B00DW1DUQA EBOK (50 page)

‘And the wreckers will stop any that try to save Engn,’ said Diane.

‘They might,’ said Connor. ‘There
are
thousands of them, all over Engn, but they’re disorganized. Once things blow I think they’ll be fleeing right alongside the Ironclads.’

‘And you’re sure you want to do this, Connor?’ said Diane.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, look at you. You’re in charge now. You could leave things as they are. You could live like a king here. Press a button to summon the Ironclads, blame the Director’s death on us and you’re in the clear. You could even tell yourself you were doing the right thing. That you were going to fix it all from within.’

Connor reached inside his gown and pulled something from a pocket. Something small and metallic. He slipped it onto his finger and held it up to show them.

‘You kept your ring,’ said Diane.

‘I did.’

‘Ours too,’ said Finn. They each put them on. The first time they had all worn them in seven years.

‘But you’re throwing so much away,’ said Diane. ‘I wouldn’t really blame you. You must be a bit tempted.’

‘I have been at times. I just looked at him though.’ Connor indicated the old man with a nod of his head. ‘I imagined myself ending up like him. Bitter, miserable, friendless. That’s no life.’

‘You could do things differently,’ said Diane.

Connor shook his head. You didn’t know Finn and me when we were very young. I had no-one. I mean I had everything I needed but I was alone. My father and everyone were busy all the time. My mother was house-bound. Then one winter’s day Finn became my friend. And later on, you. That’s all that matters.’

‘OK,’ said Diane. ‘Tell us what to do.’

‘Once I’ve unlocked the controls, start shutting down systems while I take the time-signal generator offline. Turn all those dials to zero. Got it?’

‘Got it,’ they both said.

Finn watched as Connor picked out the key the Director had shown him from the great bunch and unlocked the control panel. Taking great care he typed in the code he’d been shown. Tiny incandescent bulbs flickered into life all around the panel as the controls became active.

‘OK,’ said Connor. ‘Go.’

Almost immediately Finn heard distant alarms: jangling bells and wailing sirens. Connor ignored them. He was busily plucking cables from the time-signal generator, each time disconnecting some distant component in the vast machine, knocking it out of sync with the rest. Finn thought about those vast wheels, the chains and belts, accelerating faster and faster, beginning to crack and collapse and explode.

‘All done,’ said Diane.

‘Me too,’ said Finn, turning a final dial.

They turned round to face each other.

‘That’s it then,’ said Finn. ‘We did it. We actually did it.’

Connor glanced at the controls around him, then back at the two of them. He nodded his head. ‘Everything is failing now. You two should go. Make for the tunnel. I’ll meet you outside.’

‘No,’ said Finn. ‘We’ll go together.’

‘I have to stay here a little longer. The automated mechanisms are clever. They’ll try to correct themselves. I’ll stay here and make sure they don’t. I’ll catch you up easily. You’re both injured and you’ll move slowly.’

A great muffled boom from outside reverberated through the thick walls. Something vast exploding or falling over. More bells and sirens wailed now.

‘One more thing,’ said Connor. ‘Take this with you.’ He pulled a small lever beneath one of viewing orbs. A rod of silvery metal like those Finn had seen stored in the metal drawers slid out of the device. Connor handed it to Finn.

‘What is it?’ asked Finn.

‘It will come in useful,’ said Connor.

‘What do we do with it?’

‘It’ll be obvious.’ Connor gripped Finn’s arm. ‘But Finn, remember what it was all for. Why we did this. Promise me. You must remember what it was all for.’

‘OK. But I don’t…’

‘Go on,’ said Connor. He released his grip on Finn and turned his attention back to the controls. ‘You have to go now, while you can.’

‘We’ll see you back outside,’ said Finn.

Connor nodded, not looking at them.

They stepped over the body of the old Director and out of the control room. Retracing their steps through the deserted building, they emerged into the night air. It was no longer dark. The sky blazed orange and yellow. The air tasted bitter with the acrid tang of ash. Finn could hear, or feel, a deep whining rumble in the walls and the floor beneath his feet. With each passing moment it grew louder, as if something vast and terrible was approaching.

Holding hands, moving as quickly as they could, they headed back to the tunnel. Figures hurried to-and-fro past them, some clutching papers. No-one paid them any attention. The ground shook again and again.

They were passing the Sanatorium when Nathaniel burst out of the doors. His eyes were wild as he stared up into the sky. He sank to his knees. Finn had seen a similar expression on a panicked horse that had once charged up the lane back home. A look of uncomprehending terror.

Finn grabbed him and shook him to get his attention. ‘Nathaniel. Listen to me. You’re OK. You’re going to be OK.’

But Nathaniel wouldn’t or couldn’t hear. He clutched at his own clothing now, looking around in alarm for somewhere to run to.

‘Nathaniel,’ said Finn, all but shouting into his face, ‘do you know where Shireen is?’

That caught his attention at least. ‘Shireen?’

‘Yes. Do you know where she is? Can you find her?’

‘I ... I know where she is. But I can’t rescue her. I don’t have the authority. And in any case, the world is ending.’

‘Nathaniel, forget about authority,’ said Finn. ‘We have to rescue her. We’re going to get out through the tunnel. Do you understand?’

‘Tunnel?’

‘Yes, the tunnel,’ shouted Finn. ‘You know where it is.’

‘Old stories. Fantasies. I don’t believe such things.’

‘Then it’s just as well Shireen does. We have to save her. She needs us. She needs you.’

‘She does?’

‘Yes. Come on, there isn’t much time. Show us where she is.’

Nathaniel looked more certain of himself now he’d been given some orders to follow. ‘No. If we all go they’ll be suspicious. They might recognize you. I’ll go alone. Perhaps I can override their orders.’

Finn glanced at Diane. Did he trust Nathaniel to do this? ‘And you’ll take her to the tunnel?’

Nathaniel looked troubled. ‘If that’s what she wants, yes. I won’t try and stop her.’

Finn grasped Nathaniel’s shoulder. ‘Then hurry. Get her out before it all blows up. Understand? We’ll see you outside.’

Questions formed on Nathaniel’s lips. Then he appeared to make his mind up. He turned and raced away into the darkness.

‘Let’s get to the tunnel,’ said Diane. ‘If anyone can rescue her, he can.’

They reached the room they had first come to without further hindrance. Inside it, the same woman worked away on the same mechanism, disassembled on her bench.

‘Come on,’ Finn said to her. ‘Leave that. You must get out of Engn. Everything’s falling apart.’

The woman glanced up with one eye. ‘You two again. Haven’t they cured you yet?’

‘You can hear the alarms surely? You can feel the explosions through the walls. You have to get out.’

The woman smiled a sad little smile. ‘But there is no
out
is there?’ She spoke slowly, as if to a child. ‘I explained that before, do you remember? Even if Engn is coming to an end there isn’t any
other world
we can escape to.’

‘No, you can. Really. Follow us.’

The woman shook her head. ‘I have to get this working.’

‘Leave her,’ said Diane. ‘We have to go.’

The two of them ran from the room, back down the stone passageway to the tunnel entrance.

They were both badly out of breath. Finn began to imagine the door wouldn’t be there; that Nathaniel had been correct all along. That he really had invented the world outside. He could see only stone walls ahead of him, dimly lit by electric bulbs. What would he do if he came to a dead-end and there were no steps down to the tunnel?

Then, around a final corner, the passageway ended and there were the steps leading down. At the bottom, in the gloom, was the ancient, rotting door. They barged it open, crouched inside and began to crawl.

As they scrambled forwards, Finn could feel the destruction of Engn in the ground around him. The earth shook and boomed and shook, sending cascades of soil down onto his head. He wished they’d brought a light. Soil and dust filled his mouth. He could no longer hear Diane behind him. But he didn’t dare stop. There was nothing he could but crawl on through the darkness.

The tunnel entrance smoked like the muzzle of a musket as Finn and then Diane flopped out of it. Although it was the middle of the night, the sky was as bright as mid-day: a raging red and orange that cast deep shadows around them. Flames from the fires of Engn. Clutching each other, spluttering and coughing, they began to scramble up the side of the pit.

Diane made it to the top first and hauled Finn up after her. They stood beneath the walls. The air was ash and smoke. The ground shook and shivered beneath them. A great ball of flame boiled off from the machine into the night sky, its heat scorching on Finn’s face. All through the long crawl, the insistent whining sound had grown in intensity and pitch, as if something was spinning faster and faster. Now, out in the open air, it screamed and thundered at the same time.

‘We have to get away!’ Diane shouted.

‘Did you hear anyone behind us in the tunnel?’ Finn shouted back. They had to help Shireen and Connor.

Diane shook her head. Finn looked back down into the pit. There was no sign of anyone else emerging.

‘I’m going back down!’ he called. ‘See if anyone is coming.’ He slid and skidded down the slope, slowing himself by grasping the boughs of the scrubby bushes. Back at the entrance he stooped and put his head into the tunnel to listen. Soil and stones showered down upon him. He could hear nothing but the screaming noise.

‘Shireen!’ he shouted into the tunnel. ‘Connor! We’re outside!’ He coughed some more from the effort of shouting and then, when he’d recovered, repeated himself, bellowing as loud as he could.

He had his head and shoulders fully inside the tunnel, so he didn’t hear the sound of someone descending the slope. He knew nothing until a hand reached in to grasp his shoulder.

‘Finn! You’re safe!’ His father stood there, the red light from the sky flaming in his eyes. Once again he hugged Finn to him.

‘We did it!’ Finn replied, having to shout into his father’s ear to be heard. ‘Connor and Diane and me. We did it!’

‘Did you see Shireen?’

‘Yes! She should be coming through the tunnel.’

‘Then you get out of the way,’ his father shouted back. I’ll wait for her.’

A booming explosion from Engn lit up the world. Even sheltered in the dip Finn felt the blast on his face. They did need to get away. But they couldn’t leave Shireen and Connor behind.

‘No, we’ll wait too. We…’

At that moment, an unseen hand grasped him by the ankle. Finn shouted out and tried to leap away, terrified someone was trying to pull him back into the tunnel, back into Engn.

His father, however, was on his knees, grasping the hand, pulling the newcomer free from the earth. They emerged in a rush of soil and rubble, nearly toppling down the slope. For a moment, Finn couldn’t see who it was. Then there was a gasp, and another bear-like embrace, and Finn knew his sister had escaped, too.

Someone else worked their way down the slope, then, silhouetted against the burning sky. Their mother. She clutched both Finn and Shireen close. For that brief moment it was just the four of them, together for the first time since the day fourteen years earlier when the Ironclads had come for Shireen.

‘Connor,’ said Finn. He knelt down to reach inside the tunnel. There was someone else there, feeling their way forwards, only their eyes and a searching, scrabbling hand visible.

But it wasn’t Connor. Coughing and spitting, it was Nathaniel who emerged from the tunnel. He slumped forwards as he came out, and rolled down the slope to land among the shattered boulders.

Between them, they manhandled him back up the slippery slope to ground level. Regaining his balance, he stood for a moment on the lip of the pit, taking in the scene around him; the walls of Engn; the plain stretching off into an unknown distance. Then he fell back to the ground and covered his head with his arms. Shireen knelt beside him, her hand on his back.

‘We have to get away,’ his father bellowed. ‘It’s not safe this close.’

‘No!’ replied Finn. ‘We have to wait for Connor.’

The insistent whining, thundering noise reached a sudden crescendo, then, and cut out. A vast silence rolled across the plain. Everyone stopped and looked up expectantly, even Nathaniel from his place on the ground. Nobody spoke or moved.

The huge concussion sent them all sprawling to the ground when it hit them. Finn felt it in his rib-cage as much as in his ears. The ground writhed and shook. Looking upwards over the walls, he could see the towers and wheels collapsing. Falling vertically downwards. The pillars of rock must have given way. Engn was falling into its own pit.

‘Run!’ his father shouted.

This time Finn didn’t object. How far did the caverns spread underground? Half-carrying, half-dragging Nathaniel, they raced away from the walls. Finn imagined the ground opening up behind them, a crack in the ground pursuing them. He didn’t dare look back.

They ran and tripped and scrambled while the vast explosion thundered on behind them. When they could run no farther they stopped, all of them wide-eyed, labouring for breath. Fires raged all through the machine now, illuminating great clouds of oily smoke that roiled through the air.

A figure ran towards them through the darkness, screaming wildly, just a black shape against the fires. At first Finn thought it was someone coming to assault them, or someone screaming in terrible pain. But the person - a man - ran straight by, not stopping, and his cries were cries of uncontained euphoria. Whoever they were, they had escaped Engn and were running and screaming simply because they could.