The Hourglass (18 page)

April Sommers

“April Sommers,”
he said, comparing April’s face to a small picture of her that he held in his
hand. April nodded numbly. His voice was deep and it rumbled as he spoke.
“You’re to come with me.”

“What? Wait, no.
You can’t take her. She’s not fourteen yet. She’s only thirteen!” said Sarah,
standing up. She looked around. This wasn’t making any sense. Only April was
being taken and she was in the wrong age group. The rest of the prisoners were
chatting to each other, not paying them any particular attention.

Finn had stood
up as well. “She doesn’t match the Hourglass group’s demographics,” he said
clearly and earnestly, attempting to approach the matter civilly.

Huge crease
marks appeared in the man’s forehead as he frowned at them, confused. “I don’t
know what you’re going on about,” he said slowly and deeply. “I’m not with the
Hourglass group.”

“Then where are
you taking her?” asked Sarah.

“To some fancy
lawyer up on the deck. You got yourself an important Uncle, April Sommers. He’s
managed to get you transferred and put under house arrest.”

“Oh,” said
Sarah, surprised.

“You lucky
girl,” said Finn, a grin breaking out on his face. “Best of luck to you.”

“Who exactly is
your uncle?” demanded Marland, amazed.

“Nobody,”
muttered April, who was looking oddly embarrassed.

“The Mayor of
Colton,” replied the man, who was eavesdropping shamelessly and wanted to get a
move on. He wanted April to come willingly. If the Mayor found out that he had
mistreated his niece, it might end badly for him. The others gaped at her.
Colton was a big city and extremely well protected. Her uncle had a huge amount
of influence.

“You had a real,
live, influential politician in the family and all you tell me is ‘he works for
the government’?” said Marland, aghast.

“Sorry,” said
April apologetically.

Marland huffed.
“Did you know he was going to use his influence to get you out?”

April shook his
head. “I thought he would be too ashamed,” she said dryly. “A black market
seller in the family doesn’t make for good politics.”

“He knows what’s
going to happen,” said Sarah, realisation dawning on her. “That’s why he’s
getting her out now. He doesn’t want her to be part of it.”

“But she’s under
the age limit,” Finn pointed out sensibly.

“Not by much.
Not enough to be absolutely sure that they wouldn’t take her.”

“Ms Sommers,”
said the man, his patience finally breaking, “we have to go. Now.”

Marland jumped
up and wrapped April in a bear hug. “Be good,” she whispered in April’s ear.
“Do what your uncle says. He’ll trust you. Then find out the secrets. Let the
world know.” She let April go and beamed at her. A grin escaped April without
her consent.

“I’ll try and
persuade him to get you guys out,” she promised. “You’re not even meant to be
on this ship anyway. You’re the wrong class of criminal.” The guard had very
gently grabbed hold of her arm and was now leading her away.

“Good luck,”
said Sarah.

“Be bad!” yelled
Finn.

Suddenly April
broke away from the guard, sprinting back towards the group. She stopped in
front of Sarah. “Sarah, the Hourglass Symbol.” She spoke hurriedly, worried
about the guard coming to get her. “Remember you asked me about that? There was
a disagreement within the Hourglass Group. Some of the members broke off from
the main Group and went into hiding, taking their research and experiments with
them. They marked themselves with the symbol so that they could identify each
other. They’re meant to be dangerous.” The guard had reached her side now. He
took a firm grip of her arm and pulled. April didn’t have a chance. She was inexorably
dragged along behind him. “Sorry,” she yelled, “I only just remembered! Please
be careful!”

As April left
through one of the side doors the bell rang. It was time to go to the factory
floor.

“We should tell
people what’s about to happen,” said Marland. “We have to let the others know.”

Sarah and Finn
nodded. As they walked with the crowd towards the factory they told the others
around them. They were universally dismissed.

“I don’t
understand,” said Marland, “why don’t they believe us?” She sounded distressed.

Sarah wasn’t as
surprised as the other two. She had known it was going to be a difficult task
from her attempt to tell Gretel the night before. Sarah turned around to look
at the people behind her, trying to find others who might listen. She caught
her breath in surprise. The Warden was standing at the end of the corridor, her
gold Hourglass broach glinting brightly on her chest.

Sarah turned
back around and grabbed Finn’s and Marland’s shoulders, stopping them. The
people around them complained and so they squeezed themselves against the
corridor wall.

Finn looked at Sarah
quizzically. “What’s up?”
“They’ll be in the factory waiting for us,” she said.

Finn frowned.
“How do you know?”

Sarah nodded
back down the corridor. “The Warden…”

Fin and Marland
looked. “So?” asked Marland.

“So, there’s
plenty of room and heaps of guards, and I just know. Yeah, I know,” she said,
in response to their looks, “I sound crazy, but I’m right.”

“If you are
right and we go through those doors, then that’s it.”

“We should split
up,” said Marland. “Each of us needs to find a guard and say we need to go to
the toilet or something. At the very least it’ll buy us some time.”

Sarah shrugged.
“I don’t have any better ideas.”

“Then let’s do
it,” said Finn. “No goodbyes,” he said, stalling Sarah. “We’ll meet up
afterwards.” He strode away from them before anyone could say another word.
Sarah gave Marland a quick, nervous smile and then headed back into the stream
of people. A bored looking guard, who had been standing in an alcove, stepped
out and stopped her.

“Where do you
think you’re going?”

Sarah doubted
that this guard knew what was going to happen. If she did she would have looked
more interested.

“I need to go to
the bathroom,” said Sarah.

“You’re due on
the floor,” replied the guard, barely looking at her.

“I’m going to
explode all over this corridor if you don’t let me go.”

Mr Wall appeared
from behind them. “What’s the issue?” he asked, not even looking at Sarah.

“Bathroom
request,” drawled the guard.

“Then take her,”
said Mr Wall impatiently.

The guard rolled
her eyes and languidly escorted Sarah the fifteen metres to the bathroom. Sarah
followed her but glanced back at Mr Wall. He was watching her go with an odd
expression on his face. Not for the first time she wondered how much he knew.
They reached the bathroom and the guard waved a hand in the direction of the
door and then leaned against the wall, waiting for Sarah to be finished already
and exit so that she could be escorted back. Sarah pushed the door open and
entered. The bathroom was empty. She entered a cubicle and sat down on one of
the shut toilet seats to wait for Marland , and almost immediately stood back
up again, pacing the room. A minute passed and still Marland hadn’t arrived.
Two minutes passed. She hoped Finn was ok. Sarah stopped pacing as a low rumble
penetrated the room. She hurried to the door, her hand on the handle and her
ear pressed against the thin sheet of metal as she tried to hear more. There
were one or two loud cracks and then the sound of a few people screaming. The
noise was that of a hundred prisoners protesting. She was right. The Hourglass
Group had been waiting for them on the factory floor. Sarah nearly jumped back
as she heard the guard on the other side of the door swear. Her hand grasped the
door knob just before the guard pushed on it from the outside. There was no way,
Sarah thought firmly, that she was going to let her open that door and take her
away to join the others. The guard was putting all her weight against it now
and Sarah had to brace the door with her shoulder. The guard was bigger than
her, however, and the door didn’t have a lock. She couldn’t hold out for much
longer. She resisted one more savage twist of the doorhandle before she heard the
guard swear in exasperation. The tension in the handle eased. Without releasing
her own hold she pressed her ear against the door. The guard’s footsteps echoed
dully throughout the metal corridor as she gave up on getting to Sarah and
instead ran towards the ruckus happening on the factory floor. Sarah made
herself count for a full minute before she opened the door. She flung it open
quickly and hurtled out, only to run straight into another person. The person
clamped a hand across her mouth before she could yell.

“Sarah, calm
down, it’s me!” It was Finn’s voice. He released his hand and she breathed a
sigh of relief. “Where’s Marland?” he asked.

“I don’t know!”
replied Sarah anxiously. “She never came in!”

Finn grabbed her
by the hand and pulled, running in the opposite direction to the noise. “We
can’t hang around to find out. We’ll do what we can later. C’mon, Sarah!” He
tugged harder and Sarah flew down the corridor after him. It was craziness. She
was hyperaware of everything that was happening around her, yet at the same
time she couldn’t recall how they made it up another flight of stairs. She
realised that they were heading in the same direction as the infirmary.

“Where are we
going?”

“To get us a
boat.”

Sarah didn’t
reply. What was the point in arguing when she didn’t have a better idea? They
hurtled up the same set of stairs that Sarah had enjoyed the small wisp of
breeze from a few days earlier. They halted before the door leading onto the deck.
They had been lucky so far in that all of the guards seemed to be involved in
the riot going on downstairs and that none were loitering in the corridors. The
deck was a different story. Peering through a small window set into the door
they could see at least three people walking around. Two of them seemed to be
standing guard near the ships guardrail. Sarah could just make out a ladder
attached to the rail. All of the men outside were wearing jackets to protect
them against the weather. It was raining lightly. The third man was waving at a
helicopter that looked to have just taken off. She guessed it was April’s and
she felt a sudden surge of envy. She put the feeling aside. She had other
things to focus on.

“That must be
the Hourglass group’s boat to transport the prisoners,” said Sarah softly,
gesturing towards the two men and the ladder. She doubted that the Hourglass Group
would move them all on a helicopter. There were just too many of them to
transport. A boat made much more sense.
Finn nodded in reply. “Can you see any other boats?” 

Sarah scanned
the area. “No. You think there would be lifeboats, right?”

“They probably
store them somewhere else,” replied Finn. “Somewhere less accessible to the
prisoners.”

“It’s not like
we’d ever need them in a hurry or anything,” joked Sarah. Finn’s lips curled up
in a half grin. The man who had waved to the helicopter moved out of sight
around the side of the ship.

“We’ll hide on
the Hourglass’ boat,” said Finn, the grin on his face growing as the idea took
root.

“What? They’re
the ones we’re trying to avoid, remember?”

Finn shrugged.
“Then they definitely won’t look for us there.”

Sarah opened her
mouth to argue and then shut it again. “They would take us back to the
mainland,” she said, thinking it through out loud.

“If we’re lucky
the warden might even think they took us as part of the experiment.”

Sarah nodded at
the guards. “We still have the issue of them.”

As if nature
herself had heard Sarah’s whisper, the light rain turned into a downpour. The
two men standing next to the ladder ran for cover. Unfortunately their cover
was also where Sarah and Finn were hiding. There was no room up near the door
for them to hide. They bolted down the staircase as the door behind them opened
up. Reaching the bottom of the steps they looked around. The corridor was long.
There were no doors studding the walls. Sarah made a quick assessment. They
would have to run at least twenty metres either way before they could find
anywhere to hide. She grabbed Finn by the hand just before he took off down the
corridor and dragged him under the stairs. They crouched down. They could still
be seen through the breaks in the individual stairs if someone was paying
attention. Sarah hoped that the Hourglass men would simply continue on down the
corridor. They would have a chance then. If the men rounded the stairs and
walked the other way they would be spotted for certain. The men stumbled down
the stairs not a moment later. They were swearing as they went, shaking the
rain off their jackets and wiping their hair out of their eyes. One of them
sniffed.

“May as well
join the others then,” he said.

“I didn’t want
to guard the bloody ship in the first place,” replied the other one sulkily.
“Who do they think’s going to take it? All the damn prisoners are below.” Still
sniffing, the pair walked down the corridor away from Sarah and Finn. They
waited until the men turned a corner and then sprinted back up the stairs.
There was nobody on the deck now. The rain was pouring down so violently that
it was hard to make out the far end of the ship.