by Al K. Line
The line ran straight and true underneath their feet and Arcene remained focused. It wasn't far, and less than a minute later they came to a series of steps leading down.
Metal railings stopped long dead pedestrians accidentally falling, but there was no signpost — Vorce had probably had it constructed as the streets emptied and nobody questioned why someone was building a new Underground Station when people couldn't even be bothered to lift a spoon to their mouths to stop themselves from starving to death.
They descended into darkness.
Feel my Wrath
Vorce stepped over the body of Elder Janean, disgusted and sick at the way she had been treated. What was wrong with them? Did they have no respect? She was an Elder, and they allowed this to happen? It was that damn Arcene and her dog, but his people, Talia and Erato, had allowed this. They had gone to far.
There would be no forgiveness now. They would feel the full weight of his wrath, his anger, his utter disappointment in them.
How had they strayed so far? Others had fought against his will in the past, but none as strongly as the three friends.
Poor Janean. She was a good woman. Strong and an immensely good fighter, if a little slow at times, but that suited him.
He had chosen his people carefully. Over the years, Vorce found himself increasing the subtle manipulation he placed on those on The Island. It began with those chosen as "Elders," people who had Awoken but left a way into their psyche, and he had manipulated them ever so slightly, ensuring their new home was a success.
And once The Hunt was pressed upon him, he decided over time that it was a good thing, and embraced it wholeheartedly. Elders had their misgivings, but he soon brought them around through subtle manipulations.
And now here he was, having to deal with the mess, all because he tried to do right by his people. How ungrateful.
He would not let his life's work unravel. He would simply not allow it.
Vorce stopped and stared into the dead eyes of Janean. "I'm sorry this happened, my friend. You were a good person, you didn't deserve this." Vorce stood, pulled himself together, and calmed his mind and body. Things may have gone awry but that by no means meant The Hunt was over. He smiled. "It's only just begun." Was he enjoying himself? Maybe he was. After all, things had gone rather stale over the last century, especially with no strangers to get involved in their ritual.
Maybe this was what he had been missing for so long? Why he hadn't felt so close to his people as he did now? He was wild and dangerous, back to basics where life and death was all that mattered. He would be triumphant, return to The Island a hero, having saved the day. Saved them from the evil that was Arcene.
Vorce walked through the fence and knew exactly where he was heading. "Stupid child, she doesn't know what on earth she is doing."
At the steps down to the tunnel, Vorce took a moment to compose himself. Was he ready? Did he have a plan? Yes, and no. He could defeat them all, he was sure of it, but the only worry was that Arcene would get through the security doors and onto the train that would take them to The Island.
He realized it didn't matter. Maybe it would be better if they did escape, for now. After all, where could she go once they got there?
Talia and Erato were a concern, and their treachery would have to be punished. But wait, wasn't that perfect?
"Ha, of course, I've been so blind, so foolish. Let them go, let them return home. See what kind of welcome they get when I tell everyone what they have done. How they sided with Prey and tried to save her even though she killed Elder Janean and Elder Boehn. There will be a double Hunt for the first time in history. I can get new cameras while they rot in a cell for a while, and I will make The Hunt bigger and better than ever before. I will pick new teams, reorganize the Elders, maybe appoint new ones, and we shall return here and make it the most spectacular Hunt my people have ever seen."
Vorce suddenly felt dizzy. He reached out and grabbed the ancient railing, almost falling as it gave way and clattered down into the darkness.
He had to get a hold of himself. He was talking out loud, and was he drooling? Was he grimacing like a madman and waving his arms about? This was no good, he had to remain calm, in control. He was a man that was always composed, let nothing fluster him or make him doubt his own actions.
"I am Vorce, and I will save my people."
He took a step down, then another and another until the darkness engulfed him.
Far, far behind him, the last live camera whirred and clicked off. The final image broadcast back to The Island, before the screen went blank and the islanders howled and wailed, shouted and screamed, muttered and moaned. Most of all, they waited.
They waited for arrivals.
For there was to be a Judgment. And so much more.
Into the Tunnels
Arcene kept her mind empty and her actions brisk as they walked through a large, ill-lit space. The area was huge. It must have taken an incredible amount of work to excavate such an area, but she supposed it was nothing compared to the feat of engineering that was The Island. And besides, things like this were created all the time in the past. There was even a tunnel that went right under the sea from England to France, so she supposed this wasn't actually that impressive.
The first lock had been simplicity itself, a digital combination on a touch pad at the bottom of the steps. She hardly even had to look into The Noise at all, just enough to switch to vision that allowed her to pick up on heat signatures. The numbers were highlighted orange for her and all she had to do was try different combinations of the four numbers until she got the right ones. She got it first go.
It was human nature to be lazy, and she knew Vorce would never really have expected anyone to get this far, so she just punched in the first highlighted digits on each line and the door clicked open.
They didn't have far to go. The space led directly to a single door, outside of which were several trolleys. Before making another move, Arcene wanted to check out the area.
Taking a minute to wander the oversized room — like a place you would buy a ticket at a regular station, not that she ever had — she noted that there were other trolleys just to the right of the stairs and what looked like an elevator. Of course! Vorce wasn't about to go dragging people up stairs, now was he?
It didn't matter now.
Arcene turned her attention back to the door.
"Wait." Talia put a hand to Arcene's shoulder. Arcene flinched at the touch and Talia withdrew her hand sharply. "Sorry, I forgot."
"That's okay, I shouldn't be so jumpy anyway. I wasn't going to stick my sword in you or anything, I save that for the men that touch me." Silence. "It was a joke, haha. Um, maybe not a very good one."
"Arcene, do you think we should?" Talia looked worried, Erato too.
"I think you should, but I don't think I should. It's your home and they are your people. I can't be sure how much they saw on that screen of yours, and to be honest I'm not sure I want to risk finding out. And besides, they may not believe I'm the gorgeous, fantastic, innocent girl that I am." Again, silence. "Really, nothing? Fine." Arcene sighed. "What are you thinking?"
"I know what I'm thinking," said Erato. "I'm thinking we should deal with all of this here. I don't want to, but I think we should finish this once and for all before we go home."
"You mean kill Vorce?" asked Talia. Erato nodded.
"How will you do that?" asked Arcene. Leel cocked her head to the side, clearly as interested as Arcene in the answer.
"Well, we fight him, don't we?" Erato answered like a nervous child, not a man with a century plus behind him and ready to fight to the death.
"We couldn't even stop him killing Cashae, and Elder Janean nearly killed me," said Talia.
"Will you stop it! We have to. What other choice do we have?" Erato was losing it, that was clear, and Talia wasn't far behind. The death of her friend, the loss of her way of life, it was all bearing down on her. She would be useless unless she pulled herself together,
and quick.
"Fine, go on then." Arcene waited for their response.
"And what about you?" Talia was getting a hold of herself at last. She was strong, and even after all she had been through she was determined not to be beaten.
Arcene could see it inside of her, the strength welling up, taking her out of herself, forcing her to become the person she had always been deep down inside.
"I told you before, this is not my fault. I have to get home. You think I can risk my life and leave my son without a mother? Should I do that, for you?"
"No."
"No. But... We would be grateful if you did. We are sorry, Arcene, so sorry. It's like I've been asleep my whole life, like something has been masking the truth, making me believe things I knew weren't quite right deep down. But now we have a chance to do something, to put it right. At last." Talia was reborn, strong and centered. Arcene liked what she saw.
"Okay, let's see how this goes then."
Arcene turned her attention back to the door. She peered through the glass partition and could see a platform and a train waiting. So close.
Should I do this? Am I mad for going back there? This isn't my fight, I should just turn around right now and leave. She shook her head at the complex iris scanner lock, face a mask of indecision. Leel's hot breath tickled her nose she was so close. Leel whined and Arcene turned to her friend. "What, you think we should go back there?"
Woof!
"Okay, fine, but don't say I didn't warn you."
Woof, woof!
Arcene turned back to the door and stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth as silence enveloped her and she sank, once more, deep into the no place that was The Noise.
It felt different, not as welcoming as usual. Something wasn't right, a disturbance. Interference from outside forces trying to block the full power of what was available to Awoken when deep inside the Noise. Vorce.
Arcene struggled deeper, immersing herself in the very heart of the truth behind all reality. Energy, but more, swirled around her consciousness as she struggled down, like when she dove into the water and battled not to return to the surface. This was much harder, and the more she tried to enter the right mindscape, the harder it got.
All she wanted was the connection with the digital world, and finally she got it. Once more, binary code danced around her and flowed under her feet, a single current leading to the door, linking it to a remote server she didn't even bother to investigate. This was orders of magnitude harder than the previous lock, harder than corrupting regular data as what it was asking for was so complex.
She bent her head forward, eye closer to the reader, knowledge pouring into her. She looked behind the lock to discover what it wanted, at the impossibly complex configurations it required, waiting as if in a deep slumber, yet alert enough to take the information given in a moment and process it, deliver its verdict.
Arcene had been judged enough already and was in no mood for answering to a computer. She looked deeper still, into echoes of the past, code that floated in The Void like virtual ghosts of lives never lived, information fragments and binary deaths that never truly died, echoes always remaining somewhere, just more intangible as the memory of information faded.
Deeper, then at the bottom. Arcene was floating just above the bottom of a digital ocean, impossible pressure pushing down on her.
There was no easy escape from this virtual tomb, and all around her lay the broken fragments of 0s and 1s that could have been anything, were everything and nothing, waiting to be reborn as something new.
Corrupted eyeballs bobbed past her, broken eyes that saw nothing, milky white or putrid green, nightmare black or flayed flesh pink.
Shattered shards of past readings, a hundred ghosts of Vorce's unlocking of the door, forever fading but containing fragments of what the iris scanner wanted, hidden deep behind the unseeing virtual eye memories that could never be free from their unknowing existence.
Click.
Whoosh. Warm air and a strong breeze greeted them as the door swung open.
Arcene collapsed against Leel, sending them both to the rough floor in a heap. Leel crawled out from under Arcene and stood over her, licked her face, eyes excited, waiting for the playful telling off. Nothing.
Leel whined.
Arcene breathed shallowly, face so pale her hair was dark in comparison. Blue veins throbbed gently under translucent skin.
Woof!
"What do we do?" Erato asked Talia nervously.
"I don't know, but we better do it fast. Look."
They turned. Black boots thumped on the steps, echoing across the open space.
"Vorce."
What Now?
"He's coming, he's coming. Hurry up. Quick, quick!" Talia was losing her newfound sense of strength and pride. Her head felt like it had cleared of fluff, like her life was a dream of a dream. None of it was real.
For a moment she had total clarity, and now it was all falling apart again, crashing down around her and they were seconds away from it all meaning nothing. She pulled harder on Arcene's arm, the hands childlike against her rough callouses from the work she seemed to be constantly involved in.
"I am hurrying. Pull harder. Leel, help us, girl. Can you do that?"
Woof.
Leel carefully grabbed a mouthful of leather strap that secured Arcene's sword to her back, and the three of them dragged her through the open doorway. Erato slammed it closed behind them and it clicked shut. It would buy them a second if they were lucky.
"What now?" asked Erato, eyes as wide as Talia's.
"On that, I guess. But I don't know how it works, do you?" Erato just looked at her like she was mad. "Right, of course you don't. But let's try anyway."
They dragged Arcene over to the single car train. Lights switched on as they moved, highlighting their way. As they got close, the train sprang to electronic life, the buzz of interior lights heard from the other side of the dark metal, an engine rumbling like an animal just waiting to get up and go.
Talia released her hold on Arcene and moved to what looked like a door. "There's a button or something, it's red."
"Well push it then, push it now!"
Talia slammed the heel of her hand into the button.
Whoosh.
The doors slid open. "Okay, get her inside. Leel, help us again, please."
Woof, woof.
Leel sat next to Arcene, guarding her.
"Um, I don't know what you are saying, but if you are asking if she will be okay, then yes, she will. As long as we get her out of here, and quick."
Woof!
Leel grabbed the strap and looked at Talia and Erato as if to ask what they were waiting for.
"Um, okay, let's do this." Erato grabbed an arm.
"And fast." Talia grabbed the other, and they spun Arcene around then bumped her over the divide between platform and train.
The moment Arcene's legs were inside, Talia punched the button on the other side of the open door, hoping it did what she expected.
With a squeal and a strange sucking noise the doors closed. Talia watched as the door into the station opened and a rather odd looking Vorce stepped through.
He wasn't running, didn't look unduly panicked, but was seemingly talking to himself as he rather strangely closed the door behind him as if he had all the time in the world.
What does he know? What is he doing? He seems so calm, but something is up. Why isn't he screaming and going mad at us? Doesn't he know what's about to happen? He doesn't care, he wants this.
Realization hit. He didn't know about the cameras. He was thinking they would all be exactly where he wanted them. Back on The Island, nowhere left to go.
"Vorce is in for a shock. He thinks he's won."
"Well he will if we don't get this thing going. Do you think it will just take off on its own or— Whoa!"
"It's going, it's going!" shouted Talia. "Hold on." Talia grabbed an overhead rail and clutched tightly, swaying side to s
ide as the train picked up speed and an electric hum vibrated through the floor, making her feet feel strange.
Erato grabbed a rail too, and put a hand down to Leel to steady her.
Grrr.
"Um, okay, just trying to help."
"I think she's maybe a bit sensitive about being touched, just like Arcene."
Woof.
"Don't worry, Leel, I'm sure she will be fine." Talia glanced at Arcene, but she didn't look fine, far from it. Her face was still very pale and she was still out cold. Leel whined and bent her head as if listening for signs of life.
"I hope she comes round soon," said Erato. "I don't think Leel will be too happy being on The Island without Arcene awake. How long do you think this will take? I can't believe it, he's got transport. He can come and go as he pleases and he never said a thing."
"What's more incredible is that nobody ever thought about it. How is it possible for everyone to never question how he got to the mainland with people and weapons for The Hunt? We've all been so blind, so foolish." Now Talia thought about it the more absurd it seemed.
Every year he would go to the mainland and yet the discussions concerning how it was achieved always centered around mysterious currents that let him pass, or even magic. It was a huge talking point but nobody had ever, as far as she could recall, brought up the possibility that he had another means of going back and forth.
"I think Arcene was right. Vorce does something to us, to everyone, makes us kind of believe what he says, not question things logically. I feel like I've woken from a dream or something, like only now are things really coming clear. You?"
Talia nodded. "The same. It's been happening for a while and just keeps, um... It's hard to explain. It's like the tide comes in, goes out, and each time it leaves a little more behind. More clarity. Like I'm able to think properly for the first time."
"He manipulates us. Everyone. But how? We are Awoken, it shouldn't be possible."
"I've been thinking about that. It must be to do with when we are young. I bet he inserts something into our minds when we are children so it's always there, a part of us."
