The Buried Ark

by James Bradley

  Gingerly I began to back away, but she must have heard me because she looked up, her face red and swollen with tears.

  ‘Callie!’ she said. ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘I saw you with Dash, you looked upset.’

  Hannah smiled, straightening herself. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t mean for you to see me like this.’

  ‘Are you okay?’

  She pursed her lips and looked away, as if trying to bite back more tears. Finally she nodded.

  ‘Of course.’

  I was about to offer her what sympathy I could when I became aware of somebody behind me. I looked around to find Meena there. At the same moment Hannah noticed her as well.

  ‘Meena!’ she said, her manner suddenly wary.

  Meena looked at her for a few seconds. ‘Hello, Hannah,’ she said coldly.

  ‘What is it?’ I asked, confused. ‘What’s going on?’

  Hannah stood up. ‘You should go, Callie,’ she said. ‘And so should you, Meena.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ I asked uncertainly.

  Hannah nodded. ‘I’m sure.’

  Meena gave a short, savage laugh and turned away. Confused I followed her, but when we reached the corridor I grabbed her arm. She spun to look at me, her face black with fury.

  ‘What?’ I demanded. ‘What’s going on?’

  Meena gave me a contemptuous look. ‘I told you before. You think she’s your friend but she’s not,’ she said.

  ‘What do you mean?’ I asked, shocked by the venom in her voice. ‘Why would you say that?’

  ‘She’s like the rest of them. Dash, my father.’

  ‘Like them how?’

  Meena stared at me. ‘You really haven’t worked it out yet, have you?’

  ‘Worked out what?’

  ‘What this place is? What it’s for?’

  I hesitated. ‘A way of preserving something of the environment, stopping the Change taking over everything.’

  She laughed. ‘Sure. But have you asked what they intend to do with the stuff they preserve?’

  I shook my head. ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘Don’t you? Really? Think about the name: would they call it the Ark unless they were planning for a flood?’

  ‘A flood? What kind of flood?’

  ‘Do you really think they intend to be living down here forever?’

  ‘I suppose not,’ I said, a prickle of fear in my gut.

  ‘And why can’t they go back to the surface?’

  ‘Because of the Change. It’s not safe.’

  ‘So how do you make the surface safe?’

  ‘By destroying the Change.’

  Meena made a dismissive sound, as if she couldn’t believe I was so slow. ‘But why can’t we do that?’

  ‘Because the Change is everywhere. If you wanted to begin again you’d have to destroy everything . . .’ I fell silent. ‘No,’ I said. ‘That’s impossible. They couldn’t. They wouldn’t.’

  Meena laughed, the sound incongruous, wild. ‘You really are stupid,’ she said. ‘They’d do anything if they thought it would kill the Change.’

  At first I couldn’t speak. I felt sick.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘You’re lying. You have to be.’ But even as I spoke I knew she wasn’t.

  Meena stared back, unspeaking.

  ‘But how?’ I stammered. ‘I mean how could you kill everything? Surely that’s impossible?’

  Meena picked up a stone and threw it against the wall with sudden savagery. ‘Apparently it’s some kind of weapon that was developed during the Cold War but never deployed because it was too uncontrollable. It . . .’ She hesitated, then kept on, her voice bitter. ‘They call it Firestorm. It causes a chain reaction that ignites organic matter. They say once it’s started it’s unstoppable, that it will spread to anything in contact with the atmosphere.’

  I thought of Vanessa and Tim and baby Caspar, of Claire and Ben, of Agus and Amalia and all the other people I had ever known, all the people crowded into the cities and the towns and camps, not just here but all over the world, all those people with all their languages and beliefs and cultures, all wiped away, incinerated. It was unthinkable.

  ‘But all those people . . .’

  Meena didn’t answer, just picked up another stone and hurled it at the wall, harder this time. All of a sudden I realised she was crying.

  ‘What about the oceans?’ I said desperately. ‘Surely it can’t work underwater?’

  Meena turned to look at me. ‘Apparently it does,’ she said, then laughed bitterly. ‘As final solutions go, it’s pretty final.’

  ‘And everybody here knows about this? They’re okay with it?’ I thought of my friends in the work unit and tried to imagine them knowing this.

  Meena laughed bitterly. ‘Of course not. My father and Dash tell people on a need-to-know basis. They’ve been bringing senior personnel into the loop one by one.’

  ‘And that’s why Hannah was crying? They’ve just told her?’

  Meena shook her head. ‘No. Hannah found out months ago. She’s upset now because Dash just told her my father has decided there isn’t room here for her brother and his family.’

  ‘And you, how do you know?’

  ‘I worked it out a few months ago. When I confronted my father he told me.’

  I shook my head. ‘No,’ I said. ‘There must be some kind of mistake. They couldn’t.’

  ‘We had to destroy the village to save the village.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘It’s something somebody said during the Vietnam War. A group of soldiers slaughtered an entire village: men, women, children, everyone. They said it was the only way to save the place from the Communists.’

  ‘We have to do something,’ I said. ‘We have to stop them.’

  Meena looked upward, blinking back her tears. ‘I wish we could.’

  ‘There must be a way.’

  ‘There’s not. Especially not now they’ve got you.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Don’t you understand? You’re their insurance policy. Now they’ve got you they know they can stop the Change once we go back to the surface if it turns out any infection remains.’

  My stomach lurched, the taste of bile sharp in my throat. ‘The vaccine was supposed to help everyone.’

  Meena didn’t reply. She was trembling.

  ‘No,’ I said, my voice shaking. ‘I won’t be a part of this. They can’t make me.’

  ‘They don’t need to, Callie, they already have everything they need from you. But that’s not the worst bit.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘What if they’re right? What if this is the only way to stop it?’

  I shook my head. ‘No,’ I said. ‘It can’t be.’

  I stumbled back through the tunnels in a daze. At one point I realised I was crying as well; I wiped my face and tried to focus on what to do next, but nothing made sense. Crazy thoughts of escaping, of trying to warn people, of cornering Dr Omelas and hurting him, of killing him flashed through my mind. Unable to face going back to the dormitory, the idea of people looking at me, I crawled into one of Meena’s tunnels and wedged myself into a cranny in the wall, pressing my hands against my head as if that might shut out what I had heard. I couldn’t believe it. And yet I knew Meena was telling the truth, that this plan, this monstrous, insane plan was real. How many people did they mean to kill? Four billion? Five? The numbers were almost impossible to comprehend. I felt sick, as if I might retch.

  Finally I looked up, staring at the stone of the tunnel wall, the layered limestone. Where once the Ark had seemed a place of safety and healing, it now seemed repulsive. I lifted a foot and kicked the wall opposite, first once and then again. More tears came, choking me, and I threw myself back,
hard, slamming my back into the wall behind me, over and over, as if the pain might wipe away what I had learned, undo my foolishness, undo everything, until at last, my shoulders and arms bruised and battered, I slumped sideways onto the floor, sobbing brokenly.

  The morning lights were coming up before I went back to the dormitory, filthy and ragged and exhausted. Some part of me already understood that what I had learned was dangerous, yet it was only as I entered the dormitory cavern and found Dash and Hannah waiting for me that I understood just how dangerous.

  ‘Callie,’ Hannah said, hurrying toward me. ‘Thank God you’re all right.’ She looked frightened.

  ‘What do you want?’ I spat, unable to control the fury in my voice. Hannah recoiled as if I had struck her. Suddenly I wondered how much of what I had believed to be kindness was really weakness, a need to be liked, for everybody to get along. How else could she countenance what they had planned?

  ‘We know you know,’ Dash said flatly.

  The only way they could know was if Meena had reported our conversation to them. I froze, betrayal sick in my gut. My expression must have given me away because Dash smiled unpleasantly.

  ‘Meena was upset. Dr Omelas put two and two together.’

  I didn’t reply.

  ‘Callie, please . . .’ Hannah began. I turned to look at her.

  ‘You knew?’ I demanded, my voice cold and hard.

  Hannah hesitated. ‘You have to understand, I only found out recently as well.’

  ‘And you’re okay with it? With killing all those people?’

  Hannah didn’t reply. I shook my head in disgust.

  Dash stepped forward. ‘Dr Omelas wants to speak to you,’ she said.

  ‘Why? What can he say?’

  ‘We need to make sure you understand.’

  I snorted. ‘Oh, I understand, all right. You’re planning to wipe out the planet and kill billions of people.’ I laughed a high-pitched, crazy laugh. ‘Just saying it sounds insane.’

  ‘Please, Callie,’ Hannah said, reaching out to touch my arm.

  I jerked my arm away. ‘Don’t touch me,’ I hissed.

  Suddenly Dash was beside me, her face close to my ear. ‘I can have security bring you if you like,’ she said, her tone deliberately light.

  Looking at her neat blonde face I realised something I hadn’t understood until this moment: she hated me and she always had.

  ‘And if I say no?’

  ‘They’ll bring you anyway,’ Dash said.

  ‘Please, Callie,’ Hannah said. ‘You need to listen to her.’

  I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and turned. A pair of black-clad security guards had appeared at one of the entrances to the cavern. Realising they were right, that I didn’t have a choice, I lifted my hands in surrender. Still smiling, Dash closed a hand around my arm and shoved me toward the guards and the tunnel.

  *

  Dr Omelas was in his office, standing with his back to me, gazing through the window, his arms behind his back. Dash and Hannah ushered me inside and waited until I took the chair opposite his desk. Only once I was seated did he turn.

  ‘So, Callie. I think it’s time we had a talk.’

  ‘There’s nothing to talk about,’ I said. ‘This is monstrous. You’re a monster. You have no right.’

  ‘No,’ he replied. ‘I don’t have the right. I have the duty.’

  I looked at him in disgust.

  ‘I want you to take a look at this, Callie.’ Dr Omelas gestured to the screen on the wall and called up an image of the Earth. Luminous blue nodes were spread across its surface, a scattering of them below the tropics and in the oceans, but closer to the tropics they grew thicker, denser, larger, until at last they became a band encircling the Earth.

  ‘You understand what this is, I presume?’

  ‘I’m sure you’ll tell me anyway.’

  Dr Omelas gave me a sharp look. ‘They’re infection sites. As you’ll see they have already spread well south of the Zone and are continuing to spread.’ As he spoke he waved his hand again and new dots began to appear, slowly at first, and then faster, spreading southward and northward, some on land, others spreading along the lines of the ocean currents.

  ‘This is a projection of the rate of spread over the next three years according to current trends. The progression grows faster as more sites become established.’ On the screen the dots were appearing faster and faster, filling Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, spreading south through Australia and the Pacific, flaring like little points of light. Occasionally one would disappear but as soon as it did more would appear nearby. Finally only a few places – some islands in the north and south, the edges of Antarctica, the middle of the Sahara – were unlit. For several seconds they remained clear as the light thickened and grew brighter across the rest of the globe, and then, one by one, they winked out as well, and all at once the globe was covered in blue light.

  Beside me I could feel Hannah’s stillness.

  ‘But you don’t know that’s what will happen,’ I said.

  Dr Omelas smiled indulgently. ‘That’s true, we don’t. But we’ve run these simulations over and over again, and they all end the same way. With the planet entirely absorbed by the Change. And that’s assuming the structures Sergeant Miller and his team were examining don’t speed up the process.’

  ‘But we can fight it, keep it contained. That’s what Quarantine is for.’

  ‘No,’ Dr Omelas said. For the first time he looked weary. ‘We can’t. Or more accurately we can fight but we can’t win. The simulation you’ve just seen takes into account our best efforts to contain the spread of the Change, and although they will slow it down they can’t stop it. There are already more sites than we can sterilise, and it grows worse all the time.’

  Dr Omelas stared at me. ‘You’ve been to the Zone, Callie. You know what it will mean if the Change absorbs all of us.’

  I didn’t reply.

  Dr Omelas regarded me for a second or two then continued. ‘This isn’t a decision that’s been taken lightly. If there was some other way we’d take it. But this may be our last chance to save something of humanity. Of the Earth as it once was.’

  ‘But my father’s work, the vaccine . . .’

  ‘Would only serve to slow things down. And every day we delay decreases the chance of our plan working.’

  ‘Surely you can wait?’

  ‘What if the infection spreads into one of our Arks? What if we lose the seeds and animals we’ve preserved? If that happens everything is lost. No, Callie, the risk is too great.’

  ‘Please,’ I said. ‘There must be another way.’

  There was a silence. When Dr Omelas spoke again his voice was level, but the threat in it was unmistakeable. ‘I want to make it very clear we cannot countenance interference.’

  Beside me I felt Hannah shift slightly.

  ‘Is that a threat?’

  ‘Just let me say that your presence here is a matter of courtesy. We don’t need you in person. We already know enough about your biology to reproduce the effects of your father’s vaccine. I’d rather you stayed, obviously: my daughter cares for you and you have the kind of resourcefulness and adaptability we’re going to need when the time comes to rebuild. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that can’t change.’

  I didn’t reply.

  ‘We understand each other then?’

  I nodded slowly.

  Dr Omelas smiled. ‘I’m glad,’ he said. ‘We would be so sorry to lose you.’

  22

  Dash escorted me back to the dormitory, one hand clenched around my upper arm. People were moving about, getting ready for the business of the day but I kept my eyes down, avoiding their attention.

  ‘You need to understand what the stakes are here, Callie,’ she said when we reached th
e dormitory entrance. ‘Dr Omelas doesn’t place this sort of trust in many people.’

  I stared at her. I wanted to hit her, wipe her superior smile off her face. Instead I forced myself to nod.

  As soon she was out of sight I headed back across the cavern to the nearest of the tunnels. I wasn’t rostered on until after lunch, and although part of me knew I had to turn up, do my best to make it seem everything was all right, I needed to get away, to be alone somewhere. I wasn’t stupid enough to think I wasn’t being observed – there were cameras everywhere – but for now I ignored them, moving quickly and without faltering toward the storage cave and the shaft Meena had shown me that first night.

  By the time I reached the lake my shock had begun to subside, replaced by a cold anger and sense of despair. I knew they couldn’t be allowed to do this, but I had no idea what I could do to stop them. Who could I tell? The media? Who would believe me? And how would I reach them? Ben? Claire? The Quarantine officer who had interrogated me before I entered the Zone? As I pictured them one by one I felt my chest contract, the idea they might soon be incinerated blotting out everything else. I blinked away tears, forcing myself to think through the options. I supposed it might be possible to alert the junior staff in the Ark, tell those who didn’t know what was happening, but I wasn’t sure how they would react. Would they even believe me? It wasn’t as if I had much information. This weapon, this Firestorm, where was it? How did it work? Was it a bomb or a missile? Some kind of gas or spray? Or was it just something in a test tube or a vial they could release by exposing it to air?

  I picked up a stone and threw it out into the lake, the splash echoing through the chamber. The first time I came here Meena had told me about how ancient this water was; if Firestorm worked it would still be here, millions of years from now, as silent and still as it was then, a monument to . . . what? The way the land survived us all? To how much we had lost when the Change arrived? Or to our stupidity, our failure to find a solution to the problem?