The Rainbow Maker's Tale

by Melanie Cusick-Jones

  Chapter 19

  I felt better dressed in the dark medic suit, with my band secured around my wrist. For a very short time, we would be safe in full view, while we worked out our next move. Right now, Cassie and I were moving swiftly along the pavement – but not at a speed that would draw attention to us – on our way to Park 42.

  “Wait a minute,” Cassie pulled on my arm, slowing my steps and turning me to face her in a single movement.

  “What’s up?”

  “Park 42 – I heard my parents last night. They were going to report the blind spots in the system there to…” Instead of saying The Collective, she raised her eyebrows to emphasise what wasn’t said out loud.

  “Do you think that will already have happened?” I was afraid to hear her answer. Right now, Park 42 was the only solution I had and felt like the safest place we could go.

  Cassie nodded her head. “It sounded like they were concerned about where we’d been going – I think they were going to report it this morning.”

  “Great,” I muttered, immediately deflated.

  Wait a minute!

  I had the stolen handheld viewing screen from The Clinic in my bag. It should be a simple process to get into the scanner system and track any activity in Park 42. As long as The Council or Collective, or whoever they were, hadn’t already figured out that I was inside their systems.

  Up ahead there was a small park, just at the edge of the Red Zone. Steering Cassie towards the entrance, we hurried inside. A minute later we were settling ourselves onto soft, dry grass in a small clearing, partially hidden on three sides by tidy, manicured bushes.

  “What are we doing now?” Cassie whispered, noting our unexpected detour.

  “I’m going to check some…umm…records,” I replied, keeping my answer brief. I couldn’t be sure where the nearest scanners were and didn’t want to reveal anything too incriminating.

  “OK.”

  “OK,” I echoed, taking a deep breath and focusing on the task at hand.

  The screen accepted my initial registration onto the Family Quarter’s operating network and I flicked forward through the various options, until I located the scanner system. Then everything stopped. At first I worried that the screen itself had frozen, but the green light still flashed intermittently at the side of the handheld and so I knew it was trying to process. It must have been that my code was not good enough for access here.

  I rummaged through my bag again, searching for my personal screen, where I stored the passwords and access codes I’d been able to find or decipher. Hopefully, one of these would work, because otherwise it meant hacking the system, and I’d never done that before.

  To her credit Cassie sat patiently beside me while I muttered and grunted my way through various security blocks. I took out my frustration on the screen, punching the numbers and letters with increasing force, until… “There!” I got through the final screen and into the main directory of the scanner system. From here, it was reasonably straight-forward to navigate to the correct data screen showing the scanner at Park 42. When the figures finally appeared on-screen, I was disappointed with what I saw.

  “What is it?” Cassie asked, taking my angry snort as a bad sign. She was leaning forwards over her knees now, trying to read the screen upside down.

  “Well, there are no extra scanners in Park 42 yet,” I muttered. “But, it seems to be rather more popular than usual.”

  Cassie shrugged her shoulders, not understanding what I meant and so I spun the viewing screen around so that she could see what I had been looking at. Reaching across, I pointed out the source of my displeasure: the number 46 in the Current Visitors column. “Forty-six visitors inside the park on the last scanning cycle: all of them adults, all of them first time visitors.” I explained.

  “Looking for us?” Cassie panicked, her eyes flicking back and forth between the screen and my face.

  “I don’t think so,” I replied, turning the idea over in my mind as I went back to studying the table of numbers. Nothing obvious jumped out at me and so I went with my gut feeling.

  “I think if they were looking for us they would be looking near to The Clinic, not all the way across the other side of the Quarter. This is probably connected to what you heard your parents talking about…perhaps they’re in the process of installing more scanners in the area…”

  “OK.”

  Cassie appeared reassured by my answer. If only I had the same confidence I was correct, I might feel better.

  “So, where do we go now then?” she asked.

  I looked at the viewing screen and saw the time at the top. There was only another thirty minutes before we were due to leave The Clinic and go home, so we probably had an hour at the most before we were missed by our parents.

  What were our options?

  Perhaps, if we stayed away from the main inhabited areas for the next few hours – the agricultural sector was always quiet – we could head back to Park 42 under cover of darkness to investigate possible weak spots then. With a basic toolkit, we should be able to –

  Oh no!

  “I can’t believe I was so stupid,” I groaned, stopping just short of slapping myself on the forehead for being such an idiot.

  “What are you talking about?”

  My outburst obviously surprised Cassie. “We’ve no tools!” I explained, my voice rising with annoyance. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this when I knew we were going to try and get out of here!” Punching my fist into the soft earth beside me, I took out my frustration on the fragile blades of grass. I had a limited stash of tools, hidden in Park 42, but nothing suited to what we would need. I’d even put the kit together that morning and hidden it in the apartment.

  “How would we do it without tools?” I ranted at myself. “We’re not exactly planning to walk up to the entrance of the Married Quarter and swipe ourselves in are we?”

  Cassie nodded thoughtfully, taking in my words. She looked less worried than I felt.

  “That’s true,” she said after a beat, forming her words carefully as she worked through things in her head at the same time. “But, we’ve got time to get tools from one of our apartments, before anyone knows that we’ve gone. Two of our parents are engineers and they both keep stuff in their offices at home, if we hurry we could get there before anyone realises we’re missing.”

  “You’re right.” If we were quick, we might still get away with going home for the tools. But, it would be dangerous, so close to the time they were expecting us to be there…the time Cassie’s father had instructed her to be home… My eyes flicked to Cassie, but I looked away before she could see what I was thinking. I knew she would argue against me – a lot – when I told her I was going alone.

  Feeling warmth on my arm I looked down and saw Cassie’s hand. The heat from her fingers chilled me, as my brain spun, searching for a plan that would keep her safe.

  This was the best way to do that.

  “I think you should wait here while I go for the tools. It’s too risky for both of us to go.”

  “No way!” Cassie exclaimed, pulling her hand away. “You’re not going there alone, especially not when we know what they have planned for us!”

  I shook my head, just once, trying not to see Cassie in the same situation as Ami, but I couldn’t help it: the image was there, imprinted in my mind. Just picturing her like that made me feel sick and angry. My hands clenched into fists at my sides, as I imagined the violence I would enact upon anyone trying to get close enough to hurt Cassie.

  “We’re staying together,” she said, fixing me in an unwavering glare.

  The scrutiny was uncomfortable, making me feel as though she could see deep inside me, to the dark places where I hid my worst secrets. I didn’t want Cassie to see them... I didn’t want her to see the lengths that I would go to, in order to keep her away from the people who would surely be searching for us in the next few hours.

  “You can’
t leave me,” she whispered, her shoulders curling inward as she turned away from me now. “You can’t leave me. You promised.”

  I cringed, hearing her voice break. Leave… I was leaving, but only for a short while – only to keep her safe. There was some sense in staying together, but it made more sense not to risk getting caught together. I couldn’t risk taking Cassie with me, so close to them, when we still didn’t know what was happening.

  “You promised we’d stay together – no matter what happened.”

  Cassie pulled out all the stops to guilt me into changing my mind. And it worked. In fact, I felt worse than guilty, I felt like hell, because I knew she was right: I had promised we’d stay together. But, I’d also promised myself that I would keep Cassie safe.

  “OK, OK,” I whispered back, hearing the hollowness in my voice as I agreed and lied in a single breath.

  To hide my deception further – scared that Cassie would see the truth if I looked at her – I pulled her to me, wrapping my arms around her fragile-feeling body. “I know I promised,” I said, kissing her head, leaving my face pressed against her hair. And I’m sorry – because I can only keep one promise, and it will be the one that keeps you safe. “You’re right: we shouldn’t split up, we’ll go together. Don’t worry, we’ve plenty of time.”

  “You’re a bad liar,” she muttered into my shoulder.

  I laughed, hoping I was a better liar than she thought I was.

  Easing Cassie away from her hiding place on my shoulder, I tilted her face up to mine. “Whilst we’re talking about promises, I need you to promise me something.”

  “Anything.”

  “You must promise that – no matter what happens to me – you will get out of here.”

  Cassie was shaking her head before I’d finished speaking. I drew her chin up, so that my eyes could find hers. “You must promise me,” I told her, because I will not risk you, to save myself.

  When Cassie nodded her answer, I wasn’t sure whether I’d just exchanged a lie for a lie. I hoped she was telling me the truth, and had no choice but to accept her response as it was. I pulled her close in one last embrace.

  “We’ll cut through the Agricultural Sector from here, it’ll be quicker,” I told Cassie, turning my attention back to the viewing screen. I navigated away from the scanner readings for Park 42 and pulled up the information for the Agricultural Sector.

  If we took a route through the food production and farming domes, it would be much shorter than going back across the Red Zone, and it should be a lot quieter. The scanner readings flashed on-screen and I saw – with relief – that I was right. Only an occasional person registered on the few scanners that covered the small paths between the domes.

  I glanced at the time in the top corner of the screen. By the time we got there, most people would have finished work for the day or be inside one of the domes beginning their shift. We should be OK.

  “Once we’re clear, we should try one of the parks bordering the White Zone, so we’re close enough to get into Park 42 once it gets dark.” I decided, counting forward in my head. “I can’t imagine the visitors will be there overnight, and our bands should cause enough confusion to keep them searching the populated areas for us first.”

  “So you think there’s something there?”

  “I don’t know.” I dropped my voice to a whisper. “But, whatever The Collective is, judging by the number of people that have been in Park 42 today, they obviously agreed with your parents about it being a risk. And the service hatches they mentioned are the only option I can think of for getting out of here.” Which was why I’d verified their existence and locations today, whilst I was supposed to be monitoring results in the biochemistry lab. “It’s all we’ve got to work with.”

  “Let’s go then!”

  Cassie dragged up a half-smile for me and it made me feel hollow inside when I realised how precarious a position we were in right now. It was hard to say if our position was made better or worse, by the fact that we seemed to know things about what was happening, that our peers didn’t.

  I steeled myself. This was no time to be wondering and wallowing, we needed to move. Clambering to my feet, I lifted Cassie to stand beside me, before dropping the screen back into my bag and moving off.

  Setting a quick pace, it took a few short minutes to get from the Red Zone to the edge of the Agricultural Sector. Normally, I liked the peace and quiet that surrounded the vast domes of the greenhouses. In the past I had spent many hours here, exploring the various units and peering into the enclosed domes to see what was growing inside. Today the domes felt ominous and foreboding as they towered over our scurrying figures. Thankfully, the pathways remained empty.

  Cassie followed close behind me as we moved through the narrow lanes that squeezed between the hard, plastic walls. As we passed by a filter in one of the domes I was enveloped in hot, wet air and reminded why this route was generally unpopular as a way of getting from one side of the Quarter to another. It must have been a tropical environment inside – perhaps growing fruit. I paid it little thought as we moved on.

  Cassie was panting as she trotted behind me, trying to match my pace. I wasn’t deliberately making it difficult for her, but every second we lost felt important.

  It was also guilt pushing my feet along faster, because I knew I was going to break my promise and leave Cassie behind. It was just for a short while and to protect her, but it was exactly what I had promised I wouldn’t do. I’d even selected the perfect spot to do it: close to boundary near my apartment, far enough from any alternative route Cassie could use to try and follow me.

  Calculating this – using her weaknesses to get my own way – made me feel sick. It was a good plan though. I might have called it foolproof, except I’d never label Cassie a fool.

  It wasn’t far now. The main Agricultural Zone dropped away behind us and there were still no signs of life anywhere, except for the snippets of conversation drifting from the air vents on the domes we passed. Ahead, the three storey buildings of the Green Residential Zone were visible, instead of hidden behind the encroaching domes. I looked at the neat rows, which ended abruptly at the exterior wall of the Family Quarter.

  At the next junction in the pathways, I turned away from the route that would lead us towards the main avenue that ran through the Green Zone. Instead, I led Cassie off the path and hurried across the grassed area that bordered the high boundary wall, separating the agricultural sector from the residential area beyond.

  Cassie followed close behind as I moved along the wall. I stopped at the point where it met the corner of one of the electrical control rooms, supplying a nearby dome. Even though the wall was twice as tall as me, I knew that I would be able to use the sharp right angle where it met the other wall, to propel myself to the top. I knew this because I’d done it quite a few times before.

  As I drew near to the area I needed, I sensed Cassie’s hesitation. I turned and found she was no longer at my back.

  “I don’t know if I can get over this,” she said, her words reluctant – hand reaching for her injured shoulder.

  My stomach lurched as Cassie drew attention to the weakness I had been counting on to prevent her from coming with me. I swallowed the nausea and turned to face her.

  “When I get to the top I’ll reach down for you.” I forced myself to speak around the dry tongue that threatened to stick my mouth shut. When Cassie nodded – accepting my lie – I had to turn away.

  Standing with my back to her, I focused on the spot just a few feet away from me where the two walls formed a tight corner. Sucking in a deep breath, then another, I ran through the steps in my head a couple more times before I moved.

  On the outward breath I sprang forwards, covering the ground to the wall in two swift strides. Inhale. My legs bent as I sucked air into my lungs then leaped upwards to the side of the control room. As my right hand and foot made contact with the solid surface, I pushed hard agains
t them, letting some air shoot out of my chest as I shoved myself higher and backwards in the direction of the adjoining wall.

  Left, then right; left and up!

  I pushed my way to the top of the wall, breathing out with each step. Near the top I gripped onto the bricks and pulled myself the last few feet, feeling the muscles in my triceps burn as they supported the bulk of my body weight. Finally, I managed to swing my leg over the edge and roll onto my stomach.

  I was up. Not wanting to risk anyone noticing me climbing over the wall, I didn’t sit up. Cassie stepped forward and I saw her inspecting the wall. I closed my eyes.

  Please forgive me.

  When I opened my eyes, I was looking down at her. As Cassie’s gaze rose to meet mine she froze, understanding something from my expression I obviously couldn’t disguise. Her mouth opened, but no words came out.

  “I’m sorry Cassie.”

  “Sorry…?” She repeated, not seeming to understand.

  I swallowed hard. “I’ll go to the apartment and come right back for you.”

  “No, no…” Cassie’s head shook from side to side, disbelief plain on her face. “No, you can’t do this!”

  I closed my eyes once more, trying not to see her disappointment in me crumpling her beautiful features. In the darkness of my eyelids her face was just as vivid.

  “You promised you wouldn’t leave me!”

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

  Rolling off the wall, I landed gently on the other side, on perfectly manicured grass. I was already running towards my parent’s apartment when I heard Cassie’s voice behind me shouting my name.

  Her voice! The pain I felt in that single word pierced me more painfully than any weapon I could imagine. I couldn’t believe I would ever forget that noise. It sounded like pure betrayal. My eyes were wet as I raced onwards, and brushing the dampness away with the back of my hand I tried not to see Cassie’s face in my head.

  I’d lied to her. I’d left her.

  Would she be able to forgive me?