by T. C. Edge
“This is where you trained?” asks Velia.
“Yes,” says Cyra, reaching a large security door. “Right through here.”
I see her take a breath as she inserts her keycard, the large door opening up before us. Beyond, a long, black hall stretches into the distance, immediately reminding me of the training room we found beneath the Baron’s compound.
Cyra steps in, as stale air pours out. She looks around for a moment, before calling: “Eve, give us some light.”
Immediately, the room begins to glow, bringing its darkest corners to life. To my sides, the girls cough from the dust, drifting around in little clouds.
“Eve, clear the air in here,” calls Cyra once more.
Again, the reaction is immediate, the air being quickly conditioned by large filters that appear on the walls. Within only a few moments, the entire place smells fresh and clean, the air pure.
“That’s better,” says Cyra, stepping in a little deeper. She turns to me. “I’ll bet you’ve always wanted to come here, haven’t you Theo?” she asks.
I nod, staring around and whispering: “The Grid…”
“The Grid?” says Vesuvia.
“This is where I learned to be a Watcher. I was trained here by a man called Commander Ajax. You may well have heard of him. It’s where you new friend got his name.”
She turns and continues to walk deeper into the room, looking around as she goes.
“I saw unimaginable things in here,” she says quietly. “This room, it carries a lot of terrible memories. It can morph and change at will, bringing to life your darkest fears. Through that fear, your abilities are nourished.”
She turns to us again, and inspects us one by one.
“That’s what we all endured when we first trained here. But you are all far more advanced than I was then. You have seen and done things now that are worse than what you’ll face here. But here, at least, you’ll have the privacy to develop your abilities further. Would you like that?”
We all nod, and she begins stepping back towards us. Her eyes rise to mine in particular.
“I never wanted you to be here, Theo,” she says. “But I know now that your path lies before you just like mine did all those years ago. I cannot change that, or stop that, as much as I’d want to. You’re braver and more gifted than I ever was. I’m proud of what you’ve done.”
She steps in and hugs me as the girls look on. Then, drawing a strict look back onto her face, she turns to them.
“Do you girls want to avenge your father?” she asks.
Their eyes burn. Their nostrils flare. Neither of them need to answer.
“Good. We all have people who have been taken from us. We all have many others who we’re worried will share the same fate. All we can do, now, is fight as best we can. Down here is where it starts.”
She moves to the side of the hall, and as she does, her voice calls out to Eve once again.
“Eve, show us this Baron Reinhold, and his Seekers of Knight. Bring them to life…”
My eyes blaze as, ahead of us, figures materialise in the centre of the hall. I see the shape of Baron Reinhold appearing, dressed in his maroon cloak. And there, beside him, to his left and right, four figures take shape, thin lips and grey eyes hidden under black cloaks.
“You want to kill these men,” says Cyra, standing by the wall. “Then do it...kill them all.”
I look closer at the apparitions, so lifelike and real, and then turn to the girls. They look even more amazed by all of this than I am, hardly able to believe that these people have formed before us. Then, suddenly, the cloaked figures begin moving, stepping forward and leaving the Baron behind. They start at a walk that turns to a jog, quickly closing the space between us.
“Get ready to fight,” calls Cyra. “This isn’t a game. This is real.”
I instinctively move closer to the girls, stepping to my right as they step left. I move in ahead of them, adopting a posture of battle, and my hand drops to my waist, to where my hunting knife or extendable dagger would usually be. Not today.
We have no weaponry, nothing but our fists. But that’s never stopped us before.
“Here they come,” I growl. “I’ll take the two on the left, you two take one each on the right.”
I see them nod out of the corners of their eyes as the four cloaked men reach us. Under their cloaks, I see the same face. The faces of Augustus Knight, drawn back by many years and only teenagers like us. They come charging in with their fists raised, swooping quickly towards us.
I focus hard, search the Void, and feel their attacks dawning. In one quick motion, I strike out at the first attacker, my fist rushing through his head as if it’s nothing but a cloud of smoke. The body fades into the air as the second attacker comes. I dodge, and strike once more, and dispatch him as well.
As I do, the two attackers on the right fade away as Velia and Vesuvia do the same. Soon, there’s no one left but the Baron, still standing in the middle of the hall. A moment later, he dissolves as well.
We turn to Cyra, who steps forward from the wall.
“Those were nothing but ghosts,” she says. “But soon, perhaps, you’ll be facing the real thing. Down here, the real can by simulated, as you’ve just seen. But no simulation will match what’s really out there.”
“Then what’s the point?” I ask.
“To face your fear,” says Cyra quickly. “And do what you have to in the face of it.”
“But I don’t fear them,” I say defiantly. “I don’t fear these Seekers.”
Cyra’s face darkens, memories flooding her eyes.
“Well…perhaps you should,” she declares coldly. “Because, right now, there’s nothing in the world worth fearing more. If these Seekers are truly clones of Augustus Knight, then we should all be very afraid.”
11
Phase Three
I stand outside a room, looking in through the large window beside a door. Inside, Ellie and Ajax sit, one on either side of a medical bed. On it, the sizeable figure of Link lies, hooked up to all manner of machines that work constantly at the double task of monitoring his health, and bringing him back to full strength.
A doctor stands before Ellie and Ajax, updating them on Link’s current state of health. Once he’s done, he steps from the room and tells me I can go inside. Tentatively, I enter, and see my best friend’s eyes turn up to me.
“Hey, AJ,” I say softly. “How’s it going?”
I try to keep my tone light, planting a smile on my face. He returns it weakly, his eyes hardly able to stay open, exhausted and drained as he is from the previous few days of constant worry.
“I’m…good,” he says as Ellie stands up and heads towards the door.
“I’ll give you two a few minutes alone,” she says. “Thank you for coming, Theo.”
She smiles at me, her own visage broken down by lack of sleep, and steps out of the room. I take her vacated seat beside Link, his body still covered in multiple bandages and dressings that will add to the tapestry of scars that mark the rest of him.
“What did the doctor say?” I ask.
Ajax takes a breath. “Not much. He’s steady, and they’re pretty sure he’ll be OK. They just don’t know when he’ll wake up.”
“And his powers?” I ask.
Ajax’s response is immediate. “I don’t care about that,” he says quickly. “I just want my dad back.”
I nod and go silent for a moment.
“Sorry…” he says. “I’m just really tired.”
“You should rest,” I tell him. “You’re not doing anyone any good sitting here all day. I’ve started training again, with the girls. Mum’s got us working down at the Grid and…”
“Theo, I can’t think about that right now.”
“Why not? Your dad wouldn’t want you wasting away by his bedside. We’re at war here.”
“War? Wars are fought between armies. This isn’t war. I don’t even know what this is…”
&nb
sp; “Well, whatever you wanna call it, we need to do our part. Both of us. Did Cyra tell you about my vision?”
He nods silently.
“And what do you think about that? A city is going to be attacked, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, who knows. We need to be prepared to help, AJ.”
“Help? And what help will we be exactly?” His eyes gesture to his father. “Look what they did to him. And Drake…we don’t even know about what happened to him yet. What hope do we have? I’ll tell you…we have none.”
I shake my head as I look at him, but choose my words carefully. I know how hopeless he must be feeling right now, and this is no time for an argument. He’s not himself, and I know it.
So I take a breath, and compose myself. And when I speak again, I do so with calmer words.
“Maybe you’re right,” I say. “But that’s not the point. Our fathers have always taught us the same thing: whatever the odds, we have to do what we can. That’s what they faced all those years ago. And now it’s our turn.”
I stand, and begin moving towards the door.
“Your father will wake up soon,” I say. “And when he does, he’ll want to know that you’ve been training hard, preparing to fight…not sitting here by his bed, when there’s nothing you can do to help.”
I take a grip of the door handle and pull it open.
“We’re going to be training everyday,” I say. “Get some rest, AJ. Join us when you’re ready…”
I leave with those words hanging in the air, not giving him a chance to respond. I know my friend as well as anyone, and I know that he wants to help. All he needs is time. The only problem is, no one knows how much time we have.
The next few days fall into a familiar pattern. One where I wake early each morning and immediately set my mind to the task of developing my powers further. Each morning, I meet with the girls in the kitchen, where my mother awaits us. Without delay, we move through the city before it rises, and head quietly down to Underwater Level 5. We go through the level, down the corridor, and into the Grid, where Cyra sets about determining the day’s activities.
She tells us that, when she trained here, their training was split into two phases. The first involved facing and mastering their fears in order to develop their visions. They’d take it in turn each day to go into the Grid alone, where their greatest fears would be manifested. Day by day, they’d suffer the same torment, breaking them down in order to build them back up again. She recalls how one particular trainee, a boy called Amir, turned from his fears and got lost, his mind stretched too far.
“He broke down in front of us, and lost his mind,” she tells us. “Not everyone can handle the rigours of the Grid.”
The second phase, however, was when they developed their abilities to see into the Void. That was when the more powerful and gifted among them were set apart from the rest, herself and Link included.
“Phase one was merely to create Watchers capable of seeing and searching visions. Their duties would have them stationed around the country, looking for accidents and other dangers in their sleep. Phase two, however, was about creating warriors. Of course, you three would already pass phase two with flying colours.”
“So, what do we do?” I ask.
“There’s little more you can do than to continue the good work of Athena,” says Cyra. “Only, here in the Grid, we can utilise all of the tools that Eve provides. Tell me, Theo, how many armed men do you think you can defeat?”
The question catches me off guard. After being mentored by Athena, having my mother assume the role is quite jarring.
“Erm, I don’t know…”
“Ten, no problem,” calls Velia.
“Ten?” asks Cyra, turning to me.
I shrug, glancing at Velia who smirks back at me. “I guess…maybe.”
“Well then, let’s find out. Girls, step back. Eve, simulate a battlefield. Ten soldiers. Theo, take them all out.”
I hardly have time to question what’s happening as the room morphs before me. Springing from the ground, crumbling buildings and old rusted vehicles appear. Among them, hidden and out of sight, ten soldiers surround me. I see Cyra walking towards me with an automatic weapon. She hands it to me, before retreating behind a clear partition wall with the girls.
Still trying to catch up, I hear my mother call for Eve to begin. And, suddenly, the sound of exploding weapons fills the great hall.
I barely have time to react. As soon as the weapons sound, bullets fizz right at me. Several I see in time, their white lines crisscrossing around me. Others, however, I miss, pinging at my feet and just missing my body.
I have no choice but to focus hard, the world blurring in a familiar fashion as my senses focus only on the threats at hand. Now, suddenly, the white trails of the incoming bullets appear more clearly, the men delivering them shining out like beacons from their various hiding spots.
I raise my weapon as I duck and weave, picking them off one by one. By the time five of them are down, I’m thinking that ten wasn’t nearly enough of a challenge. When eight have been dispatched, however, I feel a heavy strike at my back, and realise my overconfidence has cost me. I’m knocked clean off my feet, hitting the ground with a thud. Moments later, the simulation ends, and the hall clears once more.
Cyra comes towards me, the girls just behind.
“You lost your focus, Theo,” she says.
I stand to my feet with a grimace, my back stinging.
“The bullets weren’t real?” I ask.
“Not deadly, no. They were rubber bullets. They hurt, but nothing more. Had they been real you might be dead.”
“I can do better,” I say. “Let me try again. Twenty this time.”
“Twenty?”
“Sure. I’m rusty, that’s all.”
“Well, we need to let the girls have a go first. On second thought…Eve, please split the hall into four.”
Now, clear walls appear, rising from the floor and cutting up the sprawling room into four equal parts. “Four? But there are only three of us,” I say.
Cyra frowns. “No, Theo, there are four...”
She walks towards one of the quarters, calling out: “Take your positions,” as she goes. “Give your commands to Eve, whatever you think you can handle. We’ll reconvene in one hour.”
I watch as she enters her own space, and calls for Eve to create a battlefield around her. Soon, she’s lost amongst it, and moments later, I hear more bullets clattering from weapons.
It’s hard to know just how many guns she’s facing, but it sounds like a fair few.
For the next hour, we move into our own little zones, and set about working up a sweat. I quickly ask for twenty soldiers to fight, and realise I may have reached my limit. Frankly, I don’t see how any Watcher could match twenty men surrounding them. It’s not that I don’t see the bullets in time, it’s simply that there are too many of them around me. Eventually, they cut me off, giving me nowhere to go. A couple of sharp hits to the stomach and shoulder, with only five or six of them downed, tells me I’m overreaching.
Velia and Vesuvia also end the session clutching various parts of their bodies, perhaps trying to do too much, too quickly, like me. Cyra, meanwhile, appears more calm, sensibly working herself back into the game after so long out of it.
What all this does tell me, however, is that the Grid offers something that Athena could never provide in Petram. There, the most I’d face would be her and Ajax as they fired at me. There was no provision for anything more. Here, my need to focus and search the Void is expanded markedly. When more enemies are shooting at you, you need to be able to look deeper. If you can know where their bullets will be landing earlier, you gain an even greater advantage.
I realise, too, that my mother is a completely different sort of Watcher to Athena. Where Athena is all brutality and ferocity, adopting a no-holds-barred, sink or swim mentality, Cyra chooses instead to explain to us more fully how to search our visions.
To me, t
hat makes a great deal of sense. In a battle to see into the Void, Athena would certainly win. When searching visions, however, and seeing far into time and space, there is no one like Cyra. She teaches us how to set our minds into the correct state for when we sleep, what to look for, and how to stay in the vision for longer, giving us a better chance of identifying when and where it takes place.
In order to expedite this process, and open up our pathways even wider, she sends us into the Grid alone, as she was forced to do all those years ago. With a small waiting room set outside of it, we go in one by one to truly get a picture of what we’re facing.
“In there, what you see will seem real,” she says. “It will be tough, but it’s necessary. We need you to open your minds and hunt down this vision. We need to know where the Seekers will attack us next.”
It’s not a manifestation of our greatest fears that we face. Instead, we all suffer the same scene when we enter. And despite knowing it isn’t real, as soon as the door closes behind me, and the world takes shape ahead, I feel as if it’s all happening. And there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
Right there, ahead, I see the Baron standing in his maroon cloak. Around him, the Seekers gather, all dressed in black, their faces shrouded in shadow. They all look down to the floor in the ruins of a great city, and lining up at their feet, I see the bodies of those I love and care for.
One by one, my eyes pass over their faces.
My mother. My father. Drake and Ajax and Link and Ellie. Athena and Velia and Vesuvia. Many others lie around them, hundreds, thousands of bodies murdered at their hands. And framing the entire picture is the sight of flames, rising high from burning buildings, the sky blackened and filled with a poisonous fume.
I return from the Grid, my mind filled with the image of death, and my mother comes to me quickly.
“What you saw is what will happen if we cannot stop this threat,” she says. “Let the thought consume you, Theo. Let it engulf you. And when you fall asleep, think of it again. Let it come alive in your mind.”
She tells the same to the girls as they go in, and return with stark eyes glistening with tears. When they both emerge, they immediately look to their sister, before engulfing them in a hug. When Velia comes out, I see her eyes drift to me as she finally lets Vesuvia go. She walks towards me, eyes dripping tears, and pulls me into a soft embrace.
