by Mike Essex
Quickly, I pulled out the map March had made for me and checked my options. There was only one route that made any sense now, I had to find Jill and get her to release my body. I dashed down the passageway on my right-hand side, keeping my gun tight at my side in preparation.
As I turned the corner to Jill’s room, two guards spotted me and started firing in my direction. I ducked back around the corner and caught my breath. Inside my mind I ran though the training I’d seen in the machine for scenarios like this. I told myself I could do it. I was ready.
I leant around the corner and fired back at them. One of the guards took a couple of rounds to the head and fell down presumably dead whilst the other reacted quicker than I’d anticipated and shot a bullet that pierced through my arm.
I moved back around the corner and clenched my face from the pain. I could still move my trigger finger but my arm was in agony. Suddenly I became of a much deeper pain. I touched my hand to my chest and felt the blood that had seeped through.
With no time to waste, I fired the rest of my ammunition at the soldier and moved into the nearest room I could find. With all the strength I had left I pushed a shelf over and up against the door, barricading it shut. I felt around my back to find an exit wound but there wasn’t one. The bullet was inside of me, embedded in my chest, right by my heart and lungs.
“Corinna, are you there?" I asked.
“Yes,” she replied, her voice trembling in anticipation.
I started to cough in deep bursts. As I opened my eyes again I looked down at my hands and saw the blood that I’d coughed up.
“I have some bad news,” I said, “I’m not going to make it.”
TWENTY
“I’m sorry Corinna,” I told her, as the snatcher’s body heaved from the bullet trapped in his chest.
She sobbed at the thought of never seeing him again. For all the effort she’d made, all the times she’d told me to protect him, I’d still failed her.
“I don’t know if you can hear me in there,” she said. “But I always loved you, Sutekh.”
Sutekh. So that had been the snatcher’s name. It didn’t give me any peace to know it before the end, in fact it only made me feel worse that I’d only ever known him as the snatcher. I’m sure Grace and Tom wouldn’t care about his death but there were people out there who did care for him.
There was one other person I felt like I’d failed.
“So it looks like this is it,” I told Tobias.
“Oh no, this isn’t how it ends,” he replied with excitement in his voice. “Have you even looked around this room?”
I stared at the shelves all around me, stacked with boxes covered with small black writing. I walked up closer to have a look at them and saw the wording. ‘For SO13 use only.’
SO13 was a designation I hadn’t heard in a long time. It was the codename of the McDougals army when they’d taken control of London. It seemed possible that Eli had taken control of their supplies after we’d driven them from the city.
I tore into one of the boxes and tossed the padding inside onto the floor. Then another, and another.
“Oh my God,” I said as I realised what the boxes contained. Each one had a different set of weapons; pistols, grenades, semi-automatics, sniper rifles, knives. There was enough to take down a city.
“Time to make a stand,” said Tobias, as the soldiers smashed against the door, trying to break inside.
Based on March’s comments I knew there were no more than ten guards in the base. There was no way I could take them all down in a head to head fight but through stealth I could get the upper hand. I mapped out the room in my mind, trying my best to remember the military scenarios I’d watched in preparation for this day whilst trapped in the machine.
With the help of Tobias we set the room up in a way that would give us the best chance of escape. My chest ached as I moved everything around and I wished I’d taken a few supplies from the medical room. When the soldiers had almost made it through the door we decided to strike. I popped a full clip of ammunition into one of the semi-automatic rifles and took aim at the door.
“Now or never,” said Tobias.
I held my finger down hard and rifle sprayed bullets towards the door. They pierced their way through the explosive charge I’d stuck in place, sending the door flying outwards into the guards. The shelf was propelled backwards, smashing into a wall.
I tossed a couple of smoke grenades out into the hallway and activated a pair of night vision goggles. Outside of the doorway I could hear guards coughing from the smoke. I moved outside the room and shot two of the guards whilst they were blinded. I could make our four more guards on the other side before they moved around the corner away from me.
I moved back inside, figuring that this room was still the best place to make a stand. Whilst the guards weren’t looking I placed a couple of trip-wire mines onto the door and backed inside to a far-away corner.
One more guard was dispatched when he ran into the room triggering the mines. The two halves of his body collapsed either side of the door. I tossed a couple more smoke grenades and got ready to approach the door again. As I looked out I could see the green glimmer of another set of goggles worn by an opposing soldier.
They were learning.
I sprayed the hallway with bullets and moved back inside. The blood had soaked through my shirt completely now, a big red mess caked across the front of it. I started to feel faint but urged myself to carry on.
“If I don’t make it Tobias, then thank you for being my monster,” I told him.
“Don’t lose your edge now Ms Keyes,” he replied.
A soldier popped his head into the room quickly and then out again as I fired towards him. He angled a gun around the corner and fired directly at me, with the bullets hitting ridiculously close to where I was crouching.
All of a sudden two soldiers entered the room at once with a third hiding behind them. Their heads were protected with helmets, whilst the bullets I fired at them bounced pitifully off their armour.
As they made their way through the smoke the two soldiers at the front were dragged up into the air courtesy on one of my traps. They tried to shoot their way out of the clear dome that surrounded them but their bullets only rebounded around inside of it.
The soldier that had been behind them rose up and I could see him clearly now. He didn’t carry a gun like the others, instead he had a large curved sword attached to either arm. Anyone else would have looked ridiculous with that type of weaponry but in the case of Vlad it filled me with fear.
He swung one of the swords towards me and I dived backwards and up onto my feet. I aimed the rifle at him and he grabbed the nozzle twisting it towards the ceiling. As the bullets hit the ceiling, bits broke off and rained down on him. He ignored then like it was nothing.
I reached down to get my knife but it was too late. He drove one of the swords through my middle, pressing his face directly into mine. His eyes glistened as he pulled the sword hard to the side, cutting through muscle and flesh.
“You can still feel after all,” he said. “Good.”
I felt my body go weak as he tossed me to the floor.
By this point it was clear I wouldn’t survive the attack but he didn’t seem to care. He kept driving the sword into my body, like it was giving him a sick sexual satisfaction. Eventually each new cut of the blade stopped hurting and my body went numb.
I closed my eyes as Corinna said her last goodbye.
PART TWO
TWENTY ONE
With Sutekh’s body destroyed I was ripped back to the world between minds and surrounded by the darkness. Back in my prison I wondered what Eli would do to me now.
Initially he’d probably lay blame at Grace but once he discovered Cleon’s trick with creating a duplicate Tether then it would no doubt lead back to me. He wouldn’t shut down the program, he needed me too much for that, so his only option left would be to turn me into a vegetable.
At leas
t now in this dark world I could think and plan, if he took that away I’d have nothing left. Just the darkness and the monster in my mind, although even he wasn’t saying a word to me anymore; unusual for Tobias.
I waited in the darkness for Eli’s next set of instructions, desperate to know had happened to Grace. Had she killed Gabe or had he killed her? Or had she been captured and tortured for information?
She wouldn’t talk, Grace was stronger than that, but it was only a matter of time before they’d discover March’s efforts in helping us get inside. Tom was in no fit state to get away so his capture wouldn’t be far behind and then what?
Just me and the darkness.
Yet, something was different this time. I couldn’t see it at first but once my eyes settled I was certain that the black walls that stretched to infinity looked more like a dark grey now. It was like the brightness had been turned way up on a black screen, not enough to see anything in the darkness but enough for my mind to process the change.
There were no walls in this place, just a lingering sense of nothingness, yet somehow in that space, white lines were starting to form in the air, running as high and as low as I could see. The sky seemed to stretch up to the heavens.
A burst of light cracked out across the space, making the darkness lighter and causing the white lines to pulse vibrantly. It was then I started to feel the pain running through me. I tried to move towards one of the lines, hoping it would be a body I could jump into but every time I moved forwards I never got any closer. Both myself and the lines were like fixed points in the space, separated by a distance that I couldn’t fathom.
I tried to focus on a single beam of light as it pulsed and started to shake side to side. The pain intensified, a deep pain digging into me and making me feel hollow. For the first time in years I felt aware of my own body, not just my essence in this space. I couldn’t move it, I couldn’t use it, but I could definitely feel it and the horrific pain surging through my core.
It was then I knew that my escape attempt had been discovered and that this was my punishment. It had to be Eli’s way of teaching me a lesson and showing me he was still in control. Whatever it was I was powerless to do anything about it. The light grew brighter, the greyness lighter and the pain deeper.
Each part of my body began to feel more distinct. Whilst minutes ago it felt like one single mass, now I could feel the individual parts; my chest, arms, legs, even the individual tendons in my fingers. For a flickering moment I felt like a person again.
“I said...” a voice cut through the darkness, trailing off before I could hear what they had to say.
“Said what?” I replied.
“I said...” he repeated and the lights flickered out, turning the space into darkness.
“Said what!” I shouted louder.
A single line of light surged down from the ceiling running past me and down into the floor below. It stayed there fixed, right there in front of me. It was close enough for me to touch it, if only I could move.
The light split into two vertical lines, positioned next to each other that slowly moved apart. One of the lines moved behind the other and then they switched places again and again, their movements getting faster and faster. As I struggled to focus on them I could see that the lines were bending their shape to twist around each other.
I looked up and down the lines to try and make out what was happening. Taking in their entire length it became clearer and I could see they were forming the shape of a DNA strand, a double helix wrapped around each other.
“Now you see,” said the voice, somehow aware of my thoughts.
“I do,” I replied, as I watched a familiar pattern form in amongst the double helix. This was not a set of DNA, it was something entirely different. The light began to change again, like something was making its way from the inside of it and entering my space. It was something I’d never seen in this place before; colour.
The twisting double helix started to take on magnificent shades of colour as reds, blues and yellows, weaved their way around it, combining in countless different ways to make new colours.
There was one colour that stood out amongst all the rest.
Right in front of me a wave of red and yellow combined producing a colour that only appeared at that point on the double helix. It had to be deliberate, something he wanted me to see.
That orange shade was one that had bought nothing but destruction for me in the past and here it was now, unavoidable in its intensity. The colours illuminated the end of one strand of the helix and the start of the other revealing two letters that had always been there hidden in the light; t,t.
“I said, I’d save you,” said the voice, Tobias’ words never truer than they were in that moment.
The rest of the helix fell away, revealing just the two t’s. With the other light gone I could now see how bright the rest of the space had become. The darkness was now a very light grey, and I could no longer feel the pain that had rushed through my core.
I knew what I had to do. I reached out through the light and touched the letters.
“Good luck, Ms Keyes,” said Tobias as my world turned to light.
TWENTY TWO
I felt alive.
No, I felt more than alive.
I felt like something deep inside of me had been awakened, enlivening me. The snatcher’s dull senses hadn’t prepared me for what it would feel like to be back in my own body, able to feel everything with clarity.
“Emmie?” said Grace, “You can let go now.”
I looked down to see that my hand was wrapped around her wrist. I pulled it away and moved the fingers one by one, amazed that they still worked.
“Are you ok?” she asked, as she fiddled with the harness that held me in place.
“I feel amazing,” I replied.
“That’s the adrenaline,” said March. I looked towards him to see him fiddling with another part of the machine. “You’re going to feel very alive for the next hour but please remember that you’re not invincible, we still have to get you out of here.”
Grace released the last latch and I jumped free of the machine, eager to take my body for a spin. Although my body felt sore it also felt like I could run a marathon. Perhaps it was the adrenaline or perhaps it was something much bigger than that.
I hugged Grace and thanked her for trusting me in another body. She told me we’d celebrate properly when we got free and explained that there were guards on the way so we had to move quickly.
“Will?” I saw who March was working on and ran over to see my brother. His body was badly burnt with scars running down his arms and body. Apart from his face, which had somehow been protected, the rest of him looked like it had been through hell. I looked down at my arms and saw no bruises or scars. It didn’t make sense.
March injected Will with a shot of adrenaline and he surged to life, shooting forward and almost out of the machine. He let out a huge gasp. Panicking, he tried to break free of the machine, screaming to be let free.
“It’s ok Will,” I told him as he saw me for the first time.
“My body! What did he do to me?” said Will, moving his eyes around his body.
“You’ll be ok. March will help you,” I said, taking his hand.
“I never should have trusted Eli,” he replied. “Never.”
“He fooled a lot of us,” said March, releasing the latches one by one. “We won’t know what damage he did to the two of you until we get out of here, so let’s go.”
Will slowly made his way out of the machine, with March helping him down. He walked like he was ninety years old, each step looking like agony for him. It didn’t make any sense, I felt amazing and Will looked so weak and frail.
“Why…” I started to ask before I was interrupted by the sound of a security door opening.
“Catch,” said Grace as she threw me a pistol.
I jumped in the air, caught the pistol and turned round aiming at the door before I landed. Seeing that
I had a few seconds before it was open fully, I ran for the door and slid underneath it on my knees, shooting two of the soldiers before they could even realise what had happened.
In the middle of the soldiers stood Vlad, ever the relentless big bastard. From by the machine Grace aimed at him ready to shoot but I told her to put her weapon down, I had unfinished business with Vlad and wanted to see what I could do back in my own body.
“Foolish girl,” he said as he lunged towards me.
I jumped backwards towards the wall and rebounded off it over his head. He swiped around in an arc to try and catch me in the air and missed. He didn’t like to miss and I knew that would cause him to drop his guard.
He thrust one of his arms forward and the knife attached to it clattered into the wall as I dove out of the way again. His arm bent backwards from the impact and the knife snapped in two, sending half of it clattering to the floor. Grace kept her gun aimed on him ready to shoot if I failed. I knew I wouldn’t.
“Been waiting a long time for this have you?” said Vlad. “I’ll gut you, just like I did to Rex.”
“Back in your own body I see?” I replied.
“Oh yes,” said Vlad, swinging his other arm forward. I grabbed it at the elbow and jammed it sideways, twisting it around until it faced him. The look on his face was pure shock as I drove the knife into his neck, piercing the tear Grace had made long ago. The knife tore through his flesh as I pulled it to the other side of his neck, until his head hung by a thread.
As his body hit the floor the rest of his neck snapped and his head rolled away, free from his body.
“What … the … hell?” said Will as he barely supported himself on March’s shoulder.
March looked at me shocked and even Grace looked a little surprised by what she’d just seen. I felt stronger than ever and vindicated that my time, in the machine, watching others fight had paid off. I’d memorised their moves and committed them to muscle memory, making me faster and stronger. For the first time ever it felt like I could truly defend myself.