by Tom Fletcher
Sleep.
I’m woken by fists thudding on the temporary door. ‘Breakfast,’ Chubs says, through a mouthful of something. I stand and put my jumpsuit back on. It’s relatively dry now, but I guess nothing ever gets truly dry down here, judging by the smell of damp.
I open the door and follow him down the narrow hallway. Low-watt bulbs throw a warm orange light over the walls, which are made from every kind of material you could imagine. Wood, metal, plastic, whatever they could scrape from other buildings, I guess. Every so often a hole in this inner layer reveals a shiny waterproof surface behind, with drops of water running down it.
I start to wonder how deep we are and how much water surrounds us. How many gallons are pressing in on these walls and this ceiling? The thought makes my chest tighten.
‘Breakfast ain’t great down here. There’s plenty of it, though, so eat as much as you can handle. You look like you need a good meal,’ Chubs says.
It’s the kindest he’s been to me so I hold back the obvious reply. ‘Thanks.’
‘Food’s better up in Central but too many eyes up there. Can’t get away with all this,’ he says, pointing through a doorway to another large room, like the one we stood in the day before. In this one the tables are laden with guns and ammunition, body armour and weapons of varied levels of technology.
‘Why not? Doesn’t everyone feel the same as you?’ I ask.
‘Oh, sure, course they do! We all despise the EPO. I mean, just look at the state of this place.’
‘And that’s the EPO’s fault?’ I ask.
Chubs chuckles. ‘Mate, you haven’t got a clue, have you?’ he says. ‘Course it’s the bleedin’ EPO’s fault. Who do you fink cuts off our power generators to fuel the Tower in high storms? Who manipulates the water flow to ensure the city floods before the Tower ever would? We’re just blood-sucking leeches to the EPO.’
‘So if everyone feels the same why hide down here?’
‘It’s them we hide from, the EPO, not our kind in Central. It’s your folk and the patrols they send out,’ Chubs explains. ‘Once a day we get scanners over Central, searching for any rebel activity. That’s how we ended up here. The iron keeps the scanners out – can’t get through it.’
‘I see,’ I say, genuinely amazed by their set-up, and that the EPO scans this place daily. I never knew that happened. I guess there’s a lot I don’t know about the company I work for.
Worked for.
‘Plus, everyone built on top of these sunken buildings. They don’t expect anyone to be down here, inside ’em. They think they’re all flooded. We’re pretty safe.’
We enter their dining hall where I’m served a plate of some sort of brown vegetation.
‘Home-grown goodness, that.’ Saunders slaps me on the back as he sits next to me with his own plateful. ‘Floodweed, comes from right here on the riverbed. Full of nutrients!’
‘Tastes like shit, though!’ the chef calls, from the open kitchen, comically holding his nose while stirring a boiling pan.
‘Not much grows out here any more, so we make the most of what we can get. When we excavated this place and flushed the water out we found tons of this stuff growing. It’s a Freever secret. We don’t share it with Central – not enough to go around.’
I put a forkful into my mouth and instantly regret it. I gag. Cough. Spit.
The Freevers around me crack up laughing.
‘You get used to it. Like everything in this place,’ says Saunders.
‘You like it down here?’ I ask, having managed to swallow a little.
‘Well, I guess you have to look at the alternatives. I could have carried on working for the EPO, pretending I didn’t care about the way they were treating the planet, the way they were controlling Eve. I could have refused to go with this bunch of misfits when they broke me out of my cell at the Tower and stayed there to serve my sentence, or I could live down here with people who share my beliefs and are willing to fight for them. So, yeah, I guess out of those options this is the one I like best.’
After breakfast I’m shown around. It’s too much to take in in one go. So many rooms. Rooms off other rooms. Small ones made into private sleeping quarters, large halls with bunk beds from one end to the other, kitchens, medical facilities, an armoury. They have everything they could ever need to be completely self-sufficient.
There’s enough going on in my mind to keep me busy after they escort me to my room and leave me. It seems that I’m not trusted to wander around unaccompanied yet.
I reach out and run my hand down one of the planks of wet wood that is nailed to the walls. A small piece splinters into my finger, sending a jolt of pain through my hand.
‘I’d get that washed out if I were you,’ Frost says from my doorway.
‘Sorry, I didn’t realize you were there,’ I say, as I stand up.
‘No, no, sit,’ he says, as he enters the tiny space and sits down next to me. ‘Splinters are painful little buggers, considering how small they are.’
I stare at the tiny piece of brown wood protruding from my finger and watch my skin swell and flare around it as my body tries to reject it.
‘It only takes one tiny piece like that to strike the skin at the right time, at the right place, and it can break the surface, penetrate your body’s defences. If you don’t eliminate the splinter it will become infected, and if the infection is aggressive and spreads, you could lose your hand, or your arm, all down to that seemingly insignificant splinter.’
As I pull it out with my teeth and suck the drop of blood away from the top of my finger, I notice Frost smiling through his grey beard.
‘What?’ I ask.
‘I think you might just be the splinter we’ve been waiting for,’ he says, dropping a file on to the floor beside me. A single photograph slips out and my heart stops.
It’s grainy but the image is clear enough for me to recognize it instantly. It’s a shot from one of the Dome’s surveillance cameras of Eve and Holly, and I know immediately that it was me piloting her.
It’s a photo of our first kiss.
41
Bram
I hold the printout closer to my eyes, taking in every detail, trying to recall the feeling, the exhilaration of that moment. Holly’s lips, my lips, touching Eve’s for that briefest of seconds, and in that moment I knew what I was feeling wasn’t one-sided. The way she leant in, the way her hands touched me. She wanted me too.
My breath catches as I remember the sensation of her body against mine, the microscopic motors of my kinetic suit replicating her curves and the warmth of her skin against the artificial breeze of the Drop.
Frost clears his throat and brings me back from above the clouds to the room buried beneath the flooded city.
‘How the hell did you get this?’ I ask. ‘This is beyond classified. Not even us pilots have access to this sort of footage.’ My mind is ticking, trying to piece together the puzzle. It’s the most watched location ever to have existed on the planet but the footage is, understandably, heavily guarded.
‘Let’s just say that we have friends in high places.’ Frost smiles beneath his wiry beard.
‘But that makes no sense! Someone on the inside, secretly working with the Freevers? Who would risk that?’ I ask, searching my memory for any clues as to who their inside man could be. ‘Getting to work with this sort of access takes years, trust …’
‘It takes sacrifice,’ Frost interrupts, with a more serious tone.
‘Sacrifice?’ I ask.
Frost nods. ‘Leaving their life behind, saying goodbye to their family, the people they love.’ Frost’s voice wavers, as if he’s been caught off guard by his emotions.
He sees me notice and coughs it away.
‘Dedicating themselves to the cause. Fighting for their belief, for what’s right,’ he grunts.
‘Leaving behind this for the Tower? Who wouldn’t volunteer for that job?’ I say, looking at a trickle of floodwater seeping in through cracks
.
Frost snatches the photograph out of my hands. ‘If this place doesn’t live up to your standards, I’m sure a return trip to the Tower wouldn’t be too difficult to arrange. They’ve got scanners doing fly-bys every thirty minutes at surface level and you’re welcome to head up to see your old pals,’ Frost says, as he stands and fills the doorway, ready to leave.
‘No, wait!’ I stop him. ‘I can’t go back.’ I nod at the photo in his hand and he looks at it for a few moments.
‘Yeah, well, I guess this isn’t really in your job description,’ he says, pointing his grubby finger at our touching lips. ‘The boss’s kid falls for the saviour girl, just like every other hot-blooded male in that place, brain down in your pants.’
‘It wasn’t like that,’ I snap.
‘Oh, let me guess, it’s different with you two. She really has feelings for you,’ he says mockingly, making me feel like a stupid kid. From him, it sounds completely ridiculous.
‘Oh, please, do you know how many boys like you we’ve broken out of that place for that exact reason? Okay, maybe not as highly qualified as you, but still, since the second she was born it became every male on Planet Earth’s fantasy to have her fall madly in love with him. Every one of these guys down here thought the same as you. Half of ’em still do, no doubt. You don’t really think I recruited this many men, or built this sort of place, because they want to do the right thing ?’ He laughs. ‘Nope. It’s because each and every one of them, even if they don’t admit it to themselves, feels like he has a chance of being THE ONE man that THE ONE girl falls crazy in love with.’ He shoves the photo back into my hands. ‘Or at the very least get a little of this action, you lucky bastard.’
‘Does everyone down here know about it?’ I ask, wondering how the Freevers will judge just another Tower kid who fell for Eve.
‘Not yet. We have our own levels of classification down here. This came directly from our source to me.’
I sigh. That’s one positive.
‘But they’ll all find out soon enough,’ he adds. ‘Your relationship , or whatever you want to call it, could have some use.’
‘Use?’ I ask. ‘You want to use me?’
‘Everyone down here has a use, kid. If they didn’t they wouldn’t still be here,’ he says.
‘You don’t know Eve like I know her, or like she knows me,’ I call after him, as he exits my room and disappears into the dark corridor of his headquarters.
I know what I’m saying sounds crazy – it is crazy, completely nuts. This is what every idiot nob thinks when they first start at the Tower. Statistically it’s the reason 99 per cent of men sign up to work there, why there are no job vacancies, ever. Once you get a job at the Tower you don’t leave until you retire. Or die … Or fall crazy in love with Eve, get yourself almost killed by security during your escape and run away with a bunch of Freevers. Jesus, Bram, what the hell is happening?
I drop my head into my hands, trying to clear my racing mind. There’s a knock on the door.
‘Can I come in?’ Saunders asks through the cracks.
‘Sure,’ I reply, not even trying to hide my gloom.
‘Blimey, mate, you okay?’ he asks, taking a seat on the floor next to me.
‘I just had a visit from Frost,’ I explain.
‘Oh, I see. Well, he’s a tough bastard but underneath all that beard there’s a good man, you know. He’s genuine. Not like most of the mindless halfwits down here. What did he say?’
I hand him the photo. If everyone’s going to find out he might as well be the first. He recognizes the Dome as fast as I did. When you’re a pilot that place is your home.
His jaw drops. He studies the shiny surface of the photo, turning it in the light to see the detail. ‘You actually kissed her?’ he whispers.
‘No,’ I reply. ‘She kissed me.’
Silence.
‘Well, you mean she kissed Holly,’ he says smugly, as if trying to find a hole in my story.
‘No. She kissed me … ’
‘You mean she knew it was you?’
I nod.
‘But …’
‘We met.’ I hit him with this bombshell and he stares at me, open-mouthed. ‘Just briefly, but it was enough. She recognized me, somehow. My eyes, I guess.’
‘So they just let you back in with her? Miss Silva allowed it?’ he asks, trying to process the impossible photograph in his hands.
‘No, they didn’t know what was happening. Well, they sort of did, they just underestimated Eve. They underestimated us.’
‘Us … us ?’ Disbelief pours from Saunders’s face, perhaps with a little jealousy too. ‘Did you actually just refer to you and Eve as us ? Bram and Eve … Breve!’ he jokes.
I roll my eyes.
‘This is pretty immense, though.’
‘I know.’ I take the photo back from him and place it in the pocket of my jumpsuit.
‘So what’s your plan? Thought you’d get out and run away with this circus, did you?’ asks Saunders.
‘I had no choice. My time there is over. I can’t be part of that lie. I need to find the truth and it’s definitely not inside the Tower.’
‘What truth?’
I take a breath to prepare myself. I already know that what I’m about to say will sound crazy.
‘I’m going to find Ernie Warren.’
Saunders pauses. ‘Why?’ he asks.
‘I have to know the truth. I can’t hear any more lies from my father or the EPO, and I can’t trust anyone else yet. All I know is that this goes back to Eve’s parents. If anyone has answers, it’s him.’
As the words leave my mouth I see Saunders’s lips curl into a smile. ‘What is it?’ I ask.
‘You’re going to fit right in here.’ He laughs. ‘We’ve been looking for him for years.’
My heart sinks. ‘And you’ve not found him?’
Saunders shakes his head. ‘Nope. Too many loose ends. The list of places he could be is endless. Rumour is that they drugged him up so good that even he doesn’t know who he is any more, and the people looking after him don’t know who he is. How do you find someone who doesn’t even know where they are themselves?’ Saunders shrugs.
‘What do the Freevers want with Eve’s dad?’ I ask, my question creating a bemused expression on Saunders’s face.
‘Are you kidding? This is Eve’s dad we’re talking about. This is the guy who single-handedly took on the EPO, when the rest of Central was too scared to step even an inch out of line. He made the first crack in the wall of the EPO and we’ve been chipping away at it ever since.’
‘Ernie, the first Freever.’
‘The original.’ Saunders salutes. ‘If we ever actually managed to get our soggy hands on Eve, if we ever managed to prise her from the EPO’s clenched fist, do you really think she’d want to hear a word any of us had to say?’
I don’t know if he expects a reply. I don’t give him one.
‘Of course not. But she might just listen to the people who reunite her with her father. Then we might have a chance.’
‘So he’s your Eve bait?’ I ask, half in jest, half deadly serious.
‘Bingo.’ Saunders winks. ‘We just gotta catch the guy first. Welcome to the search party, my friend.’
42
Eve
A loud bang startles me awake. For a second I think someone is breaking into our safe room and my stomach flips with fear. I wonder whether it’s friend or foe beyond the thick metal. But no force is used. Instead the heavy door that’s sealed us in unlocks with a clunk, swinging gently forward a few inches, then comes to a natural stop.
My surrounding community of women inhale an audible breath as we sit and watch, waiting for someone to leap out from behind it. Seconds pass.
The phone blares, making us all jump. I put my hand on my chest and can feel my heart thumping.
While Mother Tabia hurries to the phone, Mother Kadi moves to sit next to me on the bed. Her body remains facing the thre
atening door, as though she’s ready to protect me. The thought warms me, even though we both know I have age and fitness on my side.
‘Mother Tabia,’ she says, picking up the phone and listening with a look of deep concentration.
Within seconds she places the receiver back in its cradle and nods to us all with a sigh of relief. ‘We can go,’ she breathes.
‘But what about –’
‘Not now,’ Mother Tabia warns a Mother in one of the upper bunks.
I know she was going to ask what has happened to Bram to make him no longer a threat. I start to wonder if he’s escaped or whether the worst has happened. Not knowing is unbearable.
They will tell me more. They have to. I can’t be expected to bend to their will while getting nothing in return.
Mother Tabia goes to the door, pulling it wide. Even though we’ve been told there’s no danger lurking behind it I’m still shocked and relieved to see no one on the other side to greet us.
We’re free to return to our normal lives, as if we haven’t been cooped up here with no real explanation as to why.
The women around me chatter as they make the beds we’ve been lying on, wash the crockery and sweep the floor, reverting it to the state we found it in.
I get to my feet and head for the door, but before I walk through it I stop and look back, taking in the sight of the women who’ve looked after me my whole life. The women who’ve cared for me, clothed me, taught me how to double pirouette or speak Mandarin badly, and shown me what it is to be a compassionate human. They’ve already sacrificed so much in the employ of a woman who doesn’t care for them at all. They are nothing to her, but they are so much to me. I owe who I am to them, and I don’t want to be blind like her.
‘You’ve not gone unnoticed. I see all you do,’ I say, my voice rising above their chatter until I’ve got their full attention. ‘Whatever it was that brought you here to be with me, I want you to know I’m grateful it did. There is so much I’ve yet to learn, but one thing I’m clear of is how I feel about each of you. I’ve recently been doubting the sort of mother I’m going to be, but if I follow the example of the women who raised me, I know I’ll be a good one. A mother who is willing to sacrifice herself and do all she can to protect and provide for her children. Thank you.’