by Eliza Green
June went next. No alarms sounded as the blue light turned her pale skin a ghostly blue. She smiled and held her hand out for Frahlia. The scanner bathed the child in blue and both of them crossed over the threshold. Alex followed next, then Jerome.
Anya shrugged at Dom and the others. ‘Seems okay.’
He nodded for her to try. The blue light scanned Anya, then switched off. She walked through the door with him following. On the other side, he looked back at the remaining group: Carissa, Charlie, Vanessa, Jerome and Thomas.
‘Come on, it’s safe.’
Jacob pushed Carissa forward. She looked up at the scanner. It started out blue but flashed red suddenly. The door began to close.
‘What the hell?’
Dom lunged at the door, catching the edges. He pulled back, but the weight of the door dragged his feet along the ground.
‘Wait! We’re not all inside,’ shouted June down the corridor.
A shocked-looking Jacob yanked Carissa back from the entry before it trapped her.
Dom shouted, ‘I’ll find a way to open it again.’
Vanessa and Charlie nodded at him.
The last thing he heard was Charlie saying, ‘Be careful, son...’
Dom tossed the Disruptor through the gap. ‘Thomas, take it.’
He scrambled for the gun.
The door sucked shut, leaving a stunned Dom to stare at the metal.
Anya clawed at the handle visible on their side. ‘We need to open it again.’
The familiar sound of guns being cocked and electricity whirring spun Dom round. His rebel soldiers had their guns up. Ahead of them was a group of armed soldiers, their guns pointed at his team.
A female soldier stepped forward and stood between their groups. ‘Welcome to the Beyond.’
19
Carissa
Carissa stared at the door. ‘What happened?’
The Inventor said, ‘It closed on us.’
No, it had closed on her when she’d tried to go through. The blue scanner had flashed red.
She looked up at the Inventor. ‘Why wouldn’t it let me pass?’
He patted her on the shoulder, but his gaze was on the others. She’d spent enough time with him to know what that pitying look meant.
Carissa had trapped him, Vanessa, Charlie and Thomas on this side of the Beyond.
A new energy hummed. She felt pressure on her arms and legs as something new pushed her back.
Thomas cursed. ‘They’ve erected a damn force field.’
‘I don’t feel comfortable being down here. We could be under surveillance,’ said Vanessa with a shiver. ‘We should return up top, work out a plan there.’
Charlie nodded. ‘Let’s do it fast before the Copy guards figure out the hack.’
The Inventor marched back to the stairs. His stiff posture and clenched fists told Carissa she should give him space. She trailed at the back of the group.
‘Don’t worry, Carissa,’ said Thomas, turning, the Disruptor and Atomiser in his grasp. ‘Jacob and I know a few things about force fields. We’ll find another way through the door.’
She didn’t know why the brown-haired young man was being nice to her, but his kindness soothed the frayed edges of her nerves. She managed a quick nod and a smile at him.
The Inventor reached the base of the stairs and anchored his hands on either side of the wall. He placed one foot on the first step.
Thomas muscled his way to the front.
‘Wait here. I’ll check,’ Thomas said, easing the old man’s hand from the wall.
Jacob relented with a sigh and the whisper of a smile.
‘Me too,’ said Carissa.
She had no idea how long a hack to the system would keep the guards in a confused state. A combination of her and Thomas’ efforts should determine that fast enough.
At the top of the stairs, Thomas eased the door open with one gun. Carissa peered past him into the room to see the Copies still looked disorientated.
She huffed out a breath and said, ‘I think they’re still under. We need to hurry.’
Below, the Inventor started to climb. Charlie followed and Vanessa brought up the rear. She looked concerned for the two puffing, old men in front of her. Her arms were outstretched a small way, as though she expected them to topple back down.
Carissa said to Thomas, ‘You need to check if they can see you.’
Thomas nodded and stepped into the room. The Collective’s guards continued to mutter incoherently and shift on the spot, but they remained blind to the presence of a human. Quintus must have issued a central command to all units to protect the Great Hall. But the lack of additional security told Carissa that the Collective no longer resided here.
Thomas turned back to the others. ‘They can’t see me.’
‘You should go,’ Carissa said, pushing him out the door. ‘I’ll wait for the others.’
Thomas kept to the walls and away from the disorientated guards. Carissa saw their minds working to process the info dump she’d told Thomas to send to their connection. At least the same confusion didn’t apply to her. Not for the first time, she was grateful to no longer be on the network.
When one of the Copies lunged at Thomas, she clutched at her throat. He skipped out of the guard’s clutches and disappeared from view. When the far door opened and closed, she breathed out.
Carissa turned her attention to the next person.
Charlie looked inside the Great Hall. ‘Did young Thomas make it?’
‘Yes, but we need to hurr—’
A voice in her head cut her off. ‘173-C, what are you doing? Have you found the Beyond? I’m detecting confusion among the Copies in the Great Hall.’
Flicking her gaze to the trio in the stairwell, she answered only one of those questions. ‘The Copies are malfunctioning, Quintus.’
‘I can access their systems from here,’ Quintus said. ‘I will reset them.’
‘No need to reset them, Quintus. I can fix them.’
She waved Charlie, Jacob and Vanessa ahead. They kept to the wall, like Thomas had.
A new silence from Quintus filled her with dread. ‘Quintus, are you there? I said I can fix them.’
All three of them had reached the screens and the podium, hugging the wall that would take them to the door. The guards continued to lash out blindly, as if fighting off an unseen enemy.
Quintus said, ‘I have performed an analysis. The Copies have been in this state for five full minutes. Why have you delayed fixing them?’
Carissa’s part-organic heart pounded in her chest. She thought fast. ‘I... thought they were running diagnostics.’ She saw the trio were only halfway along the final wall. ‘I’m not connected to the network so I couldn’t check for myself.’
‘Then how did you expect to fix them?’
‘I... er...’
A Copy lunged for the Inventor.
Carissa gasped.
‘What’s wrong 173-C?’ said Quintus. ‘I cannot read your vital signs.’
She jogged into the room, pushing through the swell of Copies to get to the Inventor.
‘Nothing’s wrong, Quintus. I’m on my way to the Great Hall now to see if I can help.’
‘No need, 173-C. I have accessed their systems. They appear to be under attack. Was it the rebels?’ A moment’s silence followed, then Quintus said, ‘What have you allowed the humans to do?’
‘Nothing, Quintus.’
She skidded to a stop next to the Copy that had the Inventor’s arm in a tight grip. From the doorway, Thomas guided the others to safety. Making it out, she turned her attention to the guard who refused to let the Inventor go. The old man tried to free his arm.
Carissa jumped onto the guard’s back. The guard startled and tried to twist around in the tight space. She slapped its ears. The Copy released the Inventor suddenly, then swung around with Carissa on his back. She slipped off and landed on the floor with a thud.
Several Copies rounded on her.
‘I’ve reset their systems,’ said Quintus.
Carissa breathed in and out fast. One of the guards reached down for her and picked her up by her top. He held her up at eye level.
‘What are you doing?’ the guard said, alert and no longer confused.
Carissa flicked her gaze over to the door. The Inventor slipped out but stayed by the entrance. He waved at her to come.
She concentrated on the grey eyes of the Copy; she knew him to be lower in status than her. ‘I am 173-C. I command you to put me down.’
The guard ignored her.
‘Quintus, one of the Copies won’t let me go,’ she said.
‘He’s under a new command,’ he replied. ‘Did you find the Beyond?’
‘Yes, but I couldn’t pass through to reach it.’
‘Who made it through?’
She detected excitement in his voice.
‘Most of the humans.’
‘What about Jerome? Alex?’
‘Yes, they did. Why?’
The guard holding her squeezed his eyes shut, then dropped her. A breath rushed out of her upon impact. Carissa crawled away from him and made it to the door. The Inventor and Vanessa pulled her through.
Leaving the hall behind, their group ran for the exit and out to the courtyard. An excited Rover greeted them.
Jacob patted the wolf’s nose as he passed and commanded, ‘Guard the entrance.’
The wolf went into sentry mode. He and his mate stood in the space between the workshop and the Learning Centre.
They slipped into the stairwell. The cool air inside the tunnels settled Carissa’s nerves. Only when they’d reached the Inventor’s workshop did Carissa release her breath.
‘We should be safe here for a while,’ she managed to say. She explained for Charlie and Thomas, ‘The Copies don’t like dark spaces.’
Neither of them had spent time in the city.
The Inventor turned her to face him. ‘What happened in the Great Hall? What did Quintus want to know?’
‘He was asking if we’d found the Beyond, and who had made it through.’
‘It seemed like the guard received a new command, right after you told him something. What was it?’
Carissa swallowed. ‘He was asking about Jerome and Alex. When I said they’d made it, the Copy released me.’
The old man straightened up. Vanessa, Charlie and Thomas stepped in closer.
‘What are you thinking, Jacob?’ Vanessa asked.
He rubbed his chin. Carissa saw the worry in his eyes.
‘Alex and Jerome were brought to this city,’ he said. ‘We have no idea what happened to them during that time. I’m concerned one or both of them are not quite themselves.’
Carissa cleared space on the workshop counter and climbed up onto it. Thomas joined her while Jacob and Charlie took the only two seats. Vanessa paced the room, looking unsettled.
She turned suddenly. ‘How are we going to get out of this one?’ She pointed up through the hole in the roof. ‘We could still leave the city. The defensive barrier is still down.’
‘And go where?’ said Charlie. ‘Back to the camp and risk this place becoming impenetrable? Dom was right. We need to stay. We’ve found the Beyond, and it sounds like this Quintus character is happy about it. If Dom, Sheila and the others are in danger, we need to warn them.’
Vanessa stared at him. ‘How? We’ve got a room full of violent Copies between us and freedom. Not to mention’—her eyes flicked to Carissa—‘Carissa can’t pass through the scanner.’
‘We also don’t know if the system will reset and open the door again,’ said the Inventor.
‘Most systems reboot or reset at some point,’ suggested Thomas. ‘What we experienced was probably a defensive capability. The door will lock down for a predetermined length of time. Then, after that time has lapsed, it should open up again.’
Carissa listened to the others debate their next move. She didn’t see how they could succeed while the guards in the Great Hall remained. She needed to know what Quintus had planned.
‘I think we should search the city properly,’ she said.
All eyes turned to her but only one of the others spoke.
‘Why?’ said the Inventor.
‘Maybe there are other humans here—’
The Inventor mumbled, ‘Of course.’
‘And other Copies.’
He shook his head at her. ‘Why on earth would you want to find more?’
She had an idea. ‘I knew some of them. One of them showed compassion to both Anya and Dom. 118-C was Anya’s medic. If we can find her, she might help.’
Thomas perked up at that idea. ‘I say we try. We could use all the help we can get. Plus, they might know how to disable the other guards in the Great Hall.’
Vanessa was folding her arms tightly and Charlie had his head in his hands. Neither of them looked happy with Carissa’s idea.
But the Inventor seemed intrigued. He said to Carissa, ‘I always suspected there were other Copies like you in this city, miss.’
Other Copies with a conscience and an interest in the humans? Not in the same way Quintus had an interest, but a more sociable one. It intrigued her, too.
She jumped down from the workbench, eager to get started. ‘We should begin our search now.’
The Inventor held up his hand. Her excitement wavered.
‘Not so fast. We should wait until dark to go look. We’re too visible in the daytime.’
‘But we have Rover! And the other wolf—’
‘It’s not enough, miss.’ He turned to the others. ‘I vote we wait until nightfall.’
Charlie and Vanessa agreed.
Thomas muttered a quick sorry to Carissa, then said, ‘Me too.’
She stared at him. ‘I thought you’d be with me on this.’
He shrugged. ‘Night time is safer. We can sneak around more.’
Carissa looked up at the broken roof, then at the entrance. She shivered, hoping she was right about the Copies not coming down here.
But after Quintus’ reset, anything was possible.
20
Anya
‘How many of you are out there?’ the female soldier said.
She was dressed in a uniform with colours familiar to Anya. Black with gold trim on the sleeves and neck. The uniform of Essention. This soldier wore a short, black jacket and tapered trousers with heavy, military boots. Not quite the same. The other gun-toting soldiers wore similar garb.
Who cared what they wore? She must be in shock.
Dom pushed his way through to the front. ‘Enough. Can you open the door?’
The female shook her head. ‘It’s on a twenty-four-hour lockdown.’ She eyed the weapons. ‘I’ll take you to our commander. But first, leave your guns here.’
Anya glanced at Dom, who shrugged lightly. How could he be so calm? They’d just found the Beyond, only a set of stairs and a hidden tunnel away from where the Collective lived.
Ironic. But really, really messed up.
Dom nudged her on, breaking her out of her daze. He tossed his gun through the gap. He ordered the others to do the same. The sound of clanging metal echoed through the tunnel. She added to the noise with her own weapon.
They’d come too far to go backwards.
Their team of rebels followed the five armed men and women. Dom slipped back to where Anya was. Sheila and Imogen did the same. They walked slower than the rest of their group down the darkened tunnel, which had a modern feel to it in places.
Ahead of her, Jerome eyed the space. June smiled as she glanced down at her daughter. A relieved-looking Alex kept pace with them. Alex placed a hand on Frahlia’s back. Anya noticed the girl flinch.
‘Where are we, exactly?’ whispered Anya.
She was free. She should be happy. But she’d been through too much to just accept that they were safe. She’d made that mistake once in Essention.
‘The Beyond, I suppose,’ said Sheila. Her eyes
raked the smooth ceiling. ‘It’s not what I expected.’
‘What did you expect?’ whispered Imogen.
Sheila bit her bottom lip. ‘I don’t know. That’s the problem.’
That was Anya’s issue, too. They’d known of the existence of the Beyond but not what it was. Nor that it would turn out to be so freaking close to the operational hub of Praesidium.
‘Let’s see what this commander has to say,’ said Dom. ‘Our priority is getting the door open and the others to safety.’
Seeing a shocked Carissa staring at the door—at her—had disturbed her. The Copy wasn’t to blame for their predicament, but the Beyond obviously considered her presence to be a hostile act. Could the Beyond be the ultimate safe haven—free of both Copies and the Collective?
The soldiers led them down a long tunnel with doors on either side. Anya glanced into the rooms with open doors. People in white coats milled around what looked like a laboratory. It reminded her of the testing rooms in the medical facility.
Fear lodged in her throat. She forced her gaze ahead.
As though Dom’s mind was tethered to hers, he said, ‘What’s wrong?’
‘I saw labs, people in white coats...’ She swallowed. ‘It reminds me of the medical facility.’ She looked up at him. ‘What if these are Copies?’
He mulled it over for half a second. ‘They can’t be. Otherwise, Carissa would have been allowed to pass.’
That was true. She breathed out. Okay, maybe they weren’t Copies. But the need for laboratories here put her on edge.
The tunnel ended and opened out into a large space. Steel beams carried the weight of a ceiling three times as tall as the tunnel. Trucks were parked in the area. Anya couldn’t see an obvious route for them to get out. A set of steel stairs ahead of them led up to a second floor and what looked to be a lookout area.
The female soldier stopped at the bottom of the stairs. ‘The leader only. Please step forward.’
The rebels looked at Dom, a move that caught the female soldier’s attention. She gestured for him to come closer.
Dom grabbed Anya’s hand and led her through the parting sea of rebel soldiers.