‘And Edwin, Riley and I are bad people.’
Sandra shakes her head. ‘I didn’t say that. But my guess is that the three of you have fallen into bad situations. I don’t know why. Maybe your childhood was disrupted. Maybe you gave in to temptation.’
Nia opens and closes her mouth, seemingly dumbstruck by Sandra’s blinding confidence. ‘What about Catherine?’
Catherine looks up. ‘Is it lunchtime? I hope we’re having schnitzel again.’
Sandra smiles fondly at her. ‘I don’t know,’ she says. ‘The rest of the blues are all connected, so it stands to reason that Catherine is too. Maybe she’s my great-aunt or something.’
‘I’ll tell you what I am,’ Catherine says. ‘I am ready for bingo. When does that chap get here with the cards?’
Nia shakes her head. ‘It’s not fair that she’s here. Putting an old person in this kind of situation – it’s cruel. Whoever is doing it does not have our best interests at heart.’
Riley touches tender fingers to his arm. ‘Nia’s right. This is torture. Some bastard out there is torturing us. Probably some sick rando getting off on it. A psychopath.’
‘I agree with Riley.’ Paxton’s forehead is creased in a frown. ‘They’re messing with us on purpose. They’re enjoying it. This is no reality TV show.’
Sandra looks sharply at Paxton, as if she’s surprised that he is disagreeing with her. ‘I clearly have more media experience than you. More life experience.’
‘Maybe. I get to have an opinion, though.’
‘Stop acting like a child.’
‘Don’t speak to him like that,’ Nia says. ‘He’s not a child. None of us are.’
‘He’s my child,’ Sandra retorts.
‘I can speak for myself,’ says Paxton, his voice louder than it needs to be.
Sandra looks momentarily taken aback. Her eyes narrow slightly as she looks at Paxton. Then she turns to Nia. ‘What’s your theory, then?’
‘It’s the government.’ Nia gestures towards her display. ‘These documents we’ve been decrypting. The Blue Fairy. The Russian connection. We know something. Something important. And we are being tortured until we reveal it.’
I blink. In some ways it’s the most ludicrous theory so far, yet it makes more sense than the others. But it’s still not right. We’re missing something. Some vital piece of the puzzle.
‘How can we reveal something if we have no memory?’ Paxton asks.
‘The government would have better security,’ Sandra says confidently. ‘It wouldn’t be so fragile that a teenager could hack into it.’
Nia glares at her. ‘I’m good at what I do.’
‘I’m sure you are, dear. It’s why you’re wearing that red shirt.’
‘Really? We’re still going with the criminals versus innocents theory? After we just learnt about how you tried to bypass democracy in order to win an election?’
‘Fake news.’
Nia lets out a frustrated growl. ‘Maybe this red shirt does mean I’m a criminal,’ she says. ‘Maybe it doesn’t. But I’m still good at this.’
‘Are you?’
‘What evidence do you have to the contrary?’
‘You got caught. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.’
Nia’s cheeks flush and I can see she’s about to release a torrent of fury upon Sandra.
‘What if we could take control of the bus?’ I blurt out.
Nia shoots a look at me that says, Was it really wise to tell them? She’s probably right, but it’s too late now.
‘Absolutely not.’ It’s Sandra, firmly. ‘We don’t want to rock the boat. We go along with the instructions, and they’ll let us go.’ She looks over to Paxton for validation. ‘Right?’
Paxton chews on his bottom lip, and looks at Nia. ‘What exactly are you planning to do?’
Nia and I exchange a look. ‘I don’t want to say it out loud,’ Nia says, with a meaningful glance around to wherever any hidden cameras might be.
‘It’s too dangerous,’ Sandra says. ‘The bus could crash. We could drive straight off a cliff.’
‘We’re not going to take over the bus,’ Nia says. ‘But … we do have a plan.’
‘No,’ Sandra says. ‘No plan. We sit tight until it’s over.’
Nia glares at her. ‘Riley needs medical attention. And what if Catherine gets confused and wanders off into the bush? You think the wristband won’t do the same thing to her?’
Sandra glances at Catherine, who is staring into space and humming to herself. She shakes her head. ‘They won’t hurt her. We’re safe here, and it’ll be over soon.’
‘Tell us the plan,’ Paxton says to Nia, and Sandra glares at him.
Nia goes from person to person, whispering her plan about disrupting the surveillance feed, and explaining what they have to do. Sandra folds her arms and shakes her head, her face as cold as stone.
‘Why don’t we vote?’ Edwin suggests.
Sandra must know she’s on the losing side of this battle, because she resists. ‘It should be unanimous,’ she says. ‘This isn’t hypothetical, like the trolley problems. We should all agree.’
‘Why?’ Nia snaps. ‘Are you afraid you won’t be able to rig the outcome of this election?’
Sandra looks as though she’d like nothing more than to slap Nia, but doesn’t respond.
We vote.
Edwin, Nia, Riley and I all put our hands up in support of Nia’s plan, and after a moment’s hesitation Paxton does too. Catherine has fallen asleep again, so Sandra is the only naysayer. She presses her lips together in a thin white line of disapproval.
‘Democracy’s a bitch,’ Nia tells her.
…
Paxton and I hang out at the front of the bus and watch the road slip by beneath us.
‘Can we trust her?’ he says, looking over his shoulder at Nia.
‘Yes.’ As I answer I realise it’s true. I do trust Nia, even if she is the Blue Fairy. I trust her more than anyone else on this bus. Certainly more than I trust Paxton.
But he looks reassured. Maybe he is a good guy, after all.
‘It must have been weird earlier,’ I say. ‘The thing with Sandra. Standing up to your own mum.’
Paxton nods. ‘Weird doesn’t even begin to cover it. Knowing that she’s my mother, having that weird sense like I know her, but not feeling any real connection. Not like it is with you.’ He leans into me, and I feel a stirring of desire. ‘It’s as if she’s a total stranger.’
I look over at Sandra, who is listening patiently as Catherine chatters to her about something inane. ‘She seems okay, though. More than any of us, she’s tried to make sure that everyone’s alright.’
‘Yeah. I’m sure it’ll come back. The connection.’
‘Do you think our memories will come back, too?’
‘Definitely. It’s got to be a drug, yeah? None of us have had brain surgery or anything, we’d be able to see the scars. Drugs wear off.’
‘I hope so.’
But I don’t know if this is true anymore. I don’t know if I want my memories back.
…
The bus dispenses more meat-paste sandwiches and bottled water at 1100. Then it’s back to the trolley problems. Riley gets paired up with Sandra. The bus halts and the door opens.
‘I can’t,’ he says. ‘Not again.’
‘It’s okay, Riley,’ Sandra says. ‘It’ll be quick. Stick to the road and you’ll be fine. The others will send the bus to me.’
‘Nope. I’m not going out there again.’
He starts back up the aisle towards his seat.
Sandra’s wristband begins to emit a whining noise. She frowns, and touches her hand to it.
‘It’s warming up,’ she says.
Riley stops.
Sandra’s face turns pale, and she turns, thrusting her arm at Paxton. ‘Help me,’ she says. ‘Get it off. Now!’
Paxton tugs at the wristband. ‘I can’t.’
‘Riley has to get o
ff the bus,’ Edwin says. ‘It’ll stop then.’
‘Riley, please. It’s getting hotter.’
Riley puts his hand to his own blistering wrist. ‘What if I don’t?’ he says, his voice low. I see something in his face that I haven’t seen since he first woke up on the bus. The red mist of rage.
‘Then she’ll get burnt too!’ Paxton almost yells. ‘Are you seriously going to let that happen?’
Sandra’s breath is coming in shallow gasps now, her arm outstretched, fingers splayed.
‘I’m not a good person,’ Riley says. ‘Maybe it’s better this way. Maybe we should all burn.’
‘People can change.’ It’s Nia, who needs to believe it almost as much as Riley does. ‘What if this is our chance to do the right thing?’
Riley stares down at his blistering arm. ‘Is this the right thing?’ he asks. ‘Choosing to be like this?’
‘Riley.’ It’s Sandra. She clasps her hands around Riley’s. Her skin around the wristband is reddening. ‘I need to see my baby again.’
Riley lets out a little howl of indecision.
I have a sudden flash of sympathy for Sandra. She’s not resisting Nia’s plan just to be a bitch. She’s scared. She wants to play along in the hope that whoever is behind this might let us go. She has a baby.
Riley’s shoulders slump, and he nods. He takes up his position in front of the door. Instantly, Sandra’s wristband stops whining.
‘Thank you,’ she says to him, before turning to the rest of us. ‘Put me in front of the bus. Riley deserves a break.’
‘No.’ Riley shakes his head, his face set. ‘I want to do it.’
Sandra hesitates, then concedes. We all press YES on our displays, and Riley and Sandra disembark and move to their appointed spots. Riley touches his fingers to his lips, then his heart, before stepping onto the X.
‘It’s time,’ says Nia, raising her voice so everyone can hear.
‘Really?’ I ask. ‘You don’t want to wait until this problem is over?’
‘Nope. Hopefully whoever is watching us will be distracted.’
Her fingers start flying across the display’s virtual keyboard.
The seatbacks all pulse red for a moment.
/error/
auth required /lib/security/ErasureInitiative.
server
item=user
sense=deny
file=/htm/ftpaccess
onerr=succeed
/error/
/error/
‘What does that mean?’ I ask, pointing.
Nia frowns. ‘I don’t know,’ she says, but she doesn’t stop typing. ‘Some kind of system failure. It doesn’t seem to be impacting the server, though.’
She continues to type away, line after line of gibberish unfolding under her fingers. ‘Get ready,’ she tells me. ‘As soon as I’m in, I need you to make sure everyone types in the command that I taught you. Do you remember what it is?’
I nod. ‘Shellfish.exe.’
‘Good. There’s two minutes to do them all, which should be heaps of time.’
‘What happens after two minutes?’
‘The system’s security knows it’s been hacked. In two minutes it’ll reboot and kick me out.’
‘For good? Do you get a do-over?’
‘I don’t know. It’s an adaptive security system. It’s learning who I am. Once it knows, it might never allow me back in.’
‘Can you do what you need to do in time?’
Nia flashes me a cocky grin. ‘Of course. Just need to get through one last gate …’
She hits the Enter key, and lets out a little yelp of victory.
SECURITY BREACH DETECTED
TIME REMAINING BEFORE REBOOT 02:00:00
‘I’m in!’ she says, then leans forward, her lower lip caught between her teeth.
I glance up to see that the bus is bearing down on Riley, but don’t really register it. I turn to my seatback first, perform the sequence of gestures to bring up the keyboard, type in the command, then hit Enter.
shellfish.exe
01001001001000000110001101100001011011100110111
00110111101110100001000000110001001100101011011
00011010010110010101110110011001010010000001111
00101101111011101010010000001100001011000110111
01000111010101100001011011000110110001111001001
00000011000100110111101110100011010000110010101
11001001100101011001000010000001110100011011110
01000000110001101101000011001010110001101101011
00100000011101000110100001101001011100110010111
00010000001010111011001010110110001101100001000
000110010001101111011011100110010100101110
I move over to Edwin, showing him how to pull up the keyboard.
Nia is muttering to herself and tapping away, her fingers a blur. She looks beautiful when she’s concentrating like this, her face intent and free from scowling or self-awareness. Is that a weird thing to be thinking about? I mean, Paxton is apparently my boyfriend and I am clearly attracted to him. And Nia is a pain in the arse who hates me anyway, so it’s not like anything would ever actually happen.
Except for that one time when it almost did.
Edwin types in the command.
shellfish.exe
0101001101110000011011110110100101101100011001
0101110010001000000110000101101100011001010111
0010011101000010000001110100011010000110010101
1110010010000001100001011100100110010100100000
0110000101101100011011000010000001100100011001
010110000101100100001000000110000101101110011
0010000100000011101000110100001100101001000000
1100010011101010111001100100000011010010111001
1001000000111010001100001011010110110100101101
1100110011100100000011101000110100001100101011
0110100100000011101000110111100100000011010000
1100101011000010111011001100101011011100010111
0001000000100110001101111011011000010000001101
0100110101100101110
Four to go.
I shuffle over to Paxton.
We are mere metres away from Riley.
The bus will stop.
The bus doesn’t stop.
It.
Doesn’t.
Stop.
The impact is so severe that my teeth shake in my head. Riley explodes in a spray of blood. Bits of him fly up and rain down on the windscreen, wet, red and purple. There’s a drumming on the roof as more him thunders down on us, and then he’s gone.
Nia screams.
‘Stop the bus!’ yells Paxton. ‘Stop the bus!’
But the bus doesn’t stop. We just keep going, the road curving ahead of us through the blood-spattered windscreen.
Did we do this? Did Nia’s hacking make the system break down?
I hear a retching noise behind me, and feel bile rise in my own throat. I stand up and stagger into the aisle and towards the gruesome windscreen.
This could happen to any of us.
The side road rejoins the main road, and the bus finally stops.
Edwin is crying, hysterical, hiccuping sobs.
Paxton comes down the aisle and grabs me, his fingers digging into my upper arms.
‘Are you okay?’ he asks.
I nod, and he crushes me to him. His hold is too tight, I can’t quite take a breath. But I don’t care. Even with my face squashed against Paxton’s chest, even with my eyes closed, all I can see is spattered red and purple.
Windscreen wipers click on, and soapy water sprays up onto the glass to mingle with blood and runs back down in pink rivulets before getting swept from side to side by the wipers.
I pull away and look for Nia, who is still in her seat.
Catherine is still sitting as well, looking utterly unperturbed. ‘Television today is so violent,’ she says, to nobody in particular. ‘You know what I miss? The Dick Caspar Variety Hour. Good clean fun
, it was.’
She’s in her own world. I wish I was, too.
The door opens to admit Sandra, red-faced from sprinting down the road to us. She’s clutching something in her hand, and with a lurch of horror I realise it’s Riley’s wristband. It’s slick with blood, and I can see a few peeling strips of scorched skin clinging to it.
‘I saw …’ She drops the wristband onto the floor of the bus.
Paxton pulls her to him, a repeat of the very motion that he did to me. I see her shoulders heave, and he raises hands to pat her on the back.
I leave them to it and head back to Nia. She is staring at the display, at the countdown. It’s down to a minute now.
‘It’s my fault,’ she says slowly. ‘I killed him.’
‘What?’
‘The error message. The system failure. It must have disrupted the bus’s navigation.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ I say, but looking around I can see that this thought has occurred to the others, too.
‘I killed him. I killed Riley.’
I think about his clenched jaw. The tattoo over his heart. I don’t want to be a monster.
The others have gathered around Nia and me.
‘We all killed him,’ Edwin says. ‘Every one of us who put him in the path of that bus. We all made the choice.’
‘He told us to!’ Paxton’s voice is several tones higher than it usually is.
‘It was still our choice.’
The clock is still counting down.
‘Nia,’ I say. ‘You have to pull yourself together.’
00:33:29
‘I did it. I’m the Blue Fairy. And I killed Riley.’
Nia’s rocking back and forth, her eyes unseeing. On the seatback display, time unspools away from us, our one chance at getting out of here slipping away, second by precious second.
A lot can happen in two minutes.
I garble at Sandra and Paxton, telling them the command to type into the remaining displays.
Edwin darts off to help Catherine with hers. Then I grab Nia’s arm and shake her.
‘So you’re the Blue Fairy. So you did some bad stuff. And yeah, maybe whatever hacking you’ve been doing to the bus really did mess with the navigation. Maybe it was a factor in Riley’s death. But remember what you said about this experiment? The choices we make here don’t matter, because we’re being forced into a binary. One decision or another. The real monster is whoever put us here. That person. And we have the chance to turn this whole thing on its head. To maybe get out of here. To find the person who did this – the one who is really responsible for Riley’s death – and get some justice.’
The Erasure Initiative Page 13