Epiworld (19 page)

‘I also read your thoughts with the cortexoscope.’

He catches Demi’s eye and smiles. Shivering, she smiles back weakly, and covers herself with a blanket, too. The warmth of the soup is wearing off, and it’s starting to feel chilly in the room. I also think she’s in shock over what she’s just learnt about Chase.

‘Can you tell me what’s going to happen, then?’ I ask Alex.

‘I can only give you a brief picture of what I saw in your head,’ he says. ‘You’ll fall ill with an infection in your neck wound. I’ll treat it with herbs, one of which will keep you sedated. You’ll have a few seizures, you’ll want to leave the house, but the sedation will prevent you from having the energy to let the portals take you. When you come round you’ll accuse me of keeping you here on purpose. You’ll be right, because Chase has to find you in this time dimension. He’ll come to the farm, shoot you with an acid gun, but I’ll intercept that shot. I can’t kill him, because if I do I’ll affect the course of events for you. You both go through a portal, meeting on a beach, but at that point the images start to get a bit hazy.’

When he says no more I prompt him impatiently. ‘Go on.’

‘You want to know how you kill him. Well, sorry, I can’t tell you. Your mind went completely blank at that point. Your heart slowed down, too. I had to get the nuns to help revive you. When you had settled I tried to read some more, but I couldn’t seem to get past the beach part. The thoughts stopped there. I don’t know why. There is one thing. Judging by what I saw, something Chase tells you gives you a bit of a shock.’

Demi yawns widely. My eyes are starting to feel heavy, but I’m not ready to sleep yet. I can’t feel anything right now, it’s like I’m paralysed. Demi finds her voice, asking Alex why I’m able to generate the portals, and what they are.

‘Portals have been around since time began. They’re natural phenomena, but you can only see them when they’re charged by intense electrical currents, like a storm, or...’

‘...the electrical activity in my brain when I have a fit?’ I finish with a sigh.

‘Exactly. I saw a lot of portals when we had the great storms in our time. People were dragged into them. Some were never seen again. Some came back – different, shall we say.’

‘His seizures must be really powerful, then, if he causes the portals to appear,’ says Demi. ‘Lightning electricity is pretty dangerous stuff. It can kill you if it strikes you.’

‘Travis doesn’t know how powerful his seizures are,’ says Alex. ‘Every time you had a fit in the institution, Travis, what do you think would appear? Some of the boys tried to escape through them, until they were stopped by the probes. I thought it was a coincidence at first, but when I triggered your seizure with the ECT machine, one appeared. It was your perfect escape route.’

‘I – I never saw them...’

‘Trust me, Travis, they were there. There’s a good reason why you can see them now. It’s because you need them.’

I snuggle into my blanket. ‘Well, I’m glad Chase didn’t know you helped me.’

‘I told him you started fitting in my office, and that sparks were flashing out of the top of your head. I called the nun who brought you to my office – hiding the ECT machine first – because I wanted her to witness what was happening. The sparks formed a beam of light which eventually morphed into the portal disc. You opened your mouth, and it was like your soul was being sucked through your body; a stream of light was flying through the air, like an apparition of you. Your face was contorted in the light, and you screamed through the energy of what it was pulling you through.’

I’m slurring my words now. ‘Good job droids can’t hear human thoughts through pods, or the nun would’ve told on you.’

‘I saw something else when I read your cortex, Travis,’ adds Alex, ‘and that’s Chase’s vision of what went on in my office as he read your thoughts. I’m afraid he does know I helped you. He’s after me, too.’

I don’t answer. Demi asks if I’m all right. Alex says, ‘He’ll sleep now. The draught I added to the soup will keep him under for hours. It’s what he needs.’

My eyes refuse to stay open, and soon I’m fast asleep.

I
’m drifting in and out of consciousness, barely aware that I’m alive. Alex must have me drugged up to the eyeballs to keep me quiet, stopping me from asking any more questions. Demi helps me with my food, and talks to me, but I’m not taking in what she’s saying. Alex comes back to the house now and again, carrying sacks of food, mostly vegetables, but sometimes a small animal for meat, a sheep maybe, or a hare. He takes them outside, skins them, and chops them for the pot. He also brings more rags to use as bandages for my wounds. He tells Demi my neck is healing nicely, and my leg is starting to mend. It itches like crazy. I keep reaching down to scratch it, but both he and Demi slap my hand.

Sometimes at night there are rumblings in the distance. Planes, Demi says; and faint bangs, bombs being dropped on nearby towns and villages. The room shakes, the light swings, dust falls on us. We hear the drone of engines getting louder as the planes fly overhead, until eventually there’s silence. Another raid is over. I hear them talking about the light...shouldn’t have it on, really, those curtains are flimsy...it might be seen...only we can’t leave Travis in the dark...

More bangs, much louder ones, in the house, in the room; that strange accent; yells; the smell of gun smoke. I must be dreaming again.

Soon the dizziness and the confusion fade into normality, and I’m aware of the world making more sense. Demi is sitting in the chair, reading a battered old book. The light is on, and through the crack in the curtain the sky is a sapphire blue with wisps of yellow and red. The sun is setting.

‘Hello, Demi. What’s that?’

She looks up and smiles. ‘An old recipe book,’ she replies. ‘Found it downstairs in the kitchen. It’s all in German, but I understand some of it. You seem a bit better today.’

‘Better? Have I been ill?’

She sighs. ‘You’ve not been with it for days. You’ve been delirious with fever, caused by an infection in your neck wound. It’s healing now, though. You’ve had a couple of fits, too, but not bad ones.’

‘I thought Alex was keeping me drugged.’

‘He’s been giving you herbs to heal the wound, and yeah, he’s kept you sedated,’ Demi admits, ‘but that’s because he wanted you to sleep. Before that you were trying to get up and leave, and with your broken leg, too! Don’t you remember Alex telling you this would happen because he read it in the cortexo-thingy?’

‘Maybe; I can’t be sure.’ My mind is empty. I touch my neck. It’s still bandaged, but it doesn’t hurt very much now. ‘Did a portal appear when I had those fits?’

‘Yeah.’

‘And we’re still here.’

Demi shrugs. I’m hot, so I shove my blanket off in frustration.

‘We’ve been here for days!’ I grumble. ‘We could be looking for Chase instead of wasting time here! Aren’t you scared the Nazis will find us?’

‘Alex doesn’t want us to go yet,’ replies Demi shortly. ‘Anyway, you’ve been too ill to be moved. Look, Travis, have a go at him about it, not me! I don’t want to stay here any more than you do, but while you’re ill, we can’t go anywhere.’

I huff irritably. ‘I don’t know why the Nazis haven’t found us yet. This place may be hidden from the road, but someone must have seen Alex coming and going.’

‘Oh, they came, all right. It’s like Alex predicted, Travis.’

‘You’ll have to remind me what he predicted.’

‘Look behind you.’

I look at the wall. It’s peppered with bullet holes.

‘The Nazis came twice,’ says Demi. ‘The first time was just after you went into a fever, a week ago. It was really early in the morning, not light yet. We heard the lorries coming into the yard. I don’t know why they came here; they must’ve been on their way somewhere. Anyway, we watched them fill their water bottles from the pump, and we heard them banging on the door. I was too terrified to move, knowing if they came in they’d see the food we left down there. We had nowhere to hide, and we couldn’t leave you, so we stayed here, and kept quiet. They kicked the kitchen door in, but they didn’t come in. Someone called them away, I think they said something like “Leave it, we have to go now. Orders from the Colonel”, so they left. Alex didn’t try to repair the door in case they came back, and realised someone was here. We’ve put all the stuff we had in the kitchen in the room next door.’ She looks down at her hands. ‘Well, they did come back two nights later, just after we settled down to sleep. Alex reckons they must’ve spotted something in the kitchen when they kicked the door in the first time they came, and were watching the place. When we heard them thundering up the stairs Alex took the light bulb out, and we dragged you across the floor so we could all hide behind the door. The door banged open, and in they came, shining torches, and wielding guns. They opened fire all over the house, not just in here. We were lucky we weren’t shot. We can’t tell you how many there were, not many I don’t think, ‘cos it was over really quick, but one of them – one of them was dressed like an officer. I caught a glimpse of his face, and...’

‘What?’

‘I think – I’m not sure, mind, ‘cos it was all really chaotic, but I think he looked like – your – your – it was...’

Suddenly I’m excited. ‘It was Chase, wasn’t it?’

She doesn’t answer.

‘He was looking for
me
,’ I say triumphantly. ‘He knows I’m here! Did Alex recognise him?’

‘I asked him afterwards, but he didn’t say much. They weren’t around long. You see Alex...’

I look at her, tilting my head to one side.

‘Alex shot at them with the acid gun,’ she finishes, her face drained of all colour. ‘The Nazis didn’t stand a chance. It’s horrible what that gun can do to people, Travis, reducing them to dust like that!’

My voice is barely a whisper. ‘Did Alex kill Chase?’ As much as I want Chase dead I don’t want to be cheated out of killing him myself!

‘No,’ says Demi. ‘You see, you had a fit...’

I help her out. ‘There was a portal.’

‘Yeah.’

‘...and he went through it? Brilliant!’

‘He – he always comes back, Travis,’ she says lamely.

‘Yeah.’  I kick the floor with my good leg. ‘He always comes back.’ Meanwhile I’m stuck here doing bugger all.

‘I don’t want to talk about Chas any more, Travis. I...’

‘Yeah, all right. Where are the lorries they came in?’

‘Alex destroyed them with the gun; said he couldn’t risk them being found if more soldiers came.’

‘Sounds reasonable enough.’

She quickly changes the subject, starts chatting about I don’t know what, but I’m not listening. Bits of information I’ve stored in my head about portals are coming back to me, one of them being I’m able to call them at my whim to get me out of tight spots. I’m still here, though, aren’t I? There has to be a reason for that, and as I think about it I come to the conclusion that Alex is deliberately stopping us from leaving – and I need to find out why – or I’m supposed to stay where I am.

If I can call up a portal to help me out, perhaps I can also, subconsciously, stop it from taking me.

I hold on to that thought.

Alex says I’m searching for something, and I’m sure now that something – someone – is Chase. He knows where I am. He’s obviously tricked the Nazis into thinking he’s one of them, persuading them to search the farm; hypnotising a couple of them, maybe, like the police at Demi’s farm. Demi’s right, he’ll come again, so it could be I’m meant to face him in this house, and kill him.

I can’t help thinking, though, that Alex has some sort of hidden agenda up his sleeve by keeping me sedated, and I need to find out what that is.

As I’m trying to work all this out in my head the door flies open with a bang, and Alex comes rushing in, throwing a sack of stuff onto the floor.

‘They’re back!’ he pants. With a yelp Demi jumps to her feet.

‘How many?’ I ask.

‘I don’t know. I saw three lorries, with a car, coming over the hill behind us. They’re heading this way.’

‘Where’s the acid gun?’

‘Here.’ He takes it out of his jeans pocket, and points it at the curtain. A jet of yellow disintegrates it. ‘It’s still working.’

‘Alex,’ gasps Demi, ‘where can we go?’

‘Nowhere,’ he tells her. ‘We can’t leave Travis, anyway. If they find us here we’ll be sitting ducks. Nothing else for it, we’re just going to have to shoot our way out.’

He’s standing very close to my good leg. I don’t think about it, I extend my foot, and he trips and falls against the table. The gun clatters to the ground, so I grab it.

‘Travis!’ cries Demi, shaking. Alex has rolled onto his side, staring at the gun pointing at his head. ‘What are you doing? Now isn’t the time!’

‘Give me the gun, Travis,’ orders Alex.

‘No.’ My hand doesn’t waver. ‘I want to know why you’ve been keeping us here.’

‘Can’t it wait? Right now we have more pressing matters!’

‘Travis!’ cries Demi again.

They’re outside, their loud voices, that strange language, getting closer and closer.

‘I’m keeping this,’ I snarl at Alex. ‘I’ll deal with them.’

‘What if you have a seizure?’

‘Then a portal will come, and we can all go through it.’

Alex snorts. ‘You think it’s that simple, eh?’

‘You said it’s what I do.’

‘It is, but I’m afraid there may be obstacles in your way.’

‘Like you, you mean?’ I wave the gun at him again.

‘Oh, stop it, both of you!’ shouts Demi. Alex gets to his feet.

‘What are you doing?’ I demand.

‘Demi and I are going to need weapons, too.’ He rummages in the sack. ‘Here,’ he throws Demi a rifle, ‘you said you know how to use one of these.’ Demi’s shaking hand tries to load bullets into the rifle, while Alex produces yet another acid gun, but I don’t have a chance to ask where it’s come from, because the door handle rattles, and together we turn our weapons.

––––––––

T
he air rings with the sound of gunfire. We’re crouching down, giving back as good as we get. The acid guns protect us as we pick off the Nazis one by one; they’re pouring into the room like rats. The bodies fall as the bullets fly from Demi’s rifle. She’s a good shot. A soldier lands on my bad leg. I have to use my gun on the corpses, too, or we’ll be in danger of suffocating in a crowd.