Nemecene: The Epoch of Redress (13 page)

"On hush mode again? Where are you? You were supposed to—"

"Shhh. Listen. Someone's at the window, in the medical lab. I can see. No. Wait. They're gone. Crap. I have to get out of here. Where are you?"

"I'm at the back gate." He's early.

"You were supposed to wait for my call."

"I did. It's already 7:20. Our mick won't be hanging around for too long I wager. Should I go through the woods and meet you at the front?"

"No. You bent! They'll be here any minute. I have to get to you. Stay at the gate. I'll head into the Social Studies sector and cross Rubrique Court then come around the other side. I'm switching to one-way." I can't have the chatter right now.

No one ahead. Scan the windows. No one there either. Ok. Go! Ears, stay sharp. Just need to reach that dark nook over there and then check again. Made it. Wait. I heard something. I think I'm being followed. There it is again. There's the archway into the sector. I can't see anything out there. Probably just a rodent. Head through the arch and ok. Get my bearings. Which path leads back southeast around the residence complex? There, between those two buildings on the left. The lights just went out. Listen. I hear footsteps. They're definitely behind me. I have to get through those buildings. Just move. Fast. I'm still on one-way, Keet's probably beating the comm just about now. Better say something. There's a tunnel on the right, I can hide there for a bit.

"I think I'm being followed. I'm almost at the northwest branch. Shhh. The footsteps have stopped. I can make it to the security zone if I run. Almost there. Don't worry."

"She has come."

No! The voice! It's them! Too much echo. I can't tell where it's coming from. If I stay here, they'll find me. I am so cold. Here I go. Deep breath in. Surge like the flood, girl. Take the tunnel, right down the steps, and "Ahhhhhhhhh…"

Day 25: Late Evening

I
don't even recall what events unfolded earlier today. My nerves haven't come down yet from Eli's last words, echoing in my brain. All I could hear was her panting as the cold air came down upon her, and then her final scream. That's when I started running as fast as my legs could carry me, along the outside wall of the campus, begging for a break in the fence so that I could find a way to reach her, our childhood playing in my mind as painful sobs came shooting out my lungs.

The comm was still active and seemingly functional in one-way mode, but part of me wished that it had not told me the story I am about to share with you. She was being followed, that much I knew, but who or what exactly was following her still obsesses me. I heard her body hit the ground, tripping on something hard as far as I could tell, just as her shrieking voice flew out of her hand. The sound of it whistling through the darkness, reminiscent of the night we first breached the back entrance by the ivy wall, has come to represent the flare of emotions fizzling into the depths of my very soul. The echo of scurrying feet in the distance and shadows of a conversation I could barely hear paralyzed my ability to think as I tried desperately to comb the forest for a manageable climb. My leap into the courtyard would surely alert the protectors, I imagined, but the eventuality of a capture was a risk I had to take.

As I neared the perimeter, I clipped my comm to my shirt collar and dug my fingers into the knots of the closest tree, straining my ears all the while to filter whatever I could from the air. At this point, I could barely see. My eyes started to swell from the salty flood, but my hands inherently knew where to reach, leading my body and pulling me swiftly up the trunk. As I looked onto the clearing beside the Social Studies sector, the unsettling conversation continued resonating from within the confines of the arcades formed by the tunneled entrances into the square, whispering evidence of their crime. "It is done, we must leave now."

I cannot relinquish to mere words what I felt at that moment, only to say that I took your heart in mine and suffered a puncture so real as to send me clutching my chest as I slumped to the ground. Expecting the intrusion to immerse the courtyard in light, I sank to the shadows and steadied my breath. But darkness remained, and an eerie stillness took hold. The voices were leaving, their presence diminishing in the distance, as they hastily retreated into the void, and the peaceful song of the night flyers calmed my senses.

I was three steps from the main arches when I heard it move through the comm. At the time I had not attributed the soft fluttering to anything other than those winged minstrels dancing in the wind, but once I had reached the area leading to the northwest branch of Van Billund Hall that Eli was referring to in her last words, I stepped back in horror as I stood directly in the path of a tall dark creature, numbing my trembling body as it advanced. It was holding a limp bundle in its arms underneath a layered cloak, then as if powered by the power of a million stars, my strength returned. Eli!

Nothing in the universe could have thwarted the fury I unleashed onto this monster, as I surprised my legs and shot straight for it. Startled and off-balance, it dropped its captive and fled the scene empty-handed as the light returned to the pathway. The air was still cool, and I could see no mist escaping the lifeless form on the granite stones. Swallowing whatever fear remained in my tightening throat, I knelt beside her and brushed the blanket from her face. The confusion that followed left me scrambling for answers. Under the veil of darkness, it had been impossible for me to distinguish precisely the stature of this girl, but as I huddled beside her, it was clearly that of a child, no more than nine.

As my relief turned to fear once again, the realization that Eli could still be in danger consumed me. Could the voices have taken her? Or was she lying somewhere near, unconscious and bleeding to death? "No," is all I could hear my heart say, so I left the girl covered and vowed to find Eli. As I stood, I noticed a three-story high passageway. I went towards the arched tunnel, guided by the weak signal of her ditched comm, and down a few steps is where I found it, and a few steps further I found him. Stitch was leaning over Eli, looking intently at her head, wiping the wound with the sleeve of his shirt. He then removed his jacket, covered her legs with it to keep her warm and greeted me with a quiet "Hey lo."

He started to explain that he had been on his way back to his dorm from Osler Hall, when he had heard some noise in the sector, people talking. He then saw three figures obviously engaged in a serious discussion just outside the arcade, but when he started towards them, they ran off in the opposite direction. He had noticed that one of them had been pointing to the covered passage, so he headed down the steps where he saw a dark figure holding something wrapped in a blanket and crouched over Eli. The night flyers had been disturbed and were trying to find their way back to their nests. Apparently, he doesn't recall much else of what happened next, just that he found himself walking towards Eli and then the dark creature was gone.

By the time Stitch had finished his account, Eli was stirring and mumbling to herself, visibly disoriented. As he proceeded to lean her against the stonework behind her, I butted in and intercepted his advances. The way he was handling her and looking at her made me instantly uncomfortable, and I instinctively took charge like a protective father. As I gently cupped her face in my wood-chafed hands and lifted her gaze towards my bloodshot eyes, she appeared lost in a trance, muttering nonsensical sounds I did not recognize as words and staring right through me at the fallen girl beyond the steps, whose long silky hair was strewn against the cold slab. "This is a dream." She reached for my hands and pulled them down sharply, squeezing them tightly as she closed her eyes and started to lull her breaths into a smooth rhythm.

The robotic tone of her voice and her vacant expression really troubled me. The first time I remember feeling that look was the morning we had wakened after the accident, the first morning you were no longer with us, when Eli turned to me as dawn lit her face and drowned the sheets with her relentless tears. It seems like tonight, however, the well has run dry, and all that is left is the emptiness of over three thousand nights of torment. I wish I had the power to turn back the clock, but I don't. The closest I can get is to sit here, in the serenity of my crypt, and rummage through my splintered memories of you for some guidance. I've been cowering from the lashes of my own personal tyrant and blaming others for my suffering, the Unification, the Ministry, the GHU, and especially Father. I've been romanticizing places and people and things from the past and ignoring my role in the present. I can feel that Eli is pulling away. She sees me seduced by the charm of the archives and is becoming careless with her guard, downplaying the urgency of her health scan, plotting to attend an illegal daze, and vulnerable to the questionable motives of a peculiar stranger.

While Eli sat locked in her catalepsy, Stitch offered to gather her things which had randomly scattered during the fall. I watched as he brushed off each item and carefully placed it back into her bag, pausing for a moment as he read the letterhead on a slippad. Before he could flip past the first slip, I pretended that I heard something rustling further down the building and told him to hurry, so that we could attend to my "cousin", who was still suspended somewhere in her head. He hesitated at first, most likely questioning the truth of my observation, then promptly picked up the remaining bits before handing the heap over to me. I could sense a mutual distrust tainting the space between us, a distrust which would best be dealt with under more favorable circumstances, so I let the exchange pass and redirected my attention to Eli.

It took repeated reassurances from both Stitch and me to drag her back from whatever horrid place her mind was visiting and convince her arms to drape our shoulders as we eased her up the steps and into the corridor. The young girl had not moved, and to my surprise, nor had anyone moved her. The campus protectors were nowhere to be found. Hadn't they heard the scream? the voices? the confrontation? It's as if none of this had actually happened. They had not strayed from their routine, patrolling the deserted halls of the buildings around us. But the evidence lay at our feet and around our shoulders, and now that I knew Eli was alive, albeit shaken, I was secretly grateful for our mysteriously enduring good fortune, almost as if someone were watching us and keeping us safe.

Eli had regained control of her body by the time we reached the child and was frantically motioning me to hand over her satchel, as she fell to her knees and started to tremble. As Stitch and I competed for her arms, trying to help her back up, she brushed us aside and reached for the blanket obscuring the girl's face. The lingering weakness in her limbs caused her to buckle, but the pressing need to disprove her suspicions overruled. With the gentle stroke of one hand she slid the girl's hair away from her delicate forehead, and with the other, slowly tugged on the blanket obscuring her face to reveal the unspoiled features of an innocent child. Suddenly, as if stung by a knockout stick, she sprang forcefully backwards and looked up at us, wide-eyed yet sad.

She scoured the contents of her sack, oblivious to our dismal attempts at extracting her thoughts. Even the alarming signs of someone's impending approach failed to distract her from her task as I pleaded with her to cover our tracks and flee. Stitch stood weighing the options and battling with his own crazed conclusions. Evidently the only one who grasped the severity of our situation, I grabbed Eli by the armpits, pulled her up to her feet, flung her bag over my shoulder and ran straight down the path pointing out of the sector, leading my straggling companions away from the suspicious scene.

After we had reached the back of the sector, facing the northwest branch of Van Billund Hall, we encountered a snag between us and our final destination. The patrol schedule along the west side, where the entrance lay, was not amenable to unannounced visitors, especially one with a fresh wound on her head. As I dragged the others behind the shelter of a hedge, I reached inside for that space where ingenuity breeds. The conversation near the girl was funneling towards us, which made it simple for us to anticipate the resulting distraction when the alarm sounded, and the protectors across the island started to rally into their sweep formation. We hadn't a moment to lose, as it takes a dozen minutes or so of organized chaos for them to get themselves and an army of sentinels ready. Eli had crossed a sentinel before, I remembered her telling me, and I wholeheartedly shared her determination not to relive the experience. By the look on Stitch's face at that possibility, I could see he concurred.

I signaled to them to head for the east, staying low in the bush, but Stitch took the charge and wove through some holes in security, gesturing at us to follow his lead. He had done this before. Once bordering the complex, we headed in the direction of Eli's branch, taking cover twice under the links while security marched past. I could see the medical lab from the questionable safety of our second stop, but noticed nothing to suggest the transgressions Eli was to describe to me later in her room, except perhaps the secrecy of our companion's behavior as he casually reached inside his coat. Onwards we went, straight through the front door and into the lift, while the greeter was distracted by a rattling under his desk.

It felt like the lift would never arrive. Eli and I were both staring at her suspicious friend, no doubt juggling the same questions I had in my mind as he assumed his usual habit of bobbing to a beat no one but he can hear. What on this planet had just happened? Did we just nonchalantly walk in plain site of hundreds of heavily armed brutes and fanged escorts? And exactly what had he been doing in Osler Hall after hours? Heading back to his dorm? Sure. He would have seen Eli enter the sector in that case. Was he the one who was following her? Even if he wasn't implicated in her assault, I still question his intentions.

Which brings me to Stitch's part in all of this. As the lift was ascending, I noticed we had missed his floor and were heading directly to the ninth level. When the ride stopped, he hurried us along to Eli's room. We opened the door and he followed us in, securing the exit quickly behind him. "You were supposed to meet me at the ivy wall."