Sidney's Escape

by Nirina Stone

His instinct is to say, “Probably death. Destruction. Somewhere where no one can ever hear us scream.”

  Instead, he gazes down at her, knowing this is likely their best chance at getting out of this dome, at getting her the cure she needs; at just getting away, finally. Gideon’s a scientist, he tells himself. He knows the way out. He can get us to civilization. To other people. Real food! Henry looks down, remembering that he probably won’t be welcome at the Red Dome, given that Petra had “poured” a portion of herself into his chest when he was injured, dying. He’s no longer completely human, which would make him illegal per Allendian laws. Still, the little girl needs to get there, to get a cure for the flu. Not to mention a place where she can be taken care of, instead of dying of hunger or who knows what else out here. He’ll make sure of it.

  So he swallows and says, “It’s his secret hideout, where we need to get supplies and finally get out of here. You do still want to get out of here, don’t you?”

  She gives him a slight nod, and he wonders just what’s in her head. Before he gets to ask, she follows Gideon to head down the stairs. He hesitates only for a second. For all of five feet and change, she’s a brave one, he thinks, not for the first time since he’s met her. Then he follows her too.

  Chapter Three

  Sidney

  THE STAIRS LEAD DOWN for a few feet, and Sidney counts them instinctively. She’s never headed down this far into the ground before, not even when she and Nayne hid from raiders from time to time. Up til now, she didn’t even know places like this existed.

  By the time they reach the bottom, she’s counted four hundred and eighteen stairs. At least it’s well lit, as small lights show them the way, lit up from below the stairs and from within the otherwise plain stone walls. “Who built this?” she asks Gideon’s retreating back.

  “My family,” he utters as he steps onto flat ground. “Took us the good part of a decade.”

  She thinks of the strange twins that held her and remembers that he’s their granddad. “Where’s the rest of your family?” she asks, thinking of the pictures along the hallway of all the people they’d lost along the way. Is he as strange as his granddaughters had been?

  He turns to her, his expression blank. “They’re all gone now,” he says, with a hint of anger in his tone. “The girls were all I had left.”

  She doesn’t know what to say. “Sorry” seems like an empty offering. Instead she says, “You’re an orphan, like me. Like Henry, too.”

  To that, Gideon offers her a slight smile. “I suppose I am. From what I’ve seen, I’m in good company.”

  Then he turns and places his disc on a stone wall ahead of him, or at least she thought it was a stone wall. After he inputs his set of codes, the wall shifts to the right and disappears into a hidden slot. Gideon walks through the tall doorway, followed by Sidney and Henry, and the wall slides back into place as machines whir and spin into life.

  Looking around her, Sidney could be mistaken for thinking she’s in some sort of dream.

  The place is unlike anywhere she’s ever visited. It’s a massive cavern separated into numerous living sections, larger than the house the twins had lived in. Sidney realizes this must have been their ‘real’ home, the one above a mere representation, a mere bird’s eye view to where they really lived—in a mansion deep underground.

  Her eyes rise up, up, up, as she realizes the ceiling’s a good twenty feet above them. No wonder there were so many stairs heading down.

  She hears Henry hold his breath behind her and turns to find his eyes wide open, his chin dropped. She imagines that the look on her face must be similar.

  “Okay,” Gideon says, as they both stand still, taking in the entire place. “Let me go about fixing this lift.” He heads to the northeast corner of the cavern, where a metal sliding door stands. “We can’t be going up and down those stairs all day long, can we?”

  Sidney holds her hands by her sides, unsure what to do. She looks to her right and eyes another massive metal door, wondering what’s behind it, wondering if she’s allowed to walk around this place freely or wait until Gideon says something. She’s never been in a room this big in her life. She doesn’t move a inch.

  Henry, on the other hand, sighs as he heads towards an oversized red and brown cushion on their left. He drops into it and the material seems to engulf him completely as he sighs out loud again and says, “Now this. This I can do.” He chuckles when Sidney stares after him. “Relax for a moment, it won’t hurt, I promise.” He points to another matching cushion, in colors of orange and red and blues.

  Sidney starts towards it then notices her shoulders are sore, so are her legs. The moment she falls into the cushion, she’s overcome with a comfort she doesn’t remember ever feeling in her ten years alive. She pushes her head even deeper into the cushions and falls fast asleep.

  Chapter Four

  Henry

  HE HEARS SIDNEY TAKE in a deep breath, a sigh and whimper, and before long, he’s certain she’s asleep. Luckily the cushions are quiet enough, he gets up slowly from his corner and stands to watch Gideon get to work. He walks towards the older man, meaning to ask what he can do to help now that Sidney’s out.

  As he comes up to Gideon’s side, the man swiftly swivels around, and holds the sharp end of a knife pointing at Henry’s heart. When did he even grab the thing? Henry gulps aloud. He instinctively puts his arms up, knowing better than try to grapple with the man. Still, he’s surprised, he doesn’t know what to make of Gideon’s sudden hostility.

  “Hey mate,” Henry says, keeping his voice down. If he’s to die right now, so be it. However, if death is coming to Sidney, he’d rather it’s quiet, while she sleeps, not while she’s in a panic. He can’t imagine a better way to die really, than while one’s asleep, not knowing what’s coming. “Just wanted to ask if I can help you,” he says. His eyes drop to the knife then back at Gideon’s small brown eyes. “I can be handy when needed, ya know.”

  Gideon tilts his head to the right, then brings down the weapon, as if making a swift decision that now’s not the time. Still, Henry makes himself a note to stay diligent. He can’t fully trust Gideon any more than the old man can trust him. In this world, the only person you can trust is yourself.

  “What is this thing, anyway?” He points to the ceiling, taking in the entire place. “How did you manage to build all this under here? And how long did it take?” He figures conversation is far better than confrontation at the moment. They’re at Gideon’s mercy, even if it’s just for a short time.

  “Years,” Gideon says. “Took me a few months to adapt rubble-clearing bots in here to help us build, but we weren’t done yet. There was still so much to fix, to build—but I guess all that’s over now.”

  “And—why did you do all this?” Henry says. “With thousands of empty homes in the city. You could have taken over any of them and still had your cloaker thing—whatever that was—hide you from the raiders and whatnot. Right?”

  Gideon nods. “We did that for a while. While we were building all this but from my experience—long as it is—I’ve learnt that the further away from Allendian “civilization” we were, the better. You know about the re-emergence. Do you think once it happened, my family would have been okay? Accepted?”

  The infamous ‘re-emergence’ Henry had heard about since he was little. All healthy Blue-Domers were frozen, and would be awoken once the dome was free and clear of the flu again.

  Henry thinks back on the twin girls. The illegal twin girls. They would have been handled swiftly with the full force of Allendian Law. They would have disappeared soon after the re-emergence. He had no doubts about that.

  He shakes his head no. “Is that why you left the Red Dome?” His eyes roam around the home. “To escape Allendian Law?”

  “One of the reasons,” Gideon says in a tone that tells Henry to leave well enough alone, and leave it alone he does. He points towards Sidney’s sleeping form. “Will she be alright at the Red Dome? Will th
ey actually cure her?”

  Gideon’s eyes follow his arm. He sizes Sidney up. Henry wonders just what sort of calculations the old man has in his mind. “I think so,” he says, “but it will be rather complicated. The Red Dome is—well it’s highly civilized. When we first landed on this planet, each dome formed as a bit of an experiment, some failed more than others. The Red Dome, in every way, is the perfect civilization we’ve been striving for.”

  Henry recognizes this sort of talk. His parents used to mock it, as the exact way governments would spin truths to make their atrocities against their people sound reasonable. Something Allendians had “brought along with them from Earth,” they’d said.

  “Perfect,” Henry echoes. “How perfect can it be for an old man who had an illegal family, a little girl who’s never experienced civilization, and—well, me an ex-raider.” He stops there, thinking it’s prudent not to mention that he is now partially made of metal. Not a hundred percent fully human. An aberration. An illegal.

  Gideon guffaws knowingly. “How perfect, indeed?” He turns to continue working on the lift. “I guess we’ll see once we get there.”

  Chapter Five

  Bot#50602

  SHE RISES TO HER FEET, eyeing her surroundings as if for the first time. Memories fight to the front of her mind, but the first thing she remembers is a face. It’s a small Allendian child, she reminds herself. The name doesn’t register, she’s broken beyond normal constraints.

  She knows her mission is clear though. She needs to make her way to find this small human child. This is her priority one. She turns in a quick circle, taking in the old empty buildings around her, there is no sign of human life anywhere within the vicinity. She knows she’s in the Blue Dome. She knows she has broken into pieces and she’s not complete. She’s just able to move, but not much else.

  She starts East, then adjusts to South East.

  As she walks, small wisps of silver dust merge into her feet, as if to attach themselves to her for the ride. She doesn’t know how long she’s been broken, doesn’t know how long she was without powder, but for whatever reasons the rains have stopped, and now she will be complete again.

  She will be able to find this small human child—Sidney, she suddenly remembers—her name is Sidney. My name is Petra and I must find her.

  Chapter Six

  Sidney

  SHE HARDLY EVER DREAMS. In the early days after Nayne had died, she tried to stop sleeping completely but that lasted only three days, then she fell asleep against her better judgment. The dreams that haunted her in the sixteen hours she’d slept were the worst things she’d ever experienced.

  Things were following her in the dark. She could hear their steps, she could sense them at every turn, disembodied shadows that meant her harm. The worst part was, though she thought she could see them from the corner of her eyes, every time she’d turn to catch one, they’d just disappear into the shadows again, leaving her vulnerable yet unable to do anything about it. So, in her dream, she’d run. She’d always run. They’d always outrun her though. One time in the dream, she forced herself into the air, flew as far and as fast as she could. No matter what, the bad shadows would always catch up with her.

  This time though, the dream was colorful and light. She was sat in a meadow having a small picnic with Nayne, and Nayne was back to her healthy hearty self. They’d never had a picnic like this before, this is how Sidney knows it’s a dream. Nayne doesn’t speak a word, though Sidney has tons of things to share with her. Instead, she just nods her head along as Sidney regales her with all her adventures so far. When Sidney describes Petra, Nayne’s face brightens and her smile widens as if she approves.

  Though she still says nothing, this approval feels like it ought to mean something. “Should I look for her?” Sidney blurts out. “Should I just stay here and wait for her to come back?”

  Nayne’s apparition gives her a slight nod and another smile. That’s what wakes Sidney up. The realization that she should stay put, the absolute conviction that she can’t follow Gideon and Henry to the Red Dome. She wakes, meaning to tell them, meaning to say as much and go back to the surface.

  When she opens her eyes, she sees them at the entrance of the lift which is now open but before she’s able to say anything, she sees one of the large robot cats facing them down as they stand in fight mode. It takes her a moment to realize she’s not still dreaming, that this thing doesn’t belong in here. The hair on the back of her neck rises as the cat gives a soft growl, the only way one of the animatronic cats can, and then it pounces at Henry.

  Chapter Seven

  Henry

  NO SOONER DOES THE lift work and Gideon has the doors slide open that a massive robotic cat steps out as if it has been lying in wait the entire time. Henry can’t even think of how it got there, how long ago it trapped itself, or where the entrance to the lift is on the surface, as it throws itself at him—all three hundred pounds of it—and opens its cavernous jaw wide looking to swallow him whole.

  His heart stops. His only viable weapons at the moment are his arms but Gideon jumps into action, as natural and automatic in his fighting movements as the cat is.

  The old man swings the spanner he had in hand around his head, giving himself more momentum as he slams it down onto the cat’s back. It’s on Henry, its jaw securely fastened to his shoulder, but all he feels is the impact as Gideon repeatedly smacks his spanner into it.

  Henry’s right shoulder gushes forth with so much blood it leaves him burning all the way down to his toes. He pushes up against the cat, but there’s no way for him to stop its jaws from snapping together, taking a massive chunk of his shoulder with it.

  His world fades to a pinpoint until he hears a cry. Sidney, he thinks, and his eyes snap open again. Once this thing is done with me, it will take Gideon out without any issues, and then Sidney. I can’t let that happen.

  Henry’s right arm can’t move any longer. It simply lays there useless and shaking as blood continues to flow out of him.

  He’s always been left-handed though, his left side has always been his strongest, so he reaches up and, not thinking anything more than, Try, damn it! he sinks his fingers into the thing’s right eye. It’s not a real animal, he remembers too late, but still he pushes in further until he holds on to wires behind its glassy fake eye. He pulls with all his might, his thumb and index fingers tight around four wires that resist but eventually slide out of the eye like strong veins. He doesn’t think of why it’s wet or why it’s gooey. He just keeps pulling until he loses himself and his consciousness.

  Chapter Eight

  Sidney

  SHE RUNS TOWARDS THEM as Gideon slams a metal rod across the robot’s back and head. Henry lies still underneath the thing, and she narrowly avoids the alarmingly hefty pool of blood beneath him. Something tells her that’s far more dangerous right now than the animal still on top of him. She’s never come this close to one before, and for a split second, she considers running—where, she doesn’t know—but everything within her makes her legs want to run in the exact opposite direction, and she fights the instinct.

  Her eyes scan around quickly and they land on a sharper looking weapon than the one Gideon’s swinging on the cat. The metal is thicker, more dense, but she doesn’t wonder if she can even carry the thing. She simply grabs it off the wall and runs back to where they are. Her back to the now-closed lift doors, she stands beside Gideon and with a wide arc in the air, slams the sharp end of the pole into the side of the cat’s head. It moves back as if to sit on its hind legs, taking the stuck weapon with it. It maneuvers itself around and aims its jaws at Sidney, opening them so wide, she can see into its insides—made of metal and sinewy wires. She steps backward, given that she no longer has a weapon, and only stops when her back is flush against the lift doors.

  Just as she thinks this is it, she’s about to become a robot’s breakfast, just as she wonders what makes this thing come after her when these animals weren’t ever programm
ed to hunt anything except rodents, Gideon jumps out of the left hand side, the metal in his hand shining. He slams it down onto the axe she’d buried into the cat’s head three, four, five times, until it clatters to the floor, half the bot’s head beside it as the jaws slam closed and the rest of the bot’s body slumps to the floor, unmoving.

  A groan from behind it tells her Henry’s still alive and she rushes around the dead bot to find him on his side, trying to move out from under its metal body. She pushes along with Gideon, but the thing’s far too heavy for them to make much of an impact.

  Finally, Gideon, as if coming to his senses says, “Hang on, Henry, hang on,” and he rushes around the corner, out of sight.

  Chapter Nine

  Sidney

  SHE SITS WITH GIDEON at the table as he serves lunch—some stale bread, powdered eggs, and frozen melons. It’s the best meal she’s had since her stay in the twins’ home.

  Henry lies on a bed that Gideon’s pulled out from—somewhere, she’s not sure where as the place still seems magical after he’d pulled the bot off Henry using a small truck-like one-person vehicle he’s built himself. “I made it to help us move rubble in and out faster,” he explained after he removed the bot and brought it back to the surface using the lift.

  “Will he be okay?” she asks again, as she chews on a frozen melon. She gums the thing multiple times, relishing in its cool taste, only swallowing it when Gideon raises an eyebrow.

  Gideon glances at Henry with a slight frown on his head. “I was sure he’s a goner,” he says, “but he seems to be healing. Faster than any person has any business doing, frankly.”

  She wonders for a moment. It was a lot of blood, she thinks. Still, a slight snore from Henry tells her what she needs to know—he doesn’t seem to be in much pain. Gideon’s right, despite the massive loss of blood, which Gideon’s little robotic creations are cleaning away, Henry’s skin is no longer a sickly pale green. Gideon said his heart was pounding away nice and strong, and even the skin on his shoulder was healing.