Nehan, page 17
"Do you know which floor?" I say to Hayden.
"Of course."
"If you're lying," Kai says. "It won't end well for you."
He doesn't answer but walks up the stairs. He seems less energetic than before. For every step we take, the feeling that I've forgotten something increases. As if I shouldn't have left. As if I'm leaving the truth and explanation I've been longing for. But what else is there to do? There has to be something behind that gate. If the Shade is truly out there, no one should need to watch that many monitors. We're going to find out what they're keeping from us.
Hayden stops by a door and looks at the number written on it. He looks back at us with a smug smile on his face.
"This is it," he says.
"How can we be sure?"
"You can't. But trust me, I value my life more than your little revolution."
I look at Kai. She nods to me. I take out the keys. Only three are attached to the chain, so I don't need to waste time going through each one like before. No sounds are coming from the other side, but the door seems robust and thick, so there's no real way of knowing.
"Is anyone out there?"
"How would I know?" Hayden says.
I guess we're going to find out. I turn the key and open the door. The light from the modernistic ceiling shines through the small space. I peek out. Yet another hallway. But there's only one door at the end. The hallway is otherwise empty. The walls on all sides are made of frosted glass, but there's no movement behind them, only light like everywhere else in this place.
I open the door completely and walk through, planting my feet easily with every step to minimize noise. Hayden follows behind me, and then Kai with the gun still aimed at him. Her arms don't show the slightest sign of fatigue. Mine would have fallen to the ground at this point, but her face is gleaming with the same determination that she had in that cavern. Maybe she's motivated and fueled by goals. And where there are none, she doesn't know what to do or what to think. A person of adventure and discovery…
"Is that the room?" Kai says.
Hayden nods. We sneak all the way up to the door.
"You walk in first," Kai says to Hayden.
He walks up and places his hand on the handle. He squeezes the handle and looks back at us with another smug look on his face. As if he knows what's waiting behind the door for us.
"Wait!" I yell.
But he opens the door and walks in. Kai and I run in, but the room is empty. Hayden sits down on the chair and laughs at us. I frown and look behind him. The same monitors that I saw before cover the wall, but they're off. There's a walkie resting on its charging stand on the table. It takes some fiddling to adjust it to the same frequency as the one I gave Jill, but I eventually find it.
"Jill?"
Some static noises come out of the walkie, followed by a few seconds of silence. But a voice finally comes through.
"I can hear you," she says.
"Good, I was just testing."
Her voice is clearer than I had expected considering the number of walls and material between us. These must be the kind of high-powered walkies that I couldn't afford as a kid. The ones that bragged about being able to communicate between someone standing at the base of Mount Everest and someone at the summit. That always seemed unreal to me. Two people in two different worlds talking to each other.
Kai walks up to the monitors.
"Turn them on."
Without complaining, Hayden turns around on his chair and presses a button on the keyboard. The monitors turn on and the Nehan logo appears for a brief moment before the password field appears. He places his finger on a small piece of glass embedded in the table, and the monitors instantly show different video feeds. It must be a fingerprint scanner.
"What the hell?" I say.
As I move my eyes closer to four specific monitors on the left, my skins tingles and my heart freezes. I pound my clenched fist into the table. They were lying. He was lying. I knew it! There was no way that story was true. To hell with everything N said. Each monitor shows a different area of what seems to be the outside of the building we're in. It's nothing but green fields and leafless trees stretching all the way to the horizon… But it's not black. It's not covered by a smoke. The Shade isn't there!
"Is this real?"
"What do you think, Will?" Hayden says. "Isn't your little witty brain processing all this? If you're smart, you’d let me go and return to your family."
"Family… And then what? Just so you can continue keeping everyone captive?"
"This is bigger than any of you can imagine. You stand no chance. I'm giving you a chance to stop your pathetic rebellion and save your own skin in the process."
"You're giving us a chance to save you," Kai says. "Now, you're gonna explain what the hell is going on. To save your own skin."
"Even if I tried, you wouldn't believe me."
"Just do it."
"First of all," he says. "Let me show you something."
He types something on the keyboard and the monitors change the feed to different angles of the facility's interior. The pod room I came from. The different labs. This room…
Hayden points to a monitor in front of him. It shows a room. The walls are all made of glass, but it's not possible to see what's behind them from this angle. But there's something at the center of the room. On top of a round silver stand, between metal arms, an orb of a white glowing matter illuminates the whole room. It's almost painful to look at it. As if I'm gazing straight at the sun. The orb is rotating, and contracting and expanding, like a beating heart. It emits sparks of electricity that travel down the metal arms and disappear into the silver stand. …What is that?
The orb drew my attention away from what else is in the room. I lose my breath when I realize who's standing around it. Five individuals wearing combat uniforms are standing around the orb, and in front of them, N is looking ahead with his hands behind his back. As soon as I look at N, he turns his head and looks directly at the camera. I move my head back and jolt backwards, as if someone just punched my throat.
I look at Hayden who has a wide grin on his face and is staring straight into my eyes. He puts up three fingers, and drops one of them, then drops the other one.
"Kai, step back!"
We run to the side of the room as the door leading out to the hangar busts open and soldiers run in with their rifles raised and aimed at us.
"Now!" I manage to yell into the walkie before they near us.
"Freeze! Drop your weapon!"
Kai and I put our hands behind our heads and get on our knees like they're indicating with their rifles. Hayden stands up and brushes his shoulders and stretches his back. He laughs again and pushes a soldier aside to look at us.
"I told you," he said.
He snaps his fingers at the soldiers and turns around.
"Take them away."
"Not so fast," someone says from behind us, near the door we entered from.
The soldiers immediately turn to face them and shoot without hesitating, but the person charges at them, protected by some kind of metal shield. The soldiers are pushed around and disorientated, allowing me to get a good view of the person. It's Jill!
She's followed by dozens of others behind her. Before the soldiers find their footing again, several of the other people jump at them with sharp rocks in their hands, driving them through the soldier's uniforms, screaming from the bottom of their lungs. Blood spews out through the holes cut in the fabric and several shots are fired around us, most ending up in the ceiling, destroying the lights. Before all the soldiers fall lifeless to the ground, one bullet escapes and hits someone. I hold my breath and my heart races as a pain sets in my chest. I bite my teeth together and push myself off the ground. I fear it's Jill who's been hit. Or wounded.
I push through the many people present in the room and let out a deep sigh as Jill is checking the pulse of a soldier on the ground. She's safe. Who was hit then? I look around and realize that one of the section people is lying on the ground with a wound in her stomach. But no one rushes over to help her.
"She's been hit!" I yell.
"William, we know," Jill says as she turns around and looks at me.
"But-"
"No one is forced to be here. We all knew there was a risk. She got her revenge. Her son was taken a year ago."
"But she's dying!"
"There's nothing we can do for her. We've been planning a rebellion for a while, a proper one. You gave us the shot we needed when they least expected it."
A rebellion? I knew there was something going on. No one can ever be satisfied living their lives knowing that their whole future consists of slavery. But Jill said they've tried before, but maybe they didn't have access to the other floors those times. This time is different.
The woman is still lying on the ground, slowly bleeding out, surrounded by a few others who are trying to calm her down. If only I could just place my hand on the wound and it would miraculously heal… But nothing is that easy.
"How did you get here so fast?" I say.
"We followed behind you up the stairs and waited behind the stair-door. I'm sorry to have led you into this, we knew it was a trap, but we finally had a decent chance."
"Wow," I say. "I'm sorry, but I would never have expected you to be at the front of this thing. I'm impressed."
"Hey, you didn't come out of just anyone's womb."
I cringe at those words. I'm still not used to it. But she did save us. Her and the other dozens of people making their way into the hallway from the stairs.
"You might not remember me," she says. "But that doesn't mean I will ever stop fighting for you."
She's much stronger than I gave her credit for when seeing her for the first time. Maybe she was just shocked to see me. Maybe I'm the first person to return after being taken away.
"Where's the shield from?" I say.
"This? It's the bed board. We had to improvise and loosen it."
Everyone is calming down, and the person who's been shot is no longer breathing. A few individuals close her eyelids and carry her to the corner. Not the one Hayden is held up in.
So, he survived. He's standing in the corner, facing and pressing himself up between the two walls. He's not moving, but attempting to make himself as small as possible in a pathetic attempt to escape the situation he's put himself in. One of the section people point to him with a wooden board covered in nails and walk over to him, swinging the board in the air. But Kai steps in front of him.
"No," she says. "He's not a threat. Useless killing will get us nowhere."
Hayden turns around and looks at Kai. He scrapes the bottom of his shoes against the ground and breaks eye contact with her. His hands are both behind his back. He's not used to being helped by someone he considers below him. It's a nice change.
"You," Jill says to Hayden. "Come here."
Hayden abides and walks without saying a word. He smirks and shrugs while looking at the dead soldiers on the ground. Jill goes over to one of them, picks up a rifle, and aims it right at him with a steady grip and rigid posture.
"Woah, woah!" Hayden says.
"What is your father planning?"
"I don't know!"
Jill moves her finger to the trigger and aims down the barrel.
"I swear lady," Hayden yells. "I don't know! He doesn't tell me anything."
"His father?" I say.
"Yes," Jill says while still aiming at him. "He is N's son."
My eyes fly over to Hayden and my nails bite the palms of my hands as my neck tenses up. I push my shoulder blades back and bare my teeth.
"That's why you were in there with us?" I say. "You son of a bitch."
I raise my fist and charge at him. As the little weakling he is, he contracts his face and turns away while defending himself with his hands. But before I reach him, Kai grabs my hand and stops me.
"Will," she says. "Relax."
She pulls me a few steps back and looks me in the eye. I take a deep breath and calm down. N's son… How could I not have seen that? The way he spoke, the way he acted. Like a spoiled little brat who's had too much time on his hands.
Kai turns to Jill.
"I assume you have a plan?"
"Oh, we have more than a plan," Jill responds.
"What does that mean?"
"It'll become clear soon enough."
I take a glance at the monitors. The middle one still shows the room with the orb, but something is different. N is alone and the soldiers are no longer standing around the orb.
"Look," I say. "Here. There were soldiers, but they're gone now."
I point at the monitor and look at Jill who approaches and squints her eyes.
"This is exactly where we're headed."
"What is that?" I say, pointing to the orb.
"They call it the power sphere."
That's why the electricity was going down the metal arms holding the orb. But what is it?
"We need to get there now," Jill says.
"Maybe Hayden knows the way."
"Don't worry," she says.
She signals the others who are standing in the hallway and they head back into the stairs, and by the sound of it, continue up the steps like a herd. Jill walks towards the door but turns around right before and smirks.
"We know exactly where it is."
CHAPTER XXII
"Will, whatever happens," Kai says. "Promise me we won't leave each other's sides."
"Of course. I won't let anything happen to you."
"That's not what I mean."
I look at her as we're walking up the stairs, but she doesn't look back. She's biting her lower lip, and she rubs her eyebrow as she looks at the pale stairs that are getting us closer to the end of the river we have been flowing down for ages.
"When we get out of here," she says. "If we get out of here… Promise me we'll stay together."
"Kai," I say as I grab her hand.
She turns her head to look at me. Her eyes seem bigger than before. Like the tide of an ocean that's been waiting in eternity to set forth.
"I promise. Together, we'll find out what's out there."
"What do you think there is?" she says.
"I don't know… But nothing will be too big for us."
"Hell."
"What?"
"Hell would be too big for us," she says.
"Kai, there's no hell out there."
"Why? This could be Satan's house for all we know."
"Fine, I don't know," I say. "But I hope. And I believe."
"That won't be enough this time, Will. I know my own luck. It disguises itself as something good, but it always turns out horrible."
"That luck was in a different reality."
"Still," she says. "I have a bad feeling, and I don't wanna lose you."
"You're not going to lose me. And I won't lose you either. As long as we stick together, like you said."
"If you had to guess," she says. "What would you say is out there?"
"Either everyone is lying to us, and we'll find the same world we left… Or it's something we could never imagine."
"I don't think there's anything out there."
"There has to be, you saw for yourself. They were lying about the Shade."
"Think about it, Will. What else would this place be?"
"N told me it used to be a secret government facility."
"It doesn't look like a place where people come and go as they wish."
"We'll find out soon enough."
I turn my head to look behind me. Loads of people are making their way up the stairwell for as far down as I can see. No one is talking or looking at each other, just focused and determined to finally get their revenge. Jill had grabbed Hayden and made him follow behind her.
We finally reach the top door. The same one I entered the stairwell from after waking up in my pod. Jill and a dozen others have already passed through as we approach.
"Get down!"
I look out and immediately draw my head back. A fight between the soldiers and section people is underway. They're not planning on making this easy for us. The sound of bullets flies through the air and bounces around the barren walls of the stairwell, all the way down so everyone can hear. People start talking and yelling, some even pushing their way through the crowd on the stairs. A few of them push us to the side and charge through the door and into the battlefield forming in the hallway.
I look at Kai and then out through the door. She shakes her head and pulls me to the side, by the wall. She turns her ear to the hallway and keeps her head steady. The body of a soldier falls in front of the door and both Kai and I jump further away. His eyes are open and staring straight at the ceiling. One of the section people flings the rifle from the soldier's grip and runs down the hallway. Kai doesn't seem startled. On the contrary, her ear is still turned to the hallway, as if she's waiting for a specific sound.
I move over and stand in front of Kai, between her and the door. She looks up at me and gives me a faint smile. A few seconds pass before Jill appears.
"Are you okay?" I say.
"Come."
We follow her into the hallway. The light from above seems brighter than before, so I squint my eyes. Four dead soldiers are hugging the ground, and a dozen people from the sections are lying lifeless next to them. Both are covered in blood. They got more of us than us of them… Jill must have figured that they were expecting us, but as she said, maybe none of them care about safety. They know that freedom cannot be achieved without a little bloodshed and a fight.
Is this really the background I come from? I could have been one of them. Running alongside them. As hard as I try, it's impossible to remember even the slightest thing… I have to consider the possibility that N was lying. But who is Jill then? How could she have known me? How could she have shown me the words I wrote on my desk in my house?
