by Emma Clayton
‘Audrey!’ he said. ‘Wake up! Oi! Noodle brain!
‘Audrey?’
He heard the roar of an engine and looked up to see the Pod Fighter that had shot them down, sweeping a searchlight through the forest canopy. His heart missed a beat as the light froze on them and the Pod Fighter hovered, directly overhead.
‘Audrey!’ He shook her by the shoulders, knowing if she didn’t wake up now, she never would. He also knew he couldn’t leave her, so they would both die in this dream place and never go home. He shook her again, roughly this time, and still she hung like a rag doll until he had a jolt of inspiration and pushed her up so her chest was released from the pressure of the harness. She gasped. Her eyes shot open, startling him with their nuclear brightness.
‘Hello?’ she croaked, as if she was wondering why he was staring at her. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Trying to keep you alive,’ he said, smiling with relief.
‘Where are we?’ She put her hand to her throat – it hurt from breathing smoke.
‘In the forest,’ he whispered. ‘We landed in a tree. Quick! Get out of your harness! If we don’t get away from here in the next ten seconds, we’re dead.’
Coughing violently, she fumbled her arms out of the harness. The men in the Pod Fighter had flown a short distance away, found a clearing and landed. Mika and Audrey hung nervously from the broad branch of the oak then dropped the five dangerous metres to the forest floor. Thankfully it was soft and they landed unhurt. They ran into the dark forest, frightened by its silence, trying to suppress the coughs that would give them away, but their lungs had been scoured raw by the smoke and the night air was cold and they choked on its freshness. For an eternity they ran, with the crash of men’s feet behind them, Audrey in front, because she could see the trees. Mika saw nothing unless he looked up at the black branches against the night sky, so he ran blind behind her, feeling all the time more frightened and further from Ellie.
How are we going to survive this, he thought frantically, as he tripped on the root of a tree. How will we ever get home?
Eventually Audrey stopped and leaned over and panted with her hands on her hips. ‘I think we’ve lost them,’ she said. ‘I can’t hear them any more.’
They listened for a moment, trying to pant quietly, and Mika felt the darkness wrap around them like a cloak. They heard a twig snap nearby and much further away, a sound that turned their blood to ice – a howl.
‘Did you hear that?’ Audrey whispered, clutching his arm.
‘Yes,’ Mika said, quietly.
‘It sounded like . . .’
‘A wolf?’
Then they heard another sound – a scream. It was a long way away, but every noise in the forest seemed blown all around it by the wind. Mika shuddered with cold and fear.
‘It can’t be wolves,’ Audrey said. ‘They’re extinct.’
‘Like trees and mansions?’ Mika replied. ‘I think it is wolves.’
They heard another scream, closer this time and curdled by blood.
‘They’re killing Gorman’s men!’ Audrey said. ‘We have to get away!’ She started to run again and Mika blazed after her, and they ran as if the wolves were already chasing them. Audrey, now blinded by fear, coursed into trees, fell down holes and scrambled forward, leading them deeper and deeper in the vast and silent darkness. But trying to flee was pointless, because they were already surrounded. A pair of red eyes appeared directly in front of them and they stopped dead, hoping the darkness and silence would protect them. But more red eyes appeared, with blue light trails behind them. The lights circled Mika and Audrey, flicking through the trees, gradually closing in until they were near enough for Audrey’s borg eyes to see the animal shapes behind them.
‘You won’t believe this!’ she whispered. She could see a dozen or so silver forms slipping through the trees. ‘I think they’re the borg dogs from the pit! They were wolves, Mika! And they’re huge!’
Mika watched one melt out of the darkness only three or four metres away. It was as tall as a man at the shoulder.
‘Frag,’ he whispered, trembling from head to toe.
‘Stand still and let it smell you,’ Audrey whispered.
‘I don’t think I’ve got much choice,’ he replied.
Its metal fangs were as long as his fingers and dripping with fresh blood. Its muzzle rippled back in a terrifying snarl as it crept towards him with its head down and its red borg eyes glowing. Mika closed his eyes and prayed as he felt its cold nose on the back of his hand. Nothing happened for a few seconds, so he opened his eyes again and found, to his astonishment, that the whole pack had come forward. A dozen giant silver wolves with blood on their muzzles were walking lazy circles around them. One sat down, another yawned, some looked over their shoulders into the dark forest as if it was time to move on to other business.
‘They move as if they’re alive.’ Audrey whispered, touching one as it passed her. ‘They must have been built by the same people who made the eagle hawks. They’re guarding the forest.
‘I wish Kobi could see them.’
‘Yeah, he’d think they’re great,’ Mika replied grimly, still not daring to move. ‘He’d probably have one living in his fold-down so he could figure out how it was made.’
‘He wouldn’t get many visitors,’ Audrey remarked. ‘Those teeth are sharp as knives.’
One of the wolves pricked up its silver ears, raised its nose to the sky and sniffed the air. The others followed and a few seconds later, as if something was calling them across the forest, the pack trotted off into the darkness.
‘I wonder why they didn’t kill us?’ Mika said.
‘I think they actually like us,’ Audrey replied.
‘It’s as if they don’t know we’re human,’ Mika observed. ‘I don’t understand.’
They sank to the ground and leaned against the trunk of a tree and touched earth for the first time. It was damp and soft and smelled clean. They gazed into the darkness for a while, wondering whether the wolves would return. It was cold and their breath came as clouds of vapour and they shivered in their thin clothes. But after a few minutes they weren’t much aware of their bodies any more, because in the stillness, with their special sight, the cloak of darkness lifted and the forest began to reveal itself in forms of golden light. And this was not the fairy gold of man-made turrets and taps, it was the light of life. It was early spring and the trees began to glow from their waking roots to their fat blossom buds and unfurled leaves. And spread across the forest floor, where the sunlight could reach its fingers during the day, a carpet of bluebells was coming into flower. But that wasn’t all! There was movement! They could see movement everywhere! Audrey picked up a handful of rotten leaves and it was swarming with small, gold forms.
‘Woodlice,’ she whispered.
A mouse scampered across a rotten tree stump. Birds stirred in the branches of the trees. Mika and Audrey gazed at them in shocked wonder, trying to come to terms with the miracle of their existence.
‘There can’t have been an Animal Plague,’ Audrey said faintly. ‘It never happened, did it?’
‘It doesn’t look like it,’ Mika replied.
‘It was all lies,’ Audrey said.
‘I knew it,’ Mika said. ‘I always knew we were being lied to! All this time we’ve been living behind The Wall in those horrible concrete towers, eating food made of mould and surrounded by stinking floodwater while on the other side, it was like this.’
‘It’s as if there’s another level of London,’ Audrey said, looking around. ‘A secret, invisible level, above the Golden Turrets, where even richer people live. The people in the Golden Turrets have got their fancy apartments, but they’ve got nothing compared to this. These people have huge mansions and forests and animals!’
‘How could they keep such a huge secret?’ Mika said. ‘How could everyone live behind a wall for forty-three years without realizing this was on the other side of it?’
‘
No one ever comes here,’ Audrey pointed out. ‘We’re reminded all the time how horrible and dangerous it’s supposed to be. Even in the game it looked like poisoned dust.’
‘Our poor parents!’ Mika said furiously. ‘They lost everything when they moved behind The Wall! And the whole thing was a lie!’
‘I wonder why nobody asked questions,’ Audrey said.
‘Why would they?’ Mika replied vehemently. ‘They saw the plague on television.’
‘Oh yeah,’ Audrey sighed. ‘My mum believes everything she sees on television.’
‘So does mine,’ Mika said, bitterly. ‘Whoever did this to them must have faked the news reports.’
‘So the plague sirens must be fake, too,’ Audrey said.
‘It’s all fake,’ Mika replied, disgusted. ‘Those stupid paper plague suits, I always knew they were useless.’
‘All those history lessons we did. We learned more about the plague than anything else.’
‘Lies.’
‘And the posters in our classrooms of animals foaming at the mouth with blood in their eyes.’
‘Just to scare us so we wouldn’t want to come here.’
‘They’ve treated us like idiots.’
‘They’ve lied to us about everything.’
Pale dawn light began to filter through the trees and its opaque beauty awed them into silence for a while. Birds began to sing and Awen appeared and sniffed contentedly through the leaves at Mika’s feet.
‘But isn’t it beautiful?’ Audrey whispered. ‘I used to cry myself to sleep when I was little because all the animals and plants were dead. It seemed so unfair, when I knew I would have looked after them, but I’d never get the chance because they’d been killed by the people born before us. But look, Mika! They’re still here! And more beautiful than I ever imagined! I don’t know how to feel. I’m so angry and happy at the same time.’
‘Me too,’ Mika said. ‘I feel as if I’m waking up from a nightmare.’
‘Yeah,’ Audrey agreed. ‘A nightmare in which humans kill every living thing except themselves, so there’s nothing left but concrete and floodwater. Thank odd it’s not true.’
‘But this part of the world belongs to someone else now,’ Mika pointed out. ‘And we’re not supposed to be here. Those eagles and wolves should have killed us.’
‘This must be what the war is about,’ Audrey said grimly. ‘Mal Gorman and the government must know the plague never happened and that it’s beautiful here.’
‘I think you’re right,’ Mika agreed. ‘Our parents said the enemy had to be in a place we didn’t know about, and we certainly didn’t know about this. And a few weeks ago, my friend Helen disappeared and I couldn’t find her, but before she left, I told her I felt as if we were being lied to. She tried warning me that we were in danger. She wanted to tell me a secret. This must be it. It all makes sense now. Maybe she’s here, on this side of The Wall.’
‘I wonder if your sister knows,’ Audrey pondered, looking up the trees as if they’d disappear if she took her eyes off them.
‘Ellie,’ Mika said, anxiously. ‘It’s morning, Audrey. What are we going to do? We’re stuck in the middle of a forest on the other side of The Wall! And if I don’t go back and convince Mal Gorman I haven’t betrayed him, I’ll never see her again! How are we going to get out of here?’
‘The Pod Fighter,’ Audrey said as if it was obvious.
‘It’s burned out,’ Mika replied impatiently. ‘It’s useless.’
‘Not that one,’ she said. ‘The other one; the one the men came down in.’
‘Oh yeah!’ he said, his eyes lighting up. ‘You’re a genius.’
‘I know,’ Audrey replied. She stood up and carefully brushed down her legs so she didn’t hurt any bugs. ‘Let’s go and find it.’
They walked quickly, taking care not to step on the plants, as the sun poured colour into the forest. The pollen dust of spring flowers floated through the air. Bright new leaves filtered the light so it dappled gently over the carpet of bluebells. Awen led and Mika followed, with Audrey close behind; so enchanted by the beauty around her, she didn’t think to ask how Mika knew the way.
They reached the oak tree that had caught the Pod Fighter in its arms.
‘Oh no,’ Audrey said sadly. ‘Look what we did to it.’
One side was covered in buds and new leaves, but the other was a mass of charred, broken branches, with the Pod Fighter still suspended from its boughs; a buckled, smoking carcass. Mika felt a lump form in his throat as he noticed a bird’s nest on the ground by his feet where it had been knocked out of the tree by their fall. He crouched down and found an egg amongst the leaves and turned it over in the palm of his hand. It was beautiful; pale blue and chalky smooth, with a dusting of soft brown speckles. But there was no light inside it.
‘It’s dead,’ Audrey said sadly behind him.
Racked with guilt, Mika gently returned the egg to its nest.
‘It wasn’t our fault we crashed,’ she went on.
‘I know,’ he replied heavily. ‘But that won’t bring it back.’
He heard her gasp.
‘Look!’ she whispered.
Mika slowly turned and rose to his feet. A short distance away, between two ancient oak trees, stood a magnificent red deer stag. He was the colour of autumn, a rich russet, with a muscular neck, broad chest and thick ruff. He held his head proud and his antlers curved wide, like the branches of an elegant tree. Against the green of the oaks he was glorious; the King of the Wood; the most magnificent beast that had ever lived. But despite his strength and rugged beauty, his eyes were tranquil, like pools of liquid conker, and they gazed at the children with all the wisdom of the moon in their silence.
Everything waited. Everything shone with a soft golden haze, and in the stillness, they noticed for the first time that the light was flowing from one living thing to another, as if they were all connected: the trees, the birds, the soft mounds of moss, the majestic stag and themselves; the light ran in a stream through them all.
The stag’s nostrils quivered as he took in the smell of burned Pod Fighter, oak and mutant children. But instead of walking away from them, he stepped forwards to follow his original path. They held their breath, praying they wouldn’t break the spell, as he walked right past them with hinds and dappled fawns trotting in his wake.
‘Even the real animals like us,’ Audrey whispered in astonishment, as the deer melted into the forest.
‘They know we won’t hurt them,’ Mika replied quietly.
‘The light moves through us,’ Audrey whispered. She put her hand on the trunk of the burned oak tree and watched it flow from her skin into the bark. ‘I wonder why I didn’t notice before.’
‘On our side of The Wall,’ Mika said, ‘people don’t touch very often and we’re surrounded by concrete and metal, not trees and animals.’
Audrey touched his cheek and smiled as the light flowed from her fingertips into his face.
‘It’s made me realize something,’ she said, thoughtfully.
‘What?’ Mika asked.
‘How important we are to each other,’ she replied simply. ‘And what we’ve been missing. I feel so happy here, Mika. So happy.’
Mika touched her face and watched the light pass between them but he didn’t smile; instead his eyes darkened with sadness.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.
‘The war will kill it all,’ he replied quietly. ‘It will all die. When everyone finds out how they’ve been lied to, they’ll want the war. They’ll send us over here to fight the giant borgs and the forests will burn, the animals will be killed and then the nightmare will be true; there won’t be anything left but concrete and floodwater.’
‘Then we have to stop it,’ Audrey replied. ‘We can’t let that happen!’
‘How are we going to stop a war?’ Mika said, burning with frustration. ‘I hate adults! All they know how to do is lie and destroy things!’
‘I d
on’t know,’ Audrey replied. ‘But we have to try. Because if the trees and animals are killed, then everyone will always be sad. I want my mum and my aunty to see this. I want them to feel like I do now. I want everyone to feel it, and then maybe they’ll realize how important it is.’
‘So do I,’ Mika replied bitterly. ‘But the adults control everything. They won’t listen to us.’
‘But we won’t be alone,’ Audrey pointed out. ‘The rest of the children will help. Imagine how happy they’ll be when they find out all the trees and animals are still alive. They won’t want to kill them in a war, because when we grow up, this will be our world. This is our world, Mika. This is our chance. I want to grow up feeling like this. We thought we were supposed to be doing something. Maybe this is it.’
‘Maybe,’ Mika replied.
‘We have to try,’ she said urgently.
She stood before him, her green eyes shining with hope and urgency, surrounded by living forest, and suddenly anything seemed possible, even stopping a war. Mika took a deep breath and his lungs filled up with clean forest air.
