“Motion sensors,” Katie whispered, “but so old. You’d have to cross the beam to sound the alarm. Why not just use radar? It’s a lot harder to detect. Why these old light beams?”
“I don’t know,” Alison muttered. “Come on, let’s go around them.”
They walked along the perimeter of the trees for some distance, conscious of the blank windows of the Center to their left. It was easy to believe they were being watched. They quickly came to the circle of limes. Eva’s brother spoke.
“It’s clear here. There’s a path right through the wood that will take you to the main road.”
“This way,” Eva said. “It’s clear.”
“This isn’t right,” said Nicolas. “Weren’t we supposed to be traveling at random? We should be tossing the coin, not listening to her brother.”
They all looked toward the dim outline of Katie. Her whispered reply was loud in the silence of the dew-muffled night.
“It can’t be helped. Better to be a little predictable at the beginning than to be caught before we even start.”
“Good point,” said Alison. “Eva, you go first. We may as well make use of your brother while he’s still here.”
She fumbled in a pocket for a moment, then pressed something into Eva’s hand.
“You’d better use this,” she said.
It was a flashlight. Eva turned it on and a circle of light appeared on the damp leaf mold covering the ground before her. Pale, heart-shaped lime leaves were scattered all around. Autumn was coming.
“Take a handful of leaves,” said her brother. “It may be enough to remember me by.”
Eva bent to scoop some leaves from the ground, dipping her head into the rich smell of the wet forest floor. Nearby, the dark trunk of a lime rose into the black sky, an untidy collection of young twigs sprouting from its base. She took hold of one and bent and twisted it until it snapped, and then folded it up into a springy circle that could be stashed in one of the large pockets in her anorak.
“Have you finished yet?” Alison hissed angrily.
“Yes. Let’s go.”
They pushed their way on into the darkness of the woods, Eva leading the way, picking out the path with the flashlight, Alison just behind her, then Nicolas and Katie bringing up the rear. The wood was silent and incredibly dark. Eva, like most people, had lived all her life taking streetlights for granted. To have her vision reduced to a circle of light, to a picture of low roots with traffic-blown litter wrapped around them, to thin branches reaching out to snag her face, and to a shifting pattern of darkness where the light could not reach—this was almost too frightening.
“We should have reached the road by now,” whispered Alison. “I think we’re lost.”
“No, this is right,” whispered Eva.
“In that case, why can’t we hear the traffic?” Alison snapped.
“I don’t know.” That had been worrying her, too.
“It’s the woods,” Katie murmured. “They muffle the sound.”
“Good point,” said Eva, although she was sure she detected a note of uncertainty in Katie’s voice. She pushed her hand into her pocket to feel the lime twig.
“What do you think?” she asked, but there was no reply. Her brother had gone. She almost turned around at that point, but just then there was a sudden blaze of light before them and a roar of noise that sent a wind dancing through the surrounding twigs and branches.
“Shit!”
Eva didn’t know who had shouted; she rather thought it might have been her. She felt incredibly relieved and foolish at the same time when she realized that she had just seen a truck rushing past on the main road before her. There was another whoosh as three cars zoomed past in rapid succession.
“I think we’ve found the road,” she whispered, then started to giggle.
The four of them clustered at the edge of the forest, just hidden from the occasional traffic that roared past in a blaze of lights, their nerves jangled. Alison held her coin in one hand.
“Okay, heads we go straight on into the woods on the other side, tails we take the road. We’ll toss again for left and right if appropriate. Fair enough?”
“Yes,” Nicolas said.
“No,” said Katie. “That choice favors the road unduly. If it’s heads, we should toss again to see whether we go forward or back.”
“Go back? But that’s ridiculous,” Nicolas spluttered.
“If we are going to try to fool the Watcher, we have to follow the coin,” said Alison. “Every time we ignore the toss, we’re allowing our personalities to shine through, and the Watcher can read our personalities. We need to hide them from it as much as we can.”
“Alison is right.” Katie gulped, then continued quickly, almost without pause. “Anything that we decide for ourselves can be deduced by the Watcher. It set the motion sensor at the edge of the wood in case we came this way. Who knows what else may have picked us up? If it can guess our next move, it may set more traps. We have to try to be unpredictable. If the coin says go back, we go back.”
She gasped for air. They all waited a moment for her to get her breath back, then Alison spoke.
“Okay, you heard Katie. Are we agreed?” she asked.
“Agreed,” said Nicolas, after a moment’s hesitation.
“Agreed,” said Eva.
A truck rushed past, sending old burger wrappers spinning around them in a gust of apple-scented fumes. Alison tossed the coin as silence slowly resettled on the wood.
“Heads,” she called. “Okay, we’re not going to follow the road. So, heads we go forwards, tails we go back.”
In the dim light, Eva could just see Nicolas’ silhouette shake its head slowly.
Alison spun the coin again. “Heads again. Okay, straight across the road and down into the deeper woods.”
“This is stupid,” Nicolas said. “What can we do in there? We can’t travel very fast and we’ll get lost. In a couple of hours they’ll be out with IR detectors looking for us. They’ll have us back at the Center in time for lunch.”
Alison sighed deeply. “Nicolas, I thought we agreed?”
Nicolas was obstinate. “So what? It’s stupid. We should head along the road, lose ourselves in a town.”
Eva pushed a hand in her pocket and began to fiddle with the springy piece of twig. She was tempted to just turn around and walk back to the Center. What was she doing, out here in the middle of the night with a bunch of loonies tossing coins to see where they were going? She could be back at the Center, receiving help while she talked to the ghost of her brother. She laughed a little at the absurdity of the thought.
Katie was speaking now, trying to be reasonable, but her voice sounded high-pitched and nervous.
“Nicolas, how do you know we would lose ourselves in a town? If the Watcher expects us to go there, it will have senses already waiting. We may think that we have escaped, but all the time the Watcher could be leading us closer to itself. There may be an empty building with a loose board over the window inviting us inside. Or maybe we’ll see a truck just ahead all parked up for the night with the back open, waiting for us to stow away inside it. How do we know it wouldn’t be a trap?”
Nicolas sighed, exasperated.
“I know what you’re saying, but we’d be stupid to fall for something like that, wouldn’t we? If we saw something as obvious as a truck with the back open, we’d ignore it. Or maybe toss the coin then. But not now. This is ridiculous. This is leading us nowhere. What do you say, Eva?”
The question took Eva by surprise. She guiltily pulled her hand from her pocket and stared into the darkness.
“I don’t know,” she stammered. “I take your point, Nicolas, but I think we should listen to Katie. This was her plan. She knows what she’s doing.”
Alison spoke up.
“Anyway, Nicolas, I want you with us.” She used her little girl voice. Eva wasn’t sure, but she thought there was something there, right at the edge of her vision. Was Alison
touching Nicolas?
Nicolas’ voice was grudging. “I want to stay with the group,” he said. “But this is stupid.”
“Do it for me,” said Alison. “Just this once.”
He’s never going to fall for that, Eva thought, but Nicolas spoke and his voice was strained. Just what was she doing to him? Eva didn’t want to know.
“Okay,” Nicolas whispered. “I’ll come with you. But just this time.”
They waited for a lull in the traffic before running across the road. There was a ditch at the far side between the road and the trees, then the rusted remains of a wire fence. Alison took the flashlight from Eva and swung the beam left and right.
“There’s a gap this way. Come on.”
“Shouldn’t we toss the coin?” Nicolas said petulantly, but he followed anyway.
They stumbled through the ditch until they came to a point where a rotten wooden post originally holding up the wire fence had fallen. Alison held the torch to form a path of light and they skipped across it, the wires twanging beneath their feet. Alison threw the flashlight to Eva, who caught it and then used it to illuminate the path for her companion. There was a roar of a truck approaching, headlights washing onto the road, and Eva turned off the beam. She turned it back on to find Alison picking herself up and rubbing her knee. The metal lace grips on her boots were tangled with the wires. Alison angrily pulled her foot free.
“Are you okay?” Eva said.
“I’ll be fine,” muttered Alison, taking the flashlight from her. “Come on.”
They walked on through the woods, following her.
The smell of leaf mold gave way to that of pine, the ground became springy and clear of other obstructions, the trees regularly spaced. The land began to rise and fall in regular waves and walking became a lot more tiring.
“We’re in a managed forest,” said Katie. “There will be roads. They will be easier to follow.”
“Only if the coin says so,” Alison said grimly.
Glancing up through the gaps in the trees, Eva could see pale morning light creeping over the world. A gentle rain was falling above; around them they could hear the steady drip and splash as it made its way through the canopy to fall to the ground. They came to a narrow forest road, a long scar of mud churned by heavy tires into water-filled ribbons.
Alison tossed the coin. “Left,” she said, and they were all relieved to take that path. Walking would be a lot easier.
“If we don’t come to a junction in fifteen minutes, I toss the coin again,” she said. “Agreed?”
“Agreed,” said Katie and Eva.
“Nicolas?”
There was a long pause.
“Agreed,” Nicolas said finally.
It was easier following the road, but not that much easier. They had to run along the edges of it, jumping from wet, swampy patches of mud to other less firm footings in an attempt to keep their feet dry. Nicolas jumped onto what looked like a firm patch of ground and his left sneaker sank deep into the mud. He pulled his filthy, sopping foot out of it and swore.
“I told you sneakers would be no good out here,” Alison commented unhelpfully.
“Some of us can’t afford proper boots,” Nicolas snapped. “And anyway, not all of us would think to bring them to the Center with us.”
Dawn had broken above them: the edges of the clouds picked out in pale lemon light. On the ground, in the narrow strip of land between the trees, it was still dark enough for them to need to use the flashlight. They walked two abreast, Alison swinging the light back and forth so they could all see where to jump. Occasionally she swung it ahead of them and they saw the seemingly endless road vanishing into the distance.
“Do you get the feeling we’re being watched?” said Nicolas.
“That’s just paranoia,” Alison said. Eva shivered. Alison was making sense, but Eva had the same feeling. She kept quiet, however. Katie gave a yelp of surprise.
“What is it?” called Alison.
“Up ahead. Something flashed at us.”
They stopped dead. Water was soaking through Eva’s shoes, oozing slowly through her socks, but she felt too frightened to move. Alison shone the flashlight back and forth. Two eyes flashed back at them. Perfectly circular eyes, about a meter apart, just above ground level. Eva felt her pounding heart shudder at the sight of them.
Katie gave a sudden laugh. “It’s a car. It’s just an old car.”
They all laughed nervously as they crowded forward. It was an old car, abandoned in the woods. The light beam had been reflected from the headlights.
“What’s it doing here?” Eva wondered.
“It’s watching us,” muttered Nicolas. “It’s the Watcher. It knows where we are. So much for tossing a coin. We should have hitched a lift into town and lost ourselves there.”
Alison spoke with ill-concealed disgust. “It’s just an old car in the middle of the woods. You’re being paranoid.”
Nicolas gave a high-pitched laugh. “I’m being paranoid? Well, golly! There’s an inspired psychological insight if I ever heard one! Of course I’m being paranoid! It’s what I do. It’s why they locked me up! I’m good at it! Hey! Maybe it’s paranoia that makes me think that you don’t escape a highly intelligent super-being by tossing a coin a few times.”
He was pointing his finger at Alison. She shone the flashlight in his face in retaliation; he ignored it.
“Look, it’s got all the exits watched. It knows exactly what we’re doing and where we are going. We may as well give up now. If nothing else, it will save us getting any colder or wetter!”
Alison took a deep breath, trying to be patient. “Nicolas, we’re all cold and wet…”
“Some of us more than others. Or don’t you agree, Miss Hiking Boots?”
“Can anyone else hear something?” interrupted Eva.
They all fell silent, listening.
“Nothing,” Alison said eventually.
“I thought I heard something, too,” Katie whispered.
They stood in silence for a little longer, but heard nothing more.
“Okay,” Alison said, “time to toss the coin again. Heads straight on or back, tails left or right.”
“This is stupid,” said Nicolas. “Let’s go left and head back to the road. We’re bound to hit it eventually. After that we’ll just head for town, like we should have done all along.”
“No!” Alison snapped. “We agreed on this method. We can’t go back now.”
She tossed the coin.
“Tails,” she said. She tossed it again. “Okay, we’re going right.”
“I’m not going,” said Nicolas. Katie and Eva exchanged glances. They could see the other two glaring at each other in the dim light.
Alison’s voice was low, almost a snarl. “Don’t be so childish,” she said.
“I’m not being childish,” Nicolas said. “This is common sense. It’s onto us, face it. The Watcher is so good it can probably see the way the coin lands. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was even able to predict it.”
Alison sighed. “If it’s that clever, then it makes no difference what we do. We’re going this way. Follow us if you like, I don’t care.”
She turned and climbed up a steep bank, heading back between the regularly spaced trunks of the pine forest. After a moment’s hesitation, Eva and Katie followed her. When they looked back, they could see the dark shape of Nicolas stamping angrily along behind them.
A warm autumn morning was waking around them. They came upon another logging road and followed it for some distance until a toss of the coin sent them marching across a large area of freshly cleared forest. They made slow progress, jumping over tree stumps and wide water-filled pits. Katie tore her anorak on the sharp edge of a broken branch sticking up from the ground.
“I was lucky,” she muttered. “It could have been my leg.”
“Toss the bloody coin, Alison,” Nicolas said. “Get us out of here.”
“After another ten minutes
,” Alison replied grimly.
“Look at those.” Eva changed the subject. “Aren’t they old?”
The tops of a line of electricity pylons could be seen just above the trees ahead of them. They were of an old-fashioned design, constructed of a lattice of weak-looking metal, rather than being formed from an elegant curve of stronger stuff. They looked strangely appropriate in their surroundings, as if they had grown there naturally.
They entered a patch of older woodland. The trees here were not planted in such good order. Oaks and sycamores fought for space, while tangles of glossy rhododendrons had infiltrated the forest clearings where trees had fallen. The land began to slope downward; they could peer out through the trees to see a valley cutting through the land before them.
“Let’s stop for a moment,” Eva called. She halted and began to pull off her anorak. Alison and Nicolas did the same.
“It’s too hot now that the sun is up,” she explained. “I’m thirsty, too. How much water do we have left?”
Nicolas was carrying the group’s entire supply in a couple of two-liter milk containers tucked into his shoulder bag. He unzipped it and checked.
“Just over a bottle’s worth. We weren’t expecting to be wandering around here in the woods for so long, were we? I thought there was nowhere in the country that was more than five minutes from a burger restaurant.”
He gazed at Eva, silently pleading with her to help. Eva felt as if she should say something. Katie wouldn’t, Nicolas wouldn’t be listened to. It was down to her.
“Alison?” she said.
“What?” Alison stood with hands on hips, gazing out over the valley.
Eva tied the anorak around her waist.
“This walking is exhausting. I know we need to evade the Watcher, but it will do us no good if we die of thirst in this forest.”
“Yes?” said Alison.
Eva sighed. Alison wasn’t being very helpful.
She pressed on. “Well, we’re spending a lot of time walking across very rough terrain. It’s exhausting. I think we should think a little bit less about randomness, and a little more about putting some distance between us and the Center. We must be barely two kilometers from the place as the crow flies.”
Recursion Page 21