Divided (22 page)

     ‘Ready?’ he asks.

     ‘Where are we going?’ I ask him suspiciously.

     He smiles at me. ‘It’s a surprise!’

     I have second thoughts, but curiosity gets the better of me as I follow him down the hall in the opposite direction of the training room.

     We walk down hall after hall, climbing down several storeys until Dan stops at a wall and holds his arm out to stop me.

     ‘Here?’ I ask him.

     The wall is featureless, no doors or anything to distinguish it as anything special.

     ‘No, not exactly “here”, but here,’ he says, making no sense at all.

     ‘Oh, thanks for clearing that up,’ I say sarcastically.

     ‘I mean that this is the place we have to go to be able to get to the place we’re going,’ he explains, crouching down and lifting up a small part of the carpet.

     I peer over his shoulder, and sure enough, there is a small hatch, able to fit a person comfortably enough.

     ‘Here,’ he says.

     ‘Stop it with the “here”,’ I mutter.

     He ignores me and opens the hatch. A wooden ladder extends downwards into darkness. He crawls down into it, and makes his way down the ladder.

     ‘Rest the carpet on the hatch, so it folds down with it,’ he instructs me as I follow him.

     I close the hatch behind me, making sure the carpet will go down with it, and climb down, the tunnel getting darker the further down we get. It’s a very old passageway.

     ‘Mind your step,’ he says, as his feet touch the bottom with a gentle thud.

     The passageway we’re stood in now slopes downwards, looking down into the darkness. It’s easy to get lost down here, especially with no light. My eyes slowly adjust to see several different paths. I hope he knows where he’s going. It smells earthy, like I’m in the forest at night. The smell somehow feels too familiar, as if I am where I belong. I inhale the familiar smell, before walking into the darkness, following Dan.

     After at least an entire hour of walking, we finally stop. He hasn’t spoken once, but he told me to be quiet when I asked where we were going.

     ‘Up here,’ he says finally, his voice making me jump.

     He pulls a thick rope that I can barely see due to the lack of light. Ladders unfold themselves with a series of dull creaks. They land at our feet and we both begin to climb upwards.

     ‘Here,’ he says, and this time I can sense the humour in his tone.

     Suddenly light fills the thin tunnel we’re in, almost blinding me. He climbs out first, and offers me his hand, pulling me up to the surface. He puts the heavy metal lid back onto the ground, hiding the tunnel as I stare in awe around me. Huge buildings surround us, bigger than anything I’ve ever seen before. All of a sudden, everything comes back to me. Lee, the tablet, my real life in the Tribe, Kai, and my mission from Papa. The pain returns in small waves, but is overcome easily by the excitement at the city around me. We’re outside the wall of the Compound, and this half of the city is still functional! Hundreds of people are walking around in clean, colourful clothes, some of them with tamed dogs. Cars zoom past on the roads and uniformed men carry black cases. Two people pass me, running in bright yellow clothes. I spin around slowly, taking everything in. If anything has made me question my identity, this is it. Somehow, as if by miracle, these people have lives, as if the world hasn’t been destroyed around them.

     ‘Amazing, right?’ Dan says, leaning against a wall.

     ‘How?!’ I ask.

     For this to be possible, there have to be other countries in the world safe, too! This can’t be the only place that is running! I remember Papa explaining to me exactly how the Old World worked, and how the countries exchanged items that can only be found or made in their own country, with ones from other countries. Production of fuel was still going ahead... somewhere! Their clothes can’t just be second-hand, from the Old World, and they all look healthy, so their food is coming from somewhere, too!

     ‘It’s a thrilling story, but I’ll explain it to you somewhere less public,’ he says, grinning broadly at me, his glasses glinting in the sunlight.

     ‘Am I dreaming?’ I ask, laughing with him.

     ‘Oh believe me, this is only the start!’ he says with such excitement and eagerness that he’s like a young child itching to share his imagination with me.

     Only this isn’t imaginary, this is completely real! A world that isn’t Tribe or Compound, or even Hunter. It’s the Old World! Just like Papa described it was like!

     We start crossing the road. Dan stops, but I can’t stop now! I can’t wait, I have to see more! I step into the road, and suddenly, a car zooms past me, hitting me with a chilly blast of wind. Once the car passes us, the wind drags me slightly in the direction of the car. I laugh as I sweep the hair out of my face. Then a shrill beeping noise sounds from somewhere. I look around for the source of the sound. It sounds like an alarm... have they found out we’re here? A crowd of people begin walking towards us and it dawns on me that the beeping is signalling that no more cars are approaching. Dan runs to me, a terrified look on his face.

     ‘Are you mad?!’ he shouts. ‘You could have gotten yourself killed if that hit you!’

     I roll my eyes. ‘I’ve killed Hunters, Dan! It’s not like this is more dangerous!’

     I instantly regret saying “Hunters”. Now he’ll guess where I’ve been. His face doesn’t change though.

     ‘That’s a simulation game, Arys! This is reality!’

     Game? Have they made the horrors of life in tribes into a game for these people? He grabs my hand forcefully, and leads me across the road. His angry mood doesn’t last long, and before long, we’re laughing together again. He leads me through the streets, and I look at the street names that we walk along, trying to take them all in... “
Jameson Street
”, “
Percy Street
”, “
Baker Street
”, until we finally arrive at a building with a sign hanging over the top. I stare up at it reading the words aloud.

     ‘The Coffee Mug – Est. 2027’ I say, turning to Dan.

     ‘It’s a little old fashioned,’ he laughs. ‘But it has the best coffee, you’ll see!’

     ‘A little old fashioned?!’ I giggle. ‘It’s practically ancient!’

     As we walk in, a bell rings above the door. An actual bell, not an electronic replacement. Inside, there are little circular tables and chairs. Everyone sits talking and laughing. Instantly, the smell hits me. The smell is one of the nicest I’ve ever smelled, the very essence seemingly filling my brain, giving me a mad craving for something I’ve never tasted.

     ‘Find us a table while I order,’ he says, walking to the end of the shop.

     I look around, not sure what to do, but I weave my way in between tables until I finally find one next to the window with two seats opposite each other. I sit down, watching the people in the city live their lives. A life that is thought to have died out fifteen years ago. Opposite me is a large building that people are constantly walking in and out of, their arms laden with bags of various sizes and colours.

     Dan comes back, holding two large mugs of steaming coffee, and what looks like a small, black loaf of bread. The coffee smells like the room does, but a much stronger smell. He sets the mugs down, and pushes the bread-like food into my hand.

     ‘It’s a chocolate muffin,’ he laughs at the look of confusion on my face. ‘You’ve surely eaten them before at the Compound?’ 

     ‘If I have, I don’t remember it,’ I reply, eyeing the muffin, pretending to try and recall seeing it before.

     ‘It’s strong stuff then, that memory wiping drug!’ he says, smiling slightly.

     ‘You have no idea,’ I say mysteriously. ‘I assume you will though, if they find out you’ve been here.’

     ‘Is that why you had it do you think?’ he asks curiously. ‘Because you’ve been here before? I mean, I know other people who have had their memories removed, but none of them have been as severe as to forget muffins!’

     ‘Maybe,’ I laugh, taking a sip of the coffee.

     It tastes equally as good as it smells, and as my mouth fills with the taste, I can’t help but smile. He smiles back at me enthusiastically.

     ‘Great, isn’t it?!’ he says happily.

     ‘Better than I could have imagined!’ I reply. ‘But you have to tell me who these people are though! And how is this city not destroyed?!’

     ‘Well, this might be hard to explain,’ he says. ‘But here goes. You know those hunters from the simulation game you mentioned earlier? The hunters from the game were... inspired by real hunters. The game is based on reality.’

     ‘You mean... these people are the Hunters? This is where the Hunters live?’

     ‘Yeah!’ he exclaims, almost excitedly. ‘It’s crazy! And they have these underground labs that recreate the environment and heat of other countries. They have plantations of foreign supplies and food sources! From what I’ve gathered, they were invented before the earthquake, but it’s how they still have coffee!’

     I don’t care about how they get their coffee all of a sudden and I want to know about the Hunters who surround me now.

     ‘Wait! Back up a minute!’ I say quickly. ‘So these ordinary people go into the tribes and kill everyone?’

     ‘You... you know of the tribes?’ he asks suspiciously.

     I put my head into my hands, trying not to cry. One of the people in this city, even in this shop could have killed Papa. I want to avenge him, to kill that person, and even everyone else for Charlotte... for Cara. But then I remember what Lee said. They’re all chipped. They can’t stop it.

     ‘There’s something I have to tell you,’ I say, taking a deep breath. ‘Can I trust you?’

     He nods. ‘Of course! What is it?’

     ‘Not here though. Is there anywhere else we can go where no one will hear?’

     He gets up and walks back to the end of the shop, and I follow him. He hands a tall, grey haired man a note and a few coins. Currency... Papa explained that to me too, I’m surprised it’s still used here.

     ‘My friend hasn’t seen the city from above, could we visit the roof?’ Dan says, smiling politely at the man.

     The man smiles, and takes a key from his belt. The way he smiles reminds me for a fleeting moment of Papa. How he smiled... Even when the world was falling apart around us, he smiled; he kept the Tribe strong.

     ‘Sure thing,’ he says kindly. ‘The chairs are still up there from the last time we had people there.’

     ‘Thanks!’ Dan says as the man leads us both up some steps and, unlocking a door, takes us out into the daylight.

48

Kai

We have spent almost a day at the Festival, and the excitement hasn’t settled down. If anything, it’s increased. I sit at the front of a small crowd around the centre fire and watch as the children from another tribe recreate a Hunter attack, where all of the tribe come out triumphant and the Hunters lie dead around them. I join in with the cheering and applause as they all take a bow and the children who were acting the Hunters stand up, as if rising from the dead. Kayra comes and sits with me as we watch a man with wild hair and a long, tangled beard takes the place of the kids and begins to play a light-hearted tune on his violin. Kayra hasn’t been herself all day. I never saw her after arriving last night, and now she’s always looking behind herself, as if someone will come and take her away or kill her. I lightly touch her shoulder, and she suddenly grabs my shirt and throws me to the ground with surprising force.

     ‘Hey! It’s just me!’ I shout in surprise.

     She releases me instantly and applause bursts around us as the drunken onlookers enjoy the possibility of a little violence.

     ‘Sorry,’ she mumbles, getting up and sitting back down where we were before.

     ‘What’s wrong? You’re safe here!’ I say to her, hesitantly sitting next to her.

     ‘I... found my brother,’ she says in barely a whisper. ‘Or he found me at least.’

     ‘Your brother?! I never knew you had one!’ I say.

     In all the time I’ve known Arys, she never mentioned a brother. I begin to think she’s been drinking too, but she doesn’t seem the type to drink.

     ‘Me neither,’ she says, still in her quiet voice. ‘I shouldn’t have ever left the Compound!’

     She kicks a pan over in anger, the boiled water splashing over the dirt with a hiss, and the steam rising rapidly, earning us both a disgusted look from the violin player.

     ‘Don’t ever say that! Without you, Arys will still believe you’re dead!’

     She shakes her head, tears filling her eyes. ‘No, without me, Arys would be safe. She’s at the Compound.’

     ‘What?!’ I say, standing up suddenly.

     Arys?! At the Compound. An odd mixture of relief that she’s alive and horror at the place she’s in fills me.

     ‘My brother has run away, back to “daddy” to tell him that I’m alive and have been living under the roof he provided for fifteen years. Henry isn’t my real dad, Victor Thorne is. The leader of Unity and the one in control of the Compound. I’m going to be captured... I’ve failed my mission and I can’t imagine what will happen to Arys!’

     ‘No, that won’t happen!’ I tell her with as much authority as I can. ‘Henry is here somewhere. We’re going to find him and he’ll know exactly what to do.’

     She shakes her head slowly. ‘There are thousands of people here; it will take too long to find him! I’ll be captured before we’ll be able to!’

     ‘I’m not going to let that happen, Kayra.’