by Emma Clayton
‘They’re beautiful,’ Santos said admiringly, adjusting his glasses.
‘An artist made them,’ Colette replied. ‘I was born without hands and feet. There’s no circuitry in them, I control them with my mind just like you do when you move things. I’ve been able to do it since I was a baby but I kept it a secret, only my parents knew until now. I thought I was the only one, but I’m glad I’m not.’
Santos pulled up his sleeves. He had spurs on his wrists like those of a bird of prey, each with a single long curved claw. Leo showed them his skin-covered tail, Mika his webbed feet and Audrey her eyes.
‘I wish we knew why Mal Gorman wants us.’ Audrey said.
‘I’m sure whatever he’s planning to do with us, it’s not going to be what we want to do,’ Leo said. ‘For the past few weeks I’ve felt strange, restless, as if I’m supposed to be doing something. I’m sure we can see the light for a good reason, not just to move and kill things.’
‘I agree,’ Colette said. ‘I wish we knew more.’
Awen snarled and Mika felt the hairs on the back of his neck bristle.
‘Something’s wrong,’ he whispered.
They all sat up and listened, but it wasn’t a noise they heard, but an eerie silence, as if millions of people were holding their breath at the same time.
Inside the apartment, David was about to pop the cork on another champagne bottle, but he too sensed a change and turned down the music.
‘Listen,’ he said.
‘How strange,’ Una commented, after a few tense seconds. ‘They’ve stopped banging on the pillars.’
They listened again and waited as if the dragon sleeping beneath its treasure was well-loved and they were worried about it. They listened to hear it breathe again, to hear its heart beat, but instead, they heard a terrible sound that pierced them through like shards of glass as a wail rose from the black water of The Shadows; a wail more terrifying than the plague sirens.
‘What was that?’ Asha gasped, looking at the floor. ‘What’s happened? Something terrible must have happened down there. It sounds like thousands of people wailing in agony!’
The children ran in from the balcony to join their parents in the apartment and everyone stared at the floor, listening to the terrible noise. Moments later, a companion called for its owner and one of the maids screamed.
‘What’s wrong?’ Asha cried, rushing to her side.
‘They’ve taken my son!’ the maid wailed. ‘They’ve stolen my boy!’
Everyone gathered around her and David read the message from Mal Gorman on her companion.
‘All twelve- and thirteen-year-old children,’ he said disbelievingly, ‘were taken this afternoon by the YDF from the arcades!’
‘Why?’ Asha asked. ‘What for?’
‘For an army,’ David replied, his face contorting with horror. ‘For an army of children! The government’s sending the children to war!’
Suddenly, all the other companions called out for their owners and every parent discovered they’d been sent the same terrible message.
‘No!’ Asha screamed. ‘Not Mika! Not after Ellie, PLEASE!’
‘They’re taking the children who won the competition tomorrow,’ David said numbly, his hands shaking as he read the message again on his own companion. ‘They’re all going to war.’
Asha turned to look at the six children, standing together by the glass wall. They looked strange, she thought, their skin luminous as if they’d spent a few hours in the wrong room of a nuclear power plant, and for the first time she noticed the similarity between them; despite their different skin colours and features, they looked as if they had been carved from the same piece of stone.
‘You knew something,’ she said to Mika, ‘didn’t you?’
He looked at the floor, not daring to speak, and Audrey began to cry.
War.
The Youth Development Foundation had been building an army of children.
Mika felt the blood drain from his face as he realised how obvious it was: Fit Mix to make them grow faster, Fit Camp to make them strong, Pod Fighter to teach them how to fly, and the competition to put them through selection tests for an army of children. No wonder Mr Grey was talking about ‘fine citizens of the Northern Hemisphere’, they all knew! Even Mrs Fowler! He and his friends had been grown like a crop! Harvested for war! He remembered how the Fit For Life nurse and the teachers had humiliated him the day he refused to drink the Fit Mix and felt so angry he wanted to smash everything around him. They’d punished him! They’d told him he was mad! They’d convinced him he was a paranoid freak, when all the time he was right and they knew it!
How Mika hated Mal Gorman at that moment as the promise he’d made took on new resonance; he had promised he would go back in the morning and do whatever he was told. He had promised to go to war.
‘Why didn’t you tell us?’ Asha cried. ‘How could you come home and not tell us what they were doing to you?’
‘We didn’t know,’ Mika said quickly. ‘Not about the army or the war.’
‘But you knew something!’ she cried, angrily. ‘Didn’t you? I realised the moment you came home! What’s happened to you? If this competition was about building an army, why did you win it? What can you do that’s so special? You’ve got to tell us!’
Mika hung his head.
‘We can’t tell you,’ Leo said.
‘What?’ his father shouted. ‘Of course you can! We’re your parents! Why do they want you?’
‘Sit down, now!’ David bellowed at Mika. ‘And tell us everything that’s happened while you were away!’
‘No,’ Mika said. ‘We’re not allowed.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ David yelled. ‘How can you be not allowed to talk to your own parents! This is insane! You’re going absolutely nowhere tomorrow! I’m not having my twelve-year-old child sent to war. How could they possibly believe that a thousand credits would make that alright! Now we’ve got a lovely new home and some money for furniture! Well they can STUFF IT. I FORBID YOU TO GO TO WAR AND THAT’S THE END OF IT!’
‘Please, Dad,’ Mika said. ‘Don’t be angry with us, we thought we were playing a game.’
‘I’m not angry,’ David said, his shoulders falling. ‘I’m devastated, Mika, I can’t believe it! Just when our lives seemed to be getting better!’
‘It’s not his fault,’ Santos’s mother said, gently. ‘We’ve all been tricked.’
‘Please, talk to us,’ Una begged Audrey. ‘Perhaps we can help.’
‘No Mum,’ Audrey sobbed. ‘You can’t help. We promised we wouldn’t talk to you. You don’t understand.’
‘Oh this is AWFUL!’ Una cried, putting her arms around her daughter. ‘You poor things! To think you were playing a game and to have this happen! You’d tell me if you could, wouldn’t you?’
‘Yes,’ Audrey cried miserably. ‘We want to tell you the truth but we can’t.’
Iman’s baby sister began to wail desperately as she realised the party had stopped and everyone was crying instead of laughing. The cake she held fell from her hand and her father picked her up and cuddled her.
‘It’s OK, sweetie,’ he whispered, kissing her cheek. ‘They won’t take you.’
‘They’re just children,’ Una cried, desperately. ‘How could the government do this?’
‘Because we’re too old to fight,’ David said bitterly. ‘No babies were born for thirty years so the youngest of our generation is forty-three.’
‘But how could there be a war?’ Asha said. ‘There hasn’t been a war since The Wall was built. Surely we would have seen something on telly if we were on the brink of war, it doesn’t make sense. We haven’t got any enemies; there’s nobody to fight.’
‘The government must have kept it a secret,’ David said. ‘Until the children were ready.’
‘Perhaps the enemy are in a place we don’t hear about much,’ Leo’s father suggested. ‘Like the Arctic.’
‘But surely we’
d still know something about them,’ Una said. ‘There’s no room for secrets any more, there’s not even enough room for people since we moved behind The Wall, even in the Arctic.’
‘This is crazy,’ Asha said. ‘What are we going to do?’
‘What can we do?’ Una cried. ‘How can we argue with the Northern Government? They make the laws and if they say our children have to go to war, then they have to go!’
‘I’ve just had a thought . . .’ David said, stiffening with anger. ‘The government haven’t taken all twelve- and thirteen-year-old children; I saw some earlier in the park.’
‘Yeah,’ Una said. ‘Come to think of it, so did I.’
Mika remembered the two boys and the girl he’d met in the foyer and realised they were right.
‘So how come they’re still here?’ Asha asked.
‘Because the government isn’t sending the rich children to war,’ David said, angrily. ‘Just the poor ones.’
‘Listen,’ Audrey said, as her keen ears picked up another noise in The Shadows. ‘Can you hear that?’
‘Oh my odd,’ Asha whispered. ‘What’s happening now?’
47
A RUMBLE FROM THE SKY
They rushed to the balcony and looked down into New Hyde Park. For a few minutes they couldn’t see the mob coming up from The Shadows, but its roar was so loud, they could feel the vibrations through their feet. Iman’s baby sister began to sob with fright and her father covered her eyes and carried her into the apartment so she couldn’t see what was about to happen, but she would hear it and she would never forget.
There were six vertical tube stations around the perimeter of the park and they formed the main links between the two levels of the city. The people of The Shadows began to pour out of their doors like lava from a volcano.
‘Look at their light!’ Audrey whispered. The mob moved like a swarm with an angry red haze around it. Within seconds it had filled the park and was surging through the streets, eyes mad with sorrow, faces twisted with hatred and hands gripping baseball bats and iron bars and lumps of rust-streaked concrete. They heard a smashing sound as the first windows broke and as if this was the signal for the riot to begin, the mob roared even louder and lurched like an injured beast towards the turrets.
‘They’ve come for their children!’ Asha cried. ‘They’re going to rip this place apart!’
‘They must know there are government ministers above us,’ David said uneasily. ‘They’re going to come in here.’
‘But we can tell them who we are,’ Una said fearfully, as the mob began to batter against the doors. ‘Surely they won’t hurt us if they know we’re on their side.’
‘How are we going to do that?’ Asha cried desperately. ‘Look how angry they are! They’ll never believe it! Look at our clothes! We’re in the Golden Turrets drinking champagne! They’re going to think we’re part of the government!’
‘Watch out!’
David ducked as a lump of concrete flew past his head and hit the glass wall behind him. A large crack appeared, like a spider’s web. Moments later they heard another loud crash as the heavy glass doors to their turret were shattered. They looked over the balcony to see the security guards running away and the angry mob pouring into the foyer.
‘We have to get out of here as quickly as possible,’ David said. ‘Before they reach our floor.’
‘No!’ Mika said, feeling a surge of panic. ‘We can’t leave the apartment! We promised Mal Gorman we wouldn’t!’
‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ David shouted impatiently. ‘There’s a mob in the turret about to rip it to pieces, Mika! We have to get out of here!’
‘Please, Dad,’ Mika pleaded, ‘don’t make me leave!’
David ignored him and turned to the other parents, and they quickly discussed how they were going to escape from the turret.
‘We ought to call the police,’ Una suggested.
‘I’ve tried,’ Leo’s father replied. ‘But I couldn’t get through. Everyone in the turrets must be calling them right now, we’re going to have to save ourselves.’
‘OK,’ David said, purposefully. ‘Then we need to go up the building to the pod strips.’
‘Yes,’ Una agreed. ‘We can wave for help and get someone to rescue us from there.’
‘OK, quickly,’ David said. ‘Everyone grab your coats. It’s going to be cold.’
Mika watched desperately as they prepared to leave the apartment.
‘Mika?’ Asha said. ‘Find your coat.’
‘No,’ he said.
‘Oh for odd’s sake, Mika!’ David shouted. ‘Don’t start being difficult now! Forget about your promise to Mal Gorman! He wants to send you to war!’
‘I don’t care,’ Mika said, scowling. ‘I’m not leaving.’
‘Yes you are!’ David yelled. ‘Now get your coat!’
With his parents watching him and feeling increasingly desperate, Mika found his coat and put it on and Ellie seemed to slip away as if he was losing grip of her hands over the edge of a cliff. Maybe Gorman would understand that he had to leave because of the riot, but Mika was scared that he wouldn’t. He remembered the spark of recognition between them, that fleeting look of doubt and fear in Gorman’s eyes. Mika didn’t know why the old man didn’t trust him, but keeping this promise would be the only chance he’d get to prove himself. His one chance to reach Ellie. Yes, it was madness to stay in the apartment with a riot moving up the building, but the pull he felt towards his sister was stronger than ever, as if it wasn’t just love dragging them towards each other, now there was another, equally powerful force at work. He felt as if he was caught on a fishing line with the hook buried in his heart and the pain when he tried to move against it was intolerable.
The door opened and everyone rushed out. It was chaos in the hallway and their group was quickly swallowed by the tide of people pouring out of the luxury apartments and making their way to the top of the building. It wasn’t difficult for Mika to lose his parents; the moment they took their eyes off him, he dropped back and leaned against the wall while the crowd rushed past. Only Iman’s baby sister noticed; she reached out over her father’s shoulder as if to wave him goodbye, then she was gone with the others; swept away by the fast-moving crowd. With a lump in his throat but feeling hugely relieved, Mika returned to the apartment.
Audrey. He was surprised to find her facing him as he walked through the door.
‘I knew you were going to do that!’ she cried, her green eyes bright with fear. ‘Come on, Mika! We don’t have a choice! We have to leave!’
‘I can’t,’ he insisted. ‘You go, Audrey. Quick, before the others are too far away to catch up.’
‘I’m not leaving without you,’ she said, stubbornly.
‘Well I’m not letting you stay,’ he replied, trying to push her towards the door. ‘It’s too dangerous. Go!’
‘No,’ she said. ‘If I’m going, then you’re coming with me.’
‘I can’t,’ he repeated, turning away from her.
‘Why not?’ she cried. ‘I don’t understand!’
‘My promise to Mal Gorman is different to yours,’ he said painfully.
‘How?’ she asked.
He was quiet for a moment and she waited.
‘What’s wrong?’ she said.
Again he was quiet and he looked away from her. He knew this was the moment he had to tell her about Ellie, but he was scared. Afraid that if he told anyone before he saw his sister, it might jinx it somehow and it would all go wrong. Then he felt a pang of guilt. Audrey was risking her life to stay behind with him; she deserved to know. He hit the lock icon so the door slid shut, sealing them in the apartment.
‘If I break my promise,’ he said, hesitantly, ‘I’ll never see . . . my . . .’
‘What?’ she urged impatiently.
‘Sister.’
Audrey was speechless for a few seconds, her eyes wide with astonishment.
‘Sister?’ she repeated softly. ‘
You’ve got a sister?’
He nodded. ‘Her name is Ellie,’ he said. ‘She’s my twin.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me before?’ Audrey asked with a hurt voice.
‘I couldn’t,’ Mika replied. ‘I wanted to.’
‘Where is she?’
‘Cape Wrath,’ Mika said bitterly. ‘The YDF took her. A year ago. And told us she had drowned.’
‘No!’ Audrey said, her eyes flashing with anger.
‘But I could feel her,’ he said desperately. ‘I didn’t believe their lies. And now I know Mal Gorman’s got her. He told me I can see her if I keep my promise.’
‘So she must be like us,’ Audrey said, darkly.
‘Yes,’ Mika replied.
‘No wonder you don’t want to leave,’ she said. ‘Poor Ellie, poor you. But surely Gorman won’t expect you to stay in the apartment with a riot in the building?’
‘I don’t know,’ Mika replied, doubtfully. ‘He doesn’t trust me. He seems to feel threatened by me and I don’t think he’ll be reasonable if I leave, he’ll think I’ve run away. You don’t understand. I can’t take the risk.’
Suddenly, the whole apartment began to vibrate and they heard a gut-rattling rumble coming from the sky. They ran to the balcony and looked up.
‘Oh my odd Mika!’ Audrey cried. ‘But you can’t stay! You’ll die!’
48
INTO THE NIGHT
Twenty million people were left to rot in The Shadows when the Golden Turrets were built, and their anger had been rising up to boiling point since the day the sky was taken. And that’s just what it looked like to Mika and Audrey when they ran out onto the balcony; a boiling mass exploding through the lid fitted over it. The mob had doubled in size and was still pouring out of the stations and in the Golden Turrets across the park they could see it moving up through the floors like a human tornado. The glass walls were being smashed out from the inside and the luxury apartments were quickly flooding with desperate people, roaring their lungs out for their dead loved ones and lost children and smashing to pieces the opulence that had made their world so awful. From the top of the turrets a constant stream of civilian pods shot up into the sky as the residents fled to safety.