by Ian Williams
After taking the glassy panel from her and sliding it across the floor, Luke then arched forward with his arms across his knees and peered through the gap they had cut out with a handheld plasma cutter – also bought illegally on the black-market. A sudden lurch forward had Phoenix ready to grab him and push him back. Luckily he found his balance in time.
“Can you see any wire clusters, just inside, perhaps behind another transparent layer?”
She dropped the goggles she had worn while using the plasma cutter and ducked her head a little to see inside the tower. There was even less light now that their work had ventured beneath the floor, so she could barely really make out anything but the hole she had just cut out of it.
“Chuck down a torch for me.”
“Certainly,” Luke replied, polite as always.
It was only small, but to her delight it had done enough to help. At no more than her arm’s length inside there was indeed a large cluster of wires. They were the same as the glowing type the Sentients appeared to prefer, except these remained dark for the time being. They had also been severed and left hanging.
“OK, I see them. Now what?” Phoenix said, rubbing sweat out of her eyes. Her t-shirt had become drenched already, it could scarcely hold any more moisture. “We can’t connect them all, there’s got to be thousands in there.”
“We will not have to, Phoenix. With the correct signals they should reform their connections automatically. Remember, Sentient technology does not follow the same rules as yours must. Here, take this.”
Phoenix was handed a bundle of wires, around six in total, each with metal clips to attach to more. She untangled them as the process was explained to her.
“If you could place these on a few of the wires, I will try and activate the repair protocols. The device will be told to reconnect itself and await our input.”
“Our input?” Phoenix asked, her left eyebrow trying its hardest to escape her face.
“We will require someone to replace the previous Overseer. For you to find your friend inside the Sentient world, it will have to be you who takes that role. No-one else can search for him, they haven’t a black box.”
While the idea of her taking the place of the Overseer slowly sank in, she began to connect the wires. She was not required to think for this part, so her mind fixated on the next. Entering the Sentient world was crazy. Then she realised, there was something else she would have to make herself do before that would be possible.
A thought had occurred to her and she had to ask the question. She handed over the wires as she asked it. Despite the ongoing conversation, they had not missed a beat with the repairs. They were working on autopilot by now.
“Have I got to get inside the tower like the last person?” she asked.
The idea of locking herself inside a room no bigger than a broom cupboard, made of crystal no less, was almost as hard to agree to as entering the Sentient world itself. The plan was getting worse for her at each stage. Next she expected he would tell her to run repeatedly into the wall for it to work; it felt as counter-productive as the last two suggestions to her.
“The Overseer is part of the device, Phoenix. For it to work you will have to be inside it, yes.”
“Crap. Someone died in there. The blood’s probably still wet too.”
Six loose wires draped over the edge of the hole and disappeared inside the tower beside her. For the moment her assistance was on hold while she watched Luke dealing with the other end of his tangle of connections. Once he pulled one free, he set about attaching it to the device he would use to tap into the Sentient tower’s data processing stream. This was nothing as mundane as a wrist computer, but as complex as the black box on the side of his head. The wire clicked as it made contact with the inside of the device, which imparted a small kick of energy to his head in response.
Seeing him adding the other wires in turn to the box brought a sudden realisation to her. She was not that different from the Sentient sitting a few feet away. They both had a black box device hanging from their temples like odd pieces of jewellery. They also shared the same aim. Luke was undoubtedly as eager to find Graham as she was. He had started it all for her in the first place, something she could now appreciate fully. All the time wasted on her suspicions – caused by her unwillingness to trust people – had been for nothing.
They were allies, and only now could she really see that he always had been. Regardless of the change of appearance, it was still Luke inside. While he closed his eyes and silently communicated with the tower, she found herself unable to take her eyes off of him.
“There, I have it!” he said, with all the sudden energy of a disturbed sleeper. The eyes said he was awake, yet his body remained slumped. “I am now inside the system.”
“What should I do?”
“One moment please. Searching… searching… got it.”
A faint creaking sound began emanating from inside the hole to Phoenix’s side. She turned to it and was surprised to see the other ends of the wires, hidden until then, growing out of the crystal beneath. They wormed their way up to their severed ends, seeking them out in slow arcs from side to side. When they met the correct end, they instantly fused together, forming one unbroken – and more importantly – glowing wire. Thousands of complete connections were made before her eyes. Each time she blinked, she missed hundreds at a time.
“Shit, you did it,” she yelled, as the rest of the tower began to flicker back to life.
Within seconds the room was flooded with its light, finally killing off the remaining shadows at the edges. The tower then started to hum as the incoming energy set about rebooting the device. They had reanimated the dead.
Phoenix exited the hole, disregarded the dirt smeared all over her clothing and skin, then headed over to the console connected to the tower. The screen was alive and waiting for them to begin the next phase of their plan. Only she had no idea how it was to be activated. That would again be down to Luke to work out.
“It’s working,” she called out in excitement.
“Excellent,” Luke replied, while disconnecting his own connections to the system. He let the wires fall back into the hole, then swung his legs around and joined her at the console – though not before another battle with his unsteady balance. “We should not waste a moment more.”
This was the part she feared the most; she was expected to step inside the brightly lit tower. If she was going to do this, she wanted more support first. Luke had no notion of human fear, so he was hardly going to do. She had never really needed anyone in the past, but that was not the case anymore.
Rhys was becoming something of a habit for her.
“What are you doing?” Luke asked after spotting her activating a call on her wrist computer.
After trying her best to wipe the built up muck from her screen, she replied. “There are some things you’ll never understand, I’m afraid. This is one of those things.”
Whether she meant support or her growing fondness of Rhys, she was not entirely sure herself. All that mattered was that she needed him there. When he answered, she felt a warmth return to her core that had been missing a moment earlier.
“You OK?” he asked before she said a word.
“I’m fine. We’re ready to start down here.”
“Awesome. I’ll be down in a second. Don’t start without me,” he replied, then turned his head to the side to speak again. “Matt, keep an eye on these two for me. If either on them move, you have my permission to shoot.”
“Everything alright up there?” Phoenix said.
Rhys faced the camera and smiled. “We’re great. It’s like a party up here. Our new friends are still rather chatty. So what’s the plan?”
She felt a smile of her own creep onto her face.
“Next, I go in.”
Chapter 23
A walk in the park?
The moment Graham dreaded had now arrived. They were seconds away from collapsing the hidden world th
e Sentients had been hiding in. Behind this lay the barren ruins of their former land; the last thing standing between them and the safety of the puzzle maze. Along the chosen route, they were going to head directly toward the enemy in the hopes of sneaking beneath their radar. Speed and stealth were to be their only weapons.
With Graham and Alex at the front, and Stephen staying back to help the injured with their protective force field when the time came, the stage was set for their big escape. They were organised into position by Kindness, the general to this Sentient army. His word alone would bring down the cover to reveal the darkness beyond.
“Are we ready?” he called out to his people. “Remember your positions at all times. We move out on my command.”
Their leader would be where he was needed the most; namely wherever the group’s weakest point resided at any given moment. After a uniformed reply from his troops, Kindness turned to Graham and Alex, and gave them the signal they were readying themselves for. He raised his arm, kept it there for a few seconds and then dropped it to his side.
“Go! Collapse the walls now.”
A sudden gust of air burst in from the outside the moment the walls vanished. It pushed down upon their small group like a crashing wave, forcing them into a shrunken formation. There was no time to check everyone over, they had to go regardless of their readiness. Graham and Alex set off immediately after regaining their footing, with the others behind left no option but to follow closely.
The dark sky above hovered ominously over their tiny battalion as they slowly moved off, its distant lightning striking the surface like a vengeful god venting its anger at their disobedience. Each time a new bolt lit up the sky the group stuttered and broke up. The injured were unable to hold themselves tightly together. They were not going to survive any attack in this state of disorder.
“Everyone, close in. We cannot lose cohesion,” Kindness ordered of the middle formation. “Protect the rear.”
Graham could hear the plan threatening to unravel from his position at the front. The world they entered was an unforgiving place, with little care for those who lived within. It had dealt the first merciful blow as if to warn them back into hiding. They unfortunately had no such option.
While the rest of the Sentients reformed their tight net, the journey became clear to those at the front. It was a vast void, where only the occasional black hill broke up the endlessness. Nothing around them could be used to judge distance at all, all the way to the glowing red horizon. How Alex could tell one place from another was beyond Graham, it all looked identical. A land of death and decay the likes of which his nightmares could never match.
What made it worse was the knowledge that their route was taking them in the other direction of Sanctuary. There would be no stop along the way, no place to rest before taking on the remainder of the journey. This was all that lay ahead of them now.
The element of surprise was with them. As they quietly began to walk in synch, it dawned on Graham that they had made it out without meeting a single enemy. This was not expected to last for long. He looked back to the huddled group of injured Sentients walking behind him and felt his heart stumble for a quick beat. Of the ones who could walk, only a small amount of them were doing so unaided. Most had paired up with another to support their ungainly gate.
Alex had dictated their pace from the moment they set off. She did not slow at all, not even for the others to catch up. They would not have the luxury of progressing at their own speed. If the group were caught and trapped by an incoming enemy patrol of more than one, it would be over in minutes. The path ahead needed to be covered as quickly as possible, they could not allow the pace to be slowed for a second. Although for someone with such small legs, she had shown no signs of struggling as Graham had expected. In contrast, she appeared the strongest of them all.
“How far will we have to travel before we’ll see the enemy’s tower thing?” Graham asked, searching the distant horizon for a clue.
“It should start to appear just as we reach the last hill before the horizon,” she replied.
“Are you sure this is definitely the way?”
“I am, Graham. This world contains many interconnected tunnels, or shortcuts as you would call them. They allow us Sentients to travel instantaneously between the many different levels. To reach the puzzle maze we need to find the one that can take us to that same area. That currently sits on the other side of this land, just past the enemy.”
“Do you think we’ll be able to fight off those creatures if we meet one?” he said, followed by a paranoid look around.
“It is not a question of ‘if we meet one’, Graham, but when. They are out here, make no mistake of that. The further we can get before they find us, the greater chance we will have at fending them off.”
For the rest of their journey he knew he would be talking to the real Sentient behind the mask of his daughter. There was too much riding on this last attempt at survival for anything to get in the way, even the imitation. It did not stop him missing it though.
A call from the back of the group brought Graham’s attention around 180 degrees. It was Kindness once again reminding his people to stay together. The injured line had become stretched and inflated, more so than Stephen could cope with. If they did the same during an attack they would not take much of a beating before crumbling altogether. Their force field had not yet been required and already they were facing a problem. What they failed to manage would ultimately fall to the others to do instead.
An uncertain countdown had begun as the group slowly progressed. The landscape remained unchanged for another two of the small hills – or crests of dirt. The ground was still loose and covered by a thin coating that crunched underfoot. It was the quiet and last resting place of most of the Sentient army. They had fallen in place, their remains scattered across the land like an invading beach upon a grassy hill.
Knowing this, Graham had found it hard not to tread lightly, for fear of disturbing the dead. It proved impossible from the very start of their journey, yet he kept at it. He avoided particular areas of dark ground as he walked alongside his daughter. In his mind these were the shadows of the murdered Sentient soldiers, a scorch-mark staining the floor where a life had been extinguished.
Their war had been a bloody and ruthless one.
The entire formation had again decided to take solace in the quietness now afforded them. They walked along their chosen escape route, with the very real chance of their end arriving over the next hill, unannounced and utterly terrifying. A sense of expectant dread had flourished among them all, which hushed their voices and distracted their minds. They walked the walk of the dead, shuffling along as though stalking the living.
At the first sign of trouble the entire battalion were to react in the most defensive way they could, by activating a joint force field. That moment arrived as quickly as the lightning bolts that struck the ground a few miles away. Their distant glimmer of the enemy had brought them all to a sudden stop as they assessed the danger level.
“Has it seen us?” Graham whispered to Alex, who kept her hawk-like eyes on the creature unknowingly crossing their path.
She lowered herself to her knees, then placed a finger over her lips. At her insistence the rest of them copied her actions and dropped to the floor, after the message had ventured automatically to the back. Stealth was still their best option, and that suited Graham down to the ground he knelt upon. He, Alex, and a small collection of other Sentients were all that made up the front fighting force. If the creature spotted them, it would be only seconds before he would find himself amid a tiny war-zone.
“It’s moving away,” Alex said.
To their shared relief the creature had continued along its predestined route as it patrolled the area. So far they had made it out of sight of their original location and were soon expecting to see the tip of the enemy’s tower poking out above the blood-red horizon. The fact that they had only just found their first enemy, a
fter a few miles of walking, suggested that Isaac’s patrols were less frequent than they had originally thought.
Where were they all?
“Is it normally this quiet out here?” Graham said, as a chilly breeze brushed past him.
“Not this quiet, no,” she answered. “Since we went into hiding we’ve lost track of the enemy’s movements. However, they are usually around somewhere close by.”
“I’m obviously happy if they stay away and all, but where could they all be?”
“I suspect they may have been busy with whatever your friend Luke found out about. Let’s just hope it stays that way while we’re out here.”
Graham could not agree more with that statement. The last thing he wanted to see was a shit-load of the creatures racing toward them, like a herd of enraged elephants. Of course, waiting for them to appear was bad enough. It had him reacting to the smallest of nearby disturbances as they once again set off.
They continued at a slightly faster pace in response to the sighting of an enemy patrol. By now they had been travelling for long enough to have become more attuned to those nearest. They were a well-oiled engine purring at idle speed, yet to be pushed into gear. This was as they needed their group to operate. After the chaos at the beginning of their journey, this was a huge burden removed from Kindness’ shoulders, judging by the almost relaxed nature of his movements.
“Alex,” Kindness said, from halfway back along the group. “Do you see any more problems ahead of us?”
She spun around and began walking backwards as she answered. “No. I think we’ve caught them out by leaving so suddenly.”
“Excellent. Perhaps we could stop to allow the injured to rest a little? Some are complaining of tiredness.”
The request prompted Alex to begin kicking the dirt with her foot while she considered it. Graham could see it had her weighing up the options, but unable to decide. She had made it abundantly clear at the start that this quicker route would leave them more vulnerable to any attack. By taking a break they were risking being discovered by a random patrol. Then again, by pushing forward without a rest, there was the worry that they would be pushing their injured too hard. Neither choice was without a degree of chance to succeed too.