by Seth Rain
‘No,’ she said. ‘We have twenty-four hours to get through. We can watch TV, listen to music, read, sleep, whatever you want.’
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I really can’t see me sleeping.’
‘Twenty-four hours from now, it’ll be over, and we can carry on working out what’s going on.’
‘We know what’s going on.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘There’s something not right about all of this. How do we know what the news says is right? We don’t. It’s in their interest to keep this story going. But it’s all bullshit. I know it is.’
‘Three hundred and twelve deaths, all on the dates predicted.’
‘You don’t know that. You only know what they tell you.’
Scott threw himself onto the settee and poured a large whisky.
‘Don’t start on that already,’ she said.
‘Let’s get through today, then I’ll stop.’
‘You promised.’
‘I will. After today.’
‘That stuff is no good. I don’t even know what they put in it. I hate you drinking it. It makes you numb … absent.’
‘That’s why I’m drinking it.’
‘Don’t joke, Scott. I don’t like it. Promise you’ll stop – after today?’
He nodded, then stared at the TV.
‘It could be my name up there tomorrow,’ he said. ‘They’re waiting for it. They know it’s my date. There could be hundreds of others, waiting like me.’
‘You have to stop this. I can’t take it if you’re going to be like this all day. There’s nothing wrong with you. There’s no reason why it should be today. We’re not going anywhere and no one can get in.’
‘Maybe it’s you,’ he said, pretending to cut his own throat. ‘Maybe you’ll kill me…’
‘I might if you carry on like this.’
‘Do you promise not to kill me?’ he asked.
‘If you promise no more of that stuff after today. Your choice.’
Scott took a large swig from his glass. ‘Deal.’
Twenty-Four
Scott opened his eyes and, for a moment, he was back on the narrowboat with the sound of the motor in his head. Rain fell noisily against the shed roof.
Freya was rifling through the boxes at the rear of the shed.
‘Isn’t he back?’ Scott asked, rubbing his eyes.
Freya checked outside. ‘There’s no sign of him.’
‘How long have I been asleep?’
‘Not sure. Half an hour?’
Noah was still sleeping.
‘How’s he doing?’ Scott asked.
‘Okay, but we need to get him seen to.’
Scott breathed heavily through his nose, shook his head, then got to his feet. He knew there was no point in arguing; they’d have to take Noah to Mathew.
Freya stood next to him and craned her neck to see out of the window. ‘I can’t see him,’ she said, looking worried.
Scott sighed. ‘He’ll be back soon.’
Freya ignored him.
‘No one will be looking for us here,’ he said.
‘How do you know?’ she replied, her face flushed, angry. ‘What would you know about any of it?’
Scott rubbed his chin with the back of his hand.
‘I knew,’ she went on, ‘the first time I saw you at the train station. But Paul convinced me you hadn’t given up.’
Scott glared at her. ‘I didn’t ask for any of this.’
‘So?’ Her eyes were dark, fixed on his. ‘You were given the chance to escape. Twice. Paul came to warn you and took you away from danger before it found you. And Isaiah and Noah risked everything so you could be free.’
‘Free?’ He held out his hand. ‘You think this is free?’
‘You’re selfish,’ she snapped. ‘A coward.’
The last word echoed through the shed. A cold sweat broke out on Scott’s back and moved upwards beneath the collar of his shirt. He waited and watched as her face softened.
‘Isaiah believes you’re important,’ she said. ‘And so does Noah. He might not seem it, but Noah – like Isaiah – is devout and believes in what we’re doing. When Paul told us about you, not one of us doubted it or thought about anything apart from finding you and protecting you from Gabriel.’
‘I haven’t asked you or them for anything,’ he said.
Freya shook her head gently. ‘That doesn’t matter now. Isaiah and Noah have risked everything. They were close to Gabriel yet they both understood, when Paul spoke to them, how important this was. You were lucky that Paul came to find you before Gabriel did.’
Scott couldn’t think of the right words to use.
‘Isaiah and Noah still helped you, knowing what Gabriel’s capable of,’ she continued. ‘They’re risking everything for this – for you. They can’t turn back now. You can’t turn back. There is no going back, you must know that.’
‘I don’t know what to do,’ he said.
She folded her arms and lifted her chin.
‘I don’t trust any of them,’ he snapped. ‘None of them.’
‘The Watchers?’
Scott leaned his hands against the side of the shed and bowed his head.
‘What happened was not the Watchers’ fault. You know that.’
‘But what makes you trust Mathew?’
‘He wants to uncover the truth. He—’
‘No,’ Scott interrupted. ‘He wants to discover he was right all along. That’s different. He wants the 144,000 to be right. He wants the Second Coming to be right. He wants everything he’s given his life towards to be right. That’s different. What makes you think he won’t kill me the way Gabriel wanted to?’
‘You don’t know him,’ she said.
‘I know Watchers,’ he replied. ‘I know believers.’
Freya shifted uncomfortably. ‘Like me?’
‘No,’ he said quickly. ‘You’re different.’
‘Gabriel wants to take away your free will,’ she said. ‘He wants to kill you.’
‘But if my date is wrong, maybe that would be for the best.’
‘You don’t mean that,’ she said.
‘If the date is wrong, then Mathew and the Watchers need to know.’
‘That doesn’t prove anything. It doesn’t prove He is not coming back for us. It means we have to understand what it does mean, that’s all.’ Freya’s voice softened. ‘Gabriel’s not interested in understanding the truth. It scares him, like it does many Watchers, that the AI might be wrong, that the 144,000 is wrong. But Mathew is different.’
‘What if he isn’t?’
‘He knows free will is more important. If the AI is wrong even once, then it proves our lives are not determined and we are free to choose what we do and say.’
Scott raised his hand and showed her his date. ‘What if this is right and everything Paul believed is wrong?’
She shrugged. ‘Then so be it. But there will come a time when the AI is wrong. Then everyone will see the universe is not deterministic and that free will is real.’
‘So, even if we find out this is right,’ he said, raising his hand, ‘you won’t give up the idea of free will?’
She waited, looking at Noah on the shed floor. ‘There must be free will if any of it means anything.’
‘There’s no reason to believe that.’
Again her face hardened. ‘You don’t want it to be true because then you would have to take responsibility for what happened.’
He recalled Rebecca, on the train station platform, next to the train tracks. The stillness before it happened. Scott had relived this moment over and over. At the time, he saw what he thought were decisions hanging in the air, waiting for him to choose. But now he understood that the only thing he could have done was what he did. Which was nothing. And that’s who he was.
Freya stopped talking and glared at him.
‘What do you mean?’ he asked. ‘Responsibility for what?’
She shook her head gently. ‘I�
��m sorry. Shouldn’t have said that.’
He was aware Freya knew about him and Rebecca and what happened. But still, it caught him by surprise.
‘But even if you don’t believe free will exists,’ she said, ‘you must live as though it does.’
He stared at her.
‘You must behave as though free will is true,’ she went on, ‘even if you don’t think it exists. You must take responsibility for your decisions, believe in what you do and say as though you’re choosing.’
‘Why?’
She looked at him in disbelief. ‘Why? Because what does any of this mean if we don’t?’
Scott shifted his weight from one leg to the other.
‘Do you want to know the truth?’ Freya asked.
He nodded.
‘Then Mathew can help you find it. If you turn back, Gabriel will find you and that will be the end of it. What we are doing is important, Scott. Either you’re right, and free will is an illusion. Or Paul, Isaiah, Noah and I are right and we have the freedom to choose, the freedom to express our individual will.’
There was a shuffling noise outside the shed, but before they could move, the door opened.
It was Isaiah.
‘You scared us to death,’ Freya said, making sure the shed door was closed.
‘I have food. And water,’ Isaiah said, handing a bottle to Scott.
Freya took the bag of food from him. ‘Where’d you find it?’
Isaiah smiled. ‘Ask no questions and I shall tell no lies. There’s painkillers too, and some bandages and soap.’
Freya emptied the bag. ‘Needs must, I suppose.’
Scott drank from the bottle of water and handed it to Isaiah. He drank too, then stared at Scott. ‘So what are we going to do?’
Scott glanced at Freya. ‘We need to find Mathew. Get Noah the help he needs.’
Freya looked back at him, and he realised it was the first time he’d seen her smile.
Twenty-Five
Scott and Isaiah helped Noah to his feet.
‘I’m okay,’ Noah said, swaying one way, then the other.
Scott went to hold him still.
‘No,’ Noah said, holding out an arm. ‘I’m good. Give me a second.’ He bowed his head and waited.
‘How do we find Mathew?’ Scott asked.
‘If we can get close enough to him,’ Isaiah said, ‘he’ll find us.’
‘There’s a pub,’ Freya said, helping Noah put on a coat, ‘in Tipton, next to the canal, called the Fountain Inn. That’s where we’ll find his Watchers, and maybe Mathew.’
‘How far away is it?’ Scott asked.
‘Not far,’ Isaiah said. ‘A mile or two. If that.’
Scott kept a close eye on Noah. ‘How do we avoid Gabriel’s Watchers and the clans?’
Isaiah peered through the shed window. ‘That’s the tricky part.’
Freya edged past Scott to the door. ‘We should split up. They’re looking for four of us. I’ll stay with Noah – he’ll need my help.’ She laid a hand on his shoulder, next to his wound. ‘Isaiah, you go with Scott.’
They all nodded. Freya fastened her coat. ‘We’ll leave first.’ She checked Noah over one more time. ‘Can you walk?’
‘I’m fine. Let’s go.’
Freya opened the door. ‘You two follow a few minutes after us. Don’t stay by the canal. They’ll find you. Stick to the houses. But follow the canal to find the pub.’ She fastened her coat, then helped Noah fasten his. Isaiah, who was tall but thin, wore a shirt that was too short for both his torso and arms.
‘We need to move quickly,’ Scott said. ‘We’re going to look suspicious walking around in these clothes.’
Freya peered through the open door. ‘We’ll see you soon,’ she said.
‘Wait,’ Scott said, staring at her. ‘Do you have the tracker? Is it working?’
She showed him her wrist and the tracker and nodded with a faint smile. Noah ducked beneath the doorway. Isaiah closed the door. ‘It isn’t far,’ he said to Scott. ‘They’ll be fine.’
Scott nodded and peered through the shed window, but Freya was already out of sight.
‘She’s a remarkable woman,’ Isaiah said.
Scott nodded, though he recognised something that sounded like regret in Isaiah’s voice.
‘How long have you known her?’ Scott asked.
‘Many years.’
Scott opened his mouth to ask any number of questions. He tried to recall moments between Freya and Isaiah. He’d not examined them at the time but now, seeing and hearing the way Isaiah spoke, those moments coalesced into an understanding.
‘You and Freya were together?’ Scott asked.
‘It was before the 144,000,’ Isaiah said. ‘A lot changed after that. Including Freya and me.’
‘Everything changed,’ Scott said.
Isaiah glanced at Scott’s hand, then tilted his head. ‘I guess even more so for you.’
‘Has she always been the same?’
Isaiah smiled. ‘She gave you a talking-to, did she?’
‘You could say that.’
‘Yes. She’s always been the same.’
They stood in silence for a moment.
‘But that was a long time ago,’ Isaiah said finally. ‘Before everything changed. Before I met Gabriel. And Paul.’
Scott thought back to the canal and how Freya had saved Isaiah. He’d noticed something between them then, but hadn’t acknowledged it. It was Freya he had wanted to find when he uncovered Noah in the crate. This made him recall Rebecca, and the jealousy he had been feeling evolved into guilt.
‘What do you know about Mathew?’ Scott asked.
‘Mathew is well respected in the Watcher community. But he and Gabriel fell out a long time ago.’
‘Over Juliet?’
Isaiah nodded. ‘Among other things. But it’s ironic that the most intelligent computer programming team in the world could be undone by something as simple as a love triangle.’
‘I guess so,’ Scott said. ‘But why weren’t you with Mathew’s Watchers?’
Isaiah shifted his weight from one foot to the other. ‘It’s complicated.’
‘You shot Gabriel.’
Isaiah stroked his chin. ‘I didn’t want to kill him. But I couldn’t let him kill you.’
‘Why?’
‘Because Paul believed your date is wrong. And if there’s—’
‘Will there be others whose dates are wrong?’
‘Maybe.’
‘But doesn’t that mean you’re wrong? Like Gabriel said, if my date is wrong, then the 144,000 might be wrong too.’
‘Mathew, like Paul, is more interested in fundamental truths such as free will. God gave us free will so we can choose to do good over evil, and earn our place by His side. If this, like the AI has intimated, is false, then we have bigger problems. But finding out the truth about you, Scott, and your date, might be the start of unravelling this problem.’
‘And does Mathew believe this is wrong?’
‘He isn’t sure. Neither am I, neither was Paul. But the way Gabriel has behaved has made me think that it could be.’
‘And what if it is?’
‘Then everything changes again.’
‘And Mathew can help work it out?’
‘He can give you protection. Until we work out what to do. If the AI really is fallible, it’s important that we show the world the truth. Mathew will help us.’
Scott sighed.
‘You don’t believe in free will,’ Isaiah said. ‘I hope what you discover will change that, Scott. You are a good man, and I know this goodness is something you are choosing. If it’s not, then I’m not sure if good or evil have any meaning at all.’
‘Good and evil are Bible talk,’ Scott said. ‘They’re not real.’
‘But you know what they mean? The difference between them?’
‘Of course. As figurative language … as a concept. But what you think is good or evil shifts depend
ing on the point of view, on the person talking.’
‘Maybe,’ Isaiah said. ‘But when the time comes, there will be a standard by which we will all be judged.’
Scott stretched.
‘This talk makes you uncomfortable,’ Isaiah said. ‘I’m sorry. Such language can alienate people. I’m aware of what I’m saying. And I know you have trouble believing it. But I’m asking you to give us time. Listen to everything and decide for yourself. Will you do that?’
‘Doesn’t sound like I have a choice,’ Scott said, a wry smile forming on his lips.
‘You’re clever … thoughtful. You will make the right choice.’ Isaiah checked his clothes, then Scott’s. ‘Shall we?’ he said, his hand on the door handle.
Twenty-Six
Freya reached across to help Noah, who had stumbled. They were on a path running alongside a row of trees. On the other side of the trees, down a steep bank, was the canal.
‘We need to get away from the canal,’ she said.
Noah stopped.
‘What is it?’ Freya whispered.
‘Gabriel’s Watchers.’
Freya leaned into the hedgerow beneath the trees. ‘How can you see through the smog?’
‘Look,’ Noah said, pointing. ‘I know them.’
Three Watchers, in their long coats, strolled along the canal towards the shed in which the four of them had been hiding only minutes earlier.
‘They’re heading towards Scott,’ Freya said.
Noah groaned.
‘We need to do something,’ she said. ‘We can’t let them find him.’ In her voice, she heard a desperation that surprised her. And the desperation centred on Scott’s name.
‘The shed is still a way ahead. Scott will have left by the time they reach it.’
The three Watchers quickened their pace, their coats flapping around their legs.
‘No,’ Freya said. ‘We can’t risk it.’ She picked up a pebble and threw it over the hedgerow at the Watchers. Then she ducked back down.
‘What the hell was that?’ Noah asked, eyes on the Watchers, who continued along the towpath.
‘I don’t know. But we have to do something.’
‘You want another pebble?’