by S. C. Ransom
The Farmer wasn’t there to save us from the Crop, to protect us as the lift sped upwards.
The screeching of metal on stone abruptly stopped. There was only the comparative silence as the lift carried on clanking, working its way up the shaft. Will caught my eye then turned to see what I was looking at. He realised the problem immediately.
“He’s not letting us go, is he?”
“I don’t think so. There’s no gate – nothing to stop them swarming in.”
“How do we stop this thing?”
He spun round again, staring at the walls before turning on the Farmer. Grabbing him by the arm, Will pulled him round to face us.
“Where on earth are the buttons?” yelled Will.
The Farmer smiled slightly and shook Will’s hand from his arm. “It was very naive of you two to think that I was ever going to let you go. You know far too much. It’s time to accept your fate.”
Dane is walking me towards the cells. He’s not talking because too many people are watching us – watching me. The women all look distraught, and Maria reaches out for my arm as we pass her. She is very pregnant.
“Is the rumour true?” She looks between me and Dane, who nods.
“He’s let them go but she’s to be punished.” He is using his Listener voice, trying to sound commanding, but Maria knows better. She steps forward, barring my way down the tunnel.
“Thank you for the medicine, Aria. That was unbelievably brave. I’m so sorry that … this had to happen. I wish it could be different.”
“It was my friend who got the medicine, not me.”
She gives a tight smile. “But it was you who found the friend.” She rests her hand on her round belly. “This one has a chance to live now.”
Before I can reply I hear the sound of running footsteps, and I see Lance coming round the corner, very red in the face. Dane sees him too, and I hear his sharp intake of breath. Lance reaches us and stops, bending down for a moment as he gasps.
“He hasn’t, has he?” Dane’s question is urgent.
Lance looks up and nods miserably, still unable to speak
“NO!” Dane slams his fist into the wall.
This is bad. I feel the cold fear racing down my spine.
“Tell me!” I shout, grabbing at his sleeve. “What’s happened?”
He turns towards me and I see the water glistening in his eyes. “The Farmer has taken them up himself.”
My knees turn to jelly. The small crowd of women in the tunnel are silent, mouths open in horror. There is only one time that the Farmer takes anyone up in the lift, and they never come back down.
I want to fight, to scream, to lash out, but instead I run. Dane doesn’t try to stop me as I dodge everyone and race down the familiar tunnel, trying to run away from my own thoughts.
They will be sacrificed to the Crop, torn to pieces and eaten alive. I can feel the bile rising in my throat as I think about it. Is it already done? Has the lift delivered them to their end? We all know roughly what happens – the rumours tell us that, but none of us knows the truth.
Does Lily have the Affinity? Will she know what to do?
It was our plan that brought her here, but we didn’t expect this. It’s my fault that she’s in that lift, waiting to be delivered to the Crop.
The tears in my eyes make it hard to see, and I stumble as I misjudge a corner. As I fall I catch my shoulder on the wall. The force spins me round and I end up in a heap on the floor. All I want to do is curl up into a ball, but as I sit there hugging my knees I hear an unexpected noise. Something is whining and scraping in a room a little way ahead. I get to my feet and creep along the tunnel.
The room is gloomy. This part of the Community is where we store things now, and people rarely come this way. Most of the rooms are full of boxes or are unfinished. I peer round the edge of the door and then start back in surprise.
“Foggy! What are you doing here?”
The dog is wearing a belt as a lead, and it’s wedged between two rocks. The more he’s pulled, the tighter it’s got, and he’s desperate to get past me and away. He looks even bigger in this tiny space. I’ve never noticed the teeth before, and I don’t want to get anywhere near them. He starts to whine. I know that I’m going to have to go into the room. I feel my heart pounding as I start to edge my way round the wall. The smell is terrible and I breathe through my mouth to stop me gagging. As I get closer I see the knot on the collar.
I’m going to have to touch the dog.
All I want to do is run, and I feel cold and clammy. My hand is shaking as I reach forward. The dog jumps up and licks my hand, and I yelp and leap backwards, rubbing my hand down my trousers to get rid of the lick. Foggy sits down immediately, almost as if he knows I don’t like it. Taking a deep breath I edge closer again.
First I try to loosen the lead from between the rocks, but it’s wedged fast. I pull with all my strength but it won’t budge. Now I have no choice. I reach out for his collar, feeling the fur on my fingers. It’s more slippery than I expect, and that makes it worse. There is something horribly creepy about fur.
I concentrate on the collar and the lead that is knotted tightly on to it. It takes me a moment to work it loose, finally releasing the dog, and with an astonishing burst of power he’s gone. With a single bark he shoots down the corridor and disappears round a corner. I slump back against the doorway, drained.
“Find them, Foggy,” I whisper to the walls. “Help them.”
The lift shuddered to a halt.
Will was looking at me in absolute horror as the Farmer’s words sank in, and both of us stepped backwards in the lift, away from the gaping cavern. The dim light from inside the lift lit up a small circle of the space and I could see the closest columns, rough-hewn from the rock. On the floor at one side was the stick we had brought from Nan’s, abandoned during the race to get away from the Crop.
The Farmer strode out of the lift and picked up the stick, shaking his head. He walked to the closest column and reached up, where a small recess was carved out of the rock at about head height. He lifted out a small box, and seconds later I heard the rasp of a match. He lit an old-fashioned oil lamp, adjusting the wick before he lifted it out of the recess. Then he turned towards us.
“There is no point in trying to run. The Crop will find you. Follow me and it will be over with quickly.” He turned and walked away.
Both of us were pressed against the back wall of the lift. I remembered the journey up with Dane and what happened when the Crop arrived, and I could feel my whole body shaking.
“No, no, this can’t be happening,” I whispered, almost paralysed by fear.
“What can we do?” cried Will, staring around wildly and feeling the walls for some controls. “They have to be somewhere!”
“Shh! Don’t let them hear you!” I hissed, shaking myself into action. “There was a huge gate – you know, one of those concertina grilles – across the doorway before. Where is it?”
We lunged for either side of the lift doorframe, both trying to find the concealed grille. I could just see it, pressed back into the lift frame, but although I could get my fingers to it, it wouldn’t budge.
“It’s locked into place,” I said, trying and failing to prise it out. “We’re never going to move that.”
Will joined me, peering into the dark recess. He tried too.
“It’s no good,” he said, standing back, “and we’re wasting time. We can’t go down as the lift is blocking the way on to the ledge. Maybe we could make a break for the stairs going up – just run for it.”
He spoke in a whisper, even though the Farmer was too far away to be able to hear us. I could still see the pool of light as he walked further into the cavern full of columns.
“I’m game for it,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Count of three?”
He nodded and reached for my hand.
“Three!” he shouted.
We leapt out of the lift and darted to the left. We hadn�
�t gone more than a few steps when the light from the lift went out.
“Damn! Did you see where we needed to go?”
“No, just that it was this general direction, around the back of the lift shaft. Let’s keep walking, but keep your hands out in front in case we hit something.”
I looked around but could no longer see the Farmer’s lamplight, and within a few seconds there was a grunt and Will’s footsteps stopped.
“Ran into a column,” he said. “Keep going left and we’ll find the wall.”
We turned, but at that moment the lift groaned again and started to move. In the darkness it was impossible to tell exactly which direction the noise had come from.
“Will, stop! With the lift gone there’s a huge hole to fall down. We must be more careful.”
“I’m glad to see that you two are putting up a fight.” The booming voice made me jump. “The Crop do like a chase. It improves their appetite.”
I put my hands out in the dark and found Will. Grasping hands tightly we circled around, desperately trying to see where the Farmer was standing. Eventually I glimpsed a small puddle of flickering light. The Farmer was bending down as if he was talking to someone. Or something.
“Look, he’s over there.” I pointed using the hand that was clasped to Will’s so he would know where to look.
“What’s he doing?”
“It’s difficult to tell. Whatever he’s looking at is still in the dark.” I hesitated for a moment. “Could we rush him and grab the lamp? If we had that then we could find the way out.”
“And risk walking headlong into whatever he’s got over there? I don’t think so!”
“We have to try something!” I cried. “I don’t want to just stand here and wait for those things, whatever they are.”
As we spoke the lamplight was getting closer, but we didn’t know where to run. My breath was coming in short, sharp bursts and I could feel Will’s fingers tighten hard around mine.
“Would you two like to see our secret before you die? I don’t often do this, but I think for such special guests I could make an exception.”
He was nearly on us. I wanted to run and hide, but the light was mesmerising, and somehow I was rooted to the spot. And then he was there, just a few metres away from us.
“Let’s see what we have here,” he said with relish.
The Farmer raised the lamp and fixed it to a hook on the nearest column, then turned a knob on the side. The flame shot up, making everything much, much brighter. Will and I were side by side, facing him, but he was watching something behind us. Smiling, he put his hand to his lips, but I couldn’t see clearly what he was doing.
There was a moment of silence before I heard the horribly familiar slithering noise. Seconds later the smell of rotten meat washed over me and I felt my legs turn to jelly. Was this really it? Was this how I was going to die?
I was shaking so hard I could barely move. I was suddenly icy cold, and every breath was a shallow gasp. Whatever the Crop was, it was right behind me. If I did have any sort of “Affinity” for it, as Dane believed, now was going to be the time to test it.
I felt Will’s fingers circle around mine as he swore under his breath. He took a step closer, pressing against me.
“Don’t turn round, Lily, please. Just keep your eyes shut.”
I dragged in a deep breath and closed my eyes tightly for a second. But I had to know. I had to confront the truth.
I turned to face the Crop.
Rats.
A seething sea of hundreds and hundreds of huge and hungry-looking rats.
They stood in a semicircle around us, teeth bared, sheltered between the columns. Some were still shaking their heads a bit at the sudden light, and all were swishing their snake-like tails. Hardly daring to move my head, I scanned around. They ranged in size from fairly normal-looking to monsters the size of small dogs with long, thick tails.
They made no sound except the creepy slithering of the tails on the stone floor; no squeaking or growling, just silence. Their yellow eyes watched us without blinking, mirroring the hideous yellow colour of their teeth – some of which were nearly as long as my fingers. The thought of what those teeth were about to do crystallised the fear inside me. I couldn’t speak or move, and I was having trouble breathing. Everything was starting to go black around the edges and I could feel that I was beginning to sway. If I fainted, maybe I wouldn’t feel the teeth. It wasn’t much comfort.
I shook myself and tried to focus. Blacking out wasn’t going to help Will, and if Dane was right, I had the ability to control these beasts.
I looked at their horrible eyes and picked one of the larger ones. BACK, I shouted in my head. Leave us alone! But, as I expected, absolutely nothing happened. How on earth was this Affinity supposed to work?
“Get back!” I shouted out loud, hoping that they would respond to my voice, but that did nothing either.
“Lily!” called Will, tugging at my hand as the Crop edged towards us. “Come on, we have to run for it!”
The Farmer laughed.
“And where exactly do you think you’ll be running to? You can’t deny the Crop their meal, not now they’re expecting you.”
That was an odd thing to say.
“What do you mean, expecting you?” I asked. “Was that why they didn’t attack before?”
“Maybe not as slow as we thought,” he said. “Exactly right. It really wasn’t so surprising that you got down to us, not when they can be anywhere in their tunnels. But no one can escape once I’ve called them. Now they’re just waiting for the command to feed.”
I looked at him closely in the lamplight.
“But you don’t have an Affinity with them, do you? No secret power? You just have a way of controlling them.”
I pointed to his hand, which was still clutching something.
“Keep him talking, Lily,” hissed Will. “They’re not coming any closer.”
“So what is it?” I asked, bargaining on the fact that he would like to brag. “Have you trained them from birth to obey your commands?”
“Training is the domain of the Farmers.”
“So all you’re doing is ensuring that your offspring remain in control!” interrupted Will. “There is no ‘Affinity’; you’re just running a dictatorship, and passing on the secret from father to son.”
“Very clever,” said the Farmer. “None of my people have made that connection, and you’ll not live long enough to tell them.”
“Another reason for keeping them ignorant and contained,” I said.
I shook my head and looked out across the sea of rats that were poised just metres away. There must be something I could do to stop them, to stop the wave of fur and teeth and long, slithery tails that were waiting to engulf us. All the Farmer had to do was … what? Whistle?
I knew what I had to do.
I grabbed at my necklace, hidden as usual beneath my T-shirt, scrabbling along the familiar trinkets until I came to the small silver whistle. It had never worked, not on human ears anyway.
I saw the Farmer’s eyes widen in shock as I lifted the whistle to my lips. He groped for his, but I was quicker. I blew through the tiny mouthpiece as sharply as I could, and the effect was electrifying. The rats instantly stopped their fidgeting and turned, and hundreds of beady yellow eyes fixed unblinkingly on us.
“Keep going, Lily!” cried Will, leaping towards the Farmer as I took another deep breath.
The Farmer got his whistle to his mouth but Will was there, knocking it out of his hand. It skittered sideways, chinking on the stone. The rats were standing perfectly still watching us, waiting to do what they had been trained to do.
“Back to me, Will, quickly!” I cried.
Will leapt back beside me, and I blew again and again. I just didn’t know what command I was giving. One of the largest rats sat back, lifting up its front legs, nose quivering in the air.
“Attack them!” screamed the Farmer, flapping his arms towards u
s. “Them! Over there!”
“Stay absolutely still,” I whispered to Will.
I gave another swift blow on the whistle, which was obviously making sounds that only they could hear. The big rat that was sitting up sprang up on its back legs and started racing towards the Farmer. A wave of others followed. The Farmer turned and ran, a swarm of scuttling bodies chasing after him. I grabbed Will and held him close as the sea of stinking rats pushed past us, their bodies horribly warm against my legs and their tails whipping us. The noise of those slithering tails grew to hideous levels as hundreds – thousands – of rats shot in and out of the circle of light. Their sheer volume was mind-numbing, and Will and I stayed as silent and still as possible as the swarm disappeared into the dark, following the Farmer wherever he had gone.
My heart was hammering and my legs began to shake uncontrollably. I had to sit down before I fell.
“That was horribly, horribly close,” said Will, helping me down. “How on earth did you know how to do that?”
“Just a sec,” I breathed.
I put my head between my knees to stop myself feeling so sick. In a few moments the nausea passed and I sat back, pulling the hair back off my damp face.
“Nan always tells me that if you’re in trouble, you should whistle, and I remembered this.” I lifted up the chain to show him the little silver charm. “I used to blow it as a child but it never made a sound. I guess the pitch is right for their ears.”
“Wow. That’s a bit freaky.”
I thought so too.
“Where would Mrs W get a whistle like that?”
“No idea. She gave me this necklace years ago.”
“I can’t believe you remembered it. That was so close.” He sat down beside me, giving me a weak smile. “My legs don’t seem to be working so well. Shaking a bit.”
“That’s not all she gave me,” I said, thinking aloud. “She had all the medicines too.”
For a second we were both silent.
“So she happened to have the exact antibiotic you needed?” he asked.