‘We’re already blind,’ said the experiments.
‘I can’t do that,’ said Cherry, the hairs on her arms rising. ‘You wouldn’t be able to see anything.’
‘You can see things now,’ said Chase. ‘You see more than anyone else sees.’
‘Perhaps,’ one of the other experiments said. ‘But it is a burden. This is not a life any of us chose and now that we can see it is possible to leave it behind, we would be grateful if you kept your promise and helped us. You need to shatter our orbs.’
‘Couldn’t you have done it yourself? Shattered the orbs, I mean?’ Chase asked. He pulled Cherry closer to him.
‘We’ve tried. They’re tough to break. We’re not strong enough,’ they said. Loneliness let out a long howl.
‘What makes you think we’d be strong enough?’ Cherry asked. Loneliness’s howl grew louder.
‘That creature is driving me mad,’ Chase muttered.
Cherry could only make out Loneliness’s outline as it ambled towards them. It veered to the right towards an experiment whose lights started to blink rapidly.
‘It’s all right, 347. I believe Loneliness is just trying to help.’ 341’s voice was low and soft.
Loneliness whined and lifted its hands up to 347’s face, its large palms covering 347’s ears. It closed 347’s eyelids with its thumbs, extinguishing the light, but keeping the pad of its thumbs there. The crunch of glass reverberated around the cell and Cherry’s stomach turned as 347 screamed.
‘Stop!’ she yelled.
‘No,’ said 341, reaching out for the hand Chase wasn’t holding.
Loneliness pulled its hands away and covered its head, whimpering, drool spilling from its lips and pooling around his feet. 347 clutched his bleeding face but through his sobs of pain he whispered, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you,’ and Loneliness kissed his forehead.
Cherry sobbed and Chase brought her in closer. 341 nodded at Loneliness who shuffled its feet to Experiment 308 whose eyes were already closed, ready and waiting.
Peter pulled grass from the ground in clumps and watched it float away into the breeze. ‘Come on, Cherry,’ he groaned. She’d already been in there longer than she should have. Peter had refused to go back into the Guild but he’d been prepared to help Cherry in another way. Even so, he thought he’d seen the last of Warleggan. There was nothing for miles, and the light was fading fast but he was determined to wait. He had faith in Cherry, but it had been hours and he couldn’t keep from fidgeting impatiently. The cold was settling in for the night and the only thing to warm him was the thick heat coming up from the vent he had strategically placed himself in front of. He closed his eyes and threw himself backwards, flinging his arms above his head and let out a sigh. He opened his eyes but all he could see was black. Had he fallen asleep and day had turned to night? Peter rubbed his eyes hard but still the black smoke clouded his vision.
Smoke.
‘Ohmygod!’ he yelled, scrambling up and looking up into the burning face of Hatred. ‘OH MY GOD, SHE DID IT! She did it! She did it! She did it!’ he chanted and Hatred threw her head back and laughed. ‘Right. We’ve got work to do. Stand there.’ Peter pointed to the edge of the vent and Hatred waddled as fast as she could so that her large toes curled over the edge of the metal slats. Peter closed his eyes and thought of his mother and how she’d kept him locked up in that place for almost his entire life. More and more black smoke started to pour off Hatred’s body but before it rose and disappeared into the darkening sky, Hatred sucked it up into her mouth and blew it down the vent with as much force as she could.
‘This is for you, Shura. This is all for you.’
‘How do we know it’s worked?’ Chase asked.
He was creeping back up the stairs with Cherry, Loneliness, his Meddlums and the ten prized experiments in tow. They held each other’s shoulders as they ascended the staircase. Cherry tried not to look behind her but Curiosity took her chin in its hand and turned it over her shoulder. The blood from their hollow eye sockets was glittered with glass dust, their hair was singed and charred and their gowns were filthy and reeking. They had been treated like animals for so long they had started to resemble them.
‘It will have worked. We are the control panel but we no longer see,’ said 341 in Cherry’s ear.
‘Then let’s hope Peter has held up his end of the deal,’ Chase said.
They slipped and stumbled up the spiral staircase, the experiments’ legs stiff from lack of use, but their hearts lifted them and they moved forward slowly but with purpose.
‘We may have a lot of company when we get upstairs,’ Chase said.
‘I know. I know.’ Cherry rested her forehead against Chase’s back, trusting him to guide her up the final steps. Her feet reached flat ground but she didn’t dare look up at what was inevitably going to be a corridor full of blue suits, white coats and Happy with a syringe.
‘Cherry.’ Chase wiggled her wrist. ‘Looks like Peter came through.’
Cherry snapped her head up, saw nothing but black smoke and smiled.
25
Loneliness
Cherry put a finger to her lips and turned to the experiments, but then realised they couldn’t see her. ‘We’ve got to be quiet,’ she whispered to 341 who whispered to 347 and the message was carried quietly down the line. They crept to the end of the corridor although any noise they were making was drowned out by the sirens and the screaming. People were running through the smoke, some were screaming at the fire, some were screaming at the monsters that had reappeared after years of not being seen. Fear filled the air.
‘I don’t know which way is out,’ Cherry said.
‘We’ll figure it out. We just need to move,’ Chase said, ready to run out into the busy hall.
‘Take my hand,’ said 341 and without question Cherry interlinked her fingers with 341’s. ‘I worked here for years before I was turned into a guinea pig. I know my way around this place whether I can see it or not. You just need to give me a starting point. Describe exactly what you can see.’
‘A lot of smoke.’
‘You don’t know where we are?’ 341’s voice faltered.
‘Erm… ‘ Cherry tried mentally retracing their steps. She remembered jumping through the window and how Loneliness had carried them diagonally across the hall.
‘We’re on the right side of the hall. Top right. To get to you we came down a corridor and then through a door marked Private. That’s where we are now. Where that door used to be.’
Blood was seeping out from under 341’s closed eyelids. It had started to collect and clot and soon she wouldn’t be able to open them. Fresh tears sprang to Cherry’s eyes.
‘Got it. Let’s go.’ 341 pulled at Cherry’s hand and for someone who was blind she moved incredibly fast.
They stayed close to the walls and white coats flashed by in the smoke but no one noticed the silent, soon-to-be escapees. 341 turned left and started to pick up speed down a corridor where red flashing lights on the ceiling were penetrating through the smoke. They were losing cover.
‘Chase, have you got Loneliness?’
‘It won’t let go of my gown,’ Chase growled.
‘Good.’
‘The other three are riding the experiments.’ She could almost hear him roll his eyes.
‘How much further?’ Cherry whispered to 341.
‘There’s a lift at the end of this corridor that will take us up and out but we need a key card.’ Loneliness tugged at Chase’s gown and waved the key card Chase had swiped earlier in front of his face.
‘Oh… nice one.’ Chase pressed the card into Cherry’s hand.
‘Got one!’
‘Perfect. Once the doors close, they won’t open again until we’re upstairs. Once we’re upstairs, and the doors open, we have to run. Fast.’
Cherry nodded. ‘Towards the smoke. We need to run towards where the smoke is the thickest. Make sure everyone knows that.’
The smoke was st
arting to fade. More and more faces were becoming visible and Cherry caught sight of Loneliness’s monstrous face. How was she going to hide it in the real world, now that it was a form everyone could see? She shook the thought from her head. She’d figure it out. Right now she had to think of the task at hand. 341 bumped up against the glass lift doors and fumbled trying to find the keypad.
‘Let me.’ Cherry took the card in her own shaking hands and swiped it. The doors opened and Cherry, Chase and 341 piled in.
‘QUICK!’ she screamed as Frustration, Mischief and Cynicism skittered in around Chase’s feet and held onto his legs. The other experiments, with no one to guide them, bumped into each other in the confusion. Cherry saw Loneliness’s claws reach out but two men in blue suits suddenly appeared.
‘STOP THEM!’ Happy was barrelling down the corridor as the doors began to close, leaving Loneliness on the other side, clawing at the glass.
‘NO! LONELINESS!’ Cherry’s hands searched the walls for any buttons to open the doors once more but there was nothing. She beat her fists against the glass, screaming as Loneliness wrestled with the blue suits. It thrashed ferociously against them, breaking a window with its large foot.
‘The lift’s leaving!’ said 341, holding Cherry’s heaving shoulders. ‘You can’t stop it!’
‘The strings! They’re going to drag the lift down!’ said Chase, trying to prise the doors open with his fingers.
‘NO! We have to go back for the others. Loneliness!’ As the lift started to rise, Loneliness ripped one of its arms free, closed its claw around a piece of broken glass and before Happy could sink her syringe into its fur, Loneliness grabbed every red string that attached it to Cherry… and cut.
26
Smoking
The doors opened and Cherry fell face first onto the floor of a dank cave.
‘We’ve got to move.’ 341 stumbled forwards and Frustration took her hand. ‘Will you guide me?’ she asked and the Meddlum yapped its acceptance. Mischief moved behind her and Cynicism stood to her left so they formed a semicircle around her and together they started to run. The lift doors closed and the lift immediately sank down into the floor, no doubt having been called by Happy. Before Chase’s strings became too taut, he scooped Cherry into his arms and followed after 341.
They came out into a forest but the trees thinned out quickly as they ran and Chase could see a road up ahead. He didn’t dare look down at Cherry’s face. He could feel that her body was limp in his arms and there was something trickling down his arm which he thought might be her blood. Her severed red strings hung underneath her and fluttered against his bare legs. Twigs and rocks dug into his feet but he kept running until 341 called back to him, ‘Can you see smoke?!’ 341 had reached a road up ahead but there was no smoke.
‘No! Just keep running!’
‘Smoke…’ Cherry murmured. ‘Smoke…’
‘Hold on, Cherry. They’re not going to catch up to us. I won’t let them.’
‘Smoke…’ She whispered again and this time, she raised her arm and stretched out her hand, pointing to the van that was barrelling towards them, smoke trailing behind it.
‘This way!’ Peter appeared out of the sunroof, flailing his arms above his head. ‘Over here!’
Frustration picked 341 up and carried her towards the van, Mischief and Cynicism not far behind. Chase hesitated, the strings between him and his Meddlums straining. He couldn’t see Hatred, just the smoke coming out of the exhaust. The van screeched to a halt halfway down the road, kicking up a cloud of dust and the driver’s door opened.
‘Chase!’ shouted Sally, ‘YOU GET THAT GIRL IN THIS VAN THIS INSTANT!’
Chase didn’t need to be told twice. He started to run but a sharp pinch in his neck caught him unawares and as he stumbled, Cherry fell from his arms. He whipped around, his limbs already numbing, and Happy stood over him, a syringe held neatly between her dainty fingers.
‘Clever, 598.’
‘Chase,’ he corrected, slurring.
‘No, 598. I don’t know how you pulled off this little stunt but it’s time to get yourselves back inside.’
Chase’s knees buckled and they slammed into the ground. A blue suit ran at him and tried to pull one of his arms behind his back. Chase struggled and caught the man across the jaw but he threw himself off balance and landed face-first in the grass on the roadside. Sally ran from the van and screamed their names but Peter couldn’t risk it. He ducked back inside the car and started to rock back and forth.
‘Can’t go back. Can’t go back. Can’t go back,’ he mumbled.
‘I suppose it’s quite endearing,’ Happy said to Chase, ‘that you thought you could escape.’
‘Happy…’ said a blue suit.
‘But I don’t feel endearment, so it was all for nothing, really.’
‘Happy!’
‘So it’s lucky for you I’m just —’
‘HAPPY!’ The blue suited man screamed as experiment 347 climbed onto his back and clawed at his face.
Happy spun around and stared into the eyeless faces of nine experiments she’d had a hand in caging up for almost a decade.
‘No… no, you shouldn’t be here. What happened to your faces? YOU.’ She kicked Chase in the neck. ‘That’s how you did this. That’s how you broke the lenses. Shura. WHERE IS SHURA!’
‘Shura?’ Peter’s head snapped up.
‘I told you I’d find a way back to you,’ Experiment 341 said from the front passenger seat. She didn’t look around for fear of what Peter would say when he saw her face but it was undeniably her voice.
‘Shura!’ Peter clambered between the seats and into the driver’s side next to her. Tears poured down his cheeks when he saw that underneath the burnt hair, the blood and grime it really was her and he knew for certain when he saw the yellow rag, now bloodied and full of holes, wrapped around her ring finger that he had tied there years before as a promise. A promise that he would always be hers. A promise he’d been willing to keep even when he saw her lifeless body wheeled away in the Guild, sure she was dead. Yet here she was. His Shura. ‘Oh God!’ he cried.
‘Where are you? Let me hold you.’ Her hands tentatively reached out and searched for him and at first, Peter just watched her hands colliding with nothing but air but then, he circled his fingers around her wrists and gently guided her hands to his face. She traced the outline of his nose, his eyebrows, his cheeks, his chin.
‘Peter,’ she sighed, smiling through her tears.
‘CHERRY!’ screamed Sally, crouching down by the back tyre and clutching the mud guard, not knowing what to do. Cherry’s body lay still on the ground and Chase was barely moving.
‘Wait here,’ Peter said to Shura, planting a firm kiss on the top of her head before getting out of the car and walking towards Happy with a determination so strong that the ground shook.
‘What did you do to her?’ Peter said, crouching down next to Cherry. Five of the experiments had blue suits pinned to the ground, fighting them with all the hurt and anger they’d been saving up while they’d been locked away.
‘Ahh, Peter, dear son. Couldn’t stay away from Mummy for too long, could you?’
Peter narrowed his eyes at Happy. ‘You may have given birth to me, but you’re not my mother.’
Happy tutted. ‘Come now, why would you say such a thing? I do my best.’
‘This is not your best.’ Peter stepped over Cherry and Chase and stood between their barely conscious bodies and squared up to his mother. ‘Your best would’ve been staying. Not leaving me and then locking me away.’
‘I didn’t want you to turn out like me,’ Happy said matter-of-factly.
‘I was always going to be like you. It’s because of you that I’m like this.’
‘I didn’t know that when I left, Peter. And you ended up here anyway, so you got what you wanted. We were together at last.’ She looked at him blankly.
‘Got what I wanted? As soon as I arrived you put me in a cell
! You didn’t treat me like your son, you treated me like any other experiment. You even gave me a number! I was seven years old and I was experiment fourteen.’
‘I couldn’t have shown any favouritism, now could I? Nepotism is —’
‘Nepotism? Is that what you think it would’ve been?! Stopping them from locking me in a cage wouldn’t have been favouritism. It would’ve been human!’ Peter spat. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the four other experiments silently making their way towards Happy. The blue suits now lay unconscious in the trees so Peter knew all the experiments were getting ready to pounce. He inhaled deeply. ‘Occasionally, Mother, I still jerk and jolt like the electricity is still passing through my body while you were trying to pull all of my feelings out of me. Hatred stuck by me through it all and now she’s bigger and far more dangerous than you could ever have imagined.’ Hatred heard her name and waved a hand that was covered in embers. The wind fanned it and it burst into flames, making Happy jump.
‘You can hardly blame me for that,’ she said. ‘That’s just what happens to people who don’t know how to behave.’ Happy clasped her hands together and shrugged.
‘You’re a lost cause.’ He shook his head, a tear running down his nose.
‘Look how sad you are, Peter. We can fix that.’ Happy took a step towards him.
‘We can fix that. Clearer vision means a clear mind. I’ve heard it all, Mum. Sooner or later everything you’ve done is going to catch up to you. Or… maybe they already have.’
Peter’s gaze shifted from his mother to the experiments who had moved so stealthily they were standing behind her, close enough to touch her. 347 led the charge. He jumped on her, knocking her to the ground. 349 straddled her and slapped her hard across the face over and over and over and she stayed straddling her while 345 and 348 took Happy’s legs and dragged her into the forest where the trees were thickest.