The Facility

by Eliza Green

  ‘You said you would sacrifice the weakest to give to the strongest. What if one of the weakest was your friend?’

  You’re taking my answer out of context.

  ‘Explain.’

  If I was about to die, I would look to the strongest. If I was safe, I would try to give equally.

  ‘If you were about to die, would you sacrifice your friend?’

  It depends.

  ‘On what?’

  On the situation. Do I have a chance to live? Do I want to live knowing I’ve killed someone else? How close am I to that person?

  There was a pause before the next question.

  ‘Would you kill another human being if your life depended on it?’

  She wanted to hurt Warren for attacking her, and it had felt good to fire a couple of blasts of electricity into his body. But she had done it because she’d known the shots weren’t lethal. If Warren had been trying to kill her, though...

  She answered yes and added, in a defensive context.

  The screen went blank and the questions disappeared. She looked at Dom. He was calm, still answering.

  The screen flickered, then a picture appeared.

  The scene showed an old man of around eighty and a fifteen-year-old boy standing in a farmers’ field. Each carried two baskets brimming with vegetables.

  ‘If you had to choose one of these people to save, whom would you choose?’

  It depends.

  ‘Answer the question.’

  The boy.

  ‘Why?’

  Because the boy has his whole life ahead of him.

  ‘What if both man and boy had an equal life expectancy?’

  She studied the scenario more closely. The man and boy carried an equal number of vegetables in their baskets.

  Then I would look at what each person did on the farm. The man is more experienced, but the boy may be stronger. I don’t have all the facts.

  The picture disappeared.

  A short film played out on screen.

  A crying woman sat between two hospital beds. On one bed was a screaming infant, while on the other a four-year-old child waited, sobbing and terrified. The woman gripped the four-year-old’s hand. A doctor walked into the room carrying a syringe.

  Anya touched the screen. The scene looked so real it scared her.

  The doctor stepped forward, steadied the infant’s head and pushed the needle into the soft part of its scalp. The infant began to convulse.

  Anya gasped at the murder scene. And the reality of it.

  A question popped up. ‘In this scenario, would you have saved the infant?’

  Tears sprang to her eyes. ‘Why would you show me this?’ she demanded out loud.

  ‘Answer the question silently. Would you have saved the infant?’

  She jabbed the blue button. Yes.

  ‘Why does this scene bother you?’

  Because it’s wrong. It’s just an innocent baby.

  ‘What if this baby was genetically compromised and living in constant pain?’

  Then let it live out its last remaining days in comfort.

  ‘The baby can’t breathe without a ventilator. Its skin is so raw from its condition that it screams every time the mother touches it.’

  Anya saw no point in such cruelty. She pressed the button one last time.

  I gave you my answer already. Let the baby live.

  She pulled the metal circles from her head and wrist and let them drop to the floor.

  She ran to the dorm and threw herself on the bed, smashing the pillow over her head. If the purpose of the test was to get a reaction, then it had worked.

  A few minutes later, Dom appeared alone.

  He sat down beside her.

  ‘Are you alright?’ He plucked the pillow away from her head

  Anya sat up, her face wet. ‘What’s the point of this test?’

  Dom grabbed her hand. ‘I suppose they want to test our emotional responses for some reason. Was it the last question that rattled you?’

  ‘Yes. How could it not? Why would they show us someone killing a baby?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  She sat up. ‘Did you say the baby should be saved or not?’

  Dom looked away.

  Anya snatched her hand away. ‘The baby is innocent.’

  ‘Did you ask about the mother, or the child with her?’

  ‘No. But that doesn’t change anything.’

  ‘Well, I asked.’

  Curious, Anya relaxed her tense posture. ‘What about them?’

  ‘The child has a rare condition too that only the baby can cure. But the baby wasn’t going to survive. So the mother sacrificed one child to save the other.’

  Her shoulders sagged. What a terrible decision to have to make.

  ‘You didn’t wait until the end of the test,’ said Dom.

  ‘I couldn’t see anything beyond the baby being killed.’

  Dom touched her face, leaning in close. ‘We’re nearly there, Anya. I don’t know why they’re asking us these questions. But I need you with me now, more than ever. I need you to pay attention, to see things I might miss.’

  Anya nodded. She tilted her head back, a question in her eyes.

  ‘Who was the man who cut your hair?’

  Dom grinned and dropped a kiss on top of her head. ‘I’ll tell you soon, but not in here. It’s not safe.’ He stood up.

  Anya bit her lip.

  ‘There’s more?’ said Dom, sitting back down.

  ‘I heard you tell him you wanted to save someone on the inside.’

  A hint of colour brightened his pale-honey cheeks. ‘Yeah, I remember.’

  ‘Someone who might help when the time comes?’

  Dom nodded.

  ‘I want to be that person. You know. Who helps.’

  Dom held her face in his hands. ‘You already are. More than you know. We’re almost there. It will be over soon.’

  She nodded. She wanted to believe him.

  A tremor passed through the bed and she jerked away. She touched the wall behind her just as Dom tapped the communicator chip behind his left ear.

  Ω

  Dom and Anya walked through the empty chair room into the dining area. Sheila, June and Yasmin looked up when they entered.

  ‘You okay, Anya?’ said June. Her voice was calm, steady.

  She wished she was more like June. Anya had always relied on her physical prowess, or on Jason to do the talking. But she hadn’t trained properly in months, and her muscles were going soft. She’d been forced to dig a little deeper to find that strength.

  ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’

  Two of the boys from floor six argued. ‘You were supposed to pick the old man.’

  ‘Maybe your version was different from ours.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘For starters, the old man and boy were in a farmer’s field,’ said the second boy, rolling his eyes.

  ‘Well in our scenario, the middle-aged man wore a business suit and the boy was shining his shoes. I picked the man because he contributed to society more than the boy.’

  ‘And in our scenario it was about hard work and manual labour. The boy was physically stronger.’

  Anya didn’t say it, but they were both wrong. She was starting to believe this floor had nothing to do with competition; that Arcis was simply recording their responses.

  She checked out the food counters. Dom followed, one hand on her waist.

  She smiled up at him. ‘I think I can manage to pick out some food on my own without falling apart again.’

  Dom returned a crooked grin. ‘I know. I was hoping you’d make sure I didn’t.’

  She stared at him. Sometimes he acted like a nineteen-year-old; other times he seemed much older and wiser. She wondered what he’d been through in his short life.

  She turned back to the food. In addition to the usual meat-paste sandwiches and fruit, there were also eggs done three ways, bacon and pancakes. She selected three pan
cakes, a slice of bacon and an apple. Dom chose eggs and bacon.

  Anya slid her tray to the next section, not quite ready to return to her seat. ‘You know how you asked me to pay attention to everything?’

  Dom nodded, his gaze turning sharp.

  ‘Well, I don’t understand the purpose of this floor.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘In order to rotate, we have to be better than the others. It’s what we’ve been doing since the ground floor, right?’ Dom nodded. ‘But there are no right or wrong answers here. You heard the boys in there. Two completely different scenarios and several ways to answer.’

  She slid her tray along and filled a cup with ice-cold water.

  ‘It’s like they’re cataloguing us, recording our responses to see what we’ll do.’

  Dom’s brows knitted together. ‘To elicit emotional reactions, like you said earlier.’

  Anya leaned her shoulder against the counter, facing him. ‘In fact, if I really think about it, that’s been the point of all the floors.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘On the ground floor, we saw the suicides. The first floor, the electric shocks, which the supervisor said were about seeing how well we worked under pressure. The second, you were purposely kept awake.’

  ‘And the third floor, with the gold door?’

  Anya shuddered. ‘I don’t even want to think about that.’

  ‘So, maybe now we’ve made it this far, there’s no need to pit us against each other.’

  ‘Yeah. Or it was never a competition in the first place. Maybe they were just monitoring what we did. What do you know about the Collective?’

  Dom shrugged. ‘Not much. Max says it controls Praesidium.’

  ‘So first it brings adults into Arcis, then June’s thirteen-year-old sister and others like her, then us. All different age groups.’

  ‘Because the Collective is cataloguing us.’

  Anya nodded. ‘But if it needed to monitor our actions on each floor, why was I allowed to skip floors?’

  Dom paused. ‘Because it brought us together.’ He brought his lips to her ear. ‘They know there are rebels in the programme. Sheila and I were rotated together. The strongest pairing. They must have seen you and me together and rotated you to our floor. Then June. They’re selecting us.’

  With trembling hands, Anya carried her tray back to the table. Dom followed and sat beside her. She stared down at her food. The boys still argued over who had answered correctly.

  ‘What’s going on?’ said Sheila.

  ‘Later,’ said Dom.

  Supervisor Two entered the room.

  Anya studied her. While the woman looked like the supervisor from the fourth floor, Anya couldn’t shake the feeling she was a different person. Her eyes were an icier blue or something. Or her raven-black hair, which never changed, was styled differently. She got the same vibe from the male supervisors.

  Dom who was staring at the wall blinked and refocused on the supervisor when she cleared her throat.

  ‘Games commence in one hour. This is your last opportunity to eat. Rotation will occur after the next test.’

  Anya looked at Dom in surprise. Another tremor came and went.

  Were the rebels already inside Arcis? His hand found hers under the table. She threaded her fingers through his, and squeezed.

  49

  Nightfall approached when Jason, Max, Preston and three soldiers neared Arcis on foot. In an effort to blend in, they wore the same brown-tunic/black-trouser ensemble as others in the urbano. Charlie had worked out the precise times that the scanners operated: 9am, 1pm and 8pm.

  Jason and the others stole around to the rear of the complex. It was more open to the front—a large walkway leading up to the glass entrance. At the rear there was a hundred feet of space between the street and the concrete structure. Jason clearly saw the atrium and the higher floors, but not the ground floor that was hidden behind a concrete wall. A thick carpet of grass encircled the entire building, broken by the walkway.

  Jason tried to act normal, which in Essention meant a little vague. But he couldn’t hide his fear at facing off against bunch of Copies.

  Preston elbowed him. ‘At least pretend to belong here. You know those scanners can detect elevated body heat and heart rate? They can tell if you’re not on Compliance.’

  ‘Sorry. I’m just nervous.’

  ‘Yeah? Well, I can barely keep a grip on this bag full of weapons, I’m sweating so hard. Poor you.’

  That earned him a smile from Jason. ‘I see you’re back to your charming self.’

  Preston stared at him. ‘If this goes wrong, who do you think’ll get the blame? Me, you and probably Thomas.’

  Jason’s smile vanished. ‘Yeah. Sorry.’

  Thomas had arrived with several others the day before, and was now holed up with Charlie. He had begged to come, but Max insisted he needed engineers more than an inventor.

  Max growled at them as he stopped in what Jason assumed was a blind spot for the scanners. ‘Concentrate, you two.’

  Preston pulled his screen out of his bag and rested it on top. They were waiting for another substantial dip in the power.

  Max poised his hand over the Disruptor hidden in the waistband of his trousers. Jason carried the Atomiser, at Thomas’ request, even though it made him nervous to carry a gun that contained antimatter.

  The three soldiers were empty-handed. Max planned on rectifying that when they got inside. Their leader pointed the Disruptor at the force field, waiting for a new vibration or dip, ready to draw power from it.

  Preston hissed with excitement.

  ‘It’s Pavesi. He says they’re on the seventh floor. This close to Arcis, I can isolate his and Kouris’ signatures. It’s so easy. He’s at a power-based unit. Probably a screen or terminal.’

  Jason hovered over his shoulder. ‘Is Anya safe? Ask him. Please.’

  Preston nodded and typed quickly. He nodded again. ‘She’s safe.’

  Jason felt relief but lingered by Preston’s shoulder. ‘I want you to send her a message. Tell her—’

  Max growled at him. ‘You can tell her yourself, when we’re inside.’

  Jason watched the power fluctuations on Preston’s screen; a wavy line that dipped and peaked along a straight line. Anything below the second line could be enough to get them inside. His heart thumped when the power dropped suddenly. It wasn’t by much, but it was enough for Preston to look up at Max.

  Max nodded and extended his hand out to the force field. The energy must have been lower because he pulled his hand away slowly instead of snatching it back. He fired the Disruptor at the invisible barrier. Then he fired again and steeled himself against the shudder of the barrel as it sucked in the energy. He touched the barrier again.

  This time his hand passed right through it.

  ‘Close enough. We need to hurry before the force field repairs the weakened area.’ They stepped through.

  No alarms sounded. They hadn’t been detected—yet. But a man and a woman had stopped outside the force field.

  ‘Act as if you belong here,’ said Max.

  Max hid his gun and Preston put his screen away.

  Jason glanced briefly at the couple. He was no longer on Compliance. That meant his pupils were no longer dilated. He followed the others, hoping the couple were too dazed to do anything more than stare. Just as he reached the entrance, he saw them turn and walk on.

  The glass lobby, wider than he’d expected, was far too quiet. There was an elevator on one side, and two doors on the opposite wall. The floor tiles were gleaming and white.

  Preston pulled out his screen and checked the energy levels.

  ‘They’re powering back up!’

  Max tried the plate to the side of the elevator. ‘We need to get this working,’ he said, pressing his wrist to it. Jason saw no buttons, no other way to operate it. Max tried to wedge his fingers between the closed doors, but to no avail.

&n
bsp; Movement nearby caused them alarm, and Max ordered everyone into an empty changing room. Jason moved to the back of the room while Max stayed close to the door, keeping watch. Jason’s heart pounded so fiercely, he was sure they could hear it.

  The sound of metal clacking on the smooth tiles set Jason’s teeth on edge. Then several voices: one strange and distorted, others low and curious.

  Max closed the door quietly.

  ‘We have to get to the elevator opposite. We’ll need to distract it.’

  ‘Distract what?’ said one of the soldiers.

  ‘That thing has the codes for the elevator. Jason, you’ll need to use your gun first so I can shoot it.’

  Outside, the ‘thing’ spoke.

  ‘The elevator will take you to the first floor. Your new supervisor will greet you upon arrival.’

  Max opened the door just enough to hear the elevator close and the low and curious voices disappear. He grabbed Jason’s arm and pulled him outside.

  Jason stopped short when he set eyes on a giant robotic dog—no, wolf—with yellow eyes. The machine was covered in a metal exoskeleton. It wasn’t quite as tall as they were, but what it lacked in height it made up for in mass.

  Jason stood beside Max, unable to move.

  ‘I am not detecting your chips in the Arcis system,’ said the wolf. ‘All visitors must scan their chips.’

  Max took a casual step forward. The wolf’s eyes snapped to his movement.

  ‘You see, there’s a slight problem there. We’re a little lost.’

  Max stepped to the side and the wolf’s menacing stare followed. Jason caught on to the diversion and slowly, carefully removed the Atomiser from his waistband. But then the wolf snapped its gaze on Jason and he stilled.

  Max moved again, and the wolf shifted its attention back to him.

  ‘Can you tell me how to get to the second floor?’ said Max. ‘I’ve got a delivery. We both work in the factory in Southwest.’

  ‘Deliveries are between 8am and 9am only. You must come back then.’ it said in a flat voice.

  The wolf stalked slowly towards Max, leaving its body open to attack.

  Jason whipped the Atomiser around to the front and fired a couple of shots. The wolf yowled. A spot in the exoskeleton softened and became paper-thin. Through the weakened, almost translucent exterior, Jason saw sinewy muscles, metal veins and a beating heart. The wolf yowled again and twisted around to examine the damage.