Strangeways

by Matthew Samm

  When the pilot finished gathering his belongings, he closed the locker door and moved towards the door. Alix, Mad Jack and Isaac followed him.

  “Oh, Mr Venner! Where are you?” Mad Jack had reached the door first to find that Alix’s father had gone. His form had been right in the doorway, but as they’d been distracted by events in the staffroom, he’d come around, his mind gaining enough control over his body to crawl away. “Where are you, Lucien?” Mad Jack called, his voice a sing-song of mockery as if he was speaking to a toddler playing a game.

  There had been no doors opening or closing that Alix had heard and besides, if he’d managed to get far enough, the stairs would be flooded by guards coming to take them down.

  Alix flicked the screen on in the staffroom, accessing the live feed from the arena below. The crowd had emptied, led from the chamber by arena staff. Most of the guards would be stationed around the doors, shuffling innocent people safely to the street as well as ensuring the escapees and their prisoner didn’t sneak past them.

  It was why they had remained, this far, undetected. No one had put two and two together. No one had realized Alix had access to the hover pad. They were too distracted by the twenty thousand civilians and ensuring they dealt with them safely. They all knew the Wardens and those in attendance would be scrutinized by the media the following day. The last thing the staff wanted was to deal with casualties from the crowd as well.

  “He’s not gone far. Isaac, Jack, let’s check the other rooms.” She turned to see that Mad Jack had disappeared already. He was no longer in the doorway.

  From the control centre. Alix heard Mad Jack speak. “There you are, Lucien. Found you. Is it my turn to hide now?” He let out a bellyful of laughter.

  Alix rushed next door and saw the control room office chairs scattered around the room, each of them away from their assigned desks. Facing one of the control boards stood Mad Jack. He was speaking to the figure cuddled underneath the desk. It was her father. He’d tried to hide under there, but he’d only managed to crawl and lacked the body control necessary to completely conceal himself.

  “Get him out,” Alix shouted, giving the orders like the person who’d just beaten Mad Jack should.

  Jack obeyed, although whether it was because she gave the order, or because he was going to do it anyway, Alix couldn’t be sure. Regardless, he dragged Lucien out from under the console and slung him over his shoulder again.

  Alix’s father had regained some of the strength in his arms and used it now to patter on Mad Jack’s back and legs. The force he used was pitiful, but it was clear he was trying to do damage so that Jack would release him. Which was futile.

  Isaac stood in the hallway with the captain, ensuring he didn’t get any ideas about running. When Alix and Jack re-joined him, Alix stared into the captain’s face, endeavoring to make him fearful. She held his gaze, even as he held hers. It became a staring contest for a few moments before the pilot broke away first. Her mental victory secured; Alix gave him his instructions. “We need to leave here. You’re going to take us.”

  He looked uncertain, but his eyes flashed to Mad Jack, back to Alix and then to his employer draped over Jack’s shoulders like an obscene fashion accessory. He slowly nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Where are we going?”

  “No need to worry about that, captain. Lead us to the hover pad and I’ll tell you what happens afterwards.”

  He led the way, striding down the corridor to the end. There was an elevator into which they’d all barely fit. It was formed from glass and passed on the outside of the building. As it arrived and they strode in, they were treated to stunning views of New Manchester.

  The sky continued to be grey and rain streaked the glass, but neither of these diminished the view. Instead, the poor weather made the city out to have conquered its environment. It didn’t need glorious weather to sparkle, it forced beauty onto the watcher regardless of how strongly the sun shone. In many, it was a metaphor for the Wardens. They tamed human instinct, just as New Manchester tamed nature.

  The doors closed behind them and silence enveloped them as the lift began to rise. Each of them stared outside, with the exception of Alix’s father. His attacks on Mad Jack continued and it was clear they were getting stronger. He continued to recover. Alix realized they had not brought the stun baton.

  The elevator doors opened, and they were greeted by the icy wetness of a winter rainstorm. The pilot ran off ahead and Alix initially felt the urge to yank him back, but he was tapping in the access code.

  Captain Ambrose was a man accustomed to taking orders. He’d agreed to take them where they wanted to go and, in his mind, that was all that was needed to follow their orders. He was not trying to escape; he was now carrying out his duty. He was starting the hovercraft.

  The group hurried after him and as they approached, the access code Ambrose had tapped in, opened the cabin door. The interior was designed for luxury. It was her father’s vehicle and he’d spared no expense.

  Isaac, Mad Jack and her father bundled him into the cabin. They had nothing to tie Lucien down. When he was in his seat, Isaac leaned over and whispered something to him. It was impossible to hear what he’d said over the pounding of the rain, but Alix saw the effect in her father’s face. He looked, for the first time, fearful. Whatever Isaac had whispered to him, his situation had suddenly become very real.

  Alix disappeared around the hovercraft to check on the pilot, who was already inside the hovercraft and igniting the engine. Alix stepped back as the machine let loose a full-throated bark and roared to life, raising a few feet off the ground. She gave the pilot a thumbs up through the canopy and ran back around to the open cabin door. As she did, she stopped, and fear pulsed through her.

  The elevator doors slid open and the Reaper came into view, dressed in his fight gear. She’d been right. He was to execute Isaac. At this moment, his face the hard-set steel of a man ready to kill. The doors had barely opened before he charged through them, beelining directly for the open cabin door.

  His movement spurred Alix’s and she took off, catching the pilot’s eye and pointing her index finger skyward, instructing him to take off.

  He nodded and gently pulled back on the control column, the hovercraft rising into the air with breathtaking efficiency.

  Alix barely made it to the door in time, having to leap high into the air to get her chest onto the cabin floor. She scrambled and managed to claw herself aboard. She had barely righted herself when a tremendous weight slammed into the cabin floor in the same way she had.

  The Reaper clawed to get a foothold himself, catching hold of Alix’s leg and using her body weight as an anchor to get aboard.

  She thrashed and kicked out at him, but his grip was like iron and cold as death.

  In the distraction, Lucien Venner, Alix’s father launched himself at Isaac, who collapsed back into his seat as his ex-father collapsed on top of him, his fingers grasping for Isaac’s throat. “If you will not die as you should, you will die as you must!” he growled, pure hatred pouring from his every pore.

  Isaac, already subdued under Lucien’s weight grasped at his throat, panicking and striving to ease the pressure on his trachea enough to allow some air in. He was on the clock; the three-minute clock that dictated whether he suffocated or not and he knew he couldn’t help himself.

  Alix recognized the movement from her father but couldn’t react to it. The Reaper continued to hold her ankle, her desperate flailing the only reason he hadn’t clambered aboard.

  Mad Jack had not moved. He sat in his own plush chair watching, a smile of intrigue and entertainment spread across his face.

  Finally, Alix’s thrashing legs plucked the Reaper’s hands from her ankle and he grasped onto the hovercraft hull and fixings to keep himself in the air.

  Seeing he’d let go of Alix, Mad Jack reacted instantly, and the Reaper never saw it coming. Mad Jack swung his leg towards the Reaper’s face, his instep connecting the Reaper’s skull. He d
isconnected from the hovercraft, his hands ripping from the fixings and began to fall.

  Without waiting to admire his handiwork, Mad Jack rose from his chair and gripped Alix’s father by the nape of his neck, like a jaguar might carry its prey up a tree.

  The pressure on Lucien’s neck and spine drained all the strength from his hands and he let go of Isaac’s throat, his weakened body rising into the air and seating itself back in its original chair. Mad Jack peered down over him. “I wouldn’t move anymore, Lucien, if I were you. Sometimes our first mistake kills us.”

  Isaac lay coughing and choking on his back, squashed into his seat. His hands grasped his throat as he gulped air to repay the oxygen debt Lucien forced upon him.

  Down below, and after a twenty-foot fall, the Reaper connected with the rooftop, his momentum propelling him backwards. He rolled, but there was still too much energy, so he rolled again.

  When he had control of the kinetic force, the Reaper’s mind connected the exact moment to use what was left and spring to his feet, his back centimeters from the elevator door.

  His face was stone, showing no emotion of offense or rage. To him, what had happened was in the past already. It wasn’t personal. It was never personal. They needed to escape, he needed to stop them. He’d been sucker punched this time, but as he strode to the rooftop’s edge, he knew it would not happen again.

  The hovercraft rose away from him, growing smaller in his vision. He stood and watched it until it was out of sight. Next time.

  On board, three sets of eyes bored in Lucien Venner, who was now held in his seat by Mad Jack’s threat.

  Mad Jack had sat back down, the smirk returning to his face. “That was fun, wasn’t it, Alix?” he said.

  She glanced at him, allowing the comment to roll off her as she turned her attention to her brother. “Are you OK, Isaac?”

  His hands were wrapped around his own throat, attempting to gently massage the feeling back. He gave a slight nod and winced as he did so, the muscles injured and smarting from Lucien’s pressure.

  Isaac’s eyes burned with barely concealed hate towards the man who, for years had been his father. It had been a genuine attempt to kill him, there was no doubt about that. Lucien Venner had tried to do what the Reaper was going to do in the cells.

  There was no question about Lucien Venner’s resolve. If any of them harbored uncertainty about whether he wanted Isaac dead and would be squeamish about carrying out the deed, they weren’t now.

  Lucien looked around at all three of them. The only fear he felt was from Mad Jack. He didn’t fear Isaac. He didn’t fear Alix. He still thought he had power over them, that they were small time, unable to challenge a man as powerful as him. He clearly thought they lacked the same resolve to kill that he possessed. “So, what happens now, kids?” he said, his tone full of mockery.

  Alix glanced at Isaac and then Mad Jack, a telepathic conversation they didn’t want Lucien to hear. “Just wait, father. We’ll be there soon.”

  “Where are we going?” he asked.

  “Isn’t it obvious? Strangeways,” she replied.

  Two hours since they had landed. Two hours since they’d locked the cave door, shutting Lucien Venner in darkness. Two hours since her father had begged them not to leave him. The cave had looked identical to when Alix and Isaac had last been there. No one had touched it since and the fetid smell of unwashed bodies still lingered, festering in the damp.

  It must have been the same when Alix first left the cave, but after six weeks, she couldn’t smell it anymore. The time between her leaving and now had granted her nose time to recover. The stench was repulsive, but in a way, it made it all the sweeter to lock her father in there.

  In the two hours since the big players gathered in Mad Jack’s compound. Alix, Mad Jack and Isaac were joined by Domenyck and Hellcat. The original plan ceased as soon as they were off the island. Now, they had new problems to consider and their plan was uncertain.

  It played on Alix’s mind through the entire hovercraft journey. What would happen to her father? Was she in charge and would she get to decide his fate? Would Mad Jack want to re-establish his dominance as soon as the landing skids hit Strangeways?

  For Alix, that was the most worrisome thought. A matter of weeks ago, she had been sneaking onto Strangeways to rescue her brother. It was a different life and now, she was an ally of the Islanders. She’d defeated Mad Jack in the cells, but she hadn’t tasted her revenge.

  It had driven her for so long, and now she was surprised to realize she didn’t want it anymore. Goliath was slain. Mad Jack was defeated. She had passed the greatest test and he lived now only because she’d decided he could.

  But if he attempted to take back control on Strangeways, she’d have to face him again. The self-doubt crept back into her mind. Could she beat him again? Would the same tactics work as they did in the cells? Should she have killed him when she’d had the chance?

  It had never come to it. Mad Jack had thus far made no effort to kill her. If anything, it was quite the opposite, he’d treated her with a respect she hadn’t expected, including holding open the door to the cave cell where they’d left her father. It was almost gentlemanly.

  When the fledgling fellowship all came together in Mad Jack’s compound, Hellcat had been the one to speak first. “Kill him. Let’s just kill him. He’d have done it all of us and thems the rules. Kill or be killed. Kill him before he kills us.” To highlight the point, she stared pointedly at Alix and licked one of the steel fingernails, drawing a red bead down her tongue and swilling the blood around her mouth.

  Alix winced in disgust, before composing herself. “We can’t kill him. He’s my father first and foremost and I’m not going to kill him…”

  “Who are you to speak here?” Hellcat bellowed, interrupting Alix and squeezing the blood between her teeth, so it coated them, running into the grooves of enamel.

  Alix slowly turned her head, feeling her heart pounding in her chest. “I speak for myself and you’ll listen close if you want to live to see tomorrow.”

  The effect was instantaneous. Hellcat hissed and began charging towards Alix, as Alix had expected.

  “Do not move, Hellcat,” growled Mad Jack.

  She stopped as if charging into a brick wall. Learned behavior forced her to cower to his words and she instinctively shrank back, before finding her voice. “You’re on her side!” she bawled, disgust dripping from the words.

  Mad Jack only smiled, while his black eyes spoke to Hellcat. She seemed to shrink back again. Finally, he spoke. “She killed me, Hellcat.”

  “What?” replied Hellcat.

  “She killed me,” he repeated, before beginning to belly laugh. “She had me like this,” he guffawed, mimicking her arms around his neck. “And I was all like this.” He mimicked the face of somebody choking to death.

  Hellcat looked at him like these were the first words she’d ever heard from him that didn’t make sense to her. “You can’t lose.”

  “Well, I’m still here, so I guess I didn’t, did I?”

  Hellcat looked confused. She turned and looked at Alix, searching for truth from her. She found it. “You beat him? You killed him?”

  “I can’t have killed him, can I? He’s still here,” Alix said. The words felt foreign to her; out of character, but they just seemed like the right words to say.

  Mad Jack surged with laughter, but Hellcat seemed convinced. “You…you lost…you can’t lose…”

  In a heartbeat, Mad Jack stopped laughing. “I didn’t. She should have killed me.” He pointed at Alix. “She didn’t, and as much as I’d enjoy watching you and Alix engage in a bout of fisticuffs, I’m damn sure you’d be crucified, so consider this my saving you in return.”

  Hellcat seemed to shake her head in disbelief and all the fight had gone. She withdrew, looking like her world was collapsing around her. When she was back where she’d begun, she spoke more politely. “Well, why can’t we just kill him then?”
>
  “They’ll know where he is right now, and I’m certain someone has floated the idea of just storming the island; killing everyone here and taking him back. If they decide to do that, we’re dead. We can’t fight them. We’ll be massacred.”

  All the gathered faces looked at her, registering various degrees of fear and anxiety. They knew it was true.

  “Why won’t they just do that, Alix?” asked Domenyck.

  His voice sounded sweet to Alix’s ears, like a warm towel on an exhausted face. She allowed herself to enjoy the moment. “I know him. He’ll not want the public to see how he was rescued. He’ll not want a bloodbath getting out. They can keep you on this island…” she paused as a realization took hold. She was one of them now. “…They can keep us on this island, but they can’t avoid a massacre from getting out there, and if it does, the Wardens are finished. People won’t stomach women and children being butchered on live video. He’ll want it done quietly. He’ll want them to come and get him without making a sound and once he’s out, he’ll send someone back in to get you, and you, and you…and even me.” She paused to point at each of them in turn. “He’ll have us brought back in laser cuffs, marched to the cells and despatched quickly and calmly. The Reaper will do all of us, and if you think you can beat him, you’re wrong. You can’t. None of us can.”

  A silence fell over the compound. “What do we do then, Al?” said her brother, his words sounding overly loud in the quiet.

  “We have to let him go,” she said.

  “No, no, no, no, no,” wittered Hellcat. “We ain’t gonna just let him go! He tried to have you and you, and you killed. He doesn’t get off for free. And, if he goes, he’ll tell them everything. He’ll give them a map of where we are on the island. He’ll tell them everything!”