Chapter two
WRITTEN BY: KELLEY TOWNLEY
ILLUSTRATED BY: EDEN REEVE
Read with ambient sound:
CHAPTER two
Esther huffed.
This was taking too long.
They’d been up and down the entire fence-line in both directions. Every edge went right up to a rock-face, hammered in with giant steel pins. And every gate was patrolled. No one was getting through undetected, despite the large number of desperate citizens pressing in from the other side. It was possible ASH had underestimated how many people there were to evacuate from the area.
“So, they’re scanning people for signs of unthreading,” said Amaia. “Then what?”
“I guess anyone with thread-damage is taken to medical,” said Belek.
“But why are ASH so worried?” said Jahan. “Unthreading only happens in a storm, right? It’s not like it’s contagious or anything.”
“No one knows that for sure.” said Belek. “It’s only been a few weeks.”
“We do,” said Esther. “Clearly. And if you’re on this team, you should know why.”
“No additional spread patterns!” Amaia piped up.
“Exactly,” said Esther. “Point to the intern.”
Jahan mouthed, ‘teacher’s pet’ and Amaia smiled and stuck her tongue out.
“Sure,” said Belek. “But the Braid is completely new to us. It goes way beyond known science. Maybe it spreads super slowly. Maybe it spreads some other way. Maybe it’s doing something completely different that we don’t even know about yet. People affected need to be studied.”
“Well, we can’t go around quarantining everybody,” Esther said stiffly. “We’d be better off just getting on with things. Some will live, some will die.”
Amaia stared at a gate, bloated with human misery. “It would certainly speed up the evacuation process if they didn’t stop to scan every person coming through.”
“GET BACK!” came a sudden shout, making Amaia jump. “MAKE ROOM!”
It had come from an ASH official as citizens on the other side of the fence were starting to crowd in on the slow-moving queue.
“It does seem to be getting a bit pressured over there,” Belek said uncomfortably.
“Hard to believe the Braid has actually made parts of our world uninhabitable,” said Jahan.
“Hard to believe only because we’ve taken our world for granted for so long,” said Amaia. “Going about our business every day, assuming that everything would always be here for us.”
“Not anymore,” agreed Belek.
Amaia started chewing her lip. “How are we going to get it back, though? What if we can’t? What if we never do?”
“One step at a time,” said Belek. “I’m sure we will, one day. But, for now, let’s save what we can, just in case. I’d hate to see Hylocomium splendens disappear forever.”
“Which one’s that?” said Amaia, grateful for the distraction. “The red-stemmed one?”
“No,” said Belek. “The glittering woodmoss with the splendid feathering.”
“Oh, I know. Lovely texture. So, what’s your favourite bryophyte?”
Belek gave a happy sigh. “Now, that’s a good question…”
Esther paced irritably. Who gave a fig about mosses? The ARK Program already had plenty of samples. What they were doing here was much more important. And they needed to get into that damned contamination zone NOW!
Esther stopped pacing to see the others staring at her. “What?” she snapped.
“Don’t worry, boss,” said Jahan. “You’ll think of something. Here, have something to eat. It’ll help.”
Esther took the offered energy bar and bit into it aggressively. Around them bedraggled refugees shuffled past to wait in long queues. ASH officials organised the lines and checked names off lists as people boarded transport vehicles to the emergency relief centres – centres that Esther knew were already beginning to over-fill. As a senior faculty member at the Polyatrium, Esther was well placed to know a lot more than most. Knew that Amaia’s concerns were minor in comparison to the truth. And yet still her important theory hadn’t been taken seriously.
“It’s amazing how many people still don’t think the Braid is a big deal,” said Amaia, picking up on the mood. “I have a cousin in Dolmen who doesn’t even believe it’s real. Claims it’s some kind of conspiracy. Just something to unite us all in these dark times. Follows a group called Cosmic Mirth.”
“And what do you think?” said Jahan.
“I’m here, aren’t I? It’s a bit harder to brush off when you’ve seen it with your own eyes.”
“And what have you seen, little intern?” He smiled.
“More than you,” Amaia said, folding her arms.
Belek leant back with a smirk. This ought to be good.
“OK. So where were you when the Braid Incident hit then?” Jahan asked.
“Eboracum City,” said Amaia.
Jahan blinked.
“Ouch,” admitted Belek.
“Exactly,” said Amaia. “I saw plenty of people unravel right before my eyes!”
“Not bad,” said Jahan. “Wanna guess where I was?”
Amaia narrowed her eyes. There weren’t many places worse hit that Eboracum. Unless…
“You weren’t… You can’t have been…”
Jahan nodded once, sharply. “I was. Right there, at the VAU Research Facility.”
“Poppycock!” Amaia declared, making Belek laugh.
“I was,” said Jahan. “Not inside the building, obviously, or I wouldn’t be here today, but just outside. On my way home. I’d just been to see Dr Kazama, actually.”
Amaia’s mouth dropped open, prompting Belek to reassure her. “It’s true. It’s his only claim to fame.”
Jahan shrugged. “I was probably the last living person to see Dr Kazama alive.”
Belek tilted his head. “How did you get an audience with the late, great Dr Kazama?”
“Nothing special,” Jahan admitted. “Just hand-delivering a parcel from Professor Hearn.”
“Always courting favour,” Belek grinned.
“Well, you know, tenure doesn’t come cheap.”
“What was it?” said Amaia. “What did you deliver?”
“Didn’t exactly peek, did I?”
“But… you don’t think…”
“Pfft!” Jahan spat. “Don’t be daft. There wasn’t nearly enough time for anything I did to have influenced the Braid Incident. I was barely out of the building when it hit.”
Amaia pulled a face in concern.
“Oh, stop it,” said Jahan. “Whatever happened at the VAU went well beyond a little package I brought from the professor.”
But Amaia didn’t look convinced, and even Belek stroked his beard thoughtfully.
“What about you, Dr Sutton?” said Jahan, changing the focus of the conversation. “Where were you during the Incident?”
Esther found herself pulled from her troubling thoughts, into a no-less troubling memory. She’d been out in the fields behind her house when it happened, riding Castan. It’d been a beautifully calm afternoon and a delightful ride. They were trotting home when, out of nowhere, came the bright purple light that everyone on the planet had seen after the VAU exploded. It was so unnatural, yet so alluring. At first.
They’d stopped to look, of course. And then, just like everyone else, they’d experienced a sense of timelessness as the whole world seemed suspended for a moment. Anything not tied down had briefly floated, as if in a weightless vacuum: Esther perched upon Castan, who looked down at his floating legs in panic. Before alarmingly coming back down to earth with a head-slamming jolt.
But worse was to come.
As whatever it was that had radiated out from VAU rebounded, it passed back through and unthreading claimed its first victims. A good chunk of the world’s population gone in mere minutes. Although it was hard to be sure of exact numbers when everything was left in such chaos afterwards.
At the time, Esther had landed on the ground, hard. She was still sitting there, unbuckling her riding hat, trying to process what had just happened, when Castan whinnied. He was upset, understandably. His strong, chestnut-brown legs pawing the ground. Esther was getting to her feet, mumbling reassuring phrases, when she noticed the tips of his beautiful ears were glowing. A bright, purply luminescence. And they seemed to be disappearing. His tail too was illuminated, and grew shorter and shorter even as she watched, until it just wasn’t there anymore. By the time she’d reached him, his haunches were completely gone, right before her eyes, and at such speed! Not like nowadays, when unthreading happened much more slowly. This initial, worldwide tragedy was swift and terrifying.
Castan had nuzzled Esther for reassurance as she’d clung to his reins, as if holding on would keep him with her. But the nuzzling stopped as his head continued to fade away, and Esther’s vision began to blur with tears. She was left to cradle the remaining head as she looked into the eyes she’d cherished and raised from a foal, only to have them look back, not with the familiar dark brown, but with swirling purple; as if they contained the whole cosmos. Until even those were gone, and Esther was all alone in the world, in a field in the middle of nowhere, with a burning desire to know what had just happened, why, and who to blame.
“I was at home,” Esther finally replied.
The others exchanged glances.
“But you were alright?” said Amaia. “No thread-damage?”
“No,” said Esther. “But Cas… my horse wasn’t so lucky.”
“Oh. I’m so sorry,” said Belek. “I didn’t know.”
Esther straightened. “There are worse things to lose.”
But the pain was visible as she wandered off, leaving the rest of the group to wait in awkward silence for their indomitable boss to figure out what to do next.
Esther frowned and refocused. OK. Fine. So, what next? They needed to get inside that contamination zone. At whatever cost. The very fate of humanity depended on it. Damn those new recruits. Not so easy to manipulate after all. And yet not trained nearly enough for this mess either. Esther winced as a citizen broke through the line – or merely fell – and a panicked official knocked them to the ground. The already unhappy crowd rippled with outrage. Things were getting ugly, and it was only a matter of time before…
Oh.
Oh, good.
As if on cue, out on the horizon, there was a purple flash. The entire camp stopped what they were doing to look up. DANGER. It ran through veins like wildfire: a primeval surge for survival. At whatever cost.
“Get ready,” said Esther, suddenly returning and grabbing her bags.
“What for?” said Amaia, but the others were already grabbing their kit.
“When the boss says get ready,” said Belek. “You get ready.”
Amaia quickly put her rucksack on. “But I don’t…”
Suddenly, a unified cry of desperate terror rose up from the back of the crowd, cresting into great momentum. The people were done waiting. With the Braid gearing up behind them, they’d had enough, and they pushed forward. Hard.
The handful of officials at the gate panicked. They slammed the gates shut as the huge tide of people surged towards them, crushing people’s arms and legs in the process.
“What are they doing?” said a shocked Amaia.
Esther watched steadily as Belek stroked his beard in unhappy agitation.
With no knowledge of the fatal crush they were creating at the front, the panicked crowd kept pushing. People began crying out. Faces contorted in pain. Bodies struggled to breathe. And the fence began to waver.
Belek stared in horror. “It’s not going to hold.”
“Good,” said Jahan. “Or people are going to die.”
“People are going to die anyway,” said Esther. “Quickly. This way.”
“But this is directly TOWARDS the danger!” Amaia called in concern.
“No time for questions,” said Belek. “Trust the doctor.”
The posts that kept the gateway in place started to teeter. Sirens blared. ASH officials came running to secure the gate. And Esther led her team directly across the bulging gateway.
“GET OUT OF THE WAY, YOU IDIOTS!” someone shouted.
“Sorry!” called Belek.
“Why don’t they just open it?” puffed Jahan.
The fence wavered like seasickness. There were wails of helplessness from those trapped at the front, but there was no stopping the surge now. One by one, the posts were coming down.
“Hurry!” yelled Esther, sprinting ahead.
There was a screech of metal as the fence inevitably fell, followed by the dull thud of sacks of meat hitting the ground and being trampled on as the panicked masses flooded over, narrowly missing Amaia as she ran behind the others.
“BREACH!!!”
The shout rang out and even more ASH officials came running: a tiny sea of uniforms against a growing tsunami of fear.
“Fat lot of good they’ll do,” Jahan panted as they came to a stop.
Turning to look, Amaia saw wave after wave of people easily swarm ASH as they poured into camp. But not everyone made it. Many fell. Some turned to help. They were quickly bludgeoned out of the way. Small children slipped out of sight. Loved ones cried out. Still more fell. Still more were crushed. And yet still more came.
“Plek’s sake,” Jahan said, turning away.
“We should do something,” said Amaia, knowing full well there was nothing any of them could do.
Beside her, Belek reverberated in barely controlled anger. And beside him, Esther breathed low and slow. This was good. This was for the greater good. The obstacle in their way was coming down. Soon, they would achieve their goal.
They were up at the edge of the fence, where it was hammered into the rock-face, and where the steel pins securing it were already screeching in protest.
“Watch out!” Belek called, pulling Amaia out of the way as a pin was yanked out and flew past them.
She gasped and looked back to see a small gap forming where the fence was being pulled away.
“This is our way in,” said Esther. “No one will notice us slip in now.”
Jahan and Belek nodded, but Amaia just stared at them all like they already had holes in their heads. “We’re going in? But what about the Braid?”
“It just lights,” said Esther. “The actual storm is a long way off.”
“Yeah, but still out there somewhere,” said Amaia.
But Esther didn’t care.
The clock was ticking.
