Escape To Survive

by Ryan Gawley

  'What the hell are you doing Marshal?' shouted a fellow pupil jumping back in surprise and causing a circle to open around the boy as the others also backed away.

  'Oh shit, are you okay Marshal?’ another shouted more out of curiosity than concern.

  The young boy looked up with a vacant stare and the other pupils recognised the same expression they had just witnessed from their dead tutor. They realised only too late they were in danger.

  Young Marshal slowly rose from his chair, blood oozing from deep cuts in his legs, assorted stationary protruding from the wounds. With lightning speed he plucked a disposable pen from his leg, lunged forward and stabbed it through the throat of an unfortunate student who reeled backward clutching his neck and gargling blood as he collapsed backwards over a desk. Some of the boys now fearing for their own lives ran from the room in terror but others stayed intent on exacting revenge for the death of their friend. The manic boy focused his rage on the closing crowd ripping and tearing at anything his hands could grab. He dealt serious injury to several of the mob but was quickly overcome and thrown to the ground where he was kicked and stomped to a gruesome death.

  Every classroom had a security camera installed and class 4C's geography lesson had been relayed to a control room where the grisly events were discovered all too late by a bored and underpaid guard who's reaction would have dire consequences. Instead of putting the building on lockdown and containing the problem until the Enforcers arrived the guard panicked and signalled for an emergency evacuation of the entire school. As the siren wailed the school’s teachers and students alike assumed it to be just another drill and began casually filing out of classrooms into the hallways where they mixed with members of class 4C. A few boys who ran in fear into the corridors after the savage deaths of their tutor and friends were dispersed through the crowd now crammed into the narrow halls. Panicked but unable to escape through the tight slow moving crowd, each within minutes of one another stopped walking, slowing the crowd and causing a bottle neck. If any of the students or teachers surrounding them at that moment had witnessed the earlier horrors they would have ran for their lives as the afflicted boys in their turn began to shudder and manifest the symptoms that lead to the earlier deaths.

  As each affected pupil turned killer a stampede of terrified students desperate to escape the terror triggered yet another victim to turn. As the fear escalated teachers and students lost any sense of order and ran in all directions trying to distance themselves from the bloody fury erupting around them. The school security guard realising his error and knowing the building control systems wouldn't allow him to initiate a lockdown once an evacuation was in progress called his own team back to the control room where they barricaded themselves inside. They sent a priority call to Central Control which was routed directly to Central Command and additional squads of Enforcers were immediately dispatched.

  When the Enforcers arrived they surrounded the school with a four man squad stationed at every locked gate and as each new unit joined them a wall of armed Enforcers with riot shields formed and fought back the crowd while a second line working from behind launched gas grenades into the school yard to incapacitate those not overcome by the madness. Only the ultra-violent victims of the sickness seemed immune to the stun-gas and this tactic allowed the Enforcers to mercilessly gun down the most severe threats while minimising casualties. Those still in the building were left to fend for themselves and the Enforcers weren't concerned if a few innocents were killed in the process - they had their orders to contain the situation at all cost.

  It was too late.

  Scores of students and several teachers had made it to the gates and fled into the crowded city before the first patrols had been able to respond. Those that escaped ran for home or any place of safety but for many the fear and adrenaline acted as the trigger for their own transformation so a wave of panic and violence began to spread throughout the city.

  CHAPTER 6

  Victor Henderson’s car passed swiftly through building security with a nervous nod between guard and driver. The luxury vehicle came to a gentle stop in front of the underground door to the private lift reserved exclusively for the residents of the upper five floors. Henderson dismissed the chauffeur and entering the lift he held his left wrist against a small black panel just inside the door which scanned the implanted chip in his arm and the lift automatically ascended to the top floor. There were no buttons on the control panel for the uppermost floors as each could be accessed only by authorised personnel using an implant chip or by thumbprint identification.

  Since his wife had been dead for two years now the only other people with access were his trusted driver and Kathy, his twenty-two year old daughter. The driver was an intimidating figure but obedient and made no objection to being chipped. Kathy however was stubborn like her mother and refused to be implanted. It no longer mattered anyway since Henderson and had disabled Kathy’s access to the lift controls effectively holding her prisoner in her own home.

  The lift climbed quickly and smoothly and within a few moments the doors opened directly onto the entrance hall to the lower level of Henderson’s private living quarters. As he disembarked the doors began to close behind him for the lift was being called by another of the buildings residents. Henderson was hanging his coat on a stand in the wide hallway when his daughter sprang from a store cupboard nearby and darted into the lift before the doors could close. She stared wild-eyed through the narrowing gap as the bloated figure of her father swiftly grabbed an antique walking stick from the coat stand and rushed toward the lift again. Kathy’s hopes were dashed as Henderson shoved the tip of the walking stick between the doors just as they were almost shut forcing them to open again.

  Kathy knew from bitter experience that fighting would accomplish nothing and just slumped to the floor with her head in her hands, her dark bobbed hair covering her face as she cried silently. She knew trying to escape was a futile effort, she had attempted and failed several times before but still she had to try.

  ‘Why do you continue to try my patience?’ asked Henderson testily. ‘You know why I had to disable your access. After your mother died I need you here, I can’t allow you to leave and you must learn to accept that fact. Come on, come out here now so I don’t have to punish you, you know it makes me angry.’

  Painful memories of lashes from her father’s leather belt were the sole reason Kathy got to her feet and cautiously walked from the relative sanctuary of the lift into the luxury home that was her prison. Henderson stepped back from the entrance to entice Kathy to enter freely but as she passed by he grabbed her by the throat pushing her back hard into the wall. Kathy didn’t struggle but tried with every fibre of her body to pull herself backward as if she could somehow melt into the plaster and concrete to distance herself further from the maniac assaulting her. Henderson held Kathy by the jaw now so he could force her to look at him, his flushed complexion and foul breath becoming her focus as he raged through wobbling jowls and gritted teeth.

  ‘You know what happened to your mother; since you’re aware of how she met her end it should suffice as a deterrent. If you ever disobey or disrespect me like that again I will ensure you suffer the same fate.’

  Henderson maintained his hold on Kathy’s jawbone for a moment and neither spoke, tears streamed from her eyes but she made no sound, her body limp, defeated. Satisfied his point had been made and sensing no further struggle Henderson’s anger subsided and he relaxed his grip.

  ‘Now, go and clean yourself up, put on a nice dress and make me that salmon dish you know I like. We’ll forget this ever happened, there’s a good girl.’

  Kathy slid out from wall and kept her gaze on the ornate carpet as she made her way through the spacious main living area to her own room at the top of the left staircase. She felt the cold hard eyes of the monster who kept her incarcerated following her every step. Terrified yet angry at herself she knew she had no choice but to comply and swore she would never le
t her spirit be broken. She would continue to resist and one day make good her escape.

  Once Kathy was out of sight Henderson leaned over, steadied himself with the walking stick and clawed at his collar to open the top button of his shirt. He gasped from the exertion and clutched his chest, fighting to control his breathing and heart rate, gradually the stabbing pain eased and he was able to stand unaided. The emotional and physical stress his daughter caused him exacted a heavy toll on his already overburdened heart.

  Returning the walking stick to the coat stand he moved into his main living quarters. A huge space combining the two upper floors of the tower block into a single open plan living area with staircases left and right leading to the upper levels and with several other bedrooms and living areas adjacent. Thick luxury carpet, highly polished brass fixtures, opulent chandeliers and furniture constructed of exotic hardwoods and upholstered with the finest fabrics. No expense was spared to indulge Henderson’s expensive tastes. The overall effect was so over the top and lavish it actually looked cheap, tacky; the sum of the parts combining to create a look that was somehow less than one may have expected.

  From under the right-hand staircase in an antique walnut cabinet Henderson selected a bottle from his collection of rare scotch and other liquors and proceeded to fix a drink before reclining in his favourite chair near the centre of the room. He was annoyed at himself for losing control and letting his short temper push his daughter further from his life. He tried in so many ways to make her love him but she refused to show the respect he felt was his to command.

  ‘No matter,’ he thought as he sipped the warming liquid from his glass. ‘She will never leave these walls and with time she will grow to love me.’ This thought helping to calm the beast that dwelled deep in his soul.

  Kathy slipped quietly from her room and down the left staircase wearing a pretty sky blue summer dress to appease her father and went to the kitchen to prepare the evening meal as he requested. Her obedience finally subdued any remaining anger Henderson felt and as he sat in the silence of the large open room he reflected on the past few years in his personal life as he often did upon returning home, finding it remarkably easy to dismiss from his mind the gruesome events he had set in motion earlier that day.

  How he missed his wife. Claudia was a wonderful woman, beautiful and loved by all who knew her. She would light up a room when she entered, was respected by other women and led Henderson to be the envy of other men who saw her on his arm at the many social functions they were expected to attend. Of course the public face of their relationship was highly practised and did not reflect the darkness of their home life. Claudia was strong willed, independent and would often question and criticize her husband’s decisions. Initially these were traits that Henderson found endearing and he loved her for them but over time as his soul darkened his patience thinned and his temper flared. One evening early in their marriage when he asked Claudia to fix him a fourth drink she dared to question if he’d not already had enough saying he became intolerable after even a single glass. The rage which always boiled below the surface broke free and Henderson hoisted his bulk from his chair, charging across the room at his wife then struck her face with a vicious backhanded slap. Claudia was knocked off her feet from the force of the blow and she fell to the floor crying out as Henderson threw his empty glass to the floor smashing it to pieces just inches from her head sending shards of glass all over her. He screamed obscenities at her, cursing her for disobeying him as the small cuts on her face began to bleed. It was the beginning of a long period of unseen abuse she would be forced to suffer at the hand of the sadist to whom she was married.

  Henderson’s mind drifted back to the present for a moment as he drained his glass and decided the earlier successes of the day and his current melancholy mood earned him another drink. He brought the bottle from the cabinet, sat back in his chair and half-filled a rocks glass with more of the expensive liquor before sinking back into the memories that haunted him.

  It had been two years almost to the day that his wife had died here in this very room. He supposed that perhaps his awareness of this timing had led him to hurt Kathy more than necessary during their earlier altercation. The planning and development for the Project had taken so much of his energy that only now he remembered the significance of the date, the approaching anniversary of the death of his beloved Claudia. The truth of her betrayal had been too much for him to bear. She had been involved with another man for over nineteen years. Even now the memory hurt him tremendously, he still wondered how she could have done this to him for so long. Deep down he knew but could not admit to himself that he had been absent from the marriage for most of their time together and he had treated his wife as a mere stage prop to reinforce his public persona.

  What Henderson did not know was in addition to suffering physical abuse Claudia had been incredibly lonely in the early years of their relationship and had sought the affections of other men whenever she could. In the tight social circles in which they moved she was well known among the Elites as the wife of the renowned Victor Henderson. She found it safer and also thrilling to cross into the Dreg areas, to drink with the common people and at times when her husband was away for business to invite strange men back to share her bed. Knowing how this would madden her estranged husband only added to the excitement and she delighted in the deception and sought her dangerous pleasure more and more until one night in a lively traditional bar in the Dreg quarters she met the man with whom she would fall deeply in love.

  James was a kind man, ruggedly handsome, strong but gentle. His wife had died from a serious illness several years before Claudia met him and he had briefly been with only one other woman since his wife’s tragic death. He didn’t know anything about the Henderson’s when they met and she had given him no reason to suspect she was the wife of a senior Elite. By the time she revealed the truth to him James already loved her and understood why she hid her true identity from him. He cared for her all the more upon realising the terrible life to which returned when not with him.

  James had a young daughter whom Claudia had met one morning in James’ home as Claudia hurried to leave after a steamy stolen night. James usually asked his sister to mind his daughter when Claudia was coming to stay but his sister had guests on this occasion. When the little girl had got up to use the bathroom she and Claudia met awkwardly in the narrow hallway but never saw each other again after that day.

  James and Claudia’s affair was passionate and they met depending on what time the business appointments of Claudia’s husband allowed which in practice was quite often. Their feelings quickly deepened as they learned how much they had in common despite coming from opposite sides of the social divide. Both knew their forbidden relationship could never allow them to be together openly and they spoke of breaking it off in order to spare each other greater pain. On what was supposed to be their last night together Claudia seemed quite distant and although James expected she would have the same feelings of deep sadness and regret for their parting he was shocked when she explained the reason for her mood. She was pregnant. She was absolutely positive it was James’ child and was terrified of what her husband would do if he learned the truth. Under other circumstances both lovers would have been worried at this news but their lives and that of James’ daughter and now their unborn child were in danger. The hurt they had separately endured meant they could no longer bear the thought of being apart. They lay in bed and just held each other for a long time each silently vowing that somehow they would find a way.

  During the next couple of weeks the pair met only once and decided on what they would do. An abortion was out of the question since the only place safe for the procedure was Central Medical and Henderson would surely be notified when the medical staff scanned Claudia’s implant chip and discovered who she was. She felt confident she could convince her husband the child was his own, conceived one drunken night he had obviously forgotten.

  Henderson’s ego
would cloud his judgement and he would never even consider the possibility of his wife with another man. James painfully swore to stay out of the child’s life and to never reveal the truth about it to his young daughter for fear that word would get to Henderson and terrible retribution would swiftly follow. The risk was just too great to involve the children but neither James nor Claudia could bring themselves to stop seeing each other.

  Years passed and James and Claudia’s daughter grew up among the Elites while Victor Henderson believed her to be his own. Claudia and James kept their affair going and their love for each other never waned although now they met less often so as to minimise the risk of being caught. Claudia brought pictures and stories of Kathy and James was overjoyed to hear every word but it also was killing him to know he could never hold her, never be a father to her and could never allow his two daughters to meet.

  For nearly twenty years Henderson’s absence from his own personal life had allowed the deception to continue right under his nose. He cared nothing for the day to day events and feelings of his wife and daughter. As long as they were obedient to his demands and played along with the charade of a happy loving home when he presented them at various social gatherings he was satisfied to leave them to do as they pleased. His arrogance assured him they lived in fear of him and so would never disrespect him even when he wasn’t around to keep them in line.