Balloon man didn’t ‘get him’. John went willingly. They were all going to go willingly. There was panic in her mind, she could feel it pulling at her, trying to get her flight instinct into gear. But it was as if her panic was in another room in her brain, far away, and not really needed right now. What had that gas done?
Another white-suited man came in and took Dillon, and another came for Dan.
“We’re next I guess,” Liam said. “Give us a kiss for luck. That’s what Georgie always did, whenever I was off doing anything dangerous.” A wave of sadness passed over his features.
“I’m so sorry,” Cassie said, and stroked his cheek. She leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on his lips. “Good luck.” Then the balloon man stepped into the van and Liam was taken away.
“Just me left.” She should feel worried. Where was the desire to run? The need to flee that had saved her so many times now? The drug had taken all of that away, and when the man in white climbed into the van and cautiously approached her, she held out a hand and allowed him to lead her away.
Chapter 19
Cassie and her white balloon man were in some kind of internal room, big enough for the van, but not much else. What’s the word, she thought. Then it came to her – a garage! She’d seen them on documentaries, back when everyone had cars.
Get it together, girl. Pay attention, sort your brain out. She thought about slapping some sense back into herself as she was led out. Then two more balloon men came in with huge packs strapped on their backs. Huge great things that the men visibly struggled to carry. How heavy were those packs? What would happen if they put one on her back. She imagined herself crumpling to the ground and almost giggled out loud. Stop it, she thought. She shook her head in an effort to clear the drug and stared at the men. Are they struggling under the weight? If they fell over would they get stuck on the floor until someone came to help them up?
A giggle did escape her. She slapped a hand over her mouth, and strained to see what they were going to do.
A hose came from each pack, and before she was dragged down the hall, she saw them take aim and start dousing the inside of the van. The smell of strong disinfectant filled the short hallway. There was an open door a few steps away. Her balloon man pushed her inside and slammed the door behind them. He was being more of a guard now, and Cassie remembered with a jolt she was not here of free will. All of them were prisoners.
The rest of the group were lined up along a wall in a white tiled room, each with their own balloon man to guard them. She sidled up to Liam again. He was the only one still smiling. He gave her a small wave as she was pulled into position by her guard. They’d even tiled the ceiling, she thought. Wonder why.
“Get up against the walls!” one of the men shouted. The respirator made his voice sound funny – mechanical. She tried not to smirk. She glanced at Liam, he was trying not to smile as well. Even hard nut John had an amused grin on his face. Only Dan frowned. Maybe his ploy of staying on the bench meant he’d inhaled less of the silly gas.
“Spread out!” another yelled. The fun was beginning to go out of Cassie, as a guard shoved her a step to the right.
The ominous sound of a bolt being clunked into place echoed through the small chamber. They’d been locked in. Liam reached over and grabbed Cassie’s hand, but only moments later rough hands separated them and each were shoved up against the wall.
“Strip,” someone ordered. She thought it was Dan’s guard.
The men started taking clothes off. Cassie watched them for a moment, horrified. The stoned feeling was finally dissipating, leaving her with a distinctly uncomfortable sensation in her gut. She wasn’t going to get undressed. They had to be kidding. Stripped? In a room full of men?
“And you, lady,” the guard who’d led her in said.
“No, surely you don’t mean me as well.” She glanced around the room. “Don’t make me undress in front of all of you.” She tried to appeal to the one nearest. “Can’t you take me to a different room? Aren’t there some female guards? I’ll do it then. I’ll strip.”
She could just make out his eyes through the tinted glass shield in his head gear. His breath wheezed in and out, the respirator clicking with each inhalation. Sounded like those dying people on the show. But he wasn’t dying, and she doubted he was weak. He stepped closer and pulled his taser from a pocket. “Get those clothes off now. I have orders to shoot anyone who doesn’t comply.” He raised his hand and pointed it at her.
Cassie swallowed. Dan was already down to his underwear. John was unbuttoning his trousers. Liam and Dillon stood naked, shoulders hunched, hands crossed over their privates.
“Now!” the guard hollered in her ear.
Cassie jumped back and hit her head on the wall. Pain darted around her skull, pin pricks of light clouded her vision. She didn’t need asking again. Cassie pulled off her jumper and shirt and tossed them on the growing pile of clothes. Balloon man lowered his arm and put his weapon back in the pocket it came from. She took off her trousers and socks and stood in her panties and a thin vest.
“Please, let me keep these on.”
“Everything off.” The man sounded tired, all traces of patience gone. “Last chance.”
He raised his hand, weapon back in his fist. The taser made a high-pitched sound she knew meant it was charged and ready.
She slipped off her vest and threw it on the pile, quickly covering her breasts with one hand. Then she slid off her panties. Please no one look at me, she thought and backed up against the wall, her eyes on the floor. All she wanted was to blend into the tiles and disappear. The last sensations of the drug she’d inhaled were fading. She wished they’d fill this room as well. She needed a good dose of not caring right now.
Someone coughed. Cassie glanced up. It was John. He obviously didn’t care, he stood defiantly, hands on hips, his man bits on show. Cassie diverted her eyes, then gave up and closed them. She tried to think of anything else, and for a brief moment, an image of Jack flashed up. Her gorgeous baby. Was this all for him?
For a moment nothing happened, and she wondered what they had stripped for. Then water blasted out of the walls. For a moment, it was freezing cold, and she gasped in surprise. Then the water turned hot – scalding hot. Cassie’s eyes opened with a jolt, and leapt away from the jets.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” John screamed.
The shock of the scorching water forced her to drop her hands from her privates. She tried to shield her body from the blasts with her hands. Other than Dan, who stood stoically in the blasts of water, the others were also trying to escape. Guards shoved them back towards the wall.
“Take it like a man,” Dan said. “Can’t you see, they want us alive. They’re cleaning any trace of virus off us.”
The scent of antiseptic filled the air, mixing with the steam. The floor was slippy with short lived bubbles.
“Turn,” one of the guards ordered.
They all turned, face forward now. The jets scalded her face. She closed her eyes, and tried to ignore the pain.
The water stopped as quickly as it had started. The last dribbles of water ran down the walls, and the foamy water on the floor swilled down drains located along the edge of the room.
The door unbolted and a new man in white protective gear came in. He had a handful of cotton swabs. “Rub this inside of your mouth.” He handed one to Cassie. She rolled it inside her cheek and handed it back. Her nakedness felt almost painful. She hunched over in an effort to hide, knowing it didn’t make the slightest bit of difference.
The new man clicked her swab into test tube full of some sort of liquid. He gave it a quick shake. Everyone stood silently, watching to see what would happen. The solution turned from a watery blue to pink.
“All clear,” he said, and indicated at the door. “This one can go.”
She was led from the shower room and into the next. The air was freezing cold after the burning hot shower. Cassie shivered. There
were more men in the hallway. All staring openly at her and her nakedness. She hung her head and focussed on the ground, but still felt their eyes burning into her skin. The door closed behind her and she dared to look up. There were two tables. The first had towels the other had clothes.
“Get dried and dressed.” Then her guard actually turned to face the wall.
“Thank you,” she whispered, and grabbed a towel. She was mostly dressed by the time Liam came in.
“All clear?” she asked.
He nodded, the look of relief on his face obvious.
“Thank God,” Cassie said. She pointed at the towels. “We’re supposed to get dried and dressed.”
Cassie was lacing her boots as the others filed in, one by one.
Dan came in asking questions loudly. “Who are we meeting?”
The guards remained resolutely silent. Still dressed in their protective suits, she wondered how much they trusted the results for the virus.
“We must be meeting someone. You’d have injected us when you caught us otherwise.”
No answer.
“You have to speak eventually.” Dan got up in the face of the nearest guard. “We deserve answers!”
They don’t have to tell you a damn thing, Cassie thought.
As Dillon finished getting dressed, a guard ordered, “Line up.”
Time to leave. Where now? Cassie got at the end of the line of men, unable to stop herself hunching over. She could still feel the vulnerability of her earlier nakedness. If only they’d let her stay at the warehouse. They hadn’t needed her for anything. Other than as a sacrifice for the virus. But she’d outwitted them and survived. Maybe they’d make Dan pay – he was the leader. He deserved it after what he’d done to her. Anger rose in her. He’d wanted her dead – and not just any death, but a slow and painful death at the hands of that awful virus. Yes, she thought, maybe they’d make him pay the most. A guard fell in behind and gave her a hearty shove when she didn’t start following immediately.
“Leave off, I’m going,” she snapped.
They weren’t taken far, back into the main corridor, and into a third room. Shackles were bolted into the walls on one side. There was a dark line in the centre of the room and each half of the floor a different shade of grey. A television was hung on the opposite wall.
“Spread out,” came the orders.
They were going to be chained up to the wall. Panic rose. They couldn’t do that to her. Surely not.
“You’re not bloody bolting me into that thing,” John bellowed.
“He’s right. You’re not going to get us shackled up. Oi, you in your stupid puffy suit, do you hear me?” Dillon bunched up his fists and took a step forward.
“One more step and I taser you. Your choice.” The guard’s voice had a flat tone. He didn’t give a shit what happened. There was a taser in his hand already. He lifted his arm and pointed the weapon at Dillon. “It’s set on kill. Make your choice. Which will it be? Taser or shackles.” His voice was matter of fact. He could be asking what they wanted for lunch.
John stepped back and allowed himself to be secured. Dillon thought for a moment, then backed up as well.
“Please don’t. Not me.” Cassie grabbed the arm of the guard nearest her. “I’ll be good. I’m only a girl. I can’t do anyone any harm, honest.”
He didn’t listen. Didn’t care. He elbowed her in the gut so she fell up against the wall. Moments later the cuffs were locked around her wrists. She glanced at the others. Emotions ran high. Liam looked sad, the way she felt. Dillon had an expression of deep confusion. He kept glancing at the door and straining against his shackles. Maybe he was thinking about escape. John looked ready to explode. He’d all but lost his temper. His fists were white, his features set. She suddenly understood why there was a line in the floor. John stepped as far forward as he could, but never got nearer than a foot away from that line. Dan was the cool one among them. He leaned against the wall, absentmindedly rubbing his wrists as he watched the door they’d come through. There was a noise behind her. Cassie turned as the door opened. Then her mouth dropped as she realised who had just walked into the room.
Chapter 20
Two men walked in first. Both were dressed in black suits that strained against their muscles, each had ear pieces lodged in one ear, and lumps under their jackets that suggested they were armed, and the shaved faces of high-ranking castes. Cassie guessed they were bodyguards. But it was the next person that made her mouth drop open in surprise.
Only a couple of steps behind them, a man she recognised walked in. She knew his face better than she knew those of her own parents. His face graced the television at regular intervals, giving his empty promises of a better life, of how if they elected him again, he’d take the country back to a time of free birth and full bellies. He had that sheepish smile he always wore in the press conferences. His lack of beard gave him a boyish look that had probably won the election for him.
She was in the same room as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Jon Smith.
“Sir, stay behind the line,” one of his bodyguards said.
He brushed them off with the wave of a hand, as if this room was familiar to him.
“You’re dismissed,” the Prime Minister didn’t look back.
The balloon-dressed guards waited a moment, staring at all of them before turning to go, the absence of their rustling protective suits silencing the room. Even though she was terrified as to why their Prime Minister would want to speak to them, it was nice to be able to finally see the face of her captor.
Mr Smith examined each of them in turn, slowly making his way down the line-up. Cassie felt uneasy under his stare. The boyish grin had faded, and something that looked almost like rage was replacing it. What had Dan been up to for them to end up captured like this? What had that man done? It couldn’t be just the virus. Someone like Dan had his finger in lots of pots. He was a rebel, she reminded herself. And rebels lived to their own set of rules, including leading innocents to certain slaughter, locked in a room with a deadly virus. Let the Prime Minister do what he wanted. Once he realised she’d been forced along, that she didn’t belong, he’d let her go free. He had to.
The Prime Minister returned to the centre of the room. He folded his hands behind him, and took one last look at each of them. Then he spoke in the calm, explanatory way he used in press conferences. “This world is overpopulated to the point of extinction.” He took a moment to stare directly at Cassie, why did he do that? She felt panic rise, he recognised her, he must already know she’d had a child illegally. He continued, “Our own country is rapidly starving to death. The entire country is on the brink of collapse. Rations are being reduced, but soon citizens will start suffering from malnutrition.”
Cassie thought of saying ‘I told you so’ to Dan, but kept silent.
“We introduced a ban on childbirth in 2063. Only those who sufficiently passed rigorous genetic tests and passed all the various criteria set by the geneticists were given permission,” continued the Prime Minister. “That and the 2071 act to legalise suicide were too little too late.” He slammed one hand into the other palm. “We still need enough births to keep the employment needs satisfied, but people live too long.” He took a deep breath. “I have entire teams dedicated to figuring out how many births we need to keep everything running, current age trends, disease trends, it’s a science unto its own, it really is. Did you know the further we reduce rations, the longer people live. It’s a catch twenty-two.” He shook his head in seeming despair. “But soon we’ll have reduced calories so much, the population will become too malnourished, and lifespan will drastically shorten. What we need to do is figure out how to reduce the average lifespan slowly.” He fixed his gaze on Dan. “And then we found a solution. The hint came from Germany. Our spies initially said the population there was reducing. Then they reported back they had farmland once again.”
Did that mean there really weren’t any farms here? No open
land at all?
“People were regaining their health. The population was happier, well fed even. We investigated and discovered the horror of what they were doing. The Germans had developed a time dependent virus. It’s lethal. Once infected, you die in a day, two at most. And it’s extremely infectious.” Mr Smith waved his hands about. There was a light in his eyes. “But then we found out the exciting part.” He walked over to the end of the line-up, stood on the line and stared Dan in the eye. “The virus has a half-life of two weeks.”
Dan looked confused. Cassie watched him glance at John, unspoken words seeming to go between them.
“It simply disappears after two weeks.” The Prime Minister smiled. “Then it’s gone. Leaving no trace. Poof.” He made the action with his hands. “We took the decision to steal Germany’s research and develop this cure for ourselves.”
“Cure?” Dan suddenly yelled. “That’s called murder!”
“No. I think you’ll find it’s called a cull. We wipe out sections of the country in a controlled manner. Re-instigate farmland. Grow enough food to feed those who are left.”
Mr Smith paced over towards Cassie. He seemed very excited now.
“Imagine if we were able to eliminate starvation. Then keep reducing down to a more controllable level of population.”
“It’s murder, mass murder!” Dan pulled against his shackles, attempting to swing at Mr Smith. The Prime Minister didn’t even flinch.
“We almost started a war stealing their research.” He let out a short laugh. “No one was supposed to know. It’s a state secret.” He put a finger up to his lips. “German citizens do not know of the virus. The official line was a diphtheria outbreak.”
Dan stopped straining and asked, “How many did they kill?” he suddenly looked defeated.
“Somewhere in the region of five million citizens.”
“But they weren’t just citizens! They were people, like you and me. Would you want your wife to die from this virus?” Dan shook at the chains. “What about the rights of the people you’ll be murdering? Do they get a choice?”
The Ultimate Choice Page 15