Authors: Ryan Mark
William slid out the next folder. ‘Melanie, she worked for Terrafall as a nurse at the power plant. Mum was a nurse…’ Without pausing he took another folder and opened it. He trembled when he read the name.
‘What’s up?’ said Althea, moving closer.
‘I–I… just take a look,’ William said, passing her the file, his hand shaking.
‘Sarah Oakenwood,’ Althea breathed in sharply. ‘My mum…’ She quickly picked up the next file. ‘Greg Oakenwood.’
William reached out to hold her, but she shoved him away.
‘This can’t be right; I wasn’t told they’d been abducted! I went to the Peace Station and reported that they’d not been in touch in a week, and after that I was told they’d been attacked by bandits and…’ She took a breath. ‘Do you think whoever’s behind this is abducting people, doing whatever they’re doing with them and putting them back where they found them to try and cover their tracks?’ She grabbed her mouth.
‘Yeah, I think you’re onto something there. But why would Terrafall and the Peace Force keep this from you?’ said William.
‘The farm they worked on was owned by Terrafall, Will, and most of the population certificates we’ve seen have Terrafall all over them.’ Tears fell down her pale cheeks and she tightened her grip on the paper. ‘It’s obvious.’
‘Terrafall’s our link.’
Could his father have been abducted then? William shook his head. His father was found in the rubble of his geology station. It’d been during one of the biggest tremors recorded. No, he couldn’t have been. It was the tremor that killed him.
He looked at Althea. ‘You OK?’
She didn’t answer, her eyes fixated on the paper.
He tried a different tack. ‘Someone’s either targeting Terrafall, or Terrafall’s more involved in this than anyone thought, and if that’s the case, we won’t be able to trust anyone, not even the Peace Force,’ said William, taking the file off Althea and dropping it to the dusty ground. ‘Are you OK?’ he asked again.
She rocked on the spot.
‘Alfie?’
Her answer was interrupted by footsteps, then loud voices. ‘Someone has been through the index! Call the guards, call the guards at once!’ screamed a crackly voice.
‘We shouldn’t have left this place unguarded,’ said another voice. ‘Why did I let us leave for the tremor shelter? I was meant to be in charge of this bloody place and now look what’s happened!’
‘Alfie, we’ve got to go now,’ whispered William, pulling her sleeve. ‘Terrafall has to be our next target, so we’ll go to their headquarters at the power plant. I think that’s our best bet.’
‘If Terrafall are involved, we’ll make sure it doesn’t get away with it.’ She stared directly ahead, eyes narrowing.
William dragged her to the floor and together they moved on their hands and knees down the main aisle. William could hear oncoming footsteps vibrating through the marble as they shuffled through the dust.
‘Here, over here! Look, the gate has been tampered with!’ screeched the voice. ‘And by the gods, it’s the worst possible section of shelves! We should dig our own graves now.’
‘The fire exit.’ William indicated a door to their left, beyond one last aisle of shelves. It felt as though their footfalls were on top of him now, pounding on his back.
They crawled forward. William bit his lip when his knee hit the marble too hard, sending a sickening pain through his leg. He held in the sick and managed to roll through the door, followed by Althea.
‘Come on!’
The alley where they landed was filled with stinking rubbish. William scrambled forward. Brilliant: they could use it as cover; he didn’t care if he ended up smelling of muck. He scrunched his nose and they dived under a large pile of bin bags, just as the fire door opened again.
It seemed like an eternity before someone spoke. ‘They’re not here, damn it, they’ve gone!’ shouted the voice. ‘They must have escaped through the front.’
William gripped Althea’s hand. ‘As soon as the door closes we move. Let’s go back to your house, get supplies and set off.’
Althea nodded, eyes still shaded by angry shock.
‘Get back inside. We have to search the streets, now!’ The fire exit slammed shut, but before the voice dissolved William heard: ‘Terrafall will have our heads if anything has been taken.’
Terrafall will have their heads? He didn’t like where this was going. It was all one big conspiracy, but he was determined to crack it.
‘Let’s go,’ he told Althea.
Creeping through the last section of the alley, they passed numerous mounds of rubbish and headed down a narrow gap between two warehouses. The noises from the archive were distant now, and William relaxed a little.
They were almost free of the tiny alley when their path became blocked by a large, menacing figure, black clothes sucking up the light.
Althea muffled a scream and William instinctively felt for the small slice of metal he’d picked up earlier. Where was it? Crap, he must’ve dropped it in the archive. He scanned the floor for anything he could use as a weapon. He might not have known who it was, but he had a horrible feeling he’d seen this person before.
Looking about frantically for something to protect them, he realised there was nothing to hand, only newspapers and rotten leftovers. They’d have to use their fists.
Chapter 6
Mysterious Encounters
‘Get out of the way!’ shouted Althea, holding up her fists as if she were facing someone in a boxing ring.
‘I want to talk,’ said the darkly dressed figure, shoulders broad and threatening. There was some force behind his voice, but William couldn’t fully read it. Something flashed from beneath the hem of his long, black coat. William’s mouth slowly fell open. The horrible feelings had been right. He’d seen this man before. It was the guy from last night, the guy who might have his mother.
‘It’s him, the person who was at my house last night, and I–I think he’s got a knife,’ he said, gripping Althea’s shoulder.
Althea shrugged his hand away, stepped forward and said through cemented teeth, ‘He won’t have it for much longer…’ She swung a fist.
William held his breath. The man easily dodged the blow, ducking to his left.
‘What are you doing, girl?’ the man shouted, blue eyes widening.
‘Defending ourselves.’ Althea swung out again, but he evaded her, pulling out the shiny object. William gasped, but when he focused on the object he realised it wasn’t a knife, but a black walking cane with a silver, orb-shaped handle.
The man swung the cane in the air, trying to hook it around Althea’s legs, but she jumped over it and managed to kick him in the stomach. He doubled over, but before Althea could land another blow, he tried again, catching her legs this time and dropping her to the floor.
‘Please, stop!’ he said, holding up a hand. ‘I’m not the bad guy.’
William ignored him and ran forward, making for the cane. He was swung around by the man and pushed into a pile of boxes. His hands scavenged beneath him for something he could use to his advantage, but all they touched were soft pieces of rotten cardboard.
The man held out a gloved hand. ‘Please, I’m on your side,’ he said, the colour of his blue eyes intensified by his dramatic, near-white complexion. His cheekbones were angular, as if carved from pale marble.
William looked at his hand, and then back at the severe face. Did he really mean that? If so, why was he at home last night, and why did he chase William through the streets? He ignored the man’s hand, pushed himself up and rushed over to Althea.
‘I don’t believe you,’ said William, helping Althea up and scowling. ‘Where’s my mum? You better not have hurt her! Who the hell do you work for?’
‘I promise I have nothing to do with her disappearance. I know it’s difficult, and at the moment you must feel like the whole town’s against you, but trust me, I’m on your side. Someone dear was taken from me by the same people who’ve taken your mother.’ The man ran a hand through his black hair, a white streak in his fringe shining in the thin daylight that penetrated the alley.
‘Why were you after me last night, then?’ asked William, scowl fading. If this man was telling the truth then maybe he could help them. Maybe he knew more than they did. He wasn’t going to let his guard down though; it could be a clever trick and they could end up falling straight into his hands.
‘I tried, I called out just as you left, but you carried on running. I guessed it might’ve been your mother who’d fallen victim, but when you didn’t listen I assumed you could’ve been involved with the abduction, and I had to find you. I’ve been tracking the people behind this since my wife was taken two weeks ago. I’ve always been one step behind them, arriving moments too late, but this time I found you and thought you might be able to help me.’
‘I was in a state last night. Nothing was really clear,’ replied William, still uncertain. ‘I thought you were going to kill me, so I ran. I needed to help my mum, so I couldn’t risk confronting you.’
‘How do we know you’re telling the truth and won’t hand us in to the Peace Force for trespassing?’ asked Althea, rubbing her lower back. ‘For all we know you could be one of them.’
The man dipped his hand into an inside pocket then withdrew a piece of paper. ‘That’s my wife’s population certificate,’ he said, passing it over. ‘Please, read it.’
William smoothed out the paper. ‘Marian Everward, she worked as a nurse for Terrafall.’ He read down the document. The name Ichabod Everward appeared in the spouse section. He looked back at the man.
The man pulled out his passport and opened it, keeping his gaze steady. ‘Look, my name is Ichabod Everward. She’s my wife.’ William took a closer look and sure enough there was a picture of the man with the name Ichabod Everward written next to it. If the man was lying he was doing an exceptionally good job of it.
‘It’s a great story, and I’ll give you a clap for that evidence, but why should we trust you? Tell me what you’ve found out so far,’ said Althea, one eyebrow raised. William knew what Althea was thinking: get as much information as possible and then run if it got messy.
The man nodded. ‘I’ve been looking into this for some time, and know that the majority of the abductees were involved with Terrafall in some way. I tried to raid the archives a few days ago and only managed to get my wife’s population certificate. It was shortly after this that Terrafall locked the place up, and increased the guard. Since stealing that population certificate I’ve been on the Peace Force’s most wanted list,’ said Ichabod. ‘However, I do have something that might help us both.’
William thought for a second. Was he actually telling the truth? If he and Althea revealed too much, what could he do to them? He summed it up in his head: not a lot, probably. Besides, they didn’t really have much to lose, did they?
‘The files we looked at all had a link to Terrafall,’ William told him. ‘But people it says are abducted sometimes reappear, dead.’
The tall man gasped at this information. ‘Are they all dead?’
Althea shook her head sadly. ‘There was nothing on the population certificates that suggested they were dead or alive, just that they’d been abducted. So we can’t be completely sure if they’re all dead, but we know two for definite… my parents…’ It came out in jittery breaths.
‘And from what I heard last night, the Peace Force have been finding abductees dead around Kentvale too,’ added William, rubbing Althea’s back.
‘Anything else?’
‘Um, the power plant is Terrafall’s base in Kentvale so we’re going there next. You never know, there might be clues on where people have been taken and who’s behind it,’ explained William, passing back the paper.
The man considered them, his expression solemn. ‘As luck would have it, I’ve been planning on trying to access that plant for days now, and I’ve managed to obtain a work pass,’ he explained, patting his breast pocket. ‘You see, the person who runs things there is also in charge of the archive. Getting into their office at the plant was my next step.’
‘Why haven’t you gone there yourself?’ asked Althea suspiciously.
‘The work pass is for a child. Terrafall only employs orphans at the plant now, children who have no family left. They’re easier to control than adults, so they make the perfect workforce. Terrafall lures them in by offering the promise of food and comfort, but what they get in return is nothing of the sort. The rest of the population is oblivious to this. I mean, who’d miss an orphan? People have too much on their plates, don’t they? And that’s why I cannot go, I don’t look like an orphan.’ He looked at William. ‘But from what I’ve heard just now, you two fit the bill.’
The corners of William’s lips twitched. He kept the smile from forming, as he didn’t want the man to think they were getting too comfortable. ‘Can we really trust you?’
‘I’ll leave that for you to decide, but be quick. If some of the abductees have turned up dead, we might not have much time to save those still alive.’
Althea turned away, eyes filling with tears. Time had run out for her parents.
William took her hand and quickly changed the subject for all their sakes. ‘Last night there was blood, a pool of it. Do you think my mum’s still alive?’
‘There was blood left behind when my wife was taken too, and I’ve seen it present at other abduction sites. I think it’s done to weaken the victims, make them easier to transport.’ The man leaned heavily on his cane. ‘They need to be stopped. Trust me, we’ll find who’s responsible.’
‘I’m still not sure,’ whispered Althea, her hand tightening around William’s.
‘He wouldn’t have told us all this if he was trying to trap us, would he?’ William whispered back.
‘I suppose, but I’m still on the fence.’
The man bowed his head. ‘I want you to know that I really am one of the good guys, but I’ll leave it there for now. It’s in your hands to decide.’
Althea nudged William in the ribs. ‘So, what now?’
‘We mustn’t be seen together in the open. Like I said, I have a bad track record with the Peace Force, so we’ll meet just before curfew at the Lame Mare Tavern. Enforcers rarely venture over to that side of town. Do you know the place?’
William nodded, but his face quickly scrunched into a frown. ‘Can’t we get this over and done with? If there’s a chance that abductees eventually turn up dead we should go to the power plant now!’
‘We can’t just barge in there without a plan, they’d just kill us or put us in The Pit, we need to plan this carefully,’ explained Ichabod. ‘Meet me there an hour before curfew and come prepared. There has to be a reason behind these abductions and we’ll get to the bottom of it. Good luck.’ With a flick of his hem he was off, diving through another alley with the help of his cane.
‘Can we really trust him Will? Can we risk it?’ asked Althea.
‘I guess he’d already have taken us in if he were lying,’ William replied, as they watched him walk away. ‘But, seriously, Ichabod, that’s one weird name.’
‘I don’t know…’
‘I think he is telling the truth. It would take a lot nowadays to forge documents like the ones he showed us. He’s going through exactly what I am, and anyway, he’s just made things a whole lot easier by having a plan to get into the plant,’ said William, leading Althea into a wide street. ‘I just hope it works.’
‘Ok, but I’m not going to let my guard down. I trust you, that’s the only reason I’m going to go along with this.’ She squeezed his hand again.
He squeezed back.
As they walked, William wondered what was going on. All signs pointed to Terrafall, but if it was responsible, why would it want to kidnap people? What would it gain from that?
Slavery was the first thing he could think of, but then why would some abductees turn up dead?
Sinister. That was the perfect word to describe the world they lived in. The link was just too obvious: Terrafall employed all the abductees, the disappearances practically paved a path to the company. Then again, his mother didn’t work for Terrafall directly. But the hospital was probably funded by it and therefore under its control. Come to think of it, was anything truly out of Terrafall’s control?
The centre of town was deserted now so it didn’t take long to get back to Althea’s house. As they walked along the cracked footpath, William could feel a renewed energy to move quickly, but when they reached Althea’s front door the feeling stopped. The house seemed far too quiet.
‘Something doesn’t feel right,’ he whispered as they unlocked the door and slipped inside.
Althea must’ve felt the same because she immediately ran from room to room shouting, ‘Ori, Ori, where are you?’
William stood in the open doorway. His experience of the previous night rendered him unable to move any further.
Finally, a small voice answered. ‘I–I’m upstairs. He fell asleep, Althea, and wouldn’t get back up.’ Ori’s words came down the stairs, drifting through the air like melancholic piano chords.
‘What do you mean?’ said Althea, leaping upwards two by two.
William followed her as fast as he could. He didn’t like where this was going. Not one bit.
Althea’s brother stood at the entrance to his grandfather’s room, clutching the doorframe. ‘He, he won’t g–g–get back up,’ said Ori, voice cracking.
Althea and William stepped into the dark room, to find Jim lying prostrate on the bed, unmoving.
‘Oh no… please no,’ whispered Althea, hand clasped over her mouth.
‘He’s cold. I put more blankets on him, but it hasn’t done anything. I tried to get the doctor too, but he wouldn’t come,’ said Ori, sniffling. ‘He said he was too busy at the hospital because his nurse hadn’t come in or something.’
‘If only my mum had been here,’ whispered William, stepping towards the bed. He tentatively placed two fingers against their grandfather’s neck. He couldn’t feel a pulse, and gosh, was he cold. William felt a lump rise into his throat as he struggled to form the words. ‘He’s gone,’ he whispered, wrapping an arm around Ori’s shoulder.
Althea sobbed at the end of the bed, biting down on her fist. How much more loss could they take? William couldn’t say and just cuddled Ori more tightly.
‘To a better place, Will?’ Ori looked up to William. ‘To see Mum and Dad?’
It didn’t matter how clever or how far his head was screwed on, Ori was still a kid, and you had to be careful what you said to kids. ‘To see everyone we loved who’s gone there,’ William replied, trying to make his tone as soothing as possible. ‘He’ll be planting vegetables with them right now.’
Sitting on the end of the bed, Althea pulled her knees into her chest. ‘He’s gone to paradise,’ she said through her tears, reaching out to pat Ori’s head. ‘Away from all this mess.’
‘Can we go there too?’ asked Ori, his brown eyes finally drowning in tears.
‘Not yet, little one,’ said Althea, pulling him into a hug. ‘We need to carry on. We’ve got work to do.’
Ori cried into Althea’s shoulder then, and William joined them, grabbing them both tightly. ‘And remember, we’ve got each other,’ he said, ruffling Ori’s blond hair. ‘We’ll always have each other.’
They sat for some time in the small room. Silence became their comfort blanket and no one wanted to crawl from beneath it. William looked out of the window. The sun was slowly drifting down the blue sky. Night was coming fast. An unpredictable time filled with danger, especially now, when laws were on the fringe of extinction.
They had to meet Ichabod, but William knew Althea and Ori needed a moment to grieve, one last time with their grandfather before… well, he didn’t know what.