The Kirkfallen Stopwatch

by J. A. Henderson

  “If that’s the reply, I’ll never stop asking.”

  Apathy began to cry, but they were tears of delight. She looked across at Gene, still enveloped in his parent’s embrace.

  He forced an arm out between their bodies. The girl reached out and grabbed his hand.

  Both teenagers began to shudder. Their eyes locked. Gene’s grimace slowly turned into a smile.

  “It’s a roller coaster ride!” he groaned. “But we’ll make it. I promise!”

  Apathy began to laugh hysterically. The sensation was like a roller coaster. Frightening but exhilarating at the same time. Her parents were here! They were all together at last!

  “Hold on and try not to barf!” She twined her fingers through Gene’s and grasped them as tightly as she could.

  “Ready?”

  “Ready.”

  Then they were over the edge. Gene let out a whoop of glee and Apathy joined in.

  Emily clutched at her chest, almost falling over. A look of rapture spread across her face.

  “Dan…. What the…? What’s happening?”

  She threw her arms round her husband and held on for dear life.

  D.B. glanced over at Edward and Annie, catching their astonished stares. For a second, a moment of closeness passed between them. They couldn’t experience what was going on. They never would. But it was enough that their children could.

  D.B. let out a fake yell of elation, motioning behind Emily’s back for Edward and Annie to do the same. They hesitated, then joined in.

  Deep Singh stood in the doorway watching the adults and children on a heap on the floor, crying and laughing and hugging each other.

  He silently closed the door and went to find his own son.

  Around MacLellan Base the firing suddenly stopped. Soldiers got to their feet, staring in horror at their weapons. Potter rose in front of them, chewing his knuckle like a guilty child. Dried blood crusted his top lip.

  “What the hell are we doing?” he said to nobody in particular. “Why are we fighting over a bunch of children?”

  He walked towards the entrance of MacLellan Base, hands above his head. The Stopwatch defenders cautiously moved away from their positions, weapons trained on him.

  “My name is Brigadier Potter of the United States Army.” The officer held out his weapon, handle first.

  “I wish to formally surrender.”

  Millar finally found Poppy, propped against a rock, staring west at the setting son.

  “We beat them, kiddo.” He knelt beside his friend. “We did it.”

  The surf pounded the rocks below Jackson Head like a great beating heart. All around the pair, bodies peppered the ground and the blackened grass was stained dark red.

  Millar should have felt sorrow but something was stopping that from happening. He didn’t understand. He knew he ought to be crying, but no tears came.

  He supposed this was how his parents had always felt

  “This will never happen again.” He straightened the teenager’s blood soaked jersey and stroked her hair. “I’ll make sure this never, never happens again.”

  Poppy’s head lolled to one side and rested on his shoulder. He kissed the dead girl’s cheek, closing her sightless eyes.

  “I promise.”

  60

  Fort Fetterman, North Carolina

  2000

  The room was long and low, with a horseshoe shaped table taking up most of the floor space. A line of high ranking officers, businessmen in suits and scientists sat round it, each face partially illuminated by individual desk lamps.

  Brigadier Potter and Colonel Naish stood in the middle of the room with Millar Watt between them. Naish’s arm was in a sling.

  We’re finally in the presence of the originators of the Stopwatch Project, she thought.

  At one time, she’d have feared them - but now she wasn’t scared of anything. She had absorbed Apathy and Gene’s pheromone outburst on Kirkfallen and so had Millar, Potter and his surviving men.

  They all had the same purpose now, almost shared the same thoughts. And, together with the islanders, they had concocted a magnificent falsehood to exact revenge on the men in this room.

  “We’ve read the report.” A thin officer with a mass of medals on his chest ruffled a wad of paper in front of him. “Just wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.”

  “An unhappy coincidence.” Potter’s delivery was clipped and unemotional. “We arrived on Fallen just at the point when this young man, Millar Watt, was about to release his pheromones.”

  The lie tripped easily off his tongue.

  “Our presence distracted the population and resulted in the boy not being quarantined in time. My men went crazy and most of the Stopwatch Unit died in the ensuing fight.”

  He laid a hand on Naish’s shattered arm.

  “Though their immunity to pheromone release meant they were able to mount a spirited defence.”

  “And the kids?”

  “A pilot called Fred Wolper, one of the Stopwatch Unit, managed to get a chopper into the air with the children on board. So they were unaffected.”

  Potter gingerly touched his swollen lip.

  “When the danger was over he set them down and flew off to get help, but the copter had been damaged by our fire and exploded in mid-air.”

  “So the project worked,” a man in a suit interrupted.

  “I went in with over 400 men and less than half survived,” Potter replied. “If you call that working, then, yes.”

  “And these men are alive because?”

  “They were too far away to be affected, fortunately.”

  “They confirm your story, as do the remaining Stopwatches.” The General rubbed his fingertips together. “Bit of a mess, all in all.”

  “I take full responsibility.”

  “Oh, you will. In the meantime, we’ll have a clean-up crew remove the bodies and give the place time to calm down a little.

  The General rested both hands on the table.

  “We’ll say the… incident was a military training exercise that went wrong.”

  “And this is the boy who caused it all?” A balding Admiral lifted an accusing finger. “The one who released his pheromones unexpectedly?”

  Naish put her arm round Millar.

  “This very same.”

  “You’re sure he’s safe now?”

  “He’s got ears, baldy.” Millar tipped the trilby back on his head. “What he doesn’t have is a mother, thanks to you.”

  “I suggest you keep a civil tone,” the Admiral said curtly. “For safety reasons we’re isolated in the middle of nowhere and nobody knows you’re here but us. “You’re staying alive rests on whether we can depend on your silence.”

  “I’m not scared.”

  The children on Kirkfallen would always respect their parents’ sacrifice but, after Apathy and Gene’s outburst, none of them would ever feel sorrow or fear again.

  “I admire your bravado, son,” a scientist commented. “But you’re sweating a lot for someone who isn’t nervous. We’re hard people to fool.”

  “Oh, I’m not nervous at all.” Millar smiled, revealing a gap between his teeth. He wiped perspiration from his brow with a trembling hand and tried to ignore the pheromone build up churning inside his chest.

  “Guess I must be coming down with something.”

  He grinned

  “And it’s pretty infectious.”

  61

  Kirkfallen Island. Christmas Day 2000

  The Stapletons met Dan Salty at Pittenhall. Makeshift crosses lined the ridge, their whitewashed wood not yet sullied by gull droppings or the corrosive effects of salt laden air. Apathy and Gene were fifty yards away on the clifftop, watching Millar Watt approaching. He was deep in conversation with Emily Walton.

  “Millar is back, as you can see.” Edward Stapleton nodded towards the approaching couple. “The boy released his pheromones right in front of the people in charge of the Stopwa
tch Project.”

  His expression was stony.

  “The base was in the middle of nowhere, so the infection didn’t spread. But everyone there has been… converted.”

  “Why are you so miserable, then?” Dan asked. “Doesn’t this mean we won?”

  “No. Naish and Brigadier Potter still want the children seeded across the world.”

  “What? Who died and left them in charge?”

  “Well… most of us.” Edward swept his hand around the field of headstones. “There’s only eleven adult Stopwatches left.”

  “What about Apathy and Gene?” Dan nodded towards their children. “They were the ones who caused the original pheromone outbreak. Isn’t what happens next their decision?”

  “They may have caused it.” Edward sighed. “But Millar absorbed it. He’s like the others now and Apathy and Gene are as alien to him as we are. They have no authority here.”

  “The pheromone outburst has changed everyone normal beyond recognition.” Annie broke in. “Naish, Potter and their men. Millar and the other kids. Even your wife. They’ve all changed.”

  “Yeah, I had noticed,” Dan retorted sourly. “Emily has hardly said two words to me or Apathy since the outburst. Spends all her time with Potter’s men and the children.”

  He pursed his lips.

  “They call themselves The Colony. Y’know? Like ants?”

  As if on cue, Emily veered away from Millar and headed towards them.

  “The fact that they all think and feel the same thing is disturbing enough.”

  Edward pulled loose a splinter of unpainted birch from the cross marking Colin’s grave.

  “But they want everyone else to be like them too. They intend make the whole world part of their Colony.”

  “What if the kids get scared?” Dan protested. “What if they release Alarm Pheromones across the world instead of Mandibular ones?”

  “They don’t feel fear any more, remember?.”

  Edward pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, cupping his hands to stop the tiny flame from being extinguished. “They’re zealots, out to mould humanity in their own image .”

  “You telling me we’re back to square one?”

  “Square zero more like,” Annie broke in. “They don’t seem to feel anything at all. Not sorrow. Not joy. Certainly not love.”

  She gave a shudder.

  “They’re worse than us.”

  “Whatever happens, we’re in deep trouble.’ Edward took a drag on his cigarette. “In the new world order these children intend to create, I doubt our kind will be tolerated.”

  He gave a bitter smile.

  “I guess Kelty will get his master race after all.”

  “Let me talk to my wife one more time.” Dan waved to Emily as she approached. “She used to care for me once.”

  Emily didn’t wave back. Uncombed hair hung messily round her shoulders, framing a face devoid of makeup.

  “Why is everyone hanging around here?” She ignored the crosses that sprouted on either side. “The chopper will be here in a few minutes to evacuate the children.”

  “We don’t think they should go.” Dan replied. “Their mothers and fathers don’t think they should go.”

  “They’re not the real parents, though, are they?” Emily patted Colin’s headstone absentmindedly.

  Dan winced and Annie clenched her fists.

  “Besides, the children want to do this.”

  “Your daughter would rather stay here.”

  “I can’t do anything about that.” A flicker of regret crossed Emily’s face, but it was gone in a second. “We’re all grateful to her and Gene - but no individual, not even Apathy, is greater than our cause.”

  “I think this discussion is ended.” Edward took a deep breath, then enveloped Dan in a hug. “Be seeing you, neighbour.”

  He stepped back and patted his heart.

  “Remember. We have more here than they realise.”

  Dan’s jaw twitched. A small lump betrayed the concealed pistol in Edward’s jacket.

  “Got that right, Eddie.”

  Emily threaded her arm through her husband’s and watched the Stapletons walk back towards the village.

  “I promised Colin I’d keep him safe. That I’d rescue Apathy. And you.”

  Dan looked at the ground.

  “Promises I couldn’t keep. Do you know what that’s done to me?”

  “You also promised to stay with us.” Emily seemed oblivious to her husband’s pain. “I know it was just to stop Apathy releasing the wrong kind of pheromones but I’m holding you to it, anyway.”

  “You don’t know that, at all.”

  “It doesn’t matter. You always keep your promises, remember?”

  Emily stood on her toes and kissed his cheek, lips cold and dry.

  “After what she’s done, Apathy deserves to have a mother and father. You play along and no harm will come to you.”

  She tugged at his sleeve.

  “Let’s go.”

  “Wait a damned minute.” Dan shook her off and got down on one knee next to Colin’s grave. He clasped hands in front of his chest and closed his eyes.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you Colin,” he whispered. “But it was a good con, even if it didn’t work out.”

  His voice broke as he tried to utter the last words.

  “I appreciate a good con.”

  Emily put both hands on her hips.

  “The helicopter is going to be here any minute,” she cautioned. “And the sooner these kids are on it the better.”

  She glanced warily at the remains of Kirkfallen Village.

  “I don’t like trusting the future of the human race to eleven sociopaths.”

  She turned on her heel and walked away, without a backward glance.

  Dan stood up and shielded his eyes. In the distance an army chopper surfed the hilltops heading towards the village like a fat fly.

  “Twelve sociopaths, if you include the notorious D.B. Salty.” He said softly. “And you just handed us an escape route.”

  He felt inside his own jacket where Edward had slipped him a homemade knife.

  “As you said, Emily. My promises no longer mean anything to you. But I’ll save my daughter. You have my word on that.”

  Apathy and Gene watched the ocean batter against the cliffs of Pittenhall ridge as it had done for thousands of years and would do for thousands more.

  “How does it feel to be the new Adam and Eve?” The biting wind whipped hair round Apathy’s face, hiding her expression.

  “At least we don’t have to start out naked.” Gene sounded exhausted. “It’s freezing here.”

  “We can’t let the children leave Fallen.” Apathy shivered and rubbed her arms. “They’re walking time bombs.”

  “They may just save the human race. Have you thought about that.”

  “How? By flushing self-will down the drain? By taking away people’s ability to think for themselves?”

  “If humans used that gift properly, democracy would work and we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

  Gene’s voice was soft and low. He seemed much older than the boy Apathy had met a few days ago. “Maybe we need to all think the same.”

  “Maybe,” she agreed. “Only… I don’t want to be part of it.”

  “You wouldn’t say that if you were abused or dirt poor or living in a war zone. Most people are.”

  “I know. But we’re not.”

  “That’s the curse of having choices.” Gene admitted. “You appreciate how terrible it is to have them taken away.”

  Millar Watt finally reached them, perspiration beading his forehead.

  “Are you two ready to go?” he said. “We have a new world to build.”

  “Don’t you mean a new world to conquer?” Apathy grunted.

  “That’s an old way of thinking,” Millar shot back. “We’ll all be part of the new order. The smart ones will lead. The strong ones will build. The fertile o
nes will breed. The weak ones will be weeded out.”

  “And so will outsiders.” Apathy’s scorn was withering. “Outsiders like us.”

  “Don’t you get it?” Millar looked shocked. “You only have to wait until Marcie Gold releases her pheromones. Then you’ll be part of the Colony too.”

  “And if we don’t want to be part of it?”

  “What’s got into you guys?” Millar slapped Gene on the back. “Get your stuff together. I’m packed already.”

  “You’ll have a job getting all your precious books on the helicopter.”

  “Books?” Millar looked puzzled. “What will I need books for? I know how to hunt, fish and farm. And I know how to fight.”

  He glanced in the direction of Kirkfallen village.

  “I’ll be in charge of mopping up any threats to the Colony. But you’ll be safe, don’t worry.”

  Millar looked at them in awe.

  “You made us.”

  “Give us five minutes, Millar. Could you do that?”

  “Sure thing.” He tipped his hat back and headed back the way he had come.

  Gene watched him open mouthed.

  “You were right,” he said softly. “He didn’t even look at it.”

  Apathy read the inscription she had carved with Dan’s Swiss Army knife on the headstone next to her.

  Poppy Ainsworth

  Fallen Star

  You win,” Gene said sadly, “If we humans are too stupid or short sighted to prevent our own destruction, so be it. The planet will get along without us, just fine.”

  He laughed bitterly.

  “But it already has enough ants.”

  Apathy glanced across the graveyard at her father. Even from that distance she could see sorrow etched into his posture. A man whose makeshift moral compass had finally let him down

  She reached out and took Gene’s hand.

  “Can we really go through with this?” She felt a lump forming in her throat.

  “The Stopwatch Project has to end forever.” Gene knelt by Poppy’s grave and thrust his hands into the freshly turned soil. He removed a gun, brushed the earth from it and got to his feet.

  “We’re the last of the Kirkfallen Stopwatch,” he said grimly. “We do the jobs nobody else will.”