Time Rocks

by Brian Sellars

  Chapter Sixteen

  I had never been in total darkness. Even on the blackest night there is usually some faint glimmer, some wraith of luminescence to taunt the eye. At school we have a photographic dark room and even in there, after a while you can begin to see, or at least sense, the faintest glow of daylight behind a blacked out window. But here, in this cell, far underground, the blackness is absolute.

  They came about an hour ago, or maybe more. They pushed a plastic bottle of water through a sort of cat flap in the door. I’ve been trying to read the label with my fingers, Buxton, Volvic? It’s not a Volvic bottle. I think they’re sort of ridged and square aren’t they? I hope it is Buxton. I like the Peak District. I had a holiday there once. We had a cottage at a place called Litton Mill. There’s this amazing place called Water-cum-Jolly. What am I rambling about?

  They’re going to kill me you know.

  I’m to be sent back to the ice age. They say I’ll be dead in two hours. One of the guards told me it’s painless - just like going to sleep. How’s he know? He said you just lie down and go to sleep and never wake up again. Your body slows and slows until it stops, and bingo, you’re dead. This is how MCF gets rid of troublemakers. They’ve done it lots - he told me.

  If anybody comes through that door, no matter who they are, and no matter if they’re armed to the follicles, I’m going to jump on them and rip 'em up. I’m too young to die. They’re not going to freeze me to death.

  It’s weird what your mind does in the dark, isn’t it? I started imagining different people coming in to get me. I thought up all these crazy strategies for jumping on them and getting their guns. But if I did, could I shoot them? Could I actually shoot somebody? It would have to be in the foot, or something. But yes, if they are going to kill me, I’d flippin shoot first, if it meant I wouldn’t get frozen to death.

  But could I do it? Could I actually shoot them – even just in the leg? My mind kept telling me it was pointless anyway, because even if I did get out of the cell there were all the corridors and CCTV cameras everywhere. I wouldn’t last five minutes. But then I’d argue with myself again. I’d say, just concentrate on getting free. Don’t think about anything else. Just get out of the cell, and whatever happens after that will decide everything else. Go one step at a time.

  I imagined guards coming in with rifles, guards with slop buckets, guards with food trays, and I worked out a strategy for each of them. Whoever walked through that door next was going to get jumped on. Surprise was the key thing. That was my only weapon.

  It was hours later. I don’t know how long. I saw a light come on under the cell door. Then a rattling sound and I heard the buzz of the voice-ident lock sliding the bolt. I got ready. I knew I would not be able to see because of the corridor lights. I’d just leap first and feel my way until my eyes got used to the light again. I was going to fight whoever came through that door. It was life or death.

  The door opened. Painful light filled the cell. I grabbed at someone and pounded them frantically, screaming like a mad woman. I scratched and kicked and bit. My eyes hurt, but I could make out that it was a woman in a white coat. I saw a guard was behind her. I heard a clatter and saw a kidney dish hit the wall spilling out a hypodermic syringe and a phial of liquid. The guard was trying to drag me off the woman, but he could only use one hand, his rifle was in the other. I bit his hand and felt the crunch of bone. I tasted blood and spat it out. My fingers clawed at the woman’s face. I grabbed the hypodermic and stabbed it into her forehead. The needle broke off but she howled and cursed.

  The guard was sucking his bloody hand, all his concentration on himself and his pain. I reached for his rifle and plucked it easily from his hand. I pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. Guns have safety catches, I yelled inside my head. Fumbling I tried to find it but only found a selector switch behind the magazine. I squeezed the trigger again. Nothing happened. The guard was rushing towards me. I kicked him with all the force I had. My foot caught him high on the inside of his thigh, but unfortunately not high enough to get him in the wotsits. He staggered sideways, yelped and lost balance. I found a cross bolt catch above the rifle’s trigger, clicked it and fired a single, deafening shot, but fortunately not high enough to catch him in the wotsits. He wailed and crumpled over a wound in his thigh.

  I grabbed the medical woman by the collar of her white coat and hauled her to her feet. A stethoscope fell out of her pocket. ‘You bitch!’ I screamed angrily. ‘You are supposed to save lives.’

  She was weeping, terrified. That was exactly what I needed. I knew she would obey me and be my key through the doors and locks to freedom. I shoved the rifle muzzle under her chin. ‘I’ll use this if you try anything, you murdering bitch. I’m getting out of here and you will help me. Do you understand?’

  She whimpered and nodded her head. I pushed her into the corridor. Three guards were waiting, their rifles trained on me. ‘You can’t get away,‘ one told me. ‘Give up now. Put down the rifle, before you injure yourself.’

  ‘Injure myself! Huh, you want to freeze me to death. I’ve nothing to lose.’ I pushed the medic forward. The guards backed off a pace or two. ‘Get out of my way. I’m coming through. You know I will use this. I’ve already shot your pal in there, so move.’ I eased towards them. I can’t describe how I felt, but it wasn’t as I expected. I was calm. I mean so–oooh calm. My heart was beating like crazy, oh sure – but I felt completely in control. Wow, what a buzz!

  I eased past the guards, my back to the stone wall, my rifle barrel barely a metre from them. We reached the electric car they had arrived in. The driver looked glued to his seat with fear. He was not wearing a uniform and looked like an auxiliary or a porter. He started to climb out, but I made him stay put, and turned to the nearest guard. ‘Gather up your friends’ guns. Put them in the car.’

  I noticed one of the guards tilt his head, as though listening to the earpiece he was wearing. I guessed he was getting instructions from somebody watching on CCTV. I aimed at the nearest camera and fired a couple of shots at it. I blew it off its wall bracket. That helped the guards to make up their minds. They handed over their guns and backed away, raising their hands, though I didn’t tell them to.

  Sobbing miserably the doctor climbed aboard the car next to the driver. I prodded her with the gun to remind her how much trouble she was in, and sat next to all the rifles in the seat behind her.

  ‘Get going. Do anything stupid and you’re both dead. Remember, I’ve got nothing to lose. I’ll kill you in a wink.’ Boy, I sounded tough. I almost scared myself.

  The car sped off, whining softly along the corridors past groups of guards training their weapons on us, but none tried to stop us. I realised we were being allowed to pass. Somebody was orchestrating the situation. Perhaps they wanted me in a specific area where I would cause the least damage or disruption. But what could I do? I only knew one way out of this hell hole and that was through the rail tunnel. If I could get back to the air vent where I came in, maybe I could escape into the tunnel. In its darkness and shelter I might stand a chance of escape. It was a slim chance, but it was all I had.

  If that didn’t work, I could climb onto the cat walk in the cavern roof and shoot the place up. I would try to cause as much panic and alarm as possible. With any luck I might cause a fire, or an explosion, and escape in all the commotion.

  Stupid maybe, but that was my plan.

  I made the driver pull up near the door to the stairwell, but then I remembered the security airlock between the doors. They would have me trapped like a lobster if I went that way. That was probably what they wanted. They had deliberately let me get this far so that I would get myself stuck in that security gap.

  I shoved the doctor ahead of me and made her open the first door while I grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall. I pulled the driver out of his seat and made him show me how the cart worked. It was dead easy, a key to switch it on and two pedals, one for go and one for stop.

  I wed
ged the fire extinguisher on to the accelerator pedal and turned the key to the on position. The little car shot forward gathering speed. It crashed into the door, wrecking it so that it could not be closed again. I didn’t want to risk being caught in that space with nowhere to go.

  I shoved the trembling doctor through the wrecked door and handed her the fire extinguisher from the car. ‘Grab the bottom of that roller shutter door and lift it.’ I told her. ‘Wedge the extinguisher underneath it.’

  The driver tried to sneak away. ‘Hey, you get in there and help her.’ He obeyed and the door was slowly lifted. I kicked the fire extinguisher into place in the gap. ‘Lift it more,’ I yelled, and fired a shot in the air to help their concentration. ‘I want the extinguisher to stand upright so there’s room to slide under the door.’

  Heaving on the door the sweating driver raised it up and the doctor inserted the extinguisher. I fired a shot at the voice-ident lock, picked up two more rifles from the electric cart and ducked into the space between the two sets of doors. In a flash I was on my back sliding under the door and out into the stair well. I kicked the extinguisher away with both feet so that the door trundled back down shutting me off from the driver and the sobbing doctor.

  I was in the stair-well, alone and armed with three rifles, two of which were to provide me with additional ammunition. I shot out two cameras on the way up the stairs. At the top I yanked out the steel air vent grille and climbed through into the smelly darkness of the railway tunnel. I was elated and felt like shouting out loud. I might have done, but for a diesel locomotive standing about twenty-feet from the buffers that marked the end of the line, its powerful engine ticking over gently. The cab light was on, and I could see the driver inside. He was reading a newspaper.

  I crept passed the loco and saw that it was coupled to two fuel tankers and some box cars. Some had their doors wide open revealing cartons and crates of machinery, drums of chemicals and general supplies. But I had no time to linger. I wanted to get as far away as I could from anything to do with MCF. I ran down the middle of the line heading for the siding’s junction with the main tunnel. My heart was beating so fast I could probably have flown. Excitement surged inside me. I was going to make it. I was halfway there.

  Brilliant arc lights suddenly burst into life from around the walls and roof of the tunnel. Sindra’s voice echoed from their brilliance. ‘You can’t go anywhere, Tori. You are surrounded. Stay where you are and wait for the guards to reach you. Put down those silly guns.’

  The lights were so bright ahead of me I could not see beyond them. The train stood in the darkness behind me, the loco's engine pulsing softly as it waited to be unloaded. I turned and ran back towards it. If I couldn’t cause chaos down in the cavern, I could try it up here in the tunnel. I’d seen fuel tankers on the train. They must be dangerous - yes? The crazy idea that I could set the train rolling down the line suddenly hit me. All I had to do was get rid of the driver and start it moving. Surely that couldn’t be too difficult. I felt sure that if I waved my rifle about the driver would be happy to do whatever I told him.

  I reached the locomotive and climbed up into the cab. The driver looked at me as if I was wearing a clown suit. ‘You can’t come in here.’

  ‘Release the brake and back the train up.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Do it or I’ll shoot you.’

  ‘No. Now get off my footplate you silly girl.’

  ‘This’s a real gun.’ I felt daft saying that and wished I hadn’t. ‘I’ll shoot you if you don’t get this train moving.’

  ‘Go on then, shoot me.’

  He had me. How could I possibly shoot him? ‘Do as I say or I will shoot you, believe me. I’ll count to five then I’ll shoot. I’m not fooling.’ I put on my most menacing voice. ‘One – two - three – four – - - four and half …’

  ‘Right, now give me those guns and get off my footplate, you silly girl.’

  I fired a shot at the window.

  He clasped his hands to his ears. ‘Stop that!’ he yelled. ‘I’m not starting this train no matter what you do.’

  I tried to hit him with the rifle but missed as he leapt out of the cab. I watched him stomp to a telephone fixed to the wall. He began jabbering on the ‘phone and pointing my way. I turned away and tried to get the train moving myself. Various switches and levers that I tried did nothing until one, a pedal thing on the floor released a great blast of compressed air and the cab shook and we started moving. I pushed at another lever and heard the engine respond, but the loco stopped and squealed loudly. It took me a moment to work out that you have to keep the foot pedal depressed otherwise the brakes come on automatically. That was a problem because I wanted to start the train rolling down the line and bail out before it crashed into anything.

  As I wrestled with the problem, the driver climbed back into the cab and shoved me aside. ‘You silly girl …’ (That was really annoying me by now) …’Do you realise how dangerous this is? I’ll talk to my union about you. Now get off my footplate. You've already shot my window. How do I explain that?’

  I gave up and jumped down to the ground. The train was moving at a snail’s pace, but the driver had the controls. Even so, when it gently hit the buffers, it juddered and thumped, sending a shock wave back along its length. The fuel tankers and box cars shook back and forth disgorging cartons and drums. Sparks from a toppling machine ignited a spillage from a broken chemical drum. Flames sprang up under a box car and flowed along the line eating up the spilled chemical. A carton caught light, boosting the fire, spreading upwards into the open door of the car. Soft little explosions popped and puffed as other cases and cartons caught light. I headed for the main line and the brilliant lights that had barred my way before. It was only a small fire, but I hoped the guards would think it serious enough to forget me and concentrate on putting it out. They would surely be worried about the flames reaching the fuel tankers.

  I ran down the middle of the line, setting my stride to hit the sleepers. Some one grabbed me from the brilliant blur of light and held me firmly. Unseen hands ripped away my rifles. Behind me, I heard the rushing hiss of fire extinguishers being used and saw the flames damped down in a thick fog of chemical retardant.

  A needle went into my arm and I passed out.

  ………