THE CLEARING (9 page)

‘Those kids could have good information,’ Rita said.

‘I doubt that,’ Pa replied. But Rita wasn’t put off by Pa.

‘I know your feelings about Connor,’ she said. ‘And I don’t blame you. But we have to set all that aside. If we don’t do something, James Grey is going to take over the whole country. This is more than just an opportunity to rescue two children. Luc and Riley can get inside The Close. Get information. This is important, Johnny.’

‘You don’t need to tell me how important this is, Rita,’ Pa replied. ‘But it’s still too dangerous.’

‘We’re short on manpower as it is,’ she continued. ‘Riley is a capable young woman. I know she’s your daughter, Johnny, but we’ve got no choice. We can’t wrap our kids in cotton wool. Any other sixteen-year-old will be expected to do the same. If Connor’s there, then they won’t be alone. They’ll have back up. And Luc’s as capable as you or I.’

I wanted to wrap my arms around Rita and give her an enormous hug for standing up to Pa on this. 

Pa sat back down like his legs wouldn’t bear his weight. He turned to face me.

‘Do you really want to do this?’

I bit my bottom lip and nodded.

Pa sighed and I knew I had won. So why was it that I didn’t feel like cheering?

Chapter Fifteen

Liss

*

Their room contained two rows of beds. Annabelle’s was next to the window and Liss slept next to her. Next in the row were the two outsiders and lastly, by the door, was Leah’s bed.

That night, Liss stayed awake until she was completely sure Leah had fallen asleep. When the room felt heavy with sleepy breaths, Liss slid out of bed. She pretended to go to the bathroom so she could check to see if Leah was asleep yet. As she crept past, she saw the woman’s mouth lying slack, her bottom lip quivering with the occasional snore. Everyone appeared to be asleep too.

Now came the hard part.

Lissy tiptoed back past the sleeping girls and past her own empty bed. She crouched down next to Annabelle and shook her shoulder gently.

‘Annabelle,’ she whispered. ‘Hey, wake up.’ She shook her more firmly.

The younger girl gave a moan and Liss cringed, casting a glance back over at Leah’s bed. But the woman didn’t move.

‘Annabelle,’ she hissed. ‘Please wake up.’ She blew on her face.

Annabelle scrunched up her nose and shook her head slightly. Liss blew again. This time, Liss was relieved to see Annabelle open her eyes.

She stared at Liss, but as usual there was no hint of recognition in her eyes.

‘Hey, you’re awake,’ Liss said. ‘I need to talk to you.’

Annabelle continued to stare, but there was no glimmer of life. She simply lay there like a doll.

Liss felt scared and a little desperate.

‘Annabelle, listen to me. You must not drink the soup. Do you understand?’

Annabelle nodded.

‘Yes? Did you hear me? At mealtimes you have to tip your soup away. Don’t drink it.’

Annabelle turned on her side and closed her eyes. Liss didn’t know what to do. There was no trace of the sparky little girl she had met a few days ago. She had become a robot. Well, she wouldn’t give up on her. She would just have to help her friend anyway, whether she understood or not.

The next day, Liss tipped the contents of her own soup bowl into the plastic bin by the serving hatch. She then deftly swapped bowls with Annabelle and tipped her friend’s soup away too. This was all achieved in less than ten seconds. Liss figured that as long as Leah and the women on the top table didn’t see what was going on, she should be safe. Everyone else was too dopey to notice.

Once they were at the table, Liss hoped Annabelle wouldn’t kick up a fuss at her empty bowl. Thankfully she didn’t question it; just ate her bread instead.

Liss stared across at Chloe’s table, but to her disappointment, the blonde girl didn’t look over once. Liss guessed that she was probably avoiding eye contact until the time came for them to escape.

Over the next few days, Liss continued to tip away their soup. She watched Annabelle carefully for signs that the girl was regaining her senses and sure enough, five days later, a glimmer of personality returned.

‘I feel funny,’ Annabelle said to Liss one evening as she was drifting off to sleep.

Liss snapped her eyes open and turned to face her friend’s bed.

‘Annabelle!’ she cried in a careful whisper.

‘I feel all funny and dreamy and not nice,’ Annabelle said too loudly.

‘Shh. That’s okay. You’ll feel more normal in the morning.’

‘Promise?’

‘Cross my heart.’

‘Okay,’ Annabelle replied. ‘You’re Liss aren’t you?’

‘That’s right. I’m your friend. Everyone thinks we’re sisters.’

‘Why are we still here?’

‘Don’t worry. You just have to be quiet and good for a while longer and then we can go home.’

‘Why can’t we go now?’

‘Because we can’t. And you can’t tell anyone else that you want to go or they’ll get cross.’

The younger girl looked serious, thinking for a moment.

‘Okay.’

‘And the soup will make you sick so you mustn’t drink it.’

‘I like the soup.’

‘I know. But it’s not good. So only eat the bread, alright?’

Annabelle sighed. ‘I don’t like it here.’

‘Me neither.’

When Liss walked into the classroom the following morning, something had already been written on the blackboard in large letters. A woman stood by the board waiting for the girls to sit. She wasn’t one of their usual teachers.

‘I am Naomi,’ the woman said. ‘I am here to tell you about ‘The Listeners’.’ She pointed to the two words on the blackboard.

Naomi was quite old, older than Liss’s mum anyway. She wore her grey hair in a bob and had quite a few wrinkles on her face. But she seemed less stern than most of their teachers. Her voice was softer.

‘We have all done things in our lives that we are ashamed of. All of us. Including me. But from this day forward you only do good as decreed by Our Father. You will not be tempted to do wrong.’

She began to walk between the rows of desks, looking each girl in the eye. Liss wanted to flinch from her gaze, but she had to remember to stay unfocused and vague.

‘But what of our past transgressions?’ Naomi asked. ‘What about the bad thoughts we’ve had and the wrongs we have committed already? How can we know God when we are so flawed? Can we be forgiven for our sins?’

Liss didn’t really understand what Naomi was talking about. It all sounded a bit scary and she wondered if they were going to have to do a test on it.

‘The answer is yes,’ Naomi said with a beaming smile. ‘Yes, we can be forgiven. Yes we can start again with a clean slate. Yes we can know God. For today, The Listeners are here and each of you will have the privilege of speaking your sins to them.

‘Girls, you will take it in turns to go next door and tell The Listeners of every wrongdoing you have ever committed. You must leave nothing out. This is your chance to be pure again. You will only have this opportunity once in your lifetime, so make the most of it.

‘After today, you will be one step closer to joining our family. So go and unburden yourself. Free your souls.’ Naomi’s eyes shone with joy and Liss didn’t know whether to be terrified or excited. She still didn’t really understand what she was supposed to do, or who The Listeners were.

‘When I call out your name, you are to leave this classroom and enter the room immediately to your right. You will see only an empty room with a chair. Sit on this chair and speak aloud every sin you are guilty of, no matter how big or small. You will not be judged. You will not be punished. You will only be absolved of these sins.

‘Did you ever steal? Did you ever covet someone else’s belongings? Did you lie or cheat or wish harm on another? Did you inflict harm on another? Did you kill?’

As Naomi ran through the different wrongs, Liss felt immediately guilty. She didn’t think she had ever done any of the things mentioned, so why should she feel this way? Her cheeks burned with guilt for things she hadn’t done and she was sure she would be punished despite what Naomi said.

‘I will give you some time to sit here and think about your wrongdoings. And then in a while I will begin calling names and you will go and confess your sins to The Listeners.’

Naomi strode back to the front of the classroom and stood by the blackboard, her eyes roaming across the girls’ faces. They sat in silence, presumably thinking about all the things they’d done wrong. Liss worried that Annabelle wouldn’t know what to do, or worse still that she’d tell them she hadn’t been eating the soup. That The Listeners, whoever they were, would know she wasn’t drugged like the others.

After a while, Naomi called out a name: ‘Tessa’.

It was one of the girls from Liss’s dormitory. The tall girl who hadn’t cleaned her hands properly that first day they were brought here in the truck. Tessa scraped her chair back, stood and left the room. She was gone for a while and Liss wondered if she would be coming back. Eventually, she heard footsteps and Tessa returned to her desk.

Liss was relieved. At least she had returned, so whatever happened out there couldn’t be all that bad. More girls’ names were called. They left the room and then they returned. Some were gone a very long while, others were only a few minutes.

‘Annabelle,’ Naomi called out.

The young girl hesitated, so Naomi spoke to her. ‘Annabelle, go into the room next door and tell them all the bad things you have ever done.’

Liss prayed she wouldn’t kick up a fuss. That she would go next door and say a few things to keep them happy.

Annabelle stood and left the room. Liss was more worried about her friend than about herself. What was she saying in there? What would The Listeners make of her? Would they realise she wasn’t drugged? Would they take her away? She was gone ages and it took all Liss’s willpower not to run out of the door and see where she was.

Sweat formed at her breastbone and her palms felt clammy. She prayed to God to bring her friend back to her. But it wasn’t James Grey’s God she was praying to. No. She imagined Grey’s God as a stern giant with thunder in his voice, whereas her God was a kindly old man with a beard and twinkly eyes.

And then she heard the sweet sound of footsteps approaching. She would know that hesitant tread anywhere. It was Annabelle returning. At last Liss could relax a little.

Hours seemed to pass, but she couldn’t be sure. Her eyes grew heavy and she would have loved to rest her head on the desk and sleep. She widened her eyes to try and keep them open, shook her head and flexed her fingers. But she was soon jolted awake when Naomi called her name.

‘Melissa.’

Chapter Sixteen

Liss

*

Liss placed her hands on the desk and pushed herself upright, aware of Naomi’s eyes on her. She turned and walked out of the room. What would she find next door? Who were The Listeners? There was only one door to the right and it was closed. Liss turned the handle and pushed the door open.

It was dark in here with only a single spotlight pointed at a small wooden chair. Heavy black curtains had been pulled across the window, blocking out the sun. The room was similar in size to their classroom, the difference being that it was empty, apart from the chair and an odd-looking electronic device with a strange glass eye.

Liss’s footsteps sounded too loud as she crossed the wooden floor. She sat on the chair facing the device. The thing seemed to stare back at her. It was almost exactly at her head height, raised off the ground on three spindly black legs.

She had a vague memory of what this thing was. Something to do with photographs perhaps. But then her mind flew into a panic. She shouldn’t be worried about the machine, she should be speaking about the things she had done wrong in her life. Only she really couldn’t think of any. Her mind had gone blank. And she mustn’t show fear either. They must not guess she hadn’t been drinking the soup.

‘Speak. We are listening.’ The voice seemed to come from everywhere. It made Liss’s scalp prickle and she wanted to flee the room. But instead she gripped the chair with both hands, forcing herself to remain seated.

There was nobody in the room, so where was the voice coming from? And it was so loud. Louder than a normal voice. It was a man’s voice and it hissed and crackled like a snake or maybe a dragon. She noticed a red light had appeared on the machine. Maybe it was the machine talking. But she didn’t think so.

‘I … I left the yard when I shouldn’t have,’ she said. ‘Our parents said we were never to leave the yard. To never to go outside onto the road. But we did it anyway. I’m sorry,’ she added.

‘We are listening,’ the voice said again.

Did they want more? Liss trawled her brain for more sins, but she couldn’t think of anything. Should she make something up?

 ‘There’s nothing else,’ Liss said. She thought about the soup she tipped away every day and was sure that would count as a wrongdoing. But there was no way she would tell The Listeners about that.

‘You may go,’ the voice said.

Was that it then? Great. She left the room and returned to the classroom, pleased to be back in the daylight again. That hadn’t been bad at all.

The next day, Liss had a shock.

 Chloe wasn’t at breakfast. She also wasn’t at lessons or at lunch or dinner.

Perhaps she was ill. Or maybe it was something to do with The Listeners. Maybe she had said something that had made them suspicious. But Chloe seemed really smart. She would never have given herself away.

Surely she wouldn’t have escaped without her and Annabelle. Would she? Liss would have to wait and see, and hope that the next day Chloe would return. But she didn’t. And she wasn’t back the following day either. Or the one after that.

Chloe had gone.

Liss felt terrified all over again. She would be stuck here forever. And the women would eventually realise that she and Annabelle weren’t drinking the soup and they would force them to take it until they became zombie robots like the other girls.

The days blurred into one another. Breakfast and lessons and tipping away soup and lessons and soup and bed. On and on for days and days with no change. Annabelle had become listless again and this time it wasn’t down to the soup. It was the boredom and monotony and hopelessness of everything. Would it be like this forever?

One morning, after breakfast, Sarah stood at the top table and cleared her throat. Liss was beginning to realise that Sarah was someone important. More important than mean old Leah. More important than any of the other women. And she was nicer than them too. The girls immediately turned their gazes up towards her and she smiled, a radiant beaming smile that made Liss feel instantly less sad and worried.

‘You have all been here for over a month now and I am happy to tell you that you have passed.’ Sarah paused and cast her eyes over every girl in the room.

Liss made sure to make her face blank and unfocused like everyone else’s. Sarah continued to speak.

‘You will all be welcomed into His arms today. Be very proud, children, for not everyone is afforded this opportunity.’

Despite the warmth of her smile, Liss shivered at Sarah’s words. She had no idea what they meant, but she did not like the sound of them. Not one bit.