Occupation

by Dave Lacey

  Toby stopped too. “What was it, air?” he asked, wetting a finger and holding it up.

  “Yup, can’t feel it now though,” Jes replied. “It was transient.” As he spoke, his lamp went out. For a couple of seconds, Jes felt the familiar jolt of adrenal fear pump through him, his body felt like a tuning fork. It was as if a large fist had closed around his lungs, and his head grew dizzy. His fingers, clumsy with panic, scrabbled for a spare battery on his hip. His breathing grew ragged. Finally, he swapped the batteries around and his lamp came back on.

  “You okay?” asked Toby, his tone lacking its usual mocking edge. “Claustrophobia again?”

  Jes managed a curt nod and a grunted “Yeah.”

  Eventually, he got his fear under control. It was weird; he’d never suffered from it before. It seemed to kick in only when they moved below ground. Maybe the shrinks would have pinned it to Selena’s death, but there weren’t too many brain doctor’s knocking about now. Toby’s hand landed heavily on his shoulder in a clumsy attempt at comfort.

  “Yup, it’s gonna be okay,” Toby muttered, even more clumsily. Jes laughed, despite his momentary state of panic.

  “Okay, thanks partner, you’re a brick. Medical services could use a man of your quality.” Jes laughed again.

  “You ungrateful tit.” Toby walked off into the darkness. They continued in a less than amicable silence for a few minutes, before Jes tried to build bridges.

  “So, how do you think they’re doing it then?” he asked, his eyes never leaving the tunnel walls as he searched for a likely escape route. After a brief pause, Toby answered.

  “No idea. The little fuckers are smarter than we are, that’s for certain.” Toby used his lamp to scan the walls on the opposite side of the tunnel. Jes was distracted for a moment, looking over at this partner’s side, when something moved out of the corner of his eye. He swung his head round, but couldn’t see anything. His brow furrowed and his eyes hooded as he concentrated on the darkness to his right. It was indeed a tunnel, and something had moved in it.

  “Who is it?” he called, low but urgent. “Come on out now, you’re not going to be in any trouble.” Jes held the lamp higher as his eyes squinted deeper in an attempt to search out any form. Toby appeared at his side and added his own lamp to light the darkness.

  “Who did you see?” Toby asked him.

  “No idea. I just caught something out of the corner of my eye. Movement.”

  Jes licked his dry lips, belying his nervousness. “Who’s in there? Look, my friend’s right. You’re not going to be in any trouble. Just come on out.” Smithy called. There were other noises now, scrabbling, and the sound of large feet on earth running quickly over the ground. Jes and Toby took an involuntary step backward, expecting a rush from the inky darkness. But nothing came. The feet were going in the other direction.

  “Should we follow?” Toby asked, his breath a little short. Jes hesitated a second or two.

  “Yeah, okay.” They moved forward together, lamps held high, both taking exaggerated steps. It seemed even blacker than usual in this offshoot tunnel. Both their ears were super tuned at the moment. They could hear everything, and adrenaline only made their hearing sharper.

  After an eternity, but in reality around five minutes, the light changed from total blackness to a deep slate. As each minute passed, it grew lighter, through a spectrum of greys, until they saw a shaft of light illuminating the end of the tunnel. As they approached, they could see motes swirling in the air, dancing through the sharp finger of light that landed on the floor some thirty feet away.

  Not knowing exactly why, they stopped. After a few seconds, they understood why they’d stopped. Someone was there, beyond the light, cloaked in darkness. They couldn’t see who it was, but they could sense a presence. Jes was about to shout out to the stranger, when a stronger intuition overrode his senses.

  “Get back!” he shouted to Toby, and pushed him flat against the wall of earth, using the momentum to throw himself back against the opposite wall. Luckily, they had stopped at a natural chicane in the tunnel, two outcrops jutted into the space, narrowing it off. They rolled slightly away from the stranger into two small recesses. As they did, the shot came, a bright bolt of fiercely hot light. It missed them both and took a large chunk of earth out of the tunnel wall. “Stay there, Smithy,” said Jes, lapsing back to his friend’s old handle. It was a name he hadn’t used for eight years.

  But he needn’t have worried. The stranger had used the cover of the shot to scramble through the narrow opening in the tunnel wall, where the light entered the tunnel, and out of their reach.

  Chapter 7

  “So neither of you saw who it was?” Commander Tom Bradley demanded. His brows were scrunched, thick and black with aggression, and beneath them his eyes had a disconcerting messianic quality about them. A look they had seen all too often before.

  “Well, no, we were fired upon, so we were more concerned with not being hollowed out,” Smithy replied. Jack could see his friend’s shoulders hunched, a familiar prelude to violence. He stepped in to prevent all-out war.

  “Okay, everyone take a moment and calm the fuck down.” He looked from one to the other and back again, hoping his glare would be enough. He could have fought with Bradley for outright control of the defence section of their small community, but at the time he hadn’t had the heart. Bradley was a good man, despite the current fracas. He was older than Jack and Smithy by ten years or so, and had been in the military for all of two years. That and his calm dependability under pressure were his main selling points.

  Right now, he was flexing his hands, as though ready to take Smithy on. Jack knew who his money was on, so he decided to break things up. He stepped in front of Tom and looked him in the eye. “No, we didn’t see who it was, and that’s our bad, but you need to focus on the real issue here,” he said.

  “Which is?” Tom’s eyes finally left Smithy and alighted on Jack. His head rocked back slightly as if just noticing him for the first time.

  “We found a way in, and a way out, down there in that tunnel. And God alone knows how long it’s been there. And worse, we have no idea if whoever shot at us was even a person at all.” There was a collective intake of breath from those gathered around the scene. Jack glanced around at them all with a little look of surprise. He almost laughed at their pantomimesque response.

  “Okay, people, let’s not get overly dramatic here. I’m saying we don’t know what or who it was. And the important thing for now is that we get that hole blocked off.” He finished with his hands on his hips.

  “Yes, that was my point,” Bradley re-iterated. “We need to get it blocked off.” You’d be a great guy to have around after a disaster. Jack thought to himself, but never said it.

  “So, who’s coming with us?” Smithy asked. Two men put their hands up. “Okay, good. Let’s get some gear and head out there. For now, we’ll move some earth to block it off, but we’ll need to concrete it sooner rather than later.” Smithy paused for dramatic effect. “They know it's there now, and they know we’re here. If it’s the Auslander, then we could be compromised.” Smithy paused again, Bradley jumped into the gap.

  “There’s no need for scaremongering. We have a duty to this colony, a duty to protect, and that’s just what we’ll do.” Bradley said. He looked around the group, meeting the eyes of any who looked at him. Jack thought he did the job of reassuring very well.

  “That’s a nice sentiment, Tom, but the truth is Smithy’s right. If it is the Auslander that has found us, we could be screwed. So we need to start thinking about exfiltration.” Jack’s hands were still on his hips, and he stood looking around at the group. The good news was that when they had started the community they had built in an escape tunnel. And, three miles down that tunnel, was another complex system of tunnels and cavernous spaces that they could move into and use as another home.

  It had been a particularly ingenious part of the contingency plan laid down by the hea
d of the community, Peter Mayhew. He and Jack had a shared vision for the community. They would simply collect whatever they could manage to carry and transport, and, at a point along the exit tunnel, they would blow the charges that were set there for just such an eventuality. The charges would bring down around five hundred tons of earth and rubble, and the Auslander would never know where the people had gone. Tom had started talking again, when Jack cut across him.

  “Okay, as I was saying, we need to start thinking about it. We know the drill, and if we’re compromised, then we’re compromised, and we move. I’m sure Peter will agree with me.” Jack said.

  Eric Gillette had sauntered up, and he grunted, a look of contempt on his face. Jack moved across the circle of people, his fists clenched and his arms heavy as lump hammers. He was a yard from Gillette, who had understood Jack’s intent and had tensed ready for the contact, when Smithy stepped between them and shoved Jack back a foot or two.

  “Okay, girls, let’s go our separate ways shall we.” He stared into Jack’s eyes and raised his eyebrows. “Really not worth it, Sumner. Guy’s an arsehole.” Smithy said out loud, and he could hear Gillette spluttering behind him, he could almost feel the spittle landing on the back of his neck.

  “Everyone knows it too,” Smithy continued, not even bothering to turn around. Behind him, he could hear a few of them men uttering placatory phrases to Gillette as they walked him away. “Let’s go do this thing,” Smithy finished, jerking his head towards the tunnel they had just come from.

  Two hours later, the four men had almost finished their task. Though they were in a hurry, they were also acutely aware of the risks of what they were doing. Life lived underground, safe as it was in terms of the occupation, brought with it its own perils. The risk of cave in was ever present. It was the main reason so many of the population had developed late onset claustrophobia.

  They were, all four of them, soaked with sweat. Another little foible about life down here was that there was never a cooling breeze.

  “How much you think we’ve shifted?” Smithy asked during a brief pause, as he panted and leaned on the handle of his shovel.

  “Dunno. Five or six ton, I’d hazard. Feels like more though.” Jack stood and arched his back, reaching up over his head with his hands and arms. He could feel vertebrae popping as he did it. “Jesus, I’m goosed,” he muttered.

  “Yeah, but you’ve worked off that bad mood from earlier though haven’t you?” Smithy said, with a lazy smile, still leaning on his shovel.

  “Yeah. But Gillette’s still a prick, that much hasn’t changed.” Jack closed his eyes and cricked his neck. Smithy spoke again.

  “You think we’ll need to move? It’s a lot of work, considering we don’t even know who it was down here.” He sat down heavily on a pile of earth, and Jack joined him, leaning back against the earthen wall.

  “I don’t know,” he replied, a wistful look on his face. “I know Mayhew will listen to me. But I know he’ll listen to Tom Bradley too.” The two men working with them turned at his words, and glanced at him before turning back to their own conversation. Jack looked back at them, then turned to Smithy.

  “I really don’t like the thought of us getting caught in the tunnels by a horde of screaming Auslander Destroyers.” He paused and shuddered, despite the sweat running down his forehead and flanks. “It would be carnage, just carnage. A few might escape, but only a few.” He reached to his right for a water canteen. He picked it up, unstoppered it and drank two gulps before offering it to Smithy and the others.

  Smithy drank and passed it on.

  “But what if it’s not them?” one of the men, Andrew Cross, asked him.

  “I know. It might not be. You got family down here?” Jack asked him. He knew the answer, but he had a point to make. Cross nodded.

  “Well, you would have little to no chance of protecting them, should it be the worst case scenario. They would swarm over the community like ants. Fast, deadly ants. You ever see them at work?” he asked. Cross shook his head.

  “Not really, I was only fifteen when they came. My dad sheltered us from the worst, before he was killed. Then right away we were hustled down here. We were lucky and unlucky at the same time I guess.” Jack knew what he meant. Despite losing a member of the family, people still felt lucky to escape to the tunnels. Tens of millions in the UK alone had not been so lucky.

  “Yup. Well, I have seen them go to work. Many times. And I can tell you, we would perish. Quickly. They have no mercy, and nothing makes them pause. They just keep coming, and killing. They’re locust and we’re crops.” He finished and raised his chin, staring into nothing. After a brief pause, Smithy broke the heavy silence.

  “Well that was fucking cheery.” He stood up and dusted off his shirt and trousers. “I hope you’re slightly less biblical when you tell your son bedtime stories,” he muttered, not looking at Jack. Cross and his companion laughed, and then Jack chuckled.

  “Go fuck yourself, Tobias,” he said, raising his eyebrows at his friend, inviting the inevitable comeback. Smithy liked to have the last word.

  “Nice. You kiss your mother with that mouth, Jack?” Smithy asked him. Jack paused, hearing the name from his past.

  “Why Jack?” asked Cross. “I thought your name was Jes?”

  “Well now, that’s the question. In another life, my name was Jack Sumner. Jack Elliot Sumner to be precise. I took Jes from my initials. And this little tit…” Jes gestured at Smithy, “…was Smithy, my faithful little friend. And then he died, sort of. And then it came, and we decided to leave the past where it was.” He finished, staring at the ground at his feet.

  “Yeah,” continued Smithy. “But I never liked it. It smacked of running away to me. And I hate the name Toby, even worse Tobias. So, fuck it, from now on, its Smithy again.” He smiled a broad smile and picked up his gear. Andrew Cross looked from one to the other, and then finally back at Jack.

  “And you? Will you still be Jes?” Jack looked at Smithy, who shrugged and blew his fringe from his eyes. Jack looked around at the three faces and shrugged himself.

  “I really don’t care what you call me.” He stood up, grabbed his pack and started off down the tunnel.

  They arrived back at the Hub to a roiling atmosphere. The incessant chatter of hundreds of voices, and the general noise that came with so many people. And there were lots of people just standing there, absorbing the tension and excitement. Talking loudly. There was definitely a crackling buzz. But it had a slightly uncomfortable feel about it, like there was an ingredient missing.

  “What’s going on d’you think?”Smithy asked at Jack’s shoulder.

  “Dunno, but I guess we’ll find out soon enough.” He spotted a friend of his, Margie, and called her over.

  “Hey, Jes,” Margie began, she looked a little distracted, her eyes looking at Jack, then past him.

  “It’s Jack now,” Smithy corrected her.

  “Ugh?” Margie muttered.

  “Never mind,” Jack advised, placing a hand on her shoulder. “What’s the gossip?”

  “Oh, another kid’s gone missing,” Margie said, her face clouding. She gave her shoulders a small shrug.

  “What? How?” Jack’s face clouded. Margie winced and looked at Jack’s hand on her shoulder. He’d been squeezing it.

  “Sorry,” Jack said, his eyes elsewhere. “How? We just filled the hole we found in the tunnel.” He shook his head. “So, there’s clearly more than one.” His mind raced. How many could there be?

  “Dozens I guess,” Smithy said, as if in a daze, his features almost plastic in their lack of emotion. “This makes it really tough now. We need to get back out there, Jack.” Smithy turned to Jack, his momentary blank look giving way to a simmering anger. His jaw was set and his eyes had taken on that flinty look Jack knew so well.

  “Who is it Margie?” Jack asked. His own gaze locked onto Margie’s eyes, willing her to name someone else’s kid.

  “I don’t know, Jack,
I really don’t,” Margie blurted, shrinking away from Jack’s intensity. He let her go and brushed past her, heading for the centre of the melee.

  Tom Bradley, who was stood at the centre of the huddle of humanity, caught sight of Jack and crossed the arena towards him. Bradley’s eyes never left Jack’s, his brows knitted together and his jaw set. He arrived in front of Jack. He didn’t need to say anything, Jack already knew.

  Chapter 8

  “Tell me,” Jack said hard and flat to Bradley.

  Jack’s expression was grave and his teeth ground against each other. Bradley looked genuinely upset. His eyes met Jack’s and his mouth hung, slack and loose. He shook his head.

  “I’m so sorry, Jes, I really am...”

  “When?” Jack asked, fighting down his nausea, his head swirling with dizziness. Bradley stuttered a response.

  “An hour or so ago.” Bradley licked his lips and swallowed as he finished speaking.

  “Who was he with?” Jack breathed through his nose, his hands clenched tight so the knuckles were white.

  “That’s the thing,” Bradley said, his brow knitted in confusion. “He was still with your dad.”

  “What? And where’s my dad now?” Jack demanded.

  “He’s in medical services. He’s unconscious.” Bradley looked at the floor, desperate to hide his embarrassment.

  “Tom, please tell me what the fuck has happened, because right now, I’m very confused, and even more annoyed.” Jack’s hands went to his hips as he waited for a response.

  “Look, they went out, four of them, and something happened. The three adults woke up after a short period of unconsciousness, and Jack Junior was gone. I really don’t know any more than that,” Bradley finished, his hands turned up facing the roof of the Hub.