by Otter Lieffe
He leaned back in the chair, his hands locked behind his head, and smiled.
Chapter seventy-seven
Ash walked with Kit down a corridor lit only by their small candle. Shivers ran down her spine. She was still nervous from waking up in the dark.
After a hundred metres, the walls of the corridor opened up and Ash could see they were on a gallery of some kind overlooking a concourse.
The old Mall. How I hate this place.
“How did I get here?” she asked.
“Danny carried you after you, erm, left us at the park. And we found the tunnels in the hotel, just as you said. How did you know by the way?”
“It's a long story.”
“I imagined it might be.”
They paused at the top of the escalators that lead down to the central concourse. Below them, hundreds of people were gathering in flickering candlelight, at least half still wore prison clothes, and many were spread out on the floor, sleeping.
Out of all those people, Ash's eyes instantly found a deeply familiar face and, forgetting her arthritis for a moment, she ran down the escalator taking two steps at a time. Pinar saw her too and they met at the bottom in a fierce hug. Pinar was already in tears.
“I'm so sorry…”
“I'm sorry too. Why do we always argue when we're leaving each other?”
With relief, with exhaustion, Ash began to cry. She felt an undefinable rush of emotion that shook her and erased the rest of the world. As she held Pinar, there was only here and now, the smell of her best friend's sweat, her hair and the salt of her tears. She wanted to hold her in this moment forever. She never wanted to be further from her than right now, their faces inches apart. From the bottom of her heart, she wished for time to stop.
But time, as Ash knew better than anyone, was wild and untameable. She let the moment, and her friend, go and wiped her eyes.
“Are you okay?” she asked finally. “And Jason?”
“He's over there.” Pinar smiled and pointed to the other side of the mall where he was helping move bags and make space for people who were just arriving. “We made it. All because of you, Ash.”
“But I was gone, I was back with you—back on the day of the first riots…do you remember?”
“Of course!” Pinar smiled broadly at the memory. “So now I understand why you looked like such a wreck that day. I never really knew if I should tell you or not, I decided it was safer to keep the secret—and I did. For a very long time!
“For me, it was literally an hour ago.”
Her journey was still with her: the smells of coffee and Pinar's fancy shampoo, the warmth of her kitchen, even the coolness of the street.
And here I am deep under the ground breathing this musty, dirty air again.
She would never admit it, but she was suddenly torn apart with nostalgia. She swallowed it all down, snapped back to the present and asked:
“But wait, I still don't understand. What happened at Life Accounts? And the break out? I need to know everything!”
“Don't worry,” said Pinar gently, holding her hand. “There's time.”
* * *
After half an hour, a high-brass Admiral walked into the office. He was immaculately dressed but Gus noticed he looked a little flustered. He thought he might be vaguely familiar from some meeting or other, but he knew he himself would be unrecognisable today.
His filthy clothes, matted hair, and long beard screamed resistance, or—he hoped—convincing undercover officer. No-one would connect him to the proud General who had been caught trying to rape his subordinate in the shower and later dumped unceremoniously in the forest.
They probably left me to die out there rather than face a public execution precisely to keep the whole shameful story quiet. No-one, except the people I worked with and a few prisoners even knew. I just have to keep spinning my lies and I'll be fine.
The Admiral sat down opposite Gus and lit up a cigarette.
“Crazy fucking day out there.”
Gus nodded politely.
“Let's get started then, Lieutenant. What do you know?”
* * *
“Ash! I'm so glad to see you!” Jason ran over and hugged her. He looked gaunt and had a large bruise across his right cheek. His prison overalls were filthy and smelt awful. He was smiling though and Ash saw a familiar twinkle in his eyes.
“I heard you're quite the heroine!” he said, stepping back. “Leading everyone into the tunnels, escaping the State—”
“—Well, I shouted a bit and ran a bit and then I don't even know what else happened. I woke up here just a few minutes ago. I was—”
“ —Journeying?”
“Yeah.” Ash turned to Pinar. “I think you need to catch me up, hon.”
“Of course.” Pinar gestured to the low wall surrounding what used to be a fountain. “Let's sit. We have quite the story to tell you!”
* * *
“And after the servers were fried, we hit the tunnels and made our way here,” Pinar was explaining, sitting next to the fountain, hand in hand with Jason. “Evidently we made a real mess out there because the second shoal broke the prisoners out with almost no problem at all.”
“Yeah,” said Jason. “Your friend Kit was just telling me that there was barely a guard to be seen. And the few that were there, ran or hid when they saw a hundred people running towards them.”
“How did the shoal get past all the doors and gates?” asked Ash. “And they didn't call for backup?”
“I don't know the technicalities,” said Pinar. “I stayed focused on my part of the whole thing and well, apparently it worked.”
“Apparently.”
“To be honest,” said Jason, “We heard that there might be some kind of action this week, but I never thought it would happen. I was down in the factory, like every day, and then before I knew it, I was in the tunnels and back with Pinar.”
She smiled and gave his hand a squeeze.
“I’m so sorry you were in there for so long,” said Ash, avoiding eye contact and staring at the floor. “We came as fast as we could.”
“I know. Thank you. I was okay, really. But some of the trans folk from the Sett. Well, not all of us made it, I guess…” His voice trailed off and Ash didn’t push the point. There’s only so many horrific things a human brain can take in at a time.
“And Nathalie?” she asked, suddenly remembering.
“Kit says she disappeared after the State arrived at the park,” Pinar replied. “We haven’t seen her down here and, honestly, I think they arrested her. They would have taken Kit too if she hadn’t followed you out of there.”
“Poor Kit,” said Ash, sadly. “She must be heartbroken.”
“She’s keeping herself busy, I guess.” Pinar nodded across the mall where Kit and Danny were carrying cups of water to late-comers. “Oh, and that Gus guy you disliked so much disappeared as well. Good riddance to them both, I say.”
“Yeah,” said Ash with a tone of finality. “Good riddance.”
* * *
Gus told the Admiral everything he knew about the resistance. Every name and description, every vague plan he'd overheard. Truth be told, he didn't have much to tell. As an unknown, he'd been kept out of all but the most basic and logistical meetings both during his time with the forest shoal and later at the park. What he didn't know, he seamlessly fabricated and speculated to make his report more convincing.
The Admiral noted down every word, without looking up once.
* * *
“Why didn't the troopers follow us into the tunnels?” Ash asked, still filling in the story.
“Apparently, the shoal managed to trigger some kind of collapse,” said Pinar. “The hotel was so old and burned out, a few hundred people running through it brought half the lobby down. That gave them enough time to get in and lock the hatch behind them.”
“Was anyone hurt?”
“Some peopl
e got pretty beaten up during the raid, but nothing compared to what would have happened if we hadn’t gotten away. Everyone made it inside the tunnels – thanks to you and your journeying.”
They sat quietly together for a while and looked out over the busy concourse. People sat everywhere they could find a space including the escalators and the dry fountains. At least half of the people gathered, including Kit and Danny, had effectively become refugees and were about to be torn away from their lives in the City. But the atmosphere in the mall was electric. This day, they had delivered a great blow to the State. They had freed their compañeras from jail and soon they would be building a new future in the forest.
“Two shoals have been sent out. They're checking the tunnels are safe to take us back to the forest,” explained Pinar. “Once they're back, we'll be ready to head out.”
“Not a moment too soon,” said Ash. “I'll be glad to never set foot in this place again.”
* * *
“I see,” said the Admiral, still making notes. “And what are the plans of the resistance now after the little incident at Life Accounts?”
“They're going to make a break for it. They'll head to the tunnels and out of the City.”
The Admiral looked up for the first time.
“The tunnels?”
* * *
Someone Ash didn't recognise climbed up onto a wobbly café table to address the crowd. He clapped his hands until he had everyone's attention and began an announcement.
“Today we have escaped the State and we will soon escape the City,” he announced grandly. “Some of us leave behind our homes here, but together we–”
“Emergency!”
The shout came from the other end of the concourse as a young man pushed through the crowds shouting at the top of his lungs.
“Socorro! Emergency!”
“What is it?” the speaker asked as he reached the table. “Climb up, climb up.”
Pinar, Ash, and Jason looked on in surprise as the young man climbed up onto the table and nearly fell off. He looked terrified.
“The rain has come!” he shouted and signed simultaneously. “And it's flooding the tunnels.” There were gasps all around the concourse.
This is it, thought Ash. Nothing ever goes smoothly for very long.
“It's been dry for too long, the sewerage system is totally overwhelmed,” the person still balanced on the table continued. “We only just made it here—the mall is almost cut off. We need to get above ground quickly—”
“But we can't leave the City above ground,” the speaker interrupted him. “We'd never get past the gate.”
“No choice!” shouted the young man. The water will be here soon. We need to leave, right now!”
* * *
“Which tunnels?” The Admiral looked confused.
“Erm...the under-city connecting to the mall—” Gus began tentatively.
“Ah yes. Of course. Those tunnels. We've suspected for a while that the resistance might be using them. Ahem.”
As an expert liar, Gus always knew when he wasn’t hearing the truth.
“Of course, Sir. Well those that escape the raid, if any do, will be heading that way—making a run for the forest.”
The Admiral had already received a report from a State runner that the entire resistance had escaped Dignity Park a few hours before. The runner had told him that—impossible as it seemed—an elderly person had led them into the hotel and, apparently, they'd simply disappeared into the ground bringing half the hotel down around them. Now he understood—they must have gone down into the tunnels.
The Admiral looked thoughtful for a moment and listened to the rain pounding heavily on the roof.
“And if the tunnels flood?”
* * *
At the edge of the concourse, people were already yelling and pushing into the crowd. Water was gushing in and within seconds the entire concourse floor was wet. The water level was rising fast and there was no way they'd be able to hold it back.
The crowd begin to panic and pulse towards the escalators and Ash was pushed along with them.
Chapter seventy-eight
They become a herd, a swarm; a perfectly aligned mass of bodies moving upwards through escalators and staircases and corridors and ladders. The weak and the slow were helped by the fast and the strong. Collective panic was pushed down by the will to survive.
They moved quickly, efficiently, staying just above the fetid water rising all around them. They were a crowd of nervous systems bound together by eye contact, by voice and by hands that grabbed and guided.
We're like the starlings, thought Ash. This is our murmuration.
The crowd rose through the building quickly. But the water was faster.
Someone slipped on the rungs of a ladder and suddenly four people were in the murky water. A dozen hands helped them back out and in less than a minute they had rejoined the upwards surge to safety.
The last of the candles puffed out and the resistance was instantly swallowed by darkness. Ash and Pinar stood dead still on an escalator, their hands sweating against the rubber rail. Above them, others hung in the air, clinging breathlessly.
Ash could feel her heart beating and her panicked breath tight in her chest.
One. Two. Thr—
Up ahead someone snapped on a precious glowstick and there was light again. Not much, but just enough for the exodus to continue. The crowd surged forward, and they entered a steep stairwell. Ash followed the person ahead of her and Pinar followed Ash, everyone hoping that up above them, someone knew the way.
We have no other choice; we can't stop now.
Floor after floor they rose through the narrow stairwell, surrounded by yells of confusion and terror. Up and up until the staircase ended abruptly.
A door. A fire exit.
Suddenly Ash and Pinar were pushed out into the world. They covered their eyes to prepare for an onslaught of daylight as, with the crowd behind them, they left the Mall for the last time.
Chapter seventy-nine
Ash stood in amazement.
It's night—how can it be night?
The City was dark. And cold. But it wasn't night. Thick black clouds had covered the sky and blocked out the morning sun. Rain pounded down against the concrete. Lightning tore the sky and a deep rumble of thunder soon followed. The streets had become rivers.
I've never seen rain like it.
Her clothes were wet through in an instant.
“Pin,” she said grabbing her friend's hand. “We can't stay out here.”
Pinar looked stunned. After months of drought, so much water was hard to take in. Hard to believe.
“Pinar! We're too exposed here. We have to find shelter.”
* * *
Gus listened to the hammering of water on the roof and thought for a moment.
The Admiral sat impatiently waiting for “Lieutenant Green” to come up with something. Some idea of what the resistance would do next.
The Admiral has a point, thought Gus. No-one could have planned for the rain. After months of drought, the tunnels will flood for sure.
The tunnels or the gates were the only real ways out of the City and the East Gate was too heavily guarded to even attempt an escape. They'll think of something, though. The resistance always comes up with something.
* * *
Standing outside the mall, the perfectly coordinated shoal was falling apart. Stressed by the rain and the lightning, the thunder and the cold, in shock from suddenly being out in the open, the crowd had fractured. Everyone shouted at once.
“—We should wait it out, it can’t rain forever—”
“—Not so bad? We’ll die out here! We have to find somewhere to hide—”
“The gate! We just need to get to the gate! It’s now or never—”
“As long as we stay together, we—”
“Who cares? We just need to get out of the damn ra
in!”
Pinar turned to Ash, a wise, knowing look on her face.
“They need you.”
“What?”
“They need a leader.”
“No,” she shouted back. “Not again! I'm an old woman for heaven's sake! People can sort themselves out. We just need to form into smaller groups, feed our decisions into a central hub then we can—”
“Ash, we don't have time for any of that and you know it. We need to get out of the City and we have to stay together. If we split now, the State will hunt us down group by group, one by one. They need you.”
Maybe she's right. Ash had seen the nods of respect in the mall. They followed me before, and they'd do it again.
“No Pin,” she said defiantly. “They need us.”
Holding hands, they climbed up a pile of rubble that put them slightly above the rest of the crowd. They waved their arms to get people's attention and when people saw them, they hushed down quickly.
Pinar braced herself against her friend and, lifting her arms up, she began to sign as wide and clear as she could, her hands shining bright as more lightning raced across the dark sky above her.
“We have to stay together,” she signed above her head and shouted at the same time. “But we can't stay in the City any longer. We have to leave.”
“But how?” someone shouted from the crowd.
Pinar paused for a second to think.
It’s a valid question. The main gate is heavily guarded at the best of times. The tunnels are hopeless. The walls are unbreachable. We need another way out…
Then it came to her—of course! The solar trains! There was a train track running from the Central terminal—just a few blocks away from the Mall—to the North Gate station. From there it went through a narrow tunnel in the wall and out to the wasteland beyond.