The Hourglass

by Donaldson, Casey

  “Yes.”

  There was a pause. “Ok,” said Sarah eventually, not feeling good about this at all. “Just take a big breath, and remember to kick. Whatever you do don’t open your mouth underwater.”

  “No shit,” he grinned.

  “Shut up. Just promise me I’ll see you on the other side.”

  “Yeah, of course. Where else would I go?”

  “Alright. You go first, I’ll follow shortly after.” She didn’t need to say the rest. She was going after so that she could rescue him if he got stuck.

  “Right.” He took a large, nervous breath, then clumsily submerged himself and kicked out.

  She waited for a few seconds that felt like an eternity before taking her own deep breath and dived under the water. As soon as she opened her eyes underwater she realised her plan to rescue him was foolish. The water was dark and grimy, making it hard to see anything except what was right in front of her. She used breaststroke to swim under the boat instead of using the boat’s bottom to pull herself along like Finn planned to do. The boat was V-shaped underneath the water and Sarah had to dive down further before she could swim up the other side. She could dimly make out the two large pylons that supported the end of the dock through the murkiness and she emerged gratefully, gasping for air. She scanned her surroundings. Finn was nowhere to be seen. She turned desperately around but there was no sign of him. Taking a deep breath she dove under the water, her eyes wide and straining as she tried to find him. Nothing. She came up for a hurried gulp of air and went back under, this time her arms spread wide as she tried to search for him by touch. Just as she was about to run out of air again her fingers brushed against a bit of cloth. She grasped it tightly and emerged, pulling the cloth with her. She inhaled deeply and turned to see Finn gasping and spluttering next to her. Relief and a desire to hit him swept through her. Instead Sarah helped him over to the pylon, which he held onto tightly. He vomited up a cupful of water, his chest heaving.

  “Holy shit,” whispered Sarah.

  “I opened my mouth underwater,” he wheezed. “I opened my damn mouth. Underwater.” He vomited up some more water and then relaxed a bit, breathing more steadily. Sarah gave him a moment.

  “Are you good to move?” she asked after he looked like he had recovered enough.

  Finn nodded.

  “Ok, so just push off from the pylon with your legs. That should carry you far enough to reach the next one.”

  Finn positioned himself awkwardly and then pushed off. He floundered a little but made it easily to the next pylon. Sarah did the same just behind him. Slowly, and making as little noise as possible, they made their way down the dock. Four pylons before the dock ended they were able to touch the ground with their feet. Sarah had never seen Finn looked so relieved. They paused before advancing any further, listening for voices above them. It was quiet.

  “Do you think they’ve moved on?” whispered Finn, still clutching the pylon next to her.

  “Hopefully.”

  The sound of the small waves lapping the shore covered the noise that they made emerging from the water. They sat down gratefully on the dirt beneath the base of the dock, panting.

  “Now what?” whispered Finn.

  “We wait until its dark I suppose,” replied Sarah, thinking it through. “It looks too populated for us to go unnoticed if we left now.”

  “Good,” said Finn quietly, throwing himself backwards so that he was now lying on his back. “Because I don’t think I can move.”

  The ‘beach’ they were lying on was actually a thin strip of dirt that existed mostly underneath the dock. Sarah felt that their chances of being spotted were slim, and so she finally surrendered herself to her exhaustion by collapsing next to Finn. For the next ten minutes she was comfortable, and then her body relaxed enough to notice that the rocky dirt they were lying on was uncomfortable, and that her wet clothes and the shade were making her cold. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms and tried to stop her teeth from chattering. Finn turned his head towards her. He looked blue around the lips. Without saying anything he shuffled over so that he was lying against her. Sarah automatically moved so that her back was against his chest, absorbing his warmth. He wrapped his arm around her. After a minute their shared body heat was enough to stop her from shaking and she felt her muscles relax.

  “I’m not going to be able to go home, am I?” whispered Sarah.

  “No,” replied Finn, gently.

  She pushed thoughts of her mum and uncle out of her head before she could start crying. “Do you have anyone? I mean, I know about your parents and sister, but anyone else?”

  She felt Finn shrug behind her. “An older cousin that I hate.”

  “Oh. Finn?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I can’t leave Marland.”

  There was a pause. “No, me neither.”

  Sarah smiled. “I knew you’d say that.”

  They laid like that in companionable silence until the sun went down.

  Chapter Thirty

  Marland Bower

  Sarah was the first to get up.

  “Time to go,” she said. Finn stood up slowly and they both stretched. Sarah felt like she had run a marathon. Her clothes had only partly dried in the shade and they felt heavy and uncomfortable.

  “I don’t think they were taken very far,” said Finn.

  Sarah nodded in agreement. “No trucks.” They hadn’t heard a single engine the whole time that they had been there. There had been no sounds of movement near them for the past hour and Sarah felt confident enough to step out from beneath the cover of the dock. Standing up straight, her head just reached the level of the boardwalk that led to the dock. She peered around. There was no one in sight. A building near them had a number of lights on, but their brightness didn’t reach them on the beach. Finn appeared next to her. He formed a saddle with his hands and boosted her up onto the boardwalk. Sarah scrambled onto it and then turned around and helped Finn up. Trying to walk as silently as possible they headed towards the buildings, avoiding the pools of light that flooded from the windows. They peered inside as they passed. A few people were sitting at tables, eating or drinking from mugs. They all had the Hourglass insignia stitched into their clothes. It looked like a cafeteria. Sarah’s stomach grumbled. It had been lunchtime yesterday since she had last eaten anything.

  “Let’s split up,” whispered Sarah. “We’ll be able to cover more buildings that way.”

  “Hell no,” replied Finn incredulously, “don’t you listen to stories? That’s how people die. Besides, what if we get lost and can’t find each other again?”

  Sarah shook her head in bemusement but didn’t argue and they continued on together. The next three buildings all looked like normal office blocks, each containing cubicles in which a few sad looking employees still worked.

  “It doesn’t look much like an evil secret lab,” said Sarah.

  “I think that’s the point. I bet the whole thing is underground.”

  The fourth building’s windows were blacked out.

  “Looks promising,” muttered Finn.

  “Let’s get a better look,” said Sarah. They circled the building slowly, looking for a window that wasn’t covered. Whereas the previous buildings had been exactly the same in layout, this one differed slightly in that there was an additional walled in area attached to the far side. It consisted of three high, brick walls cordoning off a space about five metres by five metres in size. The area was covered in from above by metal meshwork. They spotted a metal bin positioned against the outside of one of the brick walls and climbed on top of it to get a view of the inside. The holes in the mesh were just large enough to stick a hand through. The only thing inside was some trodden-down grass.

  “Well, this is the saddest garden I’ve ever seen,” she said.

  “It’s an exercise yard,” said Finn. He pointed towards a sign that was posted on the wall next to the door that led into the yard.

  TWEN
TY LAPS TO BE COMPLETED. 6AM & 3PM

  It had the Hourglass Group’s logo on it.

  “We definitely have to get her out,” whispered Sarah. “She would be driven mad by a place like this.”

  Finn raised an eyebrow. “You mean she’s not already?”

  Sarah punched him lightly on the arm.

  “Full circuit?” asked Finn, eyebrows raised.

  “Let’s,” agreed Sarah.

  They jumped down from the bin. The rest of the building was equally uninteresting. The sum total of their search being two doors leading into the building and a number of blacked-out windows.

  “Well,” said Finn, once they had completed a full circuit and found out nothing more, “I suppose we should try to get in.”

  “We don’t even know if this is the right place.”

  “We don’t know it’s the wrong one either. And none of the others have blacked out windows.”

  Sarah glanced around. While they hadn’t properly investigated all of the buildings, she could see that all of the others around her had at least one light on.

  “Alright, let’s get in.”

  They crept up to the main door, keeping an eye out for any wanderers. Finn picked up a rock and aimed it at a window. Sarah quickly grabbed his arm and restrained him.

  “What?” he asked.

  Sarah took a few steps towards the door and tried the handle. It opened.

  “Oh.” Finn followed her through the doorway, rock in hand. Sarah raised an eyebrow at it. He shrugged. “You never know when you’ll need it.”

  To their right the building was divided up into work cubicles, similar to the other buildings they had spotted. To their left was what looked like a number of storerooms.

  “Can you see anyone?” whispered Sarah, gesturing towards the cubicles. Finn was taller than her and had a better advantage in seeing over the cubicle walls.

  Finn shook his head. “I can’t be sure though.”

  Sarah nodded and they headed silently to their right, passing through the corridor down the centre of the cubicles, checking each one as they went. They reached the end without coming across a single person. The cubicles all looked extremely ordinary. There were computers on each desk, and more than a few of them held stained mugs smelling of old coffee. An occasional family photo was on display.

  “They’re not here,” said Sarah sadly and desperately.

  “C’mon,” said Finn, “let’s go check out the storerooms and then come back and see if we can find anything on the computers. There might be food.”

  Sarah agreed and they headed back down the corridor and past the main entrance. The first room contained a bunch of linen and medical scrubs. Sarah held them up to Finn with a large grin plastered on her face.

  “Clothes!” she said excitedly.

  Finn gave a theatrical sigh of relief and grabbed some for himself, holding them up against his body to measure for size.

  “Look,” said Sarah, who was rifling through them, trying to find an appropriate size for herself. “They come in different colours. We should mix it up.”

  “And risk the chance of clashing?” asked Finn in a scandalised voice jokingly.

  Sarah rolled her eyes. “We might look less like mental health patients on the run and more like normal, badly dressed people if we do.”

  Finn grinned and grabbed a blue set of pants and a green shirt. He started to strip in front of her and then stopped, awkwardly.

  “Um,” he murmured.

  “Oh, right,” said Sarah, turning bright red. “We’ll both turn.” She held up the pair of green pants and a black top that she was clutching.

  Finn nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

  They turned their backs on each other. Sarah took her shirt off and quickly changed into the dry scrubs top. It felt wonderfully clean and crisp. She wished she could shower. She snuck a peek over her shoulder at Finn before she took her pants off. He had his new pants on and was in the process of taking off his shirt. She felt herself blush again and turned back around, quickly discarding her old wet trousers and slipping the new ones on. When she turned back around Finn was standing awkwardly with his back half-turned away from her.

  “Are you done?” he asked.

  “Yup.”

  “Great. I mean, wait…” he trailed off awkwardly.

  “Let’s go,” said Sarah, suddenly wanting to get back outside.

  “Yeah, of course,” replied Finn eagerly.

  Finn opened the door and ushered her out.

  “Thanks,” she said awkwardly.

  “No problem.”

  They smiled at each other, unsure of what to do next.

  “Hey losers,” said a voice. They turned, startled. The door next to the linen closet had a small window set into it at about head height. Staring out at them through the glass was Boulder.

  “Boulder?” gasped Sarah. She stepped over to him. His face looked terrible. Both eyes were black, his nose looked broken and his bottom lip was split. “What did they do to you? Are you ok?”

  “Of course I’m not ok, idiot. I’m trapped by a group of crazed, unethical scientists who want to use me as a guinea-pig.”

  “Right.”

  Boulder rolled his eyes. “Go find the keys and let me out. I’m pretty sure the guy who locked me in here keeps them in his desk.”

  Sarah nodded and they set off back down the corridor. They started opening desk drawers one by one. They had a collection of five sets of keys at the end. Finn started methodically trying them all on the lock. Eventually one clicked and he opened the door.

  “About time,” said Boulder.

  “What happened?” asked Sarah. She had tried the rest of the doors while Finn was fiddling with the lock. They had all turned out to be store-rooms, except for one, which was locked. “Where are the others? Did they do that to all of you?”

  Boulder snorted. “No. I fought back when they tried to take us, which is why I look like this. If the others had fought too we wouldn’t be in this bloody mess.” He sounded bitter. Sarah remembered the sound of a body being dumped into the cabin on the boat and then being dragged out again at the end. She knew now that it was Boulder. “I was locked in there,” he gestured back at the room he had been in with a thumb, “because I spat blood at everyone who came near me and told them I was infected.” Sarah blinked in surprise. “They only want healthy people, you see,” explained Boulder. “Fat lot of good it did me though. They took my blood to run some tests. They would have got the results tomorrow and put me back with the rest of them.”

  “Do you know where Marland is?”

  “Probably with the rest of them. They’re down there,” he nodded at the locked door Sarah had found before. “Those keys should get you through. Thanks for getting me out.” He walked away from them.

  “You don’t want to come with us?” asked Sarah.

  “Do you have somewhere to go?” replied Boulder.

  “Not really.”

  “Then I’ll be better off on my own.” He turned away from them before halting and turning back. “Oh, and one more thing. Don’t let that mad bitch of a Queen out. Only get out Marland. The others were on that boat for a reason.”

  “You were on that boat too,” pointed out Finn.

  “Yeah,” agreed Boulder, “you probably shouldn’t have let me out either.” He walked away again.

  “How are we meant to just get out Marland?” asked Sarah to Finn.

  “You look like bloody nurses,” interjected Boulder. He had opened the door leading outside a crack and was peering through it.

  “They took all our blood, not just mine.” He stepped out of the doorway and quietly closed it behind him. They watched him go before Finn stepped into the room they were keeping Boulder in. It looked like a first aid room. He grabbed something out of a box and threw it at Sarah.

  “For you, nurse,” he said, tying his own medical mask around his face.

  “Why thank you,” replied Sarah, donning a pair of disposa
ble latex gloves. They also found some surgical hats and safety glasses. Sarah picked up a clipboard. “Can you recognise me?”

  “Not really. Definitely not if I wasn’t expecting you.” He grinned and twirled the keys around his fingers. “It’s time be tell Marland the bad news.”

  The door unlocked with the third key. To their immediate right was another door that led out into the exercise pen. Straight in front of them was a staircase that led downwards. Sarah glanced at Finn before heading down first. There was another door at the bottom. It had a small glass window set into it, supported by a wire mesh. They peered through. The room was set up in cells. There were two bunk beds to each cell. All the walls were clear.

  “Reminds me of home,” joked Finn. Sarah elbowed him gently in the ribs. All the girls were on the left side of the room, the boys were on the right. They appeared to mostly be asleep. There was a list of names against each cell door.

  “Ready?” asked Sarah.

  “Ready is my middle name,” replied Finn.

  “What were your parents thinking?” muttered Sarah. She turned the key in the lock before he could reply and stepped through the door. Not looking at the prisoners, Sarah and Finn walked up to each list and pretended to compare it to an imaginary one that she had on her clipboard. She found Marland’s name on only the second list.

  “Marland Bower,” drawled Finn in a voice that sounded nothing like his own. Marland, who had not been asleep, but rather staring at them suspiciously, jumped visibly at her name. “You’re results were positive. We need you to come with us.”

  “Result for what?” spluttered Marland, alarmed. “Wait, you know what, I don’t believe you. This whole thing,” she swept a dramatic arm around the room, “is complete and utter bullshit. You can’t keep on operating like this without the public’s knowledge. They’ll find out. They always find out.”

  Finn pressed a button on the side of the cell door that he hoped would open it up. Thankfully it slid back with a small hiss. “Just come with us,” he said bluntly.

  “For what? What are you going to do to me?” she hissed, a tremor now in her voice.