The Hourglass (4 page)

Alternatives

The bus trundled
to a halt as there was a gate of razor edged barbed wire blocking off the road
ahead of them. They had arrived at the city’s final gate. A soldier strolled
out of her hut to talk to the bus driver, her hand on her weapon as she entered
the bus. Another soldier stood inside the hut, watching. The bus driver talked
in a voice that was too low to hear. He handed the soldier an electronic data
list, which was inspected. The soldier turned to face the prisoners, her face
unreadable. She walked down the aisle, counting off people as she went and checking
them against her list. Most of the prisoners avoided the soldier’s eye. They
had learned, maybe better than most, what happens to people who annoy the
soldiers. It never ended well, unless you were the soldier. The soldier reached
the end of the bus and then marched back down to the front. She turned around
to face them again.

“I have been
authorised to recruit any such person on this bus who wishes to join the
Covenant’s army,” she intoned, her voice loud but neutral. “If you do so your
sentence will be removed, however you must serve out a seven year period of
service. The cost of desertion is death. Due to your criminal activity you will
not be paid for your first six months of service. After this allotted period,
however, you will be started on a base wage. This is your chance to redeem
yourself, to give back to the society you took from. This is your chance to
avoid prison. You have two minutes to decide.” The soldier checked her watch
and ambled back outside to talk to her co-worker.

Finn turned to
look at her. “Would you?” he asked.

Sarah shook her
head. She didn’t even have to think about it. Her sentence was only for three
months. Plus she knew where they would assign her if she joined the army. She
would be the cannon fodder, the expendable soldier. She had a neighbour who son
was in the army and he had told her about where they send the newly recruited
criminals when he had returned home on leave once. He had told her that they
were sent to the worst areas, where there was a huge death rate. He said that
they were injected with substances that turned them into maniacs, so that they
charged the enemy without fear. She knew he was just trying to frighten her,
but at the same time she knew that it was more than just a story.

“You?” she
asked.

Finn shrugged.
“Maybe. I don’t know.”

Sarah didn’t say
anything. She didn’t know how long his sentence was. He was making fun of her
for being secretive yet he had hardly divulged much himself, so she just sat
there quietly and let him think. After all, she barely knew him.

Having convicts
join the army was a controversial topic. Some people thought that prisoners
should be automatically sentenced to join. This, of course, was made impossible
by the Drafting Act. According to the Drafting Act, made between the Covenant
and the Accord, only volunteers could enter the army. The Act was initiated
early on in the war as both sides were drafting far too many people to be
sustainable, and both sides were suffering for it. Hence it was agreed that all
soldiers must be volunteers. Prisons were, naturally, prime recruiting grounds,
but even prisoners must make the decision voluntarily.

The soldier
returned two minutes later.

“Well?”

Two boys and a
girl, all sitting at the back of the bus, stood up and left with the soldier. One
of them was the giant Finn had been incarcerated with. Finn made a slight
movement, as if he was going to stand up, but he ended up staying seated. He
glanced at Sarah quickly, but she didn’t look back. Sarah watched as the
volunteers were handcuffed and led towards a building that stood twenty metres
away as the gate was pulled back and the bus drove forward again. Apparently
the new recruits weren’t to be trusted just yet. Finn was watching her as she
stared out of the window at the landscape around them. There were still a
number of buildings, but they were generously spread out. There were a few
Covenant soldiers walking around so she guessed that what she was looking at
was one of their bases. She couldn’t really make out much beyond the buildings.
This was the first new scenery she had seen in years. Anything outside the
gates had previously been relegated to her imagination.  Sure, she had seen the
propaganda shots of people on farmland being protected by the Covenant’s
soldiers, but beyond that it was mostly rumours and gossip.

“First time out
of the gates?”

Sarah nodded
without looking at him. “You?”

He shook his
head. “I’m from a different city. This bus passes through three or so cities
before it gets to the ship. We’ve been driving all night. I think yours was
meant to be the last one.”

Sarah turned to
look at him properly. She had never met anyone from a different city before.
“What city did you live in? Does it look much like mine? What’s it like?”

“It’s mostly the
same. A bit smaller. It’s sort of hard to tell from looking out of a bus
window. The soldiers are pretty much a law-unto-themselves. Is that the same
with yours?”

Sarah frowned. “Not
really. I mean, we have judges and things, and you never see the soldiers doing
anything illegal, if that’s what you mean?”

“Yup, so our
cities are different then,” replied Finn grimly. “Sure, we have judges, but the
soldiers are doing whatever they damn well please, no matter who gets hurt.” He
was scowling now and his brown eyes appeared slightly unfocused, as if he was
remembering something unpleasant in the past.  

“But you were
thinking of joining them just before,” said Sarah slowly, confused.

“It doesn’t mean
I have to be like them,” he said angrily. He ran a hand through his white hair
and sighed tiredly. “Sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. The ship… the
ship doesn’t sound that great.”

“No,” agreed
Sarah, “it doesn’t.”

There was a
pause. Sarah decided that she didn’t want to think about the ship and tried to
rekindle the conversation about their cities. “We don’t have much food,” she offered.
There had been recent hikes in the price of food and people had actually
protested. A memory of Marland whispering her conspiracy theories came back to
her. “Have you heard anything about some of the farms getting bombed?”

Finn snorted.
“Yeah, or course. Why do you think food-stuff has increased so much in price?”

Sarah stared at
him, surprised. “How do you know?”

“Because they
tell us, of course. What better way to frighten the populace into doing what
you want and not rebell against those who are meant to be there to protect you
than to point out just how shit things are outside the city.”

Sarah blinked.
This definitely lent credence to Marland’s claims, but it was odd how the
reasons behind what their leaders told the people differed so much. She just
hoped that the throwing people overboard theory was still craziness.

“Obviously we
still have food, but what you get very much depends on what you can afford,”
continued Finn with a shrug, his expression clearing. “We actually have a bit
of farming land surrounding us that hasn’t taken any hits, so the fresh stuff
is there, but only if you can afford it. Or if you’re a soldier, in which case
you just take it.” His expression darkened again.

Sarah blinked in
surprise. The soldiers in her city would never do that. It was against the law,
which they took painfully seriously.

“How can it be
so different? I mean, your city and mine? They’re both run by the Covenant,
right?”
Finn shrugged again. “A lot depends on the person in power, I guess. If they
are ok with blackmail and thievery it filters down the ranks.”

“So basically
you’re saying your Mayor is a dick.”

Finn laughed.
“Yeah, I suppose that sums it up nicely.”

“Ours is too,
but in a different way I suppose. She’s just strict. Same rule applies for
everyone, no matter what the circumstances.”

The view outside
the window caught her attention and Sarah gasped. The Covenant soldiers’
buildings were gone. All she could see were long fields of grass spotted with
the occasional tree. She had never seen such a wide space without a building
before.

“Look at all
this space!” She groaned longingly. If only they would expand the city. Maybe
then her family wouldn’t have to live in a tiny two room flat, separated by
neighbours on all sides by only thin walls and thin roofs and floors. She knew
why they didn’t, of course. They would have to assign more soldiers for
protection, and they needed every last man and woman they could get out on the
fighting fields. But, still, the idea was wonderful. She realised with a second
shock that all she could hear was the old bus groaning and the occasional
chatter from the others in the bus. There was no yelling, no shouting, no
trucks. It made her feel somewhat exposed and she hugged her arms reflexively.

“Quiet, isn’t
it?” mumbled Finn, also looking out of the window.

Sarah stared at
him. It was like he could hear her thoughts. She had heard that there were
people out there who could read minds, that the radiation from all the bombs
had changed them somehow. She didn’t know if she believed it or not. There were
plenty of people in her city who claimed that they had the ability, but she
knew most of them were charlatans. The thought disturbed her and she pushed it
out of her mind. They lapsed into a relaxed silence after that, just watching
the scenery change as they drove past. A few times they drove through towns
whose buildings were cracked and falling down, obviously abandoned some time
ago. In these towns plant-life had somehow managed to grow wild between the
concrete slabs and the brick cracks, yet it couldn’t disguise the signs of war,
which cut through the greenery like an ugly scar. Every now and then they would
pass a crater where no plant life had encroached upon. Or they would pass
kilometres of rolled up barbed wire, just threading its way through the abandoned
streets. They were still fairly heavily in Covenant territory, so the bus
should be safe from attack, but at the same time she did feel terribly exposed.
Occasionally they would pass the entrance to farmland. These were heavily
guarded and their bus was stopped frequently by soldiers making sure that they
were who they were meant to be.

Approximately
two hours later the bus trundled to a stop. They had arrived at a large industrial
warehouse. Hardy trees and shrubs stretched out from either side of the
building as far as she could see. The bus driver pulled up the handbrake and
waddled off the bus. Four guards had appeared outside and one of them now
entered the bus. She held a gun in a lowered position against her shoulder.

“Everyone off
the bus.”

Crime and Punishment

The eight
prisoners stood up, some stretching, and walked off the bus. It was windy
outside and the coldness of it ripped through the thin jacket Sarah was
wearing. The guard with the gun followed them off the bus. Another guard had a
handheld device. It was similar to the one the soldier had used to tattoo her
court date on her arm but there were obvious differences. It was bulkier and
the tattoo attachment was different. He walked up to the first prisoner in
line. It was a boy, about fourteen. He looked weedy and had a hunched over
posture. The guard held the device up near the boy’s face, comparing the boy
with his documented citizen picture. The guard then reached down and grabbed
the boy’s wrist. The boy didn’t look too concerned. He was probably thinking
the same thing as Sarah, that he was just going to get temporarily inked. The
guard placed the device on the wrist and pressed a button. The boy yelped in
pain. He withdrew his wrist and looked at it, surprised. A barcode was burnt
into his flesh.

“Holy shit!”
yelled the boy standing next to him. This boy was larger. He had shaggy brown
hair and was nearly six feet tall, although still gangly. The guard ignored the
outburst and moved over to him, preparing to go through the same motions. The
boy wasn’t having any of it. He backed away and then turned and ran,
sidestepping around another guard in the process.

“Stop!” yelled
one of the guards. “Stop now!”

The boy ignored
him and continued to run. He was fast and was making a beeline for the trees.
Sarah glanced around. Everyone else was paying attention to the boy. She could
probably slip away now and nobody would notice. But where would she go? There
wasn’t another building in miles, just this endless, uninterrupted scrub. Her
attention was brought back to the action as the boy let out a shriek. They had
fired a shot of electricity at him. His whole body convulsed twice on the
ground before becoming still. One of the guards walked over to him, his gun
trained the whole time. He reached the prone body and nudged it with his boot.
The boy didn’t move. He brought out a pair of handcuffs and snapped them onto the
boy’s wrist, then used them to drag the boy back to the group. Every now and
then the boy’s head would hit the ground with a horrible thud as he was dragged
over the uneven ground. Sarah felt sick. Finn was looking pale. Some of the other
prisoners were watching it coolly, whereas others, like Marland, were trying to
focus on anything but what was happening. The guard finally reached them and
dropped the boy’s arms none too gently. The guard with the ID device walked
over and burnt a barcode into the boy’s wrist. He then stood up and moved to
the next prisoner. It was Marland. She was pale as a ghost and stood shaking
slightly, but she didn’t resist when he grabbed her wrist. She only winced when
they burnt the barcode in. Finn was before Sarah. He didn’t resist either, but
he stared at the guard the whole time, not blinking. A muscle in his cheek
twitched when the code was burnt into his flesh, but that was all. Sarah looked
away and tried to think of something else when it was her turn. She didn’t want
to remember the guard’s face, or any of this. She just wanted to serve out her
time as quickly as possible and get the hell out of there. It was quicker than
she thought, but it hurt like hell. And it smelt. That was probably the worst
of it. She could smell her own burning flesh. The guard moved on and she examined
her arm tentatively. The barcode was about two by four centimetres, the lines
fine and delicate, but they were burning an angry red. She gently placed her
other hand over it, wincing at the pain but appreciating for the first time how
cold the wind had made her hand. She glanced around. Most of the others had
done the same, except for Finn. He had wrenched his sleeve back down, covering
the burn completely. It must have hurt more for it.

“Ok, let’s
move,” ordered one of the guards. She gestured with her rifle towards the door
of the warehouse. They walked over to it. The unconscious boy was lifted over
the shoulder of one of the guards in a fireman’s lift.

Sarah shivered
with appreciation as soon as they entered the building. It was warm and they
were out of the wind. The warehouse consisted of one large open space inside. There
were a number of cubicles situated near their end of the room. The half of the
building furthest away from them appeared to be mostly for storage, containing
large shipping containers and boxes of various sizes and shapes stacked up in
piles. A few of the people in the cubicles glanced up as they passed, but not
all of them. They were ushered straight through to the far side, where there
was another door. One of the guards advanced and wrenched it open. Sarah
gasped. There was a pier leading straight off from the doorway, and at the end
of it sat a thirty metre long enclosed boat. It looked dull but fast. Yet this
wasn’t what had caught her attention. Everywhere she looked there was water.
She had never seen the sea before. She had heard about it, of course. Old
Martin who lived in her apartment block had told her about it once. She snorted
at the memory. ‘Big and wet’ hardly seemed to cover it. Most of the other
prisoners had also stopped walking and were likewise staring at it in
amazement. They were all prodded forward and made to walk along the pier. As
they approached the boat Sarah started to freak out a little. What would they
do if the boat sank? What if they ran out of food or water? She realised Finn
was breathing heavily besides her.

“Are you ok?”
she asked.

“I can’t swim,”
he muttered between clenched teeth.

Sarah thought
back to the small pool near her apartment that regularly filled up with water
when it rained. A few of the apartment kids used to play in it when she was
younger and better at making friends. Her doggie-paddling and the few strokes
she could pull off in the small space seemed far from adequate now.

“Well, hopefully
you won’t need to.”

She looked back
at the boat. It seemed a lot smaller than she had imagined. One of the other
kids seemed to think the same.

“Is this it?”
the girl asked one of the guards. “Is that the prison ship?”

The guard
laughed. “No. That’s what we’re using to transport you to the ship.”

They arrived at
the boat and gingerly stepped onto the back decking. A few of them stumbled at
the slight rocking motion. The guards prompted them to enter the hatch and go
down the stairs below. It took Sarah a moment to adjust to the gloominess
inside. There were two portholes on the side, providing the room’s only source
of light.  A bench ran along three of the walls. They all sat down, facing each
other. The unconscious boy was laid down in the middle of the floor. The guard
then retreated outside and closed the door, making it even darker.

“So,” said
Heather, spreading out as much as she could on her bench. “What did you losers
do?”

No one answered
her. Heather wasn’t dissuaded. She turned to face the weedy fourteen year old,
who had been the first to have his barcode burnt on. Every now and then he
would suck on his teeth in a way that Sarah found repulsive.

“You, skinny,
what’s your name?” she demanded.

The boy shrugged
his shoulders awkwardly. “Toddy.”

“What did you
do?”

His eyes darted
around the cabin, looking for a way out of answering, but no help came.

“Well?” demanded
Heather.

“Um, I poisoned
some meat,” he muttered. “I just wanted to give the guy a belly-ache, you know?
But he got really sick and well… yeah.”

“You killed
him?”

“Nah, he lived.
Just, well, he was really sick.” He sucked at his teeth again. Sarah wished he
would stop doing that.

Heather rolled
her eyes. “And you?” she demanded, looking at a boy with black hair and dark
eyes. He was, Sarah couldn’t help but notice, incredibly good looking.

“I stole a
police horse,” he said, his face covered in a huge grin at the memory. “What
did you do?”

“Stabbed a man,”
said Heather, her voice full of bravado. She pointed at Sarah, “She’s a thief,”
she pointed at Marland, “and she’s an arsonist.” She turned back to the
black-haired boy. “What’s your name?”

“Colt.”

Sarah snorted in
amusement. The others all turned to look at her. None of them were even
smiling. She flushed. “Colt, and well, he stole a horse,” she explained. “It’s
just apt, that’s all.”

Finn gave her a
slow smile and even Colt smirked, but the rest of them just gave her a blank
look.

“That’s Justin,”
said Toddy, who also hadn’t got the pun. He pointed at the tall, gangly
unconscious boy on the floor. “He streaked through an important government
ceremony. They didn’t give him back his clothes for three days after they
caught him.” He grinned as if this was the funniest thing in the world. 

Heather chortled
but no one else laughed. It was hard to find it funny when he was lying there
unconscious. Heather turned to the youngest person on the boat. “How about you,
pipsqueak?” It was the small girl Marland had sat next to on the bus.

“What’s it to
you?”

“Who the hell do
you think you’re talking to?” bristled Heather. She stood up. Sarah assumed she
did it to appear more menacing.

“I don’t know.
Nobody, probably.” There was a slight pause as Heather processed this and then
she advanced on the girl.

“Leave her
alone,” said Finn.

Heather gave him
an ugly look. “No need to ask why you’re here, freak. I bet they made any
excuse to get you locked away.” She looked pointedly at his hair. Finn flushed.
He went to retort back but the girl interrupted him.

“I can fight my
own battles,” she said, staring at Finn with dislike. Finn just threw up his
hands.

“Fine,
whatever.”

The girl looked
at Heather evenly. “I sold black-market fruit, and before you ask, my name’s
April.”

“Good girl,”
said Heather, giving her a cold smile and sitting back down.

There was an
awkward pause after that, their early story-sharing having been poisoned by the
antagonism now radiating around the room. Nobody spoke for the rest of the
journey. A combination of fear of the approaching prison ship and nausea started
to permeate the space. Sarah had enjoyed the boat’s rocking at first, but after
ten minutes the roiling motion had gotten to her. She didn’t have it as bad as
some, however. Toddy looked like he was going to be sick at any moment. Sarah
hoped that he could keep it in. There was nothing for him to be sick into and
she knew that if he vomited, she wouldn’t be that far behind. Finn was sitting
very still with his eyes closed, apparently going through the same thing. At
some point the boy on the floor, Justin, woke up. He cried a little and sat up,
but he didn’t move to sit on the bench. Sarah had never felt more hopeless in
her life. She looked at the burn on her arm. She hated it. It was a cruel thing
to do. It meant that everyone would know, for all eternity that she was a
convict. Eventually the motions of the boat slowed down. Sarah leaned over so
that she could see out of one of the grimy portholes. All she saw was a wall of
grey metal. They had arrived then. There was shouting above them and the sound
of movement. Ten minutes later the hatch door swung open, bringing sunlight and
fresh air down into the room. A guard stuck his head in, smiled, and then
leaned back out again.

“Hey Mathers!”
He yelled gleefully, “nobody vomited! You owe me a drink!”
There was an indistinct reply and then the guard stuck his head back into the
hull.

“Well c’mon you
lot, we don’t have all day.”

They all got up.
They were stiff from sitting and their legs were wobbly, not used to the rocking
motion. After a few awkward tumbles they made it up the ladder and onto the
main deck.

The grey ship in
front of them was huge and depressing. It looked like a retired navy ship. The
name ‘Prison Ship 374A,
The Anoscosa
was stencilled on the side. A metal
ladder fell from the deck of the prison ship, reaching the deck of the
transport vessel. Someone in a grey mechanics uniform was climbing up it. He
had a clipboard in his right hand. A middle aged woman on the prison ship deck,
wearing tailored clothes, peered down at them distastefully. She nodded once
and one of the guards motioned with his gun for them to climb up the ladder.
They did so slowly, warily. Sarah looked around while she waited for her turn
to ascend. She couldn’t see any sign of land. She was trapped. A gun poked into
the side of her ribs and she looked back around to see that they were waiting
for her to ascend. She took a big breath. What happened next was important.
First impressions were everything. She felt about as important and confident as
the slime on the bottom of a pair of boots. With a mammoth effort, she
straightened her shoulders and climbed the ladder.