by Paul Teague
Joe’s mind was creating more questions every time Matt told him something new. It was amazing that all of this could be going on. None of them had had any idea.
‘Centrum is a contained area, the one thing that links the Sectors and preserves continuity. It was populated with just enough Immunes to give humanity a fighting chance if the Sectors ever failed. It’s worked well for a hundred years, but now the designated time is over. It all ends tomorrow morning with Catharsis.’
Joe didn’t like the sound of what was coming. He’d survived The Grid to walk into this?
‘What’s Catharsis? I’m guessing that’s what this is all leading to.’
‘Yes, Joe. At 08:00 tomorrow morning our Sector will be destroyed. The countdown timers you can see all around Centrum show how long we have remaining.’
‘Does anybody else know about this? In the Sectors, I mean?’
‘There’s only one person outside Centrum who knows what’s going to happen, and that’s Josh Delman.’
Joe stared at his father, waiting for an explanation. Delman was rumoured to have made it out of The Grid alive, so it might make sense if he knew about Catharsis. But what made him unique?
‘Delman is the problem and the solution,’ Matt picked up. ‘Delman is the only person who can stop Catharsis.’
‘So what is the problem? What has Delman done and how can he fix it?’
‘The Pact was an agreement made a hundred years ago to allow humanity to survive. It had to be that way or all of the Sectors would have perished over time anyway. But the plan was sabotaged, and the man we know as Delman is responsible. Centrum was supposed to survive but in just over eight hours everybody here will die. The walls and buildings of the three Sectors will implode and Centrum will collapse soon afterwards. We’ll all perish in a concrete grave.’
Hunted
The new Justice Seekers were dazed and confused. Clay beckoned them over to the huge concrete pillar which they were using for cover. It had happened so fast. One minute they’d been in a labyrinth, the next their environment had changed to a bleak cityscape. It was not unlike The Climbs, but it was in a far greater state of decay.
Clay had seen Joe and Lucy vanish into the elevator. He’d encouraged them to go, it was their only chance of walking out of The Grid alive. If there was something beyond that deathly arena, Joe and Lucy had to press on and find it. There had to be some way of escaping and Joe and Lucy had seized their chance, a new opportunity for them all to survive.
Clay had barely had time to question what had happened. The bot had approached an area which at first appeared to be a water butt. However, as the bot moved closer, the water butt fragmented into a pixelated form then faded completely to reveal the elevator doorway. Joe and Lucy had disappeared inside and the water butt had rematerialized.
All of the remaining Justice Seekers had been shocked to see a holographic image of President Josh Delman appearing before them. Normally it was Damien Hunter who presided over the trials. Things must have really been kicked off by Joe and Lucy if he’d been forced to intervene.
Then there were the five new Justice Seekers to accommodate. Fortrillium would top up the numbers on the rare occasions a trial had gone to nearly ten Modes and there was virtually nobody left standing, throwing some new victims in just to sustain the action on the screens a little longer. Clay suspected they were trying to make up for the loss of Joe and Lucy, perhaps even diverting attention away from their disappearance. Had their exit been seen on the screens? It would cause a great stir in The Climbs if it had. If there was any suspicion that there was a way out of The Grid, it would have fuelled a new hope.
The bot had become the immediate focus of the snipers who were shooting heavily in order to disable it. It seemed intent on completing its task, despite the physical damage it had sustained from the weapon fire.
As Clay was welcoming the new Justice Seekers and making sure they were sufficiently protected by the concrete barricade, the water butt pixelated once again and the elevator door opened. Joe and Lucy had gone. Whatever had happened, they were out of The Grid. They might be facing something even worse than The Grid wherever they’d gone to, there was no way of knowing.
As the weapon fire continued, the bot sustained more damage and sparks began to fly out of its circuit boards. Clay was distracted, but he saw something – someone – moving at speed behind him. He turned around, it was Miron, running for the elevator door. The weapon fire sounded around him, miraculously missing as he crisscrossed the gap between the barricade and The Core.
‘Stay back!’ shouted Clay. ‘Miron, don’t risk it!’
It was too late, Miron was committed. He evaded the gunfire, though he caught a flesh wound on his right arm. It rattled him but he kept on running. As Miron was about to enter the elevator, a bright red matrix appeared and covered his entire body. He froze while the matrix appeared to scan him from top to bottom.
There was a white flash of light and Miron’s body exploded. One second Miron was there, the next he was gone, his bloody remains spread where he had been standing.
Clay gasped. There were cries of shocked disbelief. At first they’d thought this was a new torture being deployed by Fortrillium to torment them, but it appeared that Miron’s death was connected to the elevator, it seemed to have nothing to do with the trial itself.
The weapon fire targeted at the bot increased until its circuitry failed and, at last, it took the final hit. As the bot’s power faded, the water butt pixelated and the elevator entrance disappeared. The sniper fire stopped and there was quiet once again.
It was a few minutes before anybody spoke. The new city landscape had not yet fully rendered, there were still traces of the labyrinth, but these swiftly disappeared. Clay wasn’t even certain that this was the third Mode since there had been no formal announcement from Damien Hunter and the Law Lords. It was as if they’d been caught out – whatever had happened with the bot and Joe and Lucy’s sudden escape, Fortrillium didn’t appear to have been ready for it.
The gunfire had stopped, and it seemed to be safe once again. The water butt had gone and that entire area had been rendered beyond recognition. Clay wasn’t entirely sure what he was looking at. Their surroundings seemed to change seamlessly from time to time, and it was difficult to stay oriented.
‘What’s that Lucy threw towards us?’ came Ross’s voice from the silence. ‘Is it safe to get it, do you think?’
‘You’re in too bad a way, Ross. Leave it for now. Let’s just give it a few minutes to make sure the coast is clear.’
Clay took charge once again, and for the first time surveyed the new Justice Seekers. There was a male there, the same sort of age as Joe. He was bloodied, bruised and completely out of it. He needed urgent medical attention.
Then there was a woman. Again, she’d been beaten, but she was still strong, she could walk and she was alert.
Clay noticed the older man. His hand was heavily bandaged and there was a small blood stain beginning to work its way through the covering.
There was a young woman there too, dressed as a Centuria, but she’d been stripped of her weaponry and protective gear. Clay had never seen a Centuria without a helmet before, and it was shocking to him. There was a human being underneath the helmets. He’d always considered them to be part machine. Something as ruthless as a Centuria had to have been stripped of all humanity, he’d figured.
Finally, there was another young woman who seemed to be in good health, but was clearly terrified. Clay needed to reassure them. It seemed they’d been herded up rapidly and thrown into The Grid with very little ceremony.
‘I’m Clay,’ he began. ‘You’re in The Grid now, but I think we’re safe for the time being. The weapon fire seems to have stopped.’
There was a palpable sigh of relief from the new Justice Seekers. They seemed glad to have somebody to guide them through their ordeal.
‘This is Ross and Chris. We’re all that’s left of the original pri
soners.’
‘Where is Joe? What happened to Joe?’ the woman said.
‘And Lucy, where did Lucy go?’ asked the younger woman.
‘They made their escape just as you arrived. We don’t know where they are now, but they made it out alive.’
Clay looked over to where Miron had tried to make his dash for freedom. The area was now unrecognizable, it had been re-rendered to orientate them away from The Core.
Clay went around the group finding out the new names. He was surprised to discover that three of the new Justice Seekers knew each other already. There was Joe’s mother, Jena, and his friends, Mitchell and Hannah. It emerged that the older man’s wound had been inflicted by Talya Slater. The pieces soon began to come together as the questions flowed.
Fortrillium was under siege and was closing down the aftershocks left by Joe and Lucy’s activities. There had been a team of people outside fighting to keep Joe and Lucy alive, but Fortrillium was onto them, and they’d been hastily rounded up and thrown into The Grid.
Max had revealed that the bot was his doing. He didn’t know where Joe and Lucy were heading, but he thought it was to safety. Why else would the bots have been sent to maintain that area so thoroughly during their routine inspections? He could also tell Clay what the object was that Lucy had thrown from the entrance to the elevator.
‘That’ll be a WristCom. We’ve been trying to get it to you all along. Turns out I could have just brought it in myself.’
Clay laughed at that. It seemed a crazy thing to do bearing in mind what had just happened, but Max was right. The WristCom was another glimmer of hope, though, one more chance of escape. Clay had spent a lifetime in The Climbs reconfiguring those devices, he was certain he’d be able to nurse it back to life.
Max had a theory about what had happened to Miron. He’d seen a rat following the maintenance bots up the long tunnel to The Grid once, and exactly the same thing had happened to the creature. A bright red lattice had enveloped it and incinerated it on the spot. Max had always wondered if it had been staged by Fortrillium to make sure he didn’t get any bright ideas about heading up the tunnels. His theory was that anything living got destroyed in them, and he reckoned the same had happened to Miron.
Clay suspected there was more to it. Joe and Lucy had stepped into the elevator with no challenge, so there had to be something else Max wasn’t seeing.
Piece by piece the bedraggled group of survivors put together their stories. Only Julia Levett remained silent, listening and taking it all in. Clay figured she’d expect to receive a hostile reaction as a Centuria, and he let her lie low for a while as he worked out what had been going on outside The Grid.
Hannah had broken down in tears when she began to explain what she’d been doing and how she’d helped to create the very environment they found themselves in at that moment. She told the group how she’d worked to save them from the beasts in the labyrinth, but that something or somebody seemed to be fighting her all the way. She became distraught when she heard what had happened from the Justice Seekers’ point of view. For her it had all been pixelated gameplay, but for Clay, Chris, Ross – and those who had lost their lives – every moment had been real.
‘Nobody in The City is without guilt,’ Clay consoled her. ‘You gave Joe and Lucy a chance, Hannah. You gave us all a chance. Remember that. We all do what we have to do to stay alive.’
There were existing relationships within this new group of Justice Seekers. Jena attended to Mitchell’s wounds. He was weak and silent. Nobody was able to find out what had happened to him, but whatever it was he’d lost a lot of blood and been badly hurt in the process.
By the time everybody had made their introductions, Clay felt that at last they might all have a fighting chance. Jena confirmed that Wiz and Dillon had escaped. If they weren’t in The Grid, she assumed they’d got out alive. They had tech and they might still have access to whatever was going on beyond The City’s walls. They spoke conspiratorially, unsure if their conversations could be heard, and unwilling to give any incriminating information about their friends on the outside. Max and Jena had confirmed that Talya was still working hard to save them. Julia Levett had shifted uncomfortably at that revelation, but Clay decided to wait a while before challenging her.
Finally, Hannah had been reluctant to share that they still had an ally at Fortrillium. Linwood had gone undetected, and she hoped he would still be looking out for them. Clay had to tease that information from her since she’d been scared to speak, afraid the conversation might be monitored. She didn’t want to place her friend in any more danger. Eventually, Clay had got the other Justice Seekers to talk loudly while they discussed the matter in whispers, masking the highly sensitive information.
‘You did everything you could at Fortrillium,’ Clay reassured Hannah. ‘I’m grateful for your help, we’d all be dead by now if you hadn’t intervened.’
Hannah wasn’t so sure, but she was relieved Clay was around. He seemed to know what he was doing – at least they had a leader. It was Chris who got hold of the WristCom that they’d been aware of for some time, still taking cover in case of snipers.
‘Chris, come back!’ Ross had shouted, but he made the short journey there and back without mishap. The snipers seemed to have disappeared. Clay was relieved to see it was a standard WristCom and it still had charge. It was an older model, but he was more familiar with those. In The Climbs it was easier to obtain obsolete models than it was to procure the latest devices. He’d look at it later. He would definitely be able to do something with the WristCom, especially if Wiz and Dillon were still out there somewhere. He’d make sure it was switched on at the very least.
Mitchell and Ross were in urgent need of medical attention, and Clay didn’t think either would be in any condition to survive the next Mode, if and when it came. He surveyed the area.
‘What did you create here, Hannah?’ he asked, hoping she might give some clues.
‘It’s a ruined cityscape. We took The Climbs and moved it fifty years into the future. It’s older, more ruined, and a lot more dangerous. This version is different, though. We created pathways so we could get to Joe and Lucy, but it’s been reconfigured now and the layout is unfamiliar.’
‘Will there be anything useful here?’
‘It’s difficult to tell,’ Hannah continued. ‘I only partially rendered the environment, so there was no detail at that time. The Gridders have taken what I started and finished it off. I don’t even know if this is your next Mode, but if it is they should have placed food and weapons nearby.’
‘Okay, we need to look around. Mitchell and Ross need to get patched up as soon as possible. We don’t know when the new Mode will start.’
There were murmurs of agreement. Clay was tired, he’d been hurt in the fighting too, but he could see the Justice Seekers looked to him for leadership.
‘I’ll explore this area with Julia,’ he indicated with his hand. ‘Jena and Max, you take a look over there. Chris and Hannah, you stay with Ross and Mitchell. Hannah, I’m putting you in charge here, okay?’
Hannah nodded. Clay figured that if she and Lucy were friends, Hannah would be good with Chris. Meanwhile, he’d separated off Julia which would give him some time to find out why she’d been thrown into The Grid. She’d been quiet so far, she was obviously holding back, and he’d need to find out what she could offer to help the group to survive.
Clay and Julia and Jena and Max split off in their separate directions, leaving Hannah with Chris, Ross and Mitchell.
Clay and Julia walked on without speaking, alert and attentive in case there should be a new attack from an as yet unknown enemy. It seemed safe, this did not appear to be a new Mode. Julia was expecting Clay to start asking questions – she could sense there were things he wanted to know as they moved on in uncomfortable silence. Then, out of nowhere, there was a loud buzzing, a rude interruption in the stillness.
Clay was confused at first, he couldn’t work out t
he source of the noise. It was persistent and demanding, and Clay soon discovered it was the WristCom. He took it out of his pocket and looked at the screen. It was a video call. The caller was President Josh Delman.
Chapter Two
Escape
Wiz felt as if the next ten seconds took place in slow motion. He knew what the sound was the minute he’d thrust upwards in the elevator. The car had sunk a little, and he’d heard something break, followed by a whirring noise, the sound of a heavy cable falling at great speed through the air.
He knew exactly what it was and he understood what was about to happen. Dillon was in terrible danger. The cable suspending the elevator car had snapped and at any moment they would begin hurtle towards the basement below, tearing his companion’s body into two parts as it did so. They had seconds. How many floors did the cable have to fall, fifty maybe? Or was Harry’s apartment lower than Joe’s? He couldn’t remember. He thought maybe thirty – they had no time at all.
The elevator car dropped. For a moment Wiz thought he wouldn’t be able to save Dillon, but at the same instant an old braking system kicked in, stopping the car shooting straight to the ground. Wiz heard a metallic groan, then a snapping sound as whatever had tried to break their fall failed and faltered, but it gained them valuable seconds.
Wiz sank to his knees. Dillon was whisked immediately out of the doorway, his head entering the elevator car just as it began to plunge to the ground. He fell off Wiz’s shoulders, tumbling hard onto the floor. Wiz crashed beside him, pushing him powerfully back down when he tried to raise his head to see what was going on.
‘Stay flat!’ Wiz called in the darkness. They couldn’t see a thing now. There was just the sound of the cable falling and the elevator car clicking past the floors as it hurtled towards the ground. Wiz tried to keep count, but the levels passed by too fast. It didn’t take long. They came to a jarring halt with a violent slam against the floor. The very cable which had created their problem served to cushion the impact of the fall when they reached the ground.