Perilous

by Janet Edwards

  “Yes,” said Atticus. “I doubt the lights will be on at full sun brightness, they’ll probably be running a version of the moons and stars programme, but they’ll be on. Now everyone will have to carry their lantern, their bag, and also some of our bottles of water and ration bars.”

  “Why do we have to drag all those bottles of water along with us?” asked Reece. “Surely the park has an emergency water supply as well as emergency power.”

  “The park has a vast emergency water supply called a lake,” said Atticus. “If you don’t want to help carry the water bottles, Reece, then you can drink the lake water.”

  “We can’t drink lake water,” said Margot. “It’s had fish and ducks swimming in it.”

  Atticus sighed. “The lake water would be filtered before we drank it, but if we take our bottled water with us then we can drink that first.”

  Ruby’s voice spoke from Atticus’s communicator. “Listen closely, everyone. You should have all received instructions to move to the park. We’ll be using the standard convoy method, with me leading my corridor group to the north end of each of your corridors in turn so you can join us.”

  She paused. “My group is ready to move now. Atticus, I hope you’re listening, because we’ll be coming to corridor 11 first, and then moving on to corridors 13, 14 and onwards in turn.”

  Atticus pressed the green button. “I’m listening, Ruby.”

  “Good. My group is heading for corridor 11 now.”

  Atticus wound his communicator strap round his left wrist. “Amber, get your communicator working. You’ll be leading our group, while I bring up the rear.”

  I wound the handle on my communicator, and checked it was working. I was already wearing my backpack. I slung a bag of ration bars over my right shoulder, picked up a bottle of water with my right hand, and my lantern with my left.

  “Shouldn’t the eighteen-year-olds be in charge of this?” asked Linnette.

  “They should have been, but they’ve all gone to a Lottery candidates’ event. That means it’s our job to take care of the younger teens and get everyone to safety.” Atticus loaded himself up with bottles and his lantern, then looked round. “Can anyone manage to carry the last bottle of water?”

  “I can.” Casper was already heavily loaded, but wedged the extra bottle under his right arm.

  “If you start getting tired, Casper, you must ask someone else to take a turn carrying the water bottles.” Atticus made a last rapid headcount, and nodded. “Amber, lead us down to the north end of the corridor.”

  As I headed down the corridor, I saw a gaggle of lantern lights appear at the end. When I got closer, I saw the familiar faces of the seventeen-year-olds from corridor 12. I didn’t know all their names, so I wasn’t sure which one was Ruby until a blonde girl sitting in a powered chair smiled at me.

  “Hello, Amber,” she said. “We’ll move a bit further on, and then wait for you to lead your group out behind ours. This is a very wide corridor, but most of the space is taken up by the slow belt running down the middle. I don’t want anyone tripping on the edge of that in the darkness, so we’re moving in single file.”

  She waved her arm above her head in a beckoning gesture, and her powered chair started moving. A line of white lanterns followed her past the end of our corridor and then stopped. I was about to lead our group to join them, when Atticus’s voice came from the communicator.

  “Ruby, do you want me to bring the manual wheelchair from our emergency store room?”

  “We’ve brought ours with us,” said Ruby. “I’m hoping the charge on my powered chair will last long enough to get me to the park, but I’ll have to use the manual chair after that. You might as well bring yours too. It will be useful for transporting heavy bottles of water.”

  Atticus groaned. “Why didn’t I think of that? Wait where you are for a minute, Amber, while I get the chair.” There was a clanging sound followed by a clunk. “Casper, can you load your luggage onto the chair, and push it please?”

  There was a short silence before Atticus spoke again. “Sorry for the delay, Ruby. We’re ready to go now. Lead us out to join the others, Amber.”

  As I started moving, I was startled to hear the sound of a hunting horn from behind me. I turned to see what was going on, and a figure seemed to leap out from nowhere. It was swathed in a black cloak and wearing the red-eyed helm of the hunter of souls.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The others all screamed at the sight of the nightmare figure, dropped their bags and bottles, and turned to flee back down our corridor. I would have started running myself, but it was less than two days since I’d been terrified by Forge appearing out of a hole in my room wall, and only hours since I’d spoken to an actor playing the role of the hunter of souls.

  I couldn’t believe that a creature out of the Halloween myths had really appeared in our corridor. It seemed far more likely that this was one of our corridor group wearing an old Halloween costume, and I didn’t need to try to remember who had dressed as the hunter of souls last Halloween. There was only one of us stupid enough, and cruel enough, to play an evil trick like this.

  “It’s only Reece!” I yelled.

  Margot had tripped over a bag of emergency ration bars, and gone sprawling on the corridor floor. The hunter of souls was standing over her, flapping his black cloak at her, and laughing at her desperate attempts to crawl away from him. I used the bottle of water I was carrying in my right hand as a weapon, sweeping it into his legs with all my strength, so he toppled over onto the floor.

  “It’s only Reece,” I yelled again. “He’s wearing his costume from last Halloween.”

  People had scattered down the length of the corridor, most of them still clutching their lanterns. The nearer ones heard me, and turned to look back. Reece was trying to get up again, so I dumped my lantern on the floor, and jumped on top of him.

  Reece threw me off him, sending me flying against the wall, but I’d managed to pull off his red-eyed helm. The others could see his face in the light of my lantern now, and Margot and Atticus led a rush of people to help me. Margot grabbed Reece’s hair, and began beating his head against the floor, so I had to swap from fighting Reece to preventing Margot from killing him. Atticus’s face was flushed with embarrassment and fury as he shouted out in a breathless voice.

  “I’m putting Reece under arrest until we can hand him over to the hasties. I’ll need some rope or tape to tie him up.”

  “Hand me over to the hasties?” Reece was looking scared now. “You can’t do that. You’re overreacting to a harmless joke.”

  “Harmless joke?” repeated Atticus savagely. “There was nothing harmless or funny about what you did. You terrified everyone, and threw someone who’s recovering from a head injury against a wall.”

  Atticus turned to look anxiously at me. “How is your head, Amber?”

  I’d been so angry with Reece, that I’d totally forgotten I needed to be careful not to bump my head. I lifted a hand to check the lump of glue in my hair. “I think I’m all right.”

  I’d heard Ruby’s voice coming from my communicator during the fight. She spoke again now. “What’s going on back there? What was all the screaming about?”

  Atticus yanked his communicator out of his pocket and spoke into it. “When I was getting the manual wheelchair, Reece decided it would be really funny to sneak off to his room, put on his old Halloween costume, and jump out at people pretending he was the hunter of souls. My corridor group scattered down the corridor, dropping things as they ran. I just hope none of the lanterns have broken.”

  “Waste that!” said Ruby. “We’ll come back and take charge of Reece for you, while you collect your people together.”

  Preeja came running up with a roll of tape. Atticus knelt beside Reece and taped his wrists together.

  “I won’t be able to walk to the park with my wrists taped together,” protested Reece.

  “I’m not sure we’ll bother taking you to the pa
rk,” said Atticus savagely. “After all the trouble you’ve caused, I may just lock you in the emergency store room for the hasties to collect later.”

  “You were all mean to me, sending a telepath squad after me and dumping me for Carnival,” said Reece. “You can’t blame me for wanting to get a little of my own back.”

  “Oh yes, I can blame you,” said Atticus. “I can blame you a lot.”

  “I can blame you too.” Shanna offered Atticus a length of cloth. “I think you should gag Reece with this.”

  “Good idea.” Atticus tied the cloth round Reece’s mouth, and then stood up. “Roll call, everyone.”

  As Atticus started calling names, I noticed Margot sidle up to where Reece was lying on the floor, and give him a furtive kick in the ribs. I couldn’t blame her for that, but was thinking I’d have to intervene if she did it again, when I was distracted by Atticus repeating a name.

  “Linnette? Can anyone see Linnette?”

  No one answered.

  Atticus frowned, called the last three names and got answers, then tried shouting for Linnette again without success. “Did anyone see what happened to Linnette in the panic?”

  “Linnette and I were together when Reece jumped out at us,” said Margot. “We turned round and started running back down our corridor. I know Linnette was just ahead of me when she dropped her bag of ration bars, because I tripped over it and fell. Reece leaned over me then, flapping his cloak to frighten me, so I didn’t see what happened to Linnette after that.”

  “Did anyone else see Linnette?” asked Atticus.

  “I only remember seeing Reece and Margot,” I said.

  Atticus stooped over Reece, and pulled down his gag. “Did you see what happened to Linnette?”

  “The coward ran into her room,” said Reece sulkily. “She’s probably still hiding in there.”

  “I’ll get her.” Margot hurried down the corridor and started calling through Linnette’s door.

  As Atticus gagged Reece again, Ruby came bowling up in her powered chair, with two muscled boys chasing after her. The boys grabbed Reece by the arms, and Ruby looked round at where people were collecting bottles and bags.

  “How much damage is there?” she asked.

  “It looks like the lanterns all survived, and only one of the water bottles split,” said Atticus. “I’m planning to deal with that by making Reece drink lake water. We just need to coax Linnette out of her room and we can start moving.”

  Ruby spoke into her communicator. “Corridor 13, we’ll be coming to you next. I hope you aren’t having any problems with troublemakers playing tricks.”

  “I had one person starting to tell Halloween stories,” said a grim female voice, “but I locked her in our emergency store room for fifteen minutes. She’s behaving herself now.”

  Margot came back to join us. “I called through Linnette’s door, and told her that it wasn’t the hunter of souls attacking us, only Reece being horrible as usual. I said it was safe to come out of her room again, and I heard her sob a couple of times, but she won’t open the door. I tried calling her dataview, but she’s not answering that either.”

  “Does anyone know the code for Linnette’s door?” asked Atticus.

  There was silence.

  He groaned. “You need special equipment to override a room door lock, and Emergency Services will be too busy with high priority lift rescues to send anyone to help.”

  “I’d better carry on and collect the other corridor groups while you persuade Linnette out of her room,” said Ruby. “I can bring the convoy back for your group at the end.”

  “You need to get everyone to the park, not take them walking in circles round dark corridors,” said Atticus. “Amber can take the rest of our corridor group with you now, while I stay here with Linnette. If I can coax her into moving, then we’ll follow you to the park later, otherwise we’ll wait things out here until the power is on.”

  Atticus was keeping his face and voice calm and controlled. The strained expression in his eyes, and the slight tremble of the hand holding his lantern, betrayed the truth though. He was forcing himself to do what he believed was his duty, but he was scared of the dark and getting dangerously close to breaking point.

  I remembered climbing the cliff on Teen Level beach. I’d been coping until I looked down, but then my fear of heights overwhelmed me. If Atticus stayed here with Linnette, then an unexpected flicker from his lantern, or a disturbing shadow, could mean that his fear of the dark overwhelmed him in exactly the same way.

  I couldn’t let that happen. “You’re right that one of us needs to take the rest of our group to the park, while the other stays here with Linnette, but it should be me that stays rather than you.”

  “I have to be the one to stay,” said Atticus. “What happened was totally my fault. I should have tied up Reece the first time he started causing trouble, but I’m used to trailing round after Forge rather than making decisions myself.”

  I felt a huge wave of sympathy for Atticus. He trailed round after Forge. I trailed round after Shanna. Given the choice, neither of us would have been taking a leadership role in this situation.

  “What happened was Reece’s fault, not yours,” I said. “It’s much more sensible for me to stay here. I’ll be better at reassuring Linnette.”

  Ruby shook her head. “You can’t stay here, Amber. You haven’t had warden training.”

  I shrugged. “I don’t see that I need warden training to sit outside Linnette’s door and talk to her. If I have any problems, I can use my communicator to call you, and you can give me advice.”

  “I suppose that’s true,” said Ruby doubtfully.

  “The crucial point right now is that the rest of you are scared of the dark but I’m not,” I said. “The Halloween stories about the hunter of souls and the darkness have never worried me. I’m frightened by stories about the daylight Outside, and how the Truesun can blind you, but that’s hardly likely to matter.”

  Ruby nodded. “All right. Amber stays.”

  Atticus’s expression was an odd mixture of frustration and relief. “You’ve got your own lantern, Amber. If my counting is right then Linnette has a lantern in her room with her. We’ll leave you Reece’s lantern as well, and plenty of water and ration bars.”

  Ruby and the boys went back to their own corridor group after that, taking Reece with them. Atticus got our group organized again and started them moving. I followed them down to the north end of the corridor, and watched the lanterns of my friends join those of Ruby’s group. As they moved off, Atticus turned back for a moment to wave at me, and then he followed them. A minute later, my lantern was the only light in the darkness.

  I had a ridiculous moment of panic. It wasn’t the darkness that was bothering me, but the fact I was alone. I’d been living on Teen Level since I was thirteen. I was used to its corridors being crammed with other teens. Now all the teens in the area were moving to the park and leaving me behind. I felt abandoned and isolated.

  I reminded myself that I hadn’t been abandoned. I’d volunteered to do this, and I could use my communicator to talk to Atticus and Ruby if I needed help. I wasn’t alone either. Linnette was here, locked in her room, and I should focus on helping her.

  I went back to Linnette’s door, with its stack of supplies next to it. I wound up both my own lantern and the spare one, then tried calling through the door.

  “It’s me, Amber. I’m sitting outside your door with two lanterns. Why don’t you let me in to join you? Think how bright your room would be with three lanterns in there.”

  I waited a minute but there was no reply. I tried again. “If you’re getting thirsty or hungry, then I’ve got water bottles and ration bars.”

  Linnette didn’t say anything, she was probably too frozen in terror to speak, but I heard a faint, high-pitched, hiccupping sob.

  “Well, I’m right here,” I said. “When you’re feeling a bit better, you can open the door and let me in, or just try ta
lking to me.”

  I was suffering that horrible feeling of isolation again. I took out my communicator, turned it on, and comforted myself by listening to Ruby and the other wardens talking. Once all the corridor groups had joined the convoy, they started heading for our local park.

  There was a babble of conversation on the way to the park, a rush of rejoicing voices when the convoy arrived, and then the communicator abruptly went silent. Everyone was in the familiar territory of our local park, with proper lights again, so they wouldn’t need the communicators.

  I sat in the pool of light cast by my two lanterns. The total silence was unnerving. Wherever you were in the Hive, whatever the hour of the day or night, there’d always be the reassuring background hum of air vents and lights. On Teen Level, there was usually the sound of distant voices or laughter as well. Now there was nothing at all.

  I was tempted to use my dataview to play music, but it would be foolish to drain its power when I could be stuck here for days. The light of my lanterns started wavering, so I wound them up again. Linnette should surely have calmed down a little by now, so I tried calling through the door again.

  “I’m still out here, Linnette. Please talk to me.”

  There was no answer. I pictured Linnette huddled in her room, and tried to think what I could say to reach through the fog of terror in her mind. I remembered how Buzz had used the tactic of chatting about her own experiences to encourage me to relax and talk to her.

  “I understand you being scared of Halloween stories and the dark,” I said. “I’m just as terrified of heights. Remember our beach trip, and how I panicked on the cliff climb? I was fine until I looked down, but then the ground seemed a thousand levels below me, and I started shaking with fear.”

  I sighed. “I should have climbed down right away, but instead I did the ridiculous thing of climbing with my eyes closed. That was how I managed to hit my head on the ceiling. It was horribly embarrassing when I was at the medical facility, having to explain to the doctor that I’d hit my head on a star.”

  I felt I was bound to hear a comment or at least a noise from Linnette. I waited, but there was nothing.