by Greg Krojac
“Right. Let’s get out of here.”
Connor stopped him.
“The superhero costumes.”
“Already sorted. Rebecca stuffed them into the bin liner with the other clothes.”
Rebecca darted back to the rear of the shop and replaced the black plastic bag, before returning to her friends. Connor had a quick look around to check that it was safe to leave their hiding place and the group made their way across the car park and onto the main road, making certain that they kept to the shadows. Rebecca tapped Liam on the shoulder.
“So where are we going?”
“A safe house.”
“If you have a safe house, why the hell didn’t we go there first, instead of staying in that shitty sewer for a week?”
“I wanted to let the heat die down a bit first.”
Jazz interrupted.
“How long have you been planning this?”
“About three years.”
Jazz was confused.
“How’s that possible? Recarn memories don’t kick in until you’re seven years old. That would mean that you would have been just four years old when you first became aware of your past lives.”
“I’ve always been aware.”
“What? I mean, how?”
“Dunno. All I know is that I’ve always known about my past lives.”
“Wow. I don’t know what to say.”
Rebecca interrupted.
“I know what to say. And that’s ‘fuck me, that’s cool’.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
23:00 THURSDAY 18 MARCH 2077
The four fugitives had made good progress, mostly thanks to good fortune and a densely clouded sky that had prevented any glimmer of moonlight from sneaking through and announcing their presence as they snaked their way through the dark streets towards the safe house. A cat unexpectedly sprinted across their path and caused a sharp intake of breath. Liam pointed at a building in the near distance.
“See that house over there? Third from the left? About three hundred yards away? That’s where we’re heading. We can’t stay there long, but it’ll do us for a few nights. It’s stocked with food, has a comms link set up, and – more importantly – weapons.”
Jazz liked the sound of that.
“What kinds of weapons?”
“All kinds of stuff. Pistols, rifles, grenades. Anything we might need?”
Rebecca was nervous.
“What’s the end game?”
Liam turned to her.
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. The whole city is crawling with Defenders. It’s a bloody miracle we haven’t been caught already. How the fuck are we going to get out of here?”
“You’ll see.”
“Is that it? You’ll see?”
“Yes. You’ll see.”
“Well, I’m sorry but ‘you’ll see’ doesn’t fill me with confidence. I want to get out of this alive, thank you very much. I don’t have the luxury of past life recall like you lot.”
“Rebecca. Trust me. Please. You’re not going to die.”
The young girl wasn’t so sure of that. It had been fun earlier when she had helped kill Alice and there was little or no risk, but she couldn’t see a way out of the situation now. Sure, her new friends were Recarns and had a lot of past life experiences to call upon, but it was she who had provided the group with shelter at her grandfather’s house. It was she who had provided the change of clothes. More importantly, the boys didn’t see death as an ending. They just saw it as an alternative escape route and would reincarnate with their memories intact, but Rebecca wasn’t a Recarn and would only remember this one life whilst she was living it. She didn’t want to give up on it so early.
Under normal circumstances, the last part of the journey would have taken a matter of a few minutes, but these weren’t normal circumstances. The group had to take extra care, dipping in and out of hiding places, acutely aware that any mistake could cost them their freedom or even their lives. At one point they were almost caught when a Defender patrol passed within thirty feet of them and they were forced to hide in a wheelie bin outside a restaurant. The smell and the slimy texture of rotting food almost made them regret leaving their refuge in the sewers but they knew that they couldn’t have lasted much longer in that place. Besides, they were nearly at their destination.
Finally, they were within a few feet of the front door. Liam whispered to the group to go around the back but before they could make a move they were suddenly bathed in a bright white light. A disembodied voice told them to stand still.
“Don’t move, put your hands in the air, and nobody will get hurt.”
The group looked around them. They were surrounded by half a dozen Defenders, their faces masked by their protective visors, pulse rifles pointed at the small group of children. Jazz slowly raised his hands and whispered to Liam from the corner of his mouth.
“What do we do now?”
Liam didn’t answer but hissed at him, a response that was clearly designed at telling him to shut up. The twins also gingerly raised their hands, following the Defender’s orders but Rebecca just stood there.
Tears started to trickle from her eyes and began their short journey down her cheeks, before dropping to the ground by her feet. A Defender moved towards her. The little girl’s face screwed up as she started to sob uncontrollably. The Defender could just about make out what she was saying between sobs.
“I thought I was going to die. They made me go with them. They threatened to kill me.”
The Defender bent down and put his arm around her shoulder.
“Don’t worry little girl. You’re safe now. Nobody’s going to hurt you now.
Rebecca decided to lay it on a bit thicker.
“They touched me too. They touched me where my mum said nobody should touch me.”
“Who touched you?”
Rebecca pointed at Liam. Another Defender marched forward and pushed Liam to the ground.
“You little shit.”
He grabbed the boy by the scruff of his neck and hauled him to his feet before pushing him back to his knees again. He pushed the nozzle of his pulse rifle so hard into the back of the boy’s neck that Liam almost fell forward. The first Defender, still comforting the tearful Rebecca, felt that he should do something. Or at least say something.
“O’Rourke! Get your gun away from the back of that kid’s head and cuff him.”
“Kid? Kid? You think he’s a fucking kid? What kind of kid kills his parents and then kills a bunch of other kids?”
“He’s seven years old. He’s a kid. And our orders are to take this lot in, in one piece.”
“Fuck our orders. He’s not a kid. He’s a fucking monster. Kids don’t do what he did. And his mates.”
Connor and Jazz had been almost forgotten about as the dramatic scene unravelled, but they were suddenly thrown back into the ring as co-conspirators. If they had been fully grown adults they would have fancied their chances at perhaps overpowering the troops and escaping, but still being children they just didn’t have the physical strength to overcome even one of the soldiers, let alone six of them. Liam glared at the Defenders surrounding the group and then a grin turned into a sneer.
“Yeah. I killed mummy and daddy. And I enjoyed it.”
Jazz and Connor looked at each other, wondering what on earth Liam was up to. What benefit could be gained from antagonising the Defenders? Rebecca had stopped crying now, her crocodile tears dried up, and she stood blinking at the boy as he continued his impromptu confession.
“And the kids too.”
The other four Defenders became restless.
“But I didn’t kill all of them. Jazz and Connor did their fair share. Grant and his sister Marcia were mine, cousin Ronan and Philip are down to my bro’, and David and Stephen were done by Jazz. Put up a bit of a fight that Stephen. Surprised really – he always seemed a bit of a wimp at school but got in quite a good punch on Jazz before he
died.”
Defender O’Rourke pushed his rifle more forcefully into Liam’s neck, who took no notice. Liam gestured with a slight movement of his head towards Rebecca.
“And I fucked her too.”
Rebecca had no idea why he had just confirmed her lie. She felt a need to put the record straight, or at least to make the lie tie in with her own.
“No, he didn’t. He fucking touched me in my private place, he didn’t do anything else.”
Trigger fingers were getting itchy and grips were tightened on the pulse rifles. Another Defender spoke up.
“And what about Alice? Alice Sedgeley?”
“Wonderwoman? That was a group effort. We all joined in stringing her up.”
One of the Defenders lifted his rifle to his shoulder and the cross-hairs of his rifle sights settled upon the seven year old’s forehead.
“Alice was my kid sister, you twisted fuck.”
“Hello, big brother. Want revenge, do you?”
Clive Sedgeley’s feet shuffled slightly but his rifle was as steady as a rock. Liam was on a roll.
“She begged for mercy as we set up the hanging. Cried her little eyes out, calling for her mum and dad she was. Nearly worked too. I almost felt sorry for her.”
Two more rifles were lifted to two more shoulders and trained on the remaining two boys.
“Nah. I’m kidding. It was fun. I’d do it again if I got the chance.”
The gruesome details of how the children had died were too much for the Defenders. First, a bolt of red light shot from Clive Sedgeley’s pulse rifle and pierced Liam’s forehead, frying his brain, and then Jazz and Connor suffered the same fate. Orders had been to take the boys alive, but the Defenders were only human and couldn’t take any more of the boy’s jibes. They deserved to die.
As Rebecca was taken away by the Defenders, not as a prisoner but as a rescued hostage, it suddenly dawned upon her as to what Liam had been up to, baiting the Defenders like that. Shit, he was a clever sod that Liam. Almost as clever as she was.
Death was just another escape route for a Recarn.
CHAPTER NINE
00:47 FRIDAY 19 MARCH 2077
Back in her apartment, Michelle lay on the bed, looking up at the ceiling, her mind buzzing with thoughts regarding what she had seen over the last three days. She knew that staring at the ceiling was a complete waste of time, but it didn’t stop her doing it. She wouldn’t find any answers hidden in the creases of the artex, no matter how hard she looked.
She knew what she would like to do, but she was a soldier and not just a rank and file soldier at that. She’d just been trusted with details of the final solution, quite possibly the most important event in mankind’s history since the Revelation of 2015. She had no choice but to keep this information to herself. She couldn’t even tell Danielle, and she told her everything. Well, almost everything.
She wasn’t looking forward to having to keep this enormous secret. Danielle was part of the resistance movement, yes, but she wasn’t and never could be privy to this information. The workers on the island had no contact with the outside world, not two-way contact at least. Entire families had been flown out and, although living in luxury and wanting for nothing, they were, in essence, prisoners. The island provided them with everything that they could possibly ask for, bar the freedom to live. They had no bills to pay; electricity, gas, and water were free. First class healthcare was provided for all – at no cost whatsoever. They didn’t receive salaries, and thus might appear to be slaves, but money is only necessary if you need to buy things. Workers could work extra hours in order to receive upgrades on equipment, such as an eighty inch television instead of the fifty inch that was standard issue, but unless you particularly wanted to upgrade equipment there was no pressure to work extra hours. The island was a true representation of what Paradise should be like. There was no crime or at least none that Michelle was aware of. There was no need to steal, and disagreements appeared to be settled amicably. As far as she could see, on the surface, there was no reason for anybody to try to escape.
She fully understood that she was a member of a very small elite, those that had not only visited the island but had also been allowed to leave. Her father, Maurice, was also a member of that unique group, although he hadn’t witnessed any of the things that Michelle had seen during her short stay. But she knew that the fact that he had been to the island – and returned – wasn’t sufficient reason to be able to talk to him about her trip.
If she’d been a religious woman, perhaps she would have prayed for guidance from a deity but, like billions of others, the Revelation had stripped her of any last vestige of religious faith that she may have had. Of course, there were millions who still practised their individual religious beliefs but Michelle wasn’t one of them; religion hadn’t been outlawed – it hadn’t needed to be. It’s power and influence had been critically curtailed.
Michelle awoke from unsolicited sleep with a start. She hadn’t deliberately tried to sleep, but her eyes had begun to feel heavy and her drowsiness had overcome her desire to stay awake. Danielle popped her head around the bedroom door.
“Hey, lazybones. You having a crafty afternoon nap?”
“Not intentionally. I just needed to relax and forget about things for a while.”
“Forget about things? What things? Tell me. Maybe I can help.”
Michelle wished that she could empty her thoughts out onto the duvet and let Danielle sift through the turmoil that was going on in her mind, although she wasn’t sure that she’d be doing Danielle any favours if she did tell her what was troubling her. It would just lead to both of them facing a crisis of conscience.
“It’s nothing, Danielle. Just some administrative stuff that I need to sort out. Not a biggie. Don’t worry about it. I’ll sort it out tomorrow.”
Danielle flumped onto the bed, settled herself alongside her lover, and took Michelle’s hand in her own.
“Well, if you need to talk, I’m always here.”
The mood was interrupted by Michelle’s mobile ringing. She leaned over Danielle and stretched to pick it up from the bedside table. Zafar’s voice brought her up to date with recent events.
“Michelle. It’s Zafar. There’s been a development in the manhunt.”
“Have they caught them?”
“Yes and no.”
“What does that mean? Have they got them or not.”
“The fugitives were caught, yes.”
“And?”
“They were caught heading to a safe house that we’d identified earlier. One of six actually.”
“And?”
“And they were trapped by a Defender patrol.”
“So what happened?”
“The long and the short of it is that the patrol disobeyed the restrain and retain order. One of the team was the older brother of Alice Sedgeley, you know, the little girl who was hanged at the birthday party. Reports are still a bit cloudy but it seems that Liam goaded the patrol until Alice’s brother cracked and shot him dead. The other two boys were killed too.”
“What about the girl?”
“Rebecca Walker?”
“It seems that she was innocent. A hostage, should they have needed one. She’s being reunited with her parents as we speak.”
“So where does that leave things?”
“It gives us a bit of breathing space to get the Final Solution in place. He’ll come back. We know that. But we’ve got a few years before he can be a problem again. Of course, we’ll have no idea where he is or even who he will be, but whoever he is will have been rendered harmless by the Final Solution.”
“So, business as usual then.”
“Yep. Back to harrying the Illuminati and the ONP again. I know it’ll feel like we’re not making much progress against the Illuminati, but as long as we can keep them busy, as long as we can be a pain in the arse, then that’ll distract them from what we’re really up to. Anyway, we’ll speak more about it later today.
Get some sleep, Michelle. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight Zafar.”
Michelle hung up the call and snuggled up to Danielle.
“That was Zafar. It seems that Liam, Conner, and Jeremy are all dead, killed by a Defender patrol that ignored the no-kill order.”
“So, we’ve got seven year’s breathing space again?”
“I suppose so, yes. Let’s get some sleep now.”
As the couple dropped off to sleep, three souls circled the planet seeking their next host bodies.
CHAPTER TEN
11:23 WEDNESDAY 24 MARCH 2077
Michelle had become quieter, more withdrawn, since her return from the island. She had tried to hide the conflict that was raging within her mind from her family and colleagues but she was noticeably not the woman that they all knew. Professionally she was the same, she wasn’t making mistakes and was as efficient as ever, but there was something about her personality that had recently changed. Nobody could accuse her of being happy-go-lucky at the best of times, but she always had a pleasant smile and a good word for her colleagues. In recent days nobody had seen her smile and the sparkle seemed to have gone from her eyes. Where she would have previously engaged in banter with the rest of her team, she would now only offer platitudes that would allow her to leave the conversation and return to fight the demons duelling inside her head.
Life at home was little better; the façade that she tried to present at work was far less easy to maintain at home. If she lived with someone outside of the One Life setup maybe she could have got away with it, but Danielle witnessed both her work persona and how she was at home. The sense of fun seemed to have gone out of her, Danielle had tried to help her but Michelle would just clam up as soon as she tried to broach the subject of what was troubling her.
It was killing Danielle to see Michelle this way. This simply wasn’t Michelle. She wasn’t some kind of automaton that performed her duties efficiently and silently, she was an approachable human being who could elicit loyalty from the members of her team that went way beyond a shared allegiance to the One Life cause. Danielle had to say something.