The Other Side (The Other Side Trilogy Book 1)

by Anna-Marie McIntyre

  “She’s alive, Britta,” she said. “I can hear her heart beating.”

  At that moment the happiness I felt was something I can never truly describe to anyone. It was like in a single instant the cold hand which had been gripping my heart let go filling my body with warmth, and the terrible sensation of darkness in my mind was suddenly replaced with a light brighter than the sun. Like something had just relit the fuse that kept me going and I was now ablaze with happiness.

  Just then Priscila’s eyes flew open. I rushed forward, throwing my arms around her. “I’m so glad you’re alive.” I said, not caring how dumb it sounded that I was saying what was already obvious to everyone. “I thought you had died. I thought you were dead. I’m just so glad you’re alive.”

  It began to rain, pour even, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to stay there forever, safe and happy, with all our problems seeming meaningless. Because, since I’d always considered myself to be worse-off than most people, it took Priscila almost dying for me to realize that I really was luckier than most people. Because even though I’d had to live on the island, I’d had a brother and sister living there with me. Some people hadn’t had any relatives on the island. And I’d been fortunate enough out figure what The Island Program’s plot was before it was too late. Others that hadn’t were now dead. I’d been one of the few people to make it out of The Island Program. Then again though, maybe it wasn't luck. Nothing ever happens by chance and I'm not sure if I realized it then or not, but there had been a reason it had been my friends and I that made it out and not someone else—a reason, that I'd eventually understand. But though I'd been chosen to play a great part in the future of many people—it would not come without a price.

  And hour later, we were in a back alley, behind the building, running as swiftly and quietly as we could in the direction of the border. Getting off the roof hadn’t been hard at all. We’d simply slipped the rope through a metal ring that was on the wall that surrounded the building, just as we had to get up the elevator shaft. Since we’d been over fifteen floors up I’d been a little nervous about Priscila and Kendall doing it, but they were fine and as it turned out, climbing down a rope is much easier than climbing up. Of course, when it was my turn to climb, I loved every minute of it. After all, up high was where I belonged.

  We tried to stay fairly close together as we ran, with Vanissa and me at the front of the group, Priscila and Kendall behind us and Owen and Livia at the back. It had been controversial whether or not to bring the rope, but we’d decided not to, since it was so long and heavy it’d only slow us down.

  As far as being seen, there weren’t any people in the back alleys and it was still pouring rain, which helped to provide further cover from anyone that might happen to glance out a nearby window. At first, I’d been worried we might accidentally get lost and be unable to find our way back to the alleys. But then I’d talked to Vanissa and soon found out that she remembered almost every detail of the city map, which was a good thing, because I certainly didn’t.

  “About how long do you think it’ll take us to get to the border?” I asked Vanissa quietly.

  “Maybe half an hour to an hour,” she said, sounding unsure. “I guess it depends how fast we run.” Then she lowered her voice. “But Britta, I don’t think the entire Other Side would shut down if a few wires were cut.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well you didn’t actually think it would be that easy, did you?

  “I guess I was hoping.”

  “Well, I think when we destroyed all their screens and ripped out the power box, we probably just disabled their control over The Other Side.”

  A small shiver of fear ran down my spine as I realized what she was saying.

  “I think The Other Side is still full of dangers,” she said. “I think everything in it will just do whatever it was originally made to do, rather than some things being controlled on the spot to make sure that someone dies.”

  “How can you be so sure?” I asked.

  “I overheard talking a while back,” she said. “People were basically saying that the creaticalls aren't things that can simply be turned off. They’re genetically made creatures with the ability to think almost as well as animals can. But they will attack us, because when they were made it was in their brains that killing people who came in their area was their main goal. But The Island Program used to be able to send signals to their brains to do certain things, like kill a particular person—I don't think they can do that anymore.”

  “But then, we have a chance of making it through, right?”

  “Yeah,” she said, giving me a little more hope. “Back when The Island Program had control, if someone made it further than they wanted him to, they could simply have the ground explode or lightning strike him. But now those things will just happen randomly. And the creaticall will only attack us when we’re in their Domain. So, with each threat we defeat, we’ll have another to face, until we make it to the end.”

  Suddenly a thought occurred to me. “How do you know all this?” I asked.

  “Well,” she said. “I did some spying that day you snuck off with group one.”

  We were silent for a while after that, so I had time to think over all I now knew. According to the map, we’d have to make it through four Domains of The Other Side; the red, purple, green and black—Danger, Dread, Risk and Horror. But what exactly did that mean? Did it mean that was the theme of each Domain? That each was meant to reflect a different aspect of fear. Because, if a risk-taker from Paciscor was watching people go through a place that made you take risks they might try to get through it themselves. But if the same person also saw people going through a place that made you dread what was to come, then they wouldn’t even think about going through? Everyone was scared of a certain part of The Other Side. But since I’d never seen what exactly was in The Other Side, I wasn’t sure what Domain to be the most scared of.

  So, for about forty-five minutes, we kept up our steady speed; running down alleyways and back-streets and avoiding getting near any busy roads. I guess, during it all I should have been nervous or scared of what we were about to do; but I wasn’t. I was still flying high, hanging onto a cloud of happiness, and I didn’t want to let go just yet.

  When we finally made it out of the city and saw the wall up close for the first time, I can truthfully say it took my breath away—but not because it was beautiful. Beautiful isn’t the right word to describe it. An empty field lay in front of us with a single road leading up it. FORTY feet tall, the wall loomed over us, topped with sharp metal spikes. It was blacker than black, with silver lining the top and bottom. It was almost ominous, but spectacular as well.

  We hurried up the road until we were directly beneath the wall. I knew there would—no doubt—be cameras around so we’d better hurry before the police or The Island Program showed up to capture us.

  But instead of a gate or doorway, there were small metal slabs just big enough to step on, protruding from the wall, forming a sort of ladder. (I guess they either weren’t worried about anyone trying to get out, or they simply wanted a few people to try—so they could make an example; show how quickly but painfully, they were killed.) I was actually pleased it was that way. I’d rather climb over the wall then have to find a way to open a door or gate.

  “I’ll go first,” I said, turning to our group. “You guys can follow right behind me. Just be careful not to slip.”

  Then I turned and began to climb up the wall. The rain was stopping, but the slabs that made the ladder were still wet and very slippery. So once I got about fifteen feet up I began to climb more cautiously. Mostly, it was because I didn’t want to fall on the others who were climbing behind me. Also, with no present threat, there wasn’t any reason to take a risk of getting hurt.

  When I pulled myself up onto the top of the wall, I felt the familiar feeling that was almost elation, at being so high. (Fortunately, the spikes must have only been for looks, because they didn'
t actually cover the whole top of the wall; which was about ten feet wide.) I’d thought I’d wanted to climb first to make sure it was safe for the others, but I realized now it was also because I’d wanted a little time to stand on the wall why I waited for them. So, I embraced the opportunity and closed my eyes for a moment taking a deep breath.

  But when I opened my eyes and returned to reality, the cloud of happiness I’d been enveloped in vanished, as I truly came back to the dangerous place I was in. Then the moon came out from behind a cloud and shone down on the land beyond the wall—The Other Side.

  23

  The words ‘treacherous wasteland’ described what I saw exactly. And it looked almost exactly like what I would’ve thought of as the Danger Domain. As far as I could see in the darkness, there was a rocky, desert-like, ground that appeared to be almost red. Bear and scraggly bushes dotted the hard, rocky soil and hear and there were large, round lumps that looked almost spiny. The air was thick with dust, making the sky appear tinted.

  In a few minutes, everyone was standing on the wall with me, looking out over what was known as ‘The Other Side’.

  “Should we try to find a place to sleep tonight?” said Livia. “We could start out tomorrow morning when we have more energy.”

  “No,” I said, almost uncertain myself. Sleeping sounded great. “I don’t think we should waste any time. Eventually, they might fix the controls and anyway, we want to get through this place as fast as possible.”

  “I think our real problem is that this place will probably get scorching hot during the day,” said Vanissa. “We really don’t have much choice but to start now.”

  We climbed, one by one, down the other side of the wall. Even though I wasn’t in a huge hurry, I jumped the last three steps, landing, for the first time in The Other Side.

  Once everyone had climbed down, the slabs that had formed our ladder suddenly moved back into the wall. And it was at that moment I realized there wouldn’t be any going back. The only way to go was forward. And we had a very long way to go. If I couldn’t even see where the Danger Domain ended, than how far away was end of all four Domains? I guess, for all we knew it could go on and on, and never end.

  “Let’s go slowly,” said Livia. “We don’t have any idea of what’s out there.”

  “We can’t go too slowly,” said Owen. “Or we’ll never get to next Domain, let alone through all four of them.”

  “Let’s just go slowly at first then,” I said. “Once we get to know this place better, we’ll go more quickly.”

  So, at a slow speed, we began our journey, being careful not to get to near the plants we didn’t recognize. At first, everything seemed to be going well. Everything was quiet and peaceful. But then, I realized that it was a little too quiet. It seemed almost unnatural. But as we went further I did begin to hear something. And when I did, it made me wish it’d just stayed quiet.

  Britta… the voice seemed to be in my mind. It was a hissing, raspy sound that called out to me, in an inhuman way. But at the same time the voice seemed like it could come from a young girl. Britta…I’ll see you soon. I stopped and glanced around. But I didn’t see anybody or anything.

  “Did any of you hear that?” I asked.

  “Hear what?” Vanissa said slowly.

  “There’s a voice,” I said. “It was calling me. It said ‘Britta, I’ll see you soon’. You didn’t hear it?”

  Just then, Priscila stopped short; the color drained from her face.

  “I just heard it,” she said. “It said ‘I’ll be waiting for you’.”

  “It’s what they call the highlight,” Owen said. “We’ll hear it the entire time, but it won’t come out until we reach the pinnacle point of The Other Side, which is in the Horror Domain.”

  Oh, no, no, no. I thought. How would I be able to listen to that voice in my head without going completely crazy? But I didn’t want to worry the others so I just said: “Well, then I guess we don’t need to worry about it until we get to the Horror Domain.”

  Livia shuddered. "I don't know how I'll make it that long."

  The others nodded and Priscila covered her ears.

  As we kept going, I tried hard to ignore the voice in my head, but I just couldn’t. Hours passed, but the voice persisted. Britta…Britta, hurry! I’m waiting for you. Eventually, I lost track of time and even how fast we were going. It was probably very slow, though. I knew everyone most likely could hear the voice by now, and it was all I could do to keep from stopping, falling to the ground and covering my ears to block out the noise. Britta… Britta… I’m right here. That time the voice seemed right behind me, as if it had actually whispered into my ear. I whirled around—but no one was there. So, I kept walking; a splitting headache beginning to accompany the voice in my head.

  It wasn’t for a few more hours, around three-thirty in the morning that I noticed how strong the wind had gotten. It was much stronger than any wind I’d ever felt, and it swirled in all directions, making it hard to walk. It was also darker, because of the black clouds above. When it finally occurred to me to look back, I got a shock, I hadn’t been expecting at all. Not far away, there was an enormous mass of swirling black clouds, and stretching from them all the way to the ground, was a TORNADO. Probably a mile wide, it flattened everything in its path and tore up anything near it; ripping out bushes (roots included) and picking them up as easily as the wind picks up a feather. If there had been buildings nearby, they would have been destroyed in seconds. Our books on the island hadn’t had much in them on tornados, but I remembered reading a short footnote. Basically, what it had said was that they were extremely dangerous, came in a range of sizes, and didn’t usually last for long.

  “Run!!!” I screamed, but the wind seemed to carry my voice away, to be sucked into the tornado along with everything else. And, at first no one saw the tornado, because they were too distracted with the hypnotizing voice. It was blocking their connections to reality. “Run!!! There’s a tornado!!!” I screamed again. Fortunately, by this time everyone’s attention had returned to the real world, and they saw what was going on.

  We took off, sprinting as hard as we could. We tried to change directions, so rather than attempting to out run the tornado, we’d be running away from its path. But we soon found there were too many bushes and we wouldn’t be able to get out of such a huge tornado’s path of destruction fast enough, going that way. So, we kept going forward, as the tornado got closer and closer.

  I’d been given a sudden burst of adrenaline at seeing the tornado, but my legs were sore from all the climbing earlier and I wasn’t sure how long I could keep up such a fast pace. My boots helped a little, since they were so new compared to the old pair I’d worn on the island. But I just kept thinking that if I couldn’t keep going fast for much longer, how could any of the others? Livia wasn’t very athletic and Kendall was hurt. What if running made his cut worse and he passed out or something?

  I pushed myself to run faster, but as I did it, I knew it wouldn’t help much. Going faster was good, but I wouldn’t be able to go as far. It was a trade-off. I could run extra fast for a short distance or I could run at a medium speed for a longer distance, and risk being overtaken by the tornado. Without thinking much, I chose to try and go faster for a shorter distance, because I knew the tornado probably wouldn’t last for long. But even running as fast as I could, the tornado was still gaining on us.

  “We’ll never be able to outrun it!” Vanissa yelled, over the wind, saying what I’d been thinking.

  “I know!” I yelled back. “We’ll just have to outlast it!”

  Then, out of nowhere, a rock came hurdling past me, missing my head by about an inch. Hearing a sound behind me, I instinctively ducked, as another sharp rock flew over my head. Out of the corner of my eye I saw more rocks and debris, flying in all directions. But I kept going, shielding my head as best I could with my arms.

  I hoped desperately we’d find a ravine or some sort of low-down area, which we
could stay in until the tornado was gone. But everywhere was the same flat landscape there had been since we’d first gotten to The Other Side. And even though, if it had been a smaller tornado, I might have just laid down flat on the ground, I knew it would be pointless to do that here, because once the tornado reached us we’d die for sure. So we just kept on running, dodging to avoid getting hit by debris and fighting not to be picked up by the wind.

  I’m not sure how many minutes passed. It seemed like hours, but it was probably only minutes. Soon, the tornado was so close, every minute was a struggle not to lose my footing and be carried away by the wind. All around me I could see everyone struggling to stay on their feet. And by the looks of things, we wouldn’t make it much farther. I saw Kendall trip start to be blown backward. But Vanissa grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet, just in time. A rock skimmed my shoulder and I could feel its sharp edge ripping through my shirt and leaving a painful cut in my skin. Another rock hit Livia in the back. It was a small rock but at such a speed, I imagined it must have been extremely painful.

  There was dust and debris everywhere and it was becoming hard to see anything. So it’s a good thing I happened to glance down at the ground just in front of me, because when I did, I saw that about a foot away from me it dropped off, forming an impossibly steep cliff. I skidded to a stop just in time and fortunately the others, who were just behind me, saw what I was doing and stopped next to me. THIRTY FEET below us, the waves of a river churned dangerously, splashing up, sometimes fifteen feet high. There was land on the other side of the cliff and a small strip of it on our side. But it didn’t matter because I knew we wouldn’t be able to jump that far without being badly hurt. And jumping to the water, well that would be more than dangerous itself.

  “What do we do!?!” shouted Vanissa.

  “I DON’T KNOW!!!” I shouted back, my lungs straining to be heard over all the noise.

  Just then an especially large rock flew past us, followed by about three more that were equally as big. The tornado was so close now, I felt that any minute I’d be picked up by the wind and carried into the tornado. But, that was only if we weren’t already killed by dangerous debris. So, I made a decision in my head.