by Mike Essex
In amongst the long green stalks of grass were millions of weeds, yet somehow in this twisted park there was an overwhelming sense of colour. Daffodils filled the gardens with shades of yellow and white, whilst the purple and blue vines added a darker colour to offset the brightness. Even in this place of desolation some beauty had emerged.
Through the grass I could see a two story building in the centre of the park. It looked like it had been built recently given that the grass got shorter as you got closer to it and the ring of sand that ran in a circle around it. The building was made with large corrugated metal panels that didn’t seem designed to last either.
I wished my comms unit could help me communicate with Grace. She was always good at planning attacks. I knew I couldn’t just walk up and talk my way in, although I wished our contact could sneak out and meet me somewhere discreet.
I felt a jab in my side as Doe poked me with his gun. He swung his hand forwards indicating that I had to go but all I could think about was that I needed more time. That maybe a few more minutes would allow me to see a hidden entrance but they didn’t allow it. Doe glared at me and tapped at his ear as a reminder of what would happen if I failed. I had to advance no matter what.
I lay my body flat onto the floor and crawled into the long grass. The brown mixture of dead grass and dirt covered my hands and knees as I edged forwards through the blades. The grass was so thick that it engulfed my body entirely and I could only see a few centimetres in front of me as I edged forwards.
Trying to keep track of the direction I was heading in was difficult in the never ending sea of green. At one stage the grass parted and I looked out to see Big Ben on the horizon but no sign of the SO13 base. I turned around and tried again but was thankful for this mistake. It meant we were close to the original entrance and that I could find my way back if needed.
If they didn’t blow the head from my shoulders before that point.
EIGHTEEN
John and Doe didn’t follow me into the long grass. This was a solo mission; although how they expected me to achieve it I had no idea. From their perspective if I was killed it would be one less mouth for them to feed and one less problem to worry about. It made me wonder if their contact inside the base was even real, or if this was just a way for them to ensure I was taken off their hands.
Yet they could have killed me easily on several occasions and no one would ever have known. Surely this way was messier. For all his talk about trust it didn’t seem like Jacobi would be leading me here just to die. Either way his test had been set and I had to complete it, one way or another.
The grass began to part as I edged closer to the base until there was nothing more than a few thick shards between myself and a sandy path that ran around the soldiers’ hideaway. From this point I could get a good look at the base before proceeding. A single guard patrolled the outside of the building, walking round in a circular pattern and stopping every few seconds to check the horizon for signs of attack.
He was a smoker and was currently enjoying his latest cigarette as he looked directly towards me. I tried to remain as still as possible and hoped that the wind would stay away. A single breeze would easily give away the fact that I was hiding in plain sight.
The soldier took another drag on his cigarette and walked further around the building. I could breathe again. The building was a completely closed off grid of four interlocking panels on the outside. There were no windows or any way to see inside other than a single open hole that formed an entrance.
Whatever this building was for it was clearly not their main base. Perhaps it was a location for ammunition storage or other supplies? Hopefully nothing too valuable. If I was lucky the solitary guard on the outside and our contact on the inside would be the only other people around.
I waited for a moment to check for any other guards who were patrolling the building or were located in the jungle like environment outside. When I was sure the soldier was the only obstacle I started to watch his movements carefully, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
“What are you waiting for?” shouted Jacobi in my ear. His loud voice and the proximity of the receiver to my ear drum startled me but my body was so rigid from watching the guard that I barely moved. I refused to reply and focused back on the guard. Jacobi stopped asking for a response but I could tell he was unhappy.
When the soldier walked around the other side of the building I dashed towards the main entrance as quickly as I could, each step making more noise than I would have liked. There must have been 50 metres between the grass and the entrance but it felt like a thousand. Based on his previous trips around the building I counted 45 seconds between him walking around one side and emerging on the other. Just enough time to reach the exit and slip inside if he repeated the same pattern.
I reached the doorway and darted inside, quickly pressing my body up against the inside wall of the base. I let out a deep breath and tried to get my breathing back, being careful not to make too much noise.
Aware that my 45 seconds were almost up I loosely held a hand over my mouth to reduce the sound of my breathing. Inside of the doorway to the base there was a single sheet of metal that rose from floor to ceiling and hid the contents inside. I edged to the end of the panel and moved my head around to see what secrets the room held.
The space behind the panel contained a small amount of crates and a dirt floor which had been displaced in several parts, probably from other soldiers walking inside. It didn’t make any sense. Why would they be protecting a practically empty building? At the end of the room the metal crates had been stacked to create steps up to an additional floor, which was the only other place left to explore.
The dirt moved easily beneath my feet and the ground below felt soft. I climbed up the crates slowly, aware that each footstep I made on their metal casing was making a soft clanging sound. Halfway up the crates I saw a logo etched on to one of them. I bent down and wiped away the dirt that obscured it to see an all too familiar symbol.
On the crate were two interlocking lower case ‘t’ symbols that formed together to make the symbol of a DNA helix. I’d recognise that brand anywhere; TethTech, but what were these soldiers doing with products from TethTech? Was this what they were protecting? It was impossible to open the crate without removing the other ones from around it, which would have taken at least two people to achieve and caused far too much noise.
Unable to investigate the crates any further I continued my climb up them and onto the second floor. The location of this floor was a mirror image of the downstairs area; three interlocking sheets of metal forming a makeshift door. I pushed my body against the door and listened to someone on the other side.
“Increase it to 120 dBA,” he said and after a pause continued, “10,150 Hertz should do it.”
He continued to talk but no one replied, a good indicator that he was alone and due to the subject of his conversation I hoped he was a scientist and not very skilled in combat.
As his conversation stopped he started to hum and my mind registered the opportunity to enter the room. I slid my hand over the pistol at my side and debated whether to use it. If he was the contact I was expecting then he could be trusted but if he was anyone else he could shoot me before I even fired off a shot.
I decided to keep my hand on my weapon so I could draw it first if needed. He wouldn’t be expecting me so at the very least I’d have the chance to gain an advantage. He reached a crescendo with his humming and I moved around the doorway and into the room.
His humming stopped sharply and he dashed towards a gun on a metal table in the centre of the room. Before he could reach it I kicked the table over and the gun fell to the floor with a clattering sound. When the table hit the floor it echoed around the building, causing the metal walls to vibrate and amplify the sound even further. There was no way the outside guard would miss the sound.
As a gut response to the danger I pulled out my weapon and aimed it at the scientist in front o
f me. He held his arms in the air.
He looked at me waiting for a response and I mouthed the word “Jacobi” in the hope he would understand. A sign of recognition appeared on his face and he started to speak.
“Yes everything is fine,” he said into the comms unit over his ear. “I knocked over my table but it’s nothing to worry about.”
“Sorry about that. I’m David,” he explained. “How is Jacobi?”
“A crazy torturing bastard with trust issues,” was what I should have said but instead I replied with; “He’s fine, he asked me to collect a package for him.”
“How are things at Q-Whitehall?” he asked me.
“Fine,” I replied, unsure what he was talking about.
“I really must visit some time. Tell Jacobi I’m still waiting for an invitation.”
“I will,” I lied.
“Here’s the package he asked for,” said David as he handed me a small glass vial of light blue liquid. I wrapped it in some nearby gauze and placed it into my inside jacket pocket.
When I looked up again David had retrieved the gun from the floor and was aiming it directly at me.
NINETEEN
“What are you doing? We’re on the same side,” I begged. As I turned around to try and escape, the soldier from outside had entered the room, blocking the doorway.
“We have a lot of questions for Jacobi,” said the soldier, unbelievably still smoking despite us being located in a small building with no windows. With his free hand he took the gun from my hands.
“I don’t know anything,” I replied.
“I’m sure you can prove useful,” said David. “There’s a lot we need to know about the resistance.”
“Don’t talk,” said Jacobi into my ear, “I knew that bastard was a traitor.”
That was all the advice he gave. I hoped he was commanding John and Doe to sweep into my rescue but it seemed unlikely. He had sent me here to die.
“Tell us what you know. Are you prepared to die here?” asked David. “What about your twin? Are you prepared to let them die too?”
That’s where he was wrong. I hadn’t felt connected to Will in days. I hadn’t felt a single one of his emotions. If I died right here and now, I was confident Will would survive.
The nameless soldier dropped his cigarette onto the floor of the building and stamped it out. With his now free hand he retrieved a tiny pill from his jacket. “Have you seen this before?” he asked. I shook my head. “It’s a cyanide pill; it’ll kill you instantly and your twin as well. If you value their life at all then you’ll talk.”
There was a time where the threat of Will dying would have caused me to tell them everything but without the responsibility of his life being tied to mine I felt free.
I refused to comply and held my mouth tightly shut. Anything I said could cause my friends to be killed. If I kept quiet I’d ensure their safety even if I lost my own life. Perhaps Jacobi would even let them go.
They tried to pry my mouth open and when I refused David pressed his gun against my kneecap. “I guess we’ll do it the old fashioned way. If threats won’t work then how about a bit of old fashioned torture?”
David sniffed the air. “Did you put out that cigarette?”
“Yes,” replied the soldier as he checked the floor.
Although the cigarette had been extinguished there was no denying the smell of burning in the air, a smell that only grew stronger the more I focused on it. I closed my eyes, seeing the smell as a sign that Jacobi had started to activate the bomb inside my ear.
“Where is Jacobi hidden?” asked David, the tip of his gun hurting my leg.
“I don’t know!” I replied, keeping my eyes closed, smelling the burning in the air and feeling the heat intensify.
“You’re lying, look at me!” he shouted as he pried my eyes open with his fingers. He positioned the pill in front of my eyes and held my focus there. I continued to lean against the wall, two guns now aimed directly at me.
I could see David’s patience was starting to wane but there was something else about him. He seemed distracted, perhaps receiving orders through his earpiece on what to do with me. He pushed my body backwards against the wall in frustration and backed away. The soldier continued to aim at me.
“We will find him,” said David, “and when we do Jacobi and his little band of have-not merry men will fall,” his words reminded me of the soldier we had faced in Big Ben. The hatred for the have-nots ran deeply amongst the soldiers.
“I just want to get home.”
“Home? And where might that be? This is a dead city. There’s no home for the likes of you in this place.”
“I don’t belong here,” I continued to beg in the hope that some sense of mistaken identity might set me free. It was the only chance I had left now that Jacobi had all but abandoned me. Of course I didn’t really care about Jacobi, I’d happily give away his location a hundred times over, but if they raided his base then my friends would be in danger. Especially if they were still locked up, there’d be no way for them to fight back. It was too risky.
“I expected a little more from a have-not,” David said. “I thought you were supposed to be resourceful and determined? Yet all I get is a weakling like you.”
“David?” said the nameless soldier.
“Well never mind, I’ll just have to kill you. One less drain for society to care about.”
“David!” shouted the soldier.
“What?” he replied and then he noticed it too. Black smoke had started to drift up through the stairwell and slowly flow into the room. David darted over to the stairwell whilst the soldier continued to aim at me.
“The pods!” shouted David as he ran back over to a control panel and started hitting keys. “Watch her.”
The entire structure of the base started to shake as a loud rumble echoed through the air. David left the control panel and jumped down the crates to the lower level. In amongst the rumbling noises I could hear the loud sound of drilling and the crunch of something repeatedly breaking.
Smoke continued to pour upwards and whatever David was doing was having no effect on the gases that flooded the room. As the smoke filled my lungs I started to cough, its thick fumes tickling my insides. My eyes started to water and I felt my body start to grow warmer.
The soldier coped better with the smoke, his experience as a smoker no doubt giving his lungs an initial advantage but even he soon succumbed and was forced to cough. The coughing caused him to move his hand in front of his face for a split-second and I used the opportunity to dart forward and drive my knife into his leg.
He fell to the floor, his body hitting the metal with an almighty clatter. I grabbed his gun and aimed it at his head ready to use it. I waited for him to give me a reason to shoot but his body didn’t move. Keeping hold of the weapon I left the room and looked down the stairwell.
The smoke had almost engulfed the lower room completely yet there was something else different about the room. In amongst the black smoke I could see the silvery reflections of several large rotating blades edging their way ever closer to the ceiling. Beneath the blades I could see the reflection of glass.
Somewhere in the darkness was David, his body obscured by the smoke. I could hear him shouting something inaudible in amongst the loud chaos of the spinning blades, the vibrations of their motors echoing off every inch of the metal surfaces that surrounded us.
Tentatively I crawled on my hands and knees and lowered myself down the boxes. When I reached the floor I kept low hoping to avoid the smoke as it rose up to the ceiling. As I moved under the smoke I could see another set of spinning blades, sucking the smoke towards them.
From my eye line I could just about make out the glass structures rising up from the blades. They were large rounded glass containers very similar to those that Will had hidden in. The tubes vibrated as they moved upwards and I saw the faint outline of bodies inside them as they moved upwards. Just like his container these vessels also
contained the bodies of people who had wanted to hide themselves away.
The reason for David’s shouting and banging became apparent now. He was trying to save these people. Using his distraction to my advantage I crawled along the floor doing my best not to cough and trying to stay awake in amongst the fumes. The metal entranceway was all that stood between capture and freedom but for a second I paused.
I heard the cracking of glass as the tubes started to break from the intense pressure and a thought hit me. Were the people in the tubes soldiers or prisoners? If I left now would I be leaving them to die?
Then I remembered the glass vial inside my jacket. If that cracked from the pressure I’d have nothing. Even if David survived he’d never help us again. That vial was the only bargaining chip I had and the only way to save my friends.
I crawled around the entranceway and out of the base, my conscience wrestling with the dilemma of leaving people behind but with one clear message ringing out. “You have to live.”
TWENTY
I gasped for air outside the base. Even outside the black smoke was everywhere, scraping away at the atmosphere and fighting to destroy every bit of oxygen that remained. Time was running out.
My entire world was engulfed in fire. The green, purple and yellow gardens that surrounded the base were now nothing more than kindling, powering the fire on its relentless pursuit to eradicate everything living.
All that separated me from the fire was the sandy floor surrounding the base but that wouldn’t hold back the flames forever. All it would take was for a few sparks to get inside the base and there were more than enough flammable surfaces for it to take control.
“What have you done?” said Jacobi down my earpiece.