Skyfall

by Anthony Eaton

‘I saw it.’

  There didn’t seem to be any answer to that, so they marched on. The night crawled past silently, the only break towards dawn when the echo of a flyer floated down from somewhere in the smoke above.

  ‘You hear it?’ Jem asked.

  ‘Shh! Yes.’ Gregor cocked one ear to the sky. ‘It’s high, though. I don’t think it’s searching. Not for us, anyway.’

  They walked a while longer, the hum of the flyer’s resonators following with a faint, unearthly wail, until they finally stopped for the day.

  ‘Sleep,’ Gregor commanded, and they did.

  During the afternoon Lari dreamt he was standing on the balcony outside his dome. Below, Port City sparkled, and beside him his mother stood, arms outstretched to the approaching sunrise, her hair streaming in the wind, her face alight.

  Then he was inside, in his old room that he shared with Janil. He was only five and he lay in the dark, bruises on his arms where other children’s fingers had poked, prodded and punched. He muffled his sobs with his pillow and tried to shut out the taunts that still rang in his ears: Copygen! Sister!

  In the tear-thick darkness, someone touched him, fingertips resting lightly for a moment on the back of his neck.

  ‘It’s okay, little brother,’ Janil’s voice was a whisper from the night. ‘Mum and Dad’ll look after it. I’ll look out for you. Don’t worry.’

  Lari woke in the underworld with his brother’s voice still ringing from his dream.

  His whole body ached from nights of sleeping on hard concrete. Slowly he rose and stretched, yawning, feeling his muscles and joints crack and creak as he worked some sensation back into them.

  They’d hidden in a half-collapsed ruin, and in the doorway, her face lifted to the dying light, Saria stood on her own. A few metres away the two clan children slept in a pool of deep shadow. Standing there, framed by the late afternoon, the Darklander girl looked impossibly fragile, but at the same time seemed to exude some strange power. It was like she could tap deep into the earth.

  Lari moved towards her, as close as he could until his wristband chimed. The noise startled her.

  ‘What was that?’

  ‘Sorry.’ He backed away slightly, into the shadow. ‘I didn’t mean to … It was just my band. Warning me.’

  About what?’

  ‘Exposure. It’s still too bright out there.’

  ‘What happens if you get caught in it?’

  ‘You’ve seen what happens. You saw it in DGAP. I’d burn. Like him.’ Lari pointed at the still sleeping Gregor.

  ‘You’d burn …’A startled expression flickered across Saria’s face, but it vanished instantly.

  Lari looked past her, out into the afternoon. Seen in broad daylight, the underworld took on a different appearance. It was no longer the dead city made up of pools of shadow and darkness. In fact, it had a curiously benign appearance. The old buildings didn’t look either cavernous or threatening but simply decrepit.

  ‘What’s it like out there? Out where we’re going?’

  Saria regarded him steadily. ‘Different. Alive. Not like this.’

  ‘Can we live out there?’

  ‘I sure hope so.’

  While they’d been talking, he’d taken a couple of unconscious steps towards her, and his wristband chimed again.

  ‘Shi! I’d better get properly back into the shade. Don’t want to max out now.’

  Lari slept again for a couple of hours, a fitful, restless sleep, until he was woken by a rough shake from Jem.

  ‘Get up. We’re going.’

  ‘Good to see you, too,’ he snapped back, but she’d already walked away.

  What am I getting myself into? Lari wondered as he wandered outside to where the rest of the group were waiting.

  ‘Not far, now.’ Gregor pointed along the road. ‘Just a couple more kilometres.’

  Slowly, they set off. Gregor and Jem led, then Saria and the children, and finally Lari, trailing behind. He could hear Gregor and Jem murmuring up ahead but couldn’t make out their words. He let his attention wander to the changing city around them.

  It was thinning out, now, no doubt about it. As they approached the inland border, fewer of the ancient underworld buildings were still standing. More and more they found themselves following the straight road through tracts of rubble and shattered concrete.

  The skycity was changing, too. The domestems were further apart and when he looked up Lari could see more and more empty sky between the domes, which seemed alive with a million stars.

  He wondered where Kes was, and if she’d managed to get home. He thought about his father and even Janil. That dream last night … He’d forgotten that incident, it was so long ago, before his mother had vanished and everything, especially Janil, had changed …

  ‘How you doing?’ Jem had stopped and waited for him.

  ‘Fine.’

  ‘We should talk.’

  ‘If you want.’ Lari couldn’t think of anything he possibly wanted to say to her right then.

  ‘Listen, if we’re going to make it out there, if we’re going to live, we need to be on the same wavelength. There’s no point you and I carrying on like this.’

  ‘If you’re asking me to forgive you and your father for killing thousands of people …’

  ‘It’s not about that, Lari. You can forgive us or not, that’s up to you. Dad did what he thought he had to do in order to save us.’

  ‘Yeah. And a lot of good that was.’

  ‘Look around. Do you see anyone chasing us now? But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about out there. We’ll have to let go of all this.’

  ‘All what?’

  ‘The fighting. The anger. It’s happened. It’s done now and once we get away from the city you’re going to have to let it go. Otherwise we’re no better off than we would be if we’d stayed and died with the rest of them.’

  They walked in a silence that was almost companionable, while Lari thought about what she’d said. Ahead, they were approaching a large, empty square. Beyond it … nothing.

  ‘I guess,’ he said.

  ‘You guess what?’

  ‘I guess you’re right.’

  ‘Good. I …’

  A shot rang out, a flat ‘crack’ which burst the night aside, and in front, just a couple of metres out into the plaza, Gregor fell with a sickening thud.

  ‘DAD!’ Jem ran towards the crumpled shape of her father before Lari could stop her.

  Lari, Saria and the two children stood where they were, surprise rendering them motionless.

  ‘Dad!’ Jem rolled Gregor onto his back. His head lolled lifelessly sideways, blood pouring from a gaping wound in the side of his neck. With a sickening lurch in his stomach, Lari realised what was happening.

  ‘Jem! Get back …’

  Another shot rang out, but at Lari’s shout Jem had thrown herself sideways, and the projectile, whatever it was, missed her, instead throwing up a gout of concrete where it struck a wall behind her.

  ‘All of you, stay still!’ Jenx stepped from the shadows at the edge of the plaza, just a few metres away. In his hand was a long tubular object which he held levelled at the five of them. ‘I can assure you that this device is not a pacifier and has a far more permanent impact.’

  ‘What have you done?’ Jem screamed.

  ‘What I should have done years ago, when I had the chance. Don’t even think about it, Larinan.’

  Lari had taken Saria slowly by her arm and started to ease her and the two children back towards the road they’d just come along, but when Jenx pointed the weapon at him, he stopped.

  Slowly the security chief advanced on them. Jem was trembling, and Lari realised that the moment Jenx came close enough, she was going to launch herself at him. Which was exactly what he wanted.

  ‘Jem, don’t,’ he muttered.

  ‘You should listen to Larinan, girl.’ Jenx’s eyes darted from side to side, watching them all. ‘He might not be the brigh
test in his family, but he has occasional moments of insight.’

  ‘What do you want?’

  Now Jenx smiled. ‘To kill him, for one thing.’ He nudged Gregor’s lifeless body with a toe. ‘And to get the girl. Not that it really matters now.’

  ‘How’d you find us?’

  Jenx didn’t reply, at least not directly. Instead he lifted two fingers to his mouth and let out a sharp, hard whistle.

  Two more shapes detached themselves from the shadows. Kes stumbled forward, clutching something to her chest. Behind her, one hand pushing her gently forward was …

  ‘Janil.’

  ‘Hey, little brother. Nice friends you’ve got.’

  ‘Lari, I’m sorry,’ Kes said. ‘I didn’t want to tell them, but—’

  ‘But I didn’t give her any choice,’ Jenx interrupted. ‘As it was, you might be interested to know that her lies to protect you cost her her mother, so she didn’t give you up too cheaply. Now, we have a flyer, but sadly only room for three. Doctor Mann and myself, naturally, and the girl.’ He nodded at Saria. ‘Come here, child.’

  To Lari’s amazement, Saria obediently let go the hands of the two children and walked placidly across to Jenx, standing a little behind him.

  ‘What about the rest of us?’

  ‘Sadly, Larinan, the rest of you are now completely… expendable.’ Confident that he was in charge now, Jenx relaxed slightly. He looked Jem up and down. ‘Remarkable. You’re Gregor’s daughter, I presume?’

  Jem didn’t answer, but lifted her chin defiantly.

  ‘And judging from your appearance, I can take a good guess as to who your mother was, too.’ He shook his head slightly, as if in disbelief. ‘And to think we all assumed you’d never been born. If only we’d known. Right, Janil?’

  Lari’s brother simply grunted.

  ‘Anyway, we can’t chat all night. After all the trouble you and your father have caused us, I think it’s only fitting that I deal with you first, don’t you?’ He lifted the weapon, aiming it directly at Jem, who stood helpless. ‘Say hi to your father for me …’

  Lari grabbed the two children, hiding their faces against his body so they wouldn’t witness what was about to happen. He closed his own eyes, waiting for the inevitable ‘crack’ of the weapon.

  But nothing happened. Only silence …

  Lari opened his eyes.

  Saria stood behind Jenx, reaching up with her fingers pressed against the side of his neck – not hard, just resting – and Jenx was rigid. His mouth worked silently as though struggling to speak, or even to breathe. His weapon fell harmlessly from his hand, and his dark eyes bulged, the pupils dilating and shrinking again in one of the most horrifying sights Lari had witnessed.

  And Saria – her eyes were closed, her mouth set in a hard line and her body almost as rigid as Jenx’s.

  Then slowly, almost gently, Jenx folded to the ground and lay staring into the sky through fixed eyes, his breathing harsh and shallow. As soon as he fell, Saria pulled her hand back, cradling it to her chest as though it was burned. Then she wobbled slightly and might have fallen had not Kes sprung forward quickly, using her free hand to support her.

  ‘What happened?’ the clan boy asked, pulling himself free from Lari’s embrace.

  ‘Shh.’ The little girl hushed him.

  Releasing them, Lari walked over and examined Jenx. He seemed alive. His chest rose and fell, and when Lari placed two fingers against his throat there was a pulse, faint and erratic, but there, all the same.

  But his eyes. It took only a quick glance to realise that something was horribly wrong with them. They stared up, straight into, straight through, Lari, as though he wasn’t even there. The pupils and irises had almost vanished, nothing more than tiny pinpricks against bloodshot whites.

  It was like Jenx was just empty.

  Behind him, somebody was sobbing. It was Saria.

  Tears streamed down her face and she clung to Kes, who stroked her hair and murmured comforting noises into her ear.

  ‘What in the sky just happened?’

  Janil walked across to stand beside Lari, both of them looking down at the comatose Jenx.

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘But did you see what she … She just touched him and he …’

  ‘I burned him.’ Through her sobs, it was hard to understand her.

  ‘Burned?’ Janil repeated.

  ‘With the Earthmother. She’s stronger here …’

  Janil shook his head in incomprehension.

  ‘Did you know they could do that?’ Lari asked him softly.

  ‘No. I …’ Janil stopped mid-sentence and stiffened suddenly. Something round and hard pressed against the back of his neck, and Jem’s voice was soft and dangerous in his ear.

  ‘Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just finish you off …’

  ‘Jem …’

  ‘Shut up!’ she screamed at Lari, before turning back to his brother. ‘Well? One good reason?’

  ‘I didn’t kill your father.’ Janil’s voice was surprisingly calm. ‘And I had no idea Jenx was going to, either.’

  ‘He must’ve told you.’

  ‘He told me he wanted to capture all of you. Nothing more.’

  ‘I don’t believe you.’

  ‘It’s the truth.’

  ‘Lying shi!’

  ‘No!’ Saria disentangled herself from Kes and walked across, simply reaching out and taking the pacifier from Jem. ‘No more burning, or killing, or hurting, sister. That goes for all of us.’

  Jem looked set to argue, but then abruptly she spat at Janil’s feet before turning her back on him and walking away.

  The two children had watched mutely as these events unfolded and now Saria crossed to them and took their hands, before turning to the whole group. ‘From now on, we look out for each other. Only way to live out there is if we’re all walking the same direction. Understand?’

  Nobody answered, but she seemed to take this as agreement.

  ‘Good. Things’ve happened here tonight that I swore would never happen again, and for everyone back there’ – she nodded towards the ancient underworld and the skycity above it – ‘there’s worse to come. We’re the only hope that lot’ve got now and so we’re going to go. Get as far from this place as we can before the sun comes up.’

  ‘What about him?’ Janil looked towards Jenx. ‘He won’t let this rest. When he wakes up he’ll be after you …’

  ‘He won’t wake up,’ Saria said firmly.

  ‘He’s not dead, you know.’

  ‘Might as well be. There’s nothing left in there now. That body’s just an empty shell.’

  Looking again at those pinprick eyes, Lari knew she wasn’t joking.

  ‘How did you—’

  ‘We ‘ent got time to explain now. But you got my word, an’ you better believe it, as long as I live I ‘ent ever gonna do that to another living thing. All right?’

  Again nobody answered and again Saria seemed to accept this as a positive response.

  ‘Good, then. Let’s go.’

  Leading the children, she headed east into the empty landscape, making towards a range of low hills a few kilometres distant. Jem walked across to where her father’s body lay, knelt beside him and slowly, tenderly, closed his eyes and planted a soft, silent kiss on his forehead before rising and following her sister and the children, leaving Lari, Kes and Janil standing over the empty shell of Jenx. Kes still clutched the bundle to her chest. It gurgled softly and Lari realised what it was.

  ‘That the Bean?’

  She nodded.

  ‘What happened to your parents?’

  A look passed between Kes and Janil.

  ‘They didn’t make it.’

  ‘Oh.’

  The three stood in silence, the night stretching around them.

  ‘What happens now?’ Lari finally asked.

  ‘I have the flyer,’ Janil said. ‘We can always go back up …’

  ‘No.�
�� Kes was adamant. ‘There’s nothing left up there now.’

  ‘The city’s not dead yet. There are still people …’

  ‘There are people, but there’s no future. Savi and I are going with them.’ She stared at Saria and Jem and the children making their way out into the empty plain.

  ‘It’s madness,’ Janil observed.

  ‘We’ll take our chances.’

  The baby clutched to her chest, she set off after the others.

  ‘And you?’ Janil turned to Lari. ‘What about you, copygen. You going too?’

  ‘I think so. Yeah.’

  The brothers stood in silence for a couple of minutes.

  ‘Father’s dead,’ Janil said.

  ‘How?’

  ‘Stepped out the hangar door at Central.’

  Lari said nothing. He’d known, somehow. ‘You gonna come with us?’

  Janil laughed. ‘Do you mean that?’

  ‘We’ll need all the help we can get.’

  Janil thought about it.

  ‘No,’ he said finally. ‘No, I don’t think so. I’ve no choice.’

  ‘There’s always a choice.’

  ‘There are daysuits in the flyer. You should take them.’

  ‘Okay.’

  The flyer was parked in the shadows. It took only a couple of minutes to remove two of the crew emergency suits and some of the rations. Lari climbed into one of the suits and flung the other over his shoulder. Then, picking up the two helmets, they climbed back out of the flyer and went over to where Jenx still lay. Several hundred metres away the others had stopped, waiting expectantly for Lari.

  ‘What about him?’

  ‘Leave him. I’ll deal with him once you’re gone.

  ‘You sure you won’t come? Kes is right, you know …’

  ‘I know. But I’ll stay, all the same.’

  ‘I guess this is it, then.’

  ‘Yeah. You take care, copygen.’

  ‘You too.’

  Janil thrust out a hand and Lari shook it awkwardly. Then, taking up the helmets, he turned away from his brother and started walking east, following the tracks the others had made on the ground, which had turned from shattered concrete into lightly packed, reddish-brown dirt.

  Minutes later a flat ‘crack’ echoed through the night from behind him. Then, silence …