by Sarah Govett
‘What they do to all poorer families anyway – tear them apart. And do you really think that hiding Jack isn’t an act of opposition? Do you really think that you’re not already planning to put your parents in loads of danger anyway? You’re just scared, to take the next step that’s all,’ and maybe it was just the exhaustion catching up with me or maybe it was Megan’s ghost of a smugish smile, but whatever it was it really pushed my buttons.
‘So what you’ve got planned is loads better, is it? An army of Wetlanders. Suppose you breach the Fence somehow, then what? You’ve got about 100 recruits as far as I can tell and there aren’t exactly lots more flocking to join you every day. Maybe three or five people could sneak through undetected but an ‘army’ – no way. You’ll be mown down. Every last one of you will be killed. Everyone you love – Jack, Lotte, all of them, gone.’ Megan’s eyes flashed as I mentioned Lotte’s name. She clearly didn’t know I knew about her. ‘And then the Ministry will think that Fish are potentially dangerous, annoying at best, so they decide not to make anymore. They won’t ship people out who fail, they’ll just kill them. And they’ll probably bomb all the settlements out here as well. All the good people, the kind people we met at the Peak, the independent traders, the Cells they’ll be ripped apart – for what? For nothing!’
‘We’re considering different options.’ Adnan’s voice was on ultra-calm mode. ‘We might go for an elite advance party followed by a more general invasion.’
‘A team of assassins,’ chimed in Frankie, face like a pick axe, who sat to Adnan’s left. ‘To destroy Womb Pod facilities and stop any freakoids from being born.’ She was getting worked up as she spoke and tiny bits of spittle flecked the edges of her mouth. ‘Wipe out the freakoids and at least the system is fairer.’ She looked round the room and seemed to register Raf’s presence for the first time. Her eyes went to the floor, guiltily. ‘No offence, Raf.’
‘None taken,’ said Raf wryly. ‘I can see why it’s better to be on the side of the baby killers.’
‘OK,’ Megan entered the fray. ‘We’re not all in agreement about the Womb Pods.’ She shot Frankie a look of disgust. ‘But freakoids. We have to end the freakoid programme. Think about it, they’re all passing, every year, so the proportion in the population is growing and growing. They’ll be the majority. A majority of unfeeling robots with ultimate belief in and obedience to the Ministry. There’ll be no one left to protect the weak, to protect our humanity.’ In that moment she reminded me of Annie – well a far more feisty and bitchy version.
‘You’re forgetting something,’ I couldn’t let them keep going, they needed to understand. ‘Freakoids are victims too. Lots of angry eyes and ‘yeah, rights’ were hurled in my direction. This wouldn’t be easy.
‘They didn’t choose to have the procedure. It was done before they were born, or even if they got a late upgrade do you think they genuinely chose it?’ I thought of Daisy and nearly choked up. But this wasn’t a time for crying. ‘Of course not, it was their parents’ choice. And the whole personality thing – that’s not the kid itself. That’s the uploads. Look at Raf. He didn’t upload – he’s totally normal. No psycho tendencies at all. Remember any freakoid kids you used to play with before they uploaded?’ No one was nodding. No one got it. I guess they hadn’t been to a school like Hollets, hadn’t seen how freakoids changed. I was beginning to despair when Lee backed me up.
‘She’s right you know. I knew a freakoid kid, Thom, when I was little. Totally normal guy, a good mate actually. Until he was ten. Until he began to upload.’
‘So you’re saying it’s not the freakoids we need to destroy,’ Adnan concluded. ‘It’s the uploads.’
And there it was. I think that’s the exact moment Raf and I joined the Opposition. Sorry, Mum. Sorry, Dad. I feel a little sick at putting you in danger, but Megan was right in a way. I put you in danger the moment I climbed under that truck. And we have to do this. You raised me to do what’s right and this is right. I don’t think we’re coming home after all.
When I was about eleven I’d been ill for quite a long time, some virus or other, and felt totally drained. Mum got me these specially potent vitamins to help ‘build me up again’. They were bright orange and you dropped them in a glass of water so they fizzed up and then you drank it all down. Afterwards I’d get this really intense surge of energy like my batteries had been recharged and then some. This is what I felt like when I woke this morning. Buzzing. High on life. Part of something epic – an ‘elite team’.
Last night’s meeting ended with the ‘elite team’ being picked: Me, Raf, Megan, Lee and Jack. We’re supposed to have ‘complementary skills’. Megan’s seen as a feisty leader and was one of the founders of the Opposition out here so she was always going to be at the forefront of any attack or reconnaissance. Lee’s hacking skills are going to be essential if we’re to hack into the Ministry Servers to access and change the uploads. Jack was Megan’s choice and is going to be invaluable if we need any brute strength. Me and Raf have apparently shown ourselves to be ‘resourceful’ as we managed to break through the Fence in one direction at least. I was surprised Adnan wasn’t coming too but I guess someone needed to look after the Fort in our absence. Megan was torn between taking Lotte and leaving her behind but decided in the end that she’d be safer staying put. Our chances of success weren’t the choicest.
When something gets decided out here, there’s no sitting around. Our bags are packed. We have water, dried meats and seaweed and mosquito repellent. Today we hiked a couple of hours from camp in the direction of the Fence for advanced spy training. Megan led us. This place is one of their normal training camps. So there’s a hut, equipment and a spade. A spade instead of a toilet. This is what my life has come down to.
I was quite into Robin Hood as a kid. Jack and I would play it sometimes. Daisy would be Maid Marian, I’d be Robin and Jack would be Will Scarlett. We’d pretend gallop around, pretend fire arrows left, right and centre and pretend distribute sacks of gold and food to our pretend adoring fans. There are no bows out here – it seems it’s pretty tricky to carve one that actually fires an arrow in the direction you want it to go. There are slingshots, though, and I’m a pretty ace shot. Raf too. Jack and Lee less so. They both managed to shoot off a stone at incredible speed but at nearly a compass point in the wrong direction. It got so bad that I started to flinch every time one of them fired. We had to practise by piling up a pyramid of small stones, putting a target like a different coloured stone or twig on top and then stepping back five/ten/twenty paces and firing. Megan said it worked best if you cleared your mind. Went all Zen like these warriors used to do in ancient Japan. That way you became ‘one’ with the slingshot and were more likely to aim right as your subconscious mind takes over and for some reason that seems to be particularly good at judging how best to knock over a white pebble. We tried to find some rabbits or birds to practise on as it’s harder to hit a moving target but there were none around.
We then moved onto knife practice. Megan gave us each a weapon and demonstrated throwing and stabbing techniques. She’d got these straw stuffed bags out from the hut and these were ‘the enemy’. I managed to deal some pretty nasty blows to my straw foe when Megan announced we were moving up a level. She brought out another round of stuffed bags but someone had put some work into these. There were crude faces, etched on with charcoal, straw for hair, and basic clothes. They were nothing like people really but even so, I couldn’t attack them in the same way. My arm lost its steel and my stabs turned half-hearted.
I think I’m going to stick with slingshot as weapon of choice as the idea of actually piercing flesh, slicing a human like cutting up an apple just makes me want to puke. Crushing with a stone seems somehow better. Messed-up logic, I know.
I also know, or at least am supposed to know, how to disable an attacker silently. If they’re running at you, you wait until they’re three metres away, three metres is key, then move forward. You kind of grab thei
r arm, swing your body round their back and then bring your other arm up round their throat so you have them in a chokehold. Keep applying pressure for long enough and they’ll suffocate. As a final flourish you can also twist their neck so it breaks. And the puke feeling’s back.
We partnered up. Me and Raf were together. He ran at me and I tried to swing round him but I mistimed it and moved too soon. I ended up hanging off his back as if he was giving me a piggyback. Then he turned me upside down and started tickling me and I couldn’t stop laughing.
Until Megan’s voice yelling in my ear suddenly meant it wasn’t quite as funny any more.
‘Sorry, is this a joke to you? Some sort of hilarious adventure?’
I was silent. I felt like such a denser.
‘This is real. People will attack us. If you can’t defend yourself you will be killed. If you can’t silence someone, the whole team’s safety is at stake. Come here. Now run at me… Faster!’
I sprinted towards Megan and in seconds she was wrapped round my body and I couldn’t breathe. Blood was pounding in my ears and my eyesight was going all pixilated and my chest felt like it was going to explode. Then she released her grip. I gasped for air and rubbed my bruised ribs.
‘See. That’s how you do it. Now try again.’ Everyone practised in silence. It seemed more real now. We kept swapping partners so you got to see how to change your stance, your swing to fit different-sized assailants. The three-metre rule stayed fixed though.
Raf versus Jack was pretty intense. Jack caught Raf in a stranglehold and looked like he’d never let go. It was like a weirdly physical embrace and the energy between them was crackling, almost like they were a bit gay. They’d better not be gay. That would be just my luck! Raf’s eyes were bulging and his lips were starting to go blue when I looked over and gave a yell of, ‘Jack!!!!’ Megan turned to see and break it up. I didn’t hear what she was saying but she was clearly mad. I just caught the end, ‘Sort it out or be replaced.’ I actually respected her a bit as she was obviously mad with Jack too.
As we camped down for the night, Lee ran through our tentative plan. He’d sketched the outline at the end of our meeting last night – the brilliant Fence scaling reveal – but now was the time for the detail.
‘We hike due west as that’s the most direct route to the Fence. Now the electricity for the whole Fence can’t be supplied by just one circuit – it must be split into smaller sections, multiple circuits.’ Of course, that made sense. ‘All we need is for one circuit – the one supplying the section of the Fence we’re at – to be down. Then we can get across. Cut, climb, whatever. There’ll be a way.’
‘What about the machine-gun towers?’ Raf asked.
‘We think they’re automated too. Hopefully on the same circuit.’ I nodded. That’s what I’d thought. I described what I’d seen happen to the mother and child.
‘How do we disable a circuit?’ Jack looked dubious. This all seemed a bit too much like Physics for his liking. To be fair it was for me too. I get school level Physics – electricity is energy, making it destroyed our planet, if you stick a screwdriver in a plug socket you’ll fry. But real world electricity. Hmmm. Bit beyond me.
Lee took over again. This part of the operation had clearly been his brainchild. ‘All important circuitry is regularly tested to ensure it’s functioning properly. The Fence is about as important as it gets so stands to reason there’ll be regular checks – intervals when each individual circuit is turned off for a very short period. We have to work out the pattern and be ready.’
‘So we get to the Fence and then watch and wait?’ Jack asked.
‘That’s about it,’ replied Lee.
Raf wasn’t going to be left out. ‘But how can you see if a circuit’s down?’
‘We’ll keep sending test objects at it.’
So we sit, watch and what – throw small animals at the Fence until they stop frying? This was not sounding brilliant.
‘And, assuming we get through,’ I added, trying to focus on our mission beyond the Fence, ‘where are the Ministry Servers?’
I thought Megan would answer. After all it was her brother who was high up in the Opposition and weren’t they supposed to know this sort of thing? The location of key targets. If this was war, wasn’t rule number one ‘know your enemy’ or at least know where your enemy keeps important stuff? But Megan said nothing and neither did anyone else. There was just stony silence and a couple of swallows.
No one knew.
It typically goes like this – a little kid is scared of the dark. They think there’s something or someone evil lurking out there: in their cupboard, under their bed, outside their house. Their parents tell them that they’re OK and there’s nothing to fear. Except often there is. Little kids are right. Bad stuff happens in the dark.
This time we didn’t get to see the bad stuff – just the aftermath. Jack was awake first and his horrified cry woke the rest of us in seconds. From due east a huge dark grey plume of smoke rose towards the sky, licking the clouds.
The Fort was on fire.
No one had to take charge for us to know what to do. Clothes were flung on, everything else was jammed back into bags and we were off, sprint-walking towards the smoke. The final approach we took more slowly, running from gorse bush to gorse bush in an attempt to hide our presence. In case the fire wasn’t an accident. In case of attack. It wasn’t the greatest attempt at concealment as it’s pretty hard to squeeze five people behind a bush, they’re just not big enough. And it’s hard to creep silently between them when you’re sending up sizeable splashes of water. Anyway, we needn’t have bothered. When we eventually got to the perimeter fence, a section had been torn open like the top of a tin can and the attackers – it was now clear that this was nothing accidental – had been and gone.
We got halfway up the main path through the Fort before we saw anyone. Then Frankie came staggering out of a nearby shack. The shack was made of corrugated iron sheets so had survived the blaze. Frankie’s clothes were ripped and the left hand side of her face bloodied. She seemed dazed and wasn’t speaking. Megan grabbed her and I was afraid she was going to try and shake some sort of information out of her but instead she hugged her, sat her down and stroked her hair.
‘What happened here, Frankie? Was it … the Ministry?’
Frankie took a deep gulp of air and finally spoke, her voice a hoarse croak as if something had happened to her windpipe.
‘Raiders,’ was all she managed.
Raf and me looked at one another in horror. Did these sick guys never stop?
‘How did they get through? Didn’t anyone sound the alarm? Who was on duty?’ Lee’s voice wasn’t soft. It was urgent, harsh, and allowed no interval in which to answer his onslaught of questions.
‘Fred was on duty but he didn’t spot them in time. Maybe they were camouflaged, maybe he fell asleep.’
‘We need to question him, where is he?’ Lee again.
‘Dead … they cut his throat.’
An awful thought came to me. An echo of past horrors.
‘Why did they torch the buildings?’ I asked, trying to keep my voice neutral and calm.
Frankie’s eyes welled up with tears. She didn’t want to answer.
Megan tried again, ‘Frankie love, I know this is really hard for you, but why did they torch the buildings?’
‘So Adnan would tell them.’ The sobs were getting louder, wracking her body.
‘Tell them what, Frankie?’
Frankie wouldn’t answer. She wouldn’t look Megan in the eye and instead started picking at bits of ash on the ground, turning her fingers grey.
Images of Cara kept flashing into my head. A slide show of Cara and the leader of the Raiders and the guy with half a melted face.
‘Did they want Lotte?’ I asked in a whisper. No reply – just louder sobs so I gently used my right hand to cup her chin and turn her face towards mine. ‘Frankie, is that it? Did they want Lotte?’
Frank
ie met my gaze and nodded and Megan gave out this awful cry – primal – grief as a sound. Her softness and patience was gone.
‘Did he give her to them? Did he hand over Lotte?’
‘He had no choice, Megan. They’d finished burning the wooden buildings. They’d heard we had a Cell and they said they were going to start killing everyone here if he didn’t hand it over.’
‘’The Cell?!? IT?!? Lotte’s not a thing. She’s a person. A littlegirl. You’re trained fighters. I’VE trained you as FIGHTERS,’ Megan spat out the words in disgust. ‘So why didn’t you FIGHT?!’
‘It was the middle of the night. They had weapons. We weren’t … prepared.’
But I don’t think Megan heard her answer. She’d already broken. It was a sight I hadn’t thought I’d see. Megan curled into a ball crying and Jack comforting her, his body fitting perfectly round hers, encapsulating her, insulating her from her pain.
Raf nudged me to leave and we slunk off, didn’t want to intrude on something so private. With Lee’s help we tracked down Adnan and began to help others clear the debris and ash that blanketed the ground like dirty snow. Grey-white flakes decorated the door frames and dusted hair and eyebrows. It was almost beautiful.
We didn’t get to do too much to help in the end. Adnan seemed to have things pretty much under control. The fire was now out and the smoke more of a dragon’s puff than a full-on volcano. Adnan called a Committee meeting and wanted ‘the team’ to set out again immediately. To continue our mission against the ‘tyranny of the Ministry’. Lee voiced his agreement, but something didn’t feel right. I nudged Raf so he turned to look at me and I caught the same unease in his eyes. We’d done this before. Walked away before. How many times would we walk away?