A City Called Smoke: The Territory 2 (24 page)

As they rounded a final corner Squid saw where the light was coming from. It wasn’t the end of the tunnel but a hole in the roof. The tunnel had collapsed, and rubble from above had fallen in to fill the space. Whether it was luck, or whether someone had long ago cleared a path, the fallen rocks and soil had formed a kind of ramp up out of the tunnels and into the light. Squid, Nim, Mr. Stix and Mr. Stownes began to scramble up the rocks, their feet skidding and sliding over the loose rubble.

A loud groaning shriek made Squid look up from where he was concentrating on placing his hands and feet to scale the rocky ramp. The light above was bright after so long in the dark, but Squid could make out that the edge of the hole was rimmed with the unmistakable shapes of ghouls reaching down toward them.

“Ancestors’ sin!” Squid yelled. “Can’t they just leave us alone?!” Despite the situation he almost laughed at how much he sounded like Lynn.

The ghouls above began to throw themselves with reckless abandon down into the hole. Many of them fell a significant distance, landing with the crack of bone and hollow thuds on the rocks around them. Ignoring the way their bodies smashed against the ramp and their bones bent in absurd directions, the ghouls continued to reach out for the four of them. Those ghouls that were near the top of the ramp began awkwardly stuttering down toward them, slipping and sliding on the loose stones. Others continued to drop down from above like a hideous rain of dirty, dusty, decomposing bodies. One almost landed right on top of Squid, brushing his shoulder, hissing and desperately clawing at his legs as Squid scrambled aside.

Mr. Stownes climbed past Squid, swinging his blade like a maniac at the ghouls dropping and sliding down the ramp. Mr. Stix was soon beside him. He moved up the ramp, cutting off the heads or hands of ghouls that escaped Mr. Stownes.

“Go,” he said. “We need to get out of here.”

They climbed as quickly as they could, Mr. Stownes clearing the path in front and Nim and Mr. Stix chopping at those that got too close on either side. Squid felt helpless without his sword, unable to do anything but be shepherded upward to what might be safety or might just be more ghouls. Behind them the ramp had become a pile of bodies, over which those ghouls still able to move climbed in their endless, heedless search for the moisture they could sense in the living.

As Squid scrambled up and over the lip of the ramp he found himself in the middle of a street surrounded by a scene unlike any he had ever seen. For a moment he felt nearly paralyzed with awe. Buildings towered above them on either side, so tall that they blocked the sun and overwhelmed his vision. They were old and unmaintained. Whole chunks of some were gone, having collapsed into rubble on the street, and sections of glass were missing like pockmarks on the buildings’ faces. Everything around them was coated with dirt. Green grass and vines grew up through cracks in the road and twisted their way up walls.

But even with these obvious imperfections the place was incredible. It was like standing at the bottom of a ravine made of glass and concrete and metal. Squid knew these were the buildings they had seen from the outpost. This was not at all the same as the small pre-Reckoning knick-knacks that people had kept in the family, nor even like the vehicle that had been kept in Government House in Alice. These were enormous monuments to what the Ancestors had really been capable of. This was Big Smoke.

Squid became aware of Nim and Mr. Stix and Mr. Stownes scrambling up beside him. As much as he would have liked to, he knew there was no time to stand and admire their surroundings. Ghouls were emerging from alleyways between buildings and streets all around them. They stumbled, twitching and jerking, out onto the street, screeching and moaning at the sudden appearance of moisture in their empty city. They were all slow, perhaps not as decrepit as those lost in the tunnels below, but still unfed and rigid. But as they collected in the street they soon formed a large mass. It was nothing like the horde Squid had faced outside Dust, but it was the biggest group of ghouls he had seen since then. And given that there were only four of them against the hundreds of ghouls that seemed to be gathering, Squid estimated that the odds were much the same.

“We need to run,” Squid said.

“Yes,” Mr. Stix agreed. “We do.”

As the remnants of those in the tunnels began crawling out behind them, Squid looked around. There was only one direction that seemed clear of ghouls. Directly ahead of them, some distance up the street was an enormous dome, not as high as the buildings around them but certainly massive, and wide enough that they couldn’t see all of it. It was opaque white, lit up to a dull shine in the sun. Where the street ended at the dome’s base there was a door. The building looked complete, secure, and hopefully they could get inside.

“There,” Squid said, pointing to the base of the dome.

Mr. Stix looked at Mr. Stownes and the two men nodded to each other.

“Nim,” Mr. Stix said. The Nomad boy turned to look at him. “You stay with Squid. You get him to that dome. We’ll keep as many ghouls at bay as we can.”

Nim looked from Mr. Stix to Squid and then back again. He nodded, once, a confident response. “You got it.”

“Squid,” Mr. Stix said, “your only role in this is to stay alive. Do you understand?”

“What are you going to do?” Squid asked, though it was a stupid question because he already knew what the answer was.

“Our job.”

Mr. Stownes began walking ahead, his blade held at the ready. Mr. Stix sheathed his shortsword and drew his two mechanical pistols. He began firing at the ghouls that were emerging from the nearest alleys and empty buildings. Crack after crack after crack emanated from Mr. Stix’s hands as he shot. Ghouls’ heads snapped back, knocking them to the ground. Some were struck in the chest or shoulder, slowing them down, but only until they regained their feet and kept coming.

“Come on,” Nim said, pulling at Squid’s arm, snapping him out of the trance he had fallen into watching Mr. Stix shoot. Squid and Nim ran. Ghouls that drew too close would stagger in unison with the sound of Mr. Stix’s firing, though that soon stopped as he ran out of ammunition. Squid looked back over his shoulder. Mr. Stix had drawn his sword again. The vast majority of ghouls were still coming from behind them. Mr. Stix and Mr. Stownes were hanging back as they fought them, trying to give Squid and Nim a chance to get to the dome.

Squid couldn’t help but be amazed by the things he saw as they ran. As they passed a street blocked by an overturned vehicle, he noticed that several other vehicles were lined up behind it as if they had been abandoned, unable to pass. Each of them was rusted and smashed, the doors still hanging open, the glass so dirty it was barely transparent. The vehicles were all smaller than bio-trucks; sleeker, too.

Another vehicle ahead of them on the side of the road had a tray on the back like the Prophet Steven’s ute. It made Squid realize that Steven would once have walked these very streets. The stories the Sisters told said he had led the worthy across the desert from Big Smoke to Alice, where he had built the walls and protected them while God enacted his vengeance on the world of man. Had the Prophet Steven really helped people escape whatever had happened here and left some weapon behind knowing that Squid would one day come to collect it? Is a prophecy like that really possible? Squid had thought that reaching Big Smoke would somehow make things clearer, but seeing the city for himself only filled him with more questions. Now, though, as they raced toward what safety might or might not lie under the dome, was not the time for pondering anything except survival.

As they approached the dome Squid saw that he had been right, there was an entrance, a set of double doors that looked to be sealed shut. Above the doors was faded writing peeling away from the glass in some places.

Australian Center for Disease Control

Infection Research Facility

Exclusion Zone – Authorized Personnel Only Beyond This Point

Little of this meant anything to Squid but it sounded promising, like the type of place where a weapon against the ghouls might be kept. But then he thought, not for the first time, that if there really was a weapon against the ghouls here, then why hadn’t the Ancestors used it?

As they reached the base of the dome, the white shape of it rising before them, Squid stepped toward the door. Nothing happened. He wasn’t sure what he had expected. He reached out and touched it. It felt like glass, warm from the sun. He tried to push or pull it, to slide it open, but it wouldn’t budge in the slightest. Nim joined the effort, trying to slip his fingers into the join at the center of the door, but that too was impossible. Squid’s eyes fell on a small panel to the right of the door, which comprised a small slot and a green piece of glass. He pressed at it, hoping maybe it would do something, but it didn’t. Hearing the screeching and groaning behind them Squid yelled in frustration, slamming his fist against the door.

“Come on!” he shouted. “Come on!”

Squid turned to look back. The mass of ghouls was a short distance behind them. Mr. Stix and Mr. Stownes were walking backward as they hacked and slashed at them, trying to keep the overwhelming numbers at bay, but they couldn’t hold them all forever. There were too many to fight. They needed to run. They needed to retreat in the way the Diggers had never retreated. Squid needed to give them somewhere to retreat to.

He turned and looked again at the dome. They could circle around it, looking for another way in, but somehow Squid didn’t think there would be one. He had to think. He was supposed to be the leader. Lynn always told him he was the smart one, the clever one, so why couldn’t he be smart now? Why couldn’t he figure this out? The sounds of the ghouls drew closer. Looking over his shoulder, Squid saw that they were now only ten or twenty steps away. Mr. Stix and Mr. Stownes were moving side to side, trying to keep any ghouls from getting past them, trying to draw the attention of those that would go for Squid and Nim. In less than a minute Mr. Stix and Mr. Stownes would have no further to go. The ghouls would crush them against the wall of the dome, trapping them all.

Squid felt panic encroaching, so he reached for the shape of the key beneath his shirt. His hands shook as he gripped it.
Think. Think. Think.
He looked up at the dome again, staring at the words above the door. Australian Center for Disease Control.
ACDC!
He almost tore the cord through his neck as he grabbed his key and pulled it off. He looked at the scratched letters on the side. ACDC. The word that didn’t make sense wasn’t a word at all. Squid looked at the slot beside the door. It looked to be the right size. He took his mother’s key and pushed it into the slot.

There was a scream behind them. Squid turned to look. Mr. Stix had fallen. Ghouls clambered on top of him, biting at his face and neck.

“No!” Squid screamed.

“Dammit,” Nim said, almost simultaneously. He had his sword out and began making his way toward the ghouls.

Mr. Stownes roared as he tried to slash the ghouls away with his enormous blade, but it was too late for his partner and friend. He had already been bitten and was nearly lost beneath the inhuman snarls, the madly grasping hands and trampling feet. Mr. Stownes looked back toward Squid, who stood frozen with his hand holding the key in the slot. Squid looked down, almost forgetting what he had been doing. The green glass above the slot had lit up.

“No,” Mr. Stownes said. “Nim, you must stay with Squid.” Squid looked at Nim, who looked back at him. Squid supposed his face must have looked as surprised as Nim’s at hearing the enormous man speak. “You must find that weapon.”

Mr. Stownes chopped at the ghouls that grasped for him. Squid knew he had seconds before they would overwhelm him.

“Squid,” Mr. Stownes said. “If you see Lynnette Hermannsburg again, you tell her we are sorry. We have tried to atone for our sins, for her father. Three of us took on the job to assassinate him. He fought valiantly, disarmed us, killed one of us. It was I who used the spoon to end his life. Tell her for that I am sorry. It was the High Priestess who ordered it done. Now open that door and get inside.”

Squid’s heart thumped in his ears. He knew his eyes must have grown wider still. What was Stownes saying? He’d killed Lynn’s father on the church’s orders? Impossible. Mr. Stix and Mr. Stownes had protected him. They had helped rescue Lynn. It didn’t make any sense, but there was no time to dwell on it now. Beside him Nim pressed the green button. The opaque white door hissed and slid open. Squid watched for a final moment as Mr. Stownes fought to give them the extra time they needed. Nim pulled Squid inside. As the doors shut Squid watched through the closing gap as Mr. Stownes was bitten repeatedly. The big man dropped to his knees, letting his blade fall away. Squid was safe in Big Smoke. Stownes’s mission was complete. He let the ghouls take him.

As the doors sealed shut Squid too dropped to his knees, exhausted and shaking. It was only then that he realized he was crying. The door and the outside of the dome became shadowed as the ghouls piled against it. The sound of dull hammering filled the space as they banged against the glass, but Squid didn’t look up, he didn’t react at all.

“Squid,” Nim repeated his name. “Squid.”

Squid stayed on his knees, listening to the muffled groans and screeching, the knocking and slapping on the glass as the ghouls tried to force their way into the dome. He knew they were safe but he couldn’t move. He kept seeing Mr. Stix and Mr. Stownes being taken by the ghouls like rocks being swallowed by a sandstorm. With these images came those of Darius turning and attacking him, of Lynn cutting his head from his shoulders; Lieutenant Walter falling into the swarm of ghouls in the Battle of Dust; of Uncle as a ghoul. He had met his mother but then had left her behind in that strange and horrible place. He had lost Lynn again – she would almost be back in Alice now, to face punishment at the hands of the High Priestess – and he’d learned that Mr. Stownes had been the one who’d killed Colonel Hermannsburg. And now he knew that the Administrator was his own father. He felt as though he had lost so much: family, friends and even his own sense of identity.

He felt so tired. Everything weighed on him, crushing him. The burden of his losses felt so heavy that he thought he’d never be able to rise out from under it again. Time and time again things had gone wrong, had been taken from him, had seemed hopeless, but now it was as though something had snapped. Whatever rope would pull him out of the despair was gone, and like the cage dropping from the dirigible, he was dropping away. He was giving up. What did the prophecy matter when all it did was kill those around him and leave him alone and afraid?

“Squid,” Nim said once more. Squid realized Nim had his tattooed hand on his shoulder. He looked up at him, not bothering to wipe the blur from his eyes.

“It’s too much,” Squid said. “I’ve had enough. I don’t want to be responsible for all this. I don’t want to do this anymore.”

Nim looked down at him, expressionless for a moment, but then he smiled sadly and nodded. “Do you know why I’m here?”

“The Storm Man,” Squid said.

“No,” Nim said. “I’m here for my sister.” He was examining the tattoos that ran in swirls of dots over the back of his hands. “These are about her,” he said, and was quiet for a long time, so long that Squid didn’t know whether he should say something or not. But eventually Nim continued. “That was why I came, at least at first, but I know it’s not just about Nara anymore. I don’t know whether a prophecy about you is real. I don’t know whether the Storm Man is real. I think they’re just stories we’ve told ourselves because if we believe the outcome is inevitable then we don’t have to be afraid.”

Squid nodded. For once Nim made a lot of sense. Why had he been so determined about the prophecy? Why had he told Lynn over and over that she had to believe it when she clearly didn’t? Because if he thought the prophecy was true then he believed they couldn’t fail.

“Probably we wouldn’t have made it this far without those stories,” Nim said. “The Old Fellas of my mob always said there wasn’t nothing as important as stories. I know what they mean now. Those stories helped us get here, Squid, but they aren’t the only reason we got here. You’re the reason we got here. You believed we would and here we are. Are you really going to give up now?”

Squid didn’t say anything.

“Yes, we’ve lost people,” Nim said. “We’ve lost Lynn and Mr. Stix and Mr. Stownes, Lynn’s brother, left your mother behind too, right? But don’t you see? They all helped to get us here. They all sacrificed something so that we could get to this place. If we give up now they did that for nothing.”

Squid looked at Nim for a long time before he stood. Nim was right. He couldn’t let those people down. He was going to find some way to stop the ghouls, not because some long-dead prophet had said he would, but because it was the right thing to do.

Squid reached up to put his hand on Nim’s shoulder, looking him in the eyes. “For Nara, then,” Squid said. “And everyone else.”

He turned from the door and looked around them for the first time. The roof curved up and away over his head forming the inside of the dome. It glowed like an unnaturally white sky as the sun shone down through the opaque glass. They stood in an open space, like a broad foyer. Numerous walkways curved away around the shape of the dome to the left and right, with staircases leading up to many levels of rooms set against the exterior of the dome. Ahead of them was an opaque glass wall similar to that of the outer dome. Three sets of double doors, not unlike those they had entered through, were positioned in the wall. “Australian Center for Disease Control” was written in bold letters above them.

Beside the doors on a standalone pedestal was a large piece of glass, angled so that as Squid approached he could look straight down at it. It was black, as though he was looking into a dark room, though there was nothing behind it.

“What is it?” Nim asked.

“I don’t know,” Squid said. He reached out and touched the glass. It seemed to glow, a subtle light that turned it gray, and then a circle began rotating in the center. Squid jerked his hand away, afraid of – well, he wasn’t really sure what.

Nim leaned down over the glass and peered at the spinning circle. After a moment it vanished and the black of the glass was replaced by a blue background with a single white line running across the center.

“Good morning,” the glass said, the white line wobbling in time with the voice. “How may I be of assistance?” It sounded like a woman but the voice was strange, sort of hollow and distant.

Nim almost fell backward as he took desperate steps away from the glass. “It spoke. It’s speaking.”

Squid tilted his head to look behind the glass, then turned to check if there was anyone with them, but there was no one else; nothing, at any rate, that could have spoken.

“Is it a spirit?” Nim asked.

Squid approached the white line. “What are you?”

“My name is Fiona,” the voice said. “I am the Center for Disease Control’s High-Level Operating System.”

“What does that mean?” Squid said.

“I am responsible for facility monitoring, automated maintenance, data management and software system control.”

Squid looked at Nim, who shrugged, obviously as confused as Squid was.

“Are you a human?” Squid said. “How are you still here?”

“Main power is offline. Solar cells remain functional at forty-five percent. Secondary systems disabled. I am running in power saver mode.”

“Are you a spirit?” Nim asked. “Are you a spirit of the land?”

“My name is Fiona,” the voice repeated. “I am the Center for Disease Control’s High-Level Operating System.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Squid said.

“Would you like me to perform a search to provide information about intelligent operating systems?” Fiona said.

“Yes,” Squid said, not sure what he was actually asking for, but hoping it might provide some answers.

“I’m sorry,” Fiona said. “Network connectivity appears to be down. Please try again later. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“What is this place?” Squid asked.

“This is the New Sydney Infection Research Facility. After the unscheduled shutdown of the Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne centers, this facility was established to provide front-line support to infection control, research and vaccine deployment.”

“That’s it, Nim,” Squid said, a sudden rush of excitement filling him. “The vaccine, that’s the weapon against the ghouls.”

Squid turned back to the strange glass that called itself Fiona. “Tell me about the vaccine.”

“The Australian Center for Disease Control was allocated serum S3G by the World Health Organization Task Force as its primary research target for inoculation against the Sonalum A virus. After the unscheduled shutdown of the Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne research facilities all data was transferred to the New Sydney Infection Research Facility for continued development. Initial trials found Derivative K of serum S3G provided effective vaccination against infection. Final stage testing was complete and the vaccine transferred to airborne dispersal drones.”

“Can we have it?” Squid asked. “Can we get the vaccine?”

“Main power is offline. Solar cells remain functional at forty-five percent. Secondary systems have been disabled to ensure server stability and climate control systems within vaccine storage remain within acceptable limits. Vaccine control sample tests performed sixteen hours and forty-seven minutes ago passed on all parameters. Vaccine remains viable. Vaccine in airborne dispersal drones is ready for deployment. Would you like access to Vaccine Storage?”

“Yes,” Squid said. “How do we get the vaccine?”

 “Access key code alpha used for entry. All security disabled. Access all areas permitted. Vaccine Storage opening. Proceed down the elevator to Basement Level Two for access to activated drones.” The door in front of them slid open.

Squid began to move toward the open door but stopped, turning back to Fiona. He had to know. “Why wasn’t the vaccine ever used?” he asked.

“Full security lockdown initiated at thirteen sixteen on Monday July seven, twenty seventy-six. No recorded access to facility since that time. Chief Security Officer Isabelle Andrews recorded a log entry. Would you like to play log entry?”

“I think a log is like a diary,” Squid said to Nim. He turned back to Fiona. “Yes please, I’d like to see the log.”

“Playing log entry Andrews, twenty seventy-six, July seven dash S dash zero three.”

The blue faded from the glass, and the wiggling line that Squid had begun to think of as Fiona – whatever she actually was – disappeared along with it. It was replaced by a woman’s face. She looked to be in her thirties. Her brown hair was cut short on the sides, the slightly longer fringe pushed to one side. She had a white object protruding from one ear and pointing toward her mouth.

“This is Security Chief Isabelle Andrews.” The woman began to speak as if she were directly addressing Squid, though from the way she spoke he knew this wasn’t the case. He didn’t know how he was seeing it, but he could tell this was something that had already happened, something that had occurred here in the past. It was as if Fiona was showing them her memories.

“I am recording this mandatory log entry as I am evoking a full security lockdown of the New Sydney CDC facility.”

The woman, Isabelle, put her finger to the object in her ear and then turned to look behind her. The scene was dark, lights flickered on and off and panels of glass like the one Squid and Nim were staring into could be seen behind her, images flashing across them. When she turned back to face Squid and Nim she seemed panicked, almost out of breath.

“I need to be quick. There’s been an attack. We believe the group calling themselves God’s Redeemers are responsible. Several blasts have occurred across the city, a number targeting the CDC dome itself, although it appears undamaged. The vaccine drones are prepped and ready for deployment, so no doubt that is what prompted the attack. I still don’t understand why people would do this; it’s not like the infection isn’t enough to worry about, damn nut –” Isabelle stopped herself and shook her head as if clearing something from her mind. “Sorry, we were prepared for an attack like this, but they had inside help. Steven Millner, a research assistant, opened fire in the laboratories. He attempted to reach Vaccine Storage but was stopped by security. Unfortunately he managed to escape.”

Isabelle repeated the motion of putting her finger to her ear. She turned her face away as if listening to something. “Yes, but have the research teams been moved to the secure facility?” she said, then paused. “Good.” Isabelle looked back to Squid and Nim. “The drones remain undamaged. I’m placing high-level personnel in lockdown. Once the situation is resolved I will update. It’s unknown whether it’s safe to deploy the drones yet and I don’t want to risk it.” Isabelle paused. “That’s all to report for now.”

The screen went black and white words appeared: LOG ENDS.

“What happened?” Squid asked. “What happened after that?”

The blue screen and white line returned. “That is the final log recorded,” Fiona’s voice said, vibrating the line as she spoke.

“I don’t understand,” Nim said to Squid. “Who is she?”

“She was,” Squid paused, just realizing this now for himself, “she was one of the Ancestors.” He turned to Fiona. “Can you tell me what happened to Isabelle Andrews?”

“Andrews, Isabelle Melissa. Chief Security Officer of the New Sydney Center for Disease Control Facility. Whereabouts unknown, presumed deceased. Last logged at fourteen zero six, Monday July seven, twenty seventy-six, entering off-site secure location for personnel lockdown. Sonalum-A infected individuals detected at fourteen twenty-eight. Contact lost to personnel lockdown site at fourteen thirty-three.”

Nim was still looking at Fiona strangely. “Let’s just get the weapon and get out of here,” he said.

Squid nodded, but he wanted to ask Fiona one other thing. “Fiona,” he said. “How long have you been by yourself?”

“Last personnel exit from the facility was fifteen thirty-eight, Monday July seven, twenty seventy-six. Three hundred and seventy-eight years, one hundred and sixty-two days, twenty hours, three minutes and ten seconds ago.”

“You’ve been alone for nearly four hundred years,” Squid said. “Would you like to come with us?”

“System maintenance required,” Fiona said. “Portable computing unresponsive.”

“I think she’s saying no,” Nim said.

Squid looked at the white line, feeling sorry for whatever had happened to Fiona, before turning and entering the open door. But Squid and Nim both stopped as they walked through, because behind the doors was nothing but a tiny room with silver walls.

“I don’t understand,” Squid said as they stood inside. “Where are we supposed to go?”

They spun back around as the doors closed behind them. Nim began to bang against them with his fist. “Hello?” he called. “Fiona?” But there was no answer. He turned to Squid. “Is it a trap? Did she trick us? My grandfather always said the spirits played tricks on people.”

The floor beneath them shuddered and there was suddenly a sense of movement. The whole room was descending. No, not a room, Squid realised. This was the elevator Fiona had mentioned; it was like the cargo cage on the dirigible, for carrying things up and down. Moments later the doors reopened and the scene outside had changed. They stepped out of the cage, Nim turning back to stare at it, confused.