Divided Worlds Trilogy 01 - Disconnect

by Imran Siddiq

  The teasing grin the Master gave Zachary filled him with hope.

  They continued to an opening like the first hole he’d entered after leaving the lift. The reason for why the two veterans hadn’t left before became apparent. A thick, long pole stood upright seven feet away along the opposite wall. Above the pole hung a ladder connected to a wheel. This time, there was no grated path. Just sheer darkness below.

  Zachary flapped his vest. He understood the task. Jump the gap. Climb the pole. Pull down the ladder. Freedom.

  Shekhar took the bag’s strap. “I’ll keep hold of this for you.”

  Zachary whacked his hand aside. “This stays with me.”

  “It’ll weigh you down. Give me the bag.”

  Clutching the secretary’s collar, lugging him close, Zachary grunted, “I am not going to do this if you keep arguing with me.”

  “We could have left you back there.”

  Zachary released the collar. “I’ve made it this far on my own.”

  “Little boy,” scowled Shekhar. “You’ll always need us. You work for us.”

  “Hold it!” snapped a voice. Zachary turned to blue eyes glowing over an aimed rifle.

  Biro lunged, arms up. His hand thumped the soldier’s rifle up. A bullet echoed inside the pipe. Zachary ducked. The soldier elbowed Shekhar’s jaw, and then kneed Biro onto the floor.

  “Shut down the Valley Quadrant. Shut them down,” wheezed the soldier.

  Metal slamming against metal rang out around Zachary.

  “Go,” whined Biro on his knees. “Find your desire.”

  Zachary leaped. Momentum took him to the pole. Fingers slipping, he slid down. Turning, he shoved his body between the pole and the wall. He fought the ache in his forearms as he climbed. Ahead, he saw the soldier ram his rifle’s nozzle into Shekhar’s mouth. Twisting along the edge, a panel sealed the pipe. Zachary’s head clipped the back of the wall as a shot echoed. Then another.

  There was no time to linger over the two ended lives.

  Ascending the pipe, he took to the ladder and scrambled up the rungs to an orange hatch. He rotated the lever, twice. Bright light burst onto him as the hatch clicked upward.

  Zachary crossed into a small room. Turning another lever, the hatch returned and locked. Cooled air surged through his lungs. Easing his eyes open, he surveyed the room. Human-sized glass capsules, stacks of overalls, documents, folders and the surface, from top to bottom, all shared a common colour; white.

  Except for the large red writing above an oval-shaped door.

  It read, ‘Wipe your feet. Welcome back to Overworld.’

  Chapter 17 - A New World

  Not a single speck of a smudge lay on the floor.

  When had anybody been here last?

  Although the sound of soldiers rattling up the ladder behind him hadn’t materialised, Zachary didn’t intend to sit around waiting. He rushed to the oval door. It didn’t give a hint of movement. There were no display screens, recognition pads, or instructions present. How did this open? He knocked, and pushed. There could be anybody on the other side. Had he placed himself in a worse position? Returning to the hatch was not an option.

  “Door open,” he said, not believing in his own words.

  His fingers met with the crisp folds of the overalls on a shelf. Zachary’s reflection across a polished white screen embedded on the opposite wall startled him. Hair thrust backward with strands flicked behind ears, he rubbed the stain on his forehead. Fragile grit. A reminder of Underworld.

  Under the screen, three rows of drawers in the wall revealed trousers, shoes and socks. Plenty of them and in differing shades. After rummaging for the appropriate sizes, he changed into navy trousers and a mauve t-shirt with silver stripes running along the shoulders. A fresh feeling. The trainers he put on cushioned his feet. A heavy lump choked Zachary’s throat at the sight of his old clothes dumped in a heap. He shoved them into a drawer.

  A square panel on the wall clicked open after a press. Flat and cross-end screwdrivers, wrenches, chisels, wire-clippers and pliers sat inside. All in pristine condition; priceless in Underworld. But here, there were many. They weren’t rare finds.

  Standing over the hatch, he murmured, “I just need a sign. Something to help me out of here.” His thumbs squeezed over his closed eyelids. “Please, Dad, help me.”

  The oval door whooshed aside.

  A brown-haired woman in navy overalls and pushing a trolley from which long handles protruded stood looking puzzled at him. “I’m sorry, I thought it was clear,” she said, pulling the trolley backward.

  “No – stay,” said Zachary. “I was leaving.”

  “Well, if you’re sure.” She gave him a suspicious double-look. “Are you one of the new apprentices, because apprentices aren’t allowed on Floor C without suitable supervision.”

  Zachary moistened his lips. “Yes, sorry. I wanted to explore, and I don’t know how I’ve ended up here. Can you remind me of the way out?”

  Relaxing her narrowed eyes, she chuckled. “There’s always one, isn’t there? Left to the lift, then up to wherever you need to be. I hope you haven’t fiddled with anything, because it’s always the cleaner that gets the blame.” Steam ejected from her mop.

  Not wanting to increase the woman’s doubts by enquiring how the doors opened, Zachary gestured his thanks and stepped into a white corridor. Slim lines of light trailed overhead as he sped onward. A large panel marked the end of his route. A ping resonated after a press on the triangle symbol in the centre.

  Nausea crammed into his stomach. What if there were others inside the lift? A hum of decreasing pitch came from behind the panel that slid aside. Inside the empty lift, an inner wall displayed a list of letters with buttons beside them.

  A – B – C – D – E.

  Which should he choose? Three voices in conversation, not yet seen, drew near. Zachary pushed on the letter A. The lift panel shut. Grabbing the banister he felt a rapid upsurge. Panic gripped him as the panel opened. His hopes of finding another empty corridor diminished. Dozens of people, some in grey overalls, others in clothing similar to his, stood around large pillars in a long room. Tapping on pillar-mounted screens, their conversations overrode Zachary’s presence. Walking quickly, he resisted eye contact with the few who turned their heads.

  Dead ahead stood a closed door with two red lines above its arched frame. A man in the process of tossing some sort of device over his arm waved a black clip at the door. Green light shone in the door’s centre, and it opened, letting the man leave. Now that Zachary looked, the clips were apparent upon every person in the room. He had to get a clip too.

  Six men heaved copper pylons as tall as themselves across the room. Each had a black clip fastened to their shoulder. Zachary zigzagged until he walked alongside the man at the rear. Moaning about the day, preoccupied by his struggling attempt to push the pylon, he was the perfect candidate.

  Zachary filled his lungs.

  All of a sudden, a female voice burst from the thin speaker in the corner of the room. “High Alert for Wanted Criminal.”

  Every pillar-mounted screen switched from bright colourful content to a column of scrolling text.

  “Five counts of murder, twelve incidents of grievous bodily harm, kidnapping, and arson-attack upon the Arms Division of Hadrian,” read a woman in front of her screen. “Last movements detected under the Maintenance Section of the Camelot-Mall.” She clutched a nearby man’s arm. “He could he here.”

  “Please do not approach. Notify the Security Patrollers immediately,” said the room’s speaker. “Known aliases of the wanted Criminal include Santos Luis and Diego Reyes. Anyone caught concealing the Wanted Criminal will be charged with aiding and abetting.”

  One face dominated every single screen.

  It was Zachary’s, right after he’d left the Disinfector.

  Turning on the spot, he forced his leg out. The pylon-pushing man at the rear tripped. With an underhand scoop, Zachary caught the
man’s flapping arm, and swiped at the black clip. It didn’t come loose. Releasing the confused man, he tore at the layer of wires. The clip came free. Jumping to the side, Zachary sprinted for the arched door.

  “He stole my ID!” yelled the fallen man.

  An arm swung toward Zachary. He ducked with his hand held out. The door lit green. Escape.

  “He’s the Wanted Criminal,” cried a voice.

  Zachary stumbled out of the room into people. He pushed on. Gasping at a swift hand attempting to grab him, he whipped through bodies to create a gap. An elbow caught his stomach. Winded, and ignoring the angered voice berating him, Zachary eyed the sparkling ceiling. And going down the side between the walls of the huge Shantytown-like room were hundreds of stalls. Large. Loud. Colourful.

  “Stop him,” shouted somebody.

  Stooping, he mingled with Overworlders, moving away from the chasers. Even with arms brushing past him, Zachary shivered. The army had created an image of him as a murderer. Soon everybody in Overworld would recognise him.

  Zachary sunk against a wall. People moved in and out of the decorated stalls. Children holding balloons on strings chanted with merriment. A raucous group of teenagers ran with bags hooked onto their belts. The building was full of happiness. He wanted to assume that Overworld knew nothing of the attacks, but couldn’t. What if this was their way of not caring, and why should they care? He glared at the women flaunting their slim bikini-clad bodies next to a water-spraying fountain. The splashes sounded like bullets to him.

  Tugging on hair strands to cover his left eye, Zachary followed the movement of some people holding bulging bags. Ahead, transparent walls showed tall, polished buildings standing outside.

  Fear slowed Zachary’s step. To walk in their District, amongst Overworlders, increased his apprehension. Once outside, there’d be few groups of people to hide within. He counted eight people ahead of him until he accessed the exit.

  Zachary puffed his breaths. Four people.

  He stepped out. Grey tiles covered the ground. People dispersed into opposing directions. More stalls. Places. Sleek vehicles rolled across the roads. Central to his viewpoint was a giant tower, shaped liked a needle, that almost touched the ceiling. What lay outside the see-through ceiling comforted him. Jupiter. Something that wasn’t new.

  People separated on the road, murmuring. Four blue-uniformed men walked at an even pace toward the building he’d just exited with handguns secured to their belts. Security-Patrollers?

  A patroller halted.

  Zachary’s heart thumped.

  “Iris scans have detected Reyes.” The patroller tapped his glove. “There!”

  Dipping his shoulder left, Zachary darted right. Orders from behind called for people to leave. Ahead, three more patrollers with extended truncheons emitting electrical sparks rushed toward him.

  “Stop and you won’t get hurt.”

  Something roared behind Zachary. Then smoke burst around him. The patrollers fell back. Another roar. More smoke.

  Zachary burst right through a thin gap between two growing clouds. Spasms sliced Zachary’s side. A stitch! Not stopping, he pressed on his abdomen and moaned.

  “Move!” shouted a masked, black-clothed man charging through the smoke towards him.

  Zachary obeyed. He glimpsed back and saw the masked man collide with the patroller. Who was that? Who cared? Zachary made for an alleyway. He lost count of the turns he made, until he reached an opening that faced a new horizon of buildings. Panting and spitting, he coughed. He couldn’t hear any footsteps following, and there were no patrollers within sight. Staggering, he walked on.

  “Warning,” announced a buzzing voice.

  A pink wall erupted upward over the opening. Currents ran along it.

  “Warning,” repeated the voice behind him. Another pink wall went up.

  Gritting his teeth, Zachary touched the first pink wall. A bolt lashed over his arm. Shaking after his topple, he glared. Trapped!

  The floor hugged his cheek. It was over. The patrollers would hand him over to the army. Soon, they’d realise he wasn’t Snake Seven, and since Underworlders didn’t deserve to be in Overworld, there’d be only one outcome.

  Termination.

  Chapter 18 - Touching Distance

  As Galilei’s ceiling dimmed, a dark shade masked Jupiter and strengthened the glow of the barrier. Nobody had interrupted Zachary in the half-an-hour he guessed he’d been trapped. What was taking the Security-Patrollers so long? He was the Wanted Criminal. Shouldn’t they have found him?

  A defeated sigh escaped him. “Come and get me.”

  Surges continued to traverse the barrier. Zachary wondered how many core-generators powered them. There must be a dozen for each wall with a limitless supply. So much energy joined by vast space, yet Overworld required Underworld to expand.

  Zachary peered through the intermittent, finger-thin gaps along the vertical length of the wall. Overworlders walked beyond without a care for the barrier. Was it normal to have disturbances in Assayer?

  For the tenth time, he scanned the high walls of the alleyway. There wasn’t a window frame to cling to or a protruding block to climb, but what about the tiles on the ground? With some force, the tiles could dislodge and hopefully open a way out.

  Taking a flat end screwdriver from the bag, Zachary teased it between the bottom edges of the wall. It sunk in deep. Pushed at an angle, the tile shifted to show metal. No – this couldn’t be it. There had to be a pipe, a vent, or something that he could crawl through. Zachary stabbed the screwdriver. The shaft snapped.

  “Rats!”

  His old screwdriver would’ve handled a hundred stabs like that. There wasn’t anything else he could think of to get out of here.

  A chugging hum approached from the other side of the barrier. Zachary leaned away from it. Hisses followed the whirring movement of an object coming to a halt. Standing, broken screwdriver in hand, he readied himself to pounce the moment the fuzzing wall dispersed.

  Footsteps drew close to the barrier.

  “Zachary?” said a female.

  Could it be?

  He smacked against the wall, inching as close from harm as he could up to the thin gap. A rapid intake of breath grated in his throat at the sight of shoulder-length black hair.

  Joy sang in his tone. “It’s you.”

  Rosa kneeled down on the other side. The skin above her nose creased with concern as she searched his face. “Alice, we’ve found him. He’s okay.”

  Zachary panted. “I knew she’d let you out. I knew it.”

  “She told me everything.” Fingers fidgeted over a red half-sleeved top. “Don’t get too close to the Confiner. It’ll fry you.”

  “I know.”

  “It’s unsafe to remain here,” said Alice some steps away. “I have satisfied your request regarding his well-being. We must leave.”

  No, thought Zachary.

  “The Security-Division is aware of his location,” continued the bot.

  “But they haven’t come yet,” he said.

  “That is because they are involved in skirmishes with protesters.” The bot’s attitude confused him. Was that concern or neglect? “Before you ask, I am not knowledgeable in the Confiner deactivation process.”

  Rosa stood up. “Use the Trojan’s interface. Download the schema. Learn it.”

  “What’s a Trojan?” asked Zachary.

  Rosa returned. “My father’s Pulse-Bike. It’s ancient. He hasn’t used it since I was a baby. We used it to get away from home.” A red bullet-shaped bike with fat wheels hummed from close behind her. “I never thought I’d get out of my room. I screamed and screamed until my throat cracked. I can’t blame Alice for not coming. I’d be scared of Father too. Breaking your owner’s command is the biggest sin an android can commit.”

  Zachary smiled. “She did it.”

  “You really must have loosened some cogs in her head.”

  “I think we argued.”

&n
bsp; Rosa’s face lowered forward. “Father didn’t believe me. He said I was mad. No – he held me, stared into my eyes, and asked me what had gone wrong.”

  “I thought he hadn’t hurt you?”

  “He didn’t. He was angry that I dared to question him, and that I was stupid for talking to you.” Her pupils reflected the pink glow of the Confiner. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you. It’s what stopped me from going insane.” She paused. “Zach, Alice told me about your father. I’m sorry.”

  Quivers crushed Zachary’s happiness.

  He pulled out the remains of her Raptor. “Somebody stole it from me. Stupid Horatio. I chased him, and he dropped it. Then the army came, and I stole one off them. It doesn’t work properly.”

  “Zach.”

  “I haven’t had time to hack its password. There’ve been soldiers after me, and now patrollers. They’re calling me a criminal.” His voice croaked. “All I’ve done is run and run and run.”

  “Zach. Look at me.”

  Zachary fought to hold the tears in.

  “If my father died, I couldn’t have done what you have. I’d have given up. I’d be lost. You didn’t give up.” A serious expression overcame Rosa. “What’s happened is wrong. My parents know that, and they’re doing something about it. Sokolov will answer for his actions.”

  “Can your dad stop him?”

  Rosa took time to nod her reply. She turned to face the aqua glow coming from inside the Trojan. “Alice, how long?”

  “Two more minutes.”

  “Hurry up.” Rosa bit her fingernail. “We’ll get you out, Zach. I promise.”

  Zachary spun, thinking he heard bullets coming from beyond the rear Confiner. “What if the patrollers arrive? What about you?”

  “I’m here.”

  “I know, but they might think you’re with me.”

  A surge travelled along the Confiner distorting her voice for a few seconds. “If it wasn’t for this damn wall, I’d give you the biggest hug ever. Of course I’m with you. You’re not alone anymore.”

  Her bot made exhausted thumps inside the Trojan.

  “How did you find me?” asked Zachary.