by Ian Williams
The same was probably true for Rhys too. It had all gone so wrong, so fast. What awaited her was worse than death, in her opinion. From the shadow of another’s consciousness she would be forced to watch as it carried out whatever terrible task it had been given. All with her hands, her arms and legs. The blood would stain her skin.
As if to seal her fate, she heard the drill wind up again. She left the room behind in the same way she had entered it; with a horrendous soundtrack of homemade brain surgery tools playing close by. Except this time it was much, much closer.
* * *
The time Graham had spent in the company of the Sentients had been mostly quiet and uneventful, allowing him to lose himself to his thoughts. A few strange sounds had brought him right back to reality though. A good majority of these were the moans of Stephen and Kindness’ patients. They had worked tirelessly to aid them. It was a strong show of togetherness and compassion from each, one Graham hoped Kindness had noticed. He just needed something to show this about himself and humanity as well, anything to change the Sentients’ opinion.
Alex came bounding over from around the other side of the long, circular structure like she crested an impossibly steep hill. She skipped along without any sign of concern or worry. She kept herself occupied with an extended playtime. Seeing the imitation of his daughter prancing around as if none of it confused her as it did him, reminded him of just how out of place he was. However familiar parts of it felt to him, it was always let down by the huge amount that did not. She had been all that grounded him during the long wait. Without her reappearing every few minutes, he would have quickly lost himself.
This time she stopped by and decided to chat.
“When are we leaving?” she asked.
“No idea, Alex. Stephen’s still helping out. We could be here for a while longer.”
“Oh, OK,” she replied before turning and skipping off again. Her bouncing movement made springs out of her voluminous hair, which snapped back at the peak of each skip.
Graham watched her leave and felt himself tense up again. Being surrounded by strangers he could barely even recognise as alive at times, made him nervous. Kindness’ reaction to him earlier had been one others had mimicked since. A few had gone as far as warning him off with another barrage of sound – their chosen protective barrier it appeared. He gave up shortly after trying to engage with a couple of them. All he could do was watch and wait.
He had lost sight of Stephen over an hour ago. So when he saw his friend wandering in his direction again, he was relieved and thankful to see a smile on his face. He had to have learnt something new.
At a close enough distance, Stephen pulled him aside and began to speak quietly.
“I believe I’ve made a few friends here already,” he said, looking around them.
“Good,” Graham replied, not really seeing the relevance.
“Yes, they’ve begun to answer my questions. I have a fairly good idea where Luke may have gone from here. I’ve been hearing mention of something called the Conduit.”
“The Conduit, what’s that?”
Stephen stepped closer and lowered his voice even further. “The way out.”
“Really? Where is it?”
“That, unfortunately, isn’t something I’ve found out just yet. It sounds like a small group of Sentients left here with Luke just before this place was attacked again, but they never returned. Either they were killed or they all got out. This Conduit thing is obviously behind the disappearances of Isaac’s forces.”
“Then we have to find it. I think it’s time we spoke to Kindness again,” Graham said, leading the way.
After a short wade through the makeshift infirmary, they found him surrounded by a group of five other Sentients. The intimate nature of their meeting suggested an interruption was the least appropriate action for an outsider to take. But Graham did not particularly care, considering they appeared to hate him already. To make absolutely sure they heard him, he spoke loudly and with an overabundance of confidence.
“I need to speak to Kindness,” he said, looking directly at the nearest blank face. They all lacked detail, so he could only guess which one was Kindness. He expected to find out soon, and with another ear-piercing shriek.
He was not let down either. A torrent of sound blasted through his head. It took his breath away. Then one bold voice began to break out of the chaos.
“What do you want, Human?” the Sentient to his right said.
“I have one question and then I’ll leave. That is what you want after all isn’t it, for me to leave you alone?”
This time the Sentient opposite him spoke up. “I have already refused you our help, Graham Denehey. You should go back to your world.” It was Kindness this time.
“That’s the problem, I can’t. But if you tell me about the Conduit, then I’ll go away.”
The group all turned inward and discussed their options without speaking a word. He could tell they did not all agree, a few even went as far as leaving the group entirely and walking away to make that as clear as possible to him. It was at least a good sign for Graham’s threesome that they took any time at all to consider it.
“We agree to tell you, Graham Denehey,” one of them finally said.
“Great. First I need to know where it is, then I want to know if Luke left here to find it.”
“You will die if you go to the Conduit, it is not safe for any being,” another of the Sentients said.
Kindness raised his hand to silence his friend before continuing himself. “The Conduit will be the last thing you see, if you go. It is in the heart of the enemy’s territory, in the centre of the Sentient world. Our spies have seen it only once. They were then wiped out by only one of Isaac’s patrols. That was the last we saw of the one you call Luke; he led the insurgency.”
“There is no need to look for him, he is surely dead.” The Sentient on the right finished off the warning not to go.
“You don’t know that,” Graham protested with a shake of his head. “He might have made it out.”
“Out? Out where?” yet another of the surrounding Sentients said, its voice much softer than the rest.
“Into my world. Stephen suspects that is what the Conduit must be for. If it is, then I’m going to find it and return to my home through it.”
This caused a prolonged hush to spread across the group. Graham’s human mind just could not break through their telepathic firewall for now. He was to wait while they decided his fate once more.
Before they finished, another Sentient joined them. All of the attention quickly shifted to this new member, who had brought news of some kind.
“What’s going on?” Graham had to ask as the others reacted to the announcement he had missed.
“I’m afraid our time together is at an end,” Kindness said. He walked away, followed closely behind by the others in his group. It was clear Kindness had many ears for his people and kept each open to anything important. Though for now they were all closed to Graham and his companions.
“Stephen,” Graham said, turning to face his friend in confusion. “Any idea what that guy just said to them?”
“Indeed I do, and it isn’t good news.”
“Did I upset them again?”
“Not this time, Graham. It was news of an incoming attack. It appears our presence may have alerted Isaac’s patrols. There are three on the way.”
“What!” Graham said, suddenly and frantically worried about the imitation Alex’s location. Her not being beside him was like a missing leg, leaving him feeling off balance. “Three of those creature things? What do we do?”
For a moment Stephen looked about them, while the rest of the able-bodied Sentients became highly animated. The news had spread far quicker than speech alone; another benefit of telepathy. He eventually answered, although his reply was one Graham had already predicted.
“We must fight alongside them,” Stephen said, his face tight and losing colour fast.
Hearing him say it out loud still filled Graham with instant dread. They expected them to fight? With what, their fists?
Chapter 17
Resistance is worthwhile
It was time for another lesson, although one Graham would have to learn fast to avoid an indeterminably brutal fate. This time it would happen in the heat of the moment, where much stronger beings than him had already failed. The last attack had previously left a trail of injured or dead Sentients.
A result that was very likely to be repeated.
“We should stay further back,” Stephen said. He found a clear area just to their left.
Graham followed, his focus remaining fixed on the entrance they had used earlier. “I don’t understand how those creatures can get in here, we almost didn’t. And why aren’t we all watching the door?”
“You are still seeing this place as a human does, Graham. An entrance and an exit are what you expect to see, but they aren’t always as simple as a door and a staircase for a Sentient. To get inside this place the enemy only has to overwhelm the stored energy of the Sentients inside, like breaking through a force-field. Once a weakness is found, it is exploited until it breaks. They cannot allow even one of them in here, otherwise we will all be destroyed.”
“How can I fight these things? I still can’t make sense of this place like you and Alex can?” Graham said with a nervous sigh.
“Then change what you see.”
The suggestion had Graham at odds with himself. His first few lessons with Stephen had taught him how to manipulate objects in their surroundings, but this was another step too far. He found it hard enough to accept the loose rules of gravity, now he was supposed to alter the very world around him?
“Change it how?” he asked.
“If it will help you understand this place, then make it your own. Remember how I showed you to move that floating block earlier? Whatever you used to find the strength to interact with that, you must find again. Only this time get rid of what you don’t understand and put in what you do. It’s what I did when I created my version of Sanctuary.”
An alarm sounded out behind them, breaking Graham’s concentration instantly. The Sentients then began to move forward, forming a line of resistance. With the strangeness of the room’s geometry came a distorted and confused orientation. To him it all appeared to be a continuous shape with no sign of which way was forward and which was back. Yet the others around him were sure. They had their sights set on the area just beyond their line of glowing bodies. This was where the attack was coming from. They sensed it somehow – and it was nowhere near the door Graham could still see.
Alex suddenly appeared from behind a group of Sentients, all huddled together to the side. She looked unhappy about the unexpected disruption and made it plainly clear with her arms crossed and her expression filled with gloom.
“This absolutely sucks!” she said.
“Language, Alex.” Graham had to stop himself right there, his daughter would never have said such a thing. The Sentient pretending to be her had let the imitation slip. Tension had created a strange cloud of unease over those inside this hidden realm.
“Graham, stay here with Alex. I must speak with Kindness before it begins.”
“Right now?”
“Yes. I think it would be best if we kept you as far back as possible. This attack could be the one that makes it through. The others have failed only because of the large number of Sentients still able to withstand them. That is not the case this time. I’ve seen far too many unable to fight.”
Stephen left them behind and went off in search of the Sentient leader. Graham and Alex stood hand in hand and watching the others prepare for the enemy’s attempt at breeching the walls. He decided to assess for himself just how many had been put out of action by the repeated onslaught. It only took him a short while to agree; there were far more lying about the place than were standing ready to defend themselves. The numbers added up to a less than effective fighting force.
As much to comfort himself as Alex, he squeezed her hand in his. “We’ll get through this, honey. Don’t you worry, Daddy won’t let anything happen,” he said.
“I know, Graham.”
He wished, just this once, that she had called him Daddy in reply, despite his earlier insistence to the contrary. In truth, he had no idea how to keep her safe. He soon began to regret leaving the safety of Sanctuary behind. This was no better. To know what happened to Luke and how to return to the human world would cost him dearly now.
Even being trapped inside the damn puzzle maze was better than this, he thought, shortly before spotting something strange.
His first indication that the battle had begun came in the form of a glowing emanation from the area just beyond the line of Sentients. It came out of nowhere and hovered in place like a ball of plasma; a miniature star forming from nothingness. As it grew, it let out an explosive booming sound that flashed past the line like a supersonic solar wind. The sudden burst of energy whipped at the clothing hanging around Graham’s body.
From outside, the enemy had started its heavy bombardment of the Sentients’ hiding place. Their entry point was to be a small, fiery ball of matter that burned brighter as it forced a hole inside.
“Shit, I can’t fight that. We can’t fight it like this,” Graham said as a nearby Sentient joined the line ahead of him.
To prevent the attackers from making it in, the Sentient line surrounded the tiny star and held out their long arms. From the tips of their fingers erupted a steady stream of light that sputtered sparks upon contact with the glowing ball. The light was somehow pushing against the shape, like it wanted to squeeze it out of existence altogether. Each Sentient began to do the same as the shape slowly shrank, and moved in closer to keep the pressure up. The effort required to do so was immense, but they continued without any sign of giving in.
It still had Graham figuratively scratching his head to understand what he saw. He knew Stephen was right, as always, and that he needed another way to see it all. Achieving it was not going to be easy, considering he had barely a clue where to start. If the place was just flat and not falling away at the edges like he stood on the outside of a tube, he would know where to aim his attention.
“That shouldn’t be too difficult,” Alex said beside him, to his surprise. Had she been listening in on his thoughts all along?
“You can stop doing that right away, young lady,” he replied, looking down at her with a smile.
“Sorry. You should start with that though. I think this place would look much better on a flat surface. Can I help you change it?”
“Sure.” In fact he was more than happy.
As soon as the first glowing shape had been squashed to death, another formed a few feet away. The attack was relentless. The moment more than one appeared the Sentient forces would be stretched beyond their capability. They were already struggling with it all. To deal with the intrusion, even those nursing the injured had now joined the fight.
Graham was becoming fearful while he watched helplessly and still totally at a loss. His focus could not move beyond the glowing shapes and what they represented. Imagining the violence that lay just behind it scared him deeply. The creature he had seen had not even attacked, yet it still had him fearing for his life. How was he going to defend himself and Alex against such a thing?
“Graham, you have to concentrate for this to work,” Alex said.
He turned away from the noise and the glow. It was not going to get any better by just staring at it, he knew. It still did not stop him wanting to keep his eye on it.
“Right, OK. What do I do then?”
“Close your eyes,” she said, as she did it first. “Now, picture what you remember of this place. Can you see it?”
With his eyes clamped shut, he could see something for sure. Only it was not the room, but the glowing shape again.
“No, not that,” Alex snapped at him. “Forget that stupid thing for a minute.
Just think of this room and how it would look flat.”
He tried his best to do so. Still it refused to change, even within his own mind. At the sound of another glowing orb tearing through the ether, he cracked open his left eye and shot a look across to it. It had happened just like he expected. The Sentients were now too thinly spread out. It would only require one more orb to overwhelm them completely. Either he, Alex and Stephen had to find an escape, or they would soon find themselves face to face with the enemy.
The sonic booms were now pushing against his body as they raced past. Only three creatures were outside and yet they were causing chaos inside. A few of the fighting Sentients had already succumbed to what Graham suspected was some form of exhaustion. They were not going to hold out for much longer.
With his eyes closed again he concentrated hard on flattening out his memory of the place, using the Sentient front line as the cut-off point. They would be the front and he and Alex would then find themselves roughly in the middle. So like rolling out a matt upon the floor, he kicked it with the heel of his imaginary foot until all of the bumps had gone. Then he opened his eyes again.
“You’re kidding! I did that?” he said, pleased and astounded by his work.
Beside him Alex jumped excitedly on the spot. He really had done it, the room was as flat as any other he ever knew. No more gravity defying structures for him. But his pride did not last long as he saw exactly how far the injured stretched. They went all the way to the end of his newly flat world. If just a third of them were still able to fight they would be more than a match for the enemy. The cost of their fight was plain to see; they could take little more.
“You did it, Graham.”
“That was… easy,” he replied, a look over to the glowing spheres as he spoke. What could I try next? he thought.