The Roar (31 page)

47

A RUMBLE FROM THE SKY

T
hey rushed to the balcony and looked down into New Hyde Park. For a few minutes they couldn’t see the mob coming up from The Shadows, but its roar was so loud, they could feel the vibrations through their feet. Iman’s baby sister began to sob with fright and her father covered her eyes and carried her into the apartment so she couldn’t see what was about to happen, but she would hear it and she would never forget.

There were six vertical tube stations around the perimeter of the park and they formed the main links between the two levels of the city. The people of The Shadows began to pour out of their doors like lava from a volcano.

‘Look at their light!’ Audrey whispered. The mob moved like a swarm with an angry red haze around it. Within seconds it had filled the park and was surging through the streets, eyes mad with sorrow, faces twisted with hatred and hands gripping baseball
bats and iron bars and lumps of rust-streaked concrete. They heard a smashing sound as the first windows broke and as if this was the signal for the riot to begin, the mob roared even louder and lurched like an injured beast towards the turrets.

‘They’ve come for their children!’ Asha cried. ‘They’re going to rip this place apart!’

‘They must know there are government ministers above us,’ David said uneasily. ‘They’re going to come in here.’

‘But we can tell them who we are,’ Una said fearfully, as the mob began to batter against the doors. ‘Surely they won’t hurt us if they know we’re on their side.’

‘How are we going to do that?’ Asha cried desperately. ‘Look how angry they are! They’ll never believe it! Look at our clothes! We’re in the Golden Turrets drinking champagne! They’re going to think we’re part of the government!’

‘Watch out!’

David ducked as a lump of concrete flew past his head and hit the glass wall behind him. A large crack appeared, like a spider’s web. Moments later they heard another loud crash as the heavy glass doors to their turret were shattered. They looked over the balcony to see the security guards running away and the angry mob pouring into the foyer.

‘We have to get out of here as quickly as possible,’ David said. ‘Before they reach our floor.’

‘No!’ Mika said, feeling a surge of panic. ‘We can’t leave the apartment! We promised Mal Gorman we wouldn’t!’

‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ David shouted impatiently. ‘There’s a mob in the turret about to rip it to pieces, Mika! We have to get out of here!’

‘Please, Dad,’ Mika pleaded, ‘don’t make me leave!’

David ignored him and turned to the other parents, and they quickly discussed how they were going to escape from the turret.

‘We ought to call the police,’ Una suggested.

‘I’ve tried,’ Leo’s father replied. ‘But I couldn’t get through. Everyone in the turrets must be calling them right now, we’re
going to have to save ourselves.’

‘OK,’ David said, purposefully. ‘Then we need to go up the building to the pod strips.’

‘Yes,’ Una agreed. ‘We can wave for help and get someone to rescue us from there.’

‘OK, quickly,’ David said. ‘Everyone grab your coats. It’s going to be cold.’

Mika watched desperately as they prepared to leave the apartment.

‘Mika?’ Asha said. ‘Find your coat.’

‘No,’ he said.

‘Oh for odd’s sake, Mika!’ David shouted. ‘Don’t start being difficult now! Forget about your promise to Mal Gorman! He wants to send you to war!’

‘I don’t care,’ Mika said, scowling. ‘I’m not leaving.’

‘Yes you are!’ David yelled. ‘Now get your coat!’

With his parents watching him and feeling increasingly desperate, Mika found his coat and put it on and Ellie seemed to slip away as if he was losing grip of her hands over the edge of a cliff. Maybe Gorman would understand that he had to leave because of the riot, but Mika was scared that he wouldn’t. He remembered the spark of recognition between them, that fleeting look of doubt and fear in Gorman’s eyes. Mika didn’t know why the old man didn’t trust him, but keeping this promise would be the only chance he’d get to prove himself. His one chance to reach Ellie. Yes, it was madness to stay in the apartment with a riot moving up the building, but the pull he felt towards his sister was stronger than ever, as if it wasn’t just love dragging them towards each other, now there was another, equally powerful force at work. He felt as if he was caught on a fishing line with the hook buried in his heart and the pain when he tried to move against it was intolerable.

The door opened and everyone rushed out. It was chaos in the hallway and their group was quickly swallowed by the tide of people pouring out of the luxury apartments and making their way
to the top of the building. It wasn’t difficult for Mika to lose his parents; the moment they took their eyes off him, he dropped back and leaned against the wall while the crowd rushed past. Only Iman’s baby sister noticed; she reached out over her father’s shoulder as if to wave him goodbye, then she was gone with the others; swept away by the fast-moving crowd. With a lump in his throat but feeling hugely relieved, Mika returned to the apartment.

Audrey. He was surprised to find her facing him as he walked through the door.

‘I knew you were going to do that!’ she cried, her green eyes bright with fear. ‘Come on, Mika! We don’t have a choice! We have to leave!’

‘I can’t,’ he insisted. ‘You go, Audrey. Quick, before the others are too far away to catch up.’

‘I’m not leaving without you,’ she said, stubbornly.

‘Well I’m not letting you stay,’ he replied, trying to push her towards the door. ‘It’s too dangerous. Go!’

‘No,’ she said. ‘If I’m going, then you’re coming with me.’

‘I can’t,’ he repeated, turning away from her.

‘Why not?’ she cried. ‘I don’t understand!’

‘My promise to Mal Gorman is different to yours,’ he said painfully.

‘How?’ she asked.

He was quiet for a moment and she waited.

‘What’s wrong?’ she said.

Again he was quiet and he looked away from her. He knew this was the moment he had to tell her about Ellie, but he was scared. Afraid that if he told anyone before he saw his sister, it might jinx it somehow and it would all go wrong. Then he felt a pang of guilt. Audrey was risking her life to stay behind with him; she deserved to know. He hit the lock icon so the door slid shut, sealing them in the apartment.

‘If I break my promise,’ he said, hesitantly, ‘I’ll never see . . . my . . .’

‘What?’ she urged impatiently.

‘Sister.’

Audrey was speechless for a few seconds, her eyes wide with astonishment.

‘Sister?’ she repeated softly. ‘You’ve got a sister?’

He nodded. ‘Her name is Ellie,’ he said. ‘She’s my twin.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me before?’ Audrey asked with a hurt voice.

‘I couldn’t,’ Mika replied. ‘I wanted to.’

‘Where is she?’

‘Cape Wrath,’ Mika said bitterly. ‘The YDF took her. A year ago. And told us she had drowned.’

‘No!’ Audrey said, her eyes flashing with anger.

‘But I could
feel
her,’ he said desperately. ‘I didn’t believe their lies. And now I know Mal Gorman’s got her. He told me I can see her if I keep my promise.’

‘So she must be like us,’ Audrey said, darkly.

‘Yes,’ Mika replied.

‘No wonder you don’t want to leave,’ she said. ‘Poor Ellie, poor you. But surely Gorman won’t expect you to stay in the apartment with a riot in the building?’

‘I don’t know,’ Mika replied, doubtfully. ‘He doesn’t trust me. He seems to feel threatened by me and I don’t think he’ll be reasonable if I leave, he’ll think I’ve run away. You don’t understand. I can’t take the risk.’

Suddenly, the whole apartment began to vibrate and they heard a gut-rattling rumble coming from the sky. They ran to the balcony and looked up.

‘Oh my odd Mika!’ Audrey cried. ‘But you can’t stay! You’ll die!’

48

INTO THE NIGHT

T
wenty million people were left to rot in The Shadows when the Golden Turrets were built, and their anger had been rising up to boiling point since the day the sky was taken. And that’s just what it looked like to Mika and Audrey when they ran out onto the balcony; a boiling mass exploding through the lid fitted over it. The mob had doubled in size and was still pouring out of the stations and in the Golden Turrets across the park they could see it moving up through the floors like a human tornado. The glass walls were being smashed out from the inside and the luxury apartments were quickly flooding with desperate people, roaring their lungs out for their dead loved ones and lost children and smashing to pieces the opulence that had made their world so awful. From the top of the turrets a constant stream of civilian pods shot up into the sky as the residents fled to safety.

But the angry mob didn’t scare Mika and Audrey half as
much as what now hung over it. They looked up to see dozens of army freighters hanging in perfect square formation over the park, their lights blinking and their engines rumbling as their enormous mouths opened to let the soldiers out.

‘We have to go now,’ Audrey said. ‘Or we’ll get caught in the middle of a battle.’

Heavily armed soldiers dressed in riot gear began to drop down on lines into the mob. Mika knew she was right and felt a wave of despair.

‘Please, Mika,’ she pleaded. ‘You won’t be much use to Ellie dead.’

‘OK,’ he replied, reluctantly. ‘But let me write a note for Gorman telling him where we’re going.’

‘Then you’ll leave?’ Audrey asked, hopefully.

‘Yes,’ he agreed.

‘OK quick,’ Audrey said, running back into the apartment. ‘Find a pen.’

‘I wish Gorman hadn’t taken our companions.’

They searched frantically through the party debris for an ink pen so Mika could write a note for Mal Gorman.

‘Where do you keep them?’ Audrey asked, opening and closing the drawers in the kitchen.

‘I don’t know,’ Mika said, putting his hand down the side of the sofa. ‘We only moved in today. This is ridiculous. Why can you never find a pen when you need one?’

He felt one with his fingertips amongst the fluff and lost things in the sofa, but when he pulled it out it, he found it was broken and completely useless.

Something crashed against the door of the apartment.

‘What was that?’ Audrey said.

‘I don’t think it’s room service,’ Mika replied.

For a moment they stood together frozen, wondering what to do, as the rioting mob began to bludgeon the outside of the apartment. Within seconds they heard a loud crunch and a hole appeared in the wall next to the door.

‘We’re trapped!’ Audrey cried.

‘Come here,’ Mika said tugging at her frozen arm.

He pulled her into the kitchen and opened the biggest cupboard, suddenly grateful for the tour his mother had given him earlier. It was a corner cupboard meant for storing the vacuumbot and just large enough for both of them. Mika pulled it out and Audrey crawled in first and he followed, closing the door just as the mob began to climb through the hole in the wall. Inside the apartment they exploded as if a match had been struck in an old-fashioned gas station.

It was terrifying. Folded up in the tiny space, Mika and Audrey could do nothing but pray they weren’t discovered as the mob smashed the apartment to pieces around them. Audrey pressed her cheek against Mika’s shoulder and gripped his arm and he heard Awen whimpering nearby. But worse than the violence and the fear of being discovered was the roar. Mika put his hands over his ears and closed his eyes tight, desperate to block out the feelings of the people around him, but their anguish and hatred seemed to bypass his senses and seep through his skin like osmosis. And in those awful moments he saw snapshots of their lives, the dark, filthy water, the barely edible food, the people coughing their lungs out in damp cold beds and children weeping for parents who had died and left them alone and it was so distressing he found himself gasping with pain. He was saved by an explosion in the apartment, followed by the crash of falling crockery and for a moment the roar was replaced by a shocked silence. Mika heard a familiar sound: a Pod Fighter engine, and he opened the cupboard door a tiny crack to see it hovering over the balcony pointing its guns into the apartment and the mob, with only bats and bars to protect them, running for their lives.

The soldiers climbed out of the Pod Fighter onto the balcony and ran after them and Mika quickly shut the door as a spray of bullets punctured the floor of the kitchen.

‘What are we going to do now?’ Audrey whispered.

Mika could feel her trembling with terror.

‘Don’t worry, we’ll think of something,’ he whispered.

He waited until the gunfire sounded further away then cautiously opened the door again and looked out. There wasn’t much left of their smart new home; the glass wall was gone, the kitchen lay in splinters and all the lights were broken so the apartment was dark but for the reflected glow of the nearby turrets. A bitter wind blew through the space finding the holes in the walls. The Pod Fighter was hovering silently over the balcony, waiting for the soldiers to return.

Suddenly Mika had an idea.

‘We could take the Pod Fighter,’ he whispered. ‘We don’t have to go far and we could use the communication system to tell Mal Gorman what’s happened to us.’

‘Do you reckon we’ll be able to fly it?’ she asked hungrily.

‘What else have we been doing for the past few weeks?’ Mika replied. ‘And the YDF did promise us a flight in a real Pod Fighter and we haven’t had it yet.’

‘Yeah, they did,’ she said, bitterly. ‘Shame they didn’t tell us we’d have to go to war to get
that
part of the prize.’

‘Quick, before someone comes,’ Mika said.

He crawled out of the cupboard and Audrey followed. Then they ran across the living area onto the balcony and climbed up on to one of the Pod Fighter’s curved, black wings so they could see into the cockpit.

‘How are we going to get in it?’ Audrey asked. The wind-shield was shut and the lock icon on the outside was glowing red.

‘We’ll have to unlock it from the inside,’ Mika replied.

He moved round so he could clearly see the icon that opened the door in the arcade simulators.

‘Quick!’ Audrey said. ‘Before someone comes!’

‘Shhh,’ he said. ‘I’m trying to concentrate.’

He gazed at the icon through the windshield until it glowed with a pale blue light. Then he imagined pressing it down with his finger. It didn’t take long; after thirty seconds of intense
concentration, the windshield slid back with a hiss and they were in. The helmets were waiting for them on the seats and the control panels were active, ready to go.

They fitted their harnesses quickly and the seats wrapped around them ready to fly. Mika closed the windshield and it sealed with a hiss.

‘OY!’

They looked back into the apartment to see two men in riot gear pointing guns at their heads through the windshield.

‘Frag,’ Mika muttered. He quickly turned the Pod Fighter ninety degrees clockwise and shot up into the night sky.