by S. C. Ransom
As I reached forward to touch him his head fell on his chest, his arms limp by his sides. But he was still breathing.
“That’s enough,” said Lance. “I need to take you to the lift.”
Standing up I gave Will one last look. “I’ll be back,” I called over my shoulder as we left the room, making a promise to myself as well as to him.
Lance hurried me along the corridors and as we swept past tunnels and doorways I caught a few glimpses of women’s faces, all of them drawn and tired-looking, but all obviously keen to sneak a closer look at the trespassing Above. One stepped out as we approached. She put up her hand and Lance slowed a little.
“Can you really do it?” she called, pulling her ill-fitting cardigan more tightly around her as he led me past. “Can you stop the sickness?”
“I hope so,” I called back, trying to smile encouragingly, but she just nodded and melted away.
At one point we crossed the tunnel with the warm breeze and I glanced down it. The long line of dim light bulbs seemed to stretch forever into the distance. Turning my head I saw that the tunnel did the same in the other direction, and I wondered just how many people were living down there, and how many more there used to be. It was an immense complex and I still couldn’t believe that no one from my world had ever noticed that it was buried under their feet.
Finally I smelled the canteen again. Whatever the Community was having for dinner didn’t smell the least bit appealing, but it reminded me that I was absolutely starving. I couldn’t be sure how long I’d been down there, but I’d certainly missed plenty of meals. My stomach growled loudly.
Being near to the canteen meant that we were also close to the lift, and as we turned a corner I saw an entrance I thought I recognised – the stone archway leading to the stairs. It seemed so long ago since Will and I had sneaked out of there with Foggy, and I had another pang of guilt as I wondered where Foggy had gone. Was someone looking after him? It didn’t seem likely, given Aria’s reaction to dogs. Maybe he’d found a way back up to the surface. I didn’t allow myself to think of any other options.
Just past the entrance to the stairs we turned a corner and there was the lift, ready and waiting, and completely unguarded. I was surprised for a moment but I guessed the Crop guarded me more effectively than anything else – both down and up. It looked quite different to the one in the warehouse. Up there it had just seemed old-fashioned, with the concertina doors but otherwise like a standard lift. Down in the Community it somehow had a more sinister air. There was no call button, just a grubby brass plate with a single large keyhole. The wall surrounding the lift, like every other wall, was made of stone, but there seemed to be a number of horizontal scratches scored into it. Fingernail marks? It couldn’t be, the stone was too hard, but for a second I wondered, and shivered.
At that moment Dane appeared from another tunnel. Dane, who had made a deal to keep me as his breeding slave and who had tried to slit Will’s throat. He gave a thin smile.
“Thank you, Lance, I’ll take her now. The Farmer is just coming.”
Lance released his grip on my arm, and as he brushed past I thought I heard him murmur “good luck, lass”. I turned, but he was already walking away.
Dane grabbed my arm and swung me round to face him.
“Watch it,” I started, but he interrupted.
“Right, Lily, this is what’s going to happen. You and I are going to go up in the lift to Above, and I will let you out of the warehouse. Then you and I will go and get the medicine.”
“Hang on a second,” I said. “That was never part of the deal. I can’t take you with me – I’ve got to get my hands on the drugs and it won’t be easy. You must know that – I’m sure you’ve tried.”
“Don’t argue, he’ll be here in a second, and that’s what he needs to know.” There was an undertone of steel in his voice and I bit back my retort.
“And I do need some insurance that you will come back,” he added. “I’m not convinced that your boyfriend will be enough for you.”
“I promised!” I hissed, unable to contain myself. “What sort of friend do you think I am?”
“I’m hoping one who doesn’t want to die,” he said, pulling back the heavy iron grille and pushing me inside.
I have been allowed to wait with Will. Mason is outside and I know that it’s hopeless to try and get away. I have nowhere to run to and I can’t leave Will. I wait, and with every moment that passes he looks closer to death. It’s as if he’s literally fading away before our eyes. Carita comes and helps me try to keep him cool with the water, but he’s still burning up. He’s not even complaining any more. If Lily doesn’t get back soon it will be too late for all of us.
I had barely looked around the rickety old lift when I heard footsteps outside. The Farmer was standing there holding a key on a long chain that was connected to his belt. He didn’t look at us as he leaned over towards the brass plate outside. I heard the key slide into the lock, then he turned to Dane.
“I’ll send the lift back up after you’ve been up there for an hour. No longer.”
“That’s nothing like long enough,” I spluttered.
“No longer,” he repeated, pulling the inner concertina grille across from a recessed panel at the side. Then he reached over and hauled at the heavier, outer grille. It made an oily scraping sound as he slammed it into position.
I heard the key squeak as it turned, and the light in the lift went out. The Farmer was briefly silhouetted by the dim light from the corridor, and then he was gone. The lift started to shake, then lurched into life. Everything went dark.
“Exactly how old is this thing?” I shouted over the din of the machinery and the horrible noise the cage made as it laboured its way up. Something was hitting the wall as we moved, scraping like fingernails on a blackboard.
“No idea!” Dane shouted back. “But it generally gets us to the top.”
As he spoke the last few words the scraping stopped and all I could hear was the rattling of the chain and some distantly whirring machinery.
I turned on Dane, furious, unable to see him in the pitch black.
“What exactly does he think I can do in an hour?” I cried. “And why has he turned out the lights?”
“Why do you think?” he sighed as if it was obvious. “There’s stuff up there that he doesn’t want us to see.”
“I made it past the Crop once already, remember?”
“Did you actually see them?”
“Well, no, not exactly. With the torch I could see the shapes of things moving in the dark, but I didn’t see one clearly.”
“The lights are out for your protection.”
“So I can’t see the Crop?”
“So the Crop can’t see you! No one but the Farmer gets to see the Crop. It’s a rule we’ve had for hundreds of years.”
“So your people don’t actually know what sort of animals they are?”
“No, as I said, the Farmer thinks it’s for the best.”
So no one had any idea what they were going to be eaten by until they were about to be eaten. Whatever it was, the people would imagine something far, far worse.
“So what is this all about, Dane? Why do you really want me to stay with the Community?”
“Have you thought why the Crop didn’t kill you?” he asked, surprising me. “No one has ever got past them before. They didn’t kill you when Aria found you either, did they?”
He paused for a moment and I was suddenly aware that he was standing much closer to me, his voice low.
“There are things that you don’t know yet, and I know it’s frustrating. But you have to trust me, and know that all I want is to help you.”
If I had been looking at him I would probably have believed him – he’d have been looking at me with those big, dark eyes, brow furrowed, his expression begging me to accept what he said. But in the darkness I only had the words, and something about them just didn’t ring true. I didn’t know why. What I did
know was that none of it was a coincidence.
I was wondering how to respond when the lift slowed.
“That was quick,” I said, but Dane hushed me.
“Shhh, don’t say anything until I tell you. It’s best if they don’t know we’re here.”
His hand was firm on my arm as he manoeuvred me towards the back of the lift, and I strained to hear what might be going on. All too soon the noise was clear enough and getting far too close for comfort. And suddenly there was the smell, that dead, half-rotten smell that made me gag. Without warning the lift lurched and I let out a small yelp of surprise.
Within seconds there was a great thumping noise as something hurled itself at the lift gate. The metal grille rattled and squealed in protest.
“Damn it, they’re here,” Dane whispered. “Try to keep quiet as we pass.”
I could barely hear him over the rattling of the heavy metal grille as animal after animal attacked. The smell was atrocious and I pressed myself against the back wall of the lift to be as far away as possible. In my mind’s eye I could see the lift lumbering past the Crop level, and listening carefully I could sense the noise moving from above to below as we moved upwards. But what was it? The only real noise was of something hitting the lift cage but there was no howling or roaring, just that strange slithering in the background. What sort of creature made no noise? Snakes? But they wouldn’t hurl themselves at the grille. My imagination was working overtime, but I couldn’t think of anything that fit what I was hearing.
Dane’s voice cut through my thoughts.
“So come on, Lily, you can tell me. Exactly where are you going to get the medicine from? I know that it’s difficult. Where are you going to go where they won’t ask questions?”
“Honestly, Dane, you really can’t expect me to tell you that. It’s my only bargaining chip. Where have you tried in the past?”
“All the chemist shops, but they insist on a prescription, and I can’t get one of those unless I see a doctor. If I go to a hospital they ask too many questions because I don’t have any symptoms. We’ve been going in circles for years.”
“Why don’t you just bring the babies up here when they get sick? Wouldn’t it be worth it?”
“You don’t understand, obviously. There’s no way that it would be allowed.”
I shook my head. “You’d rather that they die, that you face extinction as a community, than risk the world finding out?”
There was another silence, broken only by the rattling of the slow-moving lift.
“I wouldn’t,” he said finally, “but it’s not my choice, not yet.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I would do it differently, that’s all.” It was another answer that didn’t ring true, but from his tone it didn’t sound as if he was going to say any more about it.
“And why are they all dying anyway?” I asked instead. “Where has this sickness come from?”
I heard him shift his weight and I wondered if he was going to answer me. When he did speak it sounded as if he were telling a story.
“Years and years ago,” he said, “before my grandparents were born, there were hundreds more of us, but it suddenly got very hard to get food from Above, and huge explosions at ground level were forcing more and more of the Aboves underground.”
“That must have been the war,” I said. “There was lots of bombing and people slept in the Tube for safety.”
“Whatever it was, the people displaced a lot of rats down to our level, and they brought with them an illness. The Great Sickness wiped out over half our people, so many that we realised we were going to have to ask Above for help. The Farmer at the time sent up a deputation of people to speak to an official, but he wasn’t interested in talking to us, never mind helping. We were told to stop wasting his time. So our people returned home, and watched more of our children die. That Farmer vowed that we would never, ever ask the Aboves for help again, and that one day they would be made to pay for what they did to us. Every Farmer since then has felt the same.”
“That’s so awful. I can’t believe they didn’t help you. I guess that in the middle of the war things were much more difficult.”
“Whatever the excuse, the Aboves showed us no compassion that day.”
“And the people who were left after the sickness?”
“We bred a community of people immune to it, and everything seemed OK. But then a few years ago it all started to change. One by one almost all the newborn babies seemed to catch it, and it’s just got worse.”
“But you must ask for help! No one up Above will want to see your children die!”
“Someone tried that in desperation, sneaking a baby Above, but they took the child away. When the Farmer found out he was furious, and has been all the more determined since then that you all must be punished.”
Moments later the lift finally shuddered to a halt. I heard Dane opening the gate, and with eyes accustomed to the dark, I could see the faint outline of the warehouse door across the room.
“Stay there for a moment,” he said.
I could just see him as he walked towards the door. There was a click and then a handful of fluorescent light tubes hummed into life. The light was dazzling and I blinked briefly. The can was still crushed flat under the shutter where Will and I had left it a lifetime ago. To the left was the door, which had a number of substantial bolts.
Dane was being briskly efficient.
“Right – there’s no point in arguing, Lily. I’m coming with you and that’s all there is to it. If you want to save your boyfriend it’s your only choice.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I mumbled. “I still can’t see why you have to be so difficult. Why would I not come back?”
“We’re already wasting time. The Farmer is the only one who has the key to send the lift up and summon it back down again. If we miss his schedule we’ll be punished. It’s how he manages us. And if we miss it today, we won’t get the medicine to Will fast enough.”
As he spoke he had been pulling back the bolts, then he clicked the latch before throwing the door open. I had lost track of time and had hoped it might be dark, but bright sunlight streamed into the room. I cursed under my breath. Sneaking about in the darkness would have been much easier.
I stepped out into the sunshine, squinting at the brightness. Without another word Dane slammed the door shut behind us, and the entrance to the Community was instantly anonymous again. Deliveries were being made at the restaurant next door, and shoppers passed by the end of the cul-de-sac. I could hear mobile phones ringing, and somewhere an old Queen song was drifting out of an open window. Standing on the little cobbled street, listening to the world I knew go about its daily business, it was hard to believe that I’d been deep below for – how long? I must have been gone for over twenty-four hours.
“We have to be back in the lift in exactly an hour,” said Dane, pointing to the church clock tower. It was just finishing chiming for a quarter past twelve.
“Come on then, this way,” I called as I set off.
We jogged through the streets, past all the delivery drivers and mothers with their pushchairs, and within ten minutes we were at the end of my road. My heart sank as I turned the corner and saw the police car parked outside. I caught Dane’s arm and hauled him to a stop.
“We’re in trouble. That’s the police. If you don’t want to answer a pile of difficult questions you’ll have to make yourself scarce.”
“What are we doing here anyway? This is your house. We’re supposed to be getting the medicine.”
“And I need something from in there to do that! You’re going to have to let me sneak in there somehow.”
“And have you expose us to the police?”
“Look,” I said as patiently as I could. “I’m not going to do that, but I have to get in there. Alone I can probably convince them that I’m OK. With you we’re doomed. You have no identity, no address, nothing. They’ll arrest you for kidnapping
me and then everything could unravel. Let me do this and I’ll see you at the warehouse. I promise I’ll be back in time. I want to save Will more than you know.”
He lifted up his hands in protest but then the door of our house was wrenched open. I could see the familiar figure of Nan moving surprisingly quickly down the front steps.
“Lily Blackthorne, you get in here this minute!” she shouted as I ran up the road. “Where have you been? And who’s he? Do you have any idea at all of what I’ve been through?”
When I reached her she grabbed hold of my arm tightly, and then, as she ran out of breath, she pulled me into a bear hug. For someone who looked so frail she had quite a squeeze on her.
“Don’t you ever do that to me again. I thought you’d gone, that I’d lost you…”
I realised with horror that she was actually crying. Nan never cried, ever, not even at Titanic. Over her shoulder I could see a policewoman speaking into her radio.
“It looks as if she’s home, Sarge. Yes. I’ll do the necessary.” She snapped the radio off and looked at me sternly. “I take it you’re Lily? Care to share with us where you’ve been all night? You’ve frightened Mrs Wakefield half to death.”
She stood in the hallway with her arms folded, wearing her sensible police-issue shoes, and for the first time I really didn’t know what to do. I had to tell them about the Community, about the wild animals living just under the Tube network. It wasn’t safe to keep it all secret. But if I did I was going to be hours, and the longer it took, the less chance I had of saving Will. Thinking about it like that made the decision easy.
I patted Nan on the back and faced the policewoman, letting Nan compose herself before she turned round. I knew she wouldn’t want me to see her crying.
“I’m sorry, Nan – Officer,” I added, nodding at her. “I guess I didn’t really notice the time. I’ve been out with some friends.”
“So not on the choir trip then?” The policewoman picked up the note I had scribbled so hurriedly. “And it’s Constable Clark.”
“No,” I whispered, hanging my head.