Countdown to Extinction

by Louise Moss

  As he prepared to strike, he felt Hagan inside his head, drilling down and then he lost consciousness.

  June hurried to find Richard. There was dirt in her hair, her clothes were torn and she was crying.

  She found him outside, drilling the ground. “What’s happened?” asked as she appeared.

  “It was terrible. He – .“

  “Who? Hagan? What has he done?”

  Hagan could not completely remove June’s memory while the paleomammalian cortex was inflamed, but he could temporarily fill her head with a different one. “Something happened but -.”

  “Did you fall, bang your head?”

  “I’m not sure, possibly.”

  There would be repercussions, Hagan thought. He must talk to the primitives, not as himself but as a beautiful lady, a slim lady with long, curly hair that bounced as she walked.

  Emma was the first to see him. “Somebody’s coming,” she said. “I’ve never seen her before. She must be one of the survivors.”

  “I am Hagina,” the lady said. Hagan’s voice was smooth and soft and reminded Emma of toffee apples and candy floss. Richard stared at the newcomer as if she were Ethelfleda, Queen of Mercia, come to defend their little patch of England against the marauding aliens in the 9th century. Gerald and Pete stared at the woman with obvious adoration.

  “A feminine version of Hagan,” Emma laughed. “It must be his sister!”

  “Are you staying with Hagan?” Gerald asked.

  “Hagan is engaged in some urgent business and has asked me to check that you are all right.”

  Emma saw that she would get no sense out of the men, who sat around as if they were in the company of Elizabeth Taylor. Come to think of it, the woman looked rather like her with her arched eyebrows and perfect rosebud mouth.

  He let them talk about plans for the farm before retreating back to the dome while he probed their minds. There was no feeling of animosity towards him.

  “What a lovely lady,” Richard said when he had gone.

  “I don’t suppose that’s what she really looked like,” Emma said. “Her image flickered, I was the only one to see. She’s really ugly.” Gerald put his arm around her and held her tight. Like Emma, he had not forgotten that terrible moment when they had discovered that everything was an illusion: the polished wooden that was made out of bits of old metal, the food that was made of seaweed, the plants that were not real, and the most cruel illusion of them all – Hagan had kept from them that outside the dome, the Earth was dying.

  “That Hagan’s a dark horse,” Pete said. “Where did he find her?”

  A thick fog filled Hagan’s head and his life energy was draining away. He feared his brain had been permanently damaged either by Baestel or by the drug. He had let the Leaders down by losing control, but he must take action to render Baestel harmless while he could.

  He considered destroying Baestel, but he was one of the few people left who could procreate, maybe even the only one. While Baestel remained unconscious, Hagan opened up his brain and cut away a number of circuits in the Cingulate Gyrus to remove his aggressive tendencies and make him forget that Hagan existed. Finally, he put him in a pod and sent him a long way away.

  24

  The Primitives continued working as before. The earth was warming up, the crops were thriving, but Hagan could not feel any pleasure at the success of the plan. He was a failure. He had lost control of the situation, not protected himself properly, not foreseen what his brother might do. He had debased himself with June, acting like a worker. He could not erase his own memory but he could not live with what he had done either. His life energy began to drain away and his mind was filled with thoughts of dying.

  As the days drifted by, he descended deeper into himself. He had committed a great sin in putting his naked body next to June’s and then –. He was only fit to live with workers. That was it, that was what he had to do. He should leave the dome and look for any workers who had survived and live amongst them. The thought became stronger over the next few days. It gave him a purpose.

  A week after being with June, he left the dome and set off in an easterly direction, away from the cottages. The cold bit into his body, it was closing down. Something was wrong. His legs would not support him.

  He lurched forward, stumbled and fell. Someone was coming towards him but he could not move. He lay with his eyes shut, surrounded by Primitives, their voices like the hum of the ancient computer in the vault that kept the bodies frozen. That was it, he was in the vault, he was one of the frozen bodies. He would go to sleep and when he woke up, everything would be right again.

  Pete took hold of his arm and tried to lift him.

  “Is he here in person?” Gerald asked.

  “What are you talking about? Help me get him into the cottage.”

  They put him gently on the floor where he lay in a crumpled heap, his eyes rolled back in their sockets, looking close to death. Gerald was perplexed. Something very strange was happening if Hagan had gone outside. Perhaps his family needed help.

  One word kept going round in Hagan’s head. Gerald heard the word clearly. “He feels he has failed,” he said.

  Hagan felt a sudden energy shift in the room, a change that eased his pain slightly, but then they started talking at the same time and he thought his head would crack in two.

  “I’m feeling almost sorry for him.”

  “We can sort it out, mate, no need to take on.”

  “We will help you get better.”

  “It’ll be OK.”

  They stopped talking for a moment. Their energy washed over him, warming him, giving him strength, but he could also feel a coldness in the room. It came from June. The memory of his great sin plunged him back into his depression. He must get away. He sat up and tried to stand.

  Gerald laid a hand on his chest gently. “It’s best that you rest for the moment.” Hagan struggled but June’s coldness held him pinned down, sapping his energy.

  Emma was trying to work things out. She had wondered all along at the way June looked at Hagan. Since they first met, there seemed to be something between them, at least as far as June was concerned. And she had been so eager to get to the laboratory the last time she went, it had set her wondering what they got up to in there. She had assumed they were on the verge of some exciting scientific discovery, but then she had refused to have any more to do with him. Lately she had been moody, listless. Surely it didn’t mean ….? It couldn’t, could it?

  June was standing near the door, letting the others take care of Hagan.

  “Come and talk to him,” she said. “You can see he’s in a bad way. You know him better than anyone.”

  June reddened. She had done her best to hide what happened but she feared Emma had worked it out. She moved towards him, saw that Hagan’s face was distorted with pain and reached out to him.

  “That’s it, take his hand,” Pete said. “It might help.” It was what his missus always did when someone was unwell.

  Hesitatingly, June placed her hand on Hagan’s arm. He gave a sigh and rallied a little.

  “He’s coming round a bit,” Christine said.

  Richard looked at the way June was bent over Hagan and realised that her moodiness had started when she got back from helping Hagan the last time. He thought it was the news that he was infertile that had affected her, but there could there be a different cause.

  June and Hagan. Was it even possible? Hagan had always shied away from close contact with them. It seemed an absurd idea, and yet here she was, holding his hand looking for all the world as if they were a couple. “I can’t watch this,” he said, pushing his way to the door.

  Pete and Christine made an excuse and left too. Emma said, “I’ll have to see to the children.”

  June turned to Gerald. “They hate me, don’t they?”

  Gerald was confused. Maybe Emma could understand what was going on, but he couldn’t. He shook his head.

  “I’ve got to go and
talk to Richard,” she said.

  “What’s going on? Tell me the truth.”

  “I’m pregnant.”

  “No!” His blood ran cold. He had been married for seven years to Samantha, during which time she had not conceived and it had destroyed their relationship.

  “You’re not pleased?”

  “I can’t father a child.”

  She blushed.

  “Who’s the father?” he asked. He was certain he knew, but he wanted to hear her say the words.

  Her voice was a whisper. “Hagan.”

  “Why? If you wanted a child – Gerald said they could cure most problems. Why did you have to do that? I shall never forgive you.”

  She hung her head. “I don’t know. It was madness. I wish I could go back and do things differently.”

  “I will move in to the empty cottage next door,” he said tersely. “If you need me, I will come.”

  As he went out the door, she said, “Please, let me tell the others in my own time.” Richard grunted and left.

  She sat down and thought about what she had done. It was all such a mess. Hagan had been so loving and then, in an instant, he had changed. Was it something to do with the drug? He was not 100% human. The drug could have altered his brain chemistry.

  Gerald appeared at the door and said, “If Hagan is up to it, I want to move him to your cottage. It’s rather cramped and noisy with the children.”

  “Yes, all right. Richard’s ….”

  “Yes, I know, he told me. I don’t know what’s happened but shall I ask Emma to come in? She’s good at sorting things out.”

  “It’s too late for that.”

  “Shall I bring Hagan in here or do you want to be alone?”

  “No, bring him in here,” she said dully. They needed to talk about the future – if that was even possible.

  He stayed in the cottage, drifting in and out of sleep for three days. On the fourth day, he opened his eyes and stared around at the unfamiliar room, wondering where he was. It came to him slowly that he had been on his way to find Workers. Despite his long sleep, he was still tired. He could not face a life without Helkos and his family and yet, he feared that his sins would pollute their pure Superior energy.

  “You’re awake. Do you feel better?”

  June. The cause of his descent into the abyss. “I have failed.”

  “How have you failed?”

  He could not speak of the horrors that filled his mind. “I did not carry out the Leaders’ plan. I was to release two thousand bodies from the vault and ensure that they bred successfully.”

  June remembered Emma telling her how harsh life was when she was brought out of the vault. Two thousand people had been destined to suffer as she had: imprisonment, removal of the babies, perhaps even death. She was glad that the plan had not succeeded.

  “I was to restore the Earth to how it had been before,” Hagan said. Into the silence, dropped the words he feared would break him. “And I was to ensure our DNA survived.”

  “Your people were infertile,” June said. “You can’t blame yourself for that. Anyway, we were close to a solution.”

  “You stopped coming to the laboratory. I could not find the answer by myself.”

  “I had no choice. Don’t you remember what you were like? That time you came to the garden?”

  “That wasn’t me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It was an imposter.”

  “Someone who looked like you?”

  Hagan nodded.

  She wasn’t sure that she believed him, but on the other hand, there had been something about that man who attacked her. A glee, an excitement that she had never known in Hagan.

  “If that’s true, it’s not too late to put things right. You can still carry out the Leaders’ plan. Christine says there is a town nearby that will house at least two thousand people. You’d need to bring them a few at a time and we’d have to increase the farm land, but it could be done. Provided you’ll let them live as we do. I’ll go and get the others – see what they think.”

  Hagan did not want to discuss plans with the Primitives. The decisions were his to make and his alone, but he did not have the energy to stop her.

  At first, they were reluctant to discuss anything with Hagan. “He does what he wants, he doesn’t listen to us,” Emma said, adding, “except when it suits him.”

  June explained that Hagan was ill and pleaded with them to help him. Eventually Gerald said, “All right, but he will have to listen to our point of view. We don’t want to go back to how it was.” The others nodded their heads.

  “We could feed five hundred straight away,” Richard said as they made their way to June’s cottage.

  It was already crowded with seven people they had never seen before. They looked like Primitives, but they knew this was just a disguise.

  “It must be Hagan’s family,” Emma told the others.

  Aurora toddled over to the strangers. Before Emma could stop her, she lifted up her arms.

  “Nice lady.”

  Gerald swooped her up into his arms.

  Helkos froze. In a flash, she understood Hagan’s responsibilities and why, in the end, he could not bear them.

  In order to manipulate these Primitives to ensure that Hagan recovered and the plan was successful, she would have to make the biggest sacrifice of her life. The entire future rested in her hands – the success of the plan, Hagan’s recovery – it all depended on her and her alone.

  She slowly reached out and touched the child’s face, nearly fainting with the horror of it.

  “Lovely child,” she said. She was rewarded by feeling Hagan’s life energy flowing back into him, filling the room. This one act had given the Primitives the integration they wanted.

  Emma burst into tears and Gerald closed his eyes, letting all the tension of the last few weeks flow out of him. Christine clapped delightedly. Only Pete was looking at June and even he could see she was trying not to cry, though he had no idea why.

  Hagan listened carefully, testing the room for any sign of discontent. He had not forgotten the time Zorina had nearly destroyed the Primitives’ minds because she hated them so much, but Helkos was calm and in control of herself, even though touching the child was so horrific.

  “What’s going on here?” Pete asked.

  “I was to ensure the continuation of our culture,” Hagan said.

  “That won’t happen by sitting in your dome and not mixing. We won’t know anything about your culture and your ways. But if you come out and live among us, you can show us.”

  The family shuddered so violently at this, Hagan felt the vibrations pounding through the room. It was ridiculous to think that his family of Superiors would live among these people, nor had the Leaders intended this sort of integration. They had planned to destroy the Primitives once the breeding programme was finished.

  “That is an interesting idea,” he said.

  “Even though your people are infertile, with June’s help, there might well be a way to ensure your DNA lives on,” Gerald said, thinking of the experiments they had already done, but Emma sucked her breath in and gave him a look which told him he had said the wrong thing. He didn’t know why. He was looking back at Hagan when June put her hand involuntarily to her belly. Both Christine and Emma saw the movement and understood what it meant.

  “And the Earth is restored, just look outside,” Gerald said, noticing that the apple and pear trees needed pruning and the weeds were taking over the garden. “Your Leaders believed us to be no better than animals, but they were wrong. They taught you that we were not intelligent because we use words, instead of thoughts. Communication is slower, but if you give us a chance, you will see that we are not so different from you.” He didn’t quite believe that bit, but it sounded good, at least to his ears.

  “What about your sister?” Richard said. “Is she still here?”

  “Don’t be daft,” Emma said. “There never was a sister. I
t was him all the time.”

  “But why would he – “

  Hagan shut his eyes and let his family were absorb their words. They would discuss it later.

  He was relieved when they all went back to their houses.

  He stood up, intending to return to the dome, but June said, “I have to tell you something important. I hope you will be pleased. I am pregnant.”

  “That is good,” Hagan said, wondering why she was telling him.

  “It’s yours. You are the baby’s father.”

  “I? But I am infertile.”

  “When you took the testosterone, you became fertile, at least for a short while.”

  “You have a partner, Richard. The child is his.”

  “No, he can’t father a child. It is yours.”

  Hagan sat down. The room was spinning. Everything he had known, the entire foundation of his existence, was suddenly swept away.

  “I cannot be a father.”

  “Yes you can, I’ll help you, I’ll show you what to do.”

  How could he, a Superior, father a child? It was, and always would be, a symbol of his depravity. Only his family could help him now.

  Helkos, are you there?

  Yes, I am here.

  Did you hear?

  Yes. You need to come back to us. We will help restore your power and control over these creatures.”

  He could not go back, however much they wanted him to. He had transgressed the rules of a Superior, rules the Leaders had laid down many hundreds of years ago and must accept his punishment. He would live on the outside.

  I do not think it will be possible for things to return how they were. I must live here and raise my son.

  After a moment’s thought, Helkos said, It would be strange for you to live among them, but perhaps it is the best way to influence him. One day he will be a leader and continue with the Leaders’ plan.”

  To June, he said, “I wish to ensure that the child develops properly and learns our ways.”

  “You’re not going to take my baby away. He belongs here with me.”

  Hagan remembered that he must do whatever necessary to ensure that the Primitives never knew the real plan. It was part of his punishment. There was only one thing to say.