Oasis

by Eilís Barrett

  ‘Aaron, he’s not a good person. You can’t listen to anything he says.’

  ‘I was better than you,’ Aaron rambles. He’s not listening to us anymore. ‘I did everything he wanted me to. I was better than you before, and I was better than you when you left, but he could never look past your loss, so I went straight back to being ignored. Do you know what that’s like? Do you?’

  I can’t breathe. I can see him, I can feel the change in the air as his focus shifts, back to Kole, back to rage, back to the trigger of that gun. I see his face twist, watch him turn into that same monster who shot Bea, and as I hear the Officers’ footsteps pound up the stairs behind me, I am faced with the same decision I was faced with that day: run, or fight.

  And I feel that cold overtake me. I feel my emotions fall away, just as Kole said, like water off my skin.

  I raise the gun, take my aim, feel the familiarity of my stance as I prepare for the recoil, and I inhale slowly, my finger falling against the trigger.

  I fire.

  I am pushed back by the force of it, stronger than what I am used to, but my eyes do not leave him for one second as his body drops like a stone in the ocean.

  And he’s dead. Like that, like the flick of a light switch, there and then suddenly not.

  Killed by his own father’s gun.

  28

  I fall back against the wall, and there is a high-pitched sound coming out of my chest, clawing its way out of my mouth. I’m trying not to scream, but the blood pooling around him is spreading so quickly and I can’t breathe.

  ‘Quincy.’ Kole’s voice is an attempt at calm, a forced smoothness with a hiccup at the end. His breath is cool on my neck, and I don’t know how he ended up beside me. ‘Quincy, we need to go.’ I know we do, I think, but I can’t get the words out. I can already hear them. ‘Quincy, now.’

  His voice is not calm anymore, or soothing or quiet. It is urgent, but not panicked, as he slips into this other him, the one who was built around the real Kole, the one who was taught efficiency first, the mission above all else.

  He pulls me up by my arms and starts running towards the exit, towards the next level, and my body bursts into movement as my mind lags behind.

  I don’t look at his body when we pass. I tighten my hand around Kole’s and close my eyes and run.

  Kole slips down a hallway, pulling me after him, and I fight to keep up. His strides are longer than mine, and he knows the hallways well. I can tell by the way he turns on a dime, dragging me left, then right, then left again, until we come towards a staircase and come face-to-face with a troop of Officers.

  My heart lurches in my chest at the sight of them, but Kole flips us around, sprinting in the opposite direction. The celian halls zip past us, but I can’t concentrate on anything but keeping my feet underneath me as Kole speeds up, faster and faster until I can’t breathe.

  They are coming from every corner. I can hear them behind us, the sound of their boots against the ground in time with my heartbeat. We come around a corner, only to be faced with another oncoming troop, and before I can catch my breath, Kole pulls me sideways, into a small, dark room, and starts mashing buttons on the wall.

  ‘Come on, come on, come on!’ Desperation makes his voice unsteady, but I can see them coming already.

  There are more than I could have imagined, as if every Officer in the Celian City has crashed in on top of us, but before they make it inside, in the second between being caught and being free, the doors hiss closed.

  The room jolts, and I reach out, catching the wall and Kole’s arm at the same time.

  ‘It’s okay,’ he breathes, pulling me into his arms. ‘It’s just the elevator moving.’

  ‘But they’re downstairs.’ Our heaving breath mixes in the small room, and I grip the front of his shirt, pressing my face into his sternum. ‘They’re downstairs,’ I whisper.

  ‘We’ll get out,’ he whispers back, and I feel him lift his head, watching the seconds tick by on the timer above us. ‘We just need to get out of the City, and we’ll be fine.’ He sounds strong, but it doesn’t mask the doubt in his voice.

  ‘No.’ My breath hitches. ‘No. They have every Officer in Oasis looking for us. We’ll never make it out together.’ I close my eyes against his shirt, even though he can’t see me.

  He goes still, every muscle in his body frozen.

  ‘Kole, Lauren is the mole.’

  ‘Quincy,’ he says slowly, and I can tell he’s ignoring me.

  ‘Lauren is the one responsible for the attack on the base, but there were more, before her, so there has to be another mole.’

  ‘Quincy.’ His breathing is suddenly uneven. ‘Quincy, look at me.’

  ‘I don’t even know how many there are. There could be several. But you need to find her before something else happens.’

  I refuse to look up at him, so he pushes my chin upwards, forcing me to, but my eyes just drift to the dial above the door, counting down the floors.

  Thirty floors. Ground: zero.

  ‘Quincy. We’re getting out of here. Together.’

  ‘No, we’re not. Your only chance is to get out while I distract them.’ I swallow the pain in my chest, forcing it down for his sake.

  ‘I’m not leaving without you.’ He sounds angry now, and he pushes me back far enough to look at me directly in the face. ‘No.’ He can see the look on my face. ‘No.’

  ‘Find Jay, and get Sophia out of Oasis. Get her away from Lauren. I need to know that she’s safe, do you hear me? Then you find Genesis, and you run, understand? Run.’

  ‘Yes, but you’re coming with me.’

  ‘Jay said he escaped an elevator through the roof once. Can you do that?’ I look above us, at the panels on the roof, and I know he can.

  ‘Quincy, I’m not leaving you.’

  I place my hands on either side of his face, and somehow the shaking has stopped. The fear has been sucked out of me, and all that is left is this determination. I’m going to save him, and he’s going to get Sophi to safety.

  I hope Bea can see me now.

  ‘I’ll find you,’ I tell him, leaving my forehead against his. His dark brown eyes are wide, and even if I am not afraid, he is. ‘I’ll get out, eventually, and I’ll find you. I promise.’

  ‘No, Quincy. No, I can’t—’

  ‘I need to know she’s safe. I need to know you’re safe.’

  ‘Please don’t do this.’ His voice is a rough whisper as he closes his eyes, pulling me closer, as if he can stop everything outside of those doors if he hopes hard enough.

  But that is not the world we live in. We live within chaos and destruction, a world we neither asked for nor created.

  ‘You’re faster than me, and you know this building. If I distract them, it’ll give you time to get away. If I try to come with you, we’ll both end up dead.’ I take a steadying breath. ‘This way we have a chance, at least.’

  I’m only glad that in our world, this exists too, these stolen moments of peace. We were left with this last consolation, that the connections we form are not destroyed by pain but strengthened by it.

  ‘Go.’ I close my eyes so I don’t have to see him leave. I feel him press his lips to mine, and that’s the only promise I need from him.

  Because that is a promise he cannot break.

  And then I feel him go, like a coldness, there and then not, just like Aaron.

  But I will find Kole again. No matter what I have to do, or who I have to go through, I will find him, and I will rebuild our world from the ashes we were left.

  The elevator stops, halting suddenly as the doors slide open, and I hear them before I see them, the stomping of a hundred boots as they prepare to take me down.

  They don’t know it yet, but this time, I’m taking them down with me.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  To my family, who are my everything. Thank you for being the most supportive, the most amazing, and the most likely to be there when everything gets a littl
e too much. You are the best people I could possibly know.

  To my oldest friends, Dearbhaile, Máire and Aóife Palin, for listening to every detail of this book’s creation, from concept to reality, for the past three years. To Lily, thank you for not complaining when I disappeared for weeks at a time while writing this book and for always being so excited for me. And to Cath for being the coolest human and most fervent fan – thank you times random numbers.

  To Serena Lawless for three years ago, when you were my first NaNoWriMo ML, for creating a kind, welcoming environment I wanted to come back to year after year, and for helping me build the confidence to take myself seriously as a writer. And now, for the 2 a.m. pep talks and endless support you weren’t obliged to give, but did so anyway. You’ll have a place in the acknowledgements of any book I write.

  To Karen Cunningham, for believing in me from the word go, and for helping me set up my very first meeting with Gill Books.

  To Conor Nagle and Catherine Gough: I didn’t understand what the fuss over editors was until I met you two. Thank you to Conor for the million and one phone calls, and for the elated-puppy gifs; you’re Epic. To Catherine, thank you for defending Gilmore Girls against the wrath of Conor and his horrible taste in TV, as well as for generally being a badass. To Teresa Daly, for being a real-life superhero, and to Emma Lynam, for making boring things fun, fun things hilarious, and for being an all-round magical narwhal princess. To Rachel Pierce, thank you for your insane attention to detail and for always being there if I needed you.

  To my entire publishing family at Gill Books – you turned this first scary year in publishing into an adventure. Thank you.

  And to all the readers – of Quincy’s story and of others – thank you for making this community the kind of place I want to call home.

  Gill Books

  Hume Avenue

  Park West

  Dublin 12

  www.gillbooks.ie

  Gill Books is an imprint of M.H. Gill & Co.

  © Eilís Barrett 2016

  First published by Gill Books 2016

  This ebook edition published by Gill Books 2016

  978 07171 6923 8 (print)

  978 07171 6924 5 (epub)

  978 07171 6925 2 (mobi)

  Edited by Rachel Pierce at Verba Editing House

  Cover illustration and design by www.grahamthew.ie

  The paper used in this book comes from the wood pulp of managed forests. For every tree

  felled, at least one tree is planted, thereby renewing natural resources.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any

  means, without written permission of the publishers.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  About the Author

  EILÍS BARRETT is 16 years old and hails from Galway, where she shares a home with her mother, three brothers and her dog, Rosie.

  Eilís and her brothers are home-schooled by their mum, Bernadette, who is devoted to her kids finding their passion in life. From a young age, Eilís had a lot of freedom regarding how she spent her time and was encouraged to do what she was good at.

  With an insatiable imagination, Eilís watched countless nature documentaries, taught herself to play the piano and devised complicated imaginary games that could go on for weeks. But there was one place where she knew she truly belonged … between the pages of a book. And it wasn’t long before her own stories made it onto paper, too.

  At the age of 12, Eilís decided that she was going to take writing seriously. Within two years she had written two full-length novels. At the age of 15, Eilís signed a book deal with Gill Books.

  Oasis is inspired by all that comes with being a teenager: ‘It’s not an uncommon thing for teens to hit a stage in their lives where their priorities change, and they have to learn how to cope with a vastly different set of problems than they’re used to. The things Quincy has to deal with (internally at least) aren’t much different to what I faced myself.’

  Eilís recently spoke at Eason’s inaugural Irish YA convention, and was honoured by Irish Tatler as a Future Maker, one of the young women they believe have the brilliance to shape the next era.

  About Gill Books

  Gill Book’s story begins in 1856 when Michael Henry Gill, then printer for Dublin University, purchased the publishing and bookselling business of James McGlashan, forming McGlashan & Gill. Some years later, in 1875, the company name was changed to M.H. Gill & Son. Gill & Macmillan was established in 1968 as a result of an association with Macmillan of London. There was also a bookshop, popularly known as Gills, located on Dublin’s O’Connell Street for 123 years until it eventually closed in 1979. Today our bookshop can be found online at www.gillbooks.ie.

  Gill Books is proud to publish a broad range of non-fiction books of Irish interest, from history to economics, politics to cookery and biography to children’s. Since 1968, we have published outstanding authors and groundbreaking books such as the Encyclopaedia of Ireland, David McWilliams’ The Pope’s Children, Noël Browne’s Against the Tide, Garret FitzGerald’s All in a Life, Augustine Martin’s Soundings – not to mention three generations of Ballymaloe’s Allen family on our cookery list.

  We also publish a wide range of educational books and resources for all levels – primary, secondary, college and university – and we provide a distribution service for the majority of Ireland’s independent publishers.

  For more information about us, our titles, or to join our mailing list, please visit www.gillbooks.ie.