Paradigm (9781909490406) (20 page)

A
lice looked across at Filip
, who was nodding seriously. He was older than her, seventeen or eighteen maybe, and was taller than anyone else in the room—Wallace Wilson included. His eyes were as dark as the inside of a wishing well, pooled, secret and almost pure black. He twisted his wrists around until they clicked.

‘You want the city razed to the ground, right?' For the content of his question, the tone of Filip's voice was irreverently casual. Alice let her usually carefully guarded respect for him creep up a notch. There was something so certain, so direct about him that was absent in Jonah.

‘
Razed
,' said Wilson, ‘is quite an emotive word. I myself prefer
cleansed
.'

‘But you want us to get rid of everything, not just the bodies?'

‘Everything that will not be productive in building our new community.' Wilson prowled slowly around the edge of the room, almost as if he were drinking in the questions that they had not yet asked. Alice watched as Kunstein's eyes moved from her, to Jonah to Filip and then across at the others who sat in the room, each face impregnated with a slightly different set of emotions.

‘Remember why we are doing this,' she said. ‘Can you imagine the chaos of returning the people we have here to the world up there?' She looked upwards and Alice expected the ceiling to dissolve into a window of clear glass, revealing a city of trees, drunk with grief, felled to their roots and bodies littering the streets.

‘We need to start again,' said Alice. ‘Whatever we had is gone and it's our job to clear the way for the others.'

There was an audible sigh of relief from Wilson, and the others on the team looked suitably relaxed.

‘I know it's going to be tough,' said Kunstein. ‘But we have special work to be done. And a great deal of it. You will need to identify a space that we can dispense of
unwanted material
in. Initial surveillance points to this area here,' she waved her hand towards the west of the map. ‘It was known as Butterfly Valley. There was previously a landfill site here. I would imagine it will be far enough away from the initial borders of our new community. As we expand and develop, we may need to reconsider, but for now,' she looked at Alice, ‘I would suggest you use this.'

Filip clicked his wrists again. ‘When you say
unwanted material
, you're talking about bodies, right?' Alice watched as he looked directly at her, eyes unwavering until he winked at her. Not caring who was watching.

Wilson nodded.

‘There won't be many bodies left, but there's no getting around the fact that we lost a lot of lives here. And we absolutely cannot build our foundation on a city of broken bones. You'll start the pyres like we discussed, for anything that will not produce toxins. The
aftermath
and anything we can't use for building or recycling will need to be concealed. Start with the Butterfly Valley site, as long as it proves usable, and we'll look at what comes next.'

A
lice felt
a fizz of excitement in her chest. It felt like the moment when you hurled yourself off a rope swing into an ice-cold river and everything felt fresh and clean and new. She hadn't imagined ever feeling that again. Her feet twitched nervously against the slick polished surface of the classroom floor, and for one glorious second she imagined the uneven contours of dewy grass beneath her feet and the call of pigeons overhead.

‘Are we looking for others?' said Jonah. ‘What about other survivors?'

‘All observations indicate there aren't any,' said Wilson. ‘There have been no attempts at communication and…'

‘But what if there are?'

Alice looked at Wallace Wilson, who was flicking through the screens of his slate. He didn't look at Jonah when he answered but his response was clear enough.

‘Outsiders pose the second greatest threat to our new community,' he said with the air of a military battle commander.

‘You want us to kill them? Are you serious?' Jonah sat back in his chair and pushed away the slate on the desk. He looked at Alice. ‘I'm not killing anyone.'

Filip cleared his throat and cracked his knuckles against the desk.

‘Killing is not our business, Jonah, he said. ‘But defence is. So, like Wilson says, we defend to create. Anyone we find won't have been through the programme that our people have here; they won't understand about the new world. We'll have to do what we can to educate them. It's all about communication and it's all about change. You see?'

Alice nodded. ‘He's right,' she said.

Jonah's face changed from one shade of green to another while Alice raised her eyebrows and looked at Kunstein, who seemed equally impressed. Filip winked at Alice.

‘Agreed, Filip. I think we all understand each other,' said Wallace Wilson, and performed one of his rarer smiles that started with his teeth and ended close to, but not including his eyes.

‘We'll give you another hour to formalise your plans before we go to the tunnels,' said Kunstein. ‘Please be in your suits and ready to go when we return. Your sustenance packs are being prepared, which will give you everything you need including a communications pack. Be ready to move. You are the future now.'

When Kunstein and Wilson left the room with a clip of heels and a swish of black cloak, Jonah sidled over towards Alice and touched her arm. In the starkness of the mission ahead, and the thought of being outside the Ship, suddenly the sweetness of his touch felt childlike in a way that she no longer did.

‘Why isn't there anyone on this team over twenty-five?' he said, pulling up the arm coverlets of his suit. ‘You know, like any
adults
?'

Alice looked at him. He looked so small and vulnerable that she wanted to pick him up and hold him in her arms. She resisted, however tempting it seemed.

‘Jonah,' she said, ‘didn't you ever wonder why there was a disproportionate ratio of age groups here on the Ship?'

Jonah shrugged. ‘I just thought… I guess I don't know what I thought.'

‘There are hundreds of us,' she said. ‘Between five and eighteen. Maybe more, I don't know for sure. But what I do know is that when this happened, the Industry had a plan. They had a better plan than any government or army or religious organisation. They saved everyone they could but they saved more of the people they thought could make a difference, could build a better place for us to get back to. Children are cruel and imperfect but they can also create change in a way that is much more transformative than anything the previous generations could have dreamed about. In the last five years here, this is what we have been preparing for, dreaming of, constructing. Some of the people who live on the Ship were born here; some of them have never known anything but this. Imagine what we can do, Jonah. Just imagine it.'

Jonah pulled his arm away. ‘You sound like her,' he said and cast his eyes towards the door. Alice raised an eyebrow, pursed her lips and smiled.

‘That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me,' she said and stood up to walk to the front of the room. She cleared her throat to get the room's attention and then smiled the broadest grin, arms outstretched in front of her.

‘Okay everybody,' she said with ardent jubilation as the room swelled with excitement. ‘Let's get these plans moving. Team Davenport is on a discovery mission.'

T
here was
a ripple of excitement as Wallace Wilson and Kunstein came back into the room.

‘Stay in touch,' they said almost together and kissed each of the Scouts in turn. Kunstein cupped the curves of Alice's face when she came to her and kissed her lips softly, pulling her towards her.

‘Be strong, little butterfly,' she said and Alice was almost certain that there was an ice-like tear forming in her left eye.

E
ach had
their suit checked and tested by one of the silent engineers who had accompanied them and then they were led, in single file, to the very edges of the Ship. An engineer flipped back a panel in the wall, revealing a tight vertical shaft—the same shaft that Alice had squeezed herself into almost seven years before.

She could sense Filip behind her, the feel of his breath on her neck through the thin coverlet suit, and she turned around.

‘Everything in order?' she said. ‘Are your team ready?' He smiled at her and nodded.

‘Nervous?'

‘Excited.'

‘Me too. You have any concerns about your team?'

‘None. You?'

‘No.'

‘Then let's get on with it.' Filip flashed a rare smile, the corners of his mouth turning up to reveal shark-white incisors against blood-red lips. There was something about him, thought Alice, that reminded her of something, but she couldn't quite place it.

‘If you need anything, use the leader communication line,' she said. ‘The range isn't great on the first day so I don't think we should stray too far apart.'

‘I concur,' said Filip and she saw the smile again. As she climbed into the shaft and started her ascent on the ladder, she took one arm off the rail and flapped it into the darkness.

‘Goodbye, Ship,' she said softly and pressed her hand flat on the edge of the shaft. ‘Sail safe.' Behind her, the other nine Scouts took their places on the ladder and, one by one, crept upwards from the warmth and safety of the Ship into the unknown skeleton of a world from which they had fled five years earlier.

L
ily was waiting
outside on the street when he got back home, slinking back in the shadows. She emerged from the darkness and pulled him into the shadows before he'd even had time to speak. The air was laced with juniper and the coolness was nothing like the stuffy, putrid aroma of the hole he'd been in earlier.

‘Move,' she said. ‘They'll be here any minute.'

The touch of her arm felt like a warm pulse of electricity circling through his bloodstream as they ran silently through the streets and out towards the wood.

‘Who will be here?'

‘The Industry; they're coming to get you. Your card has been still for hours and word is that Elizabet is about to finalise her Contribution—it's not expected to be outstanding so they need you to step up. She's struggled with her mentor—they haven't got along too well by all accounts, but she's still in with a chance. And Jenson has folded—he failed his personal challenges and has displayed some health issues so he's been sent back to the Catacombs. And, Carter, they have some concerns about you.'

‘What concerns?'

‘They think you're going to be approached by the rebels—so they want to bring you in. Tomorrow at the latest.'

‘Bring me in where?'

‘Industry Headquarters.'

Carter breathed in deeply and quickened his pace.

‘But I have things to do.'

‘What things?'

Lily rounded on him and looked him squarely in the eye.

‘Well, I need to start my Contribution for one thing.'

‘You can do that at the Industry Headquarters; they have all the resources there and...'

Carter held his hand up to stop her. ‘It's not that kind of Contribution. And, anyway, if the rebels have plans for me, then surely I need to address those and not run away from them.'

Lily looked behind her. ‘Carter, this isn't a request; it's an order.'

‘Why are you telling me this?'

‘I'm telling you so that you can be prepared and answer any questions they might have.'

‘Is that your job, to tell me?' Carter looked at her quizzically. ‘Why are you here?'

Lily hesitated. ‘It's my job to make you as successful as you can be. But, no, I shouldn't be telling you this. I just feel that if you have all the information, you can probably make the right choices. You are Carter Warren, after all.'

Carter winced slightly. ‘I am indeed. So what would the Industry say if I mentioned that you'd told me all this?'

‘What are you getting at, Carter?'

‘Can I trust you?'

‘You have to. I'm your mentor. And what would the Industry say? They'd send me back to the Catacombs. You should know that.'

Carter hesitated and looked around. ‘Then I'm going to tell you something. And I'll explain on the way there,' he whispered. ‘But you have to trust that I know what I'm talking about.'

She nodded. ‘On the way where?' she said. ‘They'll be looking for you soon.'

They stopped at a FreeScreen terminal just outside the forest. The light flickered green—no rain due.

‘We've just got to check something. I promise you we'll be back before the electronic surveillances are done. But first I need you to contact the Industry and tell them you've checked on me and I am fine and understand the situation. And that I am committed to becoming Controller General and will be at the Headquarters first thing in the morning. But we have to leave our cards here.'

Lily shook her head. ‘Not carrying your card is a criminal offence,' she said. ‘We could get into serious trouble. I should report you; officially you're under my charge.'

‘You won't report me. In a few months' time, I'm going to be Controller General,' said Carter. ‘And then I'll decide what counts as trouble. This is more important than anything you or I have ever had to do before. If you want to be in my counsel then I can arrange it. No more Catacombs, no more working at the Food Plant; if you're with me on this then I will arrange something a lot more appropriate to your skills. Just trust me on this one. It's important.'

Lily looked at his usually bright blue eyes, now serious and almost violet.

‘I believe in you,' she said quietly.

T
hey took
the back roads to the south, flitting in and out through the trees, staying away from the tracks and keeping as close to the outside perimeter as possible without tripping the torches that floodlit the Barricades from the inside. It wasn't until they were clear of the last of the homes, long past the darkened windows of Ailsa and Jescha's house, that Carter could tell Lily about Isabella. They shared a clutch of carrotina and some pieces of boeuf from the cloth bag Lily had brought.

‘You know that
creature
is medically insane, don't you?' Lily twisted a curl of hair around her finger and let it go in a pinch. ‘Nuts,' she said, ‘completely and entirely.'

Carter weighed up the conversation in his head. Everything had seemed to made sense to him when he'd been with her.

‘She may be; she may not be. Either way, I have to know. I have to know the truth. How else can I end this uprising unless I've been there?'

Lily pursed her lips.
‘I'm sorry. She may have been a friend of yours when you were children but it's well known around the Community that she's trouble. She has been for years, ever since you went away. '

Carter turned to her.
‘Trouble,' he said. ‘Like how?'

Lily held his gaze tightly and paused. ‘Well, firstly, she was accused of trying to abduct a child a few years ago—your child, Lucia, to be exact—although they couldn't prove that malicious intent was involved. The girl claimed she went out there of her own accord. And Isabella's been under investigation several times. Her family are serial offenders—once she even tried to climb the Barricades. The Industry doctors did everything they could for her but they believed it left her, well, mentally unstable—a combination of the electricity and her existing mental delusion.'

Carter shook his head. ‘Maybe. But if there
is
a way out of here, as Controller General, I have a right to know. And I have a right to find out what happened to Lucia, to my parents, and to everyone who's so disenfranchised with this place. Something has gone terribly wrong here.'

Lily rubbed her fingers in the softness of his neck. ‘That was always the problem of the human condition—wanting better, wanting faster, wanting more. Isabella is obsessed with bringing the Industry down. I suppose she showed you her magnetic belt, the inhibitor?' Carter cringed as he thought of the sharp, metal strip interwoven into Isabella's skin.

‘Is that what you call it?' he said, beginning to get angry. ‘It's disgusting. It's inhumane.'

‘It's not pretty,' said Lily. ‘But it's the only way she could be stopped from attempting to climb the fences. Even though they're electrified, she kept trying to climb them. They were only intended to provide a warning jolt to stop any animals from the Deadlands coming in, but the current had to be increased to stop her trying to destroy them—and herself. Do you know how dangerous it would be if there were an open passage between here and the Deadlands? It would be catastrophic for the Community.'

Carter flexed his arms outwards. ‘Well, I'll soon find out,' he said.

T
hey walked
and whispered as the navy blueness of the evening gave way to a pure black blanket sprinkled with a smattering of stars and the odd lace-white cloud.

‘I'm not sure about this,' said Lily. ‘The repercussions are wider than you think.'

‘I understand exactly what the repercussions are,' said Carter. ‘And whatever happens next is bigger than me; it's bigger than the Community. This could be a whole shift in the paradigm of what we know.'

Lily started out into the darkness as they walked.

‘I'm coming with you,' she said, breaking the silence.

‘I don't need you to,' said Carter. ‘This is something I need to do for
me
—for the Community.'

‘I'm your mentor,' said Lily. ‘You're my responsibility right now. And, besides, I want to. I want to be there to see it. And if you decide to position me well in your counsel, then even better.'

They swiped palms in the darkness of the forest, the cool night air refreshingly soft. From the branches came the deep, throaty sound of owls. In the loneliness of the forest that was broken with the remnants of old, shattered buildings and smashed tarmac, Carter looked up at the millions of stars that peppered the sky and the fullness of the moon. The night had never looked so beautiful to him.

‘First of all, I want at least to check whether the tunnel is really there. I need to know what's threatening to destroy us from the inside. But maybe, if I can bring a small part of that world back—the part that made people happy—then I can make that my Contribution: a new proposition for happiness. But I need to know what we've sheltered them from for the last twenty years.'

‘And you think you can do that in one evening?'

Carter hesitated. ‘If I have to. But if I can't, then you'll need to come back and cover for me. But at least one of us needs to be back before sunrise to keep the Industry happy—and both before nightfall tomorrow.'

Lily nodded. ‘And your daughter?'

'I'm going to find her. Whatever happens, I know that much.'

‘What about the tunnel?' said Lily, ‘As soon as we open it up, then we put the Community in danger.

Carter cleared his throat and his voice was strong and certain. ‘If it
is
there, then we're already in danger. I need to get it closed off, contained. I need to ensure that no one leaves here again without permission. And I'll show people that what they have is better than what they think they want. An idea is always more attractive than the reality.'

‘You're smarter than you look, you know that?'

Carter smiled wryly. ‘I'm smarter than that still,' he said. ‘And that's why I'm a Contender and you're a mentor.'

‘So,' said Lily, ‘I'm a just a mentor, am I?'

‘You know what I mean. I was born for this. You were born for, well, other things.'

‘True. So you really want to be Controller? You'd go this far for it?' Lily looked Carter deep in the eyes.

‘I promise you,' said Carter, pulling away and looking up at the sky. ‘The next person to lead this Community will bring to it something so compelling that nobody will want to leave again. Or we all leave. Together.'

I
n the darkness
above them there was the twitter of a nightjar flitting across the branches.

‘They only come when the rains are due,' said Lily. ‘There could be a storm on the way.' Carter pulled her face close to his and breathed in the juniper of the night.

‘The indicators said no, but we need to go anyway,' he said. ‘When I get what I need, we'll come back and I will present my findings to the Industry. Whatever Elizabet has planned will be tiny compared to this. Whatever we find will either make or break this.'

He sounded excited, delirious almost.

‘You know that if something happens out there, we might not be able to come back,' said Lily. ‘We can't take any risks with the rest of the Community. Are you prepared for that? We'll never survive out there.'

Carter smiled.

‘I always survive. And you keep forgetting who you're with,' he said. ‘I am Carter Warren, remember?'

‘I'm not sure you know what you're doing,' she said.

‘Well I do. And I always have.'

T
hey finished
the last of the carrotina with some water. Lily pulled out some fauclate from her pocket and broke it in half, handing one slab to Carter who began to nibble at the corner, deep in thought. The taste of the fauclate reminded him of his going-away party, of Iseult and, even more acutely, of Isabella. Somewhere deep inside, he felt something that was almost like guilt.

‘We need to move quickly,' he said, ‘if we're going to be back before anyone notices we've left.'

T
hey took
a route directly through the forest that descended into pitch blackness. The few night birds that flew in above the Barricades and made temporary resting places high in the trees chirped their night noises as the pair passed below them like silent ghosts. Carter stopped her from moving any further.

‘From here we need to follow the tracks,' he said. ‘We can't risk falling into any holes like the one I was in earlier. A twisted or a broken ankle and we're finished. We need to be especially careful from here on in.'

T
hey crept
thorough a thicket of sweet ferns and out onto the track way which wasn't much more than old brown fronds trampled down into the earth. Lily tapped the floor with her feet.

‘Seems pretty solid,' she said. ‘No secret tunnels or hidden passages here.' Carter paced around slowly in the darkness, testing each foot fall gingerly.

‘Isabella,' he hissed. ‘Are you here?'

‘She'll be long gone,' said Lily. ‘It's a surprise she hasn't died from some infection already. I don't understand how anyone could deliberately open their wounds up continuously like that. The Industry did it for her own safety, but it looks like it might be what kills her in the end.'

Carter thought for a moment and then squared around on Lily. ‘How do
you
know about it?' he said. Lily ran her fingers through the ferns.

‘What do you mean? Everyone knows about it. She's pretty well known across the Community.' She stroked the fronds of the fern thoughtfully. Carter looked away, back towards the place where he had seen Isabella earlier.