Mutant City

by Steve Feasey

  ‘There was an ambush. He was captured.’

  It was as if the wind had been knocked out of the older man. He shook his head and looked at the floor. ‘I should have come with you.’

  ‘We agreed you should stay here with the others. How could we have known they’d been betrayed?’ said Jax.

  ‘Silas?’ Rush said, addressing the man, who turned to look at him again. He was about the same age as Josuf, Rush’s former guardian, maybe a little older; the grey strands starting to pepper his dark hair matched his eyes, which were steely and intelligent. Rush thought it was a strong face.

  ‘I’m sorry. Forgive me, Rush. Yes, I’m Silas. I’ve been very much looking forward to meeting you again.’ He gave a little shake of his head. ‘I was hoping it would be under happier circumstances.’

  ‘We have to go after Brick. I should have stayed with him and fought those men as best I could, and –’

  ‘And then we’d have been launching a rescue for two instead of one.’

  ‘So we are going to rescue him?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘When? We should go now.’

  Silas sighed. ‘I understand how you feel, Rush, I really do. You’ve come a long way to get here, and no doubt you and Brick have formed a special bond – that was our hope when we sent you out across the Wastes. You see we hoped . . . no, we knew you’d find each other. You’re anxious to help him, but to hurry headlong into a rescue attempt without proper planning would be madness.’ He smiled kindly at the youngster. ‘I’d like you to come inside and meet the others first. Allow me to tell you who you are and why we had to bring you all here. Then –’

  ‘But we’re not all here, are we?’ Rush interrupted.

  ‘You can’t get into the city on your own, Rush.’

  ‘These “others”. Are they the five Brick spoke about?’

  ‘What has he told you?’

  ‘Not much. Just that there were five of us, and we were all made by the same bad man. I didn’t pay him much attention at the time – he says a lot of strange things – but he recognised Jax the minute he walked in the door.’

  A sad smile touched Silas’s lips. ‘There are indeed five of you. Brick is the eldest, then Jax. You and two girls are all the same age. They’re here too. You’ve met Anya already, and I understand you’ve also had a glimpse of her unique gift.’

  ‘She’s some kind of shape-shifter.’

  ‘She prefers the term polymorph, but essentially, yes.’ He paused. ‘There’s somebody else here who’s keen to see you.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Tinker.’

  Despite everything, Rush couldn’t help but show his delight. ‘Tink’s here?’

  ‘He says he told you he would be. Shall I take you to him?’

  Rush nodded and Silas led him through to one of the classrooms where, sitting at a table, was Tink. Upon seeing the teenage mutant, the older man put down the small book he’d been reading and stood up.

  ‘I’ll leave the pair of you alone,’ Silas said, closing the door behind him.

  Tink looked tired. He still wore his battered old hat, and he’d pulled it down in an effort to cover up a large cut over his eye that somebody had put six or seven stitches in. The cut, plus the scratches on his cheek and hands, told Rush that Tink’s journey, like his own, had not been without incident.

  They sat across from each other, neither saying anything for a while, just content to be in each other’s company again.

  ‘What happened?’ Rush said, gesturing at the wounds.

  ‘Nothing really. Anya and I had a little run-in with some people on the road here. You know how it is. Anyway, I understand you’ve had a rough old time of it yourself today?’

  ‘Yeah. You could say that.’

  The old man nodded. ‘I knew you’d make it across the Wastes. Just knew it. And I guess you found what you were supposed to at the trading post.’

  ‘Just about. The place was attacked by cannibals.’ Rush gave the man a searching look. ‘Why didn’t you tell me, Tink? All those times you visited us, and you didn’t say anything about the things you knew about me.’

  ‘Would you have felt safer if I had? Would you have grown up happier if I’d revealed that you were actually in hiding out there with Josuf? No. It’s better not to know some things, believe me.’

  Something about the way he said this made Rush stop and think. ‘Are you one of us, Tink? Do you have . . . unusual powers?’

  He watched as the man considered this. ‘I’m not sure what’s usual and what’s unusual any more. And I sure as hell don’t know what being one of us is. There are Mutes out there in places like the Blacklands with strange abil­ities. Heck, there are probably some right here in the C4 slums. But the five of you are different. When Melk cooked you up in those test tubes of his, he created something that might possibly change this world for ever. Of course, I hope that any change that might occur will be for the better, but that too remains to be seen.’

  ‘You didn’t really answer my question.’

  ‘No, I didn’t, did I?’ He paused, absently stroking his white moustache with the tips of his fingers before continuing. ‘I sometimes get visions when I meet people. Like when I first met you. Oh, you were just a little bitty-bob, but I knew you were destined for great things. I sensed you would one day be caught up in a conflict – a fight between right and wrong, if you like – and I knew you’d have to go through a long and painful journey before you could bring an end to that conflict. That journey started when you set out through that tunnel under the farmhouse, and I’m afraid it’s far from finished just because you managed to get back here to Silas and Jax. This is yet another start.’

  ‘Do you know what happens to me?’

  ‘No.’

  Tink’s answer came a little too quickly for Rush’s liking. As if aware of this, the old man’s face softened and he gave a small shrug. ‘No, I do not. I don’t see the future, just . . . possibilities. But I have to be careful; anything I say might close off some of those possible outcomes for ever. It’s like a game of chess before the first move has been made: there are an almost infinite number of ways the game might be played, but each time a piece is repositioned, that number diminishes slightly, until eventually there’s only one ending. I can be sneaky at times and nudge pieces around the board, but I have to be careful that I don’t knock any of them over.’

  ‘Is Brick going to be OK?’

  Again Tink considered the question before answering. ‘I think that will depend on what you do next: on whether you allow yourself to be guided by those who want the best for you both, or if you’re governed by your own fear and guilt and hurt.’

  There was a long silence while the two of them just looked at each other.

  ‘Thanks, Tink.’

  ‘Hey –’ Tink looked around, his attitude completely changing in a heartbeat – ‘where’s that hideous creature? The rogwan. Did she make it too?’

  ‘You mean Dotty?’

  Tink gave Rush a look of disbelief. ‘You called that thing Dotty?’ He let out a laugh and clapped his hands together. ‘Why didn’t you go the whole hog and name her Petal or Trixiebell?’

  ‘She’s outside in the hallway.’

  ‘Well, bring her in! I’d like to see her again.’

  Rush opened the door. No sooner had he called her, than Dotty came shuffling and snuffling into the room. ‘Look who’s here,’ Rush said to her, nodding in Tink’s direction.

  Dotty took one look at the man, let out a less than friendly hurgh and walked out again, pausing in the doorway to fart loudly.

  ‘Well, what do you know?’ Tink said with a grin. ‘The miserable critter still hates me.’ The smile faltered and then fell away again. ‘What do you say we call Silas in here? Give him a chance to tell you everything he knows about you and the others.’

  Rush nodded even though he felt far from sure he was ready to hear some of those things.

  ‘Would you like me to
stay?’ Tink asked, sensing the boy’s unease. ‘Stay in here with you and Silas?’

  ‘Yes. Yes, I would.’

  ‘No problem, little friend. No problem.’

  Reunited

  Rush listened in silence as Silas told the story of how the children had been created at the Farm, and how they’d been freed by him and the members of a mutant resistance movement, one of whom was Tink. After the rescue, they’d asked for volunteers to look after the youngsters, and Josuf had stepped forward for Rush. The man had lost his own son to illness the year before and he saw the toddler as a way to fill the terrible hole the loss had left in his life.

  ‘He was a good father to me,’ Rush said.

  ‘We knew he would be,’ the man replied with a nod.

  Finally Silas described how their existence had been uncovered, how a man named Thorn, an engineer at the facility where Rush was born, had been captured.

  ‘Jax reached out to Thorn with his mind, but the man’s thoughts were a scrambled mess. It was clear to us he was being tortured, and we guessed he’d quickly tell them everything he knew. At first we couldn’t work out what to do for the best, but eventually we came up with the idea of bringing you all back here.’ He noticed the look of alarm on Rush’s face. ‘Don’t worry. Jax has reached out to Brick, and he isn’t being tortured. Not yet, at least.’

  Tink put a reassuring hand on Rush’s shoulder.

  There was a quiet knock on the door, and when it opened Jax was standing there. Silas went and joined him. The two spoke together in low voices, then Silas turned and addressed Rush from the doorway. ‘I know all this is a lot to take in. If you’re feeling up to it, the others are keen to meet you. Should we go and say hello?’

  They left the building and walked out into a small quadrangle, hemmed in on all sides by buildings. During the day the place was full of noise as the children under Silas and Jax’s care used the space to play in. Although it was now night, the square was still fairly well lit, thanks to a number of arc lights set up around its perimeter. Out of sight, a noisy generator growled. The light was greenish in quality and made the odd array of objects scattered about seem even stranger; there was what appeared to be an ad-hoc assault course laid out around the edge.

  Silas ushered Rush forward into the centre of the space, where three girls stood waiting. All of them appeared to be about the same age as him, but they could not have been more different in appearance and bearing.

  The one on the far left was small and clearly very shy, choosing to look down at her feet rather than make eye contact with the new arrival. She had reddish blonde hair that somebody had braided down her back, and her face was speckled with tiny freckles. Next to her was Anya, now a girl again, no hint of the hideous insectile form she’d assumed to disarm the spy drones over the alley. She grinned savagely back at Rush, her arms folded across her chest. But it was the girl on the right he could hardly tear his eyes from. She was tall and beautiful, wearing clothes that could only have come from inside the wall. She moved across to a small device on top of a tripod and pressed a button somewhere on the top. A red light came on.

  ‘Allow me to make the introductions,’ Silas said. ‘Ladies, this is Rush.’ He gestured towards the small girl on the left. ‘This is Flea.’

  She looked up and gave him the briefest of smiles. When she glanced across at the girl with the camera, she received a nod of encouragement back. Flea swallowed and opened her mouth as if about to speak, only to falter and close it again, little frown lines creasing her forehead. She took another breath, then, in a tentative voice said, ‘Hello, Rush.’

  It was the tiniest of speeches, but it received a broad smile and a thumbs-up from those around her.

  ‘In the middle is Anya. The two of you have already met, of course. And the young lady filming this historic reunion is Miss Tia Cowper.’

  ‘Nice to meet you,’ Tia said. She stepped forward, hand outstretched.

  ‘And you,’ he replied. Her hand was soft and warm in his own. For no good reason he felt himself blush, and he silently cursed himself, hoping nobody would notice, but the titter from Anya told him at least one of them had.

  Thankfully Silas continued: ‘Unfortunately this reunion is incomplete. The young man Rush was travelling with has been captured by the very people we were trying to keep you all from. We have –’

  ‘We have to go and rescue him,’ Rush interrupted, unable to maintain his silence any longer. He looked across at Flea and Anya. ‘I know you don’t know him, and part of you might be wondering why you should risk your own safety to help out a complete stranger, but Silas has told us all who and what we are. Now I don’t pretend to have got my head around all of that yet, but Brick is one of us.’ Now he’d started talking he found he couldn’t stop, and the words tumbled out of him. ‘He has a right to expect we will come for him – even though he would never ask that of us. He is . . .’ Rush swallowed, fighting back the tears as he tried to describe his friend to these people. ‘He’s funny and brave and kind, and if it was any one of us in the same situation, Brick wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to help us out. We have to rescue him. If you won’t come with me, I’ll go on my own and I’ll –’

  ‘Rush,’ Jax broke in, a smile on his face.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I’ve already spoken to the girls while you were inside with Silas. We’ve all already agreed that we must rescue Brick. What else would we do? He’s our brother, just as you are.’

  ‘Oh.’ Rush looked about him at the others, his face flushing red again. Brother.

  ‘We just have to work out the best way to do it.’

  Silas spoke. ‘Perhaps it would help our deliberations if we all knew what our strengths and abilities are.’ He turned to Rush. ‘That’s why I thought it wise to meet out here.’

  Anya went first. Even though he had seen her transform before, Rush was still astonished to see the sullen, punkie teenager morph into a series of creatures, each one more hideous than the last, until after six transformations he was within touching distance of a vast, slimy, leech-like creature that reared up over him. The thing smelled horrible. Atop its head were rows of black eyes arranged on both sides of a perfectly round, tooth-lined mouth that was now open so the monster’s long, pink tongue waggled in the air inches from his face. It was all Rush could do not to turn and run for his life.

  ‘All right, Anya, I think that’s enough, thank you,’ Silas said with a smile.

  As if the creatures had never existed, Anya appeared in their place again. Thanks to Jax, there was none of the trouble transforming back she’d previously experienced.

  ‘What did you think?’ she said to Rush. ‘I thought the last one was particularly gruesome, didn’t you?’

  ‘Its breath certainly was,’ he replied, trying to make light of the situation. ‘What are those creatures?’

  The self-assurance she’d exuded since he’d first met her slipped away for a moment, and Rush thought he caught a momentary glimpse of the real Anya.

  ‘They’re the things that inhabit my dreams,’ she said, turning and walking away from him.

  ‘Your turn next, Flea,’ Silas said, smiling at the small, taciturn girl. He turned to Rush. ‘Jax has been working hard with little Flea so she might, from her perspective at least, speed the world up. Up until now, Flea’s view of the world around her has been as if it moved in a terrible slow-motion, and poor Flea, in order not to stand out, has had to force herself to move at the same pace. Imagine wanting to do something and only being able to act at what feels like a snail’s pace. When she moves at full speed she’s . . . well, very quick.’ He pointed to five bells that had been hung on threads at various points on the makeshift assault course surrounding the yard. The little devices were placed at extremes: three were at the top of the highest equipment and could only be reached by climbing the ladders or walls they topped; the other two were down low at the ends of crawl spaces or tubes.

  ‘Flea? Would you be so kind as
to go around the course as fast as you can and ring the bells?’

  One moment she was standing completely still before him, the next Rush was looking at an empty space.

  ‘Where did she . . . ?’

  The first bell, one at the end of a long rectangular tunnel, rang. Rush had no sooner turned his head to look towards the sound when the next bell, this one at the top of a raised section that had to be accessed via a ladder, chimed. There had been a split second between the two sounds. The third, fourth and fifth bells all rang out. Then she was there again, standing in almost the exact same spot as before, except now her chest was rising and falling at a faster rate and she looked a little flushed.

  Rush stared from her to the bells and back again.

  ‘She just rang those bells? That wasn’t a trick?’

  ‘No tricks here tonight.’ Silas smiled back at him. ‘Now, you’ve already had a taste of what Jax is capable of, but he would like your permission to try something else. He wants to reverse some of the things he did to you on that fateful day we rescued you, to allow you access to parts of your brain he made it hard for you to reach.’

  The albino, sensing the boy’s apprehension, stepped forward. ‘The thing we did in the alleyway – when you pushed those men away, and brought those things down on the others? – all I did was piggyback inside your head. I did none of those things; you did. That’s what I want to give you back.’

  ‘Why was it taken from me in the first place?’

  ‘You were very young then, Rush. Telekinesis can be extremely dangerous if it is not controlled properly. My concern was that you would not be able to manage your powers.’

  Rush felt a spike of anger. ‘What gave you the right to make that decision? It doesn’t appear to me as if you’ve had to be curbed in any way. Why me?’

  ‘Like I said, you were very young – not much more than a baby. Can you imagine what might have happened if in a fit of temper you’d unleashed your full potential?’