The Roar (20 page)

25

IT’S ALL FAKE

‘
R
ight,’ Justin said. ‘Let’s learn how to do something new.’

He flipped open the lid on one of the black boxes to reveal the rows of neatly packed harpoon guns.

‘Now you can hit a static target,’ he said, ‘we’re going to try something more interesting. Today you will be learning how to hit one of these.’ Justin opened another box and lifted something out with both hands. It was a silver fish, about thirty centimetres long.

‘What can you tell me about this fish?’ he said, holding it up.

‘It’s a borg,’ someone said.

‘Yes,’ Justin replied. ‘But it’s not like the other borgs here in the holiday complex, this is a very sophisticated piece of equipment. It thinks it’s a fish and behaves like one, but it’s a lot more than that, it can tell us who hit it and from how far away. If any of you manage to get one I’ll be very impressed; it’s not easy, they’re devils.’

Justin handed the borg fish round the group, and when it
finally got to Mika he felt his arms tense under the weight of it. It was a mean-looking beast with serrated fins, a row of needle-sharp teeth sticking out of its fat lips, and eyes that glowed red.

‘Watch this,’ Justin said. He touched his tablet and the fish suddenly sparked into life and thrashed in Mika’s hands. Mika felt a sharp pain in one of his fingers and he let the fish fall. It dropped to the deck with a clunk and flapped frantically, gasping as if it was drowning in air. Justin grabbed it by the tail and threw it over the side of the boat, and they heard a heavy splash as it hit the water. Mika sucked the blood from his finger and cursed.

‘OK,’ Justin said. ‘Get your scuba gear on and the other instructors will come down and help you find your markers on the seabed.’

They changed quickly, dropped into the water and swam down to find the markers. They were different to the ones of the previous day. Each had an arrow on it pointing in the direction of the crop of rocks. Mika stood on the marker next to Audrey and waited for instructions from the men who stood in a line behind them.

‘OK, everyone. Make sure you’re all facing in the direction of the arrows. You may only shoot towards the rocks. When you see the fish, fire.’

Mika undid the safety catch on the harpoon gun without looking down, then felt it over with his hands to remind himself of the controls. He activated the target map by looking at the icon in the corner of his display and a grid of green lines appeared before his eyes with a red dot indicating where the harpoon gun was pointing. He watched the crop of rocks, waiting for the fish. A crab scuttled towards them making clouds in the sand, fronds of weed as fine as mermaid hair wafted in the warm water and the sunlight cast ripples on his arms and hands and the seabed. He felt as if he’d waited hours when a flash of silver darted out from behind the rocks. It was fast and erratic, darting to the left and right, and he felt the water warp around him as everyone raised their guns and fired. The bolts shot away leaving trails of white
bubbles and blue light. When the water cleared the fish was gone.

‘You missed,’ a man said in Mika’s headset. ‘Wait for it to come back.’

A minute later it appeared again, glinting silver and darting playfully this way and that as if to say, ‘You don’t stand a chance.’ Again Mika felt the water warp with the sudden movement around him. He paused for a moment this time, determined to get a good sight on the fish before firing his shot, but before he’d even lined it up with the red dot the fish fell, suddenly limp, with a bolt embedded in its side. Someone else had hit it.

‘Audrey, well done,’ a man said.

Mika watched the man swim over to the fish and retrieve it, and for the first time he considered the possibility that Audrey would get through to the final round of the competition but he wouldn’t. He wasn’t good enough. He was going to lose, and Ellie would be lost for ever.

‘Are you all right?’ Audrey asked, as they were walking back to the huts along the beach. ‘You just trod on that lady’s hair.’

‘Oh, sorry,’ Mika said, looking back to see an angry sunbather glaring at him.

Darkness fell and the still night air filled with the clink of glasses and the smell of barbequed tank meat. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, but Mika’s mood was bleak and their laughter made him irritable.

‘I remember nights like this before the Animal Plague,’ David said, piling tank meat on his plate. ‘The meat was real then, of course. It wasn’t grown on sticks in tanks of yellow fluid in the old days.’

‘I can’t believe people used to
eat
animals,’ Mika said. ‘How could they look at a living, feeling creature in the same way as a loaf of bread?’

‘Everyone did,’ Asha said. ‘I know it sounds strange now all the animals are extinct, but even you would have eaten meat if you were born then.’

‘No I wouldn’t,’ Mika said contemptuously. ‘It’s barbaric.’

Everyone went quiet and wondered why Mika was so angry. He stomped off and sat on his own to chew on a lump of bread.

When the meal was over, he walked down the beach. Audrey followed him and they lay on a blanket eating a bunch of grapes she’d brought with her.

‘You are good enough,’ she said, after ten minutes of surly silence.

‘No I’m not,’ Mika said. ‘I’m rubbish.’

‘You wouldn’t be here if you were rubbish,’ Audrey insisted. ‘You’re just being negative because you’ve had a bad day.’

‘Mmm,’ Mika said.

‘Look at the stars,’ Audrey said, dreamily. ‘They’re so beautiful! Do you think they’re in the same position as the real ones?’

‘No,’ Mika replied. ‘Look over there, the pattern is repeated, and there, and there.’

‘Oh,’ she said. ‘That’s a shame, but they’re still lovely.’

‘It’s all fake,’ Mika said, irritably. ‘Nothing’s real any more.’

‘I’m real,’ she said. ‘Apart from my eyes.’

He could see her smiling in the darkness and suddenly realized he was being horrible to her and yet she was still being kind to him.

‘I’m glad I met you,’ he said, quietly.

‘Really?’ she replied, sarcastically.

‘Of course I am, noodle brain.’

He threw a grape at her mouth and it missed and hit her nose. She laughed as it dropped on to the blanket and she felt around for it with her hand, then she paused, sensing someone. They looked up to see a light trail moving towards them.

‘Who’s that?’ Audrey whispered.

Mika felt a chill run down his spine. The person’s light trail was tinged with red. He’d never seen that before and he didn’t like it.

‘It’s
Ruben
!’ Audrey whispered, her borg eyes identifying him before Mika’s could.

Ruben stopped a few paces away and sneered down on them,
his face dimly lit by the fairy lights hanging from the trees.

‘Mutant freaks,’ he said, then kicked out with one foot and hit them in the face with a spray of sand. It was so shocking and unexpected, for a few moments they did nothing but gasp and rub their eyes while he laughed at them. But as he walked away, Mika felt a tidal wave of rage and he leaped to his feet ready to run after him and pulp him into the sand.

‘My eyes!’ Audrey cried out. ‘Help me, Mika!’

Mika stopped at once, turned back and pulled her to her feet. ‘Let me look,’ he said, prizing her trembling fingers away from her face. ‘I’m going to kill him! What a fragging perp!’

‘I can’t see!’ she cried. ‘Perhaps they’re broken!’

‘I’m sure they’re not,’ he said, trying to comfort her. ‘They’re just full of sand. Come on, let’s go back to the hut and you can wash them.’

Their parents were still sitting around the table talking and laughing. When they saw Mika and Audrey approach, they stood up quickly so the champagne slopped from their glasses.

‘What happened?’ Una asked, anxiously.

‘Ruben!’ Mika raged. ‘He kicked sand in her eyes! I want to punch his fragging lights out!’

‘Who’s Ruben?’ Asha asked. ‘Why would he do that?’

‘I don’t know!’ Mika ranted. ‘He’s a psycho!’

Una took command of the blind Audrey and led her into their hut, while Mika paced the sand with his blood boiling. He didn’t understand it – how could someone do that to a blind girl?

‘She’ll be fine in a minute,’ David said, kindly. ‘Don’t let this boy get to you. It sounds like he’s just trying to wind you up because you’re competing tomorrow. It’s just a game, Mika, and he’s playing nasty; it’s not worth it.’

But it’s not just a game, Mika thought, desperately, it’s much more than that; and he was unable to calm down until Audrey re-emerged, smiling again and able to see.

26

A CLOUD OF RED SMOKE

M
ika was still thinking of Ruben as he fell asleep, and he dreamed he made a river with his own angry blood. It poured out of his mouth and down a mountainside in a raging torrent that ripped pylons and towers from the earth to form heaps of bloody concrete and twisted metal at the bottom. When the torrent subsided, he wondered if he was dead. He felt empty, as if there was no blood left in his veins and his anger had burned up his insides so he was only a shell. He watched his hands as they crumbled to dust and the wind blew them away.

In the morning, he remembered the dream and what his father had said about Ruben, and realized he could not allow him to affect the way he played the game. He sat with Audrey outside the hut and ate two banana pancakes so he wasn’t competing on an empty stomach.

‘You can do it,’ Audrey said, watching him frown at the sea. ‘I
know you can.’

‘It’s OK,’ replied Mika. ‘I feel better today. How are your eyes?’

‘Fine,’ she said.

Their parents wished them good luck and they walked to the Welcome Hut to meet up with the other competitors. The atmosphere inside was horrible and everyone looked as if they were about to have all their teeth removed with no anaesthetic.

They were split into teams of ten for the game and three teams had assembled and left when Audrey’s name was called. She walked up to the stage and moments later, Ruben joined her, and the first thing he did was look at Mika and smirk. Mika felt it like a punch in the stomach, but he watched them walk away knowing there was nothing he could do but try not to think about it.

Mika’s name was called in the fifth group and so was Ruben’s game partner, Yee. She walked to the front, swinging her hips and pouting as if she was on the catwalk in a fashion show. Mika took a few steps back so he didn’t have to stand next to her.

‘Leo Curtis.’

The boy stood up and Mika felt himself spark with interest as he had done the day he met Audrey. He was gold – not just his light trails, but his body too. He had golden skin and dreadlocks, which hung to his shoulders like rope. He was wearing a plait of black cord on his wrist and a gold ring on his finger, and as he wove through the chairs leaving twists of bright light in his wake, he had an air of quiet confidence that drew everyone’s eyes.

But not arrogant, Mika thought. Leo smiled at Mika, and his startling blue eyes brought the sea into the room.

‘Hey,’ Mika said.

‘Hey.’

On the boat, the men helped them into their stab jackets as they cruised around the island. Their boat dropped anchor by a red buoy with the number ‘5’ on it and in the distance Mika saw the boats that had left before them, dotted at regular intervals.
On the closest beach he saw a pair of ambulance pods, the para-medics sitting on the sand with their faces tilted towards the sun.

The men spent a long time checking over the equipment. Mika’s harpoon gun was found to be faulty and taken away and replaced with another. They tested the displays in his mask and checked his breathing equipment.

He watched the gold boy, Leo, tie his dreadlocks at the nape of his neck. The boy was joking with the men in a warm Canadian accent as their fingers worked deftly on his equipment and Mika wished he could feel so confident.

When they were ready, the ten competitors stood in line, waiting for instructions.

‘You will swim down to the ten markers on the seabed and stand facing in the direction of the arrows,’ said one of the men, his eyes scanning them seriously. ‘Your targets will be borg fish. The object of the game is to shoot as many fish as you can in ten minutes. You are not to leave the marker until you are told to do so by one of us. If you leave the marker without permission, you will lose your points. You can communicate with us through your masks if you have any problems during the game. Are there any questions?’

Nobody spoke.

‘OK. Let’s get on with it.’

The markers were set out in a curve on the sandy seabed and the arrows pointed towards a cluster of coral teeming with fish. The water was the palest green, rippled like marble by the sunlight on the surface. The visibility was good and Mika could see at least a hundred metres beyond the coral. He chose the marker at the right end of the curve and Leo took the one next to him, his dreadlocks wafting out of the back of his headset like snakes. Mika watched the gold ring on his finger glint as he adjusted the straps on his headset and enabled his gun. A few moments later the men took their positions behind them and Mika felt the tension in the water rise until it was almost unbearable. He looked down the row at the other competitors.
Apart from their wafting hair and the streams of bubbles rising from their masks, they were completely still, rooted to the markers, their eyes fixed on the cluster of coral in front of them, guns raised and fingers hovering over the triggers.

A voice spoke in his headset.

‘Mika, are you ready?’

‘Yes,’ he replied.

‘The game will begin in thirty seconds.’

A clock appeared in the corner of his display and he watched it count down. The sea looked like an empty film set waiting for the action to begin. Five, four, three, two, one. The clock reset itself and began to count down from ten minutes. Mika gripped the harpoon gun, struggling to control the anxiety that threatened to paralyze him. He remembered he had Ellie’s holopic of mountain lions in the pocket of his swim shorts and dared to remove his hand from the gun for a moment to touch it through his wetsuit. He breathed deeply and focused on the light-rippled water before him.

At first sight, the shoal of borg fish looked like glitter dust; so far away, it was no more than fragments of light. Bright as stars one moment, then gone the next, the shoal made lightning-quick, synchronized twists and turns through the water towards them.

Mika supposed there were a couple of hundred. They were fast and erratic with no pattern to their movement, and all he could do was try to guess when the shoal would turn to be side on to him so he had a chance of hitting one. He waited until the shoal had reached the coral before he fired, then shot twenty bolts in as many seconds. For a fleeting moment the fish were close enough for him to see their needle-like teeth and glowing red eyes, then they snapped round and darted away, leaving several falling to rest on the seabed with bolts embedded in their sides. The ten competitors were a blur of motion as they reloaded their guns from the cartridge of bolts strapped to their thighs. Mika reloaded his then checked his hit counter. He’d hit one fish. Only one.

‘Frag,’ he muttered.

They had eight minutes left. Mika watched the shoal glitter and shift in the distance and prayed it would come back soon. The moment it turned the other competitors began to fire, but Mika waited until it had crossed the coral. He had only seconds before the fish snapped round and darted off, but this time he hit four.

Six minutes left. He had a strategy now and he waited eagerly for the shoal to return, but nothing happened for over a minute. He had an itch on his nose, which made it difficult to concentrate. Then something appeared in the distance: a mass of dark shapes cast shadows on the seabed. They moved slowly through the water and as Mika began to make out their forms he felt confused – they weren’t fish, they were mammals. They had mottled brown and black fur and flippers, bulbous heads and snouts covered in rolls of loose skin. Their silent, rhythmic movement was eerie and they looked so heavy it seemed a miracle they could swim. As they reached the coral Mika recognized them from one of Ellie’s pictures; they were elephant seals. He wondered what to do. They had been told to shoot fish, not mammals. Some of the competitors began to fire, but he lowered his gun so it was hanging at his side and he glanced over at Leo and was relieved to see he had done the same. Some competitors fired one shot then stopped, unable to make up their minds, some let off the entire contents of their barrels. Nine of the elephant seals fell and Mika felt the vibration in his feet as they hit the seabed.

He was expecting the rest of the herd to swim away as the shoal of fish had done, but they kept coming and Mika froze on his marker as their enormous hulks passed silently through them. Leo reached out his hand to touch one and Mika was so distracted by this gesture, he didn’t notice what was happening in the distance until Leo’s head suddenly snapped round and Mika followed his gaze.

Another shoal was swimming towards them and this time
there was no doubt in Mika’s mind what they were; the ghostly, pale forms of white sharks, each at least three metres long. They wove quickly through the water, their snouts jerking from side to side, and as soon as they reached the herd of elephant seals, they attacked. Mika gasped and felt his head spin as he got an overdose of oxygen and the water suddenly became a boiling mass of teeth, borg bits and fragments of fur. A shark swam within metres of him to attack a seal, shaking its head like a dog as it ripped it to pieces. He got a close-up view of its dead, black eye and was so scared he nearly peed in his wetsuit. Remembering he’d been told not to move from the marker, he struggled to control his instinctive urge to get away from it. He looked around to see several of the other competitors had left theirs and were firing wildly into the midst of the chaos.

They’re not real, Mika thought desperately. This is a game. He aimed and fired and shot the closest shark through its eye. It went crazy, whipping the water milk-white as it tried to shake the bolt from its head. It was dangerously close, but Mika kept his feet firmly rooted to the marker hoping it would swim away, and eventually it did, still lashing its head from side to side until it froze and sank to the sand. Immediately Mika’s hit counter shot up twenty points and he prepared to fire again. His next target was further away, its razor-sharp teeth ripping into the flank of an elephant seal that seemed dead already and swung limply in the water as it was savaged. He shot the shark through the gills with the first bolt. It jerked with shock, let go of its prey and snapped round to swim straight at him as if it knew who had shot it. Rigid with fear Mika shot it again in the mouth, closing his eyes as it continued to come towards him, its nose jerking from side to side and strips of ripped skin wafting from its teeth, and at that moment he felt a terrible pain in his leg, so sickening, he almost vomited in his headset.

He opened his eyes and looked down to see blood pumping out of his thigh into the water. He felt confused. The shark wasn’t real, how could it have bitten him? He had no idea what
had happened and felt so shocked, he could do nothing but watch as the ribbons of blood pumping from his leg transformed into a cloud of red smoke in the water. Later he remembered thinking that his leg looked as if it was on fire.

He felt something touch his arm and looked up to see Leo’s worried face through his mask, his mouth moving, though Mika couldn’t hear any words. Moments later he was surrounded by men.

‘What happened?’ he asked dreamily. He felt disconnected, foggy and a bit tired. He wanted to lie down on the seabed and go to sleep for a while.

‘Someone shot you, Mika,’ one of the men said. ‘We need to get you out of the water because you’re losing a lot of blood.’

‘Shot me?’ Mika repeated, confused. He looked down again and this time he saw a bolt sticking out of the marker just behind his left leg. It still had bits of his flesh attached to the end of it and they were waving around like pink and red seaweed. It had gone straight through his thigh and out the other side.

‘Come on,’ the man said, holding his arm.

‘No,’ Mika said, feeling himself well up with panic. ‘If I leave the marker I’ll lose the game.’

‘The game’s over, Mika. You can leave now.’

They grabbed him by the arms and dragged him away from the marker to the surface.

* * *

The first thing Mika heard when his head broke the water was screaming.

‘Get off me! Get off! I want to go home! I hate you! I’m not doing this any more! You’re psychos! You’re trying to kill us!’

Strong arms came over the side of the boat to drag him on board. He heard himself slap wetly on the deck and was vaguely aware of motion around him. He struggled with his mask and someone helped him get it off and he took a lungful of warm air. A man’s face appeared.

‘Stay calm, OK?’ he said. ‘The ambulance pod is here. The paramedics are going to look at your leg.’

He felt tugging on his legs and he struggled to lean up on his elbows so he could see what they were doing to him. One of the paramedics was cutting the wetsuit off his leg and another was pressing something on the wound. Blood spurted between his fingers and spattered his sunglasses.

‘Lie down and try to relax,’ said the paramedic. ‘Don’t watch.’

Mika didn’t want to lie down. He didn’t trust them. But he felt too weak to sit up so he lay back and turned his head in the direction of the screaming. It was Ruben’s game partner, Yee. She was pinned to the deck by two men and thrashing around like the sharks, her wet hair lashing their faces.

‘Stop screaming, Yee. It’s over,’ one said, but she didn’t stop screaming and she struggled even harder.