Run (8 page)

All 15 of us are running.

We run through the deserted streets, glancing behind us now and again. But exhaustion starts to take its toll and we slow down.

“We have to stop somewhere.” I wheeze. “I don't think we can keep this up much longer.”

Jae sighs, as much as someone can sigh when he's running. “I'm as tired as you are.”

We have been alternating between running, jogging and walking for the past hour. We had started out as soon as it was light. We wanted to get away from those Eaters and Tattoo Guy as fast as we could.

“Does anyone know where we are?” It's Eryn.

I slow to a walk. I look around. We had taken the side streets, not wanting to expose ourselves on the wide open roads. Kyl had insisted that we make our way back east, towards Changi. Maybe, just maybe, he argued, they would let us back into Camp Zero.

After a few more minutes, we stop in front of a construction site for a luxury condo that looks newly completed.

There is a big sign with the words “FOR SALE”, and an advertisement showing what the condo would have looked like had it been properly finished. One picture shows a beautiful apartment furnished with lush carpeting and wooden wall panelling. Others show a playground, a swimming pool, an orchid garden and a gym. The advertisement says the condo is a first-of-its-kind self-sustaining eco-condo. Whatever that means.

“Can we stay here?” Brion asks. “It looks deserted, and we haven't seen an Eater for ages.”

The advertisement says there is a showflat. Jae volunteers to go look for it. He gestures to Dyanne to go with him. I look at him with some surprise. For some reason, I feel like shoving Dyanne's face into horse poop. Ten minutes pass and I begin to get irritated.

“Are you okay?” Eryn slips her hand into mine. “Don't be jealous. It's nothing.”

Me? Jealous? Of Dyanne? Oh, please. Why would I be jealous of her? Uh, because she's with Jae, my ever-so-helpful inner voice says. And you like him. “I'm not jealous,” I say.

Eryn smiles knowingly. I blush.

“Stop it, Eryn. I do not have a crush on Jae.”

Jae chooses this moment to appear. “Huh? I heard my name. Is everything all right? Dyanne found the showflat, I never knew she was so good at…”

I walk away, not wanting to hear Jae praise Dyanne.

“You're such a boy,” Eryn says to Jae, smacking his forehead.

“Ow!” Jae cries. “What did I do?”

Eryn whispers into his ear. She'd better not be telling him anything funny.

“Are you sure?” he says, glancing over at me.

I pretend to fiddle with my bag straps. That Eryn! What has she done?

“Anyway…” he says, turning back to address the group. “We found the showflat, let's go!”

He runs past me and ruffles my hair. “C'mon, rosebud!”

Rosebud? No way! But I can't help letting a smile find its way onto my face. I follow behind him, making sure the kids in my group are all there.

We run up the stairs, enthusiastically at first, but slowing down when we reach the fifth floor.

“Oh. My. God. How many more floors?” Brion asks.

“Just three more, you wimp,” Jae calls from one flight above us.

“If I'm a wimp, you're a wuss,” Brion says.

“If I'm a wuss, you're a fart head.”

I giggle.

“When you fart, people in Africa die.”

“When you fart, people have to call the firefighters.”

“When you…”

“Too tired to play,” Jae cuts in.

We reach the eighth level. There are only two apartments on each level. We step into the flat.

“Wow,” I muse aloud. “Not bad. Not bad at all!”

There is a layer of dust everywhere, but we touch everything anyway. The living room is as the advertisement promised. Wood-panelled walls and carpeted floor. There is a huge L-shaped sofa that looks soft and plush. There is also an MV panel that takes up an entire wall, and it is hooked up to some fancy sound system, which I assume doesn't work.

To the right is an open-plan kitchen, with just a counter separating it from the rest of the house. The kitchen looks fully equipped with fancy gadgets.

A corridor leads to the bedrooms. Some of the kids are already running into the rooms, squealing with excitement. I peek into one of them. It is fully furnished, with curtains, carpets and more wood panelling.

Nicky and two younger kids are jumping on the enormous king-sized bed. Something about their innocence makes me happy and sad at the same time. They are churning up dust that billows around the room. I sneeze and retreat outside.

Eryn runs up to me and tugs at my arm like a little child. “This is sooooo cool!” she says.

I smile at her joy. Life's little pleasures, right?

Brion goes to the glass doors on the other side of the living room. He slides them open and steps out into the balcony.

“There's a nice pool, just no water,” he calls out.

Not that we are expecting any. I walk into the kitchen and notice a sink. I reach forward and turn on the tap anyway. Water gushes out of it. I yelp, surprised, and turn it off. I am ecstatic with my discovery and yell into the living room where Kyl has gathered everyone.

“THE SINK WORKS!” I shriek happily.

“The what?”

“Is she for real?”

“Water! From the tap!” I explain.

“OMG. How?” Brion jumps up and runs to the kitchen, screaming like a girl.

I giggle as he tries the tap. Again, water gushes out, clean and clear. Brion is gaping. The rest of the group lean over the counter, gaping as well.

“Turn it off!” Jae shouts. “You're wasting water!”

“What about the toilets?” Dyanne and Shulin ask. They run to check.

I hear flushing sounds. The toilets are working. I don't know where the water is coming from, and I am worried that it may run out.

“Hey guys,” I say, peeking into the toilet in the first room, “maybe we should save the water for when we really need it?”

Kyl comes out from another room, holding a glossy brochure.

“The water is coming from a rain tank on the roof. They installed a filtration system to capture rainwater, filter it, and deliver it to the apartments,” he says, reading from the brochure.

“And guess what?” he adds. “If this brochure is true, we may have electricity too, thanks to solar panels.”

Everyone just about freaks out and runs to the nearest switch they can find.

I walk into the last room right at the end of the corridor. I gasp. It is a room most girls can only dream of. Canopy bed, frilly curtains, a giant MV panel, a high-end music player that is connected to tiny speakers around the room. And a weird roundish object.

I pick it up and stare at it. I find a button and press it tentatively. Suddenly, there's a little girl standing in front of me. Her pink flowery dress is torn and dirty. Her hair is all tangled. Tears stream down her face as she clutches a bunny soft toy.

“Help me,” she pleads. “Mommy and Daddy haven't come back. They said they would find me food. I'm so hungry! I haven't eaten in three days.”

She starts to sob, burying her face in her bunny. I reach out to smooth her hair back, but instead, my hand goes right through her head. I yelp and drop the object. She shimmers and disappears. I stand there in shock. I pick the object up and press the button again. The girl appears again and says the exact same thing. She's nothing but a projection. An illusion. A hologram.

I head for the door, tripping over my feet in excitement and shock.

I bump into Jae, who is on the way in. He looks disappointed.

“Anything work in here? Nothing works outside. Maybe the solar panels aren't connected yet. Or maybe they never got installed properly…” He stops jabbering when he sees my face.

I grab his hand and pull him into the room.

I hand him the object. “Press that button.”

He does. The little girl reappears. His eyes widen, then he frowns as he watches the little girl cry.

“It's a hologram,” Jae informs me.

“That girl. I think she was here?” I ask.

He hits the button again and this time, we look closely for clues to where the recording was done.

“It wasn't taken here,” he says. “Look at the wall behind her. It is old and dirty.”

“How did this end up here?” I ask.

“That's something we have to figure out. I don't like the idea that other people know about this place,” Jae says thoughtfully.

“How does this thing work? I've never seen anything like it,” I say as I take the device from him.

“This is old technology. My parents used to tell me about concerts they watched, where the singers were holograms. It was a Japanese thing, but the trend spread worldwide. Didn't your parents tell you about it?” Jae said.

I stared at him, annoyed.

“Oh, sorry. You don't remember.” He looks sheepish.

“So this thing is old?”

“Yes, these holophones never took off. People could already video-chat. No one cared about sending recorded messages to each other,” Jae explained. “Plus, it was really expensive. I recognise it because my dad is a gadget freak. He had one and I used to play with it.”

Jae suddenly looks very sad. This is the first time he's talked about his father. He fiddles with a dial and another projection pops up. This time the little girl doesn't have her bunny. She is cowering, her eyes huge with fear. I can almost hear her teeth chattering.

“They're coming for me,” she whispers fearfully. “Mommy and Daddy are different now.”

There's a pounding sound and she shudders. Then, a loud crushing noise.

“Oh, no.” She gasps. “They got in.”

A long bony hand grabs the little girl's arm and she screams. Her hologram fades.

Jae fiddles with the dial again and we see a new projection. It is the Eaters. They look ragged and desperate. I let out a small scream and cover my mouth. Jae puts one arm around my shoulders and pulls me close to him.

To my horror, I realise that one of them is holding a piece of a dress. A pink, flowery dress. But now it is stained with blood…

I know that Jae sees it too because he stiffens. The recording ends abruptly. It lasted only a few seconds, but it is enough for me to form some unwelcome conclusions. The Eaters eat humans. They hunt us and they eat us. If I wasn't sure before, I am certain now.

Jae turns to me. “We have to tell Kyl and the others. This is urgent.”

“The kids too?”

“They have the right to see this,” he says.

“But…”

Jae cuts me off. “They need to know. Gather them. Now.”

I gather everyone into the bedroom. They are still excited and happy. I feel wretched about spoiling the mood.

“Sit on the bed,” I order.

They sense my black mood and obey.

“What's going on?” Dyanne asks.

Jae starts the device. He plays all three projections. Even through I've already seen them, I can't help but shudder when I see the Eaters again. The younger kids scream when the Eaters pop into view. Eryn runs to grab me.

“What does this mean?” she says.

Kyl stands up when the recording ends. “This is bad. It looks like the Eaters are hunting children.”

I see horror, fear, worry and disbelief – maybe even pity – etched on every face in the room.

“Wait. How do we know this is true?” It is Dyanne.

“She's right. This doesn't prove anything,” the faithful sidekick Shulin speaks up too.

I glare at Dyanne. “How can this not be true?”

“What if someone, you know, faked it? Maybe the Eaters were just pretending?” Dyanne says.

“If that's the case, tell me why that little girl looked so scared. Why would she fake that? Her fear was genuine,” I say.

The room is tense, and our arguing is making it worse.

“Okay, okay,” Brion says, trying to calm things down. “So if they are really hunting children, what does that mean for us? We continue running and hiding, right? Nothing changes.”

“No,” Kyl says. “Everything changes. If they are hunting us, we have to fight back.”

Brion hesitates. “So we kill them?”

“No!” Eryn says immediately.

“I say, yes,” Dyanne says.

A few of the children nod. Nicky has told them all about the Eaters in detail. They have seen the scar on his arm. They are scared and I don't blame them for wanting to kill the creatures.

“What if they can be saved? What if they can be turned back? Wouldn't it be killing innocent people?” Eryn continues.

She has a point. I look at Jae, who is looking right at me.

“Zee is the only one who has really seen them up close,” he says. “She's the only one who has actually fought them. What do you think?”

What? Why me? I glare at Jae, mad at him for putting me on the spot like this. What does he expect me to say?

“I don't know.”

“That's helpful,” Dyanne says sarcastically.

“I don't know how to fight them. All I know is, they are attracted to sound. If we keep quiet, wouldn't we be safe?”

“Yes, you do!” It is little Nicky. Everyone is ganging up on me today. “I saw you fight them in the garden. I saw you! You were amazing. You killed them all!”

“I'm sure I didn't kill anyone,” I say, alarmed. “I am not a murderer!”

I knocked some of the Eaters over, for sure. But I didn't think I had killed anyone. They got eaten by the others, but that didn't mean I had killed them.

“How about we trap one of them, and see what happens to him?” Brion suggests.

“That's a good idea,” Kyl says. “And see what happens if we feed him. Or her.”

“Oh? And how do you suppose we do that?” I scoff. No one here has any idea how disgusting those things are.

And how terrifying it is to be up close to them. “Who's going to catch him? The only place you'll end up is in the stomach of an Eater.”

“We have to try, right?” Jae looks at me gently. “That's the only way for us to find out what exactly they are. And whether they can be saved.”

“I agree,” Kyl says.

“Me too,” Brion says.

“I guess so,” Eryn says reluctantly.

“Then, let's do it. Let's catch one and see what happens. If he tries to eat us, I'm killing him. Or her. Or it. And that's final,” Dyanne says.

She speaks so forcefully that this time, no one disagrees.

“When do we do this?” I ask.

“Tomorrow. We do this tomorrow. Today, we rest. We shower. We recuperate,” Kyl decides.

“Do we all have to go catch them?” Nicky wants to know.

“No, the younger ones will stay here. I don't want to put you guys in danger,” Kyl says.

In theory, it is a good idea. And I do want to know what they are, and if they are still human. But someone has to be the one to catch an Eater. And somehow, I have the feeling that that someone is me.