by Amy Lilwall
‘Get out of there,’ he barked.
Drew gasped. A row of Isabels turned towards him as the light filled their tanks. His eyes wandered up to another row, and another row above. Then to the opposite end of the room where more little Isabels stood naked, their faces pressed against their glass doors, their stares reflecting the daylight-bulb rather than the sparks that flickered in the real Isabel’s eyes.
Drew looked at Mark Hector, hand still over his mouth and eyes wide open. He shook his head. ‘Why?’
‘Ha!’ wheezed the doctor. Of all the questions… ‘Apart from anything else, why take such an enormous risk? This will ruin you.’
The doctor’s eyes snapped back onto Drew’s, each wrinkle in his head uncreasing as if every drop of water in every cell was freezing and expanding his skin. No. There he was thoroughly mistaken… There was no way that he’d invested all of this effort, brainwashed his whole team, worked all of these years, risked his whole career, to have some little gay shit tell him, with such conviction, that this would ruin him. ‘It will not,’ replied Dr Hector, tapping his walking stick as he said ‘not’. ‘This has completed me.’
Drew baulked. The man was mad.
‘If anything happens to me, you certainly won’t get out of this unscathed.’ The sides of Hector’s mouth frothed with each sibilant.
‘This has nothing to do with me.’
‘I did you a huge favour, Drew Mahlik, and you know it. You are at the root of all this.’ He splayed his stick over forty-five degrees, indicating the rickety beings for which Drew was responsible.
‘You cannot compare that with… with cloning! You’re in breach of, well, everything! Look at them.’ Drew gestured around him. ‘Is this how they’re destined to live from now on? Not that they’ll live for very long… What on Earth are you going to do with them?’
‘They are prototypes of the race that will save humanity.’
‘This is inhumane…’
‘Like keeping Isabel prisoner, you mean? That poor girl has nothing but a couple of gays and a dead dog—’
‘Where is she?’ shouted Drew. ‘Where is she? Have you hidden her in one of these cages?’
‘No!’
‘Where is she, then?’ Drew leapt from cage to cage. ‘Isabel? Isabel?’ The dozy eyes glazed back at him.
Dr Hector sighed. ‘Drew?’
Drew crouched down to scan the cages at ground level. ‘Drew?’
‘—.’
‘Drew, this is important; when was the last time you saw her?’
Drew looked up, balanced on the balls of his feet, his eyes searching for the memory; when had he last seen her? ‘Don’t pretend to be all concerned about her… I can tell you right now, she’ll never work with you again.’
Oh, he’d got well ahead of himself, thought Dr Hector; wasn’t he clever? He furrowed his head and held up a palm. ‘Drew, she’s not here. She left about an hour ago; your Watty came to pick her up.’
‘—.’
‘I know you think I’m a big meanie, but I’m very fond of Isabel.’
‘—.’
‘Why don’t you go home? She’s bound to come back at some point.’
‘She really isn’t here, is she?’ Drew replied, reaching into his inside pocket. ‘Six missed calls,’ he announced as the phone started to flash.
‘That’s what I’ve been trying to tell—’ Drew held his hand up and Dr Hector held his tongue between his teeth.
‘Hello? Watty?’
‘Are you at the lab?’
‘Uh huh. I don’t think she’s here.’
‘She’s not! She waited for me to leave then got Reg to take her home.’
Drew’s eyebrows jumped up. ‘She what?’
‘Yep. Little madam.’ Then: ‘Are you okay?’
‘I can’t believe it.’
‘I’m parked outside if you want to come down.’
‘Watty, I’ve seen them…’ Drew glanced over his shoulder towards ‘them’, before dodging past Mark Hector and swishing out of the room.
* * *
‘Ready?’ Moira pulled Susan under the sensor just in front of the doors and waited while it scanned her own head. A small hatch opened in front of them with a black box inside. Moira held her thumb over it. The doors swished open and Susan felt herself being shoved through them before they swished shut again, locking her in with white noise. Susan held her breath and looked around her. But nothing happened. She watched through the doors as Emma held her chip up to the sensor, hoping that she wouldn’t have to go down alone, or worse. If Emma set off an alarm, she’d be trapped in there. Camera flashes blinked in the distance as the LOG collected evidence that they had gone inside. In case they didn’t come out again… Moira’s words swirled in Susan’s head.
The doors swished and Emma came in.
‘Oh, I’m so relieved,’ whispered Susan.
‘I think it’s recognized me as ex-personnel.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘I don’t know, but it was written in scary red letters.’
‘Maybe it was just in case you didn’t know.’
‘That must’ve been it.’
They glanced back at Moira as she jogged back to the gates and on to her new life.
They crossed the reception area to the lift, each holding her glowing green wrist outwards.
‘Do you think there are lasers here?’ Susan asked as the lift doors shut behind them.
‘Lasers?’ Emma laughed. ‘What, like in those old films made about a hundred years ago? No… They have a technology called “Ripple” but as we’ve been bleeped in we shouldn’t set that off.’
‘We have to be quick, though, right?’
‘Yep.’
‘Oh.’ Susan started as a high-pitched ringing vibrated the air around her ears. ‘Is that your phone?’ But rather than the interchanging bursts and silences of a phone cry, the ringing continued as one long scream.
‘Shit.’ Emma’s eyes darted over the ceiling of the lift. ‘We’ve been detected.’
‘Ripple?’
‘No, as ex-personnel. I guess the system allows a little time for an override before…’
Susan stuck her fingers over her ears – the alarm was really quite shrill. ‘We can’t go back now.’
Emma shook her head. ‘Someone will be on the premises in about ten minutes.’
‘That’s not enough time.’
The doors opened at the first corridor. Susan looked at Emma.
‘This one’s usually empty.’ She gritted her teeth while the doors shut again. ‘It used to be the room they used for inspections. They’d reprogram the lift so it would only go down one floor and then the inspectors would never have to know about the floors below.’
The lift hummed down towards the next floor. The alarm tapered out.
‘Okay. This is us. I think we should just grab Jinx and head down to minus three. The last floor.’
Susan looked at Emma. ‘Only Jinx?’
‘Yeah. She’s the one who can talk.’
‘What about the others?’
‘We can’t take them all.’
‘Maybe two or three?’
Emma thought for a second. ‘Fuck it. We’ll grab as many as we can.’
‘Yes!’ Susan stiffened as she considered the opening doors, then covered her mouth. Five cages stacked one on top of the other appeared in front of her. The occupants sat rocking or twitching. One knocked at his glass door with his forehead. ‘Oh my gosh,’ she said. ‘What’s wrong with them?’
‘We have to hurry.’ Emma strode past Susan and into the corridor. ‘Shit,’ she said as she about-turned and got back into the lift.
‘What’s wrong?’ asked Susan, still walking into the corridor. Emma grabbed her hand and pulled her back. A tall being clunked stiffly into her peripheral vision. ‘Fuck!’ she said, jumping back into the lift.
‘Susaaan!’ screamed a little voice as the doors were closing.
Susan jerked
her head back towards the doors. ‘Did you hear that?’
‘It must have been Jinx,’ Emma breathed, her eyes wide open.
‘I can’t believe it, that was my Jinx,’ said Susan, still facing the direction of the voice.
‘They must’ve picked her up on the voice recorder and so one of them came down to check it out.’ She looked at Susan. ‘They get quite confused about things like that. That one probably would have stayed there until someone came to deal with it in the morning, you know, guarding her… Even though she’s obviously not going anywhere.’
‘Would have?’
‘They’ll be after us now.’
‘Oh.’ Susan thought for a moment. ‘But they can’t get at us without the lift?’
Emma shook her head.
‘We’ll just have to jam the lift at the bottom floor.’
‘You’re right. Let’s do it.’ Then: ‘Do you know how to jam a lift?’
Susan stared at Emma, her thighs shaking against each other and her breath scratching at her throat. Coloured blobs kept floating past her eyes. Oh God; keep up, heart… If her legs started to get wobbly, and her hearing started to dim, she’d faint right there, and probably wet herself. She slouched back against the lift wall and repeated the question: did she know how to jam a lift? The whole thing seemed so ridiculous that her mouth wouldn’t stay in a serious shape any more; she laughed so suddenly that a drop of spit flew out of her mouth, her legs bending underneath her, her whole abdomen heavy with laughter. And Emma was doing the same thing. Holding her stomach and bending forward until she was crouched on the ground.
They laughed until there was nothing left to do except try to breathe while scanning the other’s bluey-white face. Susan put a hand to her cheek, wondering if she looked as pale as Emma. ‘Why does the lift take so long between floors?’ she finally asked.
‘Because where we’re going is very deep underground. Listen: we can’t hear the alarm at all now.’
Susan inhaled slowly as she scanned the air for soundwaves. ‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘But why so deep?’
‘This is where the littlers go to retire.’
‘The retirement centre? That’s here?’
‘Yup.’
The lift stopped and the doors started to open. Susan got to her feet and stepped out into a dimly lit corridor with white walls and dark green lino. Several aisles led off from it; her eye was drawn to one of the cages that stood just inside the next aisle along. A face looked at her through the bars, ligaments spaghetti-ing through its thin skin from its ear and across its neck. There was no cheek to cover its teeth, and drool flowed out over its exposed gums, down its chin and towards its shoulder. Its left eye, which was completely exposed, had dried up and crusted over, and instead of hair, its head was covered with tufts of fluff that sprouted out of shiny pink skin like feathers on a baby bird.
In the cage below, a little being pushed half of itself up. Its body was enormous on one side, too big to extend upright in the cage; the other side was the size of Jinx. Or Bonbon. It was this side that walked towards her as the other half dragged itself along to follow. Half of the head lolled on its shoulder, unable to perch upright inside the low-ceilinged cage; one eye struggled to blink as the weight of the larger half pulled back its eyelid. It looked at her, licking its teeth, its one big foot so swollen from lack of movement that some of the skin had cracked and was weeping clear liquid. ‘Hello, fella,’ she smiled, tapping on the wall. ‘You poor thing.’
The lift beeped in the corridor behind them. Susan ran to stop it from going back up. Emma was already there.
‘Someone’s called it back up,’ said Emma, hovering between the lift doors.
Susan looked back at the cage with the half-and-half littler inside. ‘I have an idea.’
Five minutes later, she’d grunted and roared and rattled the door off its hinges. The littler inhabitant poked the large half of his face out, pouted his lips and started to whoop.
Susan jumped then turned in a circle as a few more littlers joined in. She stuck her fingers in her ears and grinned at Emma who stood watching from between the lift doors, her hands pressed against each one to stop them from closing.
‘Oops, sorry,’ she called, jogging back over to the lift. ‘We’ll need a couple more,’ she said. ‘To keep the lift well open.’
‘Right,’ said Emma. ‘One thing we don’t lack is cage doors.’
Susan turned back to fetch another. The half-and-half thing had shuffled out of its cage. She crouched down in front of it, telling herself that it was human; and it certainly wasn’t an ‘it’, he was a he. ‘My name is Susan,’ she said. ‘Nice to meet you.’ She held her hand out. He tried to pick up his big arm but it was too heavy, so he gave her his little hand and laughed as she shook it.
‘He just laughed at me!’ Susan called back to Emma.
‘Most of them are unsuppressed down here. There’s no need for it. Their brains are probably dead, anyway.’
Susan looked at the walls of cages that made corridors so long that the ends tapered into darkness. ‘The rest of their lives,’ she said to herself.
The two of them took it in turns to grunt and wrench three more doors from their cages, the four newly freed littlers following them backwards and forwards to the lift. ‘It’s not an exact fit. We’ll have to keep an eye on it,’ Emma said as she stood with her hands on her hips. ‘What do we do now?’
Five pairs of eyes blinked back at her. One, with a face covered with hair and little stumps instead of hands, and another whose legs were fused from groin to knee, had jostled to sit on Susan’s foot, before putting their arms around each other and settling down together. They looked so sweet, thought Emma, wondering how long it had been since they’d had a cuddle.
‘How could anyone leave them here to be forgotten about?’ said Susan.
‘They are the company secrets. Whenever something goes wrong in the lab… Well, as you can see…’ Emma nodded her head towards Susan’s foot, feeling at least three sets of ears inclined in towards her.
‘But there are so many of them.’
‘Don’t forget, they’re from all over the world. The developed world.’
‘Really?’
‘Mmm-hmm – company headquarters.’
‘Why don’t they…’ Susan made a neck-slicing gesture with her hand.
‘M-U-R-D-E-R.’ Emma spelled out the word. ‘They are human, remember. That would be entering into a whole new level of bad.’
‘This is hardly living.’ Susan looked around her for a moment, then back down to her lap as the half-and-half one shuffled over and rested its head on her knee. ‘I know what we have to do.’
‘What?’
Susan held her arm up and eye-flicked her wrist. ‘Upload a film.’
Emma slapped her hand on her forehead. ‘Yes! But we should be quick.’
‘Right.’
‘With commentary; don’t forget to explain what we’re doing here.’
‘Absolutely. And give the address!’
My name, he thought through fluttery eyes; yellow lights dimmed somewhere beyond the cage. The eyelashes interlaced back together over slit lids. Eyelashes, interlaced, lids… How was he thinking these words? Glass flew, spraying ticks of light that bit his face and hung on. How lucky that it didn’t hit his eye. He turned to her, she had no steering wheel to crush her legs, and there she slept, cheek down, closed eyes like curving scolopendras. A tick had got her cheek, up towards the left cheekbone like a dot of lip liner.
I can’t feel my legs.
Her hair spread from her head as if it were being flattened by the wind to that big white balloon.
I can’t feel my legs.
Sir, we’re going to try and take you out of the car.
Eyes opened again. Dim lights. Roaring and metal being wrenched from metal. Whooping and women’s voices. Women. Women using proper syntax and worldly vocabulary.
Eyes closed.
I can’t feel my l
egs.
We’re going to lift you out of the car, Sir.
Dead? What do you mean, dead? Nobody dies in this day and age!
We can’t save your leg. We have four of your size in the storehouse in London – would you like to keep the same coloured bodily hair?
But people can’t just die – bring her back! Give her something, you must have something from your bank to save her. A heart? Do you have a heart?
That was six months ago, Sir. You were at her funeral…
This isn’t my leg… It’s shorter. Where’s my wife? Tell my wife that this isn’t my leg…
She passed away fourteen months ago, Sir.
I’ve decorated her room. White lace and one of those husky-dog rugs. But not real husky-dog. She loves animals too much, don’t you, love? Where is she? She was right here…
She’s been dead for two years, Sir.
Should we give him pills?
I don’t want pills…
Give him the pills. YOU CAN GO HOME, SIR. Your daughter has a gift for you. Nadine, you know Nadine? She has a gift for you.
A gift. From my daughter.
I’ll love him. He’ll be my best friend. I have so much spare love now that… Well, you know what happened the other day, to my wife?
That was three years ago, Sir.
Eyes open. What were those women doing? Such a noise…
My name.
He looked to his left. Littlers shuffled past his cage and along the corridor. Have you seen Jinx? he wanted to call. He squinted. No wire metal criss-crossed over his vision – the cage door was gone!
It was my name.
He held his stomach and pushed himself to his knees, gripping the side of the cage to pull himself upwards.