Boy X

by Dan Smith

  Pierce. The name brought another flash of memory.

  ‘Pierce sent you.’ That’s what Mum had said when Cain and the slender man came to the house. It was all coming back to Ash now.

  The man in the dishevelled suit was Pierce.

  ‘There’s a boat,’ Pierce said. ‘On the other side of the island.’

  ‘I knew there was a reason we brought you along.’ Cain’s voice was thick with sarcasm.

  ‘Look, I’m in charge of—’

  ‘There’ll be a radio on the boat.’ Cain cut him off. ‘I can get a chopper here in well under an hour.’

  ‘That means crossing the island on foot,’ Pierce said. ‘And this isn’t just any island; there’s a reason it’s a black site. Devil’s Island.’ He grunted. ‘There are things out there you can’t even imagine.’

  ‘There’s no other choice. We’ll lock this place down, get what we need from the residence, and bug out.’

  ‘But Thorn is still in there. We can’t just leave him. If he thinks we left him behind and then gets out, he’ll gut us both.’ Pierce sounded scared. ‘My God, didn’t you see what he did to those guards? And that man in the corridor? Thorn almost split him in half . . .’

  Thorn. The name wrapped itself around Ash’s heart and squeezed.

  Ah. So now you remember how it started, said the voice. Thorn came to the house with Cain. Pierce sent them for you. Thorn is the one who put the needle in your neck. The one without any expression, and a smooth, deep voice.

  Ash had seen into Thorn’s expressionless eyes, and now shivered at the thought of what he might have done to the guard.

  ‘Thorn knows the stakes,’ Cain said. ‘He can look after himself. We need to move.’

  Boots crunched dirt against the tiled floor, then there was a tremendous clattering and Ash looked up at the ceiling to see thick steel shutters rolling out across the top of the dome.

  Clatter-clunk, clatter-clunk.

  By the time Ash gathered the courage to peer over the top of the wooden counter, the shutters were almost halfway down. Outside, the clearing was a foggy blur of smoke and dust, with six figures disappearing into it.

  The shutters continued to lower until they finally reached the ground, shutting out all the light, and coming to a terrible, shuddering stop. The steel encased the building like it was a giant metal tomb. Only a few glimmers of sunlight leaked through the links in the metal slats, dust hanging in the miniature rays.

  After that, there was no sound in the lobby except for the beating of their hearts.

  Behind the counter, Ash stared up at the shutters. ‘Where’s the lab? Mum and the others must still be there.’

  Isabel nodded. ‘This way.’ She stood and turned without looking at Ash. She didn’t want him to see her face, but Ash could tell she was trying to make herself calm, just like he was.

  There was enough light for them to make out the bottom of the stairwell, but the floor was just a grey sea, so they couldn’t tell what they were going to stand on next. The cloud of debris had scattered a shower of broken twigs and stones all over the floor. To Ash it felt like a carpet of crushed glass and rusty nails on the naked soles of his feet, so while Isabel moved ahead he was left to pick his way through.

  ‘Slow down,’ he called. ‘This is killing my feet.’

  Isabel stopped at the bottom of the stairs and waited for him to catch up. ‘What happened to your clothes and shoes?’

  ‘I wish I knew. That woman – Cain – she came to our house with a really scary guy called Thorn. Something to do with that older man, Pierce, and they were talking about “Kronos”, whatever that is. Thorn hit me, smacked me down and stuck a needle in me and that’s the last thing I remember. Drugged me, I think. Mum too.’

  Isabel shook her head. ‘I saw them take you off the helicopter. I thought you were sleeping.’

  Ash swept the debris off the bottom step and sat down. He lifted his feet one after the other and dusted away the grit and splinters that were stuck to the soles. ‘Was that really two days ago? I mean, how is that possible? How can I have slept for two days without waking up?’ He turned to the stairwell, where the light was weaker and the landing was in darkness. ‘I need to find my mum. We have to keep moving.’

  Before they could take another step, though, a voice floated down. ‘Pierce? Cain? What’s going on?’

  Ash would have recognized that soft, deep voice anywhere. It was the last thing he had heard before waking in the white room.

  Thorn.

  He imagined Thorn at the top of the stairs, staring down into the patchy light, his eyes like the dead, his face without expression. (He’ll gut us both.) Ash remembered the fear in Pierce’s voice.

  ‘Hide.’ He hardly even spoke the word. It came out more like a gentle breath.

  ‘What?’ Isabel lowered her voice to match his.

  ‘You didn’t hear that?’

  ‘Hear what?’

  ‘Thorn’s coming. We have to hide.’

  They crept back to the reception and slipped under the counter again. Isabel was only a little taller than Ash so there was enough room for them to squash into the places that were flooded with shadow. Ash could hear gentle footsteps descending the stairs.

  When Thorn reached the bottom, he stopped.

  Ash imagined the man sniffing the air like an animal, listening for any sound. If this place had done something to his own senses, then perhaps it had done the same for Thorn’s.

  When Thorn moved again, Ash could hear only the slightest rustle. Despite the debris on the floor, he crossed the lobby in near silence, moving like a ghost.

  Ash closed his eyes and listened to the whisper of footsteps heading towards the far wall and then around the curve of the lobby before they came to a stop. Again, there was a long moment of silence, then Thorn came in their direction.

  All they could do was lie there and wait as Thorn came closer and closer until eventually he stepped behind the counter, bringing with him the smell of new leather and peppermint.

  In a sudden moment of strange understanding, Ash realized he could hear the man’s strong and steady heartbeat. His hearing focused in on it as if it were the only sound, and it gave Ash such a surprise that his eyes opened and he found himself looking at the toes of Thorn’s boots, just a few centimetres from his nose.

  Ash held his breath as the man ran his hands along the counter, then underneath until he touched a switch, no more than a metre above Ash’s head.

  He flicked it.

  On. Off. On. Off.

  Thorn sighed. ‘Damn it; lockdown. Cain used the remote to close the shutters. But there must be another way out. There’s always a way out.’

  Once Thorn had found the shutter switch and confirmed it didn’t work, he left, moving as quietly as he had arrived.

  Ash and Isabel waited for what felt like at least another half an hour, until their legs had gone to sleep and their backs were stiff, before they moved. Thorn’s smell lingered in Ash’s nostrils, but Ash was sure about one thing; Thorn hadn’t known they were there, and that meant his senses weren’t working the way Ash’s were. Whatever was happening to him, it wasn’t happening to anyone else.

  ‘We have to get to this lab you mentioned,’ he said to Isabel. ‘Someone there will know what to do.’ But his mind was already starting to work against him. Dark thoughts reminded him what Pierce and Cain had been talking about before they left – their plan was to disable all communications and all personnel.

  They’re dead, the voice whispered in his head. Everybody’s dead.

  They emerged from behind the counter and made their way through the gloom towards the stairwell. As they climbed to the first landing, the faint light from the lobby faded to nothing, and when they turned to the next flight of stairs they saw only a never-ending blackness.

  ‘There’s no power anywhere?’ Ash whispered. ‘No . . . like, emergency lights or something?’

  Isabel’s dry throat clicked. ‘ No sé. I don
’t know.’

  ‘Maybe they switched it all off.’ Ash felt the dread of knowing they had to go into the dark. ‘Don’t suppose you’ve got a torch or something?’

  ‘Not here. At my house, yes, but—’

  ‘Do you know the way to the lab, then? Can you get to it in the dark?’

  ‘I don’t know. Yes. Maybe. Papa showed me the way . . . once.’

  ‘Maybe?’

  ‘I mean, I think I can.’

  ‘I suppose that’ll have to do.’ Ash climbed the first step, then stopped. ‘We better hold onto each other.’

  ‘What if he’s there?’ Isabel asked. ‘That man.’

  ‘He can’t see in the dark.’

  But that voice floated down from the tower in Ash’s head, saying, Maybe Thorn can see in the dark just fine. Maybe he’s watching you right now.

  Isabel stepped up beside him and took his hand. Her skin was warm, her palm sweaty. She squeezed Ash’s fingers and Ash squeezed back.

  ‘My name’s Ash,’ he said.

  ‘OK, Ash,’ she replied. ‘Let’s go.’

  There were no sounds other than their own shuffling footsteps and heavy breathing. No feeling for Ash but the constant fear that he would step on something in his bare feet or walk into something left in the corridor.

  They moved slowly and Ash put his right hand out in front of him, waving it up and down in an arc, like the fire safety guy had shown them at school. Isabel’s fingers rasped along the wall to the left, sounding like something shuffling beside them – something maybe grinning with a mouth full of needle-like teeth as it waited for just the right moment to get them.

  ‘You live here?’ Ash tried to think about something else. ‘And it’s an island?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Big or small?’

  ‘I guess . . . small. But it takes two days to get from one end to the other. There are no roads.’

  Ash imagined it as a green island in the middle of a crystal-blue sea, covered in thick jungle, with this building smack in the centre. ‘And what’s this place?’

  ‘The BioSphere. It’s for special research. Papa is a scientist.’

  ‘Doing what? Did he ever mention something called “Kronos”?’

  ‘Papa never tells me what work he is doing. It’s . . . secreto.’

  ‘Secret? You mean this place is some kind of secret research— Shh!’ Ash stopped moving and his grip tightened.

  ‘You hear something?’ Isabel whispered.

  ‘I thought . . .’ Ash listened again, turning his head and breathing deeply. In that moment, he felt absurd; like an animal sniffing the air and listening for danger. ‘No. Come on.’

  ‘We came here six months ago,’ Isabel told him. ‘From San Jose. It was a good job for Papa. Good pay.’

  ‘What about your mum?’ Ash couldn’t understand why he hadn’t thought of it before. ‘You said you have a house. Isn’t your Mum there? She’ll have heard the helicopter, and—’

  A gentle click came from somewhere ahead.

  Terror washed over Ash like an icy breeze. He pressed tight against the wall, pulling Isabel back so she was right beside him. ‘Quiet.’

  Another click was followed by the sound of soft footsteps. A tingling flooded through Ash’s body, heightening his senses even further, making everything numb and alive all at once. Lights sparkled and danced in front of him as if tiny fireworks were flashing in his eyes. The smell of peppermint and new leather flooded his nostrils.

  Thorn.

  Ash held his breath as the slightest breeze wafted against his face; something was just centimetres away from them on the other side of the corridor. It couldn’t see them, but perhaps it knew they were there, and all it had to do was reach out and it would have them. It would drag them away and do unspeakable things . . .

  But then it moved. A creak of shoe leather, a waft of air, another gentle footstep followed by another until it receded into the darkness the way it had come.

  Ash and Isabel waited in silence, neither of them daring to move until Ash leant over and made himself speak. ‘We need to get moving.’

  ‘Is he gone?’

  ‘For now.’

  They had no choice other than to keep going, so they set off again, skin prickling in anticipation of what might be creeping up behind them. Ash could hear his blood in his ears as if the world couldn’t be completely silent in the way it could be completely dark. There was the gentle pad-shtick of his bare feet, and the tap-tap of Isabel’s boots. The swish of cotton pyjamas as Ash waved his hand in front of him, up and down up and down. And there was the shhhhh of Isabel’s fingers on the wall. Those noises filled his head like they were trying to drive him mad, and he reached up to touch the tag round his neck, to find the strength to bring everything under control.

  ‘We are close now.’ Isabel led Ash round the corner into a part of the building he had never seen.

  They crept to the end of the corridor and eased the door open on silent hinges. A powerful smell hit Ash like a blunt instrument, making him reel back and pull against Isabel.

  ‘What is it?’ she said. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘Something . . .’ he panted, trying to rid himself of that terrible smell. ‘Something bad.’

  ‘What?’ Her voice was tight and high-pitched. ‘What is it?’

  It’s death. It’s DEATH!

  ‘I don’t know.’ His chest hitched and everything felt constricted, as if he were underwater.

  ‘Is it him?’ Isabel’s fingers squeezed in Ash’s grip. ‘Is it Thorn?’

  ‘No . . .’ Ash was beginning to lose control and had to stop himself. He couldn’t afford to panic. They were alone and had to cope.

  ‘What, then? What is it?’

  ‘I don’t know. Some kind of smell. It’s like . . .’

  (Like the smell of a butcher’s shop.)

  Ash put out his foot, stretching into the darkness until his toe came into contact with something blocking the corridor. Realizing straight away what it was, he lurched in horror, slipping on a warm and wet liquid. He fell flat on his backside, his hand ripping away from Isabel’s, and panic threatened to crush the air out of him.

  Isabel reached out, feeling across his chest with trembling fingers. She found his arm and followed it down to take his hand. ‘What is it?’ Her whisper was desperate and breathless. ‘What’s there?’

  Ash opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. His lungs were tight, his throat narrow.

  ‘Breathe,’ she said. ‘Breathe. It’s OK. We are together, remember?’

  Ash nodded and felt his breath return. ‘A body,’ he managed. ‘I think it’s a body.’

  It’s your mum, said the voice.

  ‘Is it Papa?’ Isabel asked.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Ash was afraid and repulsed all at once. His first thought was to get away, but he stopped and tried to be calm. They had to know who it was.

  He considered all the strange things that were happening to him, wondering if he could use it to his advantage. All those different smells, heightened and overwhelming . . . Maybe he could use that.

  He took a shallow breath, focusing not on the blood but on the other things that mixed with it. Isabel’s coconut, the faint remnant of peppermint, cleaning fluid, the hint of gun smoke. Perhaps he would be able to pick out something that would tell him if this was Mum.

  Aftershave.

  ‘I think it’s a man,’ he said before he could stop himself.

  ‘Papa?’ Isabel whispered.

  Fighting his revulsion, Ash reached out to touch the body. He felt round the shoulder, then the neck, until he touched the face.

  ‘Does your papa wear glasses?’ he asked.

  ‘No.’

  Ash snatched his hand away and sat back. ‘It’s not him.’

  ‘You’re sure?’

  ‘This man wears glasses.’ He paused. ‘Wore glasses.’

  ‘Gracias a Dios.’ Isabel grasped her new friend’s arm. ‘Thank you. Tha
nk you for—’ She stopped as if some great realization had just dawned on her. ‘It must be Paco.’

  ‘You know him?’

  ‘Yes. He worked with Papa.’

  ‘I . . .’ Ash didn’t know what to say.

  Isabel cleared her throat and her words wavered when she spoke. ‘The scientists, they have a card. A key to open the door into the lab.’

  ‘A keycard? Why didn’t you tell me before?’

  ‘There’s nowhere else to go. I thought maybe—’

  ‘Doesn’t matter.’ Ash stopped her. ‘I’ll check.’ He couldn’t quite believe that he’d said it or that he was actually going to do it, but he reached out again until his fingers came into contact with the dead body. ‘Where will the keycard be?’ He kept his voice down, terrified of attracting the attention of whoever or whatever had passed them in the corridor not long ago.

  ‘On the . . . how you say? Cinturón. On the trousers there is a thing for holding them up.’

  ‘On the belt?’

  ‘Yes. Belt.’

  ‘OK.’ Ash shuffled closer, feeling something wet soaking through the knee of his pyjamas.

  IT’SBLOODIT’SBLOODIT’SBLOOD! the voice screamed in his head, and the smell of blood threatened to wash over him once more. He remembered Pierce’s words and knew that this was what he had meant. Thorn had killed this man.

  Thorn almost split him in half.

  Fighting back the gagging in his throat, Ash slipped his hand along what he thought was the leg until he came to the thigh, then he moved his hand across the waist until he found the plastic holder clipped to the belt. He whipped it off, holding it tight in his fist.

  ‘Right, let’s get out of here.’

  They joined hands once more and left the body behind them. They shuffled further into the abyss, deeper and deeper, until they came to the stairs, then they crept down several flights until, somewhere below, Ash saw a single red eye.

  ‘What is that?’ He tried not to imagine what kind of horrifying monster might be waiting for them in the darkness.