by Emma Clayton
When he reached the classroom he felt a little bit better; the light trails were still there, but his eyes were becoming accustomed to them. However, he still bumped into several desks on the way to his.
‘Hey,’ Kobi said, with a sharp look. ‘What’s wrong with you?’
‘Nothing,’ Mika mumbled, almost falling into his chair.
‘Right, class!’ Mrs Fowler shouted. ‘You know what to do! Everyone drink your Fit Mix!’
Mika mixed the powder with water in the plastic cup, then emptied a capsule into the drink. He felt his stomach spasm looking at it and he thought he was going to vomit.
‘What’s that?’ the girl sitting behind him asked.
‘Nothing,’ Mika said, irritably, trying not to be sick.
‘Why have you got a capsule and the rest of us haven’t?’ she asked, enviously.
He heard the scraping of chairs behind him and suddenly he was surrounded.
‘Yeah, what is it, Mika? What makes you so special? Hey look! Ruben’s got one as well. What’s it for? It’s something to do with the competition, isn’t it? Look everyone!’
Mika couldn’t breathe with them crowded around him, and their moving heads and hands were a blinding light show.
‘Go away,’ Kobi said, pushing them back with his hand. ‘What’s wrong with you? Leave him alone.’
‘Class!’ Mrs Fowler yelled. ‘Settle down! Everyone back to your desks and drink your Fit Mix or I’ll send for Mr Grey!’
* * *
That afternoon, Mr Blyte introduced a new exercise to their fitness programme. They arrived at the Complex Leisure Centre to find an assault course had been built in the biggest gym hall.
‘Oh no,’ Roland Spelling Bee whispered, when they saw it for the first time.
Mika just looked at the assault course and felt his stomach lurch. There were ten-metre walls to climb with only the smallest hand and footholds. A tank full of water covered in green nets. A maze of metal tunnels, jumps, rope ladders and slides.
‘Good afternoon!’ Blyte bellowed. ‘Everyone grab a backpack and put it on!’
There was a pile of backpacks on the floor. A girl tried to pick one up and it was so heavy, she nearly fell over.
‘What a pathetic display!’ Blyte roared. ‘Pick it up, girl, and get it on you!’
She tried again and hauled the straps on to her shoulders with difficulty.
‘Right!’ Blyte snapped, his eyes sharp as knives. ‘If this exercise doesn’t sort you lot out I don’t know what will! Twice round the assault course everyone, then five kilometres on the tread-mills. The first one to finish gets a voucher for a kebab in Tank Meat Express!’
‘I swear this is full of concrete,’ the girl muttered, as she staggered towards the start, and she was right – Mika could feel hard lumps through the fabric of his backpack. His head spun as he put it on but he managed to keep going until he was climbing up the second wall. Kobi was just beneath him and Mika could hear him breathing hard as he struggled not to lose his grip. Moments later he saw him over to his right, the muscles in his arms glowing gold with the strange new light and pumped up with the effort of the climb. Mika faltered, feeling dazed, and he watched the blood pulsing through a vein on Kobi’s forearm and thought he could hear it, boom boom, boom boom. He felt mild surprise as he began to fall and was unconscious before he hit the ground.
* * *
When Mika opened his eyes again he was lying on a bed surrounded by a white curtain. Of all the ways to wake up, this had to be the worst for Mika; he panicked, inhaling sharply as he saw the corner of the curtain twitch where someone grabbed it from the other side. But it wasn’t a Telly Head, it was a woman in a white coat with the letters YDF embroidered on the pocket.
‘Where am I?’ he asked.
‘In the health bay in the Complex Leisure Centre,’ she replied softly. ‘How do you feel?’
He watched golden light dance from the ends of her fingers as she pulled the curtain back.
‘Weird,’ he said.
‘Weird in your body or weird in your head?’ she asked.
‘Both.’
‘Are you seeing light trails?’ she asked, sitting down on the end of the bed.
He nodded, cautiously.
‘It’s because of the capsules,’ she said. ‘It’s nothing to worry about, Mika. The way you’re feeling is just your body acclimatizing itself to change. In a few days’ time, you’ll feel much better.’
‘Good,’ he said.
‘You’ll be glad you’re taking them soon, believe me,’ she went on, smiling as if she knew a fantastic and interesting secret.
‘Why?’ Mika asked.
‘I can’t tell you,’ she answered, as if he was a cheeky toddler. ‘It’s a surprise. Like on birthdays. But you’ll be glad you took them, just give yourself a few days to settle down. OK?’
‘OK.’
‘I’ll get you something to eat and drink and then you can go home.’
‘Thanks.’
‘And we don’t need to worry your parents by telling them, do we?’
‘No,’ he replied, heartily agreeing with her.
‘Good boy,’ she said.
He glared at her back as she walked away, resenting her for looking at him as if he was an object and talking to him like a baby.
As he left the health bay, Ruben was brought in, supported on one side by Mr Blyte and on the other by one of the men who worked in the gym – a hulk of a man with legs and arms like fake-tanned tree trunks. Ruben’s head rolled on his shoulders as if his neck was a rubber band, and his feet dragged on the floor. Mika stepped aside to let them pass, embarrassed that only an hour before he had been in the same state and niggled that Ruben had taken longer to collapse than he had. Then he prayed this wasn’t a prediction of their performances in the next round.
19
A GOLDEN BIRD
The two weeks before the holiday passed slowly for Mika because it was so hard to conceal the fact that he saw light trails on everything – they were so beautiful, a couple of times he forgot himself and said, ‘Wow!’, which was confusing for the people around him who could see nothing, and made him look even more bonkers than they already thought he was.
People left trails of golden light when they moved, while objects left trails of the palest blue. When it was dark, the sky was filled with streamers of gold and blue light: blue from the flying pods and gold from the people sitting inside them. It was so beautiful it made his heart swell with wonder and he regretted the fact he couldn’t tell anyone what he could see. He didn’t even mention it to Audrey, even though he knew she could see them too. She never talked about the light trails after that first night in the Ra Ra Shake Bar and he was glad. Although he was still afraid, for the first time there was beauty in his world and a little part of him was excited and looking forward to finding out why. He even saw the light on Awen, and sometimes, when it was dark in his room, that was all he saw of him; a golden glow down the side of the bed.
The day before Mika and Audrey left for their holiday and the third round of the competition, Mika’s class had a surprise visit from Mr Grey in Fit Camp.
‘I want everyone in proper kit!’ Mr Blyte yelled in their faces, spraying them with bits of his lunchtime burger. ‘Anyone without it, see me! If any of you let me down you’ll be doing press-ups until the sun sets on the day you DIE!’
They dressed quickly in silence with their backs to him. Mika had a chilli sauce stain on his T-shirt so he spat on his finger and rubbed it.
‘Smith!’ Blyte yelled. ‘What the frag are you doing? Come here!’
Mika walked towards him.
‘What did I just say to you? Are you stupid?’
He threw a clean T-shirt at Mika.
‘I want that back after the lesson!’ he shouted. ‘Get dressed!’
He made them stand in a line while he inspected them, then he led them into the gym hall and told them to wait for Mr Grey.
He look
ed particularly grey that afternoon, as if he’d just had a fresh coat of grey paint – his suit, his skin, his hair, his pale grey eyes and lips. For the past few weeks the Headmaster had been nothing more than a nodding grey shadow that moved along the walls in school. Mika felt his skin crawl the moment he heard his footsteps enter the gym hall. He stood in front of them holding two pieces of plastic paper.
‘Good afternoon, class,’ he said, filling the gym with his train station breath.
‘Good afternoon, Mr Grey,’ they chanted.
‘It’s nice to see you all,’ he continued. ‘Unfortunately, I’ve not had time to come down and see what marvellous work you’ve been doing here in the Complex Leisure Centre before, but I must say how impressed I am by how fit and strong you all look – Mr Blyte has obviously trained you well. I hear your average growth since starting Fit Camp is fourteen centimetres.’
He nodded to Blyte, and Blyte smiled and rolled back on his heels looking pleased with himself.
‘I have special awards to give out today,’ Mr Grey continued, ‘to pupils who have made Barford North School very proud. We have not just one, but two of our boys through to the third round of the competition. Mika Smith and Ruben Snaith, step forward.’
Mika felt a hundred eyes on him and he didn’t want to move.
‘Mika,’ Mr Blyte snapped.
He stepped forward so he was standing next to Ruben in front of Mr Grey. Ruben’s proximity made the skin down his left side prickle. He stared at the floor wishing he could dive into it.
‘On behalf of Barford North School,’ Mr Grey said pompously, ‘I’d like to award these certificates to commemorate your progress in the competition. I’m sure everyone would like to join me in congratulating you on your remarkable achievement.’ Then in a quieter voice that was menacing enough to cut through Mika’s borrowed T-shirt, ‘Especially you Mika, after your difficult start.’
He handed them the certificates and everyone started to clap and the noise sounded like a flock of pigeons trying to escape the gym.
‘But I must say this,’ Mr Grey continued, when the clapping had subsided, ‘every one of you should feel proud of your achievements over the past few weeks. You look magnificent. You are icons of health and fitness and I have no doubt that very soon, every one of you will prove yourself a fine citizen of the northern hemisphere. Give yourselves a round of applause.’
The clapping started again, but this time it sounded confused; after all, they were only twelve. They still had six years of school to survive before they had to think about becoming fine citizens of the northern hemisphere. Mr Grey handed out more Youth Development Foundation consolation prize lollipops and the children left with furrowed brows.
Mika dropped his certificate and lollipop in the bin on the way home and didn’t waste any time thinking about Mr Grey’s strange talk about fine citizens of the northern hemisphere. He could see light trails on everything that moved, he had lost Helen’s letter, the only thing that could have helped him, and the next day he would be competing in the third round of the competition – he had enough to worry about.
* * *
Mika shared a dream with Ellie that night. She opened her eyes in her white room on the Queen of the North and saw a golden bird sitting on her knee where it was raised beneath the cover. It glowed in the darkness, filling the small space with warm light. It was a garden bird, a Jenny Wren, with a round breast and short tail. Ellie tried not to move so it wouldn’t be afraid and they looked at each other with interest.
I wish I was you, she thought, able to fly like a ghost through the wall of my prison.
The wren’s head cocked to one side and its tail bobbed. Then, as if it was a wishing bird, it took off and Ellie found herself flying with it; through the wall with a soft thrup of feathers into the observation room, past the men in white coats and out the other side. Then through locked doors and lots more walls until they had left the spaceship behind and were diving together through space towards Earth. Through the bird’s eyes, Ellie could see The Wall and the grey outline of Europe. Down, down, they flew, until they were skimming the tops of the towers of Barford North, and then, like a missile aimed at Mika, the bird flew through the wall of their tower and into their tiny bedroom.
Hearing the flutter of feathers Mika opened his eyes just in time to see the bird land on Awen’s head. The dog made a rumbling noise in its sleep but didn’t stir. Dog and bird bathed the room in golden light and Mika felt his heart swell with love.
‘I know you,’ he whispered.
He put out his hand, hoping the bird would hop across on to his finger. It did and they looked at each other. The bird’s eyes were bright and intense, and as he gazed into them he felt waves of emotion: the deepest love, the most palpable relief, then, such desolate anguish and loneliness he felt as if he was being crushed by it.
‘Ellie,’ he whispered.
There was a noise through the wall in the next apartment; the flush of a hygiene unit. The bird startled and took off and flew through the door of Ellie’s cupboard.
Mika jumped up and opened it, hoping to find the bird inside, but to his horror, he discovered that the Knife Sharpener had caught it in his hand. The bird’s light guttered and flickered, like a candle trying to burn without oxygen, then the Knife Sharpener tightened his grip and the light faded until Mika could see nothing but the flickering face of the monster.
20
A NEW BREED OF HUMAN
Gorman glared at Ellie through a sheet of fortified glass. She was standing in the middle of an empty room in full body armour with her arms crossed defiantly. All he could see of her face were her eyes glowering back at him through the slit in her helmet.
‘Tell her to do it again!’ Gorman ordered. ‘And again and again until we know how she does it!’
‘But she’s been in there six hours, sir,’ a scientist replied, politely. ‘And she says she’s got a headache.’
‘I don’t care!’ Gorman yelled. ‘I want a scientific explanation for what she can do by the END OF THE DAY! NO EXCUSES. TELL THEM TO BRING IN ANOTHER ONE!’
‘Bring in another piece of asteroid,’ the scientist said into his com, and a few seconds later, two men entered the room pushing a hover trolley carrying a large chunk of asteroid.
‘I can’t do it again!’ Ellie cried. ‘I’ve got a pain behind my eyes! I can hardly see!’
Gorman watched one of the men talk to her, issuing threats, telling her Puck wouldn’t be fed if she didn’t obey his commands. Afterwards, the men placed the chunk of asteroid in the middle of the room and left, locking the door, so Ellie was alone.
‘Are you sure she’s wired up properly?’ Gorman asked.
‘Yes,’ the scientist replied. ‘She has receptors monitoring every single chemical impulse in her brain. The inside of that helmet looks like a bowl of spaghetti.’
‘OK,’ Gorman said. ‘Tell her to do it.’
‘When you’re ready, Ellie,’ the scientist said.
Ellie sighed. The chunk of asteroid was twice the size of her head and ten times heavier than it looked. She stared at it for a split second and it exploded, making the walls of the room and the reinforced glass of the window bow out. For a few moments it sounded as if there was a hailstorm going on in the room as thousands of tiny fragments of asteroid fell to the floor. Ellie sank on top of them, too tired to stand up any longer.
‘Can I go now?’ she shouted at the window.
‘Did you get anything?’ Gorman asked the scientists who were staring at the computer screens. ‘Do you know how she does it?’
‘No, sir,’ one replied, shaking his head.
‘So what do you know?’ Gorman said, angrily. ‘What am I paying you all for?’
‘We know her brain is larger than a normal human’s,’ one of the scientists offered, ‘and she is clearly capable of doing things we can’t, but we don’t know how. We’re beginning to wonder if the mutants aren’t simply normal humans gone wrong, but some
thing new.’
‘You mean a new breed?’ Gorman asked, sceptically. ‘Of human?’
‘It happened in prehistoric times,’ the man replied. ‘Only thirty-five thousand years ago two species of human coexisted, the Cro-Magnon and the Neanderthals.’
‘But that didn’t happen all of a sudden like this,’ Gorman scoffed. ‘Did it?’
‘No,’ the scientist admitted. ‘But we were wondering whether the thirty-year gap when no babies were born might have something to do with it.’
‘You were wondering?’ Gorman sneered. ‘You thought, you pondered, you guessed. What sort of scientist are you? Wondering and pondering! You don’t know anything, do you?’
‘Not really,’ the scientist muttered, hanging his head.
‘Well she’s not going to bed until you DO!’ Gorman roared.
‘Yes, sir.’
21
BLUE SKY
Asha was so looking forward to the holiday, she packed several times in the days leading up to it. The Youth Development Foundation had given the winners credits to spend on holiday clothes, so nearly everything they were taking was new. Mika thought his mother looked the best she had since Ellie had disappeared; more often than not she was smiling or looked as though she was thinking good thoughts. She packed on the floor, kneeling in front of the sofa with the television ignored in the background, wearing a plain white sari with her long hair tied elegantly at the nape of her neck, her cowgirl costume in the cupboard so she didn’t have to look at it. Mika watched her lay everything out in neat piles: sandals, shorts, sunglasses and swimming costumes, all with their shop tags still on.
‘I think you could do with another pair of shorts,’ she said. ‘I’ll have to pop into town before the shops close and get you some.’ She smiled, pleased by the prospect of another excuse to go to a shop and buy something without worrying they would have to starve for a week to pay for it. ‘Oh and perhaps something else for the evening,’ she added. ‘There are bound to be a couple of meals and we don’t want to wear the same thing every night. I’ll try on that ruby red sari I saw and I’ll get you a shirt. What do you think?’
