The Facility

by Eliza Green

  June stared up at the structure in the centre, while Dom looked around. For a way out? For evidence that his mother had been there?

  Hurry, Jason.

  She wasn’t sure how much time they had here before Quintus would make them disappear. Maybe Anya could stall him until help arrived.

  Quintus spoke again.

  ‘This is your final test for the Collective ten. It is a test of faith and trust. You must not ask questions of the arches you see before you. You must walk through each of them as though you have done it a hundred times. When you do, you will find yourself back in Essention, at the start of your journey.’

  Dom stepped forward. He yelled at the ceiling.

  ‘That’s bullshit. My mother came through here six months ago and never came home. Where did she go? Tell me where she is.’

  Yasmin gasped.

  ‘You must take a leap of faith, Dominic Pavesi,’ said Quintus. ‘You are lucky to be part of this exclusive programme. Not many are invited up here. You are on the cusp of adulthood, an equally wondrous and dangerous time in your life when feelings are both overwhelming and exciting, but also confusing and scary. You will make the best and the worst decisions of your life. At this age, you are impulsive, rash. You seem to love the hardest, but easily betray others at the hint of opportunity. You do not have the confidence to choose your own path, so you let others decide for you. We are fascinated by you. Much more than we were by the others, younger and older, who came through here.’

  Hearing Quintus describe their actions sounded just like how Anya had felt on Compliance. She’d lacked confidence, she’d let others decide. Her emotions had controlled her.

  But Quintus did not account for her learning from her mistakes. And while she’d made some bad decisions on Compliance—listening to Warren, hurting Tahlia to progress and chasing Dom further into Arcis—she also learned how to keep her anger in check, and to banish bitterness. But most of all, she’d learned how to trust her instincts.

  Right now, her instincts told her to stall, stall, stall.

  Dom growled and stepped closer to the machine. Anya touched his arm, stopping him.

  ‘I know all about life,’ he said. ‘I’ve experienced far more than your pathetic programme can teach me. Tell me what happened to my mother, Mariella Pavesi. You recognise the name. I know you do. You knew my name the minute I stepped inside this place.’

  He was shaking. Anya tried to pull him back, but he was to strong. Confronting the Collective would only accelerate their plans.

  When she sensed another verbal attack brewing, Anya stepped in front of Dom facing the machine. As if he sensed what she was about to do, he looped his arms around her waist. But she wriggled free of his grip.

  ‘What are these tests for, Quintus?’ said Anya. She needed answers, and Quintus was averse to Dom’s anger. He seemed to enjoy curiosity the most.

  Stall, Anya.

  ‘So you know my name?’ Quintus sounded surprised. ‘Very well. The tests prepare you for emerging adulthood. This was explained to you at your induction, Anya Macklin.’

  ‘No.’ She paused a beat. ‘I was not told my friends would be killed. Tell me why you felt it necessary for people to die?’

  ‘Death is a natural part of life. We all must die at some time.’

  ‘Yes, in the real world. But not in a game, or test, or whatever this place is.’

  ‘We have learned all we can from you,’ said Quintus. ‘It is time for you to step through the machine so that we can extract that knowledge.’

  ‘No!’ said Sheila. ‘I want to know, too. We’ve spent months in here while you’ve watched us complete your idiotic tests.’ She stepped forward. ‘Tell her what she wants to know. Then tell Dom where his mother is. Tell June where her sister is.’

  ‘It would serve no purpose.’ Quintus sounded angry.

  ‘Please,’ said Anya, softer. ‘I asked you what the tests are for. Is it because you’re curious about us?’

  She glanced back at Dom. His eyes were wild.

  Quintus spoke again; flatter, more neutral. ‘Yes, the Collective was curious. Your group was the most resistant in the tests and we wanted to know why. Then I saw your friends breach our defences and...’ A pause. ‘You must complete the programme now.’

  Anya smiled. ‘Why are we really here?’

  Another pause. ‘Why do you need to know?’

  ‘Because I do.’

  ‘Curiosity is a human flaw,’ said Quintus.

  ‘Tell her,’ said a second voice. ‘We need their experiences.’

  ‘If I tell you, Anya Macklin, will you walk through the arches?’ said Quintus.

  ‘Yes.’

  Dom hissed behind her. ‘Maybe.’

  Quintus laughed; a strange and stifled sound.

  ‘The Collective likes you, Dominic Pavesi. That’s why we picked you for our hybrid programme. Mariella was in this very room, pleading for your life. She told me how brave you were. She also told me that the scars are your weakness, your Achilles heel.’ Quintus sounded amused. ‘She wanted us to return to you what we stole, in exchange for her life.’

  Dom was shaking. ‘Where the hell is she?’

  ‘She is not here, Dominic Pavesi.’

  Anya kept a hand on Dom as she spoke to the ceiling. ‘What is this place, Quintus? What is its purpose?’

  ‘This facility exists so the Collective ten can learn.’

  ‘Learn what?’ said Anya, raising her voice. ‘What’s in it for you?’

  ‘We learn by studying you. Your emotions, your reactions to events, good or bad, your strategies, your mistakes. The purpose of this place, Anya Macklin, is to help us evolve.’

  55

  Jason and Preston spent too long examining the dismantled panel. The tech was Praesidium’s alright; not a wire in sight. It used magnetic fields and minuscule balls of energy sat in gelatine-like power sources like the orb scout, but the level of detail surpassed the orb’s simpler design. Jason had no clue where to begin.

  What the hell was he even doing here? His knowledge was old-school. Put resistors and heat sinks in front of him and he could show you how they worked. But this?

  While he and Preston pretended to make progress, the soldiers fanned out with their backs to them, guns ready. Max’s impatience didn’t help to ease Jason’s nerves.

  A clunk-click occurred higher up in the elevator shaft, causing the whirring of mechanics to stop altogether.

  ‘Shit. They’ve locked us out,’ said Preston.

  Jason sat down hard on the floor and hooked his arms around his legs. He kicked the panel away from him.

  ‘Stand up, Jason,’ said Max. ‘This isn’t over. Preston, put that panel back exactly as you found it. We’ll find another way up.’

  Jason cursed his uselessness as he and the others followed Max out of the room and through the next. Maybe Max should have brought Thomas instead.

  They stopped at the walkway which swayed when Max stepped onto it.

  ‘Quickly now,’ said Max. ‘We don’t have much time.’

  Jason hesitated before he stepped out. He grabbed the handrail, and then it readjusted for his weight.

  Together they followed Max through a door on the other side. The next room was larger than he’d expected with slashes in the floor: narrow, inset gaps containing what appeared to be retractable walls. An inactive screen at the back of the room hung above three doors. He didn’t want to think about what game Anya had been forced to play here. And with Electro Guns, no less.

  Max was already at one of the doors under the screen, holding it open. Jason walked over to him, but turned to a second door, where he heard voices and smelled food.

  Max stopped him. ‘We can’t help them yet. We need to keep moving. None of this will end unless we reach the ninth floor.’ He put his hand out. ‘Give me your weapon.’

  Jason frowned at him, but Max insisted. He swapped the Atomiser for Max’s Disruptor. Then they slipped into what appeared to be
a dormitory. A dozen plainly dressed beds lined the room, six on each side.

  Jason looked around. There was no way out.

  Preston continued to monitor the spikes in energy which were happening more frequently now they were inside.

  Max walked along the walls, knocking at various points. He tried the back wall, and Jason heard the sound change, as though there was hollow space behind it.

  They gathered around Max, keeping the guns directed towards the door. Jason glanced up and saw a spot where the ceiling and the wall didn’t quite meet.

  Max slid the Atomiser into his waistband. ‘Help me knock through this.’

  Jason and Preston pushed against the partition. At first, it seemed solid, but then it creaked and wobbled as it broke loose from its bindings. The divider came apart at a seam and they created enough of a gap to squeeze through.

  The three soldiers were the last to enter the grey-bricked corridor, replacing the partition as neatly as they could.

  The corridor ran in both directions. They tried one way, but hit a dead end. The other route, closer to the outer edge of Arcis, brought them to an open stairwell.

  Max frowned. ‘Proceed with caution. They’re expecting us.’

  Jason and the others climbed the stairs. At the eighth floor, a locked door halted their progress.

  A small panel shimmered off to the side. It needed a bio signature.

  ‘This is way too easy,’ said Jason, prising the panel off the wall and stepping back to let Preston take a look.

  Its design was different to that of the elevator panel. For one there were wires, but it had no power source. A copper-coloured sphere sat inside the unit. Jason struggled to make sense of it.

  Preston scanned the tech with his screen. ‘I need more time. The wiring I could probably figure out, but I’m not familiar with its safety features.’

  Max moved Preston away from the panel. ‘We don’t have that luxury.’ He raised the Atomiser. ‘Let’s see if this thing does anything.’

  Jason pointed at the sphere. ‘Aim at this.’

  Max fired at the exposed panel and with it the sphere seemed to lose density. Around it, the other components melted or fused into a jagged mass. The sphere softened around the edges, similar to the wolf’s exoskeleton on the ground floor. Jason stared in surprise and shock as some of the pieces surrounding the sphere began to remould themselves.

  Self-repairing tech? He’d never seen anything like it.

  ‘Did you just see—’

  The door unlocked.

  Max entered the new stairwell with the Atomiser out in front. The soldiers followed. Jason carried the Disruptor in one hand and an Electro Gun in the other.

  When they reached the top of the stairs, they found the door already open.

  ‘I told you this was too easy,’ said Jason.

  Max pushed the door open with the tip of his gun. As soon as he was clear through the door, he froze.

  Jason pushed his way into the room, his heart hammering. All he could think of was Anya.

  But Anya wasn’t there. There was someone—or something—else.

  The room, longer than it was wide, contained dozens of silver units recessed into the wall. Each section contained a person. Each person looked alike.

  On one side of the room, the man he and Anya had first met in the hospital stared out blankly from a recess, alongside six identical others. On the other side, the female from the hospital stood unmoving with seven identical counterparts.

  ‘What the hell is this place?’ said Jason. ‘Are these... Copies?’

  Max seemed less afraid now, and he approached the first female. She was dressed in a black tunic with a gold band running along the edge of the collar. The soldiers shadowed him.

  Preston barely looked up from his screen.

  ‘Praesidium uses them to run Essention and Arcis,’ said Max.

  ‘But what are they copies of?’ said Jason. Thomas had told him about the concept of Copies, but being in a room with them... It turned his blood to ice. ‘Are they just designed to look like us, or are they actual duplicates of people?’

  ‘They are copies of people who once lived. Genetically similar skin-bags. They use biogel machines to make perfect copies. The biotech—lungs, brains and hearts—is added after the creation process.’ Max touched one. ‘I’ve never seen one up close before.’

  A sudden thought made Jason shiver again. ‘Are there Copies of us walking around?’

  Max shook his head. ‘Not likely. They don’t use living test subjects. As far as I know, they only copy people who are dead.’

  ‘And you’re sure? How?’

  ‘I’m not. It’s what I’ve been told.’

  ‘By who?’

  Max turned to look at him. Anger flashed in his almost black eyes. ‘People I know who have seen it first-hand.’

  Preston was still staring at his screen. ‘The energy in this room and the next is off the charts.’ He looked up and frowned. ‘This must be where they’re making the Copies.’

  Max turned. ‘What did you say?’

  ‘I can’t be sure, Max. But what else would they need that much power for?’

  ‘They’re making them in a facility in Praesidium,’ said Max. ‘I’m sure of it. My sources... That would mean they’re using these kids...’ He trailed off.

  A door at the other end of the room swung open and Jason jerked both guns up to chest height. Three identical-looking men stepped into the room brandishing pistols and shotguns. Three others blocked their exit at the stairwell.

  ‘Drop your weapons,’ the lead male said. His duplicates kept their guns high.

  ‘Drop yours first,’ said Max. ‘Then we’ll talk.’

  ‘Your guns are useless on this floor,’ said the male. ‘Try them if you don’t believe me.’

  Max squeezed the trigger on the Atomiser, but it only clicked. The soldiers flanking Max tried their Electro Guns. They all emitted a flat fizzle. Jason tried both of his weapons, but nothing. He searched for the power-neutralising tech must be active in the room, but saw nothing.

  ‘Unless you want to see our guns in action,’ said the male, ‘I suggest you place yours on the floor now.’

  Max complied first, followed by the soldiers, then Jason. Preston put his screen down on the ground.

  ‘So, what now?’ said Max. ‘Are you going to kill us?’

  The male smiled. ‘My orders are to detain you only. The Collective wishes for you to witness the true purpose of Praesidium.’

  56

  ‘We designed each of the floors to have a specific purpose,’ said Quintus. ‘We wanted to observe you in your natural surroundings.’

  ‘Natural?’ said Sheila. ‘There’s nothing natural about what you’ve done to us.’

  Anya needed to keep stalling.

  I hope you’re close, Jason.

  ‘Please,’ she said. ‘Tell me the exact purpose of each of the floors. I want to understand.’

  Dom turned his head and caught her eye, as if he understood her plan.

  Quintus paused but a new voice came through.

  ‘Answer her, Quintus. The Collective has no more need for secrets here. They will not remember anyway.’

  After a brief pause, Quintus spoke again. ‘On the ground floor we wanted to see how you dealt with humiliation by forcing you to clean up after the upper floors.’ Anya shuddered, remembering the dead girl and boy. And Lilly and Ash. ‘On the first, it was your ability to work under pressure.’

  Even though she’d asked, some things were more difficult to hear.

  ‘Why did our have to friends die?’

  ‘We hadn’t factored that in variable at first. But the participants’ reactions to the deaths on the ground floor provided us with some interesting statistics.’

  Anya’s blood boiled. ‘That’s all we were to your Collective? A bunch of statistics?’ Dom squeezed her hand, as if to calm her down. She ignored him.

  Quintus continued, unperturbed by he
r outburst.

  ‘The second floor tested your altruistic side, to see how willing you were to help others. The third was about problem-solving. We left you without instructions to see if you would figure it out for yourselves.’

  Anya was told that she had skipped the second floor because she had helped Tahlia. But Frank had also skipped the second floor; a decision that had always felt like an afterthought, similar to the decision to leave Jerome and Warren out of this group.

  ‘The fourth pitted the sexes against each other and introduced class structure into a classless society. We found it interesting that many of the suicides came from this floor.’

  Anya drew in a shaky breath. Lilly’s death had been a mistake. Ash’s death was a by-product of a situation neither he nor Lilly should have been in.

  ‘The fifth was about competition, seeing whether you’d work individually or in teams. The score didn’t matter. We were more interested in seeing how you behaved in a predetermined environment. We also noticed some of you had been trained in the use of guns. It was then the Collective realised there were rebels inside Arcis.’

  Anya looked ahead of her. She would not give up the identities of her rebel friends, even if the Collective already knew who they were.

  ‘None of you here made it to the sixth, which was designed to see if you still possessed your humility, or if you considered it beneath you to care for our wolves after having progressed so far. We designed the seventh to understand you better. Humans overthink their problems, while machines simplify them too much. We wanted to see if your strengths could balance out our weaknesses.’

  Anya swayed as she realised what Quintus was saying. Arcis had been cataloguing them. She opened her mouth to speak, but Sheila beat her to it.

  ‘So, this,’ she said slowly, ‘was just so you could satisfy some sick curiosity about us?’

  Sheila had it wrong. This was more than simple curiosity. Anya looked at the ceiling. ‘What was the purpose of the eighth floor?’

  ‘To see how well you cared for infants. Some of you performed better than others.’

  ‘There were other children there, with scars like Dom’s.’ Anya felt his hand loosen in hers. She tightened her hold on him.