Chapter Twenty One
"What have we here then?" Alicia sounded like she was calling to me from far away.
Somehow we had gone from sitting up to laying down on the sofa during the night. Coal's arms were wrapped tightly around me and my face was pressed against his chest.
A light flicked on somewhere above me and I shrunk down, burying my face against Coal to block it out. It felt similar to the way I had been curling up with Taylor at night during the SubWar training but completely different at the same time. I felt my cheeks flush scarlet and my heart pounded unevenly. Another pounding joined it in my head and I tried harder to recoil from the light.
"Rise and shine," Alicia called again and I flinched from the sound of her voice.
I tried to sit up but Coal's grip tightened around me and his hand twisted into my hair. I pulled away from him again and looked at his face which was peaceful in sleep.
"What time is it?" I asked Alicia who was standing next to the sofa looking strangely smug.
"Nearly midday. I slept in. It looks like you did too." She put a hand on her hip.
I looked back at Coal, his dark eyes were open and he was looking at me strangely. He had one hand still wrapped around my waist and our legs were tangled together.
"Have you been having fun?" Alicia looked at Coal and raised her eyebrows.
"I'm not entirely sure," he said, running his free hand across the stubble that had appeared on his jaw over night.
"It sure looks like you have," she said, stooping to pick up the empty whiskey bottle and brandishing it at us.
"Did we sleep here all night?" Coal asked me and I nodded my head shyly. The movement made little stars appear at the edge of my vision and I closed my eyes again for a moment until they cleared.
"All night?" Alicia asked, looking surprised.
"We must have been tired," I supplied.
"Coal hasn't slept for longer than four hours a night since-"
"Yeah it must have been all the running and probably the whiskey." He smiled tightly, cutting Alicia off and sitting up. He released me from his hold, my skin still tingled where his hand had been resting against my hip. "What's for breakfast?"
"You're asking me?" she said, raising her eyebrows.
"I'm asking what's in the cupboard not requesting that you burn me anything." He stretched his arms and rolled his shoulders back and forth.
"Look for yourself," she said, tossing the empty whiskey bottle into a chair across the room. It bounced back out and thunked loudly against a small wooden table, the noise set my teeth on edge.
"I will." He stood up and left to go in search of food. Alicia crossed her arms over her chest and looked at me expectantly.
"What was that about?" she asked eventually.
"What?" I asked avoiding her gaze, suddenly finding the hem of my top very interesting.
"The couch was just so much more comfortable than the bed and you absolutely couldn't resist it?"
"Well, no. We were talking and he sort of fell asleep on me and I remembered him saying that he had trouble sleeping sometimes so I didn't want to wake him. And there was the whiskey and, well then, I just woke up here." I smiled apologetically but Alicia was looking at me thoughtfully.
"Are you okay? You look a little pale," she said eventually.
"I've just got a bit of a headache, I'll be fine." I sat still, awkwardly fiddling with the hem. "Thank you for the clothes," I said after the silence had stretched on for a little too long.
"No problem. I didn't have much that was short enough but feel free to borrow anything you need."
I was finding it easy to like Alicia.
"I should probably go and check on Taylor," I said, standing up. I swayed a little and put an arm out to keep my balance.
"Of course." She moved aside to let me pass and I climbed the stairs carefully, every move making my head pound a little harder.
Taylor was exactly where I'd left him, his eyes flickering beneath the lids.
"Are you trying to find your way back to us?" I asked him as I sat on the bed and held his hand. "Because you're missing out on quite a lot you know, and I've never been good at telling stories." The door creaked behind me and I turned to see Laurie standing in the doorway.
"Any change?" she asked, moving closer.
"No. I was just asking him to come round but he isn't listening."
"His body is just healing itself, he'll wake up when he's good and ready." She brushed the hair back out of his eyes and I felt myself stiffen slightly.
"How are you coping?" I asked her, suppressing the desire to smack her hand away from Taylor's face.
"Better. Nearly getting mauled to death changed my perspective on things, and it's not so bad out here really. Things could certainly be a lot worse." She stood back up and jammed her thumbs into her waist band. Alicia's clothes fitted her better than they did me and I kicked at the trailing material around my ankles self consciously.
"Kinda scary though," I grinned. It was nice having someone else who knew how alien all of this was.
"I won't disagree with that, but I'm starting to see it as more than just scary."
"There's a whole world out here." I smiled up at her and placed Taylor's hand back down on the bed. "Let's see what's for breakfast and then we can get him that help."
We went back down to the kitchen where Coal had made an impressive stack of pancakes.
"Dig in," he smiled, pushing a sticky tin of golden syrup towards us. We did as instructed and laughed as the syrup stuck to our faces as we shovelled the food down.
"Thanks." I grinned up at Coal from my seat while Laurie washed the dishes. The food had helped my head to stop spinning and I no longer felt the little ache of nausea that had been present since I woke up.
"We can go and meet with Baba now. She's in charge of healing so I'm sure we can get something sorted out for Taylor," he said, leaning forward over the table. "We're lucky that she's still in town, she'll be heading back to Franklin next week."
"Where's that?" I asked.
"It's north of here," Coal replied. "We're in Fairview now, this town is a lot smaller than Franklin but they have the hospital here so it stays busy. Most of our people are in Franklin though."
"Okay. So do I need to know anything about Baba?"
"Not really. She's pretty easy to get on with if she likes you. If not... well it won't really matter as she just won't talk to you." He laughed and grabbed a spare pancake to toss down to Kaloo as he opened the front door.
Birdsong poured in through the opening with a sweet smelling spring breeze. I squinted and put my hands over my ears, it felt like tiny knives were stabbing my brain.
"I think I'm sick," I moaned into the wood of the table.
"That's called a hangover," Alicia said, pulling me to my feet and handing me a glass of water.
"What?"
"It's what you get for letting my brother lead you astray." She slammed her hands down on the table making my head throb even worse than before and laughed. "Drink the water, it helps and I've got something around here somewhere..." She started opening drawers and rummaging around before pulling something out with a flourish.
"What is it?" Laurie asked, moving towards us and drying her hands on a towel.
"They're glasses, but tinted to help dim the sunlight," Alicia said as she placed them on my face. It helped instantly, I drank the water too.
"Thanks." I looked at her over the rim of the glasses.
"Come on, or Coal will have walked the whole way alone," Alicia said as she stepped outside.
The midday sun beat down over the building. The trees started about ten feet from the front door and spread out, circling the town but not reaching into it.
It was so strange to see the sudden end of the tree line where the concrete began that I moved across to look at it.
"Do you do something to keep the trees back?" Laurie asked, following me over to the edge.
&
nbsp; "No, we have a kind of understanding with them." Alicia pointed to the line where they stopped. "Anywhere that they aren't attacked, burnt, poisoned or whatever they just stop before they cause any damage. A lot of the land that used to be covered with towns and cities was lost because people kept trying to fight the plants off. But damaging them just makes them grow like crazy. Leave them alone and they form a natural barrier where the concrete starts."
"Are you saying the plants can think?" Laurie asked.
Alicia burst out laughing.
"They're plants of course they can't think!" Alicia gasped between breaths.
"They just evolved to protect themselves better like everything else out here, so if we don't attack them they don't have to defend themselves," Coal explained, schooling his amused expression as Laurie scowled at Alicia. "Come on, we should get moving." He headed off down the road.
Kaloo weaved around his legs excitedly as he walked and we followed quickly behind.
The road was cracked and crumbling in places but was surprisingly intact for the most part. There were buildings spread along its length each with a little green patch of land in front. The houses here looked just the way that they should, ignoring the fact that most of the windows were still shuttered. What Taylor and I had explored outside The Wall was a pathetic shadow of what it should have been.
"There must have been a lot of people if they needed a path this wide," Laurie mused.
"It's a road for vehicles. You know - cars, vans, trucks, bikes," Alicia explained.
Laurie looked at her blankly, waiting for a further explanation. "Like trains?" she asked after a pause.
"No, like cars. They don't need tracks, are a lot smaller and you can drive them wherever you like."
Laurie looked at me and shrugged behind Alicia's back. I hid my laughter behind my hand. Alicia muttered something that I was fairly sure contained the words 'city dwellers'.
"Didn't you pay attention in old world class?" I asked Laurie.
"I was on the Warden training scheme, that class wasn't required so I ditched most of them," she shrugged.
We turned a corner and the road widened further as it joined another at a cross-section. They were much bigger here, it seemed to be some sort of centre like the produce buildings in the city. The whole area was alive with movement as people came and went about their business.
I tried not to stare as I took in the scope of the place. I had been brought up to believe there was nothing left outside The Wall. But the reality couldn't be further from the truth. There was a thriving community living and working out here. Solar panels and wind turbines were present everywhere to keep everything powered.
The marketplace was teeming with people selling all kinds of things from food to clothes to homeware. Some of them called out greetings to Coal and Alicia and others took note of Laurie and I. Kaloo weaved between people until she reached a baker's stall. The baker smiled broadly and tossed her a pastry.
"Kaloo saved his son from raiders last year," Coal explained when he saw me looking. "He's treated her like royalty ever since."
I grinned as Kaloo got a second pastry and Coal lead me on between the stalls. The people seemed happy, content, if a little rough around the edges. I noticed that almost everyone was armed even though the atmosphere seemed calm.
"Are they worried about the cougars?" I asked.
"A little. Though it's pretty safe around here during the day. They're more concerned with other people," Alicia said, flicking her hair over her shoulder.
"They look like they're getting along well enough to me," Laurie commented.
"Not the people here," Alicia clarified. "Strangers: gangs or nomads who roll into town unexpectedly. You can never be sure what kind of people might show up so it's best to be ready for anything."
I glanced over my shoulder nervously as if I might find someone sneaking up on us. Nothing looked any different to the way it had a moment ago and I made an effort not to check again.
Coal led us across the road, through the crowd, towards a huge white building with a big sign naming it as 'The Heart Of Hope'. In the centre of it was a large, rotating door. I paused to look for a retinal scanner before remembering there wouldn't be one.
"How do they keep track of everyone without scanners?" I asked.
Coal raised his eyebrows. "They have scanners on every door in the city?"
"And a computer network that shows where everyone is at any time," Laurie added.
"What if you don't want them to know where you are?" Alicia asked.
"Outsiders," I muttered to Laurie in an aside and we laughed.
"Seriously, are you saying you can't move about inside the city without being tracked?" Alicia demanded.
"Well you could a bit, you could leave your apartment and take the Walkways or elevators to other floors and buildings." I considered it.
"They would know you weren't at home but not exactly where you were so long as you didn't buy something or enter another residence or a restricted building I guess," Laurie said. "So long as you didn't pass through any restricted doors."
"So they can generally find anyone they want at any time?" Coal asked.
"Yes. It's for the safety of the population," Laurie said, switching on her Warden voice.
"The way you talk about 'the population' is creepy. It's like some kind of being that you all have to please," Alicia said, shuddering.
"They don't keep track of you at all then?" I asked her, choosing to ignore the jibe.
"No, and I wouldn't want them to." She flicked her hair.
"But what if you got lost or stuck somewhere?" Laurie asked. "In the city if you haven't been scanned for forty eight hours, the Wardens are alerted and we send out a search. We can scan the CCTV to help fill in the blanks left by the scanner tracking system. It saves lives."
"I'll take my chances thanks," Coal said, shaking his head as he stepped through the revolving door. I hurried to keep up, shrugging at Laurie again as we went.
Alicia skipped ahead and pushed the button to call the elevator. We stepped inside the smallest elevator car I had ever seen and headed to the seventh floor which, unbelievably, was also the top floor. After the shortest elevator ride of my life, we stepped out. I pushed the sunglasses up onto my head so that I could see better.
The walls and floors were all shiny white tiles. Doors lined the walls, some of which were open and revealed beds with monitors attached to their occupants. People dressed in pale green scrubs came and went, checking on patients and administering medications.
We passed an area filled with men and women undergoing some sort of therapy session. My interest earned me a few surly looks so I hurried on past.
"Is this an infirmary?" I whispered.
"Yeah, it's a hospital. Baba works from here most days," Coal replied.
At the end of the hall was a set of big, wooden double doors with a large brass knocker. Alicia knocked twice and we waited for a reply.
"Come in," an aged female voice called and we did as instructed. Baba sat behind a big, wooden desk which made her small frame seem even smaller. She wore overlarge round glasses and her grey hair was flying free of a bun in various directions.
"Ah, Coal and Alicia Carson, my favourite twins, and you brought me guests." She gestured to several chairs scattered around the room and we moved them to the desk to sit before her.
The room was lined with bookshelves that parted twice for two big floor to ceiling windows and once for the door we had entered through. The shelves were lined with books, but also held all manor of medical equipment from the modern to the thoroughly outdated.
"This is Maya and Laurie from Harbour city," Alicia introduced us as she reclined lazily in her chair.
Baba regarded us for a moment with a raised eyebrow.
"And how is the city?" she asked eventually.
"Much the same as I left it I imagine, nothing ever changes much there." I smiled at her.
&
nbsp; "Or at least that's how they want it to seem." She gave me a knowing look.
"I'm afraid I've begun to think I wasn't paying enough attention while I was there, and now it's too late," I said.
"It's never too late. You noticed, you just didn't know that you did." She winked at me. "As nice as introductions are, I presume you want something from me?"
"They brought someone else with them from the city, a boy, but he was skimmed by a bullet and hasn't woken up for several days now. We were hoping you could help," Coal explained. I didn't like the way he said boy, he could only be a year or two older than Taylor and I.
Baba surveyed us all through narrowed eyes. "He's going to need an MRI to check he's still in there, then a drip and life monitors, presuming he is, until he deigns to bless us with his presence. You realise the equipment they have in your city could have fixed him in a jiffy?"
"I've never really had to use the medical centre in the-" I began.
"Don't worry, I'm aware it's irrelevant. Just another new technology they deny us out here." She tapped a pen on the desk again and again whilst considering it. I held my breath.
Baba looked at me over the rim of her glasses as though she were weighing me, I hoped she didn't find me wanting.
"Okay. Bring him to me," she said finally. I sighed with relief and sagged in my chair. "But his care won't come without a price," she continued. A momentary panic filled me, I had no idea what they used for currency here. Coal's grip tightened on the arm of his chair.
"What's the price?" he asked evenly.
"It doesn't matter, I'll pay it," I threw in.
Baba smiled a cunning smile.
"I thought as much," she said.
Coal gave me a reprimanding look.
"Name your price," Alicia sighed, throwing me a filthy look over her shoulder too.
"We've had reports of an old military bunker to the north which holds a super computer capable of hacking us back into the Harbour City networks."
"When you say 'to the north', how far north are we talking?" Alicia asked suspiciously.
"As far as you're thinking and a bit further. Did I mention how much power we will have to use to run an MRI?" Baba regarded us calmly.
I looked pleadingly at Alicia who huffed and settled back into her seat.
"We need the information on those networks. We've been put back five years since we were discovered snooping about in those systems. We had contacts in that city and we need to know how many of them were captured, and if any of them survived.
We have to get access to the lists. Once we know what they know then we can finally continue in our struggle against them.
When you reach the super computer you simply have to attach a transmitter and we can do the rest remotely. I have Jayden and Livi on standby as soon as we have that connection," Baba said.
I had no idea what she was talking about but I didn't really care. All that mattered was getting Taylor the help he needed.
"So that's the price?" Coal asked.
"It really isn't that difficult. As far as the computer goes it will be straight forward. I need people I can trust for this, Coal. And it's not easy to find people with your particular... talents," Baba smiled.
"Yeah. It's just getting there that's tricky," Alicia said in an exasperated tone. "We aren't considering this are we?" She reached out to touch Coal's arm and tried to catch his gaze.
"You don't have to come," he replied without looking at her.
Baba's eyes gleamed with triumph.
"No. Coal no. Promise me you won't," Alicia pleaded.
"Alicia, drop it." His voice held such firm command that she did so instantly.
"Fine, we'll do it but I want a vehicle," Alicia snapped at Baba, folding her arms over her chest.
"Of course," Baba smiled at us wickedly. "Why don't you go and collect the patient and I can get you all the information you'll need."
"You realise this is blackmail?" Alicia said indignantly.
"Ah, but what's a little blackmail between friends?" Baba chuckled.
Chained - Everything you know is a lie... Page 21
