Before the Plague
The young doctor studied the viral modelling data on his computer screen, desperately trying to figure out why his attempts at creating a cure had accelerated the death toll. The information didn’t make sense. It was supposed to save lives, not take them. They had created two new strains of the disease, and the virus had mutated with a devastating impact. The deployment of a cure had just made the situation worse.
The pandemic had come out of nowhere and was sweeping through urban populations at a rate faster than had ever been seen before. They knew it was airborne, it was infecting just over nine out of ten people and it was spreading like a bushfire across the planet. With two new strains now wreaking fresh havoc, even those who had survived the first wave were in danger once again.
International travel had been stopped too late – they’d grounded the planes several weeks after they should have done. The advisory teams had warned the President at the briefing sessions but he’d ignored them. The Government always assumed the problem would be solved before it became necessary to pull the plug on the airlines.
The protocols were in place, but world governments were always reluctant to shut down cross-border controls. They waited and waited, then acted too late. The plague was going to have to burn itself out, but it would wipe out most of the world’s population in the process.
Gripped by a sense of guilt and anxiety, he stayed up into the night when the facility was deserted. They’d all been working ridiculous hours for weeks on end, and the team was beginning to tire. The problem with humans is they need rest, they have to take breaks, however severe the crisis.
He needed to understand what he’d overlooked. He’d been sure he’d got the cure at last, but it had all gone so wrong. He tested and refined the data then started the process all over again to prove and then re-prove his theory. Every time it pointed to the same thing. There was a reason for the mutations, but so far nobody in his team had seen what was staring them in the face. Even the pooled information-sharing across the world had not spotted this. A single database updated 24/7 with the findings of the best scientific minds across the globe, yet nobody had seen what he’d seen. This was sabotage, and it had taken place at the highest level of government. They’d made him and his team the fall guys. They hadn’t even used his cure, they’d gone ahead and substituted the NiVac3 option. It had been hurriedly released and they’d been warned of the consequences. His own solution was more difficult to manufacture at speed, but it would have worked. Now they’d messed up, and they were pointing the finger of blame at him.
The doctor sat in his chair and considered the world they were about to bequeath to the next generation. Towering walls were being built around major cities on the orders of President James Morgan. Those who’d survived each strain of the plague were being herded into segregated concrete fortresses. The voice of the President was broadcast constantly across all media, issuing instructions calmly and authoritatively. Armed checkpoints were being set up where those who’d survived the plague were to report for sanctuary, barricading themselves in infection-free ghettos, packed with Immunes and survivors. They were all that would be left – humanity was hanging on by a thread.
The Government would struggle to maintain control after this. The existing world order would disappear. Too many people had died, and it was still far from over. But here was the secret, and nobody had seen it yet. This global catastrophe had been accelerated by the Government. President Morgan had overruled the advice of his advisory panel, rushed through NiVac3, and now the entire world was paying the price.
Significant power resided in this information – he cursed that he hadn’t seen it earlier, before it had reached the endgame. It might have been useful then, but there was no longer the infrastructure to deliver a cure globally, not with three deadly strains harvesting so many lives. The plague would have to burn itself out as it would have done in the Middle Ages.
As a doctor, he was accustomed to healing and curing, but that world of compassion no longer existed. Everything was simplified: you survived or you died. What was happening would divide mankind. Those with the contagion would be left to die and the survivors would cling together, desperate to grasp whatever scraps of humanity they could salvage. He could see it already as the cities were beginning to fall and huge fortresses were being built.
He decided to keep the evidence to himself, removing it from his computer and securely encrypting it on a data card. He had no status now. He’d been shamed and it would take him some time to recover his reputation after such a disaster. The data card would be his free pass – with this knowledge he could wield massive power in the new world that would rise from the ashes of the plague. He had damning evidence against President Morgan and his senior team. Their negligence had caused the Earth to burn. One day, Morgan would be held to account.
He took off his lab coat and placed the data card in the pocket of his trousers. As he was about to walk away, something sentimental in him made him step back. His name badge was still attached to the lab coat. He unpinned it and examined it, recalling the life and career that had once held so much promise for him. That world no longer existed. There was no need for these laboratories anymore, since the plague was unstoppable. They were being hurriedly relocated to a new and secure facility where they would make their final stand against the disease. It was all about the survivors now and the world that would arise from the ashes once the plague had burned itself out. He turned the badge over and put it in his pocket. There was no more need for Doctor Josh Delman. He would have to become something very different in this new world.
Crisis
Joe was stunned to see his father standing in front of him as the elevator doors opened. His heart was still pounding furiously and painfully from the events that had just taken place in The Grid. Matt hugged him hard, then surveyed his son.
‘You’ve done well to get here in time, Joe, but we have to move on straight away. Your entire Sector is going to be destroyed, and we’ve got to do something about it. The City will be wiped out in a matter of hours.’
‘What about the others?’ Lucy said. ‘We can’t just leave them there!’
‘You have to, for now. You can’t protect them in The Grid. In any case, you need urgent medical attention. Come with me, we must leave The TriPlex now. We have to get you patched up and fully briefed.’
Joe was overwhelmed by these events. Over the past six years, he’d gone through all the stages of grief: anger, resentment and acceptance. He’d vowed to seek revenge for Matt’s death, yet here he was, alive and well. There was no conversation as Matt ushered them away from the elevator entrance towards a circular platform in the middle of the vast rotunda. He was serious and focused, there were no pleasantries. The place he called The TriPlex was deep underground, but high above them at the top of the structure was a massive glass dome through which the sky was just about visible.
Joe looked around, taking in as much as he could while he struggled to process what was going on. He thought of his friends in The Grid and how they would be fighting for their lives. He wanted to run and help them, but he also needed to know more.
They were in an empty triangular hall with three featureless elevator entrances situated equidistantly at the edges. They were marked ‘Sector 1’, ‘Sector 2’ and ‘Sector 3’. The only other object in the area was the central platform, which looked very similar to the one the Justice Seekers had been standing on at the beginning of their trial.
Matt was flanked by two armed guards. They were not Centuria, and Joe had never seen anything like them before. Their weaponry too was much more sophisticated than anything he’d ever come across.
Without warning, Lucy made a move for one of the weapons, pushing the butt into the guard’s face and making him stumble.
‘I’m going back up there to help them!’
‘Lucy, stop!’ called Matt.
Lucy paid no attention. She was running towards the elevator entrance, intent on returning to The Grid. She placed her hand on the red panel outside the elevator in the Sector 2 area.
‘If you return to The Grid you will place all of your friends in immediate peril,’ Matt shouted. ‘Your actions could also lead to the annihilation of the entire population of your city. Please, Lucy, I know you’re desperate to help your friends, but you can only do that with our help.’
Lucy stopped dead in her tracks and removed her hand from the activation panel. Joe looked on, unsure what to do next. The second guard pointed her weapon directly in Lucy’s direction.
‘The only reason you could enter that elevator is because you’re Immunes. Both of you are. If anybody tries to enter this area as a plague carrier, they’ll be eliminated before they get here. That applies to your friends too. If they’re carriers, they’ll be killed before they ever step into the elevator.’
Lucy hesitated, looking from Joe to Matt. Her finger moved to the trigger of her weapon but she’d begun to doubt herself.
‘I’ll explain to you both when we enter Centrum. We need to run some urgent tests on you straight away. You have to trust me, Lucy. You’ll get the chance to enter your city again very soon, but I have to brief you both before you do that.’
The elevator door opened, but Lucy let it close once again without stepping inside.
‘Joe, what do you think?’
‘We’ve come this far, Lucy. We set out to discover what happened to Dad …’
Joe corrected himself.
‘We wanted to find out what happened to our dads … We’re getting close to the truth now, we need to find out what’s going on. Everybody gains if we succeed, Lucy. We’ve come this far – we have to carry on now.’
Matt nodded. Lucy held out her weapon so it could be retrieved by the guard. His face was bloodied, but he took hold of the firearm carefully without any sign of threat to Lucy.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘Things were getting really stressful up there.’
The guard indicated that she should step back onto the platform. When all five people were standing within the circular area, Matt activated a small device he’d been holding in his hand. The platform was surrounded by a bright red grid which passed over their bodies like a virtual net.
‘It’s alright,’ Matt tried to reassure Lucy. ‘This is just to make sure you’re not carrying anything that could contaminate Centrum. You’re about to enter a contamination-neutral zone – this is called a BioSweep.’
Lucy was not consoled by this, but whatever scanning process had just taken place was now over. The platform was surrounded by a shimmering haze of light which ended after a few seconds. They had now left The TriPlex and were in a completely different location.
‘Welcome to Centrum,’ Matt announced. ‘I’ll be happy to answer all of your questions here. First, though, we need to run tests on both of you. Lucy, you’re in a bad way. We must get those wounds looked at.’
Lucy nodded. She’d been impetuous only minutes before but now she felt exhausted. Her mind was going crazy with thoughts of her friends, and she felt guilty for finding this sanctuary when her companions were still fighting for their lives in The Grid. The guard she’d just assaulted took her arm and escorted her away from the platform.
‘Joe, stay with me for a while. We need to talk.’
Joe looked towards Lucy.
‘Will she be okay?’
‘They’ll take good care of her. I want you to be checked out too; you don’t look much better.’
oe scanned the area. It was lie nothing he’d ever seen before. Compared to The Climbs, Silk Road was technologically advanced, clean and well-maintained, but Centrum was something else.
It was modern, antiseptic, calm and extremely hi-tech. There were consoles everywhere, vast arrays of flashing lights, information screens and data displays. Joe noticed how few people were around, but those who were operating the consoles were dressed simply in clean tunics and trousers. It seemed focused, purposeful and well ordered.
There were huge digitized screens placed all along the corridors. They were counting down to zero with fewer than nine hours to go. What was going to happen? There was no indication of what the displays might be for, but Joe guessed the countdown was the reason for Matt’s urgency.
‘Joe, I’m so sorry I couldn’t tell you I was alive. It was impossible – I might have got you killed, and I couldn’t get a direct message to you anyway.’
Joe’s eyes began to moisten with tears. Things had happened so fast, he’d barely had time to register what was going on. Now he was out of immediate danger and had made his escape from the prospect of a terrible death, he needed to let it all out. He was overwhelmed by the situation. One minute he’d been moments from death, the next he’d been reunited with the father he’d thought to be dead.
Matt hugged him tight. It felt good to Joe to have someone taking care of him again. He’d been the strong one for six years, having to grow up fast and help his family survive. At last he’d got someone to take that weight off his shoulders.
‘What happened, Dad? How did you get out of The Grid?’
‘Similar to you, Joe. I thought it was all over for me, but then from nowhere I got a chance to get out.’
‘But how? I don’t even know how Lucy and I got out of there alive.’
Matt seemed reluctant to give more detail. He was keen to move on with his own agenda.
‘We’re under a lot of pressure, Joe. There’s so much happening all at once. You got here just in time – you’ve given us all a chance. What’s going on in your Sector is the least of our worries.’
Joe had never heard The City referred to as a Sector, though he’d noticed that three Sectors were marked when he and Lucy had descended to The TriPlex in the elevator. He couldn’t recall ever having been in a working elevator before. Everything was completely alien to him at Centrum.
‘In just under nine hours, Catharsis will begin. What’s going on in The Grid is insignificant in comparison to this. I know you’re desperate to help your friends, but there are many more lives in danger. Hundreds of thousands of people could die.’
There was a lot to take in. Joe placed his hand on his chest which was tight and uncomfortable, but he put it down to the stress of the situation. It would pass, just like the pain from all of the cuts and bruises he had sustained.
‘Catharsis was set in motion a hundred years ago, before any of us were born. It was agreed as part of The Pact, after the plague had driven what was left of humanity into three separate cities. We call them Sectors here.’
‘So there is something else beyond these walls?’
‘There’s a lot beyond the walls of The City, Joe. It’s what Tom and I had discovered when we were arrested.’
‘I thought there had to be more. Delman was speaking to somebody outside The City. He’s part of this, isn’t he?’
‘Delman has a lot to answer for, Joe, and yes he’s in this up to his neck. There are three Sectors – or cities – in all, and ours is just one of them. But there’s a problem, and that’s why The Pact was created in the first place. The three cities were our last hope. Each one housed survivors from a different strain of the disease. Catharsis was created to choose who would take humanity forward. If the disease remained uncured, the Sectors would be destroyed and Centrum would have to rebuild from the ashes.’
‘Where are we now? How come we’re all safe here?’
‘We’re all Immunes in Centrum, Joe. There aren’t that many of us in existence. As well as Immunes, there is a smaller group of people out there we call Conduits who have survived the plague and now carry the disease. They could spread it to other people who’ve never had the disease. It’s how Tom Slater and I were drawn together. Lucy is an Immune too. We can survive among the Conduits, but we’re not immune to all three strains of the virus. This entire unit at Centrum houses just over one thousand Immunes, made up of scientists, doctors, tech experts and their families.’
‘This is incredible. Are we in a Sector now?’
‘No, this is something different. Centrum is isolated – it’s located below ground at the centre of the three Sectors. The only way in and out of each Sector is via what you call The Grid. It’s there to serve as a barrier, a defence mechanism, it protects each Sector from entry, exit, attack or invasion. In our city it’s been abused and adapted as a system of punishment. It was never meant for that purpose – it was built as a neutral zone.’
Joe’s mind was creating more questions every time Matt told him something new. It was amazing that all of this could be going on. None of them had had any idea.
‘Centrum is a contained area, the one thing that links the Sectors and preserves continuity. It was populated with just enough Immunes to give humanity a fighting chance if the Sectors ever failed. It’s worked well for a hundred years, but now the designated time is over. It all ends tomorrow morning with Catharsis.’
Joe didn’t like the sound of what was coming. He’d survived The Grid to walk into this?
‘What’s Catharsis? I’m guessing that’s what this is all leading to.’
‘Yes, Joe. At 08:00 tomorrow morning our Sector will be destroyed. The countdown timers you can see all around Centrum show how long we have remaining.’
‘Does anybody else know about this? In the Sectors, I mean?’
‘There’s only one person outside Centrum who knows what’s going to happen, and that’s Josh Delman.’
Joe stared at his father, waiting for an explanation. Delman was rumoured to have made it out of The Grid alive, so it might make sense if he knew about Catharsis. But what made him unique?
‘Delman is the problem and the solution,’ Matt picked up. ‘Delman is the only person who can stop Catharsis.’
‘So what is the problem? What has Delman done and how can he fix it?’
‘The Pact was an agreement made a hundred years ago to allow humanity to survive. It had to be that way or all of the Sectors would have perished over time anyway. But the plan was sabotaged, and the man we know as Delman is responsible. Centrum was supposed to survive but in just over eight hours everybody here will die. The walls and buildings of the three Sectors will implode and Centrum will collapse soon afterwards. We’ll all perish in a concrete grave.’
Hunted
The new Justice Seekers were dazed and confused. Clay beckoned them over to the huge concrete pillar which they were using for cover. It had happened so fast. One minute they’d been in a labyrinth, the next their environment had changed to a bleak cityscape. It was not unlike The Climbs, but it was in a far greater state of decay.
Clay had seen Joe and Lucy vanish into the elevator. He’d encouraged them to go, it was their only chance of walking out of The Grid alive. If there was something beyond that deathly arena, Joe and Lucy had to press on and find it. There had to be some way of escaping and Joe and Lucy had seized their chance, a new opportunity for them all to survive.
Clay had barely had time to question what had happened. The bot had approached an area which at first appeared to be a water butt. However, as the bot moved closer, the water butt fragmented into a pixelated form then faded completely to reveal the elevator doorway. Joe and Lucy had disappeared inside and the water butt had rematerialized.
All of the remaining Justice Seekers had been shocked to see a holographic image of President Josh Delman appearing before them. Normally it was Damien Hunter who presided over the trials. Things must have really been kicked off by Joe and Lucy if he’d been forced to intervene.
Then there were the five new Justice Seekers to accommodate. Fortrillium would top up the numbers on the rare occasions a trial had gone to nearly ten Modes and there was virtually nobody left standing, throwing some new victims in just to sustain the action on the screens a little longer. Clay suspected they were trying to make up for the loss of Joe and Lucy, perhaps even diverting attention away from their disappearance. Had their exit been seen on the screens? It would cause a great stir in The Climbs if it had. If there was any suspicion that there was a way out of The Grid, it would have fuelled a new hope.
The bot had become the immediate focus of the snipers who were shooting heavily in order to disable it. It seemed intent on completing its task, despite the physical damage it had sustained from the weapon fire.
As Clay was welcoming the new Justice Seekers and making sure they were sufficiently protected by the concrete barricade, the water butt pixelated once again and the elevator door opened. Joe and Lucy had gone. Whatever had happened, they were out of The Grid. They might be facing something even worse than The Grid wherever they’d gone to, there was no way of knowing.
As the weapon fire continued, the bot sustained more damage and sparks began to fly out of its circuit boards. Clay was distracted, but he saw something – someone – moving at speed behind him. He turned around, it was Miron, running for the elevator door. The weapon fire sounded around him, miraculously missing as he crisscrossed the gap between the barricade and The Core.
‘Stay back!’ shouted Clay. ‘Miron, don’t risk it!’
It was too late, Miron was committed. He evaded the gunfire, though he caught a flesh wound on his right arm. It rattled him but he kept on running. As Miron was about to enter the elevator, a bright red matrix appeared and covered his entire body. He froze while the matrix appeared to scan him from top to bottom.
There was a white flash of light and Miron’s body exploded. One second Miron was there, the next he was gone, his bloody remains spread where he had been standing.
Clay gasped. There were cries of shocked disbelief. At first they’d thought this was a new torture being deployed by Fortrillium to torment them, but it appeared that Miron’s death was connected to the elevator, it seemed to have nothing to do with the trial itself.
The weapon fire targeted at the bot increased until its circuitry failed and, at last, it took the final hit. As the bot’s power faded, the water butt pixelated and the elevator entrance disappeared. The sniper fire stopped and there was quiet once again.
It was a few minutes before anybody spoke. The new city landscape had not yet fully rendered, there were still traces of the labyrinth, but these swiftly disappeared. Clay wasn’t even certain that this was the third Mode since there had been no formal announcement from Damien Hunter and the Law Lords. It was as if they’d been caught out – whatever had happened with the bot and Joe and Lucy’s sudden escape, Fortrillium didn’t appear to have been ready for it.
The gunfire had stopped, and it seemed to be safe once again. The water butt had gone and that entire area had been rendered beyond recognition. Clay wasn’t entirely sure what he was looking at. Their surroundings seemed to change seamlessly from time to time, and it was difficult to stay oriented.
‘What’s that Lucy threw towards us?’ came Ross’s voice from the silence. ‘Is it safe to get it, do you think?’
‘You’re in too bad a way, Ross. Leave it for now. Let’s just give it a few minutes to make sure the coast is clear.’
Clay took charge once again, and for the first time surveyed the new Justice Seekers. There was a male there, the same sort of age as Joe. He was bloodied, bruised and completely out of it. He needed urgent medical attention.
Then there was a woman. Again, she’d been beaten, but she was still strong, she could walk and she was alert.
Clay noticed the older man. His hand was heavily bandaged and there was a small blood stain beginning to work its way through the covering.
There was a young woman there too, dressed as a Centuria, but she’d been stripped of her weaponry and protective gear. Clay had never seen a Centuria without a helmet before, and it was shocking to him. There was a human being underneath the helmets. He’d always considered them to be part machine. Something as ruthless as a Centuria had to have been stripped of all humanity, he’d figured.
Finally, there was another young woman who seemed to be in good health, but was clearly terrified. Clay needed to reassure them. It seemed they’d been herded up rapidly and thrown into The Grid with very little ceremony.
‘I’m Clay,’ he began. ‘You’re in The Grid now, but I think we’re safe for the time being. The weapon fire seems to have stopped.’
There was a palpable sigh of relief from the new Justice Seekers. They seemed glad to have somebody to guide them through their ordeal.
‘This is Ross and Chris. We’re all that’s left of the original prisoners.’
‘Where is Joe? What happened to Joe?’ the woman said.
‘And Lucy, where did Lucy go?’ asked the younger woman.
‘They made their escape just as you arrived. We don’t know where they are now, but they made it out alive.’
Clay looked over to where Miron had tried to make his dash for freedom. The area was now unrecognizable, it had been re-rendered to orientate them away from The Core.
Clay went around the group finding out the new names. He was surprised to discover that three of the new Justice Seekers knew each other already. There was Joe’s mother, Jena, and his friends, Mitchell and Hannah. It emerged that the older man’s wound had been inflicted by Talya Slater. The pieces soon began to come together as the questions flowed.
Fortrillium was under siege and was closing down the aftershocks left by Joe and Lucy’s activities. There had been a team of people outside fighting to keep Joe and Lucy alive, but Fortrillium was onto them, and they’d been hastily rounded up and thrown into The Grid.
Max had revealed that the bot was his doing. He didn’t know where Joe and Lucy were heading, but he thought it was to safety. Why else would the bots have been sent to maintain that area so thoroughly during their routine inspections? He could also tell Clay what the object was that Lucy had thrown from the entrance to the elevator.
‘That’ll be a WristCom. We’ve been trying to get it to you all along. Turns out I could have just brought it in myself.’
Clay laughed at that. It seemed a crazy thing to do bearing in mind what had just happened, but Max was right. The WristCom was another glimmer of hope, though, one more chance of escape. Clay had spent a lifetime in The Climbs reconfiguring those devices, he was certain he’d be able to nurse it back to life.
Max had a theory about what had happened to Miron. He’d seen a rat following the maintenance bots up the long tunnel to The Grid once, and exactly the same thing had happened to the creature. A bright red lattice had enveloped it and incinerated it on the spot. Max had always wondered if it had been staged by Fortrillium to make sure he didn’t get any bright ideas about heading up the tunnels. His theory was that anything living got destroyed in them, and he reckoned the same had happened to Miron.
Clay suspected there was more to it. Joe and Lucy had stepped into the elevator with no challenge, so there had to be something else Max wasn’t seeing.
Piece by piece the bedraggled group of survivors put together their stories. Only Julia Levett remained silent, listening and taking it all in. Clay figured she’d expect to receive a hostile reaction as a Centuria, and he let her lie low for a while as he worked out what had been going on outside The Grid.
Hannah had broken down in tears when she began to explain what she’d been doing and how she’d helped to create the very environment they found themselves in at that moment. She told the group how she’d worked to save them from the beasts in the labyrinth, but that something or somebody seemed to be fighting her all the way. She became distraught when she heard what had happened from the Justice Seekers’ point of view. For her it had all been pixelated gameplay, but for Clay, Chris, Ross – and those who had lost their lives – every moment had been real.
‘Nobody in The City is without guilt,’ Clay consoled her. ‘You gave Joe and Lucy a chance, Hannah. You gave us all a chance. Remember that. We all do what we have to do to stay alive.’
There were existing relationships within this new group of Justice Seekers. Jena attended to Mitchell’s wounds. He was weak and silent. Nobody was able to find out what had happened to him, but whatever it was he’d lost a lot of blood and been badly hurt in the process.
By the time everybody had made their introductions, Clay felt that at last they might all have a fighting chance. Jena confirmed that Wiz and Dillon had escaped. If they weren’t in The Grid, she assumed they’d got out alive. They had tech and they might still have access to whatever was going on beyond The City’s walls. They spoke conspiratorially, unsure if their conversations could be heard, and unwilling to give any incriminating information about their friends on the outside. Max and Jena had confirmed that Talya was still working hard to save them. Julia Levett had shifted uncomfortably at that revelation, but Clay decided to wait a while before challenging her.
Finally, Hannah had been reluctant to share that they still had an ally at Fortrillium. Linwood had gone undetected, and she hoped he would still be looking out for them. Clay had to tease that information from her since she’d been scared to speak, afraid the conversation might be monitored. She didn’t want to place her friend in any more danger. Eventually, Clay had got the other Justice Seekers to talk loudly while they discussed the matter in whispers, masking the highly sensitive information.
‘You did everything you could at Fortrillium,’ Clay reassured Hannah. ‘I’m grateful for your help, we’d all be dead by now if you hadn’t intervened.’
Hannah wasn’t so sure, but she was relieved Clay was around. He seemed to know what he was doing – at least they had a leader. It was Chris who got hold of the WristCom that they’d been aware of for some time, still taking cover in case of snipers.
‘Chris, come back!’ Ross had shouted, but he made the short journey there and back without mishap. The snipers seemed to have disappeared. Clay was relieved to see it was a standard WristCom and it still had charge. It was an older model, but he was more familiar with those. In The Climbs it was easier to obtain obsolete models than it was to procure the latest devices. He’d look at it later. He would definitely be able to do something with the WristCom, especially if Wiz and Dillon were still out there somewhere. He’d make sure it was switched on at the very least.
Mitchell and Ross were in urgent need of medical attention, and Clay didn’t think either would be in any condition to survive the next Mode, if and when it came. He surveyed the area.
‘What did you create here, Hannah?’ he asked, hoping she might give some clues.
‘It’s a ruined cityscape. We took The Climbs and moved it fifty years into the future. It’s older, more ruined, and a lot more dangerous. This version is different, though. We created pathways so we could get to Joe and Lucy, but it’s been reconfigured now and the layout is unfamiliar.’
‘Will there be anything useful here?’
‘It’s difficult to tell,’ Hannah continued. ‘I only partially rendered the environment, so there was no detail at that time. The Gridders have taken what I started and finished it off. I don’t even know if this is your next Mode, but if it is they should have placed food and weapons nearby.’
‘Okay, we need to look around. Mitchell and Ross need to get patched up as soon as possible. We don’t know when the new Mode will start.’
There were murmurs of agreement. Clay was tired, he’d been hurt in the fighting too, but he could see the Justice Seekers looked to him for leadership.
‘I’ll explore this area with Julia,’ he indicated with his hand. ‘Jena and Max, you take a look over there. Chris and Hannah, you stay with Ross and Mitchell. Hannah, I’m putting you in charge here, okay?’
Hannah nodded. Clay figured that if she and Lucy were friends, Hannah would be good with Chris. Meanwhile, he’d separated off Julia which would give him some time to find out why she’d been thrown into The Grid. She’d been quiet so far, she was obviously holding back, and he’d need to find out what she could offer to help the group to survive.
Clay and Julia and Jena and Max split off in their separate directions, leaving Hannah with Chris, Ross and Mitchell.
Clay and Julia walked on without speaking, alert and attentive in case there should be a new attack from an as yet unknown enemy. It seemed safe, this did not appear to be a new Mode. Julia was expecting Clay to start asking questions – she could sense there were things he wanted to know as they moved on in uncomfortable silence. Then, out of nowhere, there was a loud buzzing, a rude interruption in the stillness.
Clay was confused at first, he couldn’t work out the source of the noise. It was persistent and demanding, and Clay soon discovered it was the WristCom. He took it out of his pocket and looked at the screen. It was a video call. The caller was President Josh Delman.