Mercy Point

by Anna Snoekstra

  ‘I think we are too,’ Emma said.

  That made them all stop. They looked over at her.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Fabian whispered.

  Slowly, she told them all about the etchings they’d found and the thing Sam had said about their vision.

  ‘But what do you mean we’re one of them? That doesn’t make any sense,’ Tessie said.

  ‘Or maybe it makes the most sense,’ Emma answered.

  ‘But I mean, well,’ Tessie looked as though her mind was reeling, ‘we don’t even look like them, for one.’

  ‘You saw their hands, didn’t you?’ Emma looked at Michael. ‘The ones standing behind the little one. They looked like yours and Fabian’s, but worse.’

  ‘It’s not possible,’ he replied, but his voice had no conviction.

  Emma sat down on the floor, and the rest of them followed. ‘I did this assignment on sleeper agents.’

  ‘Sleeper agents?’ Fabian’s brow furrowed.

  ‘Yeah. They’re like spies that Russia put in America when they were just little kids. They have proper identities and everything for like forty years, but then when Russia wants them to do something, like assassinate someone or something like that, then pow, they get activated. And no one suspects them because they seem normal. That’s what they’ve done. The mining has been destroying them. It wasn’t a cave-in that happened here, it was some sort of war. That’s how all those people died, that’s how my dad died. And now they’ve got us, and they want to go to war again. They want us to be a weapon.’

  Michael looked towards Fabian and Tessie, then back at Emma. ‘I don’t get it.’

  ‘The changes in our hearing and vision. Your fingers. I think they did something to our DNA when we were babies. I think now we’ve been activated. We’re becoming them.’

  Michael opened his mouth to argue, but he didn’t know what to say. Thinking about this was making his brain hurt. In fact, now that they weren’t running anymore, his head was hurting quite a bit. He put a hand to his temple, then winced.

  Fabian noticed. ‘Are you alright?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘You sure?’ Tessie squinted at him. ‘Your eye is swelling up.’

  ‘Let’s see.’ Emma shuffled closer to him and she shone her phone onto his face. The bright light blinded him for a moment. His vision slowly returned as Emma’s cold fingers traced their way down his cheek. He looked into her sad, scared eyes as she inspected his face. He had to get her out of here, somehow. She didn’t deserve to die down here in the cold darkness.

  ‘I don’t think it’s too bad. I think you’re just going to have a black eye,’ she said, removing the light.

  ‘What happened?’ Fabian asked.

  He shrugged, but Emma butted in. ‘He and Sam went all dumb and macho and ended up wrestling on the floor and hitting each other, like that was going to help anything.’

  Tessie raised an eyebrow. ‘Did you get him?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Good,’ she said. ‘Wish I could have had a go.’

  They exchanged a wry smile; he definitely believed her.

  ‘We shouldn’t have trusted him,’ said Emma, looking at the ground.

  ‘It doesn’t matter now,’ Michael continued, not wanting to upset her anymore.

  They stopped talking — what was there to say? There was no getting out of here. The best they could hope for was that they wouldn’t be found. Michael wrapped his arms around his knees. He was so cold. So exhausted. This was what he wanted, wasn’t it? Not to ever have to go home. But home was so much better than this. He felt dizzy with tiredness; he couldn’t bear to even imagine his empty bed. To think about how he could be warm and comfortable right now if he’d made a different choice.

  If his dad could hear his thoughts, he would call him a pansy. Michael pushed the thought out of his head. His dad could never find him down here, yet he was still inside Michael’s head. His dad was the reason part of him didn’t want to resurface. Being swallowed by the never-ending darkness had seemed better than having to go back to his father, but now he knew better.

  ‘Does anyone have an idea?’ asked Tessie quietly.

  No one responded. Michael didn’t even look up.

  ‘I’ve got chips,’ said Fabian, pulling out a packet of cheese-flavoured crisps from his backpack.

  ‘Legend!’ said Michael weakly, his stomach rumbling.

  Fabian opened the packet, and the crinkling sounds echoed through the chamber. He took one and passed the packet along to Tessie.

  Michael pulled his hoodie tighter; his skin felt freezing cold. Emma passed him the packet of chips.

  ‘I wish I was home,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t care if my parents are lying, I still love them.’

  Michael crunched a salty, cheesy chip, but he could hardly taste it. His throat had clenched up.

  ‘Me too,’ said Fabian softly.

  ‘I don’t,’ Michael said, surprised by his own honesty. It somehow felt easier to talk in the dark, like they were on the message board again. ‘I hate my father. I do. I hate him more than anything.’

  ‘I don’t know if I love my mum.’ Tessie’s voice was quivering. ‘I know I should.’

  ‘He used to hurt my mum,’ Michael blurted out, the hard, heavy secret suddenly too much to keep inside. ‘That’s why she left. Sometimes he hits me too, but it’s not as bad as what he used to do to her.’

  No one said anything, but then he felt a hand on his shoulder. He was surprised to see it was Fabian’s. He didn’t say anything, but the way he looked at Michael made him feel exposed. It made him feel like Fabian was really seeing him, and somehow that was comforting. To say the words out loud, to reveal the ugly secret and to have these people stay by his side made the weight inside him feel lighter than it ever had.

  ‘We need to think of a plan. We have to get out and warn everyone that they are still down here,’ Fabian said. ‘There must be a way. There has to be.’

  ‘Hang on,’ Emma straightened, ‘what about that tunnel? Do you remember it, Michael? The one I found with that weird seaweedy stuff covering it.’

  ‘Oh yeah,’ he said, remembering, ‘and Sam was so weird about it. He really didn’t want us to go in there.’

  ‘That’s got to be a good sign. Right?’

  ‘It went upwards,’ he explained to the other two. ‘It’s the first one I’ve seen that’s gone straight up like that. Plus, it was hidden.’ He looked at the others with a grin. Maybe there was a chance, after all. Emma wasn’t smiling though. ‘What?’

  ‘Well, it’s back there. Right near that cavern with all the titanite. Where the creatures were.’

  ‘But we can’t stay here either,’ Tessie interjected. ‘If they find us, we’re trapped.’

  They looked around. She was right, Michael realised. They wouldn’t be safe here for long.

  ‘Okay,’ said Fabian. He put the empty chip packet back in his bag. ‘Let’s go there.’

  ‘But how?’ Michael asked. ‘I don’t even know if we can find it again. Plus, they’ll be there.’

  Fabian looked around at them. ‘I think we are going to have to get a tour guide.’

  CHAPTER 33

  FABIAN

  ‘Sam!’ Fabian called, his voice bouncing back around to him.

  ‘Sam! Can you come here?’ Emma shouted.

  ‘We just want to talk!’ Michael added.

  They had left the safety of their hiding place and were now standing at the closest fork. Fabian had been sure that they wouldn’t be hurt, because it seemed like the creatures needed them. Still, they wanted there to be a clear path back to their hidden cavern. Just in case.

  ‘Sam!’ he called again.

  ‘Listen,’ Tessie whispered. Something echoed towards them: the sound of running feet.

  Within moments, he was there. Standing in front of them, panting only slightly, holding a torch. Sam grinned at them, like everything was normal, like they were just hanging out in the motel r
oom. Fabian turned away; it hurt just to look at him.

  ‘Come on, guys, don’t be angry,’ Sam said.

  They gaped at him, huddling together in the furthest corner.

  ‘I didn’t mean to lose it before, sorry, mate,’ he said to Michael. ‘I was just really excited that this was finally happening.’

  Fabian tried to find the words, tried to find the question he needed to ask. Eventually, he just forced it out. ‘We want to talk. But we want to be able to see. Our phones are all out of battery.’

  That was almost true. Only one of them still had battery left — Tessie.

  Sam looked around at them, and for a moment, Fabian stopped breathing. But then he shrugged. ‘Okay. No worries. Follow me.’

  He turned and made his way down one of the tunnels. They looked at each other, then followed him. They each held hands in a line. They didn’t want to get separated again.

  ‘You know, it’s been so impossible keeping my mouth shut this whole time,’ Sam said as he walked. ‘You guys kept going on and on about how you wanted to know the truth, and I wanted to tell you so much. But Ash and the others, they told me you wouldn’t understand. That you’d never come here if I just told you everything. They said you’d freak out, but you seem fine to me.’

  Tessie squeezed Fabian’s hand. He could just imagine the contemptuous expression on her face, but neither of them said anything. Sam didn’t seem to notice; he kept chattering on as he walked.

  ‘I’m so glad you get it now. All that loyalty you had to your parents was really starting to grate on me. I mean, they almost wiped us out completely. Anything to keep the mine open. Good liars though. That monument almost made me laugh.

  ‘You know, we actually did try to make a plea to the town; they were destroying our home. But they totally freaked out and just started killing everyone. It turned into a war within minutes.

  ‘The survivors knew that they had to hide, had to go deeper. They knew that their mines would reach us eventually, so they moved on to Plan B.’ His voice was proud. ‘But they needed to monitor the experiment. That’s why I had to stay down here, like a control subject, to see when the changes started happening.’

  ‘That must have been tough,’ Emma said quietly. ‘It must have been really hard for you.’

  ‘Nah, it’s great down here. It’s up there that’s kind of horrible. All the pollution and awful weather. I know things down here look really different to above land. You guys probably think we’re primitive, but we’re not. We only use our natural resources and we are still way better at biology than humans. We can do the most awesome stuff.’

  He turned back to look at them, and Fabian attempted a smile.

  ‘Cool,’ Michael said.

  In the pause, Fabian heard it again. The hissing and clicks he had heard before. They were close.

  ‘Ash can probably explain it better than I can,’ Sam said cheerily, listening to the sounds. ‘I’ve been trying to master the echolocation, but I’m no good yet. We can learn it together! I’m so excited that you guys are finally here! Soon, our eyes will adjust and we’ll start seeing on their frequency. They told me it’s beautiful.’

  ‘But our parents,’ whimpered Emma. ‘Please, Sam, let us go. Our parents will think something happened to us. They’ll come looking.’

  ‘Don’t you get it? This is your family! The people who you think are your parents will be gone soon anyway,’ he spat, then took a deep breath. ‘You can’t leave now, guys. We need you. You know their weaknesses.’

  Sam looked at the group, waiting for an answer. Hearing none, he continued. ‘You’re all one of us, you’ve always been one of us.’ Then he yelled, ‘We are one, we fight together!’

  ‘We are one, we fight together,’ the voices of the creatures echoed towards them. So many voices. Hundreds.

  They turned a corner, and then Fabian saw light. Not the light of the sun or the moon, but coloured light spilling from an entranceway. He didn’t want to see them. From what the others had said, they sounded horrible. He looked over at Tessie; she was staring at the ground, her face blank.

  They took a step into the entrance. The colours were brilliant, amazing. Greens and purple shone and rippled. But he turned away from it and looked at Emma. Emma’s eyes were darting around; she was calculating. She nodded towards an entrance on the far side. That one, she mouthed.

  There wouldn’t be time. It was too far away. His plan wasn’t going to work. Sam was right: they would never let them leave. They were going to take away him and his friends. They’d never see sky again.

  He couldn’t let it happen. He had to do something. Not just for the sake of his friends, but for his family. If they were taken, these creatures would attack his family. They would try to destroy the world he knew, and they would use him and his friends to do it.

  What would a real man do? A real man would fight. But that would be stupid, totally pointless. He wouldn’t stand a chance.

  Then he saw the movement. The creatures were there, right there. It was like time slowed down as the creatures appeared in the entrance right next to theirs. Up close, their appearance was even more shocking. The clothing they wore looked almost alive. It was green and shiny; the closest fabric he could imagine was leather. In this light their pupils were huge and black. On their heads were patterns, like tattoos. As they took another step forward, the lights hit them, and Fabian realised they weren’t tattoos but tiny bits of titanite, set in their skin. The oldest one at the front had so many it almost looked like a crown. She smiled at them.

  Fear so strong it made him dizzy took over. The sight in front of him was terrifying, but the idea of these things coming above ground and hurting his family, that was what made his blood run cold. Right now, it didn’t matter that he was different from the other guys at school, it didn’t matter that he was bad at PE or that his arms were scrawny or that he liked boys not girls. All that mattered was this moment.

  The creature opened its mouth to speak.

  Fabian looked at its fragile, white throat.

  I may look weak but I am strong, I may look weak but I am strong.

  ‘Run,’ he whispered to the others, ‘get out, warn everyone. Go.’

  Then he launched forward, hurling himself towards the creature, even though all his instincts were telling him to do the opposite. Within a moment, his arm was around its neck. The skin was so soft and fleshy he felt like he might be sick.

  ‘Come and get me!’ he yelled, pulling the creature towards one of the passageways. He squeezed tighter on its throat. It didn’t resist. It went slack in his arms.

  ‘Ash!’ screamed Sam. He followed Fabian, arms in the air.

  The other creatures came towards him. They moved slowly and silently. Fabian backed into the dark abyss.

  CHAPTER 34

  MICHAEL

  ‘Come on,’ whispered Emma, grabbing Michael’s arm and pulling.

  ‘But Fabian!’ he hissed back, watching as the disgusting things closed in on him.

  ‘He said run, we have to warn them! We’ll come back with everyone. We’ll save him!’

  Michael looked at the fear in her eyes, the sheer desperation. He didn’t want her to die down here.

  He didn’t want to die down here either, he realised. He wanted to see land again, to see light. Even if it meant living with his father.

  These things would destroy the whole town and everybody in it. They had to at least try to get out so they could warn everyone.

  Michael grabbed Tessie’s hand. She was staring at Fabian, her mouth gaping. He pulled her along. She resisted for a moment, then let herself be dragged, like a dead weight.

  Emma slipped behind the creatures and ran across the lit-up cavern, the titanite glittering around them. Michael ran after her, dragging Tessie along with him.

  Just as he went inside the tunnel on the opposite side, he turned back and, for a split second, he locked eyes with Fabian. Fabian’s face was terrified, unsure and afraid, but it was
too late to take it back. He disappeared into the dark.

  They ran around the corner until they reached the small tunnel, slippery material still sticking to its edges.

  ‘Wait, wait, I’m going back,’ Michael said, but Emma grabbed his arm again.

  ‘No,’ she whispered. ‘I promised we would get out. We are going to get out!’

  ‘But we can’t leave him!’ he replied, looking at Tessie for support, but she was swaying on her feet, her face pale and her eyes blank.

  ‘He said run. He did it so we can go and do something about all this, protect our families and his,’ Emma hissed.

  Michael looked around, not knowing what to do.

  ‘Please,’ she said, ‘we’ll come back for him. We’ll save him, I promise.’

  They crawled quickly at first, their panting breaths echoing down the tunnel. Michael tried to clamp his mouth shut, afraid the sound of his breath might alert more of those revolting things.

  He imagined that he heard noises, that maybe Fabian was catching up after all. There was nothing; just the three of them pushing forward. Tessie was so silent behind him. He kept having to turn back, just to make sure she was still there. He wished he could make sure she was okay, but stopping would be the worst thing they could do.

  His neck started to ache horribly, and his knees and hands were rubbed raw. The damp was getting through his hoodie and his skin was covered in goosebumps.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he heard Emma whisper. ‘I thought I knew everything, but I know nothing. Everything I thought I knew is wrong.’

  He put his hand on the back of her ankle for a second, just so she knew he understood. Her skin was freezing cold.

  They pushed forward and Michael tried to forget the images they’d seen on the wall. He tried not to think of Sam; the anger was too exhausting. He tried not to imagine those black talons the male creatures had that his own hands had started to resemble. And he didn’t think of Fabian anymore, what might be happening to him right now, how it should have been him. No one would miss him. He had nothing going for him. He should have been the one to stay behind, not Fabian. But he couldn’t think of that now. He just couldn’t.