by A M Russell
‘That’s the general idea.’ said Janey as we started the strange and discomforting walk down another tunnel where two realities flickered in and out of our vision.
*****
Fourteen
A little while later we were in the tidy corridors that seemed to belong to the old cell block of Alexander’s people. We walked for about fifteen minutes and came across the corridor and the cell in which Jules had first been found.
‘This is our way out.’ said Jared, ‘If memory serves me correctly. Going back the other way, we end up out of the mountain in the ice fields not far from the location of the path to the train I think.'
‘Could we get the train?’ asked Janey.
‘Maybe, is there time?’ Jared asked Oliver.
‘Yes. We could do that. The further we get from here the more time we will in fact have.’
‘What?’ I said. It really was not making sense.
‘Someone punch him out!’ Oliver growled.
‘Yes. Indeed.’ Jared was calm.
We continued along the route we had chosen. The others didn’t seem disturbed by the kaleidoscope of changing realities that flicked around us.
‘Did you…?’ I said. Jared and Oliver urged haste. We rounded a corner. The men pulled up suddenly. Janey stood and frowned in a way that was almost disinterested disapproval. I came up from the back and was just about to ask yet another question to distract my mind, when I stopped and realised what was waiting for us; ‘Oh!’ I said, hardly Shakespeare, but that’s the way it goes: as we were faced with the awesome sight of a lot of Rimmington’s men regarding us with at first a curious disgust; and then as recognition took hold a bloodthirsty determination to annihilate us. We turned and ran.
It is almost impossible to explain the feeling of sheer mind numbing terror that was the rabbit running from the hunter. I was not thinking, I was not feeling anything except the screaming of my muscles as we sprinted down a long corridor and turned corners. It was only to find the tide of these grey men looming in the distance. We turned yet another corner and saw a long, straight, dimly lit place with a door way at the end.
‘Is it open?’ Jared yelled. Oliver accelerated ahead of us intent I supposed on ramming open; it if it was held with a lock of any kind. There were cries behind us and I felt the rush of air moving in this place. Would it hurt? I wondered if it did. Being shot. It seemed like an unglamorous death. Not compared to being eaten by something Piscean and huge. My only thought was: If I survive: I will go fishing with Alex next year.
We charged at break neck speed and flung ourselves through those double lab type doors. They gave way easily. We ran forward several yards before slowing. We stopped and looked at each other for a moment; suddenly at high pitched brittle screaming sound triangled on our auditory nerves with a killing precision. Everyone was doubling over in pain as we were flung into a brain shattering sound. It was like breaking glass, but a lot louder. Even shouting could not have overcome it. Everyone jammed their hands in their ears. I saw Oliver on his knees and Jared curling in a tight ball, Janey was somewhere to my right. I could feel it in my breast bone, and my gut too.
As suddenly as it had begun it ceased. Lights came on overhead. We were in a wide space full of large rounded objects. They looked a bit like black toffee mounds or giant shiny pebbles. They stood about thirty or forty feet apart from each other, and there seemed to be no pattern to the spacing. They were perhaps more like big blobs of glass that had set solid. I thought that they emanated a strange low resonance when you go near to them.
‘Is everyone alright?’ asked Jared, as we took our fingers out of our ears.
The three of us nodded.
‘What is this place?’ I whispered, sending a ricochet of echoes that carried on into the distance. The place was huge. We had just arrived out of a small tunnel into a vast space. Lights blazed way overhead, crashing all sense of distance and perspective. It numbed the mind and shrank us down into tiny little creatures on a giants dinner table. We were only a few yards from the tunnel. But this, as we turned round and round in open-mouthed awe, staggered the mind and swamped the vision.
Then we heard boots. Many boots. There was nowhere to run; nowhere to hide. The lights erased all shadows and eliminated all possibility of escape.
‘This,’ said a voice full of pride, ‘is what it has always been about.’
If you can say something without actually saying it, then Jared and Janey were doing that. They both were radiating the most fearful sense of threat that any person had it within them to project. It was like a fire, you could feel the radiant heat arc across the gaps between objects. Like that moment when you think that something couldn’t possibly be true, and then discover that actually it is.
He came towards us. That Man. That one man who looked so much like Jules. And yet it was the shape of the face that bore the similarity. His eyes were not like a cat. They were, how shall I say it?… bland in the extreme. Mild and inoffensive, and yet….. they were crawling with some evil that I could not describe, but made me breathe in sharply. I thought of Heelio’s warning about the things that are within; about demons inside. And I truly believed it then, for the first time in my life. I had seen its eyes and I was sure that things like that were real.
‘Now we have you all.’ He said. His voice was not like before. Perhaps it was this place with its sibilant echoes. And it’s vast space that made you feel like you were exposed on the surface of the moon. But the quality of it had something else there….a grating metallic rasp that was almost mechanical. Yet it lived and breathed. The others arrived. Many others, stepping from behind the boulders, or whatever they were.
‘Welcome to the party.’ said one.
‘Today we show you the New World.’ said another.
‘’It is better to comply now.’ said the next.
‘We expect you to cooperate.’ He stepped nearer to us.
The same man…. Different clothes. Or variations of the same clothes. Again and again…. The man called Alexander advanced upon us until we turned round and round and drew closer to each other, and were dizzy with the horror of it.
There was a silence. An impasse. He stood…. They stood. It seemed they were waiting for us to speak or react or do something. The light overhead blazed down on this thing that I now saw as the end result of the project they had renamed “Nimbus”. This was quite unlike being watched by the tribes people. This was creepy in the extreme. They didn’t do anything. They just stood there waiting, until I supposed, one of us broke the silence.
I could hear us breathing. A living, desperately vivid thing in this graveyard stillness. Jared slipped his hand into mine, I could feel him shaking….was it fear or anger, or some intense heartfelt passion that was about to burst out. I kept hold, thinking I wanted to protect him, Janey joined hands on the left of me, Oliver stood behind me, put his hand on my left shoulder. I felt just a tiny bit better. There were after all four of us. And whatever he now was, the ingredients had been extracted were out of one person’s psyche only. I felt that we had the edge with intelligent thought, if not in actual numerical superiority.
There was movement. Another one of them came forward. He looked older than the others. They moved aside to let him through. He strode towards us, a packet of those black cigarillos in one hand that was large and had a gold ring on the middle finger.
‘Ah! So I see you again!’ he appeared to be addressed Jared. But I wasn’t sure. ‘Let us discuss this like gentlemen…’ he offered the packet to Jared. I saw Jared bite his lip, I felt him tense as if ready to spring. I tugged at his hand. He squeezed it harder once. I saw his eyes flickered towards me, then back to this clever enemy.
‘I know you like them,’ said this particular Mr Alexander, ‘I know all your vices. And your tastes in food, clothes, cars and women.’
I wasn’t sure, but I saw a tiny movement of his eyes towards Janey then.
When Jared made no response, ‘I can give her back to
you. Of course I can! But where would be the fun in that? She is feisty… perhaps fiery one might say! For such a woman, perhaps you might be induced to comply with one simple request of mine?’
I felt Jared stiffen with anger, or perhaps with determination. He squeezed my hand again rather sharply and let go. He stepped forward. Oliver took his place next to me.
‘Show me the woman you speak of.’ said Jared.
‘Ooooh! Clever you! Didn’t fall for that trick. Just a moment then.’
From our right another two of the men came through the thick crowd. There was a woman I did not recognise. But Jared clearly did.
Janey shook her head, ‘The hair.’ She said. Jared shook his head slightly.
‘No?’ said Alexander, ‘What a shame. She took ages to dress up. Such a waste!’
One of the two holding her, produced a knife and slashed it across her neck. She immediately crumpled into a greenish powder that stained the floor then crackled like acid on something metallic; and then vanished completely.
Janey squeezed my hand very hard. I knew clearly what she meant: Don’t talk.
‘What about this one?’ he said.
‘Or this one?’ said another man walking forward.
‘Or this one?’
Jared backed off, until he bumped into me.
They came forward. Two of the men at a time each with a young woman held firmly between them. Marcia. I heard that sound that Jared sometimes made in his throat, something like a growl of anger, or gulp of anguish. We all put our hands on his shoulders and arms protectively.
‘This is nonsense,’ said Janey.
‘Choose.’ said the man, ‘and then you can go.’
‘What is your request?’ said Jared stiffly.
‘My request? That is simple. All you have to do is resign.’
‘Resign?’ Jared sounded surprized, ‘from what?’
‘He’s bluffing.’ said Oliver.
‘No. he’s not. Whoever he is.’ Jared said, ‘Oliver. Ready the points.’
Oliver took his pack off and immediately took out a strange mini crossbow and a leather pack which he fastened round his waist.
Janey nudged me. She already had her hunting knife out. I got my knife out of the sheath too.
‘Right hand, Milnes. To your left. Got it?’ Oliver loaded the crossbow with one of those sharpened sticks. I nodded. My mouth had gone dry.
Jared held up his right hand just in front of Oliver. Scout salute? Three fingers, little fingers and thumb bent down.
I wasn’t sure, but I saw the main man look slightly taken aback.
‘This is not what I expected of you Mr Arden! How come you are being so unkind to your mistress here? Isn’t it about time you admitted that you like to play around a bit?’ he looked surprized then. A red dot appeared on the chest. He keeled over. The bolt from Oliver’s bow. He fired three more in quick succession. We had already started to move. All these Alexander men’s faces contorted like plasticene as one of their number was destroyed; they snapped into shape again and ran towards us. I didn’t have time to think. Oliver had killed two of the “Marcia” women. The other was running to Jared. He dropped to the floor, and kicked her hard in the shins. She toppled over him, and quickly turned round. He brought the knife down with both hands into the chest. I saw a red spurt and then a green acidic mess. Jared jumped backwards, a look of pure rage on his face.
‘Look out!’ screamed Janey.
I ducked and then slashed across the wrist of the man on top of me. He dissolved into nothingness. Grey dust, just like the soldiers. I was moving dodging in and out of the seething mass. I forgot the rule and stabbed at any bit of them I could see before they got me. I didn’t notice it at first. But we were slowly being herded further away from the place where we had come in. They just kept coming. Some were like acid green stuff. Others just dust. One came at me snarling like some nightmare. With a thunk, a bolt from Oliver’s crossbow toppled him. We were up against one of those stone things. I didn’t know why, but I thought this was bad. The thing was glassy and strangely attractive. I thought we’d better make a run for it.
‘Come!’ said Jared, ‘Now!’ we turned and ran back towards the wall. They seemed to be dropping behind us. We were still felling the few that had followed us with slashes of our hunting knives. I desperately wanted to get hold of a cross bow like Oliver’s.
We were still running. And the wall didn’t seem any nearer.
‘Stop!’ yelled Janey. We skidded into a tight knot, breath tearing at our throats. Everyone spun round expecting another onslaught, but they were backing off away from us.
‘What the hell?’ Oliver pointed at the wall, with the cross bow.
There was a door. Old fashioned. Wooden. Whichever way we tried to go the wall receded away from us. Unless we went towards this door.
We reached it. It was ajar.
‘Do come in!’ said another sort of voice. Jared looked at all of us. We all nodded. So we opened the door.
There were two people in the room. The first, who had spoken was a man that I vaguely remembered seeing from a long time ago. The other was Hanson.
The man sat at a desk with a book in his hand and cup of tea at his elbow, looking for all the world as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Hanson was fastened to a chair with metal shackles. His head was over to one side. He had the look of one who has been drugged very deeply. Oliver immediately went to check him, and then got his med pack out straight away.
The man seemed to ignore what Oliver did. Perhaps it was just a way of delaying us. Hanson had maybe served his purpose and was really of no further use to them. I certainly couldn’t imagine them drugging Hanson for any other reason.
‘Please do help yourself!’ said this new Man waving his hand vaguely in Oliver’s direction. ‘I really must get this fixed.’ He muttered and pressed a button on his remote. Somewhere I heard the sounds of laughter from a distance. All other doors appeared locked out of this room. The one we had come in by remained open. Oliver had the set of keys in his hands that he had taken quite a while back. He undid the cuffs, and rather unceremoniously slung Hanson over his shoulder.
‘Let’s go.’ He said to Jared.
‘How do we leave the whole place?’ Jared asked the man.
‘That’s easy.’ He said still prodding the remote, ‘the way you came in.’
‘But it gets further away.’
‘My my… this is annoying.’ The man prodded some more, he looked up, ‘You could try breaking something. That can be useful. It breaks the apparent illusion you see. That way you get back to where you were quickly.’
‘Thank you…’ said Jared as we all back out of the room. We closed the door.
‘No one move.’ said Jared.
I looked up. We appeared to be far away again.
‘In the eye of the beholder.’ said Jared, ‘we are being deceived.’
‘Explosives?’ Oliver said.
‘Mmm…. That should do the trick.’ Jared spoke softly.
‘Who is he?’ I said, as Oliver dumped Hanson at my feet.
‘Keep an eye on him.’ said Oliver.
‘It’s what will happen to the Nimbus project if we don’t blow it to bits right now.’ said Jared.
‘A computer game?’ I said incredulously.
Jared looked at me, ‘No. A reality that you can use to play in. Everything is real. Except no consequences. A reality with no morning after. Not virtual. But actual.’ He handed the explosive charge to Oliver, ‘Wait here.’ He told me and Janey.
Jared and Oliver went to the nearest weird black boulder and set the charge. They came running back. Oliver dropped down as the explosion rained in slow motion. Like a stop frame animation flicking through slowly. Black shards flew. Jared covered Janey with his body as she fell backwards in surprize. We all covered our eyes and heads. The noise was hideous and then it was gone. Breaking glass.
‘Bloody Hell!’ said Oliver.
‘I
t worked.’ said Jared, ‘Look!’
We opened our eyes. We were in a cavern. And better still it was open to the grass lands at one end. Behind us was the tunnel we had entered by, and to our left was another wide tunnel, but like the one at the jungle entrance it was lined with rubbery panels.
‘Where are we?’ Jared asked Oliver.
We took a few minutes to find out our exact position.
‘The transport is a little way from here,’ said Oliver, ‘I’ll take Hanson, and make sure he doesn’t go wandering.’
Jared sat on the earth floor while Oliver marched off with his lumpy burden.
Janey looked at me and sat down too.
‘We came through to the other entrance.’ I said.
‘Yeah,’ Jared said wearily, ‘everything is closer together now. Contracting down. Collapsing.’ He lay down on the ground. I sat down then myself. I was grindingly tired.
‘Why is it daylight?’ I asked suddenly.
‘Because it is.’ said Jared, and leaned on one elbow, ‘Oh… here’s Reece.’
We all got back up.
‘He’s not moving for a while.’ said Oliver, ‘Let’s go.’
We all tramped down to tunnel. It quickly led us into the chemically clean corridors that Oliver and I had seen before.
‘We’re here.’ said Janey suddenly.
‘Where?’ said Jared and hugged her to him, ‘what is it my dear girl. You look worried.’
‘And you sound knackered.’ Janey retorted.
‘Quite so. Quite so.’ Jared smiled at her again, ‘Come on Angel, just one more effort. Then home time.’
‘You always say that.’ said Janey; then to me, ‘this is the place. Down that little corridor is Rimmington’s office or lab.’
‘How do you know?’ I asked.
‘Because that’s where he took me, the last time.’
‘You said you slipped the cuffs?’