by Stuart Keane
Heather shook her head. “Thanks for doing this. It’s a nice gesture. Really.”
“No problem. Better safe than sorry.”
Kieran collected two rucksacks and placed them on the bench beside him. After a few checks, he looked up and smirked. “Right, that’s everything. You ready?”
Kieran stood up and placed a rucksack on his back. He handed the second, smaller rucksack to Heather, who accepted it and hitched it onto her back. With their clothes and their baggage they looked like a bizarre set of hikers lost indoors. Heather straightened her hair with her palms and took a breath.
“Ready when you are.”
Kieran smiled. The smile vanished when he approached the door. He pulled a ball of string from his pocket and unwound the end of it. Then, taking a nail from the same place, he pushed its tip into the soft timber of the doorframe. Next, he took his shoe off and bashed the nail in with several swift blows. Once it was secured, he tied the string around the nail. He tugged it a few times to test its security and then bent the nail back an inch or so. As a result, the string’s anchor was tucked between the doorframe and a wall, so that it wasn’t going anywhere. Rupert tugged the string again. Once satisfied, he turned to Heather.
“You take the ball and unravel it as we go. I will take Point – that’s means the front.”
Heather laughed. “I know what Point is, Kieran.”
“Okay then. So, I’ll take Point. Just make sure you stay close, okay? And use stealth, we don’t want to alert anything or anyone to our presence, got it?”
Heather nodded. It was a sound strategy. She didn’t want to run into any of those ‘things’ any more than he did.
Kieran removed his other shoe, tied the laces of both of them together, and hung the footwear around his rucksack strap. Kieran moved forward. Ahead of them, through the open door, was the T-junction that Kieran had mentioned. He approached the corner cautiously. His feet made no sound on the tiled floor. He edged along to the wall and peeked around it. After a second he ushered Heather to join him. Heather, conscious of the ball of string, started to release it. As she moved, the door shut behind her. It closed silently, apart from a small click, which, because of the hall’s acoustics, sounded fairly loud. She paused.
And heard nothing.
She moved up behind Kieran. When she was close enough, he whispered into her ear, “There’s a clone over there.”
He pointed ahead. Heather could see a lobby with leather sofas and an empty reception desk. The room had plain décor like the rest of the place. Heather realised that no plants or life of any kind was on show here. Normally a pot plant or fish tank would break up the monotony of such an area. This was just a plain white room. Beside the desk stood a clone. He was staring off into the distance and wore a white gown that didn’t cover his buttocks. Heather looked on in fear. She hadn’t come into personal contact with one yet. Kieran was surveying the situation. He turned to Heather.
“We can either fight or wait.”
“Which do you prefer?”
“Well, we need to move forward. We can try walking around it. That seemed to work for you earlier, didn’t it?”
“Yes it did. But since then you’ve been attacked by one. Who knows what they are capable of now?”
“It might be worth the risk. Besides, there’s only one of them.”
Heather remained silent for a long moment. Going backwards wasn’t progress. They were still in the same situation as they were before. Finally, she nodded. “Let’s go. But be careful.”
Kieran smiled. Without a word, he faced the front and walked up to the clone. The thing showed no sign of recognition. Heather felt her heart in her mouth as Kieran neared their potential foe. Kieran was crouched, silently walking on his bare feet. He stopped inches behind the clone. Kieran removed his rucksack, placed it on the floor and lifted a flap on the bag to reveal a small side pocket. His hand slid in and grasped one of the kitchen knives he’d found earlier.
Heather held her breath. She cupped her mouth in surprise.
What the hell is he doing?
Heather shook her head to signal no, but Kieran wasn’t looking at her. After a moment, he stood up. He flexed his arms, holding the knife between his teeth. He grabbed it by the handle and turned around. His chest rose and fell as he breathed deeply.
Kieran tapped the clone on the shoulder.
Nothing happened.
Then the clone spun around slowly. After ten seconds it was staring Kieran in the face.
Kieran gulped. He didn’t move. His hand gripped the knife handle firmly.
Even from her distant viewpoint, Heather could see that the clone was human. The mannerisms and anatomy were similar to most of the people she had ever seen. There were no extra limbs or fingers or toes. The thing didn’t have more eyes or less ears or animal hair. In fact, it was totally hairless.
This clone had been human…Once.
Despite not having any extra, non-human appendages the face was distinctly mutated. Veins bulged from its forehead, cheeks and jawline. There was a solid green vein protruding from its neck. The lips were the same colour as the skin. It looked bizarre. The eyes were a stark green, which contrasted with the pale skin.
Heather didn’t envy Kieran. She was glad she had stayed back.
Kieran looked the creature in the face. Its green eyes were burning a hole into his soul. He imagined this must have been what humans looked like before God cured the anomalies. It seemed more robotic than anything alive, and yet it seemed distinctly human, despite its bald head, deathly pale skin, and total absence of any head hair. The thing tilted its head to the side, its eyes still on Kieran. Was it observing him?
Kieran heard a gurgling sound. Prior to this there’d been no noise, then this faint rumbling. It was the kind of gurgle your throat makes when you have a cold: all phlegm and mucus. The noise grew, becoming louder. Gurgling turned to snorting and then the noise was much more audible.
Heather heard it from her stance in the corner of the room. She was puzzled at first until she, and Kieran, realised it was coming from the clone. The creature opened its mouth and the noise became an unbearable, screeching and gurgling keen. It filled the room. Heather felt goosebumps on her skin.
The clone lunged for Kieran.
But Kieran was ready. Gripping the handle of the knife, Kieran twisted his hand and thrust the blade upwards. The force took the blade through the clone’s jaw, shredded his tongue and stopped at the hilt. The blade was visible in the clone’s open mouth. The end of the blade must have stopped behind the clone’s eyes. The eyes rolled back and as the clone faded, its noise diminished. It became immobile and fell forward towards Kieran, crashing to the ground. Then all was still.
Kieran smirked. He stepped forward, gripped the handle of the knife and removed it. It took all of his strength to wrench it free. As the blade slid free he felt the scrape of metal on bone, it sent shivers down his spine.
Heather crept over. Placing the ball of string on the reception desk, she stood beside Kieran. She grabbed his arm and looked down at their fallen foe.
“Seems they are aggressive after all. Why didn’t either of them go for me, though?”
“Not sure, Heather. Maybe something’s changed between now and then.”
“Maybe. Urgh, I don’t know, it just gives me the fucking creeps. What are they? Do they have some purpose? They must have. I mean they must exist for some reason!”
“I am sure we will find out soon enough.”
Kieran looked at the blade. A thin sheen of red coated the knife. Nothing else. “That’s weird. Look at this.” Kieran lifted the blade so she could see it clearly. Heather looked at it and frowned. “That isn’t blood, is it?”
“Not to my knowledge. Wait…”
Kieran bent down and used the clone’s robe to wipe the blade. The steel was now clean. The red material on the robe looked more like jelly then blood. The moment it made contact with the robe it congealed and slid down to t
he floor. Kieran stood up.
“I’m not sure what to make of that. But he’s down and that’s all that matters. Check that computer, see if it has anything on it, will you?”
Kieran looked around him. The reception desk was central to the room. The only exit was a white door that stood open. A long white hall peppered with doorways lay beyond it. It finished with a solid set of windowless double doors. The wall Heather had seen before was a partition, hiding the exit.
Heather stepped behind the desk. There was no chair. The desk’s surface had nothing on it apart from a monitor and a keyboard – no mouse was present. She tapped the keyboard and the screen lit up. Heather realised this was a touch-screen computer, which didn’t require a mouse. She tapped the screen and a blank desktop screen appeared. There was one folder labelled FILES. She tapped it and a password popped up. Encrypted files.
“Shit. Needs a password. This is hopeless.”
“That’s fine, at least we checked. Now, the next plan of action is to go down that hallway and look in the rooms. Once we’ve checked them out, we’ll head through the doors at the end, got it?”
Heather walked across to Kieran. She nodded.
Kieran moved without a word. She followed.
As they entered the hallway a camera on the wall moved, following their progress.
***
Delta was enjoying himself. His decision to take it slow had paid off. He’d allowed events to take their natural course and had been presented with this gem. According to his stats, he was the first person to have a Choice kill someone. And what a way to get it. Knife through the jaw. Epic!
Delta smiled. His plan was rolling along nicely. It was about to ramp up for him because he knew what was coming. Slowly, slowly wins the race, and he was confident he could win this.
He sipped his drink and let the viewing continue.
After all, he was currently ranked first. He knew it was down to the final three. And he knew one of them had gone ‘all in’. A coward’s move. Or an idiot’s move, whichever you prefer to call it. It was only a matter of time before he took the prize. He smiled again.
On the screen, his Choices entered the first door.
Delta tapped his keyboard.
Let the entertainment commence!
TWENTY-FOUR
Kathryn opened the door and looked out into the hall.
Silence.
All was still.
She closed it again and sat on the bottom step. She had to be sure. Surviving up to this point had been a matter of blind luck coupled with the incompetence of two jacked-up psychos. If this happened again, she could forget about everything.
Including the prospect of her dream of living in France.
And you don’t want that, she thought.
After fleeing the mayhem in the ‘doppelganger’ office, Kathryn had retreated to the fire exit stairwell. In order to do this she’d gone up two floors and then hidden in the stairwell, slowly retreating back down to the second floor again. Basically she was one floor up from her office. She had descended in the stairwell to avoid detection, and so far it had worked.
Initially she had heard screams of anger and frustration from her pursuers, but now she could hear nothing. However, this had happened once already, so she knew she had to play the waiting game. She estimated she’d been waiting twenty minutes. Delaying any longer would be futile and risky: she knew she had to move and soon.
The entire interior of the building was an exact replica of her actual office block. Every room, wall colour, stairway and piece of furniture was in place. The scope of the place took her breath away. Unless she was in a vivid nightmare, someone had gone to extreme lengths, not to mention expense, to build this construction and then have the guile to kidnap her, stick her in a cell and then release her in this place. They had even hired a variety of criminals to knock her off. It was like some sick kind of game. Who could be responsible? She wondered.
Someone had managed to pull it off. Kathryn accepted this, but she didn’t like it.
Kathryn realised that knowing the schematic of the place gave her an advantage, albeit a slim one. She knew the building like the back of her hand and her pursuers did not. There was a chance she could get out of this.
One step at a time, though, she thought.
She finished her Coke and placed the can next to the wall, as she didn’t want to knock it over on her way out. Making sure everything was in place, she emerged from the door silently. It closed behind her. Kathryn gripped the door, slowing its closure, so as to ensure there was no noise. She heard one final click and it was closed. She was in the hallway. Fortunately, it provided her with enough shadow to remain hidden. For now.
The hallway stretched out before her. There were two lifts and a door – she knew that this led to a small locker room. The only rooms beyond that door were all dead ends. A printer storage cupboard provided a potential hiding place, but it would box her in. All she needed was Genghis to find her and he would block the exit all by himself. Another vending machine was at the end of the locker room. The room itself did loop around to the main office on this floor, and this was the section that now was in front of her.
Either way, heading forward was more direct and gave Kathryn a lot more freedom to move. Also, the stairwell was just past the lifts. If she had to go either up or down to get away, the only way to do that was here. Upstairs led to more offices, laid out in a similar style to the rooms she was familiar with on the first floor. She could use these if necessary.
Her plan was to make it to the roof. Access was only available via the fourth floor, and the main stairs did not go up that far. She’d always thought this was bizarre, but the fourth floor was a head office, a different department, and it was separated from the rest of the building for security reasons. Even the fire escape stairwell didn’t go up there. The room had its own private stairwell on the outside of the building, which was only accessible from a door on that floor. This outside stairwell also allowed access to the roof, and, from here, she could walk across the roofs of four buildings and climb down three streets away.
That would be true if the building had the same layout as the one where she worked.
She remembered entering the building by opening the entrance door with the keycard. Her place of work did not have this feature and she was hoping that it had only been added for effect.
It felt like a game.
Everything was tailored to her, to make her advance. She should be dead by now, the guys in the jeep should’ve slaughtered her already.
If this was a game and she was some kind of chesspiece, simply walking in unopposed and free would be boring to anyone who might be watching. She hoped that whoever was running this show didn’t check his ego in at the door and would be prepared to sacrifice anything in order to make his ‘game’ interesting. If this was the case it would explain his exaggerated choice of psychos. It would also explain his explicit attention to detail. She hoped that since the building’s interior appeared to be the same, the roof and its access would be similar too.
The roof would be a good place to get her bearings. It was her goal.
To reach the fourth floor, she would need to use these lifts, and she wasn’t prepared to do that with Genghis and Boyd running around. She had to go on the offensive; to at least keep them occupied while she made her way up to the top floor. The thought of Genghis trapping her in the lift was unbearable. Even Boyd would be dangerous at that proximity.
She edged forward slowly. Passing through a doorway, she was now at the foot of the stairs.
Kathryn heard nothing.
The office door, located to the left of the stairs, showed no movement, no life. The room was isolated. Monitors still stood to attention. The windows beyond those showed the black night outside. A printer whirred nearby. To the right of the stairs was a small landing that trailed to the downwards staircase. However, both of these pathways led to the office, so Kathryn chose the left door. She stepped
through the opening, the noise of her footsteps hushed by the carpet.
The desks and chairs and monitors all sat silently. She navigated her way through the room. Stepping between the chairs, she silently made her way across the floor. As before, the office was an L shape, the stairway sited in the angle of the L. She investigated the left-hand side first. In the original building, the blueprint, her desk would be directly below this part of the floor. As she peered around the corner, she saw nothing, the place was empty. She moved further in, knowing that the loop to the locker room was small, but an easy place to hide. She walked around. Nothing. The locker room was empty.
Kathryn turned and retraced her steps. She passed the break room. When back at the stairwell, she advanced to the other side of the floor. It stretched out beyond her. More desks, more monitors. Several filing cabinets were at the rear of the area, they were neatly lined along the wall. The office ended at a series of windows. Everywhere was empty and eerily silent. Kathryn turned around and she headed to the stairwell, ready to progress.
Then she heard the humming.
It was faint at first, but as she neared the doorway it became louder. Pacing slowly, she emerged at the foot of the stairs again. The lifts were to her right. The humming subsided. She backed through the doorway again and headed to the break room. The humming grew. Aware that the break room could deny her vision at first, she skipped past it and took cover against the wall. She realised the humming was coming from the locker area around the corner.
But, she questioned herself, you checked there, didn’t you?
Kathryn moved to the corner slowly and peered around. At first, all she saw were boxes and filing cabinets. But as she moved around, her eyes settled on a man. From his hair, skin colour and build she knew it wasn’t Genghis or Boyd. In fact, this guy was dressed in a black suit. His hairstyle was tidy and conventional and, from behind, he seemed relatively normal. Nothing like the gang of psychos she was running from.
