by C. G. Hatton
“It’s closed,” I shouted back between breathless gasps.
“So where? Where’s the nearest shelter?”
“The outpost.”
It looked way off.
I glanced behind us. The dust cloud was blowing into the city.
I yelled, “Go. Get to the outpost.”
I couldn’t move any faster. Maisie was trying to drag the others into a run. They were all crying. People behind us were shouting. The soldiers up ahead were shouting. And the whole time, the siren was wailing. We couldn’t move fast enough. The last time, when we’d come up out of the airtight shelter, the streets had been littered with dead bugs and dead birds. The wind was blowing it right at us and we couldn’t move fast enough. I knew it, from the distance and the wind speed. I almost pulled up and stopped trying to run but one of the kids had hold of my arm and was pulling me along.
I looked behind us again. At the far end of the street, people who’d been taken by surprise, caught in the open, were starting to drop, bodies falling to the road. Maisie was screaming at me. More of the soldiers were appearing, shouting, a couple of them breaking away and running towards us.
My eyes were watering, each breath getting harder.
I didn’t recognise Charlie until he was right there beside me, taking the little ones I was carrying and shouting to one of the others to get that kid inside. I didn’t know what he was talking about. I tried to see where Maisie was but someone grabbed me and lifted me off my feet. I started yelling but they just ran, threw me over their shoulder and ran. My head was spinning, grey closing in, each pounding footstep driving hammers into my skull.
It got dark, cool. I felt myself falling, dumped on the ground. I rolled and tried to get to my feet. I thought I was going to throw up. Someone reached a hand to my shoulder but I shrugged them off. There was shouting ahead of me. I blinked through the tears, trying to see, stumbling forward. People were at the door, shouting. I could hear Maisie screaming. There was an automated voice counting down, warning us to stand clear.
Charlie was still out there.
I could see him running, carrying two of the kids, pulling another behind him. He was shouting.
Maisie was in the doorway, fighting to get free from the soldier who was holding her there, Spacey with them, just standing screaming.
I pushed my way through. Everyone was shouting, willing them to get in.
In a heartbeat, the countdown stopped. Someone yanked me backwards.
And the door slammed shut.
Chapter 18
My heart was in my throat. One of the other soldiers began hammering at the override, swearing at the damned AI to open up.
I struggled free and threw myself at the door. Charlie and the others were four steps away. I could see them through the window.
“Get it open,” I yelled. I spun round. “They’re right here. Get it open.”
The guy was thumping at the override.
Three steps.
“Toxicity levels high,” the AI was saying over the comm unit. “Facility secure.”
We were all screaming at it to open the door.
Two steps.
The dust cloud was right behind them. It swirled.
I yelled again. The soldier next to me was swearing, ripping the panel off the wall to get to the controls.
Charlie stumbled to one knee, trying to shelter the kids, drawing them close and falling as the dust enveloped them. It crashed against the door, turning the window orange.
I stood, staring, numb.
It was deathly quiet in there.
The AI said again in its clipped voice, “Toxicity levels high. Facility secure.”
I couldn’t move.
I’ve never trusted an AI since.
Someone took me by the shoulder and led me away. They gave us oxygen. Maisie sat opposite me. She had Spacey on her knee, hugging her tight. I stared at them over the top of the mask, still struggling to breathe, eyes still watering.
No one talked to us. Someone gave us meds, to counter the effects of any gas we might have been exposed to, I overheard someone say.
I felt sick. People were moving all around us. It blurred into slow motion. My vision closed in and my reality flashed back to that dark night and the pouring rain. The screams, the explosions. The cold and paralysing fear. I started to shiver and I couldn’t stop.
I was so lost, it felt like I would never find my way back but a gentle insistent whisper filtered through somehow and enticed me back to the outpost. Maisie had her arm around me. Someone had thrown a blanket over our shoulders. I leaned in to her and cried.
The outpost was kept under lockdown for about sixteen hours. We weren’t the only civilians in there. There was a woman I recognised as one of the schoolteachers from across the road and two people I hadn’t seen before. We sat in a corner and they stared at us. Spacey kept asking where the others were like she’d forgotten what had happened already. She was four or five and I couldn’t look at her without thinking that was how small I’d been back then.
Even when the all clear was given, they didn’t let us go. I could hear the schoolteacher talking to the soldiers about us. Maisie and Spacey were asleep, curled up on a bench.
I stared into nothing.
After a while, one of the soldiers walked up. He was wearing battle armour, sergeant’s stripes, and for a second I thought it was Charlie and it was as if nothing had happened. But he took his helmet off and he had dark hair. Not Charlie. Charlie was dead.
I knew I wasn’t looking terribly welcoming but I couldn’t shift up a gear. It was like I’d zoned out and I didn’t want to go back.
He looked at me, awkward, and crouched beside us.
“Hey,” he said, like Charlie always had.
I didn’t say anything.
He put a ration pack down on the bench. He looked uncomfortable, like he wasn’t used to talking to kids.
I said, “Thank you,” to be polite.
“You’re the kid that does the numbers?”
I shrugged.
“I…” He rooted about in his pocket and I thought he was going to pull out a chocolate bar but he just pulled out his hand, clenched, and opened it, palm up, offering it to me.
It was a chain with tags.
I almost cried again but he was staring me in the eye so I sucked it up and stared back.
“Charlie didn’t have any family,” he said, controlled as if he was sucking it up too. “We’re sure he would’ve wanted you to have these.”
I took the tags and wrapped the chain around my hand.
“There’s these as well,” he said, digging out some other stuff.
It was the black band Charlie had always worn around his wrist and a pocket knife.
I took them.
The guy glanced down at Maisie and Spacey then looked back at me. “We know Charlie was trying to get you out of here. We’re seeing what we can do. Okay, bud?”
I was biting my lip so bad I could taste blood. I nodded solemnly, the tags cold in my hand.
“Don’t leave here. You understand?”
I nodded again.
He stood and backed off, looking at us as if he was going to say something and deciding against it.
The schoolteacher was still looking at us as he walked away.
I sat there, clutching Charlie’s stuff, my heart thumping. I had his deck of cards in my pocket. It felt like I had custody of his life and I didn’t know if I was big enough to do him justice.
I put everything in my pocket and stood. Maisie would kill me but I couldn’t just sit there any more. Not without Latia. And it somehow felt like if Maisie was there and she had Spacey to look after, she wouldn’t be able to run out after me and she’d be safe. I just needed to go get Latia. And Peanut. And Benjie. And anyone else I could find.
The schoolteacher stood and tried to intercept me. I mumbled something about needing the bathroom and she let me go, giving me that look I’d seen before, somewhere betwee
n wanting to look after me and worrying I was going to steal something from her.
I didn’t take anything from her but I did sideswipe a couple of data boards that were lying there, without anyone seeing.
There was no one else in the restroom. I locked the door and ran the tap for a bit in case anyone was listening. There was a small window in there that someone had pushed open already. I could hardly put any weight on my knee but I refastened the brace tighter, hoisted myself up and climbed out.
The air was still, a tang of bitterness to it that caught at the back of my throat. I climbed up to the roof and sat there for a minute, working out my bearings and figuring out the watch positions.
I didn’t want to go round to the front. I was dreading seeing Charlie and the little ones lying there on the ground outside but they were gone and the street looked like nothing had happened.
The sun was setting. I found a place to sit and wait, beyond any prying eyes and nowhere near any of the AI sensors. There was a constant echo of gunfire dancing around the city blocks. I stared at the tags and read the inscription, ‘ANDERTON C.’, with a long number and blood group etched below it. I took the knife out of my pocket and carefully scratched an ‘L’ before the ‘C’ then hooked the chain over my neck.
I sat back and watched the shadows lengthen, the sky darken, checking out the stuff on the boards. I couldn’t see from there but I could still hear the UM bombardment of the crashed ship, as relentless as it had been. Gas doesn’t affect combat soldiers in full powered armour. They’d know nothing of the dramas going on in our little colony. They probably didn’t give a hoot about the KRM and the Empire’s claim on the place. They just wanted whatever it was that had crashed out there. If it did belong to Aries, they’d probably show up soon and join the fight for it. I half hoped they would. Aries was supposed to have kick-ass gunships.
I waited until it was dark then I slid down, crept into the street, retrieved the crutches that were still lying where I’d dropped them, and I slipped away into the back alleys.
I had no idea where Dayton was holding Latia and I can’t even remember what I was thinking. That I could bargain maybe? That if I gave myself up, they’d let her go. Or that I could go down there and confront them, find out why the hell they thought I’d betrayed them. I do know that I considered going to the garrison and telling them everything. If I was being accused of being a traitor, I might as well be. Screw them.
Except they had Latia and I’d never let her down.
I needed to get changed and I had clothes at Latia’s place so I made my way there, avoiding Dayton’s guys. They were openly out in the street, guns out, scarves drawn up over their faces, blazing braziers at every street corner. They were laughing, joking around, as if they had such a high hand that the Earth forces weren’t even a threat any more.
It wasn’t hard to slip past them, weird to feel like I was entering enemy territory when I was heading into what used to be home. I didn’t know where I belonged any more. And what was worse, I didn’t know where I wanted to belong.
They had people posted on watch all along Latia’s street as well as up on the roof opposite the back alley.
I stayed low, snuck into a building three doors down and limped down into the cellars. I knew the rat runs down there with my eyes closed. There were some places I was too big to squeeze through any more but enough that I could still get through to make my way round and into Latia’s.
It was dark and quiet inside her house. I could feel that there wasn’t anyone in there, just that empty stillness you can sense when you walk into an unoccupied building. It was eerie. I felt like I was intruding, as if it had been years since I’d been there with her, not just a few days. My stomach felt cold.
I abandoned the crutches and crawled through to retrieve my box, rummaging with shaking hands through all my stuff until I found the small pot I was looking for. I had to force myself to close the box back up and put it away as carefully as I always had when all I wanted to do was abandon it as if none of it mattered any more. It was almost as if I knew I was never going back.
I dragged myself upstairs and limped into my old room. It felt alien, like I was intruding on someone else’s life.
I emptied the pockets of the shorts onto the bed and stripped off, pausing for a second when I was half undressed to prod at the dressing taped to my stomach. It was still tender but nowhere near as bad as it had been. I was tempted to pull it off and have a look but there was a noise outside that spooked me into hurrying up.
I changed into my things, the darkest stuff I had, and wrapped Charlie’s band around my forearm, feeling it constrict with a sting. Faint numbers started to scroll across its matt surface. There was the time, something that looked like a temperature reading and other stuff that meant nothing to me but it all looked cool. I pulled the sleeves down, put his knife into my pocket and grabbed the pot of camouflage paint.
I stood there, looking at it, heart pounding. I opened the lid, scooped out some of the black and rubbed it into my hair as if I could scrub out who I was.
I stared at my reflection in the dirty window and drew a thick horizontal line of black paint across each cheekbone.
The data boards were all I had that could make a difference with Dayton. I stuffed them into a backpack, pulled up the hood of my shirt, grabbed the crutches and left.
I kept to the back alleys and the shadows. It sounded like the entire southern side of the city belonged to the resistance, pretty much the whole way up to Main. I didn’t see any Imperial patrols, no tanks, no gunships. I took care but I was almost daring Dayton’s men to confront me. I stood at street corners and watched them, breathing in the smoke, the heightened emotions and bravado they were emanating. They were being so cocky, it would have been easy to think they had made a deal with UM.
I worked my way round, heading for one of the safe houses. I reckoned I needed to get into the tunnels. Get to Dayton himself to get him to free Latia. Something was screwy and I just needed to sort it out, make sure I didn’t run into Calum or any of his cronies and just make it to the tunnels.
Even with the crutches and a busted knee, I made my way past their blockades easily. And the longer I got away with it, the more reckless I got. It was funny.
Until someone grabbed my shirt and dragged me backwards into a doorway.
Chapter 19
My knee twisted and I almost screamed, biting it back and fighting them off, squirming free and backing away, turning to run, except they caught me again and spun me around, pulling me close and hissing into my ear, “Quit it, squirt. What the hell are you doing?”
I stopped struggling and stood there, chest heaving, trying to balance on the crutches to get the weight off my knee.
Benjie. Probably the only one who had a chance of predicting what I’d do and where I’d go.
He straightened me up and I thought he was going to shove me away but he grabbed me in a bear hug.
“We heard some of the kids got caught in the gas,” he said quietly, his voice catching.
“Maisie and Space are alive. They’re at the outpost. The others…” I couldn’t say it.
He pushed me away gently, holding me by each arm. “What are you doing, Luka? It’s not safe for you to be out here.”
He had a rifle on his back, a gash across one eyebrow and a dirty bandage wrapped around his hand. He didn’t look grown up and cool any more, he looked like a tired kid.
“I have a way out,” I said. “I can get us away from here, all of us.”
He stared at me, glanced away behind me out into the street, and pulled me further in to the doorway. “There is no way out. And if you get caught, Dayton is going to shoot you. Do you understand that?”
I pushed him away and scowled. “I don’t understand why.”
He frowned at me.
I shrugged the backpack off and pulled out one of the boards. “I’ve got the latest codes for him, stats on troops and everything. There’s even some stuff
about UM.”
Benjie was looking at me like I was crazy.
“I want to trade,” I said. “I want him to let Latia go. We’re going to get away.”
He shook his head slowly. “Won’t work. Whatever you’ve got on there. Dayton wants you dead, Luka. You don’t know why?”
I shrugged, frowning, half of me feeling ticked off and the other half planning another way in.
He didn’t look impressed. “I talked to Peanut. He said you do know why. C’mon, be straight with me. If you’ve got something on Dayton, tell me.”
“I don’t have anything. Why does Peanut think I do?”
Benjie shook his head. “Think about it, kid. You’ve done nothing but help Dayton and help our cause. Why does he suddenly think you’ve betrayed him?” He paused then added, pointedly, “If you haven’t.”
“I haven’t.” Even as I said it, I felt cold. I’ve learned a lot about the playing of games since I’ve been with the guild. That’s what we do. It’s all a game. Back then, I don’t even think it’s that I was naïve. I just wanted to fix everything.
But Dayton was playing a game. This whole thing was just because he thought I knew something about him. Something damning.
I almost laughed. “What the hell does Peanut think I have? Where is he?”
Benjie pulled the rifle round off his back. “I don’t know. He split. I don’t even know if he’s alive.”
My stomach knotted. “What?”
“Luka, I don’t know.”
I think I just gawped at him, heart thumping a steady numb rhythm.
He squeezed my shoulder, holding tight, looking at me the way he’d always used to whenever I’d screwed up and freaked out, and he’d had to talk me back to that steady, ever so fine line of being able to function.
“Listen to me.” He squeezed tighter. “Luka, listen to me. Peanut wouldn’t tell me what it was, but he said you knew and he said not to trust Dayton.”
“Why would he say that?” My voice sounded hollow, stomach twisting.
Benjie screwed up his face like he was done being patient with me. “I don’t know. He said you’ve been set up. Come on, Dayton was fine with you before you went into the comms centre. Did you get something from there? Have you told anyone?”