Cadence

by Wilson, Dianne J. ;

  Evazee sat on the bank, catching her breath, keeping an eye on Bree to make sure she was fine.

  Without realizing it, Bree had switched to using both hands.

  Zulu and Paintbrush had quieted down and settled in the shallows to watch Bree too.

  Sam pushed back onto his haunches, and tears gathered along his lashes.

  Bree rubbed her hair in the water, rinsing out serum. Every movement was smooth, and her hand worked normally. Healed, so effortlessly, so easily, she hadn’t even realized it.

  The dropped serum bottle lay sizzling on the rocks. It was the hiss that drew Evazee’s attention. The last bit of serum ran out the bottle and down the rock freely, heading towards Zulu’s hand.

  “Zulu! Watch out!”

  Zulu turned and instinctively scooped a double handful of water from the river and tipped it on the serum. It hissed and steamed, Evazee couldn’t tell if the serum was burning up the water, or if the water was dissolving the serum.

  Bree waded back to the bank and climbed out, plonking herself down next to Evazee.

  Zulu and Paintbrush followed, all crowding around while Bree checked to make sure that no serum had missed the wash.

  “Your hand...”

  Bree stopped moving and sat as still as a deer.

  “I think it’s working again.”

  “It’s not possible.” Bree tucked it back on her lap the way she had been doing for months. She eyed it and shivered.

  Evazee found a round stone and tossed it at her friend. “Incoming.”

  Bree ducked sideways but reached up with both hands. She caught the rock in her once-damaged hand. The skin was smooth and whole and the fingers closed around the stone with the same strength they’d had before her run-in with the darKounds.

  She threw the stone at the river and got to her feet. “This place isn’t safe. We should get going.” She pushed off the dark brown dirt and made her way back to the path.

  The others followed in awed silence.

  Halfway to the path, the dust at Evazee’s feet swirled in miniature sand tornadoes. The wind was picking up.

  “This is weird. I don’t remember there being wind the last time I was here.”

  Bree tucked her arms over her chest, hands in her armpits.

  Evazee couldn’t see her damaged hand to check if the change was still there. She also didn’t feel free to reach out and take Bree’s hand to check.

  The wind picked up, gusting around them with intention.

  “I don’t like this. Can we leave, please?” Bree shuffled closer to Zulu, tucking herself in between him and Evazee.

  The wind pumped faster now, whipping Evazee’s long hair into a tangled mess and pushing her along the path faster than she’d intended walking. With a loud snap, the wind shifted direction and sucked them backwards.

  Evazee grabbed Sam. “Fill that bottle with river water. Make sure your Gran drinks it every day. Go, now!”

  The buffeting force was too strong to resist so the friends let it take them, struggling against the awkwardness of it all.

  “This is not natural wind. Guys, hold hands. Quick.”

  They reached for each other as the wind kicked up a notch. Zulu grabbed Ziqi as the swirling began. The wind twirled around them like water down a plug hole, and their feet lifted off the ground.

  “What is happening?” Bree yelled, shrill and high above the sound.

  “Hold tight. Don’t let go.” Zulu sounded calm enough, but Evazee knew him well enough to know that he wasn’t.

  Faster now, the wind pumped, spinning them in midair.

  They hung weightless, and then dropped like a bag of bricks off a roof. They hit the cold stone with an oof.

  A single clear chime rang out and Evazee knew exactly what had happened.

  Somehow, they had passed the test of the arch. The task set for them was complete and the arch had brought them back.

  Back to a basement full of Zulu’s people, angry and ready for trouble.

  18

  “I don’t know why you’re so suspicious of what I do here. Someone has messed with your head. When I’ve finalized and approved my serum, it will be produced, packaged into every possible form, and shipped out world-wide. The factories are ready to begin mass-production. They’re all just waiting for me to give them the go-ahead.” A sense of smug self-importance settled over the man.

  Suddenly Kai understood. Back in the graveyard when they’d all been serum-ed back into the spiritual realm, they’d seen Dr S’s death date set a few months away from now. Bree, Evazee, and Elden had walked through rooms full of stockpiled serum. This man felt untouchable, but the powers that be were already moving on without him or his consent. It was only a matter of time until he joined the ranks of the expendables.

  “Where are my friends?”

  “They are being prepped for injecting.”

  Kai’s mind flipped. “Why not me? Why aren’t I with them?” Being in the same room would give him a better chance of freeing them.

  “Calm yourself. I was concerned about the fact that you’re already a serum user. I don’t know what the residue effect would be if we injected you now. I’m excited for your friends though.”

  “Doctor S, I don’t know how to tell you this or make you believe me. You are living on borrowed time. There is a factory that has been producing your serum, apparently without your approval. I hate to tell you this, but once they don’t need you any longer, they won’t keep you around.”

  “You are just saying these things to throw me off.” Hot spots of colour blotched his neck. “I thought I could speak sense to you, but I see how it stands.”

  “Dr S., please listen. I’ve been under the influence of your serum. It doesn’t do what you think. That stuff is—”

  Beep. Eye drops. Blinking.

  “What are your eye drops for?”

  The doctor seemed caught off guard. “I picked up some weird allergies working here. This stuff settles it. I got it from the other chemists here. When I run out, they give me more.”

  “And you don’t find that slightly suspicious?”

  “I don’t know who has been spinning fairy tales in your head. You should write books with that imagination.” The doctor grunted as he pushed himself to his knees, his body popped and creaked in the process of standing.

  Kai took his moment. He shot to his feet, shoving the doctor against the wall. The man bounced off the wall with a loud crack. Then he gasped and fell back, clutching his shoulder. Kai didn’t hang around to check on him. He bolted from the cell, slamming the door behind him.

  Now what?

  ~*~

  Evazee fell out of the archway and rolled to a stop at the sandaled feet of one of the priests from Zulu’s village. Seconds later, Bree and Paintbrush followed. Bree screamed and clutched her hand. The priest stared, his lined face frozen somewhere between fright and elation. Zulu’s entrance was somewhat more graceful. He rolled out of the archway, gained his feet and swore.

  He took one look around the room and whispered to Evazee, “We’re going back. Quickly.”

  The priest found his voice and shouted words that Evazee couldn’t understand. All through the basement, priests drew closer. Zulu’s hand grabbed the back of her top and pulled. She managed to stay on her feet and ran up the cracked stone steps back to the archway.

  Feeling like a grape between two molars, Evazee hesitated. But Zulu wasn’t having any of it. He was back down the steps, hauling Paintbrush and Bree back towards the arch. The priests were closing in, chanting with their hands outstretched.

  “Go! Go now!” Zulu’s voice boomed through the room, shaking the stones of the archway.

  Evazee grabbed Paintbrush by the wrists and ran across the threshold. Electric shock zapped through her and she bit back a scream. She tugged her small friend through with her. Like stepping off a cliff, they tumbled and fell. Just as Evazee thought her heart might stop, they hit the ground, landing in soft sand that threw them sideway
s.

  Evazee watched the stars dance, slowly giving way to soft, warm light. This place was beautiful, though she didn’t recognize it at all.

  Bree sat up, looked around and fell back with a groan. “I know exactly where we are. I just got out of this place. Stone City.” Her healed hand was once again a twisted claw, damaged and useless.

  Evazee rolled to her side and craned her neck. “Did we all make it?”

  Paintbrush sat in the dirt and nursed a bump to her head, blinking in the light as if she was in the middle of the weirdest dream.

  Zulu sat up. Then he was on his feet, crouched and ready to punch or run. He checked the area, and his dark skin paled. “They followed us. Run!”

  Evazee followed Zulu’s gaze. Spread out across the dirt a few feet away were the priests from Zulu’s village. They were all still sprawled out on their backs, groaning as they lay. It wouldn’t take long for the disorientation from being transported by the testing arch to wear off.

  “Bree! We need to hide. Where?”

  Bree took a few seconds to orientate herself. “Temple. Follow me.”

  Evazee reached for Paintbrush’s hand, but the girl took off at a speed fast enough to keep up with Bree. They ran without looking back.

  The crowds picked up as they got closer to the temple. It was harder to run at full speed but easier to get lost in amongst the people.

  Bree gasped for air. “I think we’re in time for the next service. We can hide. Wait here.” Bree slipped through the crowd and grabbed a fistful of garments off a pile outside the temple gate. She kept her eyes downcast as she crossed the walkway back to where they waited. She held out the beige shifts. “Quick, slip these on. We want to blend in.”

  Dressed like the other city dwellers, they funnelled in through the open doorways, hemmed in by a press of people all pushing to enter.

  Zulu hunched over. With his back straight, he stood head and shoulders above everybody else in the room. An easy target to spot.

  Evazee kept an eye on the other three, as much as she could without being obvious. It wouldn’t be good to get separated. The thought of someone actively chasing them turned her belly upside down. What kind of nightmare was this?

  The quad they led into was an open-air venue, with a fully equipped stage at the front. The air was balmy and breathless, everybody waiting for something to happen. Another quick scan of the area and it seemed they’d managed to get away from Zulu’s people.

  Paintbrush tugged on her arm. “Why’re we here?”

  “I want to know where everyone else is.” Evazee crouched down, breathing hard.

  Evazee turned to Bree, waving a hand at the room full of people. “What are they doing here?”

  “It’s a healing service thing.” Bree shrugged dismissively.

  A quiet sliver of hope popped in Evazee. Maybe this would mean permanent healing for Bree’s hand. Maybe they’d been brought here to complete whatever the Healing Stream had started. It made sense. “I’m glad we’re here.”

  Bree looked at her as if she’d swung in from the trees. “Are you nuts? We’re not staying.”

  “But your arm...”

  “Whatever trick the arch played last time, it’s been reversed. I don’t care, I’m used to it. You need to come to terms with the fact that in real life, not everything is fixable. Nothing comes with a happy ending and nobody is looking out for us. The sooner you make peace with that, the better off we’ll all be.” She waved her limp hand under Evazee’s nose. “This? This is a good reminder for me of who I should trust and who I shouldn’t.”

  Evazee was fascinated by the expectation on people’s faces. It almost cancelled out the acid in Bree’s tone. “You’re just protecting yourself, Bree. I think we should stay.”

  Zulu straightened up for a moment, rubbing his lower back. The shift Bree had brought for him barely reached past his belly button and threatened to pop at the seams. The people around him stepped back, and Bree tugged on his arm.

  “Get back down! What on earth are you thinking? We’re supposed to be blending in.”

  Zulu looked like a strangely young grandpa, hunched over, sweating with the effort of blending.

  A commotion started up at the back of the room. Shrieks of awe and adoration oozed from the crowd. A man had entered the quad.

  Evazee squinted her eyes to see who it was, but there were too many people in the way. Could this be Jesus? Kai had met him here going by some strange name. Tom? Tam? Evazee’s heart pounded in her chest. She would give anything to meet him in the flesh.

  Bree hissed beneath her breath. “We’ve got to get out of here. This guy is bad news.”

  “You can’t let your assumptions mess with your head forever. What if you’re wrong?”

  “Are you kidding me right now? I’ve seen this guy in action. He is not on the good-guy team, Evazee. You’ve been lied to.”

  Evazee focussed on the sounds of bliss erupting from parts of the room as the man passed through. How could that be bad? Heat flashed through her, and she could feel the blood tingling beneath her skin. She was probably as red as a chili, but she didn’t care.

  It started as a gentle caress on the edge of her consciousness. A feather-light brush on the outskirts of her mind. A probing thought, gentle but insistent.

  I know you.

  ~*~

  Kai walked as fast as he could manage without looking like he was bolting. He followed passages without knowing where he was going, but favoured any that led up and to the right. Wasn’t that from a movie?

  He shook his head to clear it and carried on walking, carefully schooling his face to a calm mask of I-belong-here-so-don’t-talk-to-me. As the passage widened and became more spacious, the number of people increased. Kai kept his back and his face straight. He didn’t know where to start looking for his friends.

  A short girl with a shiny bob of black hair cut to accentuate a jawline that didn’t need accentuating popped up in front of him. “You must be the guy sent over from design. I’m Kirsten from Marketing.” She stuck out her hand and flashed a practiced smile that showed off deep dimples in each cheek. She didn’t wait for his name or pedigree, but swung around and walked with such meaning that her hair swished.

  Kai followed Kirsten from Marketing, trying not to walk in step with the clicking of her heels. She took him into a large open office space, filled with cubicles manned by busy people in smart clothes. The guys wore cotton shirts and chinos, and the girls swapped chinos for fitted skirts that ended just above the knee. Not quite Kai’s jeans and T. I belong here. I was sent over by design. Obviously.

  They stopped at a large, rectangular arrangement of desks. Each desk was set up with a slick PC screen and keyboard. There was only one spot open, and Kirsten led him straight to it, stopping just short of pulling out the chair for him. She waved him into it and jiggled the mouse to bring the screen to life.

  “This is the one that’s giving trouble. I don’t know who signed off on this, but I’m not sure they should still be employed.” She scrolled and zoomed in on a product label for something that Kai knew well. He used it on his guitar strings to stop corrosion. The label now bore a star with the words ‘new and improved’ diagonally across the middle.

  “I don’t see the problem. This is a good product. I didn’t realize it was produced all the way out here in the desert.”

  Kirsten from Marketing frowned and tapped on the screen with a long, sharp fingernail painted deep maroon. “There, that word.”

  Kai leaned close, struggling to read the small writing. “FretFree, tampered guitar string liquid.”

  “Tampered. Not tempered. Those two words mean very different things.” Kirsten from Marketing had a suitable tone of horror in her words.

  “And you couldn’t just fix this yourself? It’s literally re-typing a word.”

  Her hand was on her hip, fingers drumming dangerously. “It’s a design fault. Design must fix it.” Her Naviband beeped, and she tutted in frustration
. “Get it done. I’ll be back.”

  Kai double-clicked and retyped the word, saved the file, and looked around for whip-cracking Kirsten. He could see her through the door, walking away from the office. He opened up file manager, and the screen filled with folders. Scanning the list was like scanning a grocery store’s stock list. Food items, deodorants, dishwashing liquid...the list went on and on. Furniture polish, bubble bath. All of it was being reproduced laced with dark Affinity serum.

  Blood drained from Kai’s fingers. It was one thing to avoid injections and the odd tampered air freshener, but this?

  There was no way to stop this flood.

  19

  Evazee’s insides slipped like sludge on a potter’s wheel. The oily residue of the voice in her head convinced her that this was not Jesus, but Shasta. A wave of thick nausea swept through her.

  Paintbrush tugged on Evazee’s hand. “I feel sick.” Her lips clenched in a tight line.

  Evazee gave her hand a sympathetic squeeze and pulled Zulu close. “We need to get out of here.”

  Zulu inched up slightly before folding himself down again. “The gate where we came in is closed.”

  Bree frowned at Paintbrush who’d turned whiter than a human should. “That gate is probably locked already.” The pull on Evazee’s insides grew. She shook her head to clear it and focussed on Paintbrush. The girl was in distress, squirming the way Evazee would before throwing up in a crowd. “Is there a restroom here?”

  Bree tilted her head. “This way.”

  They eased their way through the mass of bodies, slowly working their way to a door on the side. Evazee had Paintbrush by one hand and used the other hand to part a way through the crush of people. Nobody moved. Paintbrush had her free hand over her mouth, and her shoulders heaved as she walked.

  “Let us through, please. She’s going to be sick.” Evazee kept her voice low. She didn’t need the attention of the whole gathering, just the souls who stood between them and the bathroom.

  Nobody paid her any attention, they all stared towards the back of the room with a vacant rapture on their faces. This wasn’t working.