Red Fox (22 page)

My fellow Bs are still just gawking at enormous Seiger with me tucked behind him like a child. Felix looks perplexed and I’m glad of it. Now, I can see his pale, rat-like face is smeared with chocolate cake and if I wasn’t so shaken with fear, I might have laughed.

“Anyone who wants to leave this God forsaken place, follow me!” Seiger shouts into the room of prisoners. “But if you fall behind, you get left behind!”

“Isobelle! Madison! Jacob!” I screech as Seiger wheels me around and tows me out of the common room. I see a glimpse of my friends lunging towards us urgently. Basically everyone else in the compound makes a dash for freedom. Lances whoops at the top of his lungs and gives a weird little kick of his heels like a horse bucking when released from a stable. Alex and Cameron surge for the exit, crying out in astonished delight, and I see Alex is carrying her shard of glass.

My brain is throbbing and I’m trembling from head to toe, too stunned ask why Seiger is here. As the rest of the Bs flood into the bright-lighted corridor, all looking apprehensive and frightened, I notice there are half a dozen guards surrounding us. My first thought is that they are here to catch us, but I quickly see they aren’t aiming their rifles at Seiger or any of the Bs. Their guns are trained on the other end of the corridor, the way out, and I realise that these guards are all loyal to Seiger, not Warden. If Seiger is on our side so are these guards. The very guards who kept us contained now helping us to escape. I even recognise the man who escorted me back to the facility after my escape attempt went wrong. He looks at me briefly, and I manage to smile. He grins back and gives a little nod. So this is what his cryptic warning was about!

“Come on!” Seiger says but then he stops as Felix comes to the door, still buckling his belt and looking eager to escape. I grab hold of Seiger more tightly and actually cower away from Felix with a small whimper. Every muscle in Seiger’s arm goes rigid under my grip and standing in the light, I now see the deadly, unforgiving look cross his face like he’s been possessed by the devil himself.

“GET BACK IN THE FACILITY!” Seiger bellows. The veins in his neck looks like thick ropes bulging under the skin. There is a menacing glint in his eye, a lethal expression on his face that doesn’t even look human but somehow possessed by wickedness. Everyone cringes away from him. Isobelle claps her hands over her ears. Even the guards look slightly alarmed at their lieutenant’s outburst. For me, it’s the first time I feel a surge of true fear, mingled with admiration, towards Seiger, rather than a passionate hate or anger.

“But—” Felix starts.

Seiger raises his gun and points it straight at Felix’s forehead. Before anyone can cry out, Seiger’s finger jerks back on the trigger. The noise of the gunfire so close to my ear is deafening. Isobelle screams out in fright and some of the other women clap their hands over their mouths in horror.

There is a burst of blood in the air, but no yells of protest. The light simply flees from Felix’s black eyes, and he topples to the ground in a heap and remains motionless. A few cries ring out at the sight of his dead body but I don’t scream. I don’t care.

I attach myself to Seiger’s arm, find Isobelle’s hand in the tidal wave of people around us, and we make our way towards freedom. The corridors all look the same but Seiger leads us through them expertly, never faltering for a second when he reaches a bend or intersection. The tiled walls make every footstep echo, creating the sound of rumbling thunder from our multiple footfalls. Every breath smells lighter, crisper, like the air is easier to breathe.

But in the rush of the moment, I forgot something important.

“Seiger! What about Whil?” I cry.

It isn’t an actual question. It’s a demand. Despite the fact that he’s ignored me for weeks on end, I will not leave him behind.

“That’s where we’re going,” Seiger grunts. “You think I’d choose
you
over that boy?”

His statement both stings and satisfies me.

A minute later, Seiger bursts through a door identical to the entrance of Facility One and fires a gunshot into the dark, empty room. The room is a model replica of our own facility and within seconds, people are opening bedroom doors to peer outside. Their eyes are sagging with fatigue, but they snap open when they sight armed Seiger beckoning for them to get out. I watch as person after person floods from Facility Two and into our already huge group of escapees. I recognise none of them.

The very last person to emerge from their room, looking sleepy rather than apprehensive, is Whil. He spots Seiger, beams and comes clambering towards us on his unsteady, drowsy legs. My heart warms at the sight of his clumsy, unharmed self, but I push the sentimentality away, reminding myself he hasn’t cared about me for a long time. Whil sees me in the crowd and muscles his way towards me as our group turns and heads back up the corridors, which only Seiger and his loyal guards can navigate.

“Freya! You’re alright!” Whil says and the happiness that crosses his face makes my heart suddenly turn to stone. He reaches for my hand that is wrapped around Seiger’s bicep, as if I would give him—the deserter—preference over the man who is breaking me out of hell.

Hasn’t Whil ignored me for the past few weeks and flirted with the girls in his own facility instead? Hasn’t he completely betrayed and humiliated me by kissing me and then treating me like I didn’t exist? He doesn’t deserve my attention.

“Like you care,” I spit, slapping his hand away from mine. His face registers hurt, shock and then irritation —anger doesn’t suit his gentlemanly features at all.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he says, confusion making his voice loud.

“SHUT UP, YOU TWO!” Seiger bellows. “THIS ISN’T THE TIME FOR A LOVER’S QUARELL!”

He’s right, of course. I grip Isobelle’s hand tighter, see a flash of Madison’s silky auburn hair and a glimpse of Jacob’s shaved head, and know my friends are all with us. We pass by the room where the branding man works and I quickly drop Isobelle’s hand and flip the lock on the door from the outside as we surge passed. I hope the man is left to starve and rot inside. Wherever Warden is, she doesn’t appear in time to stop us escaping.

I can feel the air getting cleaner, less clinical, not clogged with the scents of disinfectant and chemicals. I immediately recognise the final corridor and Seiger stops briefly to swipe his access card through a wall device, and ten metres ahead, I see the mechanical entrance doors swing open with a loud beeping noise. A gust of wind streams into the compound and up the hallways. It ruffles my hair and I inhale the breeze like a breath of new life. People begin crying out in joy and I feel them swell towards the exit, bumping against me, carrying me along like a surfer in an ocean tide.

“Quiet!” Seiger orders and everyone instantly hushes as Seiger’s guards scout ahead to search the concrete passageway the leads outside. Rifles aimed and eyes to the scopes, the guards are ready to gun down whoever gets in their way. No gunshots sound as they vanish into the corridor and we await a signal. Almost instantly, one guard hollers that the coast is clear. With a cry of elation, everyone wheels around the bend in a frenzy and we find our concrete escape route completely empty except for our own guards marching towards the exit. Before I’m swept away again in the crowd of frantic people, I glance over my shoulder and see the monitor room door has been kicked clean off its hinges. Senior is hunched in a roller chair, head lolling back on his neck with a bullet wound in his forehead, leaning back in his chair like he is asleep. Maybe he didn’t see Felix attacking me after all. I’m about to follow my escapees up the concrete corridor when a thought occurs to me.

“Wait, Seiger!” I cry. The huge lieutenant comes to a grinding halt, his expression puzzled and livid.

Before he can stop me, I turn back to the monitor room door and jump over the broken door lying on the ground. Without looking to see if Seiger is waiting for me or not, I run over to the computer and push Senior’s lifeless body aside. The wheeley chair he sits in rolls away, squeaking, and I lean down to look at the dozens of computer screens clattered over the desk. The screens are all live images from the cameras in our empty rooms and the common rooms. I briefly glance between them, and find no one was left behind, for every bed is empty. There is one screen showing Facility One’s entrance and I see Felix’s lifeless body crumpled in the doorway. The screen I need, that is linked to a computer hard drive instead of a security camera, sits directly in front of me, the screen alight and showing a desktop with multiple files all neatly lined up in folders. I scan the folder names, desperate to find the one I want. It takes me a few moments and I can hear Seiger bellowing for me from the doorway telling me to get off the damn computer!  I might jeopardize his entire rescue mission but I have to find it. Then my eyes land on the title:

“A LOCATIONS.”

I double click the file, chest almost bursting with joy, and a massive spread sheet file opens on the monitor. There are hundreds, no thousands, of names listed on the screen and next to each of them is a settlement name. I see the word ‘chartreuse’ and instantly understand what the guards in the communications room were talking about. Chartreuse is a settlement. I hit Command ‘F’ and search for my mother’s name. It takes a few seconds for the search tool to scour the thousands of names but eventually is stops, highlighting my mother’s name in yellow. Beaming from ear to ear, I read my family’s location.

Abigail Walker: Settlement Jade
Patrick Walker: Settlement Jade
Jackson Walker: Settlement Jade
Freya Walker: Bs Compound. Facility One.

“WALKER!” Seiger roars and this time, he strides into the room, grips my arm and hauls me away from the computer screen. It took me less than ten seconds to enter the room and find my family’s location, but I understand Seiger’s desperation and anger.

Side by side, Seiger and I bolt up the concrete corridor, him muttering under his breath that I am a stupid, insensitive person. My heart is bursting from both exhaustion and happiness and I beam as we go, tossing my blonde hair from my face with a whoop of delight. We didn’t even need to execute our own escape plan—Seiger had beaten us to the punch.

At the end of the corridor, backed into the entrance just like how we were dropped off in the compound six weeks ago, is a filthy looking truck with a metal ramp leading into a spacious but dirty back compartment. Stragglers, including Seiger, a few others and myself, double our efforts to reach the van, stretching our legs and flailing our arms like we might be able to fly into the escape vehicle.

Just like an army lieutenant would, when we reach the truck Seiger stands at the doors and hollers, “move, move, move!” at the top of his lungs as the remaining people scamper up the ramp. We all crowd in the back of the truck, packed like a can of sardines. Seiger jumps in with us, slams the door closed so that the compartment is overcome by darkness, and immediately the truck screeches away from the compound, knocking all of us off our feet. People gasp in surprise, and I hear people ramming against the metal sides and floor of the vehicle. Scrambling up, I brace my legs apart and help a person beside me to their feet, though they are hidden by the shadows and I can’t identify them.

It’s spookily dark in the van, but light spills through some breaks in the metal sheeting of the truck roof. The narrow slits of sunrays are like strobe lights in the darkness, and we are moving so quickly that I cannot even get a glimpse of the outside world. I hear air hissing in the sides of the van—I think it is coming from air vents. I can feel multiple people around me, shuffling and whispering in shrill, high voices. They’re terrified. Most of them won’t know whether they have just escaped a terrible fate or have just been tricked into a worse one. Now that I stand with Seiger pressed against my right side and Isobelle clinging to my left arm, I’m not so sure myself.

Why on earth did Seiger help us out of there? Was it out of spite towards Warden? Could it have been his plan from the beginning? Or had he finally seen the evil at work in the new government’s plan?

“Seiger…” I say but my voice is quiet among all of the muttering around us.

“Later,” he grumbles.

I nod, knowing he can’t see me but hoping he feels my appreciation. If he hadn’t burst into Facility One at that exact moment, who knows what would have happened. I’m glad Felix didn’t escape—that he didn’t survive to abuse any more women. Now that my adrenalin has subsided, my scalp feels on fire from where hair was ripped out, and I know my forehead is gashed, yet again, from where Felix smashed it into the counter. Nothing really hurt at the time, my body was prepared for the attack and boosted me up with natural painkillers, but now everything aches. However, I’ve also experienced much, much worse.

I can’t sit down. I’d be trampled, so instead, I just lean against Seiger for support, unable to believe that the man who murdered my best friend has just saved my life. Or so I think.

23.

We drive for a long time, the passengers unable to sit down or move around in the cramped space. All of us are exhausted, because it was the middle of the night when we left and we used all of our energy fleeing that terrible place. I stand by one of the air vents in the truck side, listening to the hiss of wind as we zoom onwards and feeling the cold air on my hot face. The van stinks, not just like human sweat, but also like a dairy farm—like the odour of pungent manure and off milk. I’m sure everyone else is trying to get as close to the vents as they can too.

We must have driven for hours because my knees have locked into place and my legs feel like rigid iron bars. I could fall over easily if we weren’t packed in so closely, preventing us from falling when we hit bumps or zoom around a corner far too quickly. I really can’t complain about the driver’s skills given the circumstances.

I want to ask Seiger how he did it. How he convinced his guards to go against Warden, how he managed to get such a huge van to the compound without her noticing, and where he plans to take forty stowaways for safe keeping. It seems the government have their nasty claws dug into the most remote areas of the country; if they have arenas set up in the Alps, they could have them anywhere.

Where was the Bs compound located and how long will we have to drive before we are safe? Will we have food and water and shelter? Or will we be expected to live how Warden wanted us to: hunting animals for food, searching for water and shelter, and living off the land.

That’s fine by me.

The thought of living wild by choice has always been a pleasing notion to my mind. Yet, when it’s forced upon you and you watch people die because of it—see children torn away from parents and families ruined—that’s when the idea becomes less romantic.

At least now I know what settlement my own family is in.

I can find them!

My heart swells with happiness. I’m glad no one can see the tears of joy streaking down my face or the smile on my lips, which refuses to go away. My family is alive and in Settlement Jade. Even though I don’t know where that settlement is, I’m one step closer to finding them and being reunited. I stick my nose out of the air vent and breathe in the outside air until my face is numb with cold. Gripping the iron grip on the wall, I stand silently as we drive on and on.

Just when I think I can’t stand any longer and my legs begin to wobble, the terrifying speed of the van slows. I hear the terrific snarl of the engine drop to a gentle hum and then the vehicle jolts to a complete stop.

I groan and stretch my stiff legs, now knowing what a horse feels like when it stands in a horse trailer for the entire day. Seiger mumbles something under his breath, and I feel him push past me roughly. He saved my life, but he still isn’t a saint or a gentleman.

Tired, ill-tempered Seiger throws open the back doors and they screech horribly from rust that has built up round the hinges. Sunlight floods in and everyone groans loudly, the brightness piercing our eyes. Eager to escape the stuffy, smelly van, I leap outside and feel the chill of the air envelope me instantly.

I land on the gravel road the van has stopped on and promptly tumble to the ground, my legs a weak, wobbly mess. I manage to jerk my head to a stop before my chin hits the dirt, but a cloud of dust billows up around me and I cough as I inhale the air that is thick with dirty powder. A few others, also too eager to get out of the van, jump out and experience the same problem but instead of feeling embarrassed for face-planting into the soil, I just laugh.

Isobelle lowers herself out of the truck gracefully, learning from others’ mistakes, and stretches her legs like an athlete before sprinting. I stand and dust my clothes off, horrified when I remember all I’m wearing are my underpants and a long shirt—and now everyone can see me. Isobelle, too, wears the same outfit, but she doesn’t look at all embarrassed. Others in my group wear pyjamas having at least grabbed pants before they’d come out of their rooms. The other group is mostly dressed.

“Where are we?” I ask Seiger, who climbs from the van without tumbling over.

Whil follows after him, looking strangely glum given our escape.

Though the little person inside of my heart is dancing gleefully for a variety of reasons, I still manage to shoot Whil a sour look and he just returns my glare with a level, disconcerting gaze.

Seiger shrugs out of his leather jacket and hands it to me, avoiding eye contact. Obviously, the sentimentality behind this gesture makes him uncomfortable enough. Jacob takes off his jumper and pulls it over Isobelle’s head like an overprotective father would. The girl grumbles her disapproval, but lets him pluck at her until her slim legs are covered to the knees and she looks like a walking marshmallow.

The van has stopped on the outskirts of an enormous, prehistoric looking forest that grows throughout a vast distance of valleys and peaks. We stand on top of a high point and can see for miles in every direction. There are hundreds of mountain ash trees lining the narrow dirt road further on, their stretched trunks perfectly straight and each drooping with heavy ribbons of ghostly coloured bark. They reach so high I can’t follow one from trunk to foliage without resting the back of my head on my neck. I don’t recognise the forest at all. It is unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and it stretches over numerous hills and dells. Rays of sun pour onto the treetops and into the heavy fog resting at their bases, making the mist sparkle and dance. The bright particles of moisture seem suspended in the shafts of sunlight. It looks magical.

“An old national park,” Seiger tells me as I thank him and pull the jacket on.

It doesn’t cover anything except for my torso and leaves my legs exposed. My legs are toned and slim from the exercise Whil and I did in the Alps and at Hidden Valley Farm but it’s frosty-cold and goose bumps quickly rise on my skin. Not to mention I don’t like the way Lance keeps smirking at me with raised eyebrows. He is wearing only his silky boxer shorts but seems all too comfortable about it. I make a face at the redhead and give him a thumbs-down.

The grotty, old truck, which looks familiar  although I can’t quite place it, sits fully exposed on the road, with forty people clambering out of the back of it in full daylight. I want to run into the forest and hide, but I plant myself firmly and look at Seiger.

“The van’s too noticeable,” I tell him. “It has to go somewhere else.”

“I know that!” he snaps grumpily.

I suppose he has a right to be on edge. If Warden were to catch him running away with her precious Bs, she would surely have him killed. Poor Seiger is also much older than the rest of us and is probably stiffer and sorer from travelling.

The lieutenant walks to the front of the van to talk with the driver and I give a shiver, feeling the moist morning air seep into my skin. It feels good, to be outside in nature and not cooped up anymore. The bush is my domain. It is where I feel most comfortable. Even standing in my skimpy nightshirt among my fellow ex-prisoners, looking into the forest, which is hung with silky mist and looks so green it could be an alien planet, I feel at home. The uncivilised, wild girl I am at heart wants to run, howl and kick her heels up in the dirt and grass, revelling in her youth and strength and freedom. But the human side of me just looks at the forest with longing, knowing it won’t be long until we are hidden in the undergrowth and safe.

My large group is standing on the edge of a rocky tor that dips quickly into a valley directly beside the road. The valley is filled with mountain ash trees and thick, ferny undergrowth but there is a wide, grassy airstrip directly beside us that leads to a large dam at the bottom of the valley. The dam is perfectly still. No wind disrupts its motionless surface and there is something strangely eerie about it that sets me on edge.

Seiger jumps into the driver’s seat of the truck, backs the vehicle and then noses it towards the brink of the steep descent. Everyone scatters away from the truck, murmuring excitedly, anticipating what Seiger plans to do. Seiger edges the van over the lip of the road, turns off the ignition and shifts gears into neutral. When the truck’s back wheels shudder over the ledge, he jumps out from the open driver’s door. He lands lightly, rolls twice in the soft spring grass and then stands up and watches as the truck begins jolting down the hill.

So much for old, sore and tired,
I think as Seiger comes to join the group again in a few steady strides.

The truck picks up speed as it rolls and we all race to the edge of the rise to watch the enormous vehicle plummet down the valley wall. The wheels churn up the bracken and the soil, scattering mud and ruined vegetation. The tyres each burst with a loud pop as they smash into multiple rocks and fallen logs. The metallic ringing and loud shuddering bangs made as the truck plunges towards the lake is so loud that it vibrates in the earth. The lorry mows down everything in its path, and when it’s nearing the bottom of the hill, the truck hits a huge, sharp rock that juts from the ground and flips onto its side with a deafening crash that sends a reverberating boom through my chest. A few of my companions actually jump backwards with a shriek, even though the truck is a good seventy metres down the hill now and couldn’t possibly hit us.

For a horrible moment, I think the truck is going to stop and remain completely exposed on the bare hillside, but it has built momentum, and it flips, crashes, and beats itself into a dented, destroyed mangle of metal, before finally smashing into surface of the lake. We watch the truck vanish under the steely water, vanishing with a few white bubbles and loud gurgle as if it never existed in the first place. It seems symbolic: the final piece of equipment that contained us is destroyed.

Lance laughs gleefully, and then holds his hand up in a high-five gesture for Seiger. The lieutenant regards the young man with an expression of disdain, ignores him and turns to the group. I smother a chuckle as Lance’s hand falls to his side like a dead bird. He tries his best not to look offended, but it isn’t often his good attitude goes unappreciated.

“Alright, come on,” Seiger orders coolly, giving everyone a wave to follow him. His guards gather around him like bees swarming. There are a dozen of them, all looking severe and intimidating in their outfits, but now that we are free of the compound, they aren’t edgy and jittery. They prop their guns on their shoulders and stride forward with Seiger, looking loose and carefree. Some of them remove their helmets and they look so similar to Jacob with their shaven heads and firm faces that I have to smother a laugh. I will have to forgive them all for keeping us locked away in the facilities now that they’ve helped us escape.

Though I will never forgive Seiger for killing Clara and for ordering the execution of the Ds, I now owe him my freedom and my life.

Because I owe Seiger so much, I take my place behind him and we follow him into the ancient forest. We veer off the road as the mottled shade of the trees falls over our group, making the temperature drop another degree or two, and take to traipsing through the enormous forest in a completely random direction. Though Seiger moves forward with determination and self-assurance, I’m sure he doesn’t know where he is going or what he is looking for.

We follow him regardless.

It is a beautiful place, not at all like the bush I am so accustomed to. The Australian bush that I know is dull and pale, but this rainforest is bright with every shade of green, birds screech in the high treetops and insects chatter in weird, clicking languages amongst the damp, brown leafy debris underfoot. The temperature is cold thanks to the moist fog hanging at the base of the trees, some of which look big enough to be hundreds of years old. There isn’t snow or frost, but every surface is wet. Moss covers everything, from the pebbly stones scattered through the leaf litter to the large, perfectly round salt-and-pepper granite boulders that are spread through the forest. The natural green carpet grows up the trunks of the trees like they are wearing vests, and little orange flowers bloom amongst it. It is a totally new world for me, alien and strange. There are tall brown stalks scattered around that sprout not only flat leaves but oddly curled tendrils that look like fury, deformed arms of the plant. I spot what I identify as a deer, which I’ve never seen in the flesh, flee into the trees and vanish. Unlike the noisy wild horses, I hardly hear its gentle footfalls.

Those in the Bs who aren’t accustomed to hiking or hard work shuffle along, moaning with disgust when they stand in a wet, muddy patch or have to push through a thick grove of dew-laden plants. None of us have shoes on, since most had been sleeping or close to it when we’d been freed. Luckily, the forest base is luckily quite soft and moist, but occasionally I’ll hear someone yelp in pain when they stand on a rock or pointed tree root. One of Felix’s old bimbos, Candice, I think, whines every step of the way, and I bite my tongue to stop from snapping at her. We’ve all had a long, hard journey and complaining isn’t helping at all. Despite Seiger’s demands that we keep quiet and stop whining, half a dozen people still grumble and mutter under their breath.

“Bunch of silver foxes you lot are,” Lance says loudly. The people from Facility Two look at him enquiringly, not knowing what he means. My fellow Facility One members understand that he is calling them weak, and we all snigger amongst ourselves. Warden was right about one thing: we certainly bonded with those in our facility.

The sound of a gunshot suddenly rings out loud and clear, and it echoes like the tolling of a huge, metal bell. We all stop dead in our tracks, ears strained, and bodies tensed. My nerves tingle with frightful electricity. Madison grips hold of Jacob’s hand. Isobelle’s head is thrown up and her eyes are huge and wild looking, the whites showing around her iris. Even Seiger and his guards suddenly organize their guns for attack, but they are too slow. If the gunshot was aimed for us, someone would be dead already. Wherever it came from, the bullet wasn’t intended for us.