‘Stay still,’ she said, and in one quick movement snapped them on. Once I was secure she shoved me toward the commander. With my arms behind me I lost my balance, pitching forward onto the ground. When I recovered the commander was staring at me.
‘So,’ she said, ‘perhaps you can tell us who you are and what the hell you’re doing here.’
I looked around. Behind their masks their faces were unreadable, blank and threatening, and I was acutely aware of the weapons in the hands of the two who had captured me.
‘It’s a long story,’ I said.
The female soldier stepped closer. The commander stopped her with a quick glance.
‘You’re going to have to do better than that.’
Deciding there was no point lying, I looked at her and said, ‘I crossed the Wall a couple of weeks ago with my sister.’
There was a brief hesitation. ‘And where is your sister now?’
I swallowed, biting back tears. ‘I don’t know.’
‘Why did you cross the Wall?’
‘She was Changing . . .’ I began.
Behind the commander the small woman made a noise of disgust. I looked at her. ‘What?’
‘And you thought you’d save her?’
I stared back, unwilling to give her the satisfaction of a response.
Eventually the commander interjected. ‘Is that right?’
‘I suppose.’
The small woman shook her head and snorted. The commander hesitated as if waiting for her companion to recover her composure.
‘And where are you heading now?’
‘Back,’ I said in a flat voice.
‘Back where it’s safe, you mean?’ the small woman sneered. This time the commander glared at her but the woman either didn’t notice or chose to ignore her.
‘Why didn’t you go straight back?’ the commander asked.
‘What do you mean?’
‘You said you’ve been here for a fortnight.’
I hesitated. ‘After I lost my sister I didn’t know what to do.’ Another look passed between the commander and the woman beside me.
‘Scan her,’ she said.
The smaller woman unclipped a handheld scanner from her belt and stepped forward. I began to protest but she already had it against me and was running it up and down my body. I fought to remain calm, reminding myself what my father had said about the scanners only working once metamorphosis had begun.
Finally the woman lowered the scanner and clipped it back on her belt. ‘She’s clean.’
‘You’re lucky,’ the commander said.
‘What do you mean?’
‘To have spent more than a week here without quarantine gear and not get infected.’ Behind the mask her eyes were bruised with exhaustion.
‘I suppose,’ I said carefully.
The commander didn’t speak for a few seconds. Finally she seemed to reach a decision.
‘Give her a mask,’ she said. ‘Then let’s get moving. We haven’t much time.’
Behind her the small woman started, surprised. ‘You’re not suggesting we take her with us?’
The commander looked around. ‘Yes, Dr Truong, that’s precisely what I’m suggesting.’
‘But she’ll slow us down.’
‘Perhaps. But we can’t leave her here.’
‘Of course we can. You know as well as I do what the punishment is for unauthorised entry to the Zone.’
In the aftermath of Truong’s words everything went still. When the commander finally spoke, it was difficult to miss the chilling precision of her words.
‘Are you seriously suggesting we summarily execute a teenage girl, Dr Truong?’
There was a long silence. Neither Truong nor the commander moved. Then Truong shook her head.
‘Bring her then. But she’d better not slow us down.’
As the commander turned away, the scout gestured to the tallest of the men. He unclipped his pack and withdrew a mask like the ones the squad were wearing.
‘Here,’ he said, stepping in toward me so he could slip it over my head. He was so tall my eyes were level with his collarbone, but despite his size there was a gentleness in the way he held himself that seemed out of place here. I looked up, but I could only see his eyes behind the mask.
‘Whose is it?’ I asked.
‘It’s a spare,’ he said, clipping it behind my head.
The mask was heavy and hot and the air that came noisily through the filter smelled of rubber and old plastic, but I didn’t have much time to adjust to it because as soon as it was on, the woman who had searched me shoved me forward.
‘Move,’ she said.
We set off in a loose group, the burly scout out front and the commander and Truong behind him, while the tall one and I followed and the woman who had searched me took the rear. They moved steadily but cautiously, watching the vegetation around themselves carefully, as if they were expecting an attack.
There was no longer any question in my mind they were soldiers: although they had masks and scanners, they were dressed in military fatigues and had what looked like military equipment. As we walked I occasionally caught a glimpse of the next stand of giants ahead of us. After an hour or so I let myself draw level with the tall one and asked him if that was where we were headed.
‘I can’t tell you that.’
‘Can you tell me what you’re here for?’
He hesitated. ‘Threat assessment.’
‘What kind of threat?’
‘I can’t tell you that either.’
Although he tried to sound certain, I could hear how uncomfortable he was treating me like this, so instead of pressing him further I tried introducing myself.
‘I’m Callie,’ I said. ‘What’s your name?’
He glanced toward the commander. ‘Ben,’ he said, not looking at me.
There was an awkwardness to him, perhaps because of his height, and he seemed young, perhaps not a lot older than I was.
‘And the others?’
He hesitated. ‘That’s Mahid up ahead on point and Mandel behind us. And you’ve met the commander and Truong.’
‘And you’re Army?’
‘Technically speaking we’re part of the Science Corps, but yes.’
‘So this is a scientific mission of some sort?’
He began to answer but Mandel interrupted. ‘Keep it quiet, Miller.’
Ben glanced back, lifting a hand to show he’d understood. Mandel stared at him for a moment and then went back to scanning the forest.
Eventually we came to a halt in a small clearing by a creek. Even beneath the canopies of the trees it was brutally hot, the air thick and heavy with humidity. Mandel ordered me to sit down beside a tree, and for one horrible moment I thought she was going to tie me up, but once I was seated she turned away and slumped down in the shade of the next tree. Ben approached with a bottle in his hand and kneeled beside me.
‘Here,’ he said, opening the bottle and pulling my mask down so I could drink. I gulped the water down in greedy sips. When the bottle was empty, Ben replaced my mask and, opening a bottle for himself, loosened his mask and took a sip.
‘Aren’t you afraid of getting infected?’ I asked.
Ben finished drinking. ‘Of course. But we can’t eat or drink through the masks.’
With his mask off I could see he was about twenty, with a long face with prominent bones and sandy hair. ‘Have you been into the Zone before?’ I asked.
He looked uncomfortable. ‘Twice.’
‘Without getting infected?’
‘I’ve been lucky.’
‘But others haven’t?’
He looked away. ‘No.’
‘You said you’re with the Science Corps. Does that mean you’re a scientist?’
> From the other side of the clearing Truong tilted her head in my direction. ‘You ask a lot of questions for somebody who hasn’t explained what she’s doing here,’ she snapped.
I fell silent. For a few minutes I sat, aware of Truong watching me. Finally she picked up her screen. Careful to keep my voice low I turned back to Ben. ‘What will you do with me when we get back?’
He shrugged. ‘You’ll probably be handed over to Quarantine.’
I must have looked stricken, because his expression grew harder.
‘You must have known what you were doing, what it would mean if you were caught.’
I wanted to protest, to tell him he didn’t understand, but before I could the commander stood up.
‘Let’s get going,’ she said.
It was another hour and a half before we reached the next stand of giant trees, and the heat was almost unbearable as we stepped out of the forest to find them rearing up above us. Struck all over again by the sheer scale of them, I came to a halt, staring up, but Mandel shoved me in the back and told me to keep moving.
With Mandel behind me I followed the remaining four around the base of the trees and into a small clearing on their eastern side. At a signal from the commander we came to a halt and spread out.
‘What’s going on?’ I asked Ben.
‘We’re making camp,’ he said.
‘And after that?’
He shrugged. ‘We have work to do.’
10
Slumped in the shade of one of the glowtrees, I watched Mahid and Mandel set up a perimeter while Ben and Truong moved into the shadow of the giants, taking readings and gathering samples. As they worked I marvelled at their physical toughness: I was shattered by the day’s exertions and the heat, yet none of them seemed inclined to even slow down, despite the fact they were wearing full uniform and carrying packs.
After an hour or so Ben and Truong returned, laden with samples. After they had packed them away, they joined Mahid and Mandel in setting up camp. With whatever it was they had come to do finished, the five of them seemed to relax a bit, talking good-humouredly among themselves as they laid out their packs. Although the commander mostly stayed aloof, it was clear she tolerated and even liked their easy humour, Mahid and Mandel’s boasting and ragging jokes, most of which seemed to be directed at Ben, who endured it all with sheepish good humour, as if he believed this treatment was the price of being admitted to the group. Only Truong refused to participate, sitting to one side ignoring the rest of them as she worked on her screen.
Just before dusk Ben sat down not far from me and clipped on a set of goggles. Once they were engaged he raised one of his arms and, closing his hand, drew it back toward himself. Realising he must be using some kind of telepresence, I followed the motion of his hands. After a while he noticed my observation and flicked a quick glance in my direction, his eyes obscured by the goggles.
‘Drone?’ I asked as he looked away again, and he nodded carefully, his eyes still in front of him, focused on whatever was in front of the drone.
‘We use it for long-range scouting. So we can avoid areas of heavy infestation.’
‘Is that what you’re doing now?’
He shook his head. ‘I’m getting some close-ups of the buds.’
I gazed up at the canopy far overhead. Suddenly something occurred to me.
‘Is that how you found me?’
He looked uneasy, as if I had stumbled on some kind of state secret. ‘It is.’
‘How long did you know I was following you?’
‘I first spotted you near the other stand.’
I could hear he was pleased by this, proud almost. In somebody else it might have been grating, but somehow his awkwardness just made it funny.
‘You must think I’m pretty stupid.’
He looked away, clearly uncomfortable. ‘No. Not at all,’ he said, returning his attention to the display in his goggles. I grinned, amused to have rattled him so easily.
For a few minutes more he steered the drone somewhere overhead. Above us the glowtrees were beginning to flicker into life, their cool glow permeating the space around us. On the other side of the clearing Mahid was sitting on a rock, looking out through the trees; just behind him Mandel was leaning against the trunk of an unusually large glowtree, checking her gun; opposite Mandel the commander was absorbed in her screen, Truong beside her, staring out into the forest.
I regarded Truong carefully. I’d met people who hated the Change before – indeed it was difficult to imagine who wouldn’t, after what it had done to us and our world – but the sort of vicious anger that seemed to have deformed Truong always made me uneasy. With a flicker of nausea I remembered Travis and the others, the idea of them like a stain inside me. Closing my eyes, I tried to shut them out.
Ben interrupted my thoughts by unclipping his goggles and decoupling the telepresence rig. On the other side of the clearing the commander paused, and with a glance at me nodded to him in a way that suggested some previous agreement between the two. Ben set the rig aside and took a ration pack out of his bag and unclipped the knife at his belt. Motioning to me to turn around, he sliced through the wrist cuffs and released my hands. I gasped softly and rubbed my aching wrists.
‘Thank you,’ I said.
Ben nodded a little uncomfortably and handed me the ration pack.
‘Thank the commander,’ he said, although something in the way he said it told me he was happy to see me free.
I didn’t answer, just tore the pack open. It was some kind of ration bar. I took a bite, chewing it as fast as I could, barely noticing the sweet, slightly nutty taste of it.
‘What were you eating before we found you?’ he asked, but before I could reply Truong’s voice broke in.
‘Yes, Callie. What were you eating before we found you?’
I swallowed another mouthful. ‘Stuff I found. Things in tins mostly.’
Truong shook her head and looked away.
‘What now?’ I asked Ben.
‘We sleep.’
‘And then?’
‘We head back.’
‘To the Wall?’
He nodded.
‘These trees,’ I said. ‘What are they?’
He looked uncomfortable. ‘We’re not sure.’
‘You’re not sure or you don’t want to say?’
‘You have to understand, we’re all frightened.’
‘Of what?’
He tapped one of his fingers on the ground. ‘Of what they mean. Nobody’s seen anything like it before.’
‘Like what?’
He shook his head. ‘I can’t tell you.’
‘How do you know I don’t know something that could help?’
‘How do we know you’re not one of them?’ asked Truong.
I turned, unaware she was still listening. ‘You saw the readings. I’m not infected.’
Truong didn’t answer, just stared at me.
‘Callie’s right,’ Ben interjected. ‘How do we know she hasn’t seen something that might help?’
‘That’s not the point,’ Truong said.
‘Then what is?’
‘The mission.’
‘But we’ve already compromised that by bringing her along,’ said Ben. ‘Haven’t we, Commander?’
The commander didn’t reply.
‘It might be classified but what would it change if she knew?’ Ben persisted. ‘We’re all going to the same place.’
‘Shut up, Miller,’ said Mandel.
Mahid laughed.
‘Ben’s right,’ I said. ‘I don’t care what your mission is, but if you keep me prisoner I’m going to see it, whatever happens.’
‘There’s a solution to that,’ Mandel said, provoking another guffaw from Mahid. I ignored them.
‘Comman
der?’ I asked.
The commander put down her ration pack. ‘You’re right. You’re going to see it anyway. And I’m not comfortable endangering your life without doing you the courtesy of explaining what’s going on.’
‘Commander,’ said Truong, her voice sharp.
The commander glanced at her, then back to me. ‘Dr Truong is worried that if you become infected and begin to Change our mission might be compromised.’
‘Wouldn’t the same be true of all of you?’ I asked.
‘We have orders to terminate any member of the team who becomes infected,’ said Ben. ‘That eliminates any chance of the Changed acquiring information about operations.’
In the silence that followed nobody moved. Finally the commander nodded. ‘When the Change arrived we all assumed it was mindless, an infection of some sort. As time went on it became clear it wasn’t that simple: it’s been obvious for a while that the people who are absorbed into it become connected in some way, that there is a kind of group consciousness. But we’d always assumed that this intelligence was rudimentary, little more than a survival mechanism.’
‘But?’ I asked.
The commander glanced around the group. ‘In the past few months we’ve had reports of . . . changes in the behaviour of the Change. At first they were the sort of thing we could easily have missed: greater concentrations of the Changed near the Wall, more outbreaks in the Transitional. But a few months ago one of our drones noticed that in the Zones there seemed to be new structures forming.’
‘The trees.’
The commander looked at Truong.
‘That’s right,’ Truong said. ‘At first we didn’t understand what they were for, but then the buds began to form.’
‘What’s in them?’ I asked.
‘We think they’re seed pods,’ Ben said.
‘Containing what? Spores?’
Ben nodded. ‘Our guess is the Change is preparing for a mass release.’
‘And that’s why you’re here? To study the buds?’
‘That’s right,’ said Ben. I could see he was holding something back.
‘But?’
Nobody spoke for a few seconds. I saw Ben and the commander exchange a glance.
The Buried Ark Page 6