by Mike Essex
As March saw the horrific decapitation he dropped to the floor and curled up into a ball to try and make himself as small as possible and minimise the possibility of being hit. As he looked up he saw a car door arching across the sky and heading directly towards him. He rolled out of the way, narrowly missing another car, as the door crashed into the ground next to him.
Chris’ car hung back and March and his team mate jumped in the back. “Go!” shouted March, not wanting to be part of another attack.
Meanwhile Gabe‘s car had driven off the side of the motorway and across a field. He was thankful they had purchased off road cars. The tank followed after them.
“You can do it,” Grace encouraged Gabe.
“Ok,” he replied. “You let me know if they fire on us. We just have to make it to those trees.”
The tank headed across the field undeterred by the harsh terrain with the driver knowing he had a clear shot in such an open expanse of land. One of The Deck in the back of the car pulled out his weapon and shone blue light onto the tank. It did nothing. The driver was shielded from the rays by the tank’s outer casing.
“How can we stop them?” he asked.
“We can’t,” replied Gabe. “We just have to keep moving.”
Tobias watched as the blue light was shone on the tank. “You’re next,” he said. He took control of the tank’s driver and aimed the gun turret towards Gabe’s car.
He told the gunner to fire a missile but nothing happened. Two orange lights disappeared on Tobias’ control panel. He had lost control of the driver as well. “But how?”
“What was that?” shouted Gabe. “Someone saved us.”
Grace looked back at the tank which was now a burning pile of metal. “Someone hit it with a missile.”
“That was us,” replied Chris, his voice coming through the radio. “While the tanks were distracted with you we charged at one of them and broke inside. We threw the driver and gunner out and left them on the motorway. If they’re smart then they’ll leave.”
Two more lights on Tobias’ panel turned off. The tank drivers who survived were no more use to him so he abandoned them on the motorway.
“Come back to us,” said Chris. “The road is clear now and I doubt Tobias will try anything now we have a tank.”
The team regrouped on the motorway and drove the last few miles to London. They spent the rest of the journey in silence as a sign of respect to the six friends they had lost on the road.
FORTY-NINE
Emmie Keyes
I ran down the hallways with Rex and Rufus by my side. For now they were free of Tobias’ mind control, the blocking device in my pocket keeping them at bay.
From behind us we heard a crash as the double doors were smashed open by Vlad and his brother. They were coming for us.
“Where can we go?” I asked Rex.
“No idea. Just find an exit,” he coughed in exhaustion from the running. “You should leave me behind. I can’t do this with one lung.”
“No,” said Rufus. “I’m not leaving you bro.”
I agreed. We reached the end of a corridor with a large spiral staircase. “Up or down?” I asked.
We started heading upwards but were forced to stop due to a high locked gate. There was no way around it. We dashed back down the stairs and now we could see them again, Vlad and his twin closing in on us. The only option was to head downwards.
The stairs took us underneath the building into a dimly lit sub-basement area that stank of musk and was riddled with mould and decay. Hundreds of rows of books were stacked around us onto large shelves that were held in place by glass doors, many of which had been shattered leaving many more books strewn across the floor, their spines broken and their pages torn and covered in mud.
Suddenly Rex stopped running. He lent over holding his chest in agony. Through gritted teeth he let out a scream, unable to contain the pain any more. “Run!” he shouted to us, knowing that the orange eye twins were right behind us.
I ran back to Rex. I wasn’t ready to let him go. Rufus and I tried to carry him by placing ourselves under his arms but we weren’t strong enough. The three of us collapsed to the side head first into a large bookcase.
The bookcase had become weak over the years and it started to give way, and then fell over tumbling in the opposite direction to us.
As the bookcase fell we helped Rex to his feet and ran away from the falling books, huddling close together in order to protect him. My face was pressed in close to Rex and I thought about how much he had helped me. I kissed him on his cheek and told him to carry on.
Then came the screams as one of the falling bookcases landed on Vlad and his twin, trapping them to the floor. This was our opportunity.
“No!” screamed Tobias. The last two lights in his room started to flicker and he could feel himself losing control. “I will never let you go! You will always be my greatest experiment.”
He tried to force Vlad upwards again but it was no use. The orange eyed men were trapped.
We were free to escape.
The fallen bookcases had exposed something else as well. At the far end of the room was a large doorway. It looked like it headed in the direction of the building entrance. If we were lucky there would be a staircase that could lead us right back outside.
“Let’s go,” I said.
Rex found his footing again and walked slowly to the exit. We did our best to help him but it was clear he’d done some damage to himself in the escape.
“We’re almost there,” I tried to reassure him, although I had no idea what we’d do once we got outside.
We pulled the two doors open and saw the two steel doors of an elevator. Looking behind me I could see Vlad starting to rise up from under the rubble.
“There’s no other way,” I said, pushing the elevator button. The doors opened instantly, like it had been waiting for us, and we stepped inside. I rapidly pushed the close button in a panic whilst we could see Vlad running towards us.
The door finally started to close with Vlad mere footsteps away. Just as we thought we had escaped and the doors were centimetres away from each other they were stopped by a knife which stuck between them. I instinctively kicked the knife away and the door thankfully closed.
Vlad banged on the door in anger and we could hear him screaming as the elevator moved.
It was that movement that told me something wasn’t right. It felt like we were going downwards not up. I looked at the panel and saw a button had been pressed for the lowest level; B6.
I turned around to ask Rex why he’d pushed the button but the answer quickly became apparent.
His eyes had returned to a dark orange. I looked at Rufus and his eyes had done the same. I could no longer hear the soothing hum of the blocking device. R&R were back under the control of Tobias.
I backed up towards the door as Rex walked towards me. I frantically pressed a button for the Innocent blocking device to come on again but it did not. It was out of power.
Rex grabbed me and held his arm around my body, forcing my body to rest against him. Rufus snatched the blocking device from my hand. He threw it onto the floor and smashed it under his foot. He then found the one in his own pocket and smashed that too.
“You can’t escape,” said Rex, as the elevator made its way down to level B6.
FIFTY
Grace Wilkerson
The Deck drove into London through the city streets. Their convoy now consisted of a tank and two cars. Ten of them remained. It had to be enough.
They approached London from the south west side. A garden had once been located in this area and had housed some of the most beautiful flowers in the world. Now it served as a makeshift graveyard, with thousands of bodies from the 20 Day Siege filling the ground.
The remaining people had done their best to ensure respect was paid to the dead. When the city was abandoned bodies were originally left rotting in the streets. The people who returned had found those bodies and giv
en them peace. It reminded Grace of how she and Gabe had cleaned the shopping centre above The Deck HQ of bodies.
Despite seeing so much death the garden had been brought back to life and flowers grew around the giant tombstones that marked the dead. As so many bodies had gone unclaimed – most families never came back to London – they had marked unnamed people with a single X. One tombstone was filled with nothing more than a thousand little X symbols. It was a bittersweet testament to what had happened.
“I can’t believe Tobias caused all of this,” said Grace.
“Don’t worry. He will be stopped and the world will know what he did,” said Gabe.
“How?” asked Grace. “We can’t even prove it! In fact the only reason we know he was to blame is because of your boss. A man I’ve never even met,” she hated being kept out of the loop and the boss’ secret identity was one of the things that wound her up the most.
Gabe didn’t reply. He simply walked towards the tombstones and knelt down to pay his respects. He removed the car keys from his pocket and carved an X on to a tombstone. “For my twin who never got the chance to live.”
“We all lost someone that day,” said Grace, as she took the keys from him and marked an X on to the tombstone as well.
The other members of The Deck walked into the garden and paid their respects to the fallen people. They may not have all known someone who died here but such a senseless loss of life made them feel for the families affected.
This was just one mass grave of many. The world wasn’t prepared for so much death. Mass cremations had been carried out worldwide, regardless of the wishes of the dead. Many of the bodies that weren’t burnt were those that were lost in areas people dared not visit. Areas where the signal had been at its most concentrated.
“We have to keep moving,” said Chris. “There is nothing we can do for the dead now. If we don’t continue on then there will be a lot more bodies to pay our respects to.”
“You’re right,” said Grace. She dialled a number on her phone and put it on speakerphone. “So where do we go Jill?”
“Why don’t you ever say Hello?” asked Jill.
“Because I’m a super cool action star. We never say hello. That’s the rules.”
“Hmm,” replied Jill. “I noticed something odd whilst you were driving to London. When you were attacked by orange eyed people the new signal could be detected in the area. It was faint but it was unmistakable. I went back and looked at the footage from when Emmie was taken and the same signal occurred.”
“So the signal has something to do with the orange eyed people?”
“It has everything to do with them. I think whoever is taking control of these people is doing it via the new sound wave. Which means there’s good news and bad news.”
“Good news first please. Always good news first,” replied Grace. Gabe looked at her with raised eyebrows; she knew he would have preferred the bad news first.
“Well, the good news is we can now track the people who took Emmie. I’ve scanned for any faint instances of the signal and there’s only one. It’s coming from the old Houses of Parliament. If Emmie is still with the people who took her then it’s a good sign she is there.”
“That’s great news!” said Grace. “And the bad news?”
“If someone is controlling other people via sound waves then they could control any one at any time. Which means every person you meet could be a threat.”
“Will they still have orange eyes?”
“I think so,” replied Jill.
“Great so we can still stop them,” said March. “I’ve fitted our guns to target the frequency of those who are being controlled. It’ll stop them temporarily. It momentarily stunned one of the drivers earlier so at least we can defend ourselves.”
“That’s good. Remember they are innocent people. If someone is controlling them then they do not deserve to die,” said Jill.
“So do we know where the sound wave is coming from?” asked Gabe.
“I’m still trying to pin it down exactly but there’s something else,” said Jill. “The small bursts of sound wave that I’ve detected are not coming from the Houses of Parliament. They are passing through somewhere first and being broadcast out via a relay. If I can find the source of that I should be able to shut down the signal.”
“Great work,” said Grace and she hung up.
“Wow, not even a goodbye,” said Jill. “She is a super cool action star.”
FIFTY-ONE
Emmie Keyes
As the doors opened on level B6 we were faced with a white panelled corridor. What looked like it had once been a state of the art lab was now decayed and mostly destroyed. Panels were falling off the walls exposing the raw wires behind them and rust had started to work its way across the walls and into the cracks.
Something bad had happened here.
Tobias continued to control Rex and Rufus and speak through them. “I want to show you where it all began,” said Tobias, through Rex.
“On the second day of the Siege, when the world knew they could no longer contain the problem, they built this lab. Located deep underground, it was designed to withstand the attack,” said Rex.
He walked me through another set of doors into a central chamber. The walls were covered with a soft, squishy, padded material that looked more like it was designed for a mental asylum cell than a laboratory.
“1,000 square feet of sound insulation,” said Rex. “Designed to block out the signal whilst scientists worked to stop the effects of the attack. Only ten people ever saw the inside of this room and I was one of them. I saw more of it than most.”
He pointed to a corner of the room. I hadn’t seen it at first but the padded wall gave way to a door. Rex pushed open the door to reveal a small enclosed space. The room was no bigger than the single bed that occupied it, which now lay there broken, the springs of the mattress exposed and the metal bed frame rusted and bent out of shape. The walls were padded in even thicker insulation than the main chamber.
Rusted chains lay broken on the bed. “Was someone kept in here?” I asked.
“I was,” replied Rex, echoing Tobias. “For nineteen days this was my prison.”
“But you stopped the Siege? You led the team that found a way to save everyone.”
“Yes, I did save the world but I didn’t lead the team. I was just an unlucky candidate. The one man on the planet who had the best chance of stopping the signal. That’s why I was chosen, why I was held captive.”
“So what is this place? A prison?”
“It was a lab,” he replied. “Designed just for me.”
And now for me? I wondered.
In the central chamber we walked towards another door. It was hanging from its hinges and had been badly damaged. As the room inside got closer I started to see things I recognised.
It was a room full of pipes which wove their way towards a single chair. Wires surrounded the chair and I knew the setup instantly. This was the same room I had seen in the DualCam video. Will had wanted me to see this room but I had no idea why. Now Tobias wanted me to see it as well.
An open harness hung down from the side of the chair. “That’s where they held me,” said Tobias, through Rex.
Was Tobias the man in the video? I asked myself. It couldn’t be. If the video had been Will’s memory then it would have happened recently.
“When did this happen?” I asked.
“They took me to that chair every day for nineteen days,” he said. “Each time they tried a different experiment. A different way to use me to stop the signal from killing everyone. One day they cut off part of my face and attached electrodes to my skull. It was the worst pain I have ever endured.”
The man in the video had part of his face exposed. It could have been Tobias.
“Why are you telling me all of this?” I asked.
“Telling you? I’ve done more than that Emmie. I’ve shown you. I know you remember the video?”
I
gasped. “You put the video on my camera?”
“Indeed. I hacked your DualCam to show you exactly what they did to me.”
“So why delete the footage?”
“I couldn’t very well have footage of me being experimented on doing the rounds,” he replied. “Someone could do a lot of damage with that tape.”
“Why show it to me at all?”
“Because this is what is waiting for you. If you don’t help me then you’ll be the next person to be experimented on.”
“Is that I threat?”
“I don’t make threats Ms Keyes,” he replied. “I am merely warning you and trying to stop you being the next victim. We’re the same you and I.”
“I am nothing like you. Whatever happened to you all those years ago you’ve still hurt people now. You killed my brother!” I shouted.
“To show you who you really are. We may not have the same desires but deep down we are the same. I survived the death of my brother, just like you.”
“But how?” I asked, shocked.
“I’ve spent over twenty years trying to find that answer. You are the only other person in the world who is wired the same way as me. If the people who did this to me ever find you then they will operate on you too. All this time I’ve been trying to save you.”
“You didn’t stop them?”
“I killed many of them over the years that followed and made two of them my slaves,” he laughed. “You already know Vlad, the man with the knives. He was the one who carved into my face with so much glee. Now I control him.”
“But to what end? Revenge?”
“There’s only one way to get revenge on them for what they did to me. Today I start that revenge and you will help me. Or you’ll be next.”
It was a threat that worried me. The video of Tobias had shown him enduring horrible torture. It was something I knew I wouldn’t be able to face. Whoever had hurt him had changed him and everything he’d done since then had been because of them.
“So what do you need me to do?” I asked.