6

by James Phelan

  The girl goes first, but before I follow her, I cross the room to open the fireplace. Struggling to control my escalating fear and cringing away from the heat, I lash out with the poker to scatter the hot logs and coals onto the floor. I pull the stove’s gas bottle from the kitchen and toss it onto the hot pile. A time-delay bomb.

  I squeeze down through the hole in the floor, and together we crawl and slide our way to the hatch door. It won’t budge.

  ‘We’re snowed in!’ she says.

  ‘Not for long!’ I say, kicking the door off its hinges. Then, I start clawing at the snow to tunnel out.

  Above us, the house creaks and cracks under attack.

  The tunnel before us soon slopes up, and we climb and burrow our way upwards to breach the surface a metre above. Behind us, the door of the cabin shatters down to the floor.

  ‘Argh!’ I exclaim as I pull the girl out of the hole and we run blindly through the freezing darkness.

  KLAP-BOOM!

  The explosion of the gas tank rips through the still night. A split second later there is a second blast, created from the furious force of the compressed gas in the wooden hut. Flames shoot up and out, and for a moment, the world around us is as bright as day. As burning chunks of the cabin rain down around us, I can see the tall, black shimmering silhouette against the light.

  I hear the terrifying howl of the wolf pack.

  I see eyes through the darkness, close to me. Unflinching, reflecting the flickering light of the fire, they burn into my very being. I’m trying to fight, trying to run, but in the end, all I can feel is–

  Despair.

  03

  SAM

  ‘Ah, you’re awake,’ a man in a white coat said to Sam.

  ‘How are you feeling?’

  ‘OK, I guess …’ Sam said, sitting up a little in bed.

  ‘Take it easy there,’ the man said, standing close to Sam’s side. ‘You’ve been through quite a lot.’

  ‘Where am I? Who are you?’

  ‘You’re at the Academy’s London campus,’ the man said. ‘I’m one of the doctors here.’

  ‘How … how’d I get here?’

  ‘Hmm,’ the doctor scratched his chin. ‘You don’t recall? Maybe we could start with what you do remember?’

  Sam was quiet and distant for a moment. ‘I was just dreaming,’ he said.

  ‘Oh? OK. Tell me about that, then.’

  ‘A nightmare …’ Sam looked about. There was one window, letting daylight spill into the room. ‘Can I speak to the Professor?’

  ‘Of course, of course. Let’s just make sure you’re feeling up to having visitors first.’

  ‘I’m fine,’ Sam said. ‘I’m tired, that’s all. And a bit dizzy.’

  ‘Then perhaps you should get a little more rest. Try to sleep.’

  ‘OK.’ Sam shook his head slightly, trying to clear it of the grogginess. The doctor passed him a drink. It was orange and fizzy, and Sam gulped it down gratefully.

  He thought about the day ahead, and the week ahead. All that he had to do.

  The next Dreamer—I saw her. Her name is Nika. Where were we . .?

  ‘We’ve got so much to do,’ Sam frowned, frustrated at his own confusion.

  ‘What are you thinking?’ the doctor asked.

  ‘I’m … I’m not exactly sure.’

  ‘Break it down,’ the doctor said, his voice kind and soothing. ‘Start at the very beginning.’

  ‘Of what I remember?’

  ‘Yes, Sam, that may help with your amnesia. Why don’t you tell me about being a Dreamer—one of the last 13?’

  ‘OK …’ Sam focused on the answer. ‘Well, there are thirteen Dreamers. And it’s my job to find them all. Seven, including me, have been found. I’m still searching for the last six. The next one, I now know—her name is Nika.’

  ‘Nika,’ the doctor repeated, scribbling again on his clipboard. ‘What can you tell me about her?’

  ‘She’s … somewhere cold. There was snow on the ground. If I don’t find Nika, and the rest of them, before the others do, then this race will be over.’

  ‘Tell me what you remember of the others.’

  ‘Gabriella was the first Dreamer I found, in Italy. Then Xavier, my old school friend. Zara, I met in Paris. Everything was fine each time until Solaris …’

  ‘Solaris?’ the doctor said, as though the name meant nothing to him. ‘And he is . .?’

  Sam forced himself to sit up. ‘Don’t you know? How could you not know?’ he asked.

  Something’s not right.

  ‘Sam, I’m trying to medically assess you,’ the doctor explained, ‘I need to know what you know.’

  ‘Oh, right. Well, he’s evil. He haunts our nightmares—all of the last 13 Dreamers—and he haunts us in real life too. He wants the Gears that we see in our dreams. Well, he wants to assemble the Bakhu machine himself, to use it to win the race by finding the Dream Gate. But he wants to use whatever is beyond the Gate to plunge the world into an age of nightmares and darkness.’

  ‘Very good, Sam. Go on.’

  ‘Solaris took the Gears from us in Germany and Paris. And then they tried to rob us, but we fought back.’

  ‘They?’ the doctor asked, adding to his notes.

  ‘Mac—and Hans. They tried to take the Gears I found with the other Dreamers, Rapha and Maria. They’re the Dreamers from Brazil and Cuba. But we managed to keep those Gears.’ Sam smiled at the memory.

  ‘Excellent.’

  ‘Yep. But then it fell apart. Number seven, Cody.’ Sam spat out the name, anger rising in his voice.

  ‘Cody?’

  ‘From the US. He lied to me. He and his parents sold me out to Mac. Took me to Bureau 13 in Denver.’

  ‘What happened there?’

  ‘Solaris,’ Sam whispered. He leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. ‘Mac set up a fake nuclear emergency. But he died. I escaped from Solaris, I didn’t know where I was heading … I can’t remember after that … how I got here exactly.’

  ‘What happened to Cody, Sam?’ the doctor asked.

  ‘I don’t know. They got in an escape pod, like me.’

  ‘And the Gears?’ the doctor said.

  ‘I’m trying to remember,’ Sam said. ‘All the Gears were taken from me—the ones from Brazil, Cuba and the Grand Canyon. But then Solaris gave them back to me. He said we needed to stick together. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t understand what he’s doing …’

  ‘And this nightmare you’ve just had?’

  ‘There was a fire. There’s always fire—in my nightmares I mean. And him …’ Sam closed his eyes, before adding, ‘Sorry, I have a headache. I feel sleepy.’

  The doctor nodded and pressed a button by Sam’s bed. A few seconds later, a nurse entered. They talked in hushed tones, then she came over and injected a clear liquid into the IV tube in Sam’s arm.

  ‘This will help you get some rest,’ the doctor said. ‘Then we can talk again.’

  Before Sam could say another word—he was out.

  ‘Sam?’

  Sam opened his eyes. Doctors in white coats and masks looked down at him, backlit by blindingly bright light.

  ‘He’s awake.’

  ‘Where …’ Sam said, his mouth dry, ‘where am I?’

  ‘Up the dosage,’ one of the men said.

  Sam turned his head and tried to look around the room. He thought he counted at least six people, but couldn’t be sure. The constant bleeping of machines rang in his ears.

  ‘Where am I?’ he asked again.

  No-one answered. Before Sam could say another word, he was back floating in the warm sea of a deep sleep.

  04

  ALEX

  ‘Really?’ Alex said, looking around the dark, musty basement.

  ‘It’s been owned by the Dreamer Council for almost a century,’ Shiva said. He tried a light switch, but nothing happened. ‘But mothballed in recent years—locked up and left alone.’

  They were
in a derelict building in downtown Manhattan. The basement was a cavernous void with towering ceilings and a row of skinny windows at the top, through which Alex could see pedestrians’ feet and the tops of buildings across the street. Other than that, inside all he could see was inky darkness and strange shadows cast by the light from their torches.

  ‘Did they forget to pay the power bill?’ Alex quipped.

  ‘No-one’s been down here for a decade,’ Shiva replied. ‘Here, hold my light for a sec.’

  Alex took Shiva’s torch, shining both lights onto the fuse box for Shiva to inspect.

  ‘Ten years?’ Alex said. ‘So why are we here now?’

  ‘Because,’ Shiva said, pulling out old-fashioned fuses and checking their condition, ‘this is linked to the Washington Monument.’

  ‘Accessing the Dreamscape?’

  ‘Yeah. Simliar tech, only this is slightly more modern.’ Shiva rattled a fuse by his ear, looked at it closely, then put it back. ‘Anyway, unlike the systems at the Eiffel Tower, they haven’t turned on any of this stuff down here since Jedi’s arrival. He modernised everything for the Academy and Council. The last time anyone was here was probably to deal with the rat problem.’

  ‘Rat problem?’ Alex said, checking around his feet.

  ‘Relax, I’m kidding!’ Shiva said. ‘Aha, found it.’

  Alex watched as the Enterprise’s computer and tech genius rewired a blown fuse and placed it back into position.

  ‘And then—’ Shiva flicked the switch again and bank after bank of lights overhead flashed on ‘—there was light!’

  A couple of large light bulbs blew, one sending down a shower of sparks.

  ‘Bound to happen,’ Shiva said. ‘Not to worry.’

  Alex saw sheets covering what looked like massive metal totem poles arranged in the centre of the room.

  ‘And they are?’

  ‘This basement holds a collection of Tesla’s inventions that the Council salvaged over the years,’ Shiva explained. ‘This place functioned as his secondary workshop. A place to hide all his Dreamer tech which he didn’t want investors in his wireless energy experiments to know about.’

  He walked over to the nearest poles and gave the covering sheets a heavy tug, causing them to slither to the floor in a cloud of dust. Shiva doubled over coughing. ‘Guess I … should … have stood further … back!’

  Alex wasn’t listening.

  Wow. I’m standing right in the middle of the history of the modern world.

  ‘Are these what I think they are?’ he stammered.

  ‘If you’re thinking they’re original Tesla Coils, then yes,’ Shiva said, finally straightening up and coming over to stand with Alex next to a Coil. ‘Magnificent, aren’t they?’

  Alex reached out to touch the Coil, running his hands over the metal wires. ‘This is amazing! To think Tesla actually made these himself,’ he said.

  ‘I think he probably had some assistants helping out, but I take your point and I am encouraged by your apparent awe. Now I need you to be my assistant. Come with me.’

  Alex followed Shiva down the steel staircase to the basement’s lower level. ‘I know about Tesla from science class—inventor and genius, all that,’ Alex said.

  ‘He was one serious science dude,’ Shiva said. ‘Come on, help me take a look through what we’ve got that still works down here.’

  05

  SAM’S DREAM

  I wake up in a room. The same white one as before, but it’s not lit by bright surgical lights anymore. There are no bleeping of machines monitoring my heart rate and blood pressure. I sit up and call out. ‘Hello?’

  Out of bed, I go to the door.

  Everything looks new, but familiar in some way …

  Deja vu.

  I am in the medical bay of the Academy’s Swiss campus. I smile and open the door.

  Outside, the hallway is dark but there’s light at the stairs that lead upwards. I walk towards them, my bare feet slapping on the polished stone floor.

  Up the stairs, I am in the auditorium. There’s a figure standing by the window, tall, his back to me, looking out across the snow-covered mountains.

  ‘Professor?’

  He turns around.

  ‘Sam,’ he says and smiles. ‘Glad to see you. We have much to discuss.’

  I join him by the window and look out at the rocky grey mountains covered in white snow and the grey sky. All strangely drained of colour.

  ‘I need to know what happened to you in Denver,’ the Professor says.

  ‘Solaris happened,’ I say. ‘He was there.’

  ‘And how did you get out?’

  I concentrate. There is a block–a gap in my memory.

  ‘I can’t remember.’

  The Professor is silent for a moment. ‘What is the last thing you do remember?’ he asks.

  ‘The countdown,’ I say. ‘A digital countdown clock. Then I woke up someplace bright. Here, I think.’

  ‘That’s it?’

  ‘That’s it.’

  ‘He needs more time.’

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘I said, perhaps you need more time.’

  ‘Maybe.’

  I shake my head, confused. ‘How did I get here?’

  The Professor doesn’t answer, and when I turn to look at him–he’s gone.

  ‘Professor?’

  The room is completely empty.

  I look back out the window. A snowstorm has blown in, a complete white-out.

  I cup my hands around my eyes and hold them to the glass, creating a little tunnel, trying to peer out.

  There is movement. There is a figure, out there in the white. Floating in space where it doesn’t belong.

  Wearing orange–it’s someone in an orange snow suit.

  As I lean forward, I fall through the window. It hasn’t broken–it has disappeared.

  I look back and the Academy building is gone. The mountains are gone. The snow remains–snow, and a forest.

  What’s going on?

  I turn to see the figure running at me. In the background I can make out the little wooden cabin in the woods.

  The figure is familiar.

  A dream … I’m in a dream.

  ‘Nika?’ I call out.

  It’s too late. Whoever it is, whatever is happening, is taken over by the explosion at the cabin. It’s like a bomb detonating in slow motion, and the fire radiates out and consumes us both in the blink of an eye.

  06

  SAM

  SLAP!

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘Quick!’ the girl said, slapping Sam’s face again. ‘Wake up! I have to get you out of here!’

  Sam blinked away the fog of the dream. He looked around, the world around him still hazy.

  A teenage girl dressed in a nurse’s uniform in front of him came into focus. Her dark red hair was pulled back into a severe top knot. She was staring at him, her face worried.

  She looks familiar.

  Deja vu.

  ‘Great, I’m still dreaming …’

  SLAP!

  ‘Ow! OK, OK, I’m awake!’

  Sam watched the girl as she began to undo the straps that were holding his arms and legs down tight against the bedframe. Her hands moved quickly, frantically even.

  Is it her?

  ‘Nika?’

  She paused and looked at him, shocked for a moment, then finished undoing the last of the leather straps.

  ‘Yes, but no … my real name is Arianna. I am here to rescue you, Sam. Come with me, I will explain everything later.’

  Arianna?

  ‘But you know me?’ Sam said. He got to his feet groggily as she helped him get upright.

  ‘No, I know who you are. Quick! We must hurry.’

  ‘What’s wrong with me?’ Sam said, still trying to find his balance.

  ‘They drugged you, so that you would sleep and dream as much as possible.’

  ‘The Academy drugged me?’ Sam asked, confused.

&nbs
p; ‘No. It was the people who we do not want to find us breaking out of here,’ Arianna said. ‘They want to harvest all that you see in your dreams.’ She pulled a flask from her backpack, took off the cap and offered it to Sam. ‘Quick, drink this.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘It will help to flush out the drug they gave you.’

  Sam hesitantly sipped from the metal flask. It tasted of lemons and was slightly fizzy. Arianna tilted it to his lips again, forcing him to gulp it down.

  Sam drank almost the whole flask and then wiped his mouth, nodding. ‘Thanks,’ he managed to get out and then—

  He doubled over and vomited onto the floor.

  ‘Sorry,’ he said, once it was over. ‘That was gross.’

  ‘That’s the reaction that I hoped for, to help clear out your system,’ Arianna said.

  ‘You knew that would happen?’ Sam asked, shaking his head.

  Arianna ignored his question and thrust a set of clothes at him. ‘Put these on.’

  He pulled them on, discarding his hospital gown. ‘What about my Stealth Suit?’

  ‘And this,’ she said, ignoring him again and handing him a small device shaped like a hearing aid. ‘It will translate Russian to English for you.’

  ‘Russian?’ Sam paused. ‘I’m in Russia?’

  ‘Yes. We need to break out of this security compound—now. If they find me, I will be “disappeared”, forever this time.’

  ‘So that doctor …’ Sam said, understanding slowly dawning on him.

  So I wasn’t dreaming about him? But how’d I get to Russia?

  He put the earpiece neatly inside his ear. Arianna said a few words that meant nothing to him, until she leant close and adjusted a tiny dial. In one ear, he could hear her Russian phrases. In the other ear through the tiny device—

  ‘Testing, testing.’ A crystal clear English translation came through the earpiece. ‘Can you understand me?’

  ‘Got it. Wow,’ Sam said, signalling with a thumbs up. ‘So how do I know this isn’t the dream and that was real?’

  Arianna raised her hand to his face.

  ‘Alright! I take your point. I’m awake—and somehow in Russia.’

  ‘We must leave now,’ she said, pulling Sam’s arm over her shoulders to support him as they walked. Her slender frame belied the strength in her muscled body as she took his weight.