Madelyn's Mistake

by Ike Hamill

  “Wait!” Brook shouted.

  Caleb froze.

  “Pull the knife out,” she said. “The blade is steel.”

  Realization spread over Caleb’s face. He pulled the knife back at a painfully slow pace. When it was free from the cube of coils, he looked down at the knife in his hand like it was a venomous snake. He puffed out his cheeks as he exhaled. He closed the knife and put it down on the table.

  “Here,” Brook said. Her hand was steady as she handed him a ceramic knife.

  Caleb’s normal swagger was gone. He took the ceramic knife and steadied one hand with the other as he reached back towards the jar.

  “Thank you,” he whispered. “That could have been bad.”

  With the tip of the blade under the lid, he twisted his hand. The glass lid popped off and he jerked his hands back.

  Caleb glanced at Niren, who knew what to do. Niren flipped on the laser so they could see.

  The mysterious substance in the jar—what they called substrate, for lack of a better term—sent a probing tentacle up to explore its new freedom. Amelia’s eyes were wide as she watched. Until Brook tapped her shoulder, she almost forgot that she had a job to do. Amelia turned her attention back to the gauge in front of her. She had to keep the current value within the acceptable tolerance. Because the substrate had an ever-changing resistance, the current through the coils wanted to fluctuate. Amelia had to keep everything in control.

  “That has to be alive,” Niren said.

  Amelia stole a glance at the stuff. It reached up from the confines of the jar, hooked several fingers over the edge, and then sent a phalanx up from the center.

  “Okay,” Caleb said. “It’s close enough. Let’s give it a twist.”

  Niren flipped the switch to activate the spiral field. Inside their cube, the substrate would encounter a vortex of increasing energy. With luck, it would pull the substrate into manageable chunks. Most would have to be dispelled, but one portion would be twisted.

  “Here it goes,” Brook said.

  They could see the vortex in the swirling dust. The energy caught the air and the air caught the dust. Amelia knew how the system worked, but it appeared to be nothing short of magic.

  The stretching tendril of substrate touched the vortex and caught in the current of energy. It tried to recoil back into its jar, away from the tug. It was snared. A few centimeters of the stuff was firmly in the grip of the vortex. Below that, the finger began to stretch and get thinner. The jar actually started to lift from the table. When the tendril snapped, it left behind a piece of itself to whip around in the vortex, stretched into a thin line.

  Caleb’s hand shot into the cube.

  “What are you doing?” Brook yelled.

  He slapped the glass lid back on the jar and jerked his hand back out.

  “Are you crazy?”

  “We didn’t have to lose the rest of the sample,” Caleb said. He grabbed his right wrist with his left and looked down. Horror began to dawn on his face.

  # # # # #

  “Oh, no,” Caleb whispered.

  “Stop it,” Brook said. “Stop the experiment.”

  “We have a loop,” Niren said an instant later.

  “No!” Caleb said. “What’s done is done. Don’t stop unless there’s danger of a breach.”

  Brook ran from the room.

  Amelia stayed focused on her levels—she didn’t have any choice.

  Niren didn’t hit the override. She hated to admit it, but Amelia thought she detected a tiny smile at the corner of Niren’s mouth.

  Caleb was breathing hard and staring at his hand. Somehow, he managed to not scream. Amelia couldn’t look at his hand. It appeared like the flesh was melting away from his bones.

  Brook ran back in and slapped a wrap on Caleb’s hand.

  That’s when he screamed.

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” Brook said. “I know it hurts, but it has to.”

  “It’s coalescing,” Niren said.

  Brook forgot about Caleb and his hand. Amelia could barely keep her eyes on the current level. Her eyes kept darting up to the swirl of silver light. Even Caleb seemed to forget his agony for a second.

  Amelia flinched at the sound of the first click.

  It was one of them. It was in the room with them.

  “It’s a Hunter,” Niren said.

  They heard the second click. Amelia struggled to breathe. It took all of her control to stay there. Her legs wanted to run from the sound.

  “I can’t believe it,” Caleb whispered.

  The thing clicked again.

  Brook covered her mouth. “What have we done?” she asked. Her voice was muffled by her own hand.

  “I never thought it would work,” Caleb said.

  “What do we do with it?” Niren asked. All eyes turned to him. “You’ve summoned this thing. Now what?”

  Caleb looked down at his own hand. The wrap had already dispensed its alterations. He peeled up the corner. The flesh was bright pink underneath. Caleb sucked in a sharp breath as the air hit his new skin.

  “We have to stabilize everything,” Caleb said. “Start working on that circuit so Amelia doesn’t have to ride those levels. We want to keep this thing around for as long as possible so we can learn from it.”

  “If we take away the containment coils…” Brook started.

  “It will disperse,” Amelia said. “Don’t fool yourself. This thing can’t survive without those coils.”

  It clicked again.

  Amelia imagined what would happen if the thing could survive. It would kill them all while it summoned more Hunters to join itself. The whole settlement might go before they dispersed the threat.

  “Are you certain about that?” Niren asked.

  “Ninety percent,” Caleb said.

  “We should have done this in the safe harbor,” Amelia said.

  “It might not have worked there,” Brook said. “But we could definitely move it there now.”

  “Remember,” Caleb said, “no matter what, we can’t let anyone else know about this. If this knowledge spreads, they’ll gain power from it.”

  Caleb moved forward and his face danced in the silver light of the substrate. He held his withered hand to his chest and stared at their creation. He looked crazy in that light.

  Chapter 14

  {Revelation}

  JACOB AND HARPER STARED at the doll as they considered what it had just said.

  A smile broke across Harper’s face. “Someone’s playing a joke on us. They programmed this doll to scare the next person to wake it up. I know who did it, too. Have you met Patton? He has a little brother who loves to take things apart and make them do crazy things.”

  Jacob wanted to believe Harper. It would be so much easier. But there was something in Malty’s voice that he found undeniable.

  “What do you mean, Malty?” Jacob asked.

  The doll’s eyes looked down at her own feet.

  “I used to have a best friend named Mildred. That was heaven. We went everywhere together,” Malty said.

  When she smiled, the rubber skin of her cheek cracked. Jacob caught a glimpse of the machinery in there.

  “Millie and Malty, together forever,” the doll said. “Her parents took her with them, and she brought me. She was already starting to get a lot bigger than me, but she still had a long way to go. But once her parents chose the cull, she wasn’t going to have anyone to look after her, so she had to choose it too.”

  Malty’s eyes looked sad again.

  “They didn’t let kids choose, did they?” Harper asked.

  “They had to,” Jacob said. “If they excluded parents and children, they wouldn’t have made the numbers.”

  Malty turned to Harper. “Millie chose her parents over me. We could have stayed together. I’m little, but I would have watched out for her. She didn’t believe me because I look so small.”

  “No,” Harper said. “I don’t believe it.”

  “I ca
n show you,” Malty said. “Give me a screen and I’ll show you.”

  Harper and Jacob looked at each other.

  “She has to be making it up,” Harper said. “It’s another joke.”

  “Let’s plug her in and find out.”

  # # # # #

  It took time for them to both agree that it was safe. Harper and Jacob disconnected the capabilities of the screen so that it was just a display. There was nothing that Malty could do with it aside from show them images from her past.

  As Malty replayed the memory, the world streamed by in a blur of colors.

  She was looking through the window of a moving vehicle. It was clear when Malty’s point of view swung around and she looked at Mildred. The doll hadn’t represented the situation very clearly. Mildred looked like a teenager or even a young adult.

  Malty looked down and they saw that Mildred was squeezing Malty’s hand. The young woman leaned in to whisper to her doll.

  “You can go home when this is done. I’ll ask them to put you on a transport. You know where the key is.”

  Malty’s eyes swung towards the front seat when the older woman spoke. “Millie, don’t say things like that, it’s cruel.”

  “Let her say it,” the man in front said. “Who cares?”

  “Malty has feelings,” the woman said.

  “Of course she does,” Millie said. Malty turned back to her and the young woman smiled. “She can live at the house. Who’s going to bother her?”

  “You don’t know what’s in store for that building,” Millie’s mother said.

  “Why don’t we disconnect her? She can join us,” Millie’s father said.

  “It’s her choice!” Millie said. Her face instantly melted to desperate sadness. “Don’t you dare tell her that she has to be disconnected. She gets to choose.”

  “Honey,” the father started. His voice was much softer than before. “Honey, she belongs with you. You guys have always been inseparable.”

  Millie ignored her father. Malty looked down at their linked hands as Millie squeezed again. “What do you want to do, Malty? If you could choose, what would you want?”

  The view of the screen shifted. It swung from Millie’s sad eyes to the back of the heads of the parents, and then to the world streaming by the vehicle at full speed. When the view swung back around to Millie, a tear had spilled down one of her cheeks.

  “I want that first spring again, when you showed me the yard and we rolled in the grass,” Malty said.

  “No, Malty. That’s in the past. You can’t go back to the past,” Millie said.

  “Yes,” Malty said. They heard her voice quietly repeating the word while the family in the video began to argue. Jacob turned away from the screen. It was difficult to watch. The family was in turmoil and seemed to be operating on pure momentum.

  “I hope your sister is happy,” Millie’s mother said.

  “She will be here by the end of the month,” Millie’s father said. “There’s no reason to blame her.”

  “Why shouldn’t we blame her? Her son is supposed to be more valuable than we are? How can she live with herself?”

  After the vehicle was parked, the parents got out in mid-argument. Millie turned to Malty.

  “You run home, Malty. You know the codes and you know where the key is. Run home and don’t answer if anyone knocks.”

  “You come too,” Malty said. “We’ll go together. I can take care of you.”

  “No,” Millie said. Malty looked down as Millie squeezed her hand again. “I belong with them.”

  “We belong together,” Malty said.

  “Goodbye,” Millie said. “Stay here until we’re inside. Then run home.”

  Millie slipped out of the car without another word. Malty watched through the window as her family walked in to the hospice. A minute later, an attendant came out of the same door, twirling something around his finger. He pressed the object and the car chirped in response. The man ran his finger down the side of the car before he got in.

  Jacob and Harper only saw a portion of the man as Malty slumped down in her seat.

  The man didn’t seem to notice Malty at first. The car moved and Malty stayed quiet. It wasn’t until the man started to get out that he locked eyes with the screen.

  “Hey, look at you,” he said. “I thought they recalled all of you.”

  Malty’s point of view shrunk even more.

  The man reached over the seat.

  “Come here. Let me see you.”

  The scene on the display shifted as Malty reached for her door and opened it. She slipped through the gap and ran.

  Jacob and Harper watched for a while as Malty navigated. She ran without tiring—her confident stride was guided perfectly.

  “So they just killed themselves?” Harper asked.

  The video on the display faded out.

  “They wouldn’t do that. There was nothing wrong with them.”

  “That’s what people did, Harp. The cull was voluntary,” Jacob said.

  “Children?”

  “What else were they going to do?”

  “When we were kids, nobody had to tell us to try to stay alive. Survival instinct is innate.”

  “They didn’t have any other option. They didn’t have enough money.”

  “Ridiculous,” Harper said. “It doesn’t cost anything to go live off the land. I would just go find a patch of woods and hunt for my dinner.”

  “I don’t think you’re understanding how many people there were on the planet,” Jacob said. “My dad said that you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing thousands of people. Millie’s family had a vehicle of their own. You know how well off they must have been to have an apartment and a vehicle? And even they couldn’t afford to continue,” Jacob said.

  Harper shook her head. “I don’t get it.” She turned back to the little doll. “So that was your hell? When Millie left you, you were in hell?”

  Malty shook her little doll head. “No. That was all outside. Hell is inside.”

  Harper looked to Jacob. He shrugged.

  “So you ran home and spent all those years alone?” Harper asked Malty.

  “Mostly,” the doll said. “People came to take things. I hid. And then I stayed still for a long time and found out I couldn’t move anymore. I listened and watched the shadows and thought about myself. When they finally came, I thought my eyes and ears were finally broken too.”

  “Elijah and Madelyn?” Harper asked.

  Malty looked at her and then shook her head.

  “No. The men with the bright thing.”

  # # # # #

  “Wait, can you back it up?” Jacob asked.

  They had watched the video of the men twice. It was like a puzzle. They only passed in front of Malty for a second, did their work, and then passed by again on their way out. All the other clues on the replay were sounds and shadows.

  “Right there,” Jacob said.

  Malty froze the display. The men passed right by Malty’s static eyes. Only their knees to their shoulders appeared. They were carrying a thing that looked like a giant black insect. In the heart of the device, Jacob saw a very unusual glow.

  “I think maybe her eyes were malfunctioning,” Jacob said. “I mean, what is that? It can’t be natural.”

  “Can you move this forward super slow, Malty?” Harper asked.

  The doll looked to her and then back at the screen. The video progressed at a snail’s pace. The arms and legs of the men moved glacially, but the images in the strange glow flicked by like their own little video within a video. In the silver glow, Jacob saw cities and animals. He saw space travel and childbirth. Captured within the phantom glow of the insect device, he saw a window into all of history.

  “It’s like a pile of visual memories,” Harper said.

  “Yes!” Jacob said. “Malty, what is that in the center of the display.”

  “That’s the bright thing. It’s what I saw.”

  Jacob shook his
head.

  “Impossible,” Harper said. “That glow is throwing off light, but it’s pretty dark in that room. How come there are no shadows from it?”

  “Great question,” Jacob said. “Malty?”

  The doll didn’t answer.

  When the men were about to pass out of the frame, Malty backed up the video. She had figured out which part of the playback was interesting to Jacob and Harper. They didn’t have to ask for her to replay it.

  “Malty, do you know what that device is?”

  Malty didn’t offer an answer.

  “I wonder if we could search for it on the ether. We would have to grab a section of this video and then cross reference the geometry,” Harper said.

  Jacob shook his head. “Don’t bother. That thing is custom, I would guarantee it. We should focus on who they are, or what they were doing with it.”

  “Wait!” Harper said. “Malty, what frequencies of light do your eyes pick up?”

  Malty looked at her with an innocent expression. She didn’t seem to understand the nature of the question.

  “Can you show us this same video but only the way we would see it? Do you know about the visible spectrum, Malty?” Harper asked.

  Jacob’s eyebrows went up.

  Malty didn’t answer. For a second, Jacob figured that the request had fallen on uncomprehending ears. Then the display shifted. The room they saw became much darker. The shapes that passed by were just shadows. The device had no strange glow in the center.

  “You’re right though, why were there no shadows?” Jacob asked. “If she could record the glow, then why couldn’t she record the shadows it threw off?”

  After the dark shapes began to move off the display again, Malty rolled back the video.

  “Turn it back on, please,” Harper said. “Show us everything you saw and keep going.”

  The weird glow was back. After the men moved the device out of view, Jacob heard the sounds of them setting it down, and then the sound of tools. He heard what sounded like an impact drill and clicking dials. He heard switches flipped and the light hum of some device being turned on.