by Tara Basi
“This way,” Happy said, taking a stunned Grain by the arm and leading him towards a door in the wall behind him.
Almost instantly he was back in the white corridor where he’d left Sara only a few hours earlier.
Somehow Sara sensed his arrival and flew out of her room towards him, she’d been crying and her face was badly bruised. He’d forgotten about her fall, and that made him feel even worse. What was he going to tell her?
“Jesus, you’ve been gone for hours, I thought you were dead,” Sara said as she hugged him.
“I’m fine.”
“What the hell happened, is she dead?”
Grain looked at Sara for a long moment, and struggled with what to say. I’ve sold my soul. I’m saved. You’re dead. “No, no. We just talked. I didn’t get a chance.”
“Did she tell you anything?” Sara looked up at him, her eyes swimming with affection, and it hurt him more than he thought it could.
“Most of it didn’t make any sense but she said there are millions alive in the Block. Everyone’s not dead.”
“Really, that’s amazing. Is she going to let us go?”
Grain put his arm around Sara’s shoulder and walked her towards her room, “I don’t know. She wants to talk again. Maybe there’s a chance. We’ll see.”
Grain sat down with Sara on the narrow single bed and put his head in his hands and sighed.
“We’ll fight the bitch, she won’t win,” Sara whispered.
Grain couldn’t stand it. He wanted to get away from Sara. Her strength and love was making him angry, “Listen, I’m no hero. Why do you think I was on the Small Business?”
Sara stared at him, startled at the anger in his voice, “You got picked, like us?”
“We got caught smuggling arms to the Arctic Anarchists; for drugs. It was thirty years in the stockade or becoming Small Business guinea pigs,” Grain hissed, wanting Sara to hate him. Fight with him.
Sara laughed. Grain was startled. “Mina was right. Everyone on the Small Business was running away from something. You ever head of the Delhi Deep Throat?”
“What? Yeah, sure, big internet hit. Shitty for the poor girl.”
“Mina was the Delhi Deep Throat.”
Grain wasn’t interested in Mina. He wanted a fight, wanted to hate Sara. Walk away and leave her to the Vat. And, not feel guilty.
Sara was relentless, “It was a century ago. The world’s ended. Who cares anymore? It’s what we do now. Right? That’s what counts. That’s what makes us who we are. You know, Mina took the mission because she wanted to come back to a clean start. We have it; we can be what whoever we want.”
Grain exploded, “Just fuck off. Leave me alone.”
“Sure,” Sara whispered, got up and walked out of the room.
A couple of hours later Happy appeared at his door, “Want to get married?”
“Fucking yes, yes I do,” Grain shouted.
“The door’s open. I’ll be staying here,” Happy said, and sarcastically continued, “Don’t feel bad, it’s what I want. Only had days left anyway.”
Happy must have seen the look in Grain’s eye, “Don’t worry shithead. I’m not going to tell Sara, she’s already got the Vat to look forward to. That’s enough for anyone.”
Grain pushed angrily passed Happy and made his way down the corridor towards the door at the end, avoiding looking into Sara’s room.
Grain woke slowly. He was bruised, bitten and clawed. He stretched slowly. Grain was waking up to married life in a round bed, big enough for fifty people. From another part of the Heaven House he had a fantastical view over the storm clouds. The view out of the wall of glass was a vertigo-inducing panorama over a sea of dark clouds streaked with dramatic colours and tinged with touches of pink from an approaching sunrise. He felt as if he was in constant flight, forever sailing across the roof of the world in a silent airship, running away from his guilt.
He shook his head and tried to stop thinking about what was going to happen to Sara. He looked around for Tracy. Grain saw her sitting at the end of the bed with her back to him. She was dressed. As Grain reached for his own clothes he saw something catch the light on the bedside table. Grain scrambled across the bed towards a glittering glass egg with an emerald eye. Grabbing the ball in both hands he twisted, squeezed and pressed different points but nothing worked. He couldn’t get at the pill. Groaning in frustration Grain turned around, climbed into his clothes and started moving across the bed towards Tracy.
“It only opens after the QQ ceremony,” Tracy said quietly, without turning to look at him.
Grain was worried, had something happened? “Are you OK?”
Tracy turned around and stared into his eyes, she was smiling and crying. “I feel wonderful. I feel young. I’m… happy. It’s been a decades. And, I’ve so missed those lovely white lies,” she laughed as tears streamed down her face.
“What ceremony? Why are you crying?”
“I’m sorry Grain, really I am,” Tracy said, and smiled for a moment before her tears started up again.
“What? Is it the numbers?” Grain suddenly felt very cold, his heart started to race.
“No, no. Numbers came through, they’re fine.”
“Tell me,” Grain said, calmer, his panic subsiding.
“I quit. I can’t do it anymore. It’s horrible. Monstrous. This place is hell. I want to go. I’m happy, now,” Tracy whispered, as she turned away again to stare out over the clouds.
“What? You quit?” Grain spluttered, as he desperately tried to figure out the implications.
Tracy sighed deeply, wiped her eyes with the back of her hands and stood up to face him, “Got you an hour with Sara, best I could do.”
“I don’t understand.” Grain could guess what was happening but prayed he was wrong.
“This is not living. You helped me see. Thank you. I’m just sorry you have to quit too.”
Grain was breathing heavily wondering where the terror would come from and if he had a chance to get away. Tracy was no longer looking at him. She was shaking with fear and staring over his shoulder at something behind him, a glass egg with a green eye fell from her fingers as she put her hand to her mouth to muffle a whimper of terror. Compelled to turn his gaze he knew what he would see could not possibly be good but the monstrous sight that smacked him between the eyes made him lose his balance as he tried to scramble backwards. His feet got tangled in the bed’s silk sheets, leaving him on his back, spread eagled across the bed. It was not an alien as he first thought, it was a machine, a black metal jellyfish floating two metres above the ground, and it was coming for him. Seemingly hundreds of gently undulating tentacles of different thickness and textures hung from a smooth, black, metre wide disc. The thick curtain of limbs fell just short of the ground, all ending in a myriad of different instruments that would have been at home in any dentist’s surgery. The machine floated closer till its black disk body loomed over him as he lay sprawled on his back.
Grain turned to glare at Tracy, eyes aflame with fury ready to hurl a tirade of abuse at the bitch. But the words froze in his throat. Tracy was trembling with terror, sobbing uncontrollably as she locked eyes with Grain.
A second machine floated up out of the floor behind Tracy.
Tracy saw Grain look over her shoulder, “My Crawler’s come, bye Grain. When you see the Vat you’ll know I was right.” The Crawler purposefully floated towards her. A thick tentacle wrapped itself around her ankle and lifted her off the floor to hang upside down a metre off the ground. Something snapped in Tracy’s head and she started to scream uncontrollably. Grain watched in bewilderment as he was similarly hoisted up by his own Crawler and hung in space. Both Crawlers slowly started to sink into the floor with their human catches. Tracy had stopped screaming, she was crying gently again as she vanished through the floor.
Grain was still gripping the crystal sphere. His pill, his cure, his youth, was inside. Ignoring the Crawler he grabbed ball in both hands and twis
ted it hard. One moment it was solid then, it suddenly exploded in a shower of white dust leaving him clutching nothing but powder. Grain roared in frustration.
He was stunned. Everything had gone wrong, Tracy was gone, the pill and he was back on the road to the Vat. His Crawler passed through a circular hole in the floor and re-emerged in a grey box room; it could have been the same one where Grain and Sara had first set eyes on Tracy. The Crawler floated down from the ceiling and lowered him gently to the floor. Directly ahead a shimmering door appeared in the wall. Climbing to his feet, still shaking from the turn of events, he looked around. The Crawler’s head was completely stationary but its limbs slowly rippled and twisted as though being caressed by a strong sea current.
Grain’s choices were clear, stay in the small room with the monster machine or pass through the door. He needed no encouragement to get away. Stepping forward he found himself back in the short wide corridor with the two rooms where they had showered and changed before he’d been taken to join Tracy for the fateful dinner.
Grain shivered, not from fear of the black machines or the unknown of the Vat but the likelihood that Sara was waiting for him. Everything had happened so quickly. He’d never expected to see her again. Maybe Happy had told Sara everything?
Grain looked through the open door of the room to his left. Sara was sitting on the floor with her knees, pulled up tightly into her chest. Her face was in her hands, resting on her knees, quietly sobbing. Happy was standing with her back against the wall. She saw Grain immediately and just stared at him with disgust as though he was an unpleasant smell she’d been half-expecting. Sara sensed the change in the room and looked up. Her eyes were swollen and bloodshot from hours of crying, one eye socket was stained a deep purple from a black eye, her nose was red and very swollen. Grain winced and for a moment felt even worse. Sara jumped to her feet and flew across the room towards Grain before he could react or even prepare to defend himself. She jumped, throwing her legs around his hips, arms around his neck.
“I thought you were dead,” she squealed in delight through floods of tears.
Grain winced as her embrace cut into his deep scratches and many bruises from his night with Tracy.
“Did that bitch hurt you, let me see,” Sara angrily demanded.
“I’m fine,” Grain replied, thinking it best she didn’t examine his injuries too carefully. He was a little shocked by Sara’s enthusiastic welcome.
Sara was suddenly aware she was clinging to Grain with all four limbs and became acutely embarrassed. Self-consciously she climbed off Grain but couldn’t get the crazy smile off her face.
“The bruising’s got worse,” Sara said, bringing her hands to her face, “I look awful, right?”
“You look fine,” Grain said, trying to sound convincing, relieved Happy hadn’t told Sara anything.
“Thanks. What happened, did you get her?” Sara asked, suddenly very business-like.
Happy made an ugly sound in her throat, turned away and spat into the toilet.
“Look, I’m fine don’t worry. Tracy tried to get more information out of me, she didn’t tell me anything more. I was locked up somewhere else but something amazing did happen. I think Tracy’s dead,” Grain said.
“What?” Happy said, suddenly interested in the conversation.
“She said something about quitting and a big black jellyfish machine came for her, took her away. She was screaming for her life,” Grain recounted.
Happy became almost hysterical. Her whole body rocked with childish giggles. Grain and Sara exchanged questioning glances.
“What’s so funny?” Grain asked.
“Block Boss can’t quit,” Happy, happily explained.
“Then there may be a way out if she’s really gone?” Sara asked.
“There’s millions of would be Tracy’s. Reference’s probably promoted a new one already,” Happy disappointingly replied.
“Where are all these millions?” Sara asked.
“How should I know, rumour says most are in the Yard,” Happy answered.
“What’s the Yard?” Grain asked.
“No idea, but it’s not good. If you’re young enough and you screw up you get sent to the Yard, and no one who goes ever comes back.”
“Maybe the Maxinquaye’s safe. Tracy might not have got round to sending a ship up there,” Sara said.
A timid cough alerted them to someone standing in the doorway to the room. Two Crawlers flanked a very ordinary looking bald young man. He was no more than twenty, dressed in the same blue boiler suit Grain was wearing and sporting the same oversized black earring. The room was not tall enough to let the Crawlers tentacles hang straight down; they were pulled up to form a dainty metal dress, the hem of instruments floating just above the floor. The sight of the Crawlers made them quickly back away. Grain hated the machines; they terrified him, even more than his earring. The machines’ grotesque appendages churned like snakes, they were never still, rippling and undulating as though about to strike with any one of a myriad of the sharp claws, spikes, needles, hammers and drills that tipped each tendril.
“You killed Tracy. How’d you do it?” The boy in the boiler suit asked.
“Who are you?” a wary Grain asked.
“Tippese. I’ve taken over from that melancholy bitch.”
“We didn’t kill her,” Grain said.
“Figures, you’re so old, ordinary. You did something though,” Tippese said, and for a moment just studied them in silence, as though they were strange looking aliens.
“Just let us go,” Grain said quietly.
“I am, letting you go. To the Vat,” Tippese answered with a big smile, then added, “And your friends up there are getting blasted,” and with that he and one of the Crawlers sank into the floor and vanished.
“Wait,” Sara called after the disappearing pair.
Chillingly, one Crawler remained. In a movement almost too fast to see all three of them were snagged around the ankle and lifted off the floor.
Chapter 9 – Repellent
Mina had been walking for hours, trying to keep her eyes fixed on the smooth grey floor of the Yard and not look up. She was occasionally startled by seemingly random flashes of lurid pink light that spilled across the glassy surface. The children were leading, heading east, Mina brought up the rear.
“Any update on this place?” Mina nervously asked Trinity.
“No, you can see what I can, if you bothered to look,” Trinity answered.
“What about the path, anything new?”
“Yes, there’s no path. It’s just wishful thinking, a record of an idea with no basis in fact,” Trinity replied.
“What, why didn’t you tell us before, where the hell are we heading?” Mina shouted, so loudly the children stopped and turned around. They were used to Mina’s strange one sided conversations with Trinity and the occasional bouts of cursing. “What did Trinity say?” Battery Boy asked, looking concerned.
“I’ve had enough of you talking to someone we can’t hear,” Jugger menacingly added.
“You’re right, you should hear what Trinity’s saying,” Mina said and pulled the small box holding Trinity out of her jacket pocket and fiddled with a switch.
“Trinity can be a bit… crude, odd, sometimes. Anyway, you’ll hear what it has to say and it can hear and see you,” Mina said indicating a tiny lens embedded in the frame of her earpiece. Looking down at the box, “Trinity, what’s this shit about the path.”
“She’s the odd one, a complete bitch. See how she talks to me. We’ll it’s nice to get to address you all in person without Tea Bag interpreting everything I say. Bad news, the path is a lie, there’s no way to get to the roof from Yard, unless you want to go up inside the, open quotes, tree, close quotes. Only just found out. Good news is my worm is working, but it’ll need more time,” Trinity explained.
“What worm, what’s it talking about?” Stuff asked, looking confused.
“How long,” Mina aske
d nervously, disturbed by Trinity mentioning the tree.
“Piece of string,” Trinity answered.
“Fucker, so what are we supposed to do,” Mina shouted in frustration.
“Language, there are children present. Walk on, wait here, your choice. You might be heading in a good direction, you might not, no way of knowing. When I have something I’ll be in touch, bye,” Trinity said.
“What tree, what worm, anybody going to tell me what’s happening?” Stuff pleaded, looking close to tears.
“Old lady you got a really shit system, and what’s the bastard mean, children present?” Pinkie asked.
Mina slowly slumped to her knees. Her legs were killing her even with Stuff carrying her helmet and Jugger lugging her kit bag. The only really good news was she didn’t have to walk any further. She was suddenly exhausted, only the thought of escaping the Yard had been keeping her going.
“You gonna tell us what’s going on? Hearing what your dumb system’s got to say doesn’t really help,” Battery Boy said, as he stood over the kneeling Mina.
“You trust that machine? Sounded crazy to me,” Jugger added from somewhere behind Mina.
“Listen, I don’t know anything, my friends don’t, we’re just like you, trying to understand what’s going on. Our best chance is Trinity. It’s planted a computer virus, a worm, in the Reference system that Black uses. It’ll take time to dig its way in and then more time to make sense of what it finds. Since there’s no path, we might as well rest here and wait,” Mina explained, taking her time, making sure the youngsters understood what she was saying.
“For how long, we’ve got water for a few days, then what?” Jugger pointedly asked.
“I don’t know, I don’t know, OK? We’ll give Trinity twelve hours and then… we’ll see. OK?” Mina answered, wishing she had more to offer Jugger. He frightened her the way he’d handled Black with such easy violence.
“Worm, got it, makes sense, what about the tree?” Stuff insisted.
Mina hoped that Stuff wouldn’t have pressed that question. Before she could start to frame an answer, Battery Boy just indicated an upwards direction with his thumb. Stuff blew out a long breath and shook his head, but didn’t look up.
