The Vanished

by Sarah Dalton

  On one screen Ali shot at an attacker whilst someone else ran at him with a knife. My heart almost stopped, but Ali dodged the knife just in time. Mary barked orders to the women with the petrol bombs and a trailer exploded. I saw Ben jump on the back of a large man attacking a young teenager armed with a small knife. A spear flew through the air and hit a man in the throat. On the other screen my friends, my best friends in the entire world, my family, were scared and alone.

  “What are you going to do to them?” I whispered.

  “Don’t worry, the fun will begin soon. I just have to make a call first.” He reached for his walkie-talkie.

  I pulled against the chains, desperately struggling. Whatever he was going to do with the walkie-talkie I knew it was bad for my friends. “No! Stop it!”

  He raised an eyebrow at me and picked up the device.

  “People are dying on that screen.” I struggled against the chains binding my wrists. It was futile, and my attempts provoked another smug smile from the doctor. “You have to let me go, we have to help them. Are you really going to let all those people die?” I was yelling now, almost screaming, with tears running down my face. I felt sick. It would be a massacre not a war. I kicked and struggled and wriggled whilst that man, that monster, watched with a smirk.

  “And what could you do? Throw people around?”

  “I can fight,” I spat.

  “You think you can. The truth is, deep down you’re weak, just like all girls.” He fiddled with the cuff of his jumper. “You wouldn’t make any difference in there and you know it. Besides, you are too important to me for you to just get killed. So no, I won’t be letting you go.”

  “You said I was powerful. I can make a difference because with the others we’re strong, stronger than hundreds of men.”

  He laughed at me. “You are powerful. More powerful than most of your gender. But my dear, don’t be so stupid! You and those freaks? No, Mina, when will you stop fighting it?” He moved towards me again and stroked my cheek. “You’re more useful to the world right here. This is where your power really is. That’s the problem with you women, you won’t accept that all you’re good for is making babies and playing house while the men go out and take care of everything else. It isn’t a criticism. Bringing life into this world, giving birth the natural way and not in the abomination that is Cloning, is the most important job in the world.” He grasped my shoulders and I could feel his hot breath on my skin. I tried to shrink against the wall never in my life feeling so small and helpless. I wanted to cry for my Dad, or even my mum. “You have the potential to create the most powerful human beings in this world. Mina, you are going to have the most important job of all – continuing the human race in this God forsaken country. You and me.”

  43

  “What?” I whispered. Tears were streaming down my face now, rivulets of warm salty water, splashing over my chin and wetting my top.

  “Oh, you poor thing,” he said brushing away some of my tears. “Let me get you a tissue.” Dr Woods rose to his feet and turned away, walking further into the room.

  As soon as his back was turned I closed my eyes and concentrated on my chains. I was weak and my fingers failed to twinge. He’d given me some sort of drug which had weakened my entire body. I groaned and yanked the chains as hard as I could. Blood trickled into my palms. The pain from my wrists was excruciating, but I couldn’t give up trying to get free. When he was back in sight I forced my body to go limp.

  He bent down to me and dabbed the tissue on my cheek with an affection which was as menacing as his anger. He tutted. “It’s such a shame about that curse you have. I would prefer you without it, but it is an interesting genetic mutation.”

  “What did you mean,” I said with a shaking voice, “when you said that we would be continuing the human race?”

  Behind him the TV screen showed high-octane violence; guns firing, people lying on the ground. Even on a black and white screen I could see the blood mingling with the gravel stones. I tried to ignore it as I waited for Dr Woods to answer my question. He was still dabbing at my cheek with the tissue, pausing every now and then to stroke my face with his oddly feminine hands. On the second screen Kitty held her jumper to Daniel’s head. I concentrated, trying to work out where they were. There was no stone, so it couldn’t be the castle. The roof was low, which made me think that it could be a trailer, but the inside had been gutted and replaced with chipboard.

  “Do you know much about me, Mina?” he said instead.

  I tried not to let the fear take me over. He was acting so crazy that I got the feeling he was capable of anything and everything.

  “I found my way to the Compound as a young man, taken in by Father MacDonald, as I began to call him after a few years – Mary’s husband, of course. But before that do you know where I trained? Where I became a doctor?”

  I shook my head.

  “London,” he said, as though that answered all the questions that had ever been asked. “The department of genetic engineering to be specific.” He brushed my hair from my eyes in a motion too smooth, too familiar; it was as though we were lovers. I cringed. “They had high hopes for me there. I was quite the talent.” His face clouded and he got to his feet, choosing to pace around the room as he spoke. “I couldn’t stay there, the things they did. Genetic mutations that you wouldn’t believe – creating things that would give you nightmares for the rest of your life. You see they altered the genes of humans by adding animal genes, hoping to breed a race of powerful humans with super-powers.”

  I felt my skin go cold, raising every hair on my arm. “What are you saying?”

  “I had to get out of that place,” he said ignoring my question. His eyes had glazed over and he was somewhere else now. “The ones that didn’t survive…” His face turned to a mask of horror. “That was when I escaped, and somehow, I don’t know how – it’s such a blur – I made it to the borders. The MacDonalds took me in like parents, nurtured my medical practices. Of course Ali hated me. He had been the golden boy until I arrived.” He grinned. “It took a long time to climb my way to the top in that place but I had a vision. A new world.”

  “Where do I come into all this?”

  “Did you know that women are much more suited to motherhood at an early age? Their bodies are far fitter and able to cope with the stress of pregnancy…”

  “And what about looking after the baby?” I snapped. “Those teenagers you encouraged to give birth weren’t happy. I saw them! I saw how much they hated it!”

  “Sure they had sacrifices to make but we all have to make sacrifices in this world.” He dismissed my concerns with a wave of his hand.

  “Are you mad?” I said with a voice shaking with anger and fear. “Is that what all this is about? Are you crazy? Is this your messed up idea of saving the world? Don’t you see that you’re removing people’s choice from them? You have this big idea of turning the world back into a place where everything is natural and women have babies and there’s no cloning but don’t you understand that taking away people’s right to choose removes any freedom and any beauty from the whole process.”

  “Such an independent spirit,” he said with affection. “It’s one of the reasons why I chose you.” He smiled then, and it was hideous. “Which is why I will enjoy breaking you so much.”

  And then I began to panic. I didn’t care if he was watching I yanked my wrists against the chains. I screamed and shouted for help.

  “What you’re doing is useless, Mina,” Dr Woods said to me as he calmly paced the room. “You’re too weak to use your power. And no one will hear your screams, not with a war going on outside. No one will be able to rescue you. And you’ll never get out of those chains.”

  “You’re a monster. You’re insane. Nothing you say makes any sense,” I screamed at him. Any attempt at hiding my feelings were gone. I was shaking with the horror of the situation. “You aren’t a man. You talk about the things you created in London being abominations bu
t you are the real abomination and it’s nothing to do with what you’ve been through or if your parents didn’t love you or whatever. You chose this. You chose to give into whatever evil feelings you have. There are people in this world who have watched their family die in front of their eyes and still don’t turn as evil as you. You made the choice to be like this––”

  “Don’t talk to me about who I am,” he yelled back at me. “You have no idea what I’ve seen. You have no idea what I know.”

  My mouth snapped shut.

  “Yes, that’s right,” he said. His eyes were wide now. I could see the whites of his eyes and I didn’t like the way they protruded from his skull like marbles stuck into plasticine. “I know things. I know things about you.”

  “You’re bluffing,” I said.

  “I know things about your mother.”

  Panic began to rise in my chest. “My mother is dead.”

  “Maybe… maybe not. One thing I do remember though, when I first qualified as a young man of twenty-two years old, almost sixteen years ago now, is a small trial run of genetic mutations they trialled in the GEM. It was the first of a number of experiments they tried over the years – where they injected pregnant women with different genes.”

  “You’re lying,” I breathed. “My mother would never agree to that.”

  He laughed. “So naive. You didn’t really think that you’d evolved like this did you?”

  With a sob my head fell forward to my chest and I felt all the fight seep from my body. “You’re lying,” I said desperately.

  “Oh come on, stop being an idiot.”

  “Fine. I will.”

  I blinked the tears from my eyes and focussed on the screens behind him. Screw him. Screw the things he was saying, the horrible, hateful things. Screw them all. I would escape and I would find Daniel and the others. They must be in a trailer and it had to be somewhere away from the fighting, in the castle grounds. I stopped crying and I stopped fighting the chains, realising something really important. If they were that close, I could contact Hiro. Of course! Why didn’t I think of it earlier? Maybe he was already listening in.

  Dr Woods sat back down in front of me, watching me curiously. He looked relaxed and calm.

  “What are you doing? I’d love to know what goes on in that head of yours,” he said.

  “That would make you an abomination,” I pointed out.”

  I ignored him. Instead I thought about Hiro. I shouted his name in my head. Woods has me chained up in a castle. I can see you on a screen, he plans to do something. You need to get out.

  I watched the screen. Hiro didn’t move.

  Hiro! Hiro please show me that you can hear me. Please. You need to get out.

  Nothing happened.

  Hiro! Please hear me.

  “I think this has gone on long enough.” Dr Woods rose to his feet. He picked up the walki-talkie. “It’s time for phase one. Get a car ready.”

  “Yes, Woods. There is less fighting behind the castle. I’m clearing a gap in the border.” It was General Lloyd’s voice crackling through the device.

  “I should have known that it was him helping you. You’re all in on this together. You’re both disgusting.” Since I’d stopped struggling with the chains I felt the strength returning to my muscles. I took long deep breaths. “What’s phase one?”

  Dr Woods grinned manically. “You’ll see soon enough.”

  “What are you going to do to them?” Rage began to build up in chest. I had never hated anyone as much as this man.

  “Just keep watching the screen.”

  Kitty’s head snapped up from tending to Daniel. She spotted it first.

  “No,” I whispered.

  Gas poured into the room. Gas. He was going to kill them all. He was going to kill Daniel.

  44

  HIRO! I screamed in my mind. Hiro get out. Get out! I’ll find you. I promise. I watched the screen; Hiro was on his feet now. He looked around him, desperately, and then I saw him notice the camera. My heart soared. Through the smoke of the gas he looked straight at me. He’d heard. Thank Goodness.

  Dr Woods turned around to answer his walkie-talkie and became involved in an argument with General Lloyd on the other line. It gave me a small window of opportunity and I took it. The rage was there and it made me strong. There was no way I was going to let Daniel die, and there was no way that this man would make me do the things he wanted me to do. I wouldn’t let it. I concentrated hard. I thought about the nuts and bolts of my chains. I nudged them out of the wall with my mind and caught the chains as they fell, to stop them making noise. Then I gathered them into my fists. My legs were like jelly but as I watched my friends cough through the fog of the gas, I knew I had to find the strength to stand. I bent one knee and put my weight on it, leaning forward to drag myself up. Dr Wood’s head twitched in my direction. He saw me standing and dropped the walkie-talkie.

  “I should have killed you up that tree,” he said.

  I pulled my arm back and hit him in the face with the chain. He staggered backwards, clutching his face.

  “I should have known that was you.”

  He tried to stand. “I was just going to kill you all, rid the world of the monstrosities that you are, before I thought about it.” He smirked. “I got your friend too.”

  “You did that to Angela?”

  “It was an easy way to turn you against Sebastian and keep you distracted at the same time.” He grinned.

  I hit him with the other chain.

  “You’re evil,” I screamed.

  He jumped up and grabbed me by the forearms. He was surprisingly strong. “Keep telling yourself that. Keep believing that people are good and evil. See how far that gets you in life.”

  I threw him against the wall with my mind, knocking him unconscious. Someone came running into the room – Sebastian. He ran towards me and I hit him with a chain. Surprised, he jumped back.

  “What has happened to you?” I said.

  “He programmed me. He made me do his bidding. I’m his now.” Sebastian lurched for me again but I was too quick. I ducked and rolled away from him, towards the door.

  I got to my feet. “Don’t believe it. Don’t believe his lies. You are more than that. Whatever he’s done to you – you can fight it.”

  “The injections.” His eyes were wide and dark. They had lost some of the redness and he was beginning to look like Sebastian again. He ran at me again.

  I ducked. “He’s lying to you, Sebastian. No one can control you, not from an injection. Fight it!”

  On the screen Mike and Kitty were tearing at the chipboard. They doubled over, coughing and spluttering. On the other screen someone punched Ali in the face. There was a knife coming towards him. Sebastian rammed into my side, grabbing me by the waist. I took hold of a handful of his hair and forced his head towards the screen. Ginge was there now, saving Ali with her rifle. She looked up, afraid, vulnerable and strong all at the same time.

  “Look!” I said. “Look at her. You need to fight this for her.”

  Sebastian’s grip loosened. “But he told me––”

  “He’s a liar!” I shouted. “He told me terrible things about my mother.”

  Sebastian’s muscles twitched and contorted, as though he was trying to control his body. It was like Dr Woods had been pumping him full of rage for the last few weeks. No wonder he had been terrified in that cell.

  “I can’t… disobey….”

  “Good boy, Sebastian,” Dr Woods said, back on his feet and walking towards us. “There’s a good boy. Keep the girl pinned now.”

  “Ignore him,” I hissed. “Look at Ginge. Look at her. She needs you. She’s fighting for her life while you’re stuck in here with him.”

  Sebastian whimpered.

  “No!” Dr Woods snapped. “Don’t listen to her. She’s a temptress. An evil little girl.”

  His grip tightened again. I didn’t want to use my gift, I needed to conserve energy.

&nbs
p; “Sebastian, listen to me. Remember when you said to me that you were scared of being like your dad? That you never wanted to turn out like that? Now is your chance to prove that you’re not like him. He’s been messing with your head. He’s just like your dad. You need to get us out of here. And you need to help Ginge. It’s him. He did this to you. He is the enemy.”

  Sebastian’s body quivered. He was fighting something, whether it was Dr Woods’ drugs or worse, his words, he was fighting back, finally. His arms released me.

  “No!” Dr Woods dashed towards me but Sebastian caught him.

  “Go,” Sebastian shouted.

  “But––”

  “Just go!”

  I took one last look at them. Sebastian had grappled Dr Woods to the floor and the two men were in the middle of hitting each other. Sebastian was stronger but Dr Woods had messed with his mind, made him lose focus. I wanted to help him but I had to find Daniel. I had to find the others and get them to safety. With one last whoosh I threw the doctor away from Sebastian and then ran out of the door.

  We’d been high up in the castle. I ran down many stairs, each one taking me closer and closer to the sounds of complete chaos. Gunshots and the rata-rata-rata of machine guns. Screams of pain and battle cries of rage. Shouts of instruction and shouts of help. The boom of exploding bombs. The castle quaked. Some of the stones crumbled and the dust caught in my eyes.

  I’m coming for you, Hiro.

  When I hit the ground floor hall I broke into a sprint, ignoring the sprays of stone dust and the shaking of the walls. I ducked as a stone slab fell from the ceiling, dodging it just in time. I stopped and looked up at the hole in the ceiling, my heart pounding against my chest. I’d been just millimetres from death. I carried on running, following the corridor around to the entrance.

  My mind was a mess of thoughts as I left the castle. Firstly, I ran straight into smoke and almost into a large hole in the ground. The Highlanders were throwing bombs over the boundary wall towards the castle. It was then that I remembered the women and children in the medical centre. I had to get them out. But Daniel and the others… I turned back to the castle and ran back in, veering sharply left towards the medical wing of the castle. I ran flat out through the hallway and into the ward. The noise from the crying children was deafening.