The Haven

by Eliza Green

  ‘One step at a time,’ said Dom, hoping his words would reassure her.

  He remembered his own rising, desperate panic when Praesidium’s machines had fitted his new forearm bones. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have a living being inside him.

  Alex looked close to tears. It was clear to Dom he cared for June.

  He was a Breeder. Would he know anything about the thing growing inside of June?

  ‘Alex,’ he said. The blond-haired boy looked up. ‘We haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Dom.’

  He extended his hand and the young man shook it.

  With a nod, Alex said, ‘We met in the city’s medical facility, but you were too out of it to remember.’

  Dom could barely remember his own name back then. ‘I guess that’s what a heavy infection will do to a person.’ He folded his arms. ‘Do you know what the city did to June?’

  ‘Probably more than anyone else here. I told the medics here what I could about the procedure.’ He let go of June’s hand and stood up. With a sigh, he said, ‘A crude way to describe it, but there were two types of “vessels”. Girls like Anya were paired with a boy like me. The plan was for me to impregnate her.’ Dom hid his shudder. ‘The Collective would expect her to carry the foetus for three months, then June would act as an incubator, to carry the baby for the rest of the time.’

  ‘Would they have let Anya go after they took out her foetus?’

  Alex shook his head. ‘She would have continued a new cycle and another, until they had no further use for her. A young woman was only as useful as her reproductive system. If the babies produced from our pairing didn’t measure up to the Collective’s requirements to make hybrids, she would have been terminated.’

  June sat up straight. ‘So girls—women—were expendable?’

  Alex nodded. ‘Pretty much. The Collective thinks like a machine. It doesn’t understand or care about psychological or physical torture. Its Copies learn that behaviour from them.’

  Dom could attest to that. The Copies who did the Collective’s bidding had been cold and unfeeling, except for one. And Quintus had wanted to turn Dom into a machine without his consent.

  ‘So Anya and others like her would have been kept prisoners indefinitely?’

  Alex pursed his lips as if there was more to it. ‘For the last two years, that was the way it had been done. Then the rebels infiltrated Arcis and the Collective began to speed up its testing, taking the foetus out earlier and using the growth acceleration machine on the carriers to bring it, and the resulting babies, to maturation faster.’

  Dom remembered something he’d seen in Arcis on the seventh floor. His group had been expected to care for babies, but he and Anya had discovered a second area behind a curtained off section. Children ranging in ages from four to six played alone. They had scars like him.

  He relayed the story to them both. June looked shocked; her memories, like Anya’s, were gone.

  But Alex just nodded. ‘The babies were the product of my and other Breeders’ work. The children are... were hybrids, fitted with Fifth Gen tech to create hardier versions of the children born by conception alone.’

  June rubbed her belly. ‘So this thing inside me is normal?’

  ‘Most likely.’

  ‘Most likely?’ repeated June.

  ‘We can’t be sure what drugs the Copy medics gave you, or what effect it had on the foetus.’

  June pulled back the covers and went to stand up, prompting a nervous Alex to stick his arm out. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’

  She looked at both Dom and Alex. ‘I’m leaving. The medic said I could.’

  Dom stared at her. ‘But you’re pregnant. You should be on bed rest.’

  ‘Listen to the caveman over here.’ June rolled her eyes at the pair. ‘Women have been getting on while pregnant for centuries. We potentially have a deluge of machines on their way to our location and I refuse to sit here and do nothing. I can do something less strenuous, like help to train the non-soldiers.’

  Dom relaxed at that suggestion. He’d pictured June running straight into the fight. He could live with her carrying out a static task.

  With a nod, he said, ‘In that case, I’ve got the newbies to train. Can you show them how to shoot?’

  June smiled. ‘That I can do.’ With Alex’s help, she stood. Then she said to him, ‘You wanna learn how to fire a gun?’

  Alex smiled and nodded. ‘Hell yeah.’

  They walked outside, where Dom parted ways with June and Alex, but not before he left her with strict instructions to keep an eye on Warren.

  ‘Will do,’ she said, even though she probably didn’t remember why Dom hated him.

  He returned to the courtyard. The extra rebels that travelled with Kaylie had started drill training, under Julius and Imogen’s watchful eye.

  Kaylie stood back from the session, watching the progress. Dom stopped next to her.

  ‘Hey, handsome,’ she said glancing up at his profile. ‘Where did you get to last night? I looked for you after dinner but you were gone.’

  Dom rubbed his arm. ‘I had to do something.’

  In his peripheral vision, Kaylie watched him.

  ‘Mysterious,’ she said before sliding her eyes to the front. ‘They’re ready to do something more than exercise.’

  So was Dom. But camp was the safest place to be without a plan. ‘Jacob and his team are working on something. We should hear back soon.’

  For an hour, Dom watched the action until all drills set by Julius and Imogen had been completed. Sheila was switching between running laps and watching Imogen work. Julius pushed his team the hardest and shouted commands at the weaker ones in the group. On occasion, he would glance over at Dom.

  Dom flexed his muscles, needing to work off his excess energy with the punching bag. A sudden commotion outside the courtyard entrance cut through his plans.

  His heart beat sped up when Jason and Thomas strode towards the town hall. Jason held a bullhorn in his hand with a small, black device taped to the side. When he saw Jacob following with the orb in his hand, Dom excused himself and cut through the dining hall to intercept them. Kaylie, Julius and Sheila followed him down the corridor to the battle strategy room at the end.

  ‘What’s happening?’ Sheila asked him.

  ‘I don’t know.’

  He entered the room to see Max examining the device that Jason held. Julius pushed past him to make it to Max. Max’s second in command had a sense of urgency and arrogance that Dom didn’t like. Imogen made her way to the top, more politely than Julius. The Inventor stood off to the side, holding the orb like it was an offering.

  ‘Have we got something we can use?’ said Dom.

  Max smiled and nodded. ‘They isolated Carissa’s command frequency to play through the bullhorn and also reprogrammed the orb to listen to a new command.’

  ‘How will we use the orb?’ said Sheila.

  Jacob answered, ‘In theory, to scout out the area and see what direction they will approach from. Assuming they don’t catch it, I’m hoping it will act as our eyes out there.’

  Dom examined the device in Jason’s hand. ‘So we bury the bullhorn and the recorder. Will the device work remotely?’

  Jason shook his head. ‘The anti-magnetic field will screw up any signal we try to send out. We need someone to be on the other side of the barrier. That creates a problem for cover. There’s nothing but stony landscape out there.’

  ‘We have another way,’ said Jacob. Everyone looked at him. ‘Carissa went high and got past the barrier. If we put someone on the mountain, the signal might work.’

  ‘And if it doesn’t?’ said Julius.

  Jacob shrugged. ‘Then we’re sitting ducks in here. The machines won’t stop until they get what they want. Quintus—the Collective—will see to that. Our best bet is the orb.’ He held it up. ‘If we can capture more of them, we might be able to reprogram the orbs and use them to defend this place.’<
br />
  Julius blew out a long breath. ‘That’s a long shot.’

  Max nodded in agreement. ‘We can’t be sure this one will return when it scouts out the area.’

  ‘Well, there’s only one way to test it out: to get out there,’ said Jacob.

  ‘Going high is not an option,’ said Jason. ‘The bullhorn doesn’t have enough range. We need to bury it beyond our anti-magnetic field, stop the orbs before they hit the valley.’

  A soldier not much older than Dom burst into the room. ‘Max, there’s another orb flying over the camp. Shall I get the Copy?’

  ‘No, leave her out of it,’ said Jacob. He dropped the orb into Dom’s hand and said to Jason, ‘Let’s test out our device, shall we?’

  Jason led the way with Thomas and Jacob close behind. Dom kept to the rear with Max, Julius, Sheila and Kaylie, still holding onto the orb that had attempted to transmit data back to the city. It felt cold in his hand and he hated touching it. Julius kept close to him as if he didn’t trust him to look after an object from the city. But Dom was as much a part of Praesidium as this orb and Carissa. He’d been violated and turned into something else. What that was, he still didn’t know.

  Outside, he spotted the rogue orb flying high overhead. Soldiers pointed guns at the object, which darted every which way. One of the soldiers held the Disruptor gun, the same one they’d used to shoot the first one down. Their efforts had attracted quite the crowd.

  Jason pointed the bullhorn into the air while Thomas pressed a button on a screen he held that probably controlled the recording. A whistle sounded through the horn, but the orb continued to dart overhead. The orb in Dom’s hand remained inactive. He didn’t see how much use this one would be.

  Jacob cursed. ‘Maybe it can’t hear it from up there.’

  Carissa rushed over to the Inventor’s side from the direction of the alleyway. Her wide eyes flitted between Jacob and the orb. ‘What can I do?’

  ‘Carissa,’ Jacob said, beckoning her close. ‘How close was the orb to you when you called it last time?’

  She narrowed her gaze as she took in the proximity of the flying orb. She looked back at him. ‘Closer than this. I can whistle for it again?’

  Jacob patted her on the shoulder. ‘No, we need it to respond to the device.’ To the boys he said, ‘Increase the volume. It might hear it better from up there.’

  Jason cranked up the volume dial on the bullhorn to maximum and darted over to the courtyard wall. With a couple of soldiers offering their hands as footholds, he climbed onto the top of the wall. Wobbling on the narrow, flat surface, he lifted the bullhorn up higher.

  ‘Everybody quiet,’ hissed Max.

  Thomas hit a button on his screen and the recorded whistle bounced around the mountainsides in a strange echo. The sound sent an eerie chill through Dom.

  The orb stopped darting and swooped in for a closer look.

  ‘Again!’ demanded Jacob.

  Thomas replayed the noise and the orb came to hover in front of the bullhorn in Jason’s outstretched hand. He climbed down carefully from the wall and, to Dom’s relief, the orb followed him. He separated himself from the new orb long enough for the soldier with the Disruptor gun to stun it. Then the soldier used the gun to drain it of its power. The orb dropped to the ground with a thud.

  Surprisingly, the orb in Dom’s hand never moved.

  Max said, ‘If one is here, more are on the way.’ He strode up to the gate. ‘Let’s set things up outside before they get here.’

  26

  Anya

  Anya had been watching June show Jerome, Alex and, reluctantly, Warren how to shoot when the commotion with the orb drew them away from their practice. She arrived at the courtyard to see her brother climbing down from the wall with the orb in tow.

  When the soldier shot the orb, June passed the revolver to Anya. ‘You know how to shoot, right?’

  Anya nodded. ‘But I think you’re supposed to stay here.’

  June had relayed her condition to Anya. At least the rapid growth had been stemmed for now.

  June smirked at her. ‘Can’t help it. I’m a soldier first. I promise I’ll only watch.’ She paused, her smirk dropping away. ‘Will you be okay with the guys?’

  Anya nodded, appreciating her concern. Warren no longer felt like the threat he once was.

  An angry Alex protested. ‘June, I won’t let you leave.’

  It was clear he cared for June, but from what Anya had gathered about the feisty, blonde-haired rebel, being told what to do never ended well.

  Not surprisingly, a wide-eyed June rounded on him. ‘Won’t let me? You don’t own me. This thing inside me doesn’t own me. I do what I want when I want.’

  She stormed off to follow the others.

  ‘Harsh,’ said Jerome.

  Warren chuckled but stopped when Anya flashed him a hard look.

  ‘Sorry,’ he muttered.

  Alex looked ready to follow June, but Anya stopped him with a hand on his arm. ‘Give her space. She’s dealing with a lot of things. We humans aren’t used to people controlling our every move.’

  His gaze followed June. ‘But I just want to keep her safe.’

  She patted his arm, drawing his attention to her. ‘And you’re being a good friend by caring. But from what I remember of June, the more you push, the harder she pushes back.’

  ‘I can vouch for that,’ said Warren.

  ‘Me too,’ said Jerome. Both of them had bypassed the memory-stealing machine on the ninth floor. ‘She used to be the most competitive among us. She and Frank, a friend of ours, would bet each other over the stupidest things.’ Jerome smiled sadly, as if remembering. ‘If you want to keep her on side, leave her be.’

  Warren made a noise. ‘Didn’t help where I was concerned.’

  Anya glared at him. ‘I think you deserved everything you got, don’t you?’

  Warren lowered his eyes, his lips pressed together.

  He referred to his and June’s pairing on the fourth floor—that much Anya remembered. June had been scuppering his chance to rotate. It was what had led Warren to attack Anya.

  Jerome elbowed Warren. ‘What’s that about? You two were acting weird enough with each other in Arcis. I thought you’d be over it by now.’

  ‘We are,’ said Anya, not wanting to get into the details.

  Warren straightened up, cleared his throat. ‘So are we going to stand around and gossip like women, or can we shoot something?’

  That was the best idea Anya had heard all day.

  ‘The others will look to us to defend this place, if needed, so we must learn fast,’ she said.

  Alex nodded, as did the others.

  She stood back from the paper target that June had pinned to the wall of an unoccupied property. She set the gun, supported her hand and fired once. ‘Never rest your finger on the trigger. Only touch it when you’re ready to fire. And use the pad of your first finger, not the crook.’

  She handed the gun to Alex next, who did a good job of copying her technique. She gave them six rounds each.

  Warren was next, then Jerome. After June’s lesson and the one with Dom before, they were getting more comfortable with using the guns.

  Jerome handed the gun back to Anya. She checked the chamber, then slipped it into the waistband of her combats.

  ‘Won’t we be using different guns against the machines?’ he asked.

  Anya shook her head. ‘You might not be using anything.’

  The non-soldiers would only be called up as a last resort. But Anya had training and she planned to be front and centre when the machines came. She needed to do it for her family, and for what the city had taken from her.

  ‘But yes, you’re right,’ she continued. ‘There are better guns, some that can change the molecular structure of the machines and draw power from them, to render them inactive.’

  Jerome’s eyes widened suddenly. ‘Do they work on biogel?’

  Anya shrugged, not seeing how that mat
tered. ‘I guess so.’

  Alex explained. ‘Jerome wants to know if the guns will work on him. He’s a newborn, and no different to a Copy, except he was never connected to the Collective.’

  Anya cursed her own insensitivity. ‘I’m sorry, Jerome. I keep forgetting what you are. I never really thought of you as anything other than human.’

  Alex laughed and shook his head. The others stared at him, including Anya.

  ‘What’s so funny?’

  ‘All that time I was stuck in my room and fed a bunch of drugs, all so I could help to create a controllable being that could pass as human?’ He gestured to Jerome. ‘Well, here he is.’

  Jerome grew angry. ‘Nobody controls me.’

  ‘No,’ said Alex, ‘But you were created. You are a child of the city.’

  Anya had never thought of it like that before. She remembered her own newborn, the one called Canya. ‘So what went wrong, with their experiment, I mean?’

  Alex folded his arms. ‘I’d say, they got it right. Their mistake? Controlling the Copies so much that they wiped all natural emotions from them. Take your Copy, for instance. Raw and unmanageable.’ Anya didn’t disagree. ‘But as soon as she reached maturity, she would have calmed down. That’s the point at which the newborns lose all their memories, and are essentially wiped of their human traits before they’re given their NMC. But Jerome here, he’s what happens when you allow nature to take its course. His teachers? Humans. The newborns are like sponges.’

  Anya was beginning to understand. And she didn’t like the lesson. ‘So, if the Collective had created newborns and allowed them to keep their memories, they would be indistinguishable from humans?’

  ‘Except for their eyes, yes,’ said Alex.

  ‘So we could tell them apart using that feature?’

  ‘Did you figure out Jerome? Sometimes the eyes aren’t different enough. And if they are, they could be explained by quirky genetics if the newborns’ mannerisms presented as human-like.’

  The others stayed quiet.

  ‘But we know and like Jerome. What makes him so different from other Copies?’