by Eliza Green
‘Dom won that round,’ said Supervisor One. ‘He found six of the discs in the time allowed.’ He turned an icy gaze on Anya.
‘But Anya tried something different. Why don’t you tell everyone what you did?’
They all looked at her.
‘I shot at the wall. It’s organic and I was able to pass through.’
‘But you wound up trapped?’
She nodded.
‘You see, Anya cheated and the maze trapped her. When she ran out of charge she could no longer progress. How many discs did you find?’
‘Four.’
Supervisor One held his chin high. ‘The lesson is clear. You can cheat and guarantee a low score, or you can play it fair and find more discs. The latter will take you longer but it is achievable.’
She hadn’t cheated. Her solution was strategic.
‘It’s still the middle of the night, so get some rest for now,’ said the supervisor. ‘We’ll resume the game in the morning.’ He pointed at two doors beneath the screen. ‘The door on the left will take you to your new dormitories. The one on the right leads to the dining hall.’
The girls all headed for the dining hall. Anya was relieved to discover food was free again. After eating, she was ready for sleep.
The mixed dorm set up gave her pause.
She waited for the boys to choose a side before she claimed the first bed on the opposite side. She would never allow herself to get trapped again.
Sheila protested when she saw Anya had taken the first bed, but June dragged her away to a different bed. Sheila grunted, but seemed happy to take one beside Yasmin. June took the bed beside Anya’s.
Jerome walked in and June waved him over.
‘Jerome, there’s a spare bed over here.’
Anya was okay with that. Jerome should be with people who cared about him. They had all been friends once, a long time ago.
She sneaked a glance at Warren. He was pulling a pair of pyjama bottoms from his bag. But then he looked up. Looked over. Looked away.
Anya pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She rested a cheek on her knees. She would sleep in her clothes tonight.
Jerome dropped his bag on the floor and sat beside June on her bed, facing Anya.
‘Are you okay, Anya? You seem a little off.’
She sat up straight. ‘I’m fine. I’m just tired. How are you?’
He studied his hands in his lap. ‘I’m okay. I guess. It’s going to take some time.’ June rested her hand on Jerome’s. Seeing his lower lip tremble, Anya pressed her cheek into her knees again.
‘I decided something today,’ he said.
‘What?’ said June.
‘I’m going to finish this programme. I’m going to do it for Frank. It’s what he would have done for me.’
Frank had wanted to live. He had told Anya as much, right before he’d touched the gold door.
June squeezed his hand. ‘We all finish for Frank and Tahlia.’
‘For Frank and Tahlia,’ said Anya. ‘And Lilly.’ She slid her legs from the bed to the floor and leaned back on her hands.
A quiet descended on the room as the three of them remembered their fallen friends. But a new conversation between two boys she didn’t know caught her attention.
‘What was the third floor like?’ the first boy asked.
‘A little bit weird,’ said the second with a shrug. ‘There was this maze and a red door we weren’t supposed to open.’
Anya looked away.
‘It was killing me not to open it,’ said the second boy, unaware of the audience. ‘Jerry had to sit on me so I wouldn’t go there.’
Anya dropped her chin and let her hair cover her face. She should have stopped Frank.
Through a veil of hair she peeked up at Jerome. He smiled softly and mouthed, ‘Not your fault.’ She nodded.
She had almost forgotten that Dom was in the room.
She looked across at him. He sat on the edge of his bed facing her, hands clasped together, his forearms resting on his knees. Was he watching her? No, he was staring at the wall behind Anya’s head. His gaze shifted slightly but not to her, to the others. His face wore a range of emotions she couldn’t pinpoint: anger, concern. Guilt?
And then he caught her in his stare. She saw the pain in his expression. He looked away. Looked at his hands. Looked at a different wall.
Anya searched the floor for her heart.
She glanced at Sheila, searching for answers. She and Yasmin were talking in low whispers.
‘So how did you know to shoot the wall?’ said Jerome.
‘Uh?’
Her eyes flickered to Dom. His attention was on her again.
‘The wall. You said it was organic.’
She shrugged. ‘I put my hand on it and it didn’t feel like a real wall. I was getting turned around so much it felt like the maze was closing me in.’
‘And it did, eventually,’ said Jerome.
‘Yeah. Wasn’t a smart tactic.’
Yasmin and Sheila had moved up a bed, closer to them.
‘I heard Supervisor One talking to Supervisor Two,’ said Yasmin. ‘Something about accelerating the programme.’ She paused. ‘Is it just me or does Supervisor One look different to how he looked on the first floor? It’s like he bench-pressed 150 pounds and ran a marathon or something.’
Everyone agreed.
‘So Dom has earned the most points,’ said Jerome, glancing at him. ‘I guess we keep playing until we have a winner. How many rounds, do you think?’
‘Until we pass their test,’ said Dom.
Anya tried to catch his eye. She hated this new weirdness between them; ever since she’d told him to pair off with Sheila.
The others listened. Except for Warren, who pretended he wasn’t interested.
Yasmin whispered in Sheila’s ear. Sheila’s wide eyes flicked between Warren and Anya.
Yasmin, the traitor.
‘I like Anya’s idea of blasting the walls,’ said Jerome. ‘How many blasts do we get per gun?’
‘Fourteen discs, so fourteen shots each,’ said Dom, leaning back on his hands.
‘Can’t we split into teams?’ said June. ‘We can each take turns to blast the wall, then the disc. The supervisor said we could do it any way we liked.’
‘There needs to be a winner,’ said Yasmin.
‘Why do we need a winner?’ said Sheila. ‘Why can’t we all finish on the same score and rotate together?’
Anya pressed down her anger. She didn’t want Warren to progress. But she didn’t want the others to miss out on rotation.
June sat up straight. ‘Okay, that’s possible. But there are thirteen of us. How do we split the teams?’
The thought of working alongside Warren made Anya sick to her stomach.
‘Warren’s with Sheila and me,’ said Yasmin quickly, shooting Warren a look.
That earned Anya a curious look from Dom.
‘The girls against the boys?’ Jerome suggested.
‘No, that won’t work,’ said Sheila. ‘The boys finished higher.’
‘We need the girls to split up, so it’s even,’ said Dom. ‘The boys are better at navigating the maze.’
‘Dom, you should partner with Anya and June,’ said Sheila. Anya stared at her. It wasn’t what she had in mind at all. ‘Jerome, you’re strong, so you should take one of the teams. You should make it through, no problem. That makes it three teams of three and one of four.’
‘Good idea,’ said Dom. Anya tried to read him, to work out if he was disappointed not to be teamed up with Sheila. Sheila was still his best chance of rotating. But Anya could be fast, and June was trained in combat, like him. Together, they would help him succeed.
‘Okay, so the strategy is for all of us to finish on the same score,’ said June.
‘If you decide to shoot the wall,’ said Anya, ‘don’t hesitate. Push through. It solidifies almost immediately.’
Jerome yawned, an ac
tion that set off Anya. But she felt too wired to sleep.
They each climbed into their beds. Anya tucked the sheets around her neck. Dom gave her one last lingering look. She broke eye contact first and turned on her side.
The dorm was too public.
After they rotated, she and Dom needed to talk.
45
The morning began with three short, sharp siren blasts. The overhead lights flicked on. Anya groaned as she got out of bed. It felt like she’d only slept for a couple of hours.
They all gathered in the games room on the fifth floor, dressed in their combat gear. The outfit looked right on Dom, June and Sheila, rebels who belonged in a world that Anya knew nothing about. When she finished this programme, where would her place be in the world?
Supervisor One—or rather his copy—stood before them.
‘There’s been a change of plan,’ he said. ‘The Collective requires the programme to move on faster than expected.’
Anya’s heart skipped a beat. Did that mean the rebels and Jason were close?
‘There are too many waiting on the floors below. You will go through one more round in the maze before we decide who will rotate.’
The rules kept changing. Something, or someone, had rattled this Collective group.
Anya glanced at Dom, who stared at the ground, a faint smile on his lips.
‘Same rules as yesterday,’ said the supervisor. She detected a nervous tremor in his voice. ‘This time, you have fifteen minutes to complete the task.’
Five minutes less than yesterday.
The music started and Anya tagged on after June, carrying her Electro Gun. They followed Dom inside the maze.
The first corridor turned them left. At the end of a longer section, they found the first disc floating in the air and Dom standing in front of it.
He yelled over the music. ‘I’m ahead on points, so you both need to shoot it.’
Last night, their group of three had determined their best chance of rotating together was to finish on the same points. Anya and June both fired at the disc. Their names glimmered faintly in the air, then disappeared. Anya hoped their strategy would work. She would not risk Dom’s chance to find his mother.
Shots rang out across different parts of the maze. Anya’s team ran along the outer wall until they reached a turn. Together they took a left, then a right, and found a second disc. Again, Anya and June both shot the disc, bringing them closer to Dom’s score.
The first discs were easy.
‘Which way now?’ said Anya.
Dom looked one way, then the other. The maze ran in different directions. He pressed his hand against the wall. ‘You’re right about it being organic. I can feel the different textures.’
‘Yeah,’ said June. ‘But as soon as we learn the pattern, the wall changes.’
Anya felt a new vibration, out of sync with the music, shuddering up her legs. She stared at the floor.
Maybe she was wrong and it was nothing. But June had noticed it, too. ‘I felt that.’
Dom froze, staring at Anya. ‘What is it? What did you feel?’
Anya spoke close to his ear. ‘For the last couple of days, I’ve been feeling strange vibrations just before rotation.’
He pulled back and frowned at her. ‘You think they’re linked to rotation?’
‘Three on the floor below,’ she yelled, holding up three fingers. ‘This is the second one I’ve felt on this floor. I could be wrong.’
Dom stood between Anya and June, who acted as a buffer to the noise. What he said next came through clear.
‘The vibrations are the by-product of some Arcis-orchestrated action. Whatever they’re doing could be enough to put a serious dent Arcis’ power supply so the rebels can get past the force field.’
‘This can’t wait, Dom,’ said June. ‘You need to let Max know, now.’
Dom looked unsure, but then he nodded at Anya. ‘Your instincts have been spot on so far.’ He looked down at his gun. ‘You both have twelve shots left and I still have fourteen. I think it’s too early to shoot the wall.’
‘I agree,’ said Anya. ‘The maze changed a lot faster when I shot it. I only got two more discs before it closed in on me.’
‘Okay, so we agree to keep going. You two run ahead while I make the call.’
Dom trailed behind June and Anya to relay the message. Anya guessed that June didn’t have the same means to communicate.
When he finished he took the lead again, much to Anya’s delight. She sucked at directions.
Another succession of shots sounded around the arena as the other teams found more discs. Anya and her team spent too long looking for their third black disc. June shot it to even their scores.
‘Okay, that’s three,’ said Dom. ‘But this strategy is too slow.’ He turned to Anya. ‘Why did you shoot at the wall in the first place?’
‘Because someone shot a disc close by. I couldn’t figure out how to get to it so I went through the wall.’
The clock showed thirteen of the fifteen minutes had passed.
‘We need to get to where the others are,’ said Dom. ‘We have to finish on the same score.’
They kept moving, but Anya saw the maze was already beginning to change.
‘What if we climb up?’ said June.
Dom raked his nails down the wall. ‘Nothing to hold on to. Plus we might not see the discs from up there.’
They heard someone fire a shot close by.
‘That sounded like it was right beside us.’ Dom aimed his weapon at the wall. ‘I think we should try Anya’s way.’
Hearing him say her name sent a flutter through her. It felt like old times. She hoped they could be friends again when this was all over. But Dom’s hot and cold moods around her made the future uncertain.
‘We’ll need to move through it fast,’ Anya reminded them.
Dom shot the wall. Anya pulled June through the shimmering surface. Dom didn’t hesitate to follow. She saw a disc on the other side.
But she also saw Warren.
Anya froze at the sight of him.
Warren looked equally shocked as he stared at the wall they had just passed through. There was no sign of Sheila or Yasmin.
‘Where’s the rest of your team?’ Dom shouted over the music.
‘They were slowing me down,’ said Warren.
Anya was shaking at being this close to her attacker.
‘We agreed to stick in teams,’ said June.
‘No. You all agreed without me,’ said Warren. ‘I always planned on getting off this floor my own way. I don’t care what the rest of you have arranged.’
The thin tether keeping Anya grounded snapped, unleashing a torrent of hatred. She lifted her Electro Gun and fired two perfect blasts into Warren’s body.
‘That’s for Tahlia, you bastard. And for all the... shitty things...’
Warren convulsed on the ground.
A shocked Dom pushed her gun down. ‘What did you do that for?’
Her breathing was too ragged for her to speak. Anger swirled inside her and she snapped the gun away from him. Her hands shook as she aimed for her third shot.
This time June pushed down the weapon. ‘I’m not arguing with your choice of target, but save your shots for the discs.’
Anya directed her rage at the disc instead and fired. Dom and June followed suit. Anya had counted four discs, so far. Dom had twelve shots remaining and one disc. June had ten. Anya had nine.
‘June, it’s your turn,’ said Dom, pointing at the wall.
Another shot sounded close by. June fired at the wall. They passed through it. But then, the maze shifted, closing off one of the routes. It forced them to head right, into a small square room.
Anya heard Jerome shout, ‘We’re here.’
Dom fired at the next wall. They pushed into the next corridor where they found Jerome’s team, and the group of four.
‘How many have you shot?’
‘Four,’ said Jerome.
‘We’re all on seven.’
‘Same here.’
‘Where are Sheila and Yasmin?’
‘I don’t know. Warren ditched them.’
Dom cupped his mouth and called out Sheila’s name, but there was little chance she’d hear him above the music.
Anya glanced at the clock. They had less than a minute left.
‘We have to do it without them,’ said Dom.
He was right. Arcis wasn’t a game. It was about sacrifice; about saving a life, or even taking one.
They raised their guns together and shot the remaining disc that would count as a score. With just ten seconds remaining, they had no time left to find another.
The timer ran down and the music stopped, but the thumping in Anya’s ears played on. The wall disappeared into grooves in the floor.
She saw Sheila and Yasmin stood together at one of the discs. Had they shot it in time? Warren was back on his feet. His movements were slow and jerky, but he had managed to find another disc.
They came together slowly. The overhead lights flickered; a sign that rotation was imminent.
The only sure sign, so far.
The strange vibrations might be another clue, but unless someone had received Dom’s message, it wouldn’t matter. Anya ditched all previous negative thoughts about the rebels. Right now, they were her only hope of getting out of Arcis alive.
Supervisor One entered the room looking calm and collected—like the wolves on the ground floor, whose moods never varied.
But it was the scoreboard that drew Anya’s attention.
She read the names and cursed.
Not all of them had made it through.
46
Jason vied with eight others for space at Charlie Roberts’ kitchen table as everyone tucked into pots of meat, fruit and bread. Max was busy looking over the Atomiser and the Disruptor gun. Preston had a screen balanced on one knee and the orb on the table in front of him.
That morning, Jason and Preston had compared and combined all the data they held on the power fluctuations with Charlie, and had come to the conclusion the orb was the strongest signal-booster they had. While Charlie hadn’t been able to communicate directly with Dom or Sheila, he’d kept a record of every flicker of light in Essention, every moment the scanners’ blue light cut out mid-scan, every time the guns didn’t rotate with the apparent ease he knew they could. Charlie had charted the dips and peaks on his screen and Jason had filled in any gaps using information gathered by him and Thomas. When they’d finished, the chart told them precisely how long the power went down for: one minute and eight seconds. Just enough time to reboot something?