by Eliza Green
Anya would have laughed, if she’d had the energy.
She arrived back at her accommodation. Her tiredness protected her against its eerie silence whenever Jason wasn’t there. Her stomach growled, but she had to wash her sweat-stained clothes first.
She’d stopped closing the bathroom door ever since Jason had started spending his evenings out. She freed the blouse and skirt from her bag and filled the sink with water. Lathering up the bar of soap on the edge of the sink, she plunged in the blouse and skirt in the water, and scrubbed.
A floorboard creaked, and Anya froze, the loose fabric crushed between her wet, slippery hands.
A face appeared around the corner causing her to squeak.
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,’ said Jason.
‘Where did you come from?’
He thumbed down the hall. ‘I was in my room.’
Her skin bristled with retreating fear. She stared at her too-skinny brother. His brown hair, which was a lighter shade than hers, had grown long enough to fall into his eyes. She glanced down at his hands that he had stuffed in his pockets. His gaze lacked its usual humour. Anya turned back to the sink, away from the brother she no longer recognised.
‘You scared me. I didn’t expect to see you.’
‘I know. I’ve been busy. I’m sorry.’
‘Doing what?’ She kept her eyes on the soap-bubbled water.
‘Just stuff with the boys from work.’
His vague answer caused her to look up at him. He avoided her gaze.
‘I heard you got rotated to the first floor. How is it?’
She sighed. ‘It’s... energetic. Nothing I can’t handle.’
‘What are you doing there?’
She shrugged and continued to scrub, making sure to get under the arms of the blouse she preferred to her overalls.
‘Filing. Preparing us for work in an office. They want to test our ability to work under pressure, they say.’
‘Well, I guess that sounds productive.’
She rested her wet hands on the edge of the sink, giving him her full attention.
‘What, Arcis isn’t good enough for you now?’
‘Calm down, Anya. I didn’t say anything.’ He popped his hands out of his pockets. That’s when she saw several fresh cuts.
‘You were the one who told me it would be good for me.’
Jason rubbed the back of his neck. ‘It will be. It’ll help keep you safe while—’
‘While you check out the towns? It’s a suicide mission.’
‘I’ve been briefed on what to expect. It will be a quick check and then I’ll be back before you can miss me.’
She already missed him.
‘So what’s the delay? Why aren’t you gone yet?’
‘We need a safe way to get out and back without anyone noticing. I’ve been helping to dig a tunnel out of here.’
The words hit her like a slow-moving train. She’d seen this coming for a while now: the fresh cuts on his hands; the dirt under his fingernails.
Her brother had been preparing to leave her for some time.
Anya dropped her hands to her sides; water dripped from her fingertips to the white-tiled floor.
‘What about the guns on Essention’s wall? What if you’re being led into a trap?’
‘I need to see if the rumours are right. I need to go. Our parents will have died in vain if we let the rebels keep us from our homes.’
He had a point. But the rebels had already forced them out of their home once. What would stop them from doing it a second time?
‘When are you going?’
‘I don’t know. Soon.’
Tears pricked her eyes. She let them fall.
‘And I can’t talk you out of it?’
Jason shook his head. ‘Arcis is the best place to be right now. You’ll be safe there. I’ll be back in a couple of days. Probably sooner.’
Dom had said the chip in Anya’s wrist would stop her heart if she ventured beyond Essention’s walls.
‘How will you leave? The chip will kill you.’
‘I know people with technologies I haven’t seen before. Technology from Praesidium. They can disguise the chip’s signature. Make them think we’re still here.’
Anya plunged her hands into the soapy water. More tears fell.
‘Jason...’
He stepped closer. ‘I know.’
‘Be careful.’
‘I will. Come on.’ He held out his hand. ‘I’ll fix you something to eat.’
She wanted to be brave, to tell him she could cope on her own. Instead she wrapped her arms around him and pressed her cheek hard against his shoulder. The sobbing subsided until only silence remained. Anya pulled away and swiped at her wet cheeks. She was done being Jason’s responsibility.
‘I’ll be right in. I just need to finish up.’
‘Okay.’ Jason hesitated at the door. ‘I’m sorry, Anya. For everything.’
She was sorry. It was her fault. She should have finished this. Handed herself over to the rebels when she’d had the chance.
Amid a prolonged silence, they sat down to a dinner of stale bread, pots of meat and rationed fruit. It was then Anya realised something was broken between them.
21
After two days of running between the records and the terminals, Anya wished for her bed by lunchtime. On the third day, she was ready to drop.
They had their own dining hall on the first floor, a space no bigger than the hall on the ground floor with the same limited food choices. Anya wished she could go outside, but they had to stay on site during lunch. A new rule.
At least she could still go home in the evenings. She had stopped eating Jason’s food from the factory. Jason would be gone soon. She saw no point.
In the dining hall, eight original first-floor workers sat at their own table. Among them was Anya’s new enemy; the wiry blonde girl who’d injured her on her first day. She ignored them and followed Tahlia to the food counter.
Gentle laughter rumbled from a second group made up of the remaining ex-ground-floor workers.
Anya and Tahlia got their food and found a table.
Tahlia bumped into her as she sat down on the long bench.
‘Sorry,’ she said, her usual edge softened by tiredness.
She picked up her sandwich, stared at it, took a bite, chewed with her mouth open. A strand of her pink hair dislodged and landed in her food. Anya reached forward and picked it out.
Tahlia stared at it with glossy eyes. ‘Oh, thanks.’
The others sat down.
‘So,’ said Jerome, ‘do we have to fetch and carry empty files for the whole month or will they change things up?’ He ran a hand through his black hair, cut close to his scalp. ‘Because I think I’m pretty good at it now and there’s not much more to learn.’
‘Yeah, this is bullshit, if you ask me.’ Frank took a large bite out of his apple and smacked his lips grossly as he ate. Anya kicked him under the table.
‘Sorry.’
He smirked at Jerome and they both burst into laughter.
June brimmed with energy Anya wanted to ask her what motivated her. Maybe she’d pegged her all wrong from the start.
‘What’s this floor supposed to teach us, then?’ said Frank.
Warren shrugged. ‘The virtue of patience?’
Everybody laughed, including Anya. Warren looked her way but she avoided his gaze. She didn’t want to think about potential alliances. It was a rare nice moment. Why did Warren have to ruin it?
Ω
Lunch was over but Anya couldn’t face another afternoon of filing yet. She stole out to the walkway to find it empty.
She looked up at the second-floor walkway, and the third, and the fourth, in staggered positions all the way up to the ninth.
The door above her swung open and her hand flew to her throat.
She hadn’t seen Dom for almost two weeks. He wore a white boiler suit over his clothes, fitted so tight to his broad che
st that she could see the outline of his T-shirt. His limp was gone, but his eyes were hollow and vacant, like Tahlia’s. When he didn’t see her, she called out to him.
He stopped and looked down, putting a hand on the railing to steady himself.
‘Anya,’ he said softly, with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. ‘I’m glad to see you took my advice to move forward.’
A brief sparkle to his gaze made her grin. But it disappeared too fast, taking her smile with it.
‘Are you okay? You don’t look so good.’
‘Nothing a decent night’s sleep won’t fix. How are you finding the first floor?’
‘A little boring, if I’m being honest.’
His tired gaze sharpened. ‘But you’re not the slowest?’
Her skin prickled. ‘No. Why?’
‘Just remember what I told you. Timing is everything.’ His finger fluttered by his ear, and he walked on.
‘I’ve got to go. It’s really good to see you, Anya.’
She believed him.
But seeing him walk away twisted her heart horribly.
‘You told me that already. Tell me something new about this floor.’
She wasn’t ready for him to disappear again. Her heart lifted when he stopped.
‘I can’t tell you much, I’m sorry. Pay attention to the timer. The first floor is not just about pressure.’ Then he disappeared through the door for Tower A.
Anya stared at the door waiting for him to come back, but he didn’t. He was gone again.
For another two weeks?
Forever?
Anya returned to the terminal room and waited for the afternoon shift to begin. A round grey clock on the wall ticked more loudly with the passing of each second. The others chatted by the terminals. Warren looked as if he was processing a strategy in his head. The clock’s monotonous ticking drowned out all thoughts. Except for one. She recalled Dom’s last words.
Pay attention to the timer.
She stared at the clock’s third hand—the one counting down the seconds—as it moved towards the hour. Her terminal whirred into life and a file number flashed up on the screen: 1671. On day one, she’d written numbers on her hand until she ran out of space. Then she’d started memorising them. But today she wanted to see how long it took for her to get the file from the records room. She’d borrowed Jason’s spare wristwatch with a timer.
Her screen flashed danger-red. She stared at the timer and the allocated six minutes. Four fewer than before lunch.
Anya blinked away her distraction and focused on the room. The others had already left. Her eyes flashed to the screen and the ten seconds she’d already wasted. She started the stopwatch in mid-dash from the room and ran onto the walkway without pausing.
She’d be fine. The files were listed in order.
But the frantic activity in the records room jolted her to a stop.
‘Everything’s been moved around,’ said Frank. ‘I can’t find my file!’
Panic spread through her. The original first-floor workers were the only ones keeping it together.
Anya jumped onto the first free ladder, and tried to work out the new order of the files.
Pay attention to the timer. Timing is everything.
She moved to three more ladders before locating her file—1671—among the eight hundreds. She snatched the transparent folder but it slipped from her sweaty grasp and landed on the floor. She moved down two rungs at a time. Tahlia had found her own file and was running out of the door. Her heart tugged triumphantly for her friend.
On the last rung, her foot caught and her ankle snapped to the side. She bit back a scream as she collected her file. Then she hobbled as fast as she could with a sprained ankle and second-hand shoes. June and Frank still searched. Warren was nowhere in sight.
Silence greeted her in the terminal room as the others who’d already scanned their files waited. All eyes were on her, Frank and June as they smashed through the double doors. Warren clamped his thumb between his teeth. Anya grabbed the scanner. Her whole body shook with fear.
What happened when the timer ran out? Why did it matter?
She pressed the button on the scanner and the red hatch illuminated the front of the file.
Her eyes flashed to the screen. The timer still counted back.
Seven seconds, six, five...
She stared at the file in her hand and gasped, flipping it over the second she realised the barcode was on the other side. She pressed the trigger once, twice, three times. The cross-hatch appeared. The timer had reached zero. She kept her eyes on the screen. What did this mean? Why did she feel like running?
A low rumble started from inside the terminal. It changed to a higher pitch, increasing with fervour as the air supercharged statically around her.
She felt it in her hands first. Sparks of potent light sprang from the terminal to her fingertips, using the scanner as a conduit. She gulped down a breath and tried to drop the device, but it had become part of her hand. Her fingers refused to release the black metal object.
The electricity pitched and rolled in waves, pulsing through her, searching for a way out. A searing pain streaked through her like hot needles, puncturing her skin at every imaginable point. And still she couldn’t move. She smelled burning skin.
The strands of light keeping her frozen dimmed suddenly, and she flopped to the cushioned floor. The fire scorched and blazed in her fingertips, her nerves, her feet. She still couldn’t move. Her arms and legs were jelly.
She saw a moaning Frank and a drooling June on the floor beside her. Anya knew now why the floor was cushioned.
The pain marginally released its grip and she tried to move, but her limbs wouldn’t cooperate. A concerned Warren appeared at her side, and tried to help her sit up.
She caught new movement at the double doors. The supervisor entered, surrounded by several attendants dressed in white boiler suits. Then she saw Dom. He carried a green box with a white cross on the front.
Dom pushed Warren out of the way and knelt down beside Anya as the others tended to June and Frank. She tried to lift her head, but a pain ripped through her skull.
‘Lie still,’ he said quietly. He pinched her wrist with his fingers and checked her pulse. ‘The first time is the worst. But it’s not enough to kill you.’
He coaxed her mouth open with his latex finger and shone a light down her throat.
‘Your throat is swollen, but I have something for that.’
He helped her sit up, and slotted something in his ears. He pressed a metal circle to her skin. Anya flinched at its coolness.
‘The electricity alters your cardiac rhythm.’
He stared blankly at Anya’s chest as he listened to her heartbeat. He put away the stethoscope and took out a syringe from his medical box.
‘This will help to counteract the effects and reduce the swelling in your throat.’
He jabbed her upper arm and pushed the liquid. She didn’t think to ask what was in it. She trusted him.
Others worked on Frank and June, who were sitting up and seemed fine. June tensed up when the medic came at her with a needle. He didn’t explain anything the way Dom had for her.
‘It’s okay,’ said Anya. ‘It will help.’
Dom had turned to June at the exact same time. She nodded at both of them.
Warren sat on the edge of a desk, staring at Dom.
When the shock had eased a little, several spots on her hands and feet began to throb. Dom took out a tube of paste from the box. He removed her shoes and applied some paste to the burned areas where the electricity had entered and exited.
‘The skin salve will clear those wounds right up.’
His touch should have tickled her feet, but an intense burning preceded cool relief.
‘I thought the floor...’
‘Rubberised?’ Dom flashed a crooked smile. ‘That would make more sense. No. It’s just to cushion your fall. In about ten minutes, you’ll be up and about l
ike none of this happened.’
She stared at him, seeing first-hand the dark circles under his eyes. She also saw a bright ring of gold along the outer edges of his partially dilated pupils.
‘You look w-worse than I feel.’ Anya stumbled over the words, the effects of her electric shock still present.
Dom didn’t respond straight away. He packed away his things. ‘Work smart. Timing is everything.’
‘How often... f-for you?’ Her tongue didn’t feel like her own.
‘Too often.’ He shone a light into her eyes, leaning forward until his lips were at her neck. She almost didn’t hear what he said next.
‘You’re going to feel different in a while. I need you to keep just how different you feel to yourself. Do you understand?’
Anya shook her head.
‘Promise me that whatever you feel, you’ll maintain a cool head. Just keep going.’
She held up her scorched hand. ‘Is this... why you... didn’t tell me?’
He pulled back from her. ‘Just rest, Anya. No more questions.’
Supervisor One appeared and Dom helped Anya to her feet. She turned to ask Dom something else, but he was already walking away. She was relieved to see Frank and June were on their feet, too.
The supervisor dominated her vision.
‘After your shift, you three will remain on-site for the next couple of days. For observation.’
Anya hesitated. ‘I... I need to let my brother know.’
‘That’s an order. You have just been hit by a bolt of electricity. We will inform your next of kin.’
Next of kin? She wasn’t dead.
‘What—why did this happen?’
Supervisor One gripped her arm. ‘Are you motivated? Do you want to progress?’
Anya nodded.
‘Then you must accept what is asked of Arcis.’
She boldly asked her next question. ‘And what is Arcis asking of me?’
‘You’re here to help others learn from your mistakes.’ The supervisor let go and walked on. ‘Work smart. Timing is everything.’
22
Anya couldn’t believe Arcis expected them to keep working, as if nothing had happened. According to Dom, the electricity wouldn’t have been enough to kill her. But the heart palpitations, which had continued for several minutes after the shock, made her worry he was wrong.