Intentionality (21 page)
Authors: Rebekah Johnson
As I kissed Lily farewell, I tried to talk myself through the horror of what was to come and hoped that my âreal time dream' was in fact a scandalously scary nightmare, made up by the delusions of a seriously distraught separated twin. But my instincts tell me that my story is the truth, and the details that Lily has been fed about this next step being the route to Intentionality, is in fact a lie. I do not yet know why those girls are lined up like that, but they are certainly not in a queue. We will not be travelling at speeds necessary to tie us down, in order to be shuttled into our fantasy destination, inside the safety fencing that guards Intentionality.
She was exceptionally strong-willed as we parted company. She glanced at me just once before she stepped inside the preparation cylinder. As the large, metal sliding door closed, I gathered myself and proceeded towards my designated room. Julia came to meet me, manual in hand as she had never been asked to prepare an Acer in here before. This was to be a reassuringly different experience to the slick, efficient preparation my mother had faced. However, had Lavina not forgotten to give my mother that sedative, Lily and I may not be here fighting this battle for the freedom of the Acers and Monos now!
Julia moved through the manual slowly, with the shaking hands of someone not prepared for the enormity of the situation they were facing. She repeatedly opened her mouth to speak but just as quickly changed her mind. I in turn began to search my mind for the best way to make a lasting connection with this girl, who had saved my sister from going into The Grid for real and who was living with the false assumption that her father would walk through the door with the rest of the Mono party from The Nest.
“Thank you, Julia, for saving my sister, it was a very brave thing that you did for a near stranger.”
“Oh it didn't really feel like we were helping a stranger, my sister and I spent hours watching you both on the surveillance cameras on The Nest,” replied Julia, slightly embarrassed by her admission of snooping.
“We were both completely enthralled by the idea of twins. No one had ever seen real life twins before in our time. The cameras only showed us staggered glimpses of you in your daily routines, so we made up stories to explain what you were like as people. I am afraid to say that Lily was our favourite, she looked sweet and gentle and so very protective of you. We adored the way that Lily would forget her schoolbooks and kit bags but never seem the slightest bit bothered. You always seemed so gloomy and troubled, even though everyone was trying to help. Not at all like the person in front of me now.”
Dark and gloomy! Come to think of it yes, that is probably how those buzzing warning sounds made me look and feel. They have gone now, even as I am approaching the end of the preparation procedure. Not a whisper or a hum to be heard.
“Mae I need to know about my father. Was he the other person with you? We had an email that said two passengers had made their own way to the Spa.”
How do I tell an already stressed person, who has no mother that her father was killed underwater by a torpedo sent from the very place meant to keep her and her family safe? How do I tell her that his body remains at the bottom of the sea, trapped and unreachable? That his last wish was to tell her that he loved her endlessly but that she needed to know the truth. Is this the right time? Would there ever be an appropriate time?
Julia needs to think clearly and with purpose. She is in danger just as much as me. She has broken rules and trusts, more alarming to me is that she and her sister are deceiving Natura. I will not put her in more danger. Knowing will make no difference to the Grand Acer's situation at this time but not knowing will increase this lovely person's chance of getting out unheard and unseen.
“Your father did not come with me. I was helped by a very strong and gifted Mono called Willem. If you find him or see his name on The Grid system, please help him he is vital to this takeover.”
“ALL CHAPERONES ARE TO INITIATE THE TEN SECOND COUNTDOWN SEQUENCE. ONCE INITIATED ALL CHAPERONES MUST EXIT IMMEDIATELY.”
This is it, the countdown that I have experienced before. This time I am prepared. No tethers, more importantly no connection to that monitor. It means I can escape if I need to without being brainwashed. I have been thrown a lifeline by my mother and I am going to use it.
As the digital numbers on the display in front of me reduced all too quickly, I searched for Julia's hand. I squeezed as Willem always had, to show reassurance and empathy. However as I connected with her soft clammy skin an overwhelming, warm feeling flowed along my arm and out through my fingers. It felt like an itch but on the inside of my skin, moving from behind my neck radiating down and branching out. Julia jumped a little at first just as I felt the itch reach my fingertips, then she stared into a space behind me. After no more than a few seconds she focussed back at my face. Her expression became impossible to read, her skin was as white as the corridor walls, and I observed a slight tremble in her eye and bottom lip. As my chair initiated its final movements towards the exit tunnel she managed to mouthâ¦
“Thank you for showing me the truth. Don't feel ashamed, it was what he asked.”
The doors closed suddenly behind my headrest.
She was gone.
What did she mean, it was what he asked; did I communicate to her somehow?
What did I show her?
To: [email protected], [email protected],
cc: [email protected],
Subject: change of travel plans.
Message: The group booking has arrived at the agreed service entrance. Luggage and documents to follow. I will need the clearance code to proceed further. Two of the party members have been taken ill during the journey. I politely request authorisation for an immediate medical consultation.
From Luke
“Life lived a different way!”
Subject: re change of travel plans.
Message: Hi Luke, It's a real pleasure to hear from you and a relief to know that you have found the service entrance. We are extremely glad to be welcoming your VIP party. I have already assigned a medic to your party. She will be more than capable of assisting your guests. I plan to welcome you myself into The Intentionality Spa and Conference Centre. Please make yourself comfortable. I am the only employee with knowledge of your specific timetabling needs, so I would appreciate your patience in waiting for my arrival. Please do not be persuaded to venture into the Spa with another member of staff.
From Julia, Head of Reception
The room is cold and still as I remember. The temperature is clearly being controlled artificially. The lighting is dull. My surroundings are as I expected, but what is new to my senses is the mechanical hum of the Ascension screens, pumping out questions and pictures to The Grid girls. Due to my ability to move out of the restraint position, I can clearly see that the rating process is working here as it did during the test. Lily and I are positioned just below the roof. None of the chairs are active at this point, on this level. All lights from the chairs in the four or five layers directly below me are golden. The girls are working at full capacity. However the girls on the floor are not rating at all. I can assume that they are in a rest phase.
We are in rows of ten; in front of me there are nine other rows. I can see at least one full layer below, which adds up to a horrifying amount of new Acers in suspended animation. Surely they cannot all come from Alpha Nest. I have only ever noted a maximum ten girls ascend at any one time during the twice-yearly harvest.
“Mae I can see your chair shaking on its support. Stop moving we are supposed to be hiding,” communicated Lily.
“How long do you think we will be here? I am already feeling uncomfortable,” she added.
“During the short time that I relived the life of our mother, I felt that she was definitely here for many cycles of the test before her rest period. She never saw anyone leave. The only voices were the guards who checked on her vital signs. I can tell you this though. A power surge is due in just a few hours and I guess we will see some sort of movement around about that time.”
In that warm, comfortable cocooned environment, we both drifted in a world in between alert and daydream. Not necessarily sleep but heavy headed muffled isolation. I became aware that I was being spoken to, around two sentences into a conversation.
“⦠so you must either get out of those chairs, or plug yourselves in to remain invisible in plain sight, however we don't know what Mrs Alder's rehabilitation program will do to you both.”
No one could even nearly reach me up here with that tone of hoarse voice, and laboured thinking. Then it became obvious to me that I was receiving a message through my Evo communication pathway, which meant it was only one of two people. The first had a higher pitched voice and could not know that sort of information about Mrs Alder because she was quite literally as much âin the dark' as I was. The other I had been thinking about moments before, half preparing myself for the grieving process. I had been thinking about the worst that could have happened to him with such a sudden and catastrophic loss of his blood. Then I had begun hoping on the positive side that he was collected by The Resistance, allowing him to be treated by a medic and of course there was always the possibility that Nurse Spendlove was on her way. However, never in that thought process was there the guess that he would be communicating to me anytime today.
“Willem it's such a relief to hear from you. I hope you don't mind me saying that you sound horrific. I only tuned into half of that instruction, sorry,” I replied.
There was a long silence then, enough for me to consider the possibility that I had been hallucinating. Nothing seemed to be happening to anyone or anything near me. The girls below still seemed to be in darkness, no light from their display screens or the hum of the speakers. In front, behind and above me life seemed to be ebbing away as ânormal' in this prison.
“Mae, we need to decide what to do. Unlike you I was listening! I am too petrified to be anything less than fully alert! Mrs Alder has accessed the master drive with the help of Julia. During those last few days on The Nest she created a software virus designed to rehabilitate The Grid girls. Of course she isn't convinced that it will work but it is worth a chance.”
My mind is running at a rate likely to cause a complete Grid blow out. Firstly, Mrs Alder is in the âSpa', this surely means that others made it too. This in turn makes that sacrifice made earlier with the Jeep, by Willem, worth it. Also a realisation hits me that this could be the beginning of the end for this inhumane practise. We may even be lucky enough to get these girls back.
“We have a job to do Mae, one last push forward and then we have been told to stay in our chairs and wait for the cavalry! We need to switch on the chairs housing the Acer girls in the level below us. They all need to receive the virus simultaneously. Mrs Alder, Nurse Spendlove and the medic will be able to judge how it is working if they can see all of the results at the same time. It also means that we can wake the girls up at the same time in order to take them to safety.”
*
With hindsight we should have first investigated the chance of there being an alarm system. The idea of such should not have been too far from our minds as we had lived with movement sensors our whole life. However we were in a way working under orders, not ready to question and not trained for army manoeuvres. The climb down the service ladders from our chairs would most likely have triggered a warning signal in the guard's room. But during our descent we heard nothing unusual. I even congratulated Lily on her gymnastic prowess!
We both decided to look at one particular chair. It was on the end so was easily accessible. We thought that if we could engage this chair into action, the others may follow in sequence. At the very least we would have worked out how to do it.
Inside the chair, cocooned in fur and the space suit was the smallest girl I have ever seen. Her skin appeared to be opaque, blue veins clearly visible directly underneath. The skin lay tight over her bones making the once deep, dark, curled eyelashes on her eyelids appear twice the size necessary. Her black hair stuck greasy and lank to the fur cushion around her face. This Acer looked already too ill for us to save. She had been here for too long, experiencing that Ascension terror too many times. She couldn't possibly be able to make the golden light shine. We didn't want to be the ones to switch this poor girl's screen back on when she looked at least peaceful.
Lily decided to look at the chair next to the end but sadly this was the same story. The girl this time was blonde, beautiful, lithe, but withered and aged. She could not have been more than seventeen because that is the age when we are chosen to ascend; yet she could have been fifty. She had a feeding tube connected to her through her nose. She lay in opposition to the girl on the end. Where the first girl had been still and peaceful this girl twitched endlessly. Lily burst into tears fuelled with outrage, for this girl we recognised as one of our own. This girl had been harvested from Alpha Nest. I think it's possible that we watched her achieve her golden light not eighteen months ago.
I found myself searching my memory for her name to make her seem more like a person, one we related to personally. Lily remembered first, it was Stephanie. Stephanie had been such a lively, kind, strong person. She had once helped Lily and me with a project in nature studies. This realisation horrified the both of us. We both decided that we should save these girls, who were not the ones being cold and heartless. Switching these girls back onto the Ascension process one last time may save them.
We searched those chairs for a switch or a code, maybe a button on the back of the screen however we came to the conclusion that the system was activated remotely and this we believe was the final trigger in the warning system. Lily stepped outside the chair Grid onto some metal flooring. At the exact moment that her weight became borne by the flooring, harsh, blaring horns initiated along with a sudden immobilising brightness caused by enormous searchlights.
Is this what happened to our mother? Did she attempt an escape this way?
In the moments I had before the guards arrived, I tried to take in the room, now illuminated. The chairs were set in a cuboid formation. Around the perimeter following the lines of the metal flooring were cameras and huge wires. Bright yellow signs with a thunderbolt, warn the workers of a high voltage and therefore electrocution. The egg shaped chairs had both identification numbers relating to the Acer inside and a date, presumably the date of entry. It became obvious that the chairs on the floor were no longer connected to the same wires as the rest. Then I spotted it. The death sentence⦠the words FOR DISPOSAL.
It is those shocking, factory processing words that hold my attention now as I am being marched, I know not where, by some of the tallest men I have ever seen, through the same clinical white corridors used in The Nest. They flooded through sliding doors housed at the end of the room; they shot at us with guns that stung. I hit the floor first trying to protect Lily. She fought hard against the numbing of her legs but they eventually caught her as she ran out of options under Stephanie's chair.
Lily is shouting at them, clearly her plan is to cause as much physical damage as she possibly can, being manhandled as a result. I have decided to glean as much information from these robots as possible. We are on our way to The Headquarters. Ironically, Natura is the only one keeping us safe! Apparently she has made it quite clear that not even the beginnings of a bruise should be evident when they present us to her. If this is not the case they will be sent to the tunnel, evidently a place for the chronically unlucky. Having already met two examples of what the tunnels can do, I am sure that we are relatively safe during our journey. I have already communicated to Willem. No response, so we will be on our own.
Ahead there is a travelator, and just beyond this, coming more obviously in to view are the golden entrance doors of Natura's Palace. I know this because she adores grandeur, and there is a plaque stating that the doors are the entrance to the Garden of Eden. She really has been pampered and indulged to the edge of sanity.