Epiworld (17 page)

Safe as long as the guard doesn’t decide to track for any more bodies once it’s disposed of the Nazis. It’ll know we’re here by using its sensors to trace body heat, or it’ll just trample on the hut, anyway; and safe as long as the forest isn’t alight. There’s a lot of smoke in the air, but guards usually put out any fires they might start.

I don’t tell Demi any of this.

A tree falls against the hut, crashing inches away from the door. Some of its branches smash into the window. Luckily we’re unharmed by the shower of glass, but unluckily the shock makes Demi squeal in fright. She’s shaking with silent sobs as I guide her away from the door.

We crouch down in the corner, listening in fear as the guard continues its path of destruction. I’m hoping the tree is going to give us some camouflage, but our body heat will still show through. I’m not sure we’re going to get out of this alive.

‘Sorry I was rough.’ I put my arm around her, and kiss the top of her head.

‘How did that thing get here, Travis?’ she whispers, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. 

‘A portal’s my best guess. No other explanation I can think of.’

‘Why has it come? Is it looking for you?’

‘Probably.’

‘I wish a portal would appear now! I wish we hadn’t let that one go! We need to get out of here!’

More bangs, more shouts of terror. I’m wondering how many Nazis are left now, and where the guard will go once it’s killed them all.

‘Travis,’ Demi hisses urgently, ‘I want to go – I need...’

‘Eh?’

‘
I need a wee
!’

‘What,
now
?’

I could do with one myself, but there’s nowhere to go in here.

‘Yeah! Oh!’ She bites her lip, and crosses her legs. ‘I’m going to wet myself in a minute!’

‘Where are you going to go, then?’

‘Can’t I go outside?’ pleads Demi. ‘If I run into the trees it might not see.’

‘Oh, yeah, fine,’ I say sarcastically. ‘Go on, then. The robot has an all-seeing eye, but it’s also a gentleman. I’m sure it’ll avert its eyes while you drop your knickers.’

She glares at me. ‘There’s no need to be sarky, Travis!’

‘Do you see me laughing?’

‘Fine, I’ll do it in here, behind the sacks.’

I tell her to keep her head down as she crawls towards the gun sacks. Squatting down behind them she snaps, ‘Don’t look, then!’

Huffing, I turn my head away. The trickling sound lasts for a long time, and the puddle creeps towards me from underneath the sacking.

Demi, her face red as she fumbles with the zip of her jeans, is too embarrassed to look directly at me, but right now I’m more interested by the sudden silence outside the hut.

‘Listen!’

She listens. ‘I can’t hear anything.’

‘Exactly; the firing’s stopped.’

I crawl to the broken window. I can’t see much through the branches, but there’s no movement out there, no sound coming from the guard’s heavy bulk. The smoke is thick and grey, hanging heavy in the air.

‘Can you see it?’ asks Demi.

‘No.’

I can make out burnt bodies now, littered everywhere. It doesn’t shock me. I’ve seen slaughter like this before, but I don’t know how Demi will react to it, if she ever lives to see it.

‘Travis! What’s the matter?’

I hold my head. The jolt of electricity that has just shot through my body has thrown me to the floor. I’m writhing, foaming at the mouth. Demi bends over me, her hand on my forehead, telling me it will be over soon. She thinks I’m fitting, but this isn’t a fit. This is something else, something more sinister.

Then, very quickly, it’s over. I’m sweating, panting heavily.

‘
The probe
!’ I’m barely able to speak. ‘It’s working!’

There it goes again. My body shakes uncontrollably. When I come round, Demi is holding me, crying.

‘Don’t die, Travis! Please don’t die!’

Gasping for air I clutch her arm. ‘Don’t be – afraid, Demi! I’m not – going to die!’

She doesn’t hear what I hear next, because she doesn’t have a pod. Chase is laughing his head off.

‘Gotcha!’

‘I knew it!’ I throw back at him. ‘You brought the guard through a portal, didn’t you?’

‘Is that all the thanks I get, Travis,’ sneers Chase, ‘for saving your miserable life? The Nazis are all dead. You can come out from that hut now. Come on.’ Another small shock shoots through my body, and I fall to my knees. ‘You know the penalty for disobedience. I’m not going to kill you, though, at least not yet. I want to play with you both for a bit.’

I try to shut my mind from his wheedling, scramble my thoughts with rubbish and confusion while I decide what to do. I’m an idiot for swallowing the pod! Obviously Chase is with the guard. I have to think fast. I pull Demi’s arm, and press my finger to my lips.

‘What?’ Her voice isn’t even a whisper. ‘Has it – found us?’

Without a sound I move my lips, very slowly so she can understand.

‘Don’t – say – a – word.’

She nods, petrified. I look at the acid gun. It’ll be useless against the guard, but it could do for me what I need it to do; only it will kill me if I try. I’ll have to use something else which will still hurt, but which will be possibly less life-threatening. A knife would do it, except I don’t have one.

The broken window; it’s the only hope I have of doing what I have to do. Frantically I point to a long, thin shard of glass on the floor.

‘The glass?’ mouths Demi.

She bends down slowly, picking up the shard with a shaking hand.

Meanwhile Chase is getting impatient. More shocks run through me, but I’m trying to resist them as I poke the lump in the side of my neck where I know the probe is lying, and plunge the glass hard into my flesh.

I’m in agony.

Blood hits Demi square in the face. Without making a sound she clasps her hands to her mouth, falling to her knees. For one moment it looks like she might faint, but she doesn’t. She stays on the floor, watching me, unable to believe what she’s seeing. I slide down the wall, clenching my teeth as I rummage inside my neck for the probe.

‘Not – not sure I can remove it.’

I’m losing a lot of blood now.

I know a probe feeds off impulses from the spinal column, but I don’t know anything about its hardware. If there are connectors to the spine or brain I may do a lot of irreparable damage. I just want the shocks to stop. I want to release Chase’s hold over me.

‘What are you doing, Travis?’ growls Chase. ‘Answer me! I’m not messing with you, if you don’t come out of there...’

A small capsule, half the size of my little finger, slips through the blood on my fingers, falling from my grasp as my arm drops limply to my side. There are no wires, no connectors. This nasty little piece of nothing is the cause of such misery in twenty ninety-nine. I can’t sense the shocks any more, but Chase is still droning on in my head. His voice is gradually fading as I slowly drift into unconsciousness. I’m bleeding to death. I’m going to leave Demi to face Chase and the guard alone. The effort to remove the probe has all been for nothing.

Something is pressed hard against my neck.

I’m seeing things now. A woman with blonde hair is holding a small chubby hand, smiling down at me. A beam of light shoots at a house, two corpses lie at my feet with debris all around, there’s the sound of a child’s crying, and its tears on my face. I think I’m that child; this could be a memory of my early life. Then I’m being carried through streets where buildings are alight; fire is raging; people are running for their lives. I recognise these streets, these ruins. At last we come to a tunnel where people are crouching, hiding from the chaos outside. There are about forty men and women, mostly in their twenties, but some in their teens. I’m handed over to a young girl with matted hair and dirt on her face, but she’s kind. I don’t know who she is. Maybe she raises me.

The next picture in my mind is of me running with a gang of kids through dark streets, dodging beams from a police guard: this is my life on the run with the Rockets. A black face with white teeth is laughing, whooping joyfully at me. That’s Saul, the only real friend I’ve ever had, along with Jenna, who I then see myself kissing for the first time. I’m in physical torture as I see her face clearly, missing her soft voice, and the feel of her soft skin. She’s gone from me forever.

Suddenly there’s daylight. There are branches and sky above me. I’m moving again, in a vehicle of some sort, because there’s the sound of an engine. There’s also a metallic voice bellowing, ‘Stop! You will be killed if you fail to comply.’

‘Move, you heap of junk!’ another voice yells.

The engine roars, the trees move faster. Demi squeals as a beam rips into a tree trunk.

I manage to lift my head. I’m lying on my back in a carriage attached to a motorbike, and every movement is making me groan. There’s blood all over my clothes; my neck is oozing. Is this another vision, or am I not dead after all?

There’s a man on the front of the bike at the controls, and behind him, holding on for dear life with her eyes tight shut, is Demi. Weakly I reach out a bloody hand, and touch her arm. She stares down at me with terrified eyes.

‘Travis, you’re awake! It’s OK, we’re saved!’

‘Not yet, we’re not,’ shouts the man.

I get a good look at his face as he turns his head towards her. There’s something about him that’s slightly familiar, but I don’t know who he is. Behind us is a guard, sending its laser bolts straight at us.

‘Use the bloody acid gun!’ yells the man.

The gun shakes in Demi’s hands. ‘I don’t know how it works!’

‘You’re wasting your time, anyway,’ I mutter, wondering how this man knows about acid guns. ‘It’d be like spitting at it.’

He doesn’t seem to know much about guards. It’s playing with us. It doesn’t intend to kill us yet. It’s not running, either – and those things can run! It’s just stomping towards us in great strides, shaking the ground. That’s enough to catch up with us. We’ve got no chance. If I’m not dead already I soon will be; we’ll all be history before long.

There’s a yelp and a clatter. Something has fallen off the bike, or Demi has dropped the gun.

In my head Chase is yelling at me. ‘You can’t escape, Travis, you know that. Tell him to stop.’

I try to make myself heard above the engine. ‘You can’t outrun it. It will catch us. Guards always get their target...’

‘There’s the portal!’

It’s hovering ahead of us, above the forest road, a welcome sight, but can we go through without being followed? I tap the driver on the arm.

‘Put your foot down, mate.’

‘I can’t make it go any faster!’

‘Well, the guard’s starting to run, so try.’

He gives it all it’s got.

There’s no more terrifying sound than a guard’s metallic feet when they hit the ground running. The noise is loud enough to drown out the sound of the bike’s engine, as well as Demi’s screams. She’s staring up at the guard as it descends on us, her arms gripping the driver so tight I’m afraid he might be distracted and skid, sending us all flying to our doom. This is nearly exactly what happens, because a lightning bolt strikes the front wheel of the bike. The stranger almost loses control, but manages to keep the bike in an upright position. It’s swaying dangerously.

‘The front tyre’s blown!’ he yells.

‘Look out!’ cries Demi.

There’s a heavy bump. We’ve hit something.

The rider is thrown over the handlebars, but he doesn’t land on the ground. Instead something crazy happens; the light surrounding the portal bursts out, engulfs him, and sucks him through! The bike falls on the carriage side, with me still in it. Demi rolls straight into the portal’s light, merely a second before a laser is aimed at her.

The bike stops dead. The portal doesn’t extend its light to me, because I’m trapped underneath the bike now, listening to the whirr of the engine. I can’t feel my legs. I’m probably more badly injured than before, and if I don’t die from my injuries, the guard will have me.

There’s no way out for me now.

I manage to look up through a tiny hole in the bottom of the carriage. The guard is standing right over me.

‘Goodbye, Travis,’ says Chase.

‘L
ook, he’s coming round.’

At last the cloud begins to clear, and their faces come into focus. One belongs to Demi, the other to the stranger on the motorbike.

‘It’s all right, Travis, you’re safe with us now.’ Demi, her face wet with tears, is stroking my hand.

‘He’s not out of danger yet!’

The stranger pulls bits of cloth from my skin with a small metallic prong. I can feel it tugging; he’s having trouble getting it off.

‘Caked in blood,’ he mutters. ‘Don’t worry, Travis. I’ll soon make you comfortable. You’ve got a couple of cracked ribs, and a broken leg, but apart from that you’re not too bad. Here, take this for the pain.’ He presses a small cup to my lips. The drink tastes vile.

As I hear him tell Demi to ‘get some water from the pump’ I wonder where I am now, and how come I’m still alive. I keep seeing the guard raise its great metal foot. I really should be dead, but here I am, lying on the floor on a tatty mattress, in what looks like a room with a dirty window, and a rag for a curtain. A dim light above my head casts shadows on the walls. I try to speak.

‘Shh,’ says the stranger. ‘Save your strength, you need to rest.’

Demi returns with a small bucket. ‘Did he say something?’

‘No, don’t make him talk. He needs to stay quiet while I work on his wounds.’

‘Tell me,’ I splutter, ‘where I am, how I got here. The guard...’

‘The portal got you out.’

‘No.’ I swallow hard. My throat is hurting. ‘I was trapped...’

My mouth fills with liquid. I’m pushed roughly on my side as foul-smelling, greenish spew shoots from my mouth onto the floor. The pod rushes out with it.

‘Go on, let it out,’ he commands as I heave and splutter. ‘It’ll do you good.’

He eases me on my back again, and wipes my mouth gently. I resist another sip of that horrible drink.

‘Who are you?’

‘A friend.’

‘He helped us, Travis,’ Demi rushes in. ‘He found us in the hut hiding from Chase and the robot, and he rescued us.’