be fine.” She held out a curled thumb and first finger; the universal symbol for OK.

She reached behind my head and fiddled with a mass of tubes. I felt a floating sensation starting in my toes and flowing up my legs. The nurse’s face started to wobble and I was asleep.

“You have a visitor,” the nurse said.

I’d been in the hospital for four days. My hearing had returned, the neck brace was off and I was bored out of my skull. The careful administrations of Nurse Myers weren’t enough to distract me from the tedium of being stuck in a bed all day.

I hadn’t had any visitors yet. I’d not been allowed to tell my parents about the injury and they’d been fed some story about me being on a placement in Leeds. Why Leeds I have no idea. I wasn’t too happy about it. When you’re lying in bed, with your head half crushed and your ribs aching, a boy really needs his mother. But given how Mum had reacted when I fell off my bike and needed the stitches – which was to say, she freaked – if she found out about me being blown up it would probably mean the end of my career at ARES. Whatever their reasons, it meant I was now bored out of my skull. So the thought of a visitor was quite exciting.

Abbott appeared from behind the white curtain surrounding my bed. “How are you doing, Scott?” He sounded concerned, but also as if he was trying to hold back a lot of anger.

“I’m good, thanks, Mr Abbott. Getting a bit bored if I’m honest. And no one will tell me what happened.”

He stepped closer to the bed and checked we were alone. “It was a suicide bomber.”

I was stunned. I’d been a victim of a genuine terrorist attack. “I… How do you know?”

“These are the pictures from the CCTV camera on the Tube.

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