by Ian Williams
“I can’t tell you just how sorry I am about all of this,” he said, trying his best to hold it together. The blame Kindness had laid at humanity’s feet now resonated with his own guilt. In some small part he was also responsible for the suffering he could see around him. “If I can make it right again, then I’ll do it. I only wish I could bring your partner back to you too.”
“Thank you, Graham.” She sniffed away the rest of her tears and then continued. “I’ve never seen anything but goodness in you, right from the very first time I found you inside that memory maze. I watched you for a while before approaching. Alex is very lucky to have someone so strong looking out for her.”
“Is that why you chose to look like her, because of how protective I am?”
“I’m not entirely sure. All I knew at the time was that I’d found something that made me feel safe, which I hadn’t for a long time before that. I see now that I was looking for a place to hide, at least one that didn’t remind me of what I’ve lost.”
She wiped the last lingering tear away, then raised herself to her knees and hugged Graham. Her arms only just made it around his neck. It was a strange embrace between them. Most of their interactions before this had been like any other he had shared with his own daughter. This time it felt different. This was one shared between friends, not family. He did not expect the façade would last much longer. Once it was gone he would see the real being hiding beneath. Until then, he was happy enough to pretend just a little longer.
Finally the secret conversation had ended. Stephen and Kindness were heading back to them, both with a sense of urgency. Graham knew it was time for him to stand by his words to Alex and try to set things right. Whatever they were about to ask of him, he would do it unquestioningly. They had a plan by the looks of things too. Stephen was almost bursting with energy, but he was not the first to speak.
“Hello Graham Denehey,” Kindness said, more gently than usual.
Graham only smiled nervously in response.
“We’ve been discussing something very important, Graham.” Stephen had continued this time. “Something that could potentially answer our problems.”
As Stephen spoke, his companion Kindness went about searching for a loose rock of his own to examine. When he found one he liked, he held it up to his featureless and glowing face, and scanned it with whatever he used for vision. Graham still had no idea what was so special about these bits of debris. He had created them in the same way any Sentient would. So what was so different?
“Sure,” Graham said. “So what’s the idea then?”
“Well,” Stephen began. He took to his knee beside Graham and Alex. “Everything I have tried to teach you so far has been to help you fit in to this world. But what you did to kill that creature over there…” He pointed at the large rock still sitting on top of the corpse of their enemy, a few feet away. “You’ve done exactly what I told you to do, with one exception. You created this from your own mind, your human mind.”
“So? How else was I supposed to do it?”
“No, that isn’t my point. You’ve done your best to mimic what a Sentient does, and in that you have succeeded overwhelmingly. It’s that what you’ve made isn’t like what we make. How do I explain?”
“Are you saying I’ve done something wrong?”
“Absolutely not, Graham. It just isn’t compatible with Sentient code. Your creation overwrote that code and replaced it with this.” Stephen gestured to the broken remains surrounding them still. “The creature you killed just couldn’t cope with it, like it hadn’t experienced it before. I’ve been guiding you incorrectly all this time. Your real strength comes directly from your human consciousness. It is something Isaac’s forces are unable to predict and overcome. It’s unlike anything we can manage.”
“Remarkable,” Kindness said in the background. He had never sounded so positive to Graham.
“You see it too, don’t you?” Stephen replied. They both shared a nod and a knowing smile.
“Wait, I don’t get it. What’s different about what I made?”
“In design, nothing. But at a structural level it is as though you are able to make things from a different set of building blocks. The code that underpins everything in this world is based on a set of rules you do not appear to be bound to. It’s as if you speak a different language to that of a Sentient, and crucially our enemy too.” Stephen took a moment to look to Kindness once again. “There is one more thing.”
“Go on,” Graham said.
“This.”
With his hand open, Stephen brought forward a small-scale model of the puzzle maze that hovered as it spun slowly around. It matched every part almost perfectly, from what Graham could see.
“We assumed Luke must have made the maze. Graham, that is simply not true. You did, you made it.”
“What? You’re crazy, why would I… I.”
“It matches. The code is the same. I couldn’t have known until you stopped that creature. Now we have something you’ve made to compare it to. It’s the same.”
Saying such a thing was almost heretical to Graham. The place he had been trapped, left to live out his memories for the rest of time, was of his own doing? Believing someone else made it had been a source of great comfort for him. Like a guardian, looking out for his well-being. That notion had now been cruelly kicked out from under him. To be told he had made it was like finding out his left arm was not his own; something he considered more than absurd to suggest, was not anymore.
“If that’s the case, why does it matter to Kindness so much? It doesn’t help anyone,” Graham said with a slight tone of indignation. He could not see the real point behind their revelation.
“What Stephen has called your memory maze, it is possibly the only place that is safe for us now,” Kindness said. “You have seen with your own eyes just how vulnerable we Sentients are in here. If there is even a small chance that we could find somewhere to hide that the enemy cannot penetrate, then I am very eager to reach it.”
“Sorry, say that again. You want to hide in my memories? That place was almost impossible to escape from and you want me to go back there? Alex only just got me out. I can’t go back. What if I become lost in there again?”
“Graham, listen to me,” Alex said. It was her turn to face him directly. “I will not let that happen to you.”
For a second or two, Graham could not speak. He faced a sudden snap of emotion in reaction to Alex’s promise. He was never one to say what he felt aloud and rarely liked to be put on the spot in such a way. The more he was seeing the Sentient, the less he was seeing his daughter. He was losing her, one little bit at a time, and that was more than he could bear. For his sake at least, he needed his family at the forefront of his mind. They were to be his anchor once more.
As the inevitable dampness of his eyes subsided, he looked back at the faces staring straight at him and finally decided. As he told Alex before, if he had a chance to help, he was going to take it.
“How do we get them all there?” he said, giving a nod toward the injured still lining the periphery of the area. “That many will attract a lot of attention.”
This caused all three to look to the other for the answer. In the end it fell on Kindness to explain the real problem with their escape plan.
“Until we reach the safety of your memory maze, we will be open to attack. Out there it will be up to myself and the others who can still fight to protect the weak as they move.”
“No way, that’s suicide.”
“I’ll admit, Graham, it’s not perfect,” Stephen said. “But staying here isn’t much better. The next time Isaac’s forces attack, they will get through. In that instance we’re dead anyway. At least with this idea we’d have a fighting chance of surviving. That’s not something to ignore.”
He could not really argue with that. He saw it himself, just how hopeless the Sentients’ fight had become. The war had decimated their society and left them clinging on to life as the
last of their kind. One more battle would claim them all. From the inside of their world, Graham could now see them for the marvel that they all were. Here were sentient beings that only a select few humans even knew existed, and they were only days away from being wiped out. What threatened them was humanity’s fault too.
One last look about them had sealed it for Graham. What he saw was all that remained of the Sentient race. This had been the reason for Luke’s disappearance, he knew now. In desperation he had tried to find outside help. If he had made it out, then there was still hope. Although they could no longer wait for that assistance to arrive, if it was even to come at all.
It was now or never.
“Fine, I guess we haven’t got much choice anyway,” Graham said. “You’ll need Alex to guide you to it. I can’t find my way out of here let alone back to that place.”
Alex stood and smiled. “Isn’t there something you want to ask in return, Graham?”
“Is there?” he replied.
She then asked on his behalf – despite his confusion in understanding what she meant. “Graham’s real body is still alive somewhere, we think. If what he saw just after defeating the creature earlier is true, then it is frozen somewhere near the real Sanctuary. It must still be connected to the tower there. I can think of no other way for Luke to have brought his consciousness here. We need to help him find it in return.”
Even thinking such a thing was possible before would have caused Graham to choke on his own tongue, but to hear it spoken about like this was too much. He fought back the moisture that had begun to build behind his eyes again and swallowed back the rest. Alex had been spying on his internal musings again and she had seen his memory of being placed into suspended animation. She had also realised he had never considered the real chance of finding his body again, while in such an unusual world to him.
Kindness appeared to react to Graham’s suddenly tortured expression and lowered himself to the same height. Now each of them were kneeling before him.
“I promise you, Graham, that once we have reached safety, I will personally assist you in finding your human body,” he said. “But we must be prepared to leave as soon as possible. Will you help me save my people, Graham Denehey?”
Without stopping to consider whether a hand shake was even possible in his weakened state, Graham held out his hand and reached for Kindness’. Thankfully his arms were doing as they were told this time. When their hands met and they began to shake, a warmth spread up through Graham’s arm. His skin tingled as it passed through him.
“What was that?”
“I have imparted some of my energy to you,” Kindness said. “To help us you will need as much strength as we can spare.” He stood and placed a hand on Alex’s small shoulder. She looked up at him and smiled. “Help him recover, little one. I will tell the others what we are planning. I’m going to need to spread my forces thinly for this to succeed. All of our efforts will be with defending the weak. You, Graham and Stephen, will be leading us.”
The responsibility was now well and truly with him and Alex. It would all be for nothing if they failed in finding the prison maze again. They were planning a race to the end while an overwhelmingly powerful enemy tried its best to pick them off a little at a time. The last thing they would need would be to get lost along the way.
When Kindness left, the three of them remained silent. The enormity of the task ahead slowly dawned on them all. They would not have long to prepare either, as the next attack was overdue. If they did not move soon, they would lose their only chance altogether.
Chapter 21
Ready, set, go
9pm, Friday: 3 hours until Switchover
Rather than do nothing while she waited for the others to arrive, Phoenix had kept busy by getting things ready for her rescue plan. The first and most urgent on her list were the many bodies littering the ground floor. They had to go. With as much respect as she could afford in such a limited amount of time, she and Rhys were moving them all into the boarded-up corridor, which led to the front of the building.
They were on the last trip, with a cold female cadaver hanging like a stiff human hammock between them, when Rhys stopped and looked down upon the lost life. During their time clearing the area around the small Sentient spire, the body count had become gut wrenchingly clear. Isaac had recently extinguished thirteen lives on this floor alone, all because of one escapee. He had punished them for their failure in the most severe way possible.
“I’ve never seen a dead body before, let alone a room full,” Rhys said with his arm covering his nose.
“I wish I could say the same,” Phoenix replied. “I’ve seen more than my fair share.”
Her answer did not stir him free of his dark thoughts. She was unsure if he even heard her. He continued to express his discomfort with the scene regardless.
“This isn’t right, Phoenix. It’s just so messed up. How can this be going on and nobody knows anything?”
In all of her time working for Anthony she had never seen such a large operation carried out without some help from those the city trusted the most. Remaining anonymous to the authorities usually required pay-offs. Whether that went to an officer of the law or a corrupt official, who would turn a blind eye at the right moment, it scarcely really matter. But it was always done.
She did not believe this time was any different. Whoever was helping this diabolical plan come to fruition, she just hoped they spent whatever money they got quickly. Because they were not going to have long to do so. They had sided with the Devil and he did not appear to care how many lives were lost while rebuilding the world to his specifications.
“I don’t have any answer for that,” she eventually replied after trying to put one into words that did not make her sound like she was a part of that world still. Rhys was involved in illegal dealings, but he never stepped over into anything worse. She had, and did not much like the idea of telling him all of it. She cared how he saw her more than she was willing to admit.
“When we’re done trying to find your friend, we should call the police and let them deal with these bodies properly. They don’t deserve this,” Rhys said, leading the way once more.
In the corridor they placed the last of the ground floor’s collection of the dead gently onto the pile against the wall. There was no space to lay them side by side, so they settled on an orderly stack instead. Although to Phoenix it had now begun to resemble a grotesque game of deceased human Jenga, with some on the top layer threatening to topple the tower if left unchecked. Pushing the top few back kept the stack stable enough to leave it.
With that completed they were finally released to tackle the second thing on the list. They needed to convince the Sentient still tampering with the deactivated Conduit device to allow them a go. So far he had not given up on turning her into one of them.
Back in the main hall the area surrounding the tower in the centre had been lit with a couple of the round lamps from a few floors up, although large areas of shadow still remained around the edges of the room like portals to the underworld. They were unable to banish the dark entirely. By focusing the light in the centre it created the illusion the tower was the source of the light. It glowed with illuminated reflections, which moved as though alive.
Stood in the same position was the Sentient. He had not moved from this spot while he struggled with working his machine. Dealing with him had become easier once they realised he would do pretty much anything they said if he believed it was to further his own cause. He only cared about finishing his work and pleasing his Master. He did not quite understand that they had no intention of going through with it.
He had at least focused on repairing whatever had gone wrong with his machine now. The console he worked at was open and with its internal structure showing. It had nothing in common with any technology Phoenix had ever seen. Her glimpse only afforded a fleeting chance to spy inside it before the Sentient saw them returning and closed the panel beneath his co
nsole in response. She was still a human after all.
“Have you found what’s wrong with it?” she asked.
“I have not. You musst be patient.”
“I’m sorry, it’s just I’m very keen to become like you and the others. I have a lot to offer your Master. He will be very pleased with you once you’ve finished your work.” She had started appealing to his ego to keep him on side. It was becoming obvious he had decided he needed to win back his precious Master’s affections at all cost. That – and the lobotomy he received courtesy of a bullet to the brain – made him easy to manipulate.
“Yes, the Master will indeed be pleased,” Rhys said, trying his best to do the same.
The Sentient stared into space with a broad smile that confirmed he had bought their act. It also let out a small dribble of saliva from the sides of his mouth. He kept it going far longer than was normal for anyone. After a while he appeared to become lost to his own thoughts, standing in front of them with a demented look of pleasure on his damaged face.
“So, erm,” Phoenix said, stepping forward to jog his mind free. “What about this Overseer thing, how do you activate it?”
“Also, what exactly is it?” Rhys added. He began to explore the other side of the tower.
“The Overseer is the one who can see inside my world,” the Sentient replied, his attention following Rhys as he moved. “He knows all that occurs within; the eyes, if you will, of the Masster.”
“And this Overseer, could he find a particular person inside your world?” Phoenix asked. The Overseer figure sounded exactly like what she needed to search for Graham.
The question had caught the Sentient by surprise, by the look of his quick spin around to face her. He began to lean his head slightly to the side as the suspicion grew. His forehead twitched in response. The small gunshot hole widened a little as he tried to change his expression. The muscles could not react much due to the torn and singed skin.