by Mike Essex
We may have saved the World but there would be no parade in our honour. Unless you count the continual presence of tanks and soldiers in each major city - a presence that only grew following The Rapture - as our victory parade.
This parade had also spilled over into the forgotten city of London. It still remained an abandoned wasteland but what had once been a city that the British Government wanted to forget existed was now one that they patrolled 24/7 with an external taskforce. The work was sub contracted to the McDougals, one of the richest families in Britain, who called their team “SO13”, the revival of an old Police Anti-Terrorist Branch that had existed in the early 21st century.
I’d never seen an agent of this organisation face-to-face but the media continually showed footage of them on the streets of London rounding up the current residents and rehousing them in other cities. It seemed an unusually kind move for the Government to fund such a taskforce, especially given that they had abandoned these citizens initially. They must have been very concerned about the risk of a further sound wave attack.
We met with Grace and Chris in the town of Windsor. Located just on the edge of the M25, it was as close as we could get to London without attempting to breach the explosive barrier that encircled the city.
Grace rushed towards me so fast that she stumbled over on the way but managed to spin back around and land on her feet, somehow adding class to what should have been a nasty fall. She reached me and picked me up in her arms, raising my feet off the floor as she did so.
She introduced me to two new members of The Deck: Olive was a short and bubbly ginger haired girl with pale freckled skin. She’d been given a Four of Clubs dog tag to indicate her low rank in the group.
The other member was Tom, who I had encountered when I’d first visited Tobias; he had been one of the other competition winners who was granted access to TethTech with me. He’d been given a Seven of Clubs, indicating that he must have received a good level of training and been with The Deck for some time.
“You worked for The Deck this entire time?” I asked him.
He seemed far less surprised to see me than I was to see him. “No. Grace found me after I got kicked out of TethTech and told me about The Deck. I didn’t think anything of it until The Rapture occurred and I was the only person in my town that didn’t get taken over. That’s when I knew I was different and that we all share something in common.”
Tom could only be referring to the one thing all members of The Deck had in common; that their twins had never been born, their life taken from them in the womb, all thanks to the 20 Day Siege’s sound wave.
I smiled at Tom, glad to have him on board. He’d been as suspicious of Tobias as I had and I could do with another ally, especially one ranked as highly as a seven.
Olive explained in a deep Scottish accent that she had been recruited by Jill, the technical Queen of The Deck, on the day of The Rapture. As one of the few people who didn’t lose control to Tobias, Olive had filmed the events occurring in Edinburgh and posted them online. Her video was instantly taken down and she received a message from Jill with a date, time and location to meet. Olive was then integrated into The Deck for her own protection.
It made me wonder how many other people had noticed they were different that day and how they reacted to seeing the bodies of those they love being taken over. I knew all too well what it felt like to feel powerless as someone else tried to rip your life away. It made a person fight for revenge and become desperate for answers. Answers we were now going to get.
THREE
Grace reached into her backpack and retrieved two plastic devices no larger than a small fingernail. “You two need these” said Grace, pointing to Rex and Rufus, then running her finger around Rufus’ ear.
They inserted the plugs and connected them to clear plastic tubes that ran around the back of their ears. From a distance it was impossible to tell they were wearing them.
“What do you think?” asked Grace.
“I’ve had worse things put in places,” replied Rufus “…but what do they do?”
“We’ve tuned them to block out the lingering sound wave in London so it won’t be able to damage you.”
“So how do we get into the city?” I asked Grace.
She walked me over to the van she had driven in and retrieved seven tight black rubber wetsuits, perfectly fitted for each of us. Inside the van were snorkels, clothing, backpacks, masks with air tanks and large rounded devices that looked like torpedoes.
“What are they?” I asked Grace.
“It’s called a scoodo. It’ll help you get around underwater,” she replied.
We put on the clothes Grace provided as well as the wetsuits. Rufus wasn’t too happy about how they would make his belly protrude but we coaxed him into them non-the-less.
I looked at Rex and we started to laugh. The way we looked in our suits was just ridiculous. Grace and Rufus soon joined in the laughter. Even Olive had a chuckle, although Tom and Chris stayed stern faced. Chris was most likely focused on the mission, whilst Tom seemed to be watching Chris eagerly waiting for instructions.
Despite our lack of training Grace made the scoodo's seem relatively easy to use. We simply needed to hold on to them whilst they pulled us forward. One handle was moved forward to proceed and tilted back to stop. Another handle could be angled to help us go up or down, whilst we could shift our bodies to turn. Testing them out on the surface almost made them seem like fun.
The route was relatively simple in principle. We were to follow the River Thames directly to the Houses of Parliament. Grace would lead us with a GPS device on her arm and we had more than enough air to do the trip and later return.
Sadly the River Thames hadn’t been a safe body of water for a long time. As I lowered myself into the water the first thing that hit me was the deathly cold that the wet suit did little to keep out. For my hands and face, which were completely exposed the reaction was even worse. My face felt instantly frozen, the heat sucked from it. I kicked my legs in the water desperate to warm up.
On the horizon I could see abandoned ships crashed out on the banks of the river with shards of metal, wood and assorted debris strewn across the water. Once we started swimming surfacing would be near impossible; if the cold didn’t kill us the other hazards surely would.
The scoodo’s were not quite as easy to manoeuvre as I had thought they would be. They had a certain buoyancy to them that made them want to constantly rise to the surface when they were left idle. We could counter this by kicking our flippers, although the smaller members of the group, such as myself and Olive, still found them very difficult to use.
There was no time to practice any further so I put on a brave face and told everyone I was ready to go. Surprisingly Olive did the same, although I had seen her struggle minutes prior. I placed the mask over my face and put in a mouthpiece that connected to the oxygen tank, breathing in the artificial air for the first time.
We dived under the water and moved out in a convoy formation with Grace and Chris at the front, who seemed to have far more experience, with the rest of us trailing behind them. I gripped tightly on to the handles and tried to focus on travelling in a straight line. Olive, located at the back, was no doubt trying to do the same.
Visibility was poor under the water; its murky, dull essence washing over my mask and clouding my vision. This was made worse by the night sky which deprived us of natural light to help show the way. Even the streetlights that ran alongside the water were broken, deactivated no doubt when people left this town.
I activated a small light on the scoodo which illuminated a school of fish that passed in front of me. Their colours were dull and uninteresting, even the fish in this place looked devoid of colour.
I followed closely behind Grace, desperate not to lose her. With her tracker she was the only one who could guide us through the differently branching waterways, especially as swimming to the surface before our destination carried far too many ri
sks.
We settled into a good rhythm, keeping ourselves alert to avoid the floating wreckage and kicking our flippers to keep the scoodo’s in check. The more I swam the more my body started to warm up but I never got used to the cold cutting through me, the worst part of the journey.
We’d been travelling for twenty minutes when we saw the lights, blazing out across the water.
I turned around to try and see what had happened but the lights had stopped. In the darkness of the water I counted the blurred figures of my friends but one of them was missing from the back of the pack. Olive.
I spun my scoodo around by angling my body and headed back towards where Olive would have been in the convoy. Even as I got closer I could see no sign of her.
In desperation I let go of my scoodo and rose up to the surface, emerging in an unfamiliar part of London. The waterway was deeper here and I could see around me for several metres. Not far away I could see Olive’s scoodo, which she must have ridden to the surface. Its lights flickered brightly, the same piercing light that must have lit up the water.
Not thinking for my own safety I shouted out her name in a panic but there was no reply. I couldn’t see her body or why her scoodo had malfunctioned.
As I inhaled to breathe again I saw the black and white camouflage of a soldier dashing to the water’s edge. Before I could react my legs were dragged under the water submerging me completely. Chris released my boot and moved a hand across his throat in a cutting motion. Although he spoke no words the message was clear, “Quiet”.
I tried to find the right motion to explain that I couldn’t find Olive but communicating under the water proved difficult. Why had I never leant sign language? That would have been very helpful now.
It was clear Olive must have surfaced and left her scoodo but then what had happened to her? We had very little time to figure that out if we wanted to save her.
A large stream of bubbles rose up past my face and I looked down to see where they had come from. More bubbles continued to emerge and I followed them downwards into the darkness. There was no time to grab the scoodo so I dived down until I was surrounded by nothing but the faintest of light and the bubbles to guide me. I so badly wanted to scream her name, to say any words to let her know I was out here.
A faint outline emerged in the dark and I could see the source of the bubbles. It was an air canister that had been ruptured by a piece of metal stuck in its side. A canister identical to my own. It had to have come from our group.
Olive. I hoped she was near. If she surfaced again hopefully Chris would find her before the soldiers did. If she couldn’t surface I knew I’d have to find her. I reached out into the darkness until my hands met with the rocks of the river floor. I could just about make out each rock as I crawled forwards using my hands to anchor me to their crevices, whilst kicking my legs to slowly move forwards.
Grace joined me and handed me her GPS tracker so that I could use the faint green glow of its display to try and light the way. The tiny glimmer of light was enough to drastically speed up my search and thanks to the help of Rex and Rufus also joining in we finally saw Olive’s familiar shape as her body thrashed about for air.
I grabbed her under one shoulder and Rex grabbed the other but rather than be thankful for our help she turned her body in the other direction to get away from us. What are you doing! I thought to myself, really wanting to scream it at her.
Did she want to die? It certainly seemed like it. We swam over to her a second time and she shook her head from side to side. She didn’t want to be rescued.
Her mouth opened as her body desperately tried to find air and she clasped a hand over it. Rufus emerged from behind her tugging at the arm that blocked off her mouth. Rex, seeing an opportunity, removed his own air tank and swam towards Olive. The instant Rufus removed Olive’s hand Rex shoved the mouthpiece into her mouth forcing her to breathe in the air and bring her back from the brink.
Seeing the twins working together in perfect harmony reminded me of what I was fighting for; the answers I needed to find in this place.
While the air filled her lungs Olive’s breathing started to return to normal and the mad frenzy we had seen in her eyes began to fade. R&R each put an arm around Olive and swam upwards.
We reached Chris just in time to see the bullets rip through the water, exploding the scoodo instantly.
FOUR
The explosion rippled outwards rapidly, sending a burst of water towards us filled with shards of sharp plastic and components from the scoodo.
I felt the explosion pulse through my body, causing me to gasp out for air in shock. I breathed in through my mask whilst it started to crack from the pressure. In a panic I placed a hand over what remained of the mask, just enough to keep it functioning.
Chris, who had been closest to the blast, had been knocked backwards, his mask completely destroyed and his tanks hissing air out into the water.
Tom was hunched over holding tightly on to his chest, a look of pain on his face. Meanwhile the bullets continued to fly, leaving trails in the water, each one a reminder of how close the bullets came to hitting us.
Grace moved the light on her scoodo forwards and I started to swim towards it, everyone else doing the same to regroup. As the light glimmered under the water the direction of the bullets changed, now firing directly towards us. Realising the mistake she had made Grace pushed the scoodo away from her and we promptly swam away from where the light had been.
Momentarily reunited we shared masks with each other and made the most of the remaining air by passing tanks around. With our scoodos gone and our light source destroyed we swam through the darkness, the strong dragging the weak along hand in hand.
After we had swum away from the shooting I noticed it stop abruptly. This did nothing to calm my nerves. Hearing the gunfire coming from behind me had made me think that we were safe and putting distance between us and the shooters. In the now silent water it was impossible to ascertain if our location had been discovered. All I could hope was that the darkness of the night was concealing us as we swam deeper into the city.
The GPS on Grace’s wrist emitted a small ray of light, which caused Grace to motion her arm to the right towards a small opening that branched off from the main flow of water.
As we approached the opening it became clear that Grace was directing us towards a tunnel that sat on the river bed. The tunnel was tall enough to stand up in, although it was still easier to swim and had a handrail either side that we used to pull ourselves inside.
The first thing that hit me in the tunnel was the smell. The cracks in my mask allowed it to enter and it filled my nose until I felt like I needed to gag.
It was on a different level to anything I’d ever known. Even rotting food and burning rancid fish couldn’t compare to the smell.
As we descended deeper into the tunnel my nose started to adjust to the smell. It lingered on but the initial shock started to wane. Although he tried to appear tough it was clear from his face that Chris was thankful that the shock was short-lived, not having a mask on all the time meant he’d been even further exposed to the smell.
The tunnel was angled downwards so the further we swam the more it felt like we were descending into darkness. Had Grace not been in front of me I doubt I would have trusted anyone else to lead me down there.
Sunlight started to filter into the tunnel and it felt like morning was breaking around us. The anonymity of the night-time would soon be lost. As we swam closer to the source of the light we could see that it wasn’t the sun, it was the brightness of artificial lights emanating from a hole overhead.
On seeing the light R&R sped up their swimming, no doubt hopeful for the chance to stop carrying Olive. When Chris saw the light he let go of the mask he had temporarily borrowed from Tom and swam forwards. A far more capable swimmer than the rest of us, he was the first to reach the hole and stick his head through it. The man seemed to have no concern for his own safety.
I watched as Chris rose up through the hole until his entire body was out of the water. No wonder he had been so quick to swim there. Everyone looked keen to get out of the water now and on seeing that Chris had emerged I was given a burst of adrenaline as I kicked my feet towards the exit.
I allowed Rex to go up first so that he and Rufus could help Olive through the hole. Tom, Grace, and I followed behind.
“What is this place?” asked Rex when we had all surfaced.
“It’s the Thames tunnel sewer plant,” explained Grace, which went some way to explaining the smell. “We’re 75 meters below the River Thames and we should be able to follow this tunnel system all the way to the Houses of Parliament.”
This was a rare stroke of luck, although the thought of navigating this giant sewer for miles underground made me feel nauseous.
Olive started to cough repeatedly as the water escaped from her system. Her face was pale, her eyes lacking colour. She was lucky to have survived this far.
As her head swung upwards Rufus placed a hand behind her so she wouldn’t hit the concrete wall when it fell back. “There, there sweet pea,” he said. Rufus had always been kind to strangers, in fact pretty much everyone but his brother saw his nice side. Rex got the worst of Rufus’ jokes whilst everyone else around him got kindness.
Chris was less kind. He bent down until he was at Olive’s eyelevel and fixed his gaze on her. “What the hell were you thinking? Turning on your scoodo’s lights and going to the surface? You could have gotten us all killed!”
Olive could barely speak, her breathing not yet returned to normal. “I ... I didn’t think. I panicked.”