The Clone woman fell in beside her and Beriael stood opposite them against the wall. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, steadying his nerves, and then nodded to Amato to signify he was ready. Reaching out, Amato slipped the card into the thin slot that ran down the length of the lock. He hesitated only a moment before dragging it downwards and then instantly stepping back and lowering himself into a crouch as the door whirr-clicked and moved towards Leci. It stopped a couple of inches from her and she suddenly felt very claustrophobic, held against the wall with the door trapping her there, pressed against her face, closed in around all sides. Was this how it felt to be buried alive? She turned her head to the side and saw the other woman stood next to her, her eyes were closed and her lips were moving, Leci couldn’t hear her saying anything but whether she was speaking to one of them or whispering to herself, it couldn’t be heard anyway.
Beyond the Clone she could see the side of Amato’s face but otherwise the angle blocked him from her view. She held her breath, waiting for the sound of gunfire and then realised she wouldn’t hear it over the alarm anyway.
Then, suddenly, the woman was gone, Amato had pulled her aside and was reaching for Alecia, dragging her out of the concealed area, he pushed lightly on her shoulders and she took the hint and crouched as she left the relative security offered by the door and entered the sight of anyone who may have been watching the exit.
Looking out into the yard of the compound she could barely believe she was stood here. She looked up and saw the sky, her first glimpse of it in she didn’t know how many years. They had entered the outside world during a sunrise and the sky was painted with colours, a beautiful tapestry of light that astounded her.
Chapter 8
After spending so long knowing only darkness or harsh artificial lighting the sun’s glow was a strange but welcome sight to her. She took a deep breath, allowing the outside air to fill her lungs. Granted, it was far less clean than the air she had become used to, and there was a foul stench carried on the breeze, but the inhalation was still sweeter to her than a lifetime of air-conditioned cells would ever have been, purely for what it represented.
Freedom.
Knowing that she didn’t have the time to relish this moment didn’t make it any easier to ignore and though it was now clear that the door had been unguarded and their luck had, for the time being, held, it was becoming increasingly urgent that they get a move on and get out of this place. Fate would not play the cards in their favour forever. Alecia expected to be dealt a Joker around every corner.
The others seemed to be as captured with the moment as she was. It had been a long time since any of them had seen the light of a real day, wonder surpassed urgency for the briefest of moments and then the alarm cut out, leaving what felt like a complete void of sound. Alecia’s ears still rang with the echo of the siren but the quiet around her was somewhat troubling.
‘Shit’ hissed Amato, his attention returned fully from the distracting sight of soil and sky back to the situation at hand. He pushed Leci against Beriael and looked over his shoulder to ensure the woman was close behind him. Satisfied that they were as ready as they were going to be.
‘Ok man; keep low, Leci, burn anyone you see. Don’t wait to fucking see who they are, we don’t have the time to make sure, just assume everyone is out to get you.’
‘Paranoid much?’ She grinned back at him over her shoulder but he didn’t find it amusing and her humour was chastened by the disapproving look he gave her.
‘Got it, human torches all round.’
She had her hand against Beriael’s hip and she felt him wince at her comment. She instantly regretted trying to make light of things.
She was aware that their survival depended on her ability to follow instructions right now. Though she had spent the majority of her youth purposely ignoring any kind of order given to her and had delighted in orchestrating chaos, she had learned that her nonchalance in regard the feelings and safety of others and her rebellious attitude in regards any form of authority figure would most likely end in unnecessary pain and death. She bit on her lower lip and kept quiet, staying low and close to Beriael as he moved outside the building.
He kept to the wall and followed it. Beyond the thin strip of land they now walked on was a high fence around the perimeter of the compound. It rose to at least double Alecia’s height, no grown man would’ve been able to jump it and the cruel looking barbs that ran along the top would have made it very difficult to try to climb over.
As they approached a corner Leci glanced back at the door they had exited through. It appeared to be some sort of service door, perhaps a staff entrance or used for deliveries maybe. Certainly it was not the main one, small and unimportant hidden away around the side of the prison, it had been clever of him to bring them out this way, knowing it was probably the least guarded of the doors. His knowledge of exactly where to go implied that he had detailed information regarding the layout of the place and if they lived long enough to find safety she would ask him, but now was not the time for that.
Beriael stopped and she bumped into him with a small ‘oof’. Amato halted before he collided with her and he moved past her to stand beside Beriael. Carefully he peered around the corner, Leci held her breath. When he didn’t pull his head back quickly or get it blown off she assumed they were still unseen and she exhaled slowly, relieved. After a few seconds Amato turned back to the other three, who watched him quietly, awaiting his orders.
‘We’re at the front of the prison; the fence is electrified and will kill you if you touch it. They’ve got two guards posted on the ground with guns and dogs, and two towers either side of the gate, with snipers. That’s all the security out there I can see. There might be more, but given what’s going on inside I reckon they’ve probably just left out the bare minimum. They’re a cocky bunch of shits and they won’t expect anyone to get this far, so gate security will have been pulled inside mostly. As far as I know the key should open the gate if we manage to get to it.’ He looked at Alecia.
‘What kind of range is too far for you to work your shit?’
She couldn’t help looking at Beriael and as she did she felt a hot flush of shame creep over her face. The disgrace of what she had done to him was becoming more and more real with the prospect of getting out of here and having to face the consequences of her actions. He knew just as well as she did what her range was. He met her eyes and then looked away, disgust written over his face.
His wife watched the interaction with something like wary confusion etched into her features. She wanted to know precisely what had gone on between her husband and Leci and though Alecia was sure she could probably hazard a fairly good guess, she still dreaded the conversation that didn’t seem all too far away now.
She looked back to Amato, running her tongue over her dry lips before she could speak.
‘If I can see it, I can burn it.’
He looked surprised and a little disbelieving. ‘You’re sure about that? No range, just, if you can see it?’
She nodded slowly. ‘Totally sure. I don’t think distance has anything to do with it at all; I just gotta have somethin’ to focus on. If I can see it... Trust me, they done a shitload of tests on me. I know this crap.’
Her assurances seemed good enough and he accepted her word with no further question.
‘I need you to take out the two snipers up in the towers; you need to do it fast, very fast. If they don’t make any noise we might be able to get em both killed before the ones on the ground realise what the fuck is goin’ on. Straight after that you take out the ones down by the gate, and the fucking dogs too if you need to.’
‘Ok, no problem.’ She pushed past the two men, pressing her body against the wall and inching towards the corner until she could peer around it.
She took a few seconds to assess the sight before her. Amato had been accurate, there did just appear to be those four armed men and their two dogs. The animals made her nervous. The
y were vicious killers, true, but they had been trained that way by the same men who had trained her to be as successful an assassin as she could be. It didn’t seem right that she would have to end the lives of the dogs, but in the end she knew they would not show her the same compassion, would rip her throat out if they were given the opportunity or the order.
She would not give them the chance.
Focussing on the furthest of the two sniper guards, the one to the far side of the gate high in his watchtower, she concentrated her energies on the man. Amato wanted instant death, she could do that, the initial flame simply had to be so hot that it reduced her target to little more than ash.
Experiments had been conducted regarding the temperatures she was able to reach. She could make tubes of metal glow white and could turn bone to dust in a second. The downfall of this powerful attack was that it drained her badly, left her feeling weak, barely able to stand, and very tired. She would be able to vaporize the two tower guards, after that she would be able to set alight the other two men, perhaps the dogs if needed, but the deaths of the men on the ground would be lengthy, agonising, they would burn slowly and be aware until they passed out from the pain. A part of her regretted that she would not be able to bring them a painless end but it was only a small part and her inner reservations were easily drowned out by the clamouring of the part of her eager for revenge. They had had no such qualms regarding her own pain or that of the people they had forced her to kill, why should she show them any mercy?
The man she was watching suddenly flashed brightly, an almost luminous quality to the white-hot intensity of the heat that encompassed him before it flickered out and there was nothing. Before the second of the tower guards could react he too had been disintegrated. Leci felt dizziness flood her and her legs no longer felt capable of supporting her. She leaned heavily against the wall and was grateful when an arm encircled her waist, holding her up. She did not feel she could focus enough to complete her task but she knew she must and put her efforts into gathering what remained of her strength.
Shaking her head to try to clear her thoughts, trying to keep her eyes open, her lids felt so heavy all of a sudden. So terribly heavy, if only she could close her eyes for just a second, only a second, no more than that, a small rest and sh-
‘Fuck!’ Amato’s voice managed to slice its way through the haziness but she couldn’t find the will to respond to it.
She was brought back to her senses when the sting of an open palm crossed her cheek, irritating the wounds she had given herself earlier and bringing tears to her eyes, but with them, clarity.
She didn’t waste the time it would’ve taken to glare at the Clone woman, she probably owed her thanks for the slap anyway. She wondered if the woman had maybe enjoyed it a little more then she should’ve done but now wasn’t the time to question something so trivial.
Still tired, drained, but capable of getting her job done now that she could focus, Leci turned her attention back to the remaining guards and their dogs. Neither man nor beast had noticed the sudden disappearance of the others, fortunately, but all it would take was for one of them to glance upwards to know that something wasn’t right.
The man furthest from her screamed as his hair went up in flames. His colleague had no time to react before his own head was ablaze too. For good measure Leci also set fire to their clothes, they both wore prison uniforms and without the security of the flame resistant suits they were at her mercy. Both men had dropped the leashes to their dogs; understandable really, keeping hold of your trained killing machine didn’t seem of utmost importance when you had been turned into a living torch. Fortunately the creatures were spooked by the fires and simply ran, panicked, away from what they perceived as a potential threat, luckily this was in the opposite direction to where the four escapees cowered at the corner of the building.
Job done, Leci’s knees buckled beneath her and she slid down the wall, completely lacking the energy required to stand. Her eyelids felt so heavy...
Unable to stop them from falling closed she realised that this would be the end for her. If she could not move she would stay here until she was found. She just wished she had the energy to care right now.
‘Run, to the gate!’ Amato’s voice cut through her fatigue. She tried to open her mouth to tell him that she would run after she had a sleep... only a small sleep...
Please?
Before she could speak she felt an arm slip beneath her thighs and another around her back. She was lifted effortlessly and managed to fight back her weariness long enough to open her eyes. Amato cradled her to his chest, she felt the motion of him running but he held her tightly against himself and she wasn’t jostled too much. Reaching upwards she hooked an arm around his neck to hold on. She felt ashamed of herself for not being able to make the final stretch on her own but mingled with the shame she felt a dull swell of pride knowing that she was the one who had facilitated the escape for the rest of them, she was the reason they were so close.
They reached the gate. The two Clones ahead of them paused in front of the mechanical box attached to the panel at the side. Beriael remained alert, keeping a look out for anyone who may be coming to the aid of the men who rolled on the floor screaming, desperately trying to put out the flames that engulfed their bodies. So far their luck was still holding.
The inside of the prison must be somewhere close to chaos by now, what with the Clones freed and rampaging through the compound. It wouldn’t be easy to contain them in such large numbers. You couldn’t exterminate an enemy that could regenerate itself as a result of your own tampering and Leci was fairly certain the Clones would be taking the opportunity to injure or kill whoever they came across. They would be just as bitter as her, if not more, for the suffering they had endured at the hands of the Officials.
To have not only ones dignity and freedom taken away, but to be robbed of the promise of death at the end of it all? She couldn’t conceive the notion, had spent the better part of the last year fearing it. Perhaps one hundred years ago immortality had been a distant dream for the future, scientists working hard to prolong the lifespan of the human race. When that dream became a reality it proved more of a sentence than death would have been, a completely inescapable destiny that spanned across forever...
Amato still held the card in his hand, but the fact that he was carrying Alecia made it difficult for him to manoeuvre. He handed the key to the woman and she quickly swiped it.
Instead of the familiar whirr-click the gate sprang to life smoothly and with very little noise. It did not swing out or towards them but slid back, creating a widening gap as it ran along the fence. As soon as it had opened enough for them to fit, the Clones made their way through the gap, taking their first steps on free ground in a long time. Alecia would not yet feel the pleasure of doing so, but for the moment was perfectly content to remain in his arms. She would not have had the strength to lift her foot and set it back down again if he had put her down. As Amato passed through the gate she looked over his shoulder and for the first time she laid her eyes upon the place she had called home for four years of her life.
The building was some kind of fortress, barbed fences surrounding it, no windows at all that she could see. The heavy grey brickwork looked dull and foreboding. It certainly looked like the kind of place you could expect never to come out of once you had been taken inside, and she felt a strange shiver of accomplishment pass through her. They had made it, they had escaped.
With that triumphant thought swimming around sweetly in her mind, Alecia finally allowed herself to succumb to the waves of exhaustion that washed over her. With her head nestled against Amato’s shoulder, her arms loosely around his neck and feeling so very safe and secure in his arms, she closed her eyes and embraced darkness.
Chapter 9
Alecia opened her eyes to darkness.
She felt numb and confused, couldn’t work out for sure if the last few hours had really happened or if they had just been a drea
m. She waited for her eyes to adjust to the complete gloom and when they didn’t she felt a dull resignation in the pit of her stomach. In her recollection there was only one place where the darkness was so complete as to be absolutely impenetrable.
Sitting up, she swung her legs over the side of the narrow bunk and felt the cold seep into her as her bare feet touched the hard marbled floor. She hadn’t the energy to lift her head and her hair hung in curtains around her face. Defeated, a single tear slid along the curve of her nose, hovered for a moment at the tip and then fell silently to land on her leg.
It had all felt so real; the fear, the shame, the bad feelings overridden by the hope and exhilaration, by the promise of freedom.
Amato had been real, Beriael and his wife.. It had all been so... So... Genuine.
Hadn’t it?
Maybe it wasn’t a dream, she reasoned frantically. Maybe you were drugged, some sort of... hallucinogenic crap that gave you visions, made you think you had a chance.
It could all have been part of a bigger plan. Induce her into some virtual escape plot to see how she would react, what she would do. It would certainly have been a learning curve for them, another way to experiment on her, probe her, steal her thoughts and rape her mind, gradually tear her apart until there was nothing left at all, nothing that made her who she was, just rip away at her until she was no more than a dead, empty shell.
Leci shivered and pushed herself slowly up from the small bed, her body ached all over, she felt a lot older than she was, felt ancient and as if the weight of the world was resting on her frail shoulders. Making her way over to the sink she reached up and touched her face. Her cheeks felt smooth.
The Condemned Page 7