by Ian Williams
“Hey,” Graham said gently, taking her to one side to speak. “Would it put us in that much more danger to stop for a few minutes? We’ve managed this far without alerting the enemy, we could rest for a little, couldn’t we?”
“Fine,” she reluctantly replied, before nodding her agreement to Kindness, waiting by the injured line of Sentients.
Within a relatively short amount of time, she had almost taken command of the group. Her guidance was leading them to safety and it appeared not even Kindness himself was about to question the arrangement. It was yet another part of the Sentient hidden beneath the outside image of his daughter that he had found peeking out. She had the authority of a leader, or at least a strong will that could make one.
“You never told me what you did during the war,” Graham said, taking advantage of the break. The fear that she would shut him out had only been slight, but it had been enough to alter his tone a little. He asked as though in passing.
While the others took a moment to sit and tend to the needs of their hurt, Alex and Graham stood staring across the open land in silence. His question had not brought about an immediate answer from her. Instead it was left hovering in the air just waiting to be popped.
Eventually she answered, her voice lowered and filled with regret.
“I was unable to do much,” she said. “When the war first began, I was with many others. We were overrun by a dark cloud that consumed those unfortunate enough to be caught in its wake. It burnt them to dust, vaporising their very essence. All I could do to get away was to hide among the dead remains of the victims. Those it didn’t consume entirely were left deformed and scattered about the place. I was sure I would die there surrounded by death.”
“What did you do to get away?”
“I didn’t, Graham. I stayed there for what must have been days. I was too scared to move, so I remained in place until the clouds had cleared. After seeing thousands of my own kind slaughtered by the enemy, I had no choice but to run. I’ve never fought one of these things before, Graham. This is my chance to make up for that failure to act before. I will not give up without a fight this time.”
“You couldn’t have done anything to stop Isaac back then, Alex. You failed no-one. The survival of your people is all that matters now. Whatever it takes to achieve that, I know you’ll be able to do. You shouldn’t feel ashamed for not fighting in the beginning. If you had, you would never have found me. I won’t forget what you’ve done for me. Never. Do you understand?”
She smiled, keeping her eyes scanning the distance at the same time.
“I understand, Graham. Thank you,” she said.
What he had already seen of that time had put the fear of God into him. He experienced the terror first hand as though he had been there the first time. Running amid a crowd of panicking Sentients, all fleeing for their lives, had left an imprint of horror on his soul. He could think of nothing more horrendous for a being to endure. Yet somehow this tiny little girl had made it through. She was the real success of her races’ survival attempt.
For a few minutes more they watched as the horizon flickered its threatening hue. The silence had made way for a few hushed conversations to break out among the group. They were by no means relaxed, just less worried than before. It was a peaceful time.
It was also a time ripe for the enemy to stage its first attack.
None of them saw it coming until it was right on top of them. One single creature had pounced from the darkness, the sharp teeth of its raging armoury gnashing at the air as it drew near. Graham was unaware anything had changed at all, then he heard the first ripple of energy fire at the rear. He snapped around to see the Sentients holding that area, erupting to life with a ferocity only matched by the enemy itself.
Their energy had begun to burst free of their bodies in a steady stream of bright, voluminous light, which tore into the creature. They were too much for this one enemy. While he looked on, the small team of Sentients surrounded the creature until it could go nowhere. It had no escape. Eventually it began to break apart in a fit of sparks and flashes, until it was nothing but litter upon the ground.
But they had made far too much noise in the process.
“They’ve killed it!” Graham said, suddenly compelled to clap in response. His excitement was met with silence from his fellow escapees. The attack meant something very different to the rest of them.
“We have to move, now!” Alex ordered.
“But they killed it, Alex. We’re fine.”
“No, Graham, we are not. We have been discovered. More will come.”
Kindness was next to begin calling out the orders.
“On your feet. Be ready to form the barrier. Remember, the force field we are about to create will be all that keeps us safe. Stay together and stay strong.”
Everyone took a solid stance in their agreed positions, while the strongest of their fighters began to link up arms with the Sentient next to them. Within a short amount of time they had formed a circle around the entire group. Graham was not sure what he was about to see, only that this would somehow form a protective barrier around them.
“Begin,” Kindness shouted.
Gradually the Sentients that made up the surrounding circle started to shimmer and wobble, as if fading away into water. Then from their feet up, the process spread all the way to their heads. At first the floor glowed as the outlines of the beings standing there lost the defined shape of before. When the energy contained within each began to merge, it slowly expanded to engulf them all. The whole force field was made up of the Sentient fighters, their stored life-forces providing the required power to create it.
Graham watched in astonishment as the white light covered them all like a bubble of pure energy. The force field then became rigid, like a glass dome, and almost completely transparent. Now they were protected from the enemy.
“That’s incredible,” he said, while reaching out to touch the newly formed surface in front of him. What his fingers touched felt weirdly cold, like touching a Mag-Lev car’s windscreen in winter. For a moment he was positive his hand would have a thin coating of frost once he removed it. Sadly it did not, only leaving a tingly against his soft skin instead.
“We are ready, Alex. Lead us out,” Kindness said from the rear of their protective dome.
She smiled at Graham before speaking. “Here we go.”
There was nothing Graham could say in reply, he was still amazed by the floating energy field surrounding them. He continued to look around as they set off again.
At least now he could forget about the dark patches on the ground.
With the group much smaller all of a sudden, it appeared that only a few beings were inside the bubble. The majority of Kindness’ fighters were now hovering around their heads. It left the injured and a few others wandering along like a glowing target. They had been found by the enemy already, so an extra glow would not particularly matter. More of them were on the way.
The first real test of this new protective shield came at the moment Graham had spotted the tip of a strange tower poking out from behind the horizon. That alone could have explained the sudden response from Isaac’s forces. Heading straight for the enemy had brought forth a group of the creatures, sent to keep them away. Graham’s little group had threatened to kick the hornet’s nest by venturing so close to it.
There were five of them racing across the landscape and aiming for Graham’s group, their light throwing ghostly shadows in every direction. They moved with great speed and tore at the dusty ground as they approached. The cloud they kicked up made them look as though they were backed up by a line of stampeding animals. It could have hidden anything amid its swirling, horizontal tornado like mass. The truth was they needed no such help, they were an entire compliment of fighters between them.
Seeing these creatures nearing, the group began to slow a little in preparation. Graham could see the enemy had no intention of doing the same and were instead speeding up.
The two sides were set to meet with a tremendous crash. Gnarly, sharp implements of death were to fight the combined strength of the remaining Sentients head-on.
“Ready yourselves,” Alex shouted.
The impact was as forceful as a hurricane force gust. Two of the fearsome creatures exploded upon contact with the field, which almost buckled under the sudden strain. The bubble leaned in toward Graham and Alex, who could only watch as their view blackened entirely. From behind the first two enemies came the thrashing remains of the three caught by the blast. They pushed through what was left of their fellow fighters, all of their slashing and slicing sword-like appendages attacking the field in one incredible show of blind rage.
“The field’s going to break,” Graham said as he tried to pull Alex back.
She was going nowhere. “It will hold, Graham. We must continue. Push forward.”
He could not believe his eyes. The enemy were right there in front of him, no more than a metre away. They had made a statement of intent to Graham’s small group; they wanted them all crushed out of existence.
But their first attack had been a futile one, with the force field withstanding the battering with barely a scratch. They realised this within seconds of finding themselves avoiding the flying debris of their comrades. This was an intelligent enemy, not one to waste effort on a hopeless endeavour. Five of them was never going to be enough. Figuring this out had brought their attack to a swift end.
The remaining three backed away in an uncharacteristic show of caution. They were going to need a new plan of attack. In the meantime they were not too interested in trying again. As the group continued to move forward they were quite happy to wait until the time was right. They backed away to a distance of no more than a couple of metres and matched their prey’s speed exactly.
Kindness joined Graham and Alex at the front.
“What are they doing?” Graham said, with both eyes tracking the enemy as it glided alongside them.
“They will try to find a weak spot in our energy shield,” Kindness replied. “We must remain together at all cost, one gap is all they will need.”
The three of them walked side by side. There was nothing they could do to deal with the creatures stalking their every move, for the time being. Progress was steady, but still slow. It was going to be a little while yet before the doorway they required would come into view. The enemy’s stronghold was up first. It would be that which tested their resolve the most. The tower was a sight none of them ever considered they would see first-hand, let alone almost visit. Getting past it would be the making of their plan.
After that it was all very much hanging on a line of unknowns. Finding the correct doorway was one thing, opening it to a hidden shortcut was another altogether. Alex was the only one who knew where it lived, and it remained up to her to find it.
Of course they had to get past the enemy alive first.
Chapter 24
A misstep
11pm, Friday: 60 minutes until Switchover
Conrad forced the back of his heel into the locked door. He was not making an attempt to escape this time, but was releasing his impatience. After his short interrogation he had been led upstairs to what he assumed must have been the staff canteen at one point. It was an open plan room, with all of the inside furniture serving some purpose he could not yet see.
He had been left for longer than was polite in his opinion.
“Hello,” he called out. “I’m getting pretty fed up with being made to wait like this.”
Silence. Not even the sounds of the street were making it inside.
“I’ve told you what I know, dammit.”
When no reply came he stepped back and leaned against one of the tables. They were arranged in one large square in the centre of the room, with a hole in the middle. It appeared ready for some kind of conference rather than a meal.
At least you’re not locked in a cell again, Conrad considered.
Voices from outside his room soon echoed through the door. Someone was coming, hopefully to fill him in on what he came to realise he had been missing. These people were not part of the killer-cult, but another faction entirely. One he had not known even existed until now.
The door quickly opened and a single man entered, closing it quietly behind him. He did not bother with a mask like the others all had. This far inside their world meant the need for one had already gone. Conrad was finding himself sinking deeper into the mystery.
“Good evening, Conrad,” the brown haired man said. He stood a good six feet in height, with broad shoulders and a definite confidence to his movements. This was a man of obvious authority. Conrad could see it straight away.
“Who are you?” Conrad asked, standing straight automatically.
“We’ll get to that, in time. First, Conrad, I’d like to apologise to you for the incident with the drone last night. To prevent our enemy from finding us, we made sure each of our drop-off-points could protect themselves autonomously. Unfortunately, it saw you and your partner as a threat.”
Although Conrad appreciated the apology, he could not quite thank the man for it. He still had no clue whether his kidnappers were trustworthy or not. Their actions had not told him they were; their words had yet to either. More was needed for that to change.
When no reply came back at him in return, the man went on with his speech. “Perhaps you’d care to see something, Conrad?”
Sliding his black shirt sleeve up his arm, the man revealed his brightly lit wrist computer awaiting his command. He removed it and pulled it out into the larger tablet mode, then placed it on the table beside Conrad. Moments later an image jumped out of the small device and hovered in the space between the tables. The room had been set up to make this the main focus for those inside.
“Show me what, exactly?” Conrad asked, stepping away from the holographic display. Without his glasses it looked a little blurry to him up close. A hovering globe behind the images rotated peacefully, but this was all he could see clearly.
“Some photographs to begin with,” the man said. “Do you recognise anyone here?”
Squinting at the images still failed to jog anything free. Pictures of two men, he was sure he had never seen before, hovered in the centre of the room. They were not from the police force, he was confident of that. But the images were not from the police database either, they were from street view cameras.
Now how the hell could you have these? Conrad thought, although he did not ask it.
“I’ve never seen these men before. Who are they?”
The man did not reply. Instead he brought up another collection of images. This time it was two men and a woman, all on the roof of a large building. Conrad went through the faces again, up close now. All three wore black fatigues, however one of them had removed their balaclava. He looked over this person, the woman of the group. There was something about her, something lodged at the back of his mind. He had seen her somewhere before.
“What do you see?” the man said after seeing his companion suddenly stop at one of the faces. “Do you know her?”
Conrad searched his mind in silence for a second or two, before he could remember anything. Then it hit him. “Goes by the name of Phoenix,” he said, recalling an earlier conversation.
“Really?” The man became excited by this.
“Yeah. The Deputy Mayor ordered me to find her, after taking me off the killer-cult case. She was involved in the terrorist attack eighteen months ago.”
“But you have no knowledge of these other people?”
“No. Should I?”
“I suppose not,” the man replied, his demeanour less excited now. “All of these people were involved. The first two weren’t at the shopping centre, but they were still part of it. The first is a man named Graham Denehey, and the second is Elliot Sumner. They were mentioned in Simova’s records from that day.”
“Why haven’t I heard about any of this then?”
The man laughed a short, s
nort-like laugh. “Why indeed.”
Wiping the display away, he replaced the floating photos with another page of information. A mixture of news articles, video reports and official records took centre stage in place, all seemingly about the aftermath of the terrorist attack.
“Chaos, isn’t it?” the man said, shaking his head slowly. “All of the damage to our city, all of those poor lives lost, and for what? By destroying the relay network across the entire country, these bastards left us for dead. Yet we still don’t know why. Doesn’t that strike you as odd, Conrad?”
“I guess so. Although, I’m not too sure it really matters now, does it? We’ve rebuilt the network and repaired what we could. Mayor Crawley made it happen for our city. Before you took us he’d announced his plans. For crying out loud, he’s even set a countdown clock for us.”
“Yes, switchover.”
“So, what’s this all about then?”
The man wandered over to a spare chair, then dragged it back to the table. “Please, sit,” he said. Conrad gratefully obliged. “Now,” he continued, as he stepped between a small gap in the square of tables and into the holograph filled centre. “I have another photograph for you. I don’t expect you to recognise this person, but you should see it.”
As the previous images shrank into the background a new one took their place, this time an aerial shot zoomed in on one man’s face. He stood beside a glowing relay, which appeared to be under a lot of strain.
“This man led the unknown group that took the shopping centre,” the man said, his arm extended to the side and pointing directly at the photo. “His name is Anthony Burgees. In this image you can see he is doing something to one of the power and data relays. He was, if not wholly, then partly involved in causing the overload that spread across the country’s network. So where is he now?”