by Louise Moss
“There is nothing to fear.”
“Where exactly are we? What has happened? A war, a virus?” Susan sat down on the bed.
“There is nothing to worry about. You were found in a coma when a tree fell on your house. Your family wanted your bodies frozen until you were better.”
Michael banged his fists on the wall. “They still won’t open.”
“We know about that. How long have we been frozen?” Susan asked.
“Quite a while.” How to break the truth to them?
Emma came to the rescue. “Do you want to look around a bit, see your rooms?”
“Okay, but you’re to answer our questions,” Michael said.
They made their way through the tunnel to the dome where the plants were pushing through the ground, their bright green shoots contrasting vividly with the starkness of the bare earth.
As they came out into the daylight, Susan said, “It’s the Eden Project. Why didn’t you say?”
“What’s that?” Emma asked.
“Don’t be stupid,” Michael said.
“There were two domes like this for rainforest and Mediterranean plants,” Susan said.
“I see,” Gerald said. He had no idea what The Eden Project was, but it sounded like a useful way to explain what they were doing. “These are Cassava bushes you can see here. A handful of leaves is as good as an egg.” It sounded like a second-rate advertisement slogan. “Over there we have yams, maize, bananas, cowpea and millet.”
He pointed to the barren land at the back of the dome. “This will be planted with trees to create a wood one day.”
Emma pulled Gerald to one side. “What’s happened out there?” she whispered. The view in the distance of the plains had been solid green, but now it was dotted with red.
Gerald struggled to keep the feeling of panic from bursting onto the surface. “Take them back, show them the rooms. I’m going out there.”
“Be careful. It might be –“ She did not finish the sentence. Michael and Susan were heading for the door.
“This way,” she called out. “Come with me.”
Susan turned. Michael took hold of her arm. “Don’t take any notice of them. They won’t tell you anything.”
Emma sank onto a seat. “You go, Gerald. I can’t keep up.”
Reaching the plains, he saw that they were covered in red poppies. It took him back to pictures of French fields after World War II. It was a miracle. The first thing that had grown here for hundreds of years. He stroked the petals, worried that they might be another illusion.
“Poppy seeds can survive for many years in the ground, waiting for the right conditions,” Susan said in her soft, lilting voice. “Then one day, the ground’s disturbed, and up they come. It was a symbol of remembrance and hope until it was banned."
“Wearing a poppy was banned?”
“Yes, in 2040. It reminded people of war.”
It was a miracle that anything had survived in the polluted ground. Maybe other things were lying dormant there, waiting for the right moment to come back to life.
Michael peered at the ground. “You’ll need to put grazing animals on here soon but you’ve only planted one type of grass. If you’re going to use this for grazing you’ll need clover and vetch. Dandelions too.”
Gerald decided not to mention yet that they would be bringing out fertile and disease resistant Nguni cattle instead of the Jersey cows they were used to seeing in England’s fields. “We’d appreciate all the help you can give us,” he said.
“Then you’d better start explaining what exactly is going on.”
“Okay, but come back to the dome and we’ll tell you what we can.”
Hagan stood outside the vault, watching. He had seen red dots in the distance and, fearing another problem had set off to inspect the plains, but had halted when he saw the Primitives. As he turned to go back inside, he sensed someone approaching from the back of the vault. Baestel, still at large.
He circled the dome until he the man who claimed to be his twin. “What are you doing here?”
“I want you to know what it’s like to live my life. I want you to suffer like I did.” Before Hagan could protect himself, a surge of terror washed through his body. “When they realised I was too intelligent to be a Worker, they destroyed part of my brain. They forced me to clean the sewers and when I refused, they beat me and left me for dead.”
What Baestel had done was something no worker could do. “You have the ability to transfer data from your mind to mine,” Hagan said, surrounding himself with a force field to keep any more of Baestel’s transmissions out.
“They thought they were clever, but they couldn’t take it all away. Now I want you to suffer like I did.”
“It was not I who forced you to become a worker.”
“I was the superior twin. They should have chosen me. Now I want my life back, the life that was mine until you stole it from me.”
He rose to twice his height, towering over Hagan. “You will never know when I’m coming to get it.” Suddenly, he disappeared, leaving behind nothing but the sound of demonic laughter.
Hagan did not believe the man. The numbers that were inscribed on his body, Baestel’s ‘proof’ that they were brothers, were an illusion. He had never seen them before, and they had disappeared as rapidly as they had materialised. Nevertheless, he wanted to know who he was. He did not have the authority to search the records, but Tostig had. If he could persuade the system that he was Tostig, he would know the truth.
“You probably shouldn’t eat too much too soon,” Gerald said, remembering the advice he’d been given after an operation.
Susan broke off a little bread and took a few exploratory mouthfuls. “Do you have any salad cream or mayonnaise?” she asked, taking a handful of mixed leaves.
Emma was startled. She’d forgotten all about such ordinary things. Processed food belonged to a different life, one which no longer existed, but Michael and Susan were still back in the twenty-first century. “Sorry, no, not at the moment.”
“Stop prevaricating,” Michael said. “To start with, what country are we in?”
Gerald helped himself to a potato. (If they had plates and cutlery, why couldn’t they have curtains or bedcovers, as Emma had requested?) “You are still in England. The climate has changed much since your time. It is much drier than it was. That’s why we’ve planted things from Africa that need less water.”
“That’s not much of an explanation,” Michael said, spearing a boiled potato and biting the end off.
Gerald explained that many plants and animals had reached critical numbers in the past, but every form of life had been preserved before becoming extinct.
“That’s not new,” Susan said. “The snow leopard, black rhino and mountain gorilla were already nearly extinct in our day.” It was the most she had said since she’d been come out of the vault. “But you’re not talking about that, are you? There’s something else.”
They let him talk uninterrupted, but their faces grew harder, their shoulders drooped, Michael tapped his foot on the floor. When Gerald had finished, Michael spoke through tight lips. “You had no right! Why didn’t you leave us where we were? We would never have chosen to come back to this. You should have left us where we were.”
With his words, the enormity of what they were doing hit Gerald like a slap in the face. They had been selfish, thinking only of the planet, of the future, not of the people who would have to face the consequences. He and Emma had accepted their life, felt a great sense of duty to the planet, a sense of destiny. They were happy to be alive, but they had given no thought to the fact that others might not feel the same way.
“We didn’t have no choice. They were going to bring you out anyway,” Emma said.
Michael’s eyes narrowed. “Who’s ‘they’? These people who decide our fate?”
“Hagan and the Leaders.”
“Well, they don’t rule me, whoever they are,” Michael said.
“The baby’s kicking,” she said. “Feel this.” Gerald put his hand on the bump, feeling the lightest of movements.
Michael stood up and kicked the table. “This is far more important than a baby,” he shouted. Tears trickled down Emma’s face and Susan put a restraining hand on Michael’s arm.
“We chose you from thousands of others because you know about pigs and sheep and things,” Emma said.
Michael looked grim. “I haven’t finished with you,” he said, grabbing Susan’s hand and striding towards the door to the outside.
Gerald held Emma close. “This baby is the most important thing that’s happened to this planet and the most important thing that’s happened to me too,” he said.
Between sniffs, Emma said, “It’s going to be all right, isn’t it?”
Gerald had never seen her so down. “Yes,” he said. “Just give them some time.”
Emma and Gerald were in the kitchen, cleaning the plates and dishes when Susan came in. “I’m sorry if we upset you, but it was a terrible shock. And something’s happened to Michael. He used to be such so calm, peaceful, never got angry. I’m hoping he’ll settle down, but he’s really unhappy about his voice and his fingers. He still can’t open them. I don’t know what use he’ll be if they don’t get better.”
“The people here are very advanced. Hagan cured me of my arthritis,” Gerald said. “There was a man in a wheelchair, Bernard, but a few days later he was walking.”
“We’ll make the best of things, but as soon as we can, we want to leave,” Susan said.
“Agreed.” He wasn’t going to tell them just how impossible that would be.
They did not see Michael again until breakfast the next day. His voice had dropped a little, but he still sounded like a woman.
“You’ve got to get the balance right,” he said. They waited for him to go on, but he slumped into silence.
Susan explained. “We need things like ladybirds, lacewings, hover flies and beetles, the things people liked but we also need the aphids and other pests. This is where they went wrong, using too many pesticides. If we don’t use chemicals, nature maintains a proper balance, or at least it used to. Now, though, I don’t know.”
“There’s a lady in the vault who studied genetic engineering, plant biochemistry, crop production and plant breeding,” Gerald said.
“That’s great, exactly what we need. We need to bring her out.”
Gerald decided not to mention that all decisions were made by Hagan. It would only inflame Michael again. “We were trying to find a suitable partner for her,” he said instead.
Emma took her cue from Gerald. “She’s quite short. Not much more than four feet. She had rheumatic fever as a child and never grew properly.”
Michael sprang up. “Are you stupid or what? Her knowledge is more important than her love life.”
“I will go and speak to Hagan.”
“What’s it got to do with him? It’s our decision. Who is he anyway? Some jumped up jobsworth?”
Hagan watched events unfolding. Michael’s strange voice and fingers that would not open were a result of having to halt the process of bringing him out of the vault and restart it later. If the man cooperated, he could be helped.
Gerald was coming. He left his laboratory and went down to wait in the underground passage leading from the dome to the vault.
“Your hair’s starting to grow,” Gerald said, coming up to him. His hair had started to grow, and his warts were shrinking.
“You wanted to meet me to tell me this?”
“Well, no. We need two other people, the bio chemist and a nurse for Emma and ideally partners for them both,”
“It was not the plan to bring out more Primitives at this stage.”
“I know, but we need them, we need their expertise.”
“The Leaders have authorised the removal of the bio chemist to assist with the planting.”
“What about a nurse, or a partner for June?”
“It is not permitted.”
“But why not bring them both out together?”
Hagan had grown tired of the Primitives’ insubordination, but he had his instructions to keep the Primitives happy, but perhaps there was a way forward.
“It is not necessary for you to enter the vault in future. I will come to the dome each morning to discuss whatever matters that need my attention.”
“I see. Before I go – Michael’s hands and voice. There’s something wrong.”
“It will be corrected.”
Gerald was beginning to understand that the promise that they would be more involved in the running of the place, was another of Hagan’s illusions, something he had said to keep the peace. Michael was right about one thing. They needed to make their own decisions, responding to situations as they arose. He had no idea how they might achieve that. But the news that June would be released from the vault pacified him.
16
Michael walked quickly through the garden, nose flaring, cheeks flushed, nearly knocking Emma down as she bent over to plant leeks and onions,
“I can’t believe he’s done this,” he shouted. “We went for a walk, further than we’ve been before. We got so far and couldn’t go any further. Something was stopping us, something invisible.”
Gerald stood up, stretched his stiff arms, loosening his tight muscles. “Where was this?”
“I’d say we walked ten miles.”
“We followed the barrier around and we couldn’t get out anywhere. It’s all around us,” Susan said.
“I didn’t know. We’ve never walked that far. It sounds like an electric fence – or the modern equivalent.” Dread and despair washed over him. He had put aside the bad memories of the time they were imprisoned, believing that he and Hagan were reaching an understanding; that a new life of cooperation between the two people centuries apart was possible. Had he been fooling himself? He had believed Hagan when he had told him they were free to wander wherever they wanted, but it had not been true.
“I’m not going to tolerate this.” Michael was shouting again.
“I will go and talk to Hagan, see what he says about it.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“No, it’s better that I go alone.” Hagan would retreat to somewhere they couldn’t reach him if they arrived in force, with Michael shouting and yelling.
“Tell him to take it down, or I will destroy everything.”
Gerald blanched, remembering past conflicts. Perhaps it would have been better never to have started this project but let the human race die out.
He made his way to the underground corridor that linked the complex to the vault. It had been some time since he and Hagan had drawn up plans together in the vault’s command centre and given him hope that, in time, they could become friends. How foolish he had been.
He descended the stairs to the underground passageway. In the place where the wooden door should be, there was nothing but solid rock. He searched the length of the passageway but could find no way in. There was only one explanation. Hagan had sealed the place up so no one could enter.
He banged on the wall furiously, succeeding only in bruising his hand. Michael was waiting back at the clinic to hear that the barrier would be taken down, but how to contact Hagan? After the riot, there had been an unspoken communication with him. Perhaps he still had the power to contact him this way. Breathing deeply, calming himself and trying to remove all traces of anger, he called to him. Hagan, where are you? I need to talk to you. We have a problem. Silence. Gerald called again. Hagan! I need to talk to you.
It began as a tickle in his ear that increased in volume until a thin voice could be heard. I am here.
Is that you? He scarcely recognised the low, gruff voice.
It is I, Hagan.
I need to talk to you. Will you let me in?
He waited. After a few moments, a section of the rock lost its solidity until a shimmer
ing doorway appeared. He hurried through into the corridor beyond and up to the living quarters. There was no sign of Hagan in the laboratory or in the rooms that he and Emma had occupied. Eventually he heard a slight noise behind the door of Hagan’s private room. Hesitating to invade the man’s privacy, he waited. When Hagan failed to emerge, he knocked gently on the door. A faint sound might have been an invitation to go inside. He opened the door and peered into the dim room.
“Are you okay?”
“I do not think so.”
Hagan was laying on his bed, his forehead dripping sweat.
“You’ve got a fever.”
Hagan struggled to sit up but sank back onto the bed. “There is sickness,” he rasped. “Many people dead.”
“I am sorry. What is this sickness?”
A spasm of coughing prevented Hagan from replying. Gerald fetched a glass of water and helped him to drink. “I do not know.”
“Your eyes are watery and your nose - . I think you have a cold.”
“It kills everyone. No cure.”
So their recent work to restore the planet had other consequences, terrible consequences for the people who had lived here safely for many years. They had inadvertently succeeded in bringing back one of the most common viruses in his day, one for which these people had no immunity. It had lain in waiting, like the poppy seeds, for the right conditions to flourish.
“I will do what I can. What about Zorina? Is she ill too?”
There was a long pause before Hagan said, “Dead.”
Gerald put his head in his hands. “I’m so sorry.”
Hagan’s chest rose and fell with the struggle of trying to breath. “Why did you come?”
“Michael and Susan came back from a walk and said something stopped them, some sort of barrier.”
“Yes, a barrier.”
“I don’t know whether it’s to keep us in or keep the townspeople out. I haven’t forgotten how they marched on the clinic and killed everybody.” Those images would haunt him for the rest of his life. “But we cannot be imprisoned again. We cannot tolerate that.” And if you die, we will be trapped here forever.