10

 The Hacker

We leave the gorgeous coolness of the fridge and run through the kitchen, grabbing supplies and bottled water as we go. I listen at the door before inching it open and looking up and down the corridor.

‘Back in the fridge! Back in the fridge!’ I try to make my voice quiet but commanding at the same time, which is actually quite hard. ‘Bug-eyes!’ I say, and that gets everyone moving, shoving each other towards the fridge door. We bundle in and I pull it so that it’s open just a crack.

‘Hunters?’ whispers Mak, trying to see over my shoulder.

‘No, from the way they were walking, I think just workers. But we can’t afford for them to see us. Hopefully they’re just passing through.’

But, as I hold my breath and start to count a minute out in my head, I see the handle of the kitchen door turn, and two people enter the room.

‘Guys,’ I say, ‘I know what happened to Dale.’

Dale is still in his dirty, bloody clothes, but his wounds have been neatly bandaged, and the bleeding has stopped. The dark, swollen rings around his eyes have gone.

‘Ah, he looks so much better.’ Katja is crouching down peeping at him from under my arm. ‘Apart from the bug-eyes, obviously.’

‘But how did he get here?’ Chets says.

‘Digger obviously had him brought back here instead of calling an ambulance,’ Adrianne says. ‘And he was unconscious, remember, so he must have bugged out.’

‘Look, he’s with Midge,’ Mak says. ‘Shouldn’t they be working, though? At the dam site? What are they doing?’

They’ve disappeared over to the window side of the kitchen and out of view. I edge out of the fridge and creep to the corner to look.

‘We must hurry,’ says Midge, in a calm voice. ‘We must get back to work.’

‘These bodies need sustenance. The hive cannot work without proper nourishment,’ Dale replies.

‘These bodies are weak,’ says Midge, and that is something Midge would never say, because she’s a purple belt/white stripe in karate and she bangs on about it all the time. ‘They require so many things.’

‘They are all we have. They will suffice.’ Dale is putting a huge pot on the cooker. I’m satisfied that they don’t know we’re here and that we just have to sit tight, so I return to the fridge, close the door and signal the others to hide behind the shelves until they’re gone.

‘What are they doing?’ Chets returns to his baguette.

‘Making food,’ I say.

‘What are they having?’

‘I’ll give you one guess.’

‘Tomato soup!’ they all whisper at the same time.

‘Wrong. Chicken soup.’

As soon as Midge and Dale are gone, we race out of the kitchen. Time is running out. We don’t come across any more bug-eyes as we run through the empty corridors. I assume they’re all tucking into their soup in the dining hall.

I’m not sure what the worker bug-eyes will do if they catch us. I know they’re not hunters, and that their focus is carrying out whatever tasks they’ve been set, but as they’re all reporting to Hoche, we can’t risk being seen by them.

The security-room door has a ‘No Entry – Staff Only’ sign on it, which (lucky for us) somebody must have thought would be enough to stop a bunch of kids from running in and messing with their stuff.

Inside the room there are three screens that flick through images of the centre – the security gate, the entrance to the building, the corridors and some of the rooms.

‘There are the others,’ Katja says, as the inside of the dining hall appears.

‘It looks like they’re arguing.’ Chets leans in to get a better view. ‘Trent seems mad – that’s not good.’

‘Maybe some of them want to leave,’ says Adrianne. ‘They’ve been locked in with him for hours – they’re probably desperate to get out.’

‘You really don’t like him, do you?’ I say. ‘What’s the story?’

‘Why does there have to be a story?’ she snaps at me. ‘You all hate him too.’

‘But he spends his life trying to make ours miserable. He’s nice to you.’

‘I never asked him to be.’ Adrianne’s face has turned red. ‘In fact, I wish he’d stop. Now can we change the subject?’

‘Guys,’ Mak says, peering at one of the screens. ‘Check this out.’

On the screen, in black and white, we can see Digger skulking around in a room we haven’t seen yet. It looks like some kind of maintenance area cos there are hoovers and cleaning stuff, and what could be a boiler. As we watch, Digger lifts a heavy-looking lid from a giant container.

‘What’s in there?’ I ask.

‘It looks like the water tank,’ Mak says.

Digger leans over the open tank, and something flies from his mouth into the water. Because the footage is black and white, and the room is dark, it’s really hard to make out, but…

‘Did he just spit?’ Katja says.

‘Oh, man, that’s gross.’ Chets makes a face and turns away, but the rest of us squeeze in even closer.

‘Why would he spit in the water?’ I say. ‘I mean, I get it could be some kind of revenge spit, but it seems strange for him to go to all that trouble when there are plenty of other things he could do to us.’

The image disappears and is replaced by a view of the admin office. Hoche is in there, pacing around in her heels. Even though there’s no sound, I can almost hear the click-clack as she walks back and forth. As she gets to the window side of the office and turns back towards the camera, we see her face clearly. It looks like she’s speaking.

‘Is she talking to herself?’ I say.

‘There must be someone in there with her,’ Katja says. ‘She always tells me that talking to myself is a sign of a disorganised mind.’

‘We know it’s not Digger.’ Chets moves back towards the screen. ‘Because he’s apparently busy contaminating the water supply. Do you think it’s one of the bug-eyes?’

‘I think there’s a second camera in the office,’ I say. ‘So when the footage cycles forward, we might be able to see more.’

We wait in silence for a few seconds for the image to change and, when it does, we see there is someone else in the room. There’s a figure sitting on a chair. Because of the angle of the camera we can’t see his face, but he looks kind of familiar.

‘Who is that?’ Mak says.

‘I’m not sure,’ says Adrianne. ‘But he can’t be a bug-eye – look, he’s tied up!’

Adrianne’s right. The mystery man is tied to the chair.

‘I wish I could hear what she’s saying to him,’ I say. But even if it is possible to get some sound, we don’t have time. ‘Can you turn these off, Chets?’

Chets has been inspecting the system. ‘Sure, I can turn them off, but what’s to stop Hoche turning them back on again?’

‘You’re right,’ I say. ‘Can you disable the system, somehow? I’m not talking major hack stuff or implanting a virus: something quick.’

Chets sits at the desk and starts clicking the mouse. ‘It’s password protected, but if I can crack it…’ He taps away at the keyboard.

‘Where do we go next?’ Katja says. ‘It’s nearly morning and Miss Hoche is going to be looking for us.’

I look out of the window to see a haze of pale yellow easing up over the horizon. ‘I think we’ll be safer out of the building. We can find somewhere to hide in the woods while we work out what the hell we’re going to do.’

‘Cracked it!’ Chets yells. One by one, the images flicker and the screens go dark. ‘And I’ve changed the password to something they’ll never guess, so they won’t be able to log back in.’

‘Awesome. Well done, mate.’ I turn to the door but, on second thoughts, I pick up a chair and smash it into the screens, totally destroying them. ‘Just in case.’

We leave the room, and make our way to the nearest exit. The sooner we’re away from this building, the better.

We trek through the trees as the sun rises, keeping to the steeper side opposite the dam site. As the adrenaline buzz fades away, so does our energy. My backpack feels like it’s full of rocks. My legs are starting to refuse to lift my feet. In my head, I offer them bribes – just a bit further and we’ll have a sit down; just a bit further and we’ll take off our shoes. But, at the same time, I’m worried about stopping cos I feel like I won’t want to start again. None of us are chatting now. Our heads are down as we concentrate on each step forward.

‘This is a good place,’ Mak says, stopping to look around. ‘There’s a hollow inside those bushes, see, and if we keep a lookout at the top of that tree over there, we’ll be able to spot the bug-eyes coming from a long way off. We’ll be able to evacuate before they reach us.’

He says it like he knows exactly what he’s doing, so I nod and point to a small gap in the bushes.

‘’K – let’s do it. There’s enough room in there for everyone, but we’ll take it in turns to be lookout. I think we should have two people on duty at all times. I don’t want anybody to be alone.’

‘Should we have a meeting first?’ Adrianne says. ‘I think we need to discuss our options.’

Everyone groans.

‘Ade is right,’ I say. ‘We can’t just hang around in a bush and hope for the best. Let’s eat and talk.’

We sit at the bottom of the lookout tree, except Katja, who climbs up it far enough to give her a good view of the crater.

‘Can you still hear us, Katja?’ I call, as quietly as it’s possible to call to someone who’s halfway up a really tall tree.

‘Loud and clear.’ Her voice floats through the leaves.

Now that we’ve sat down, the muscles in my legs start to throb and I have an overwhelming urge to lie back and close my eyes.

Looking around at the others, I can see the tiredness is hitting them too. We’ve been awake for twenty-four hours, which is probably a record for most of them. I’ve had a lot of sleepless nights, so it’s nothing new for me, but even I’m feeling tired. They must be ready to drop.

‘What are we going to do, Lance?’ Chets leans back against a tree and rubs his eyes.

‘We’ve got through the night,’ I say, ‘And that’s something to be proud of. Does anyone know when the coach is coming back for us?’

‘Tomorrow morning,’ says Adrianne.

‘So we have to get through one day and one night. That’s not so bad.’ Even as I’m saying it, I know nobody’s going to buy it. We’re basically done and we have twenty-four hours left before we can get out of here. Even if we can avoid being captured by the hunters, there’s no possible way we’re going to stay awake. ‘We need to understand how the spores infect people, and why it only happens when they’re asleep. Maybe we can find some way around the not sleeping thing.’

‘Or we need to find a genius way of staying awake,’ says Chets.

‘When my baby sister was crying all night, my mum used to take caffeine pills to get her through the days.’ Adrianne is putting a plaster on her blister. Only she would have a first-aid kit in her backpack. ‘Maybe we’ll be able to find some in the centre.’

‘OK, caffeine pills,’ I say. ‘Don’t sound like they’d be parentally approved but we can give that a go, if we can find some. What else?’

‘Coffee. My mum drinks coffee to wake herself up in the mornings,’ says Chets.

‘Yes, coffee is definitely an option, even though it tastes like cow poo. Any other ideas?’

Everyone looks defeated.

‘We just need to keep busy and help each other out,’ I say. ‘Let’s look at Dale’s notes again and see if we can learn anything useful.’

I get out the notes and put the pages in the middle, so everyone can see them. There’s no wind in this stupidly hot crater, so they’re not going to blow away.

I pick up a scrap of paper with the title ‘Intracellular Parasites’. It seems as good a place to start as any.

‘Guys,’ I say, without looking up from Dale’s scribbles. ‘I think I’ve found something. There’s a lot of really science-y words that I don’t completely understand, but I think what he’s basically saying is that the spores are drawn to unconscious brains. If the mind is awake, the spores can’t take hold.’

‘But how do the spores get to the hosts?’ Adrianne asks. ‘Did Digger pump them into the centre through the vents? If he did then we might be safe out here.’

I read on for a moment. ‘You’re not going to like this. The spores are already in the air, too small for us to see. We have to assume that the whole crater is full of them.’

‘So they’re flying around us right now?’ Katja calls down from the tree.

‘Yeah, I think so.’

Chets clamps his hand over his mouth and nose and tries not to breathe.

‘You’re awake, Chets, they’re not going to go for you if you’re awake.’

‘But that means none of us can go to sleep, at all, until we leave the crater,’ Mak says.

Everybody visibly shrivels like deflating balloons. Even Katja, though I can’t see her, makes the branches rustle in a way that suggests severe shrivelling.

I try not to shrivel myself, cos I feel like it’s my job to keep the group’s spirits up, but yeah, it’s pretty much the worst news ever. Then I look at Chets, who still has his hands over his face like the world’s worst gas mask, and I have an idea.

‘I’ve thought of something that might help,’ I say. ‘But I’m going to have to go back into the centre to get it.’

‘Shall we all go?’ Adrianne starts zipping up her bag.

‘No, it’ll be quicker and easier if I go on my own,’ I say.

‘You said yourself that nobody should be alone,’ Katja calls down through the leaves. ‘At least take one person with you.’

‘Seriously, I’ve got this. I don’t need anyone to come with me.’

‘No way,’ says Mak. ‘It’s not happening. Deal with it.’

I’m annoyed cos this is something I really don’t want anyone else to be involved in. But I can’t argue with my own rules. Chets is yawning his head off and I feel like if I don’t get him moving, he’s just going to fall asleep. Besides, out of everyone, he’s the person I trust the most.

‘Come on, Chets – we’re going,’ I say.

‘What?’ Chets jumps.

‘We’re going on a mission back to the centre.’

‘But we’ve only just got here.’

‘I know, mate, but this is important – it might mean we can finally get some sleep. And, anyway, you’re my best friend and I really need you with me on this one.’

‘Just let me have a drink of water,’ he says. I knew he wouldn’t be able to argue with the best friend card.

In two minutes, we’re walking back down the hill, leaving the other three to keep watch and examine Dale’s life-saving notes. My legs are screaming at me to stop, but I chew on some gum and do my best to ignore them.

‘Chets and Lance on an epic adventure,’ I say, to cheer Chets up. The tiredness is bringing out everyone’s grumpy side.

‘We’ll have loads of adventures together at Bing,’ Chets says.

I don’t know what to say. I know I’m never going to Bing. My grades are average at best. I have a bad attendance record. I have trouble concentrating. Hoche had a black mark against my name long before the whole trapping Trent in the toilet incident. Chets has this blind faith in me cos I saved him from that wasp and basically stopped him from getting picked on through the whole of school. He just doesn’t want to see the truth.

‘Let’s get through this first, and then we’ll talk about Bing.’

‘Why? Do you think we’re going to die? Or get turned into bug-eyes?’

‘I’m not saying that. I just feel like we need to focus our efforts on the task ahead of us.’ That sounds convincing, right?

‘What is it we’re going back into that hellhole for anyway?’

‘It’s a long story,’ I say.

‘So you won’t tell me?’

I can tell I’ve hurt his feelings. He thinks I tell him everything. Sometimes I get tired of being the responsible adult – he can be such a baby.

‘Give me a break, will you?’

He sniffs, and I can just imagine the look in his chocolatey eyes – like a toddler who just had his cuddly bunny taken away. I can’t deal with this now. We have to get into the centre and we have to get this done.

We walk in silence, and I’m pretty sure he’s feeling as horrible as I am. It’s only 8am and the sun is burning my skin. I think my freckles have doubled in number since we got here. Usually when you’re in the woods, the air is full of that damp, mouldy leaf smell – the smell of dark green. But the woods right now, they smell the same as everything else – dry, crumbly and dead.

We’re getting close to the centre and I can hear something that sounds totally out of place.

‘What the hell is that?’ I say.

‘Pachelbel’s Canon,’ says Chets.

‘Say what now?’

‘It’s a piece of music. Like classical music. My mum loves it. She finds it very relaxing.’

‘Now that makes sense,’ I say. ‘Hoche is trying to get them to fall asleep. She’s probably made them some hot chocolate and is handing out fluffy slippers, too.’

‘I want to go home.’

He sounds so sad that I stop being annoyed with him and want to give him a hug. ‘Tomorrow, Chets. We’ll be going home tomorrow.’

I wonder how that feels – to be homesick. I miss home, but in a different way. I feel guilty that I’m not there, and guilty that I’m kind of happy to not be there – even with the alien invasion and everything.

It only seems five minutes since we left basecamp – we should call it basecamp, right? – but we’re already at the treeline.

We crouch behind some tall ferny stuff.

‘Right,’ I say. ‘I’m thinking they’re going to be concentrating on the others in the dining hall. They will have found them by now, and judging by the calming tunes, I’d say they’re trying to get them to crack.’

‘That’s bad.’

‘It is for them, but it’s good for us. It means we have a better chance of getting in and out undetected.’ Then I have a sudden realisation, like a kick in the boy bits. ‘How are we gonna get in? None of the doors are proper open and the main entrance is locked.’

Chets does this little smile. It’s the first smile I’ve seen from him since we got here.

‘What?’ I say.

‘When I accessed the security system, I set all the doors to unlock,’ he says. ‘We can get in any of them without any trouble.’

‘Chets.’ I punch him (gently) on the arm. ‘You’re a legend.’

We go for the door that’s furthest away from the dining hall. The good thing about the music is that it covers any noises we make. The bad thing is that we won’t be able to hear if someone is coming. So we go carefully – stopping to check ahead and behind whenever we reach a door or a junction. Now that we’re in danger again, the desperate need to sleep eases a little. Not completely though – I still feel it burning in my eye sockets and tugging at my arms and legs, always dragging me down.

‘What’s the plan if we run into someone?’ Chets whispers.

‘Run,’ I say. ‘Back into the woods if you can, and try to shake them off. If you can’t lose them, then the fridge, I guess. You’ll be stuck in a dead end but you can block the door and buy some time.’

‘I hope whatever we’ve come to get is worth the trouble,’ Chets says.

‘Me too.’

‘Montmorency pupils.’ Hoche’s voice oozes through the tannoy speakers like toxic slime. ‘I hope you are finding the music soothing. I know you’re tired.’ Instead of the shrill voice she usually uses for telling us off and shrieking out orders, she’s speaking in a lower, gentler tone – it’s almost like she’s purring. ‘You’re so very tired and staying awake is too hard. I know your eyelids are drooping. I know your bodies ache to lie down. You don’t have to fight it – no harm will come to you if you give in and close your eyes. You’ll feel better, stronger, more energised. You’ll wake with a clear mind, knowing your place in the world and exactly what you should be doing. The confusion and fear will be gone. So sleep, my lovelies, just sleep.’

Chets puts his fingers in his ears. ‘Do you think she can hypnotise us through our ears?’

‘And for those of you who choose to fight,’ she says, some of that familiar sharpness coming back into her voice, ‘know this: your efforts will be futile. The hive is stronger than you. You will fail. We have other ways of making you sleep.’ The music comes back on – the same tune over and over again. It’s enough to make anyone slip into a coma.

‘What other ways, Lance? What’s she talking about?’

‘I don’t know, Chets,’ I say. ‘But let’s hurry, cos I don’t want to find out.’

We’ve reached the sleeping area. Chets keeps lookout at the top of the stairs down to my room, while I go in and grab what I need from where it’s hidden under my bed. It’s heavy, so it will slow us down on the way back, but I think it’s worth the risk. I put it in the empty backpack I brought with me and heave the straps over both shoulders. I can do this.

Chets nods the all-clear, so I jog up the stairs and we make our way back down the corridor. The music seems louder than before – it fills my head and hums through my body and makes our journey towards the exit feel like a sinister dream sequence. I start to zone out and for a moment I wonder if I have actually fallen asleep and that none of this is really happening.

That is until we turn into a corridor and see Hoche standing at the other end.