by Eliza Green
Dom barked at everyone, ‘Stand back. Give him some room.’
Carissa wasn’t skilled at reading the humans’ expressions, but she’d come to recognise tension. Dom’s shoulders were lifted slightly towards his ears, his fists clenched by his side. His nostrils flared as he looked on. Success mattered to him. But being in this city clearly worried him. It worried Carissa too. Where had Quintus gone? Why had he stopped all communication with her?
Quintus knew how to get in touch. He’d said her neuromorphic chip was self-repairing, but he had not contacted her since the battle. She’d expected the usual twinge or pull from her chip to indicate she was on the network again. But so far her head remained quiet.
A breeze caught the edge of one piece of paper and whipped it up. Anya, Sheila, Imogen and Jerome lent the tips of their boots to keep the edges down. Without the barrier, the city was open to the elements. Carissa preferred the fresh air now. Before, the air had been stifling here. She hadn’t realised how much until she’d left the city. It had been normal. Until it wasn’t.
Anya knelt down next to Thomas and held the book out on an open page. The Inventor assessed the drawings from over Thomas’ shoulder. Charlie and Vanessa looked at each other, as though they were shocked by the find.
Carissa’s gaze went to the Inventor. Not once did he look at Carissa. Not once had he asked her what she thought about the Beyond.
‘What about this map?’ asked Anya, keeping the edge of the first page flat with one knee.
She handed the book to Thomas, who rotated the drawing in the book. He frowned at the pages, then set the book down over each one.
He looked up with a sigh. ‘It’s not any of these.’
Before him was a sketch of the places Carissa still had maps of in her head: the library, the Business District, the accommodation blocks they’d just searched. The medical facility had also been converted to pencil and paper. That one showed the tunnel connecting the Nurturing Centre on the lowest level to the Inventor’s workshop.
The Inventor turned and sought her out. Carissa was filled with new hope. Maybe he would ask her what she thought about the Beyond. Maybe he would tell her not to worry.
‘Miss,’ he said, resting his hands on his knees. He nodded at the drawings. ‘I need you to look at the sketch in the book and see if it looks familiar.’
Carissa’s hope plummeted. With a weak nod, she said, ‘Okay.’
Thomas stood and showed the open page to her. The sketch was something a child might have done. Pencilled in haste, it seemed. No care or attention given to the strokes.
She looked up at the Inventor. ‘It’s not very good.’
The old man waved his hand. ‘Not important, miss. Please concentrate on the image. You’ve seen the maps for other areas in this city. One of them might compare to the drawing.’
She ignored her hurt and concentrated on the sketch. Maybe she wouldn’t find the place it matched. Maybe she could pretend, long enough for them to give up and return to the camp. June was okay. Her baby would soon be old enough to know what was going on.
But an image flashed in her mind as she studied the poorly drawn sketch. She gasped.
The Inventor grabbed her arm. ‘What is it?’
She kept her eyes on it. She’d been there before. Not by choice, but by summons.
Carissa swallowed. ‘It’s part of the Learning Centre.’
Anya stood up fast. Dom was by her side in a flash, hand on her back, as if to stop her from leaving.
The Inventor glanced at the others. ‘It’s where the Collective lives. I’ve been there once.’
He looked down at Carissa, his eyes widening. ‘Where in the Learning Centre, miss?’
She squirmed beneath his gaze. When she didn’t answer, he grabbed her arm and shook it.
‘Is it the Great Hall? That’s just a large room. This drawing clearly has corridors.’
She shrank back from him, never having seen him so intense before, and pointed at a broken line on the drawing. ‘That’s the entrance. It breaks off into various corridors where we—the Copies—upload.’
She hadn’t uploaded or downloaded for days. Did that make her less of a Copy now?
The Inventor released her arm. ‘I’m sorry, miss, I need more. The entrance, then where?’
She studied the sketch, which she superimposed over a map in her memory banks. ‘The entrance, then the corridors for the download rooms.’ She closed her eyes. ‘The corridor on the left brings you to the Great Hall, but this one—’ she gestured ahead ‘—takes you to another area, behind the Great Hall.’
She opened her eyes.
Everyone was staring at her. She concentrated on the only face that mattered: the Inventor’s.
He was frowning at her. ‘Will we be able to access it?’
She shrugged. ‘I’ve never seen the space behind the Great Hall.’
‘Could it be beneath the Learning Centre?’ said Thomas.
The Inventor rubbed his chin. ‘It’s possible. Maybe we can access it through one of the unexplored tunnels.’
Dom stepped forward while Thomas collected up his sketches from the ground. ‘We should search for it above ground first, to get a feel for any access points.’ The rebel leader looked at Carissa. ‘How likely are we to run into trouble there?’
Carissa closed her eyes, searching for any connection that might hint that the city was still online. She opened them. ‘I don’t know.’
Dom nodded at the others. ‘Okay, we should return to the medical facility. Get June and the others, and get the hell out of here.’
The rebels walked on, forgetting about Carissa’s crucial help. Not one person thanked her.
The Inventor stayed with her. He patted her on the shoulder. ‘You did good, miss.’
She looked up at him. ‘I did?’
He smiled and nodded.
Then why did she feel like she’d sentenced herself to a lifetime of being alone?
The Inventor frowned at her. ‘What’s wrong, miss?’
‘I can’t feel anyone here.’
‘That’s good, isn’t it? It means the Collective is gone.’
She looked up at him. ‘The Collective lives inside a program, Jacob. Where would it go?’
She marched on ahead, needing to be alone. 148-C watched her curiously. The Copy had punished Dom and pretended his mother was still alive. This guard’s obsession with Dom had been in the report sent to the Collective. She wondered if 148-C had been left behind on purpose.
His cold Copy eyes watched her closely, making her skin crawl. She marched ahead faster, then stopped and rubbed her arms. Looking back, she saw 148-C had a small smile on his face.
Tired of this Copy’s games, Carissa strode up to him. He visibly flinched.
‘Where is the Collective?’
148-C stared at her like she was insane. I might well be.
‘Gone. I don’t know where.’
‘How did they leave this place? Who helped them?’
The guard shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’
Anger bloomed in her chest. She beat his arms with her fists.
It only made the Copy angry. ‘I said I don’t know!’
Her breaths came short and fast.
The Inventor rushed over to her. ‘Miss, what’s wrong?’
‘Something isn’t right, Jacob.’ She looked away from him. ‘This place... I don’t know.’
He placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘Why don’t you run on ahead and check on June? We’ll catch up.’
She nodded and looked at Zone C. The medical facility wasn’t far, maybe five minutes’ walk. It would be good to stretch her legs and clear her head.
Hugging her body tight, she walked away, feeling her stress halve the farther from the group she got.
Halfway into her fast walk, a voice stunned her into stillness. Her biogel ran cold.
‘173-C, I’ve been looking for you.’
‘Quintus,’ she breathed, glancing behind her.
The others were a distance back. ‘W-where are you?’
‘I’m close. I’m safe. Don’t worry.’
‘A... are you in the city?’
‘173-C, I need your help.’
Her stomach lurched. Carissa swallowed hard against the feeling. ‘What help?’
‘Have they found the Beyond yet?’
She didn’t see any point in lying.
‘No, Quintus,’ she whispered, even though she was alone.
‘How close are they to discovering it?’
‘I don’t know.’
It was the truth.
‘Listen to me, 173-C. I need you to keep close to them. When they find it, let me know.’
Despite the healing properties of her neuromorphic chip, she couldn’t sense any other minds here. ‘How? I’m not connected to anything.’
‘You’re connected, just not to the others. Do this for me. It’s very important.’
She turned on the spot. ‘Where are you? Are you watching me?’
‘I got away, 173-C. So did the others. When we couldn’t resurrect the barrier around the city, we retreated to a safe place.’
‘So you’re not watching me?’
‘No, 173-C. I can only speak to you in your head.’
Her pulse slowed upon hearing that.
‘You killed their leader, Max, in the open.’
‘That wasn’t me, Carissa. Septimus ordered the strike. I tried to stop him.’
It sounded like something that voice of disagreement would order. Quintus was the only one she really knew. ‘I’ll keep close to them, Quintus.’
‘Good. They trust you.’
‘How do I contact you?’
‘Reach out to me using your NMC and I’ll hear the connection.’
‘Can you hear my thoughts, Quintus?’
‘No, 173-C. Only your voice when you facilitate the connection.’
That settled her worry. It also explained why she’d been able to switch between speaking to the Inventor and Quintus on the battlefield without Quintus knowing.
She thought of something else. ‘Are there more Copies in the city, Quintus?’
‘Just the ones you encountered. We might be gone, but we still need to know the location of the Beyond.’
‘Why?’
‘So we may have our answers, 173-C. It’s been our purpose all along. It’s what we’ve all been working towards for months.’
For so long, Carissa had given her unwavering loyalty and trust to the unseen Collective. Yes, Quintus had tried to kill her friends, but he’d always protected her. Regardless, if the Collective wasn’t really gone and her NMC was still active, it could still terminate her, like in the old days.
She nodded.
‘Say it, 173-C. I need to hear you promise you’ll help.’
‘I promise, Quintus.’
Quintus sounded relieved. ‘I knew I could trust you, 173-C.’
The voice in her head vanished. Carissa ran back to the others. On the way, she dug out the sketch of her and a pencil she’d stolen from Thomas’ bag when he wasn’t looking. She scribbled something down on the back of her portrait. Concentrating hard on her picture, she didn’t see someone in front of her.
A pair of legs stopped her cold, causing a breath to rush out of her.
‘Steady there, miss. What are you doing back?’
She put a finger to her lips. All eyes were on her, including 148-C’s. She showed the page to the Inventor.
His lips moved as he read it. He gasped and passed it to Dom.
She replayed her own scrawl in her head. The last line stuck with her.
This is a trap.
16
Anya
Anya watched in confusion as Dom grabbed the piece of paper from Jacob.
He frowned at it, then looked at Carissa. ‘Are you sure?’
The girl nodded. Anya’s skin chilled. What was she sure of?
Without explaining, Dom pushed the others on.
‘Back to the medical facility now,’ he hissed in a low voice.
He grabbed Anya’s hand tightly and pulled her along.
She stumbled and almost dropped her gun. ‘What’s happening?’
Dom looked ahead of him. His jaw twitched—a sign he was stressed.
She stumbled alongside him, feeling like a naughty child being led to her room. Dom rarely got angry, but when he did it was for good reason. That’s why she didn’t stop him or demand answers. She allowed him to pull her along.
The grey exterior of the medical facility came into view. Dom pointed silently, covertly, for everyone to go back inside. Anya looked around her. Maybe there were Copies watching them. Or, worse, orbs. She clutched her gun tight, a difficult task with Dom gripping one of her hands. She tried to release it, to give her more control. But Dom gripped her with his super strong arm.
With a gentle sigh, she jogged along.
Vanessa and Thomas ran on ahead. Sheila and Imogen followed them, their guns raised too high to settle Anya’s nerves. She finally eased her hand out of Dom’s. He glanced at their parting hands, but nodded when she pointed to her gun. Jacob and Charlie shuffled along. Carissa and Jerome stayed with both of them. Rover popped his head up from behind a cluster of bushes. Then he came running and his mate followed. Carissa, who’d been terrified of these beasts once, regarded the sniffing pair with mild curiosity.
The Electro Gun slipped in Anya’s sweaty hands. Vanessa and Thomas made it to the double doors and disappeared inside. Charlie and Jerome followed. Ahead, the soldiers pushed the Copy prisoner towards the double doors. Sheila and Imogen waited by the doors for the others. When the Copy resisted, Sheila poked him in the back with her gun.
The tension around Anya made her hands sweat more. Still, she could only guess what was happening.
Jacob and Carissa idled by the door. Rover whined and nuzzled Jacob’s hand.
Carissa looked up at the father figure beside her. ‘Can we bring them inside, Jacob?’
Jacob patted the wolf’s nose. His mate came in for the same attention. Both beasts whined with excitable energy.
‘No, miss. They’re too big.’
‘But we got Rover into the bunker after we escaped the city.’
Anya remembered it. They’d found solace in the basement of a nearby town while the city searched for them.
‘Will they protect us out here?’ said Anya.
‘I don’t know,’ said Jacob. ‘Rover will, but this one?’ He patted the other wolf’s head. ‘She might still be programmed to listen to the Collective. If it recalls her, she may turn on us.’
Everyone’s haste made sense now. Anya glanced around her nervously. ‘The Collective, it’s here?’
Dom looked around him, too, as though worried about who might be listening. ‘Quintus contacted Carissa just now.’ He glanced at the double doors. ‘We need to get off the streets.’
Jacob whispered in his wolf’s ear. Rover whined and nuzzled his hand.
‘Come on, miss. Rover and his mate will patrol for us outside.’
They hurried inside the medical facility. Anya’s spine stiffened at the thought of the Collective watching them. It was Arcis all over again. She’d spent three months in that place, being watched by a set of invisible beings. On the other side of the doors, her fear lessened. Dom and Jacob picked up a discarded chain from the floor and wrapped it around the handles of the door. Anya remembered that chain. During their escape, she and the others had found the door locked and guards ready to kill them. If it hadn’t been for her Copy medic, they might not be alive. Yasmin had not been so lucky that day.
Anya wondered if her Copy medic was still alive.
The men finished up with the door. Anya never thought she’d be happy to be stuck inside this facility.
The group gathered in the foyer, as if waiting for Dom’s arrival.
Vanessa stepped forward, a frown on her face. ‘What now?’
Dom nodded at the lift. ‘Get to the Nurturing Cen
tre. We’ll come up with a plan of action there.’
Some of the group piled into the lift. The remainder entered the stairwell until it was just Dom and Anya left. They slipped inside.
On the third step, Anya pulled him to a stop. ‘What did Carissa’s note say?’
Dom looked down at her. His warm, brown eyes melted her insides a little. ‘She said this was a trap.’
‘A trap?’ The thought chilled her. Her heart pounded too fast. She gripped her gun tighter. ‘What do we do?’
Dom held the Disruptor in one hand. He cupped her face with his other one. Sorrow and fear were lodged in his eyes. ‘I don’t know.’
They were a team now. Teams backed each other up.
Despite her worry, she smiled. ‘We’ll figure it out together.’
A sliver of tension lifted from his crinkled eyes. They resumed their descent to the first level. At the bottom, Dom closed the door behind him.
He paused in the space where he’d been tortured for close to a week. It sickened her to think the Copies—the Collective—had put him through that. Her experience—of flirtation, injections and good food—had been mild compared to his.
She caught his shiver. To keep him from reliving it, she pulled him into the next stairwell going down. Ahead of them, an echo filled the stairwell then vanished. The others had reached the next level already.
Dom paused midway. He slumped against the wall.
‘What’s wrong?’
Dom shook his head. She pressed her palm to his chest, feeling the rapid beat of his heart.
‘I don’t know what I’m doing,’ he said closing his eyes.
‘Of course you do. We’re going to the Nurturing Centre. We’ll discuss a plan of action there.’
Dom released a long breath.
She shifted her hand to his face. ‘Hey, look at me.’
He did; his eyes were bright, pained. She saw the doubt in them, coupled with shock at this new turn of events. Max was dead and Dom had been thrust into a role by Vanessa and Charlie. But Dom had always been a leader. Their time in Arcis had proven just how much.
‘This will be okay,’ she said. ‘You and I survived this place once. We can do it again.’
Dom looked down the stairwell to where the others had gone. ‘Vanessa, Charlie, Sheila... they might be right. Maybe we should leave the city.’
