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It was a week before Carnival, our Hive city’s annual festival of light and life, when I tried cliff climbing for the first time and hit my head on the sky.
All twenty-two of the seventeen-year-olds living on my corridor had gone on a trip to Teen Level beach that day. The wind and wave machines were set for swimming rather than surfing, but only Forge and I were strong enough swimmers to venture into the deep water. Most of the others settled for paddling in the shallows, while my best friend, Shanna, preferred to stretch out lazily on the sand, basking in the warmth of the large sun-effect lights that shone dazzlingly bright on the blue painted ceiling.
Forge and I finally tired of swimming and headed to join Shanna. Forge threw himself down on the sand next to her, and gave her an enthusiastic hug and kiss, but she squealed in protest and pushed him away.
“You’re horribly wet and cold.”
Forge laughed, kissed her again, and she gave a resigned groan.
I sat down on the other side of Shanna, towelled my hair dry, and tugged an old tunic and leggings on over my wet swimming costume. It was early to be eating lunch, but swimming always made me hungry, so I rummaged in my bag for my sandwiches. I was happily munching them, while idly watching the gulls flying to and from their nests on the cliff-effect walls and structural pillars, when Forge turned to look at me.
“I think you should try cliff climbing, Amber.”
I choked on my mouthful of sandwich. Shanna patted me on the back, passed me a bottle of water, and gave her boyfriend a withering look.
“That’s a ridiculous suggestion. Amber fell out of a tree in her local park when she was six years old, broke her leg, and she’s been terrified of heights ever since.”
I’d been seven years old when I fell out of the tree, and I’d broken my arm not my leg, but I was too busy gulping down water to correct Shanna.
“I know Amber’s terrified of heights,” said Forge. “That’s why I suggested she should try cliff climbing. I thought it would help her beat her fear.”
By this time, I’d regained my powers of speech. I was tempted to tell Forge to go and waste himself, but he was my friend so I went for a polite reply instead. “I’m not keen on the idea.”
“I didn’t mean that you should try the advanced climbs that I do,” said Forge. “I was thinking you could do the basic ‘C’ grade cliff climb.”
“I’m still not keen on the idea.”
“The ‘C’ grade climb is very simple.” Forge gave me an encouraging smile. “You’d be wearing a harness and safety line, so you couldn’t possibly fall.”
I gnawed doubtfully at my bottom lip, and turned to stare at the cliffs. A girl who didn’t look more than fourteen was completing a climb.
“You could just climb up a little way,” added Forge, in coaxing tones. “If you do find you’re scared, then you can come down again right away.”
The girl had pulled herself up onto the ledge at the top of the climb, and was waving happily at the instructor. I saw how high up she was, pictured myself standing on the same ledge, and shuddered.
I turned back to face Forge, and opened my mouth to tell him that there was absolutely no way that I was going to try cliff climbing. “Only a very little way.”
“Wonderful.” Forge beamed at me.
I couldn’t understand what had just happened. I’d intended to give Forge an absolute refusal, but instead I’d agreed to give cliff climbing a try. What should I do now? I’d look silly if I instantly announced I’d changed my mind. Perhaps wearing a harness and safety line would really make a difference. Perhaps the part of my mind that was terrified of heights would realize I couldn’t fall and not be scared at all. Perhaps there was truly a chance that making the climb would cure my fear.
Five minutes later, the cliff climbing instructor was buckling me into a harness, and attaching my safety line. “If you get stuck at any point, then give me a shout, and I’ll lower you down. All right, Amber?”
I was too nervous to speak, so I grunted a response and advanced on the cliff. I’d watched Forge doing the complex advanced climbs dozens of times. This one should be perfectly simple.
To my surprise it was perfectly simple. I moved easily up the mass of pegs hammered into the side of the cliff, and was almost enjoying myself until I heard Forge shouting encouragement at me. I made the mistake of looking down, and saw him standing next to Shanna. The two figures, one dark-haired and muscular, the other blonde and slender, seemed a dizzying distance below me.
I hastily turned my gaze upwards again, focusing on the textured, concrete surface of the cliff, and the sight of my own hands clenched tightly on the climbing pegs. I told myself that I was being ridiculous. There was only one beach on each level of our Hive because they were made on such a vast scale. They covered a huge area, and their ceilings were far higher than those in the shopping areas or even the parks, but I still couldn’t be much more than three times the height of a standard room ceiling off the ground.
“Are you all right, Amber?” called the climbing instructor.
I was far from all right. My head had gone from thinking about the height of a park ceiling to remembering the day I broke my arm. I’d climbed a tree in the neighbourhood park, because I wanted to write my name on the ceiling, but a branch broke under my weight. There’d been an instant of pure terror as I tumbled downwards, followed by agonizing pain as I hit the ground and broke my arm.
A fall from this cliff would be far worse. I tried reminding myself that I was wearing a harness attached to a safety line, but that made no difference. There was a terrifying sheer drop beneath me, the pegs under my hands seemed to shrink in size, and the safety line holding me felt like a fragile thread of cotton.
A mocking yell came from below. “Amber’s got stuck on the cliff. Coward!”
That was Reece’s voice. What was he doing down there? I’d thought he was safely occupied leering at the girl swimmers in their skimpy costumes.
A female voice snapped at him. “Shut up, Reece!”
“Yes, be quiet,” said a male voice.
Those voices belonged to Margot and Atticus. Our whole corridor group must have come over to watch me do this climb. If I didn’t make it to the top, I’d look a fool in front of all of them, and Reece would keep taunting me about it for the whole of our remaining year on Teen Level.
I had to make it to the top of this climb. I took a deep breath, forced my right hand to release its grip on one peg, and grabbed at the next. I was still horribly aware of my height above the ground, so I closed my eyes before attempting to move either of my feet.
It was ridiculous, but I felt far better climbing with my eyes shut. Now there was no terrifying drop beneath me, just comforting darkness, the sound of gulls screeching, the taste of salt on the breeze, and the warm feel of the pegs under my hands and feet.
I must surely be getting close to the top of the climb. I groped my way further upwards, expecting to feel the edge of the ledge under my hands at any moment, but instead I thumped my head against the unyielding, painted sky.
I yelped in pain, and a wave of dizziness swept over me. I lost my self-control entirely, and clung to my handholds with the death grip of panic.
“Amber, the ledge is an arm’s length to your right,” Forge called from below.
I was too shocked to answer him. There were stabbing pains in my head, and something was trickling down my face. I wanted to rub the wetness away with a hand, but daren’t let go of the pegs I was holding.
The trickle reached my mouth, I tasted blood, and realized I’d cut my head on one of the light fittings in the ceiling. I didn’t think there were any of the big sun-effect lights near the edge of the sky, so it was probably one of the multitude of tinier lights that were there for the stars effect at night.
I still had my eyes closed, and I wasn’t moving, but I felt a weird spinning sensation. Forge was calling to me again, but his voice seemed distant and irrelevant. The only things that mattered now were the handholds and footholds that kept me from plummeting downwards.
“Coward!” yelled Reece again.
“Shut up!” shouted Forge and the climbing instructor in unison. The female voice of the climbing instructor continued solo. “I can see you’ve hurt your head, Amber. Let go of the handholds, and I’ll lower you down on your safety line.”
My brain didn’t seem to be working properly, so it took me a moment to make sense of her words, but then I felt an instinctive terror at the thought of letting go. I could dimly hear Forge talking to the climbing instructor.
“Amber’s in real trouble up there.”
“I’ll go up after her,” said the climbing instructor.
“It’s better if I go. She knows me.” Forge’s voice suddenly got a lot louder. “Hold on, Amber! I just need a moment to sort out a harness and safety line, and then I’ll come up and help you.”
Forge was coming to help me. I clung to the cliff like a desperate human spider. It was only a moment, it was only a century, before I heard Forge’s voice coming from beside me.
“Amber, you’re going to climb slowly down the cliff, with me guiding your hands and feet. Do you understand?”
He paused for a moment, waiting for me to reply. I managed a terrified squeak.
“I’m going to move your right foot first. Try to relax and trust me, Amber.”
I felt Forge’s hand take my foot. I did my best to follow his orders, and not resist when he moved it away from one peg and down to rest on another. He moved my right hand next, talked me into moving my left foot, and then my left hand.
There was another yell from Reece. “It’s going to take weeks to get the baby down like that. You should just unclip her harness and push her off the cliff. That’ll get her down a lot faster and ... Ow, that hurt!”
“Who hit Reece?” shouted Forge.
Shanna’s voice called back. “Atticus, Margot, and me.”
“Good job,” said Forge. “If Reece says one more word, hit him again.”
“If Reece says one more word, I’m calling Health and Safety to arrest him.” The climbing instructor sounded furious.
Forge’s voice started murmuring encouragement again. I tried to forget my height above the ground, and that my entire social circle was watching me make a fool of myself, and concentrated on following his instructions. I inched my way down at a snail’s pace, counting each time I moved my feet down to a fresh foothold.
Ten minutes later, I felt the sand of the beach beneath my feet. I blinked blood from my eyes, and glanced downwards to check I really was standing safely on the ground, before letting go of my handholds.
“Well done, Amber.” Forge unclipped both our safety lines.
I unbuckled my harness, slipped it off, and looked back up at the cliff. The ledge at the top was impossible to miss if a climber stayed on the correct route. I must have drifted sideways when I was climbing with my eyes closed.
“Amber, you’re covered in blood,” said Shanna.
I thought she was exaggerating, but I touched my hair with my right hand, and found it was startlingly wet and sticky.
“I bumped my head on one of the stars in the ceiling,” I said.
Shanna advanced on Forge and glowered at him. “This is all your fault. You shouldn’t have forced poor Amber into climbing that cliff.”
Forge was much taller than his girlfriend, and bulky with the muscles of a competition standard swimmer and surfer, but he backed off a nervous step or two. “I didn’t force Amber into climbing the cliff. I just suggested she should climb the cliff.”
I wasn’t sure if it was the bump on my head, or the sight of the blood on my right hand, but the spinning sensation started again, and the lights in the ceiling seemed to be flickering on and off. I hurriedly sat down on the sand.
Atticus came to kneel beside me and peered at my head. “I suggest we stop arguing and focus on helping Amber.”
The climbing instructor pushed her way through the crowd, and looked down at me. “I’ve called Hive Emergency Services, Amber. A paramedic is on the way to treat you.”
“I don’t need a paramedic to treat me,” I said. “I only bumped my head.”
“You do need a paramedic to treat you. You have a significant head injury.” The climbing instructor turned to Reece. “What’s your identity code, Reece?”
“My identity code?” Reece took a step backwards. “You don’t need to know my identity code. I don’t want to register to try cliff climbing.”
“I had an injured climber in difficulties at the top of the cliff, and you deliberately disrupted attempts to assist her. I’m reporting you to Health and Safety for criminal endangerment.”
“You mustn’t do that,” Reece’s voice held an edge of panic now. “I’ve been reported twice in the last six months, and had hasties come to my room and lecture me. If I get reported again, I’ll get a telepath squad turning up at my door. I don’t want one of those creepy telepaths nosing round in my thoughts.”
“Telling me that you’ve got a history of bad behaviour just confirms I’m correct in deciding to report you,” said the climbing instructor. “What’s your identity code?”
Reece turned, shoved his way between Margot and Preeja, and ran off down the beach. The climbing instructor looked after him with a frown and turned to Forge. “What’s Reece’s identity code?”
Forge hesitated before speaking. “I don’t know.”
“Where is his room then?”
“I don’t know that either.”
The climbing instructor sighed. “I can’t believe that, Forge. You obviously know the boy very well.”
I was shocked when Margot joined the conversation. “Reece lives on the same corridor as the rest of us. His identity code is 2514-0217-811.”
“Thank you.” The climbing instructor tapped the code into her dataview, picked up my discarded harness, and headed back towards the cliff.
“Reece is going to get in massive trouble over this,” said Margot, in a voice of malicious satisfaction. “Three reports within twelve months. Four if the climbing instructor reports him for both criminal endangerment and refusing to identify himself.”
“You didn’t have to volunteer Reece’s identity code like that,” said Forge.
“Yes, I did,” said Margot. “The climbing instructor has already got the identity codes for both you and Amber from your cliff climbing registrations. If we refused to tell her how to find Reece, then Health and Safety could just send a telepath squad after you two instead. Do you want a telepath squad knocking at your door, Forge? Would you enjoy having a nosy dig through your mind to find information about Reece? I know Amber wouldn’t.”
I had an instant sickening image of me opening my door, and finding one of the hideous grey-clad telepaths standing there, with their escort of four blue-uniformed hasties. I feared nosies as much as I feared heights, so I rushed to support Margot.
“You did the right thing, Margot.”
“I don’t feel any obligation to protect Reece anyway.” Margot’s voice was bitter now. “Remember the last time he was reported? I’d caught him painting insults on my room door. I’m sick of his behaviour, and I vote we exclude him from our corridor group for Carnival.”
“Excluding someone isn’t just bad for the person that’s left isolated and alone,” said Forge, “but can cause divisions in the corridor group too. We don’t want to turn into one of those corridors with two or three rival groups that are constantly arguing over who gets to use the corridor community room.”
“There’s no danger of that happening to us over Reece,” said Margot. “Nobody is going to take his side against the exclusion, because nobody likes him.”
Forge still looked doubtful. “Even if our whole corridor group is united in the decision, excluding someone for Carnival is a big penalty. Reece would be left on his own at all the parties.”
Preeja joined in the argument. “There’s no rule saying you can only socialize with the teens on your own corridor. Reece could go and annoy some of the other seventeen-year-olds for a change.”
“After four years living on Teen Level, the other seventeen-year-olds all have their established friends,” said Forge. “They won’t want Reece bothering them.”
Atticus got back to his feet. “Reece deserves to be left on his own for Carnival. We’ve warned him about his behaviour over and over again. Every time he’s promised to reform but is acting just as repellently within days. Linnette and I caught him teasing Casper only yesterday evening.”
There was stunned silence at the uncharacteristic outburst from quiet, thoughtful Atticus.
“I don’t understand why you’re all turning against Reece,” said Forge. “I know he went too far painting insults on Margot’s door, and he shouldn’t have made fun of Amber when she was stuck on the cliff, but he behaves himself most of the time.”
“Reece is a loathsome bully,” said Margot. “You don’t realize how bad he is, Forge, because he never picks on you or Shanna. Reece is smart enough to attack easier targets. People like Casper. People like Linnette. People like me!”
“Margot’s right,” said Linnette. “Half a dozen of us went shopping yesterday, and Casper accidentally bumped into a display cabinet in one of the shops. An ornament fell off a shelf and got broken. Casper was distraught about it, but the shopkeeper was very understanding.”
“He was nice,” said Casper, smiling happily.
“We sorted everything out,” continued Linnette, “and Casper calmed down again, but that evening Atticus and I caught Reece frightening him. He was telling Casper that he was useless, nobody liked him, and he was going to be thrown out of the Hive for breaking things.”
Casper’s face crumpled into distress. “I don’t want to be sent Outside to be attacked by the hunter of souls. I don’t want to be traded to another Hive either. I want to stay here.”
Linnette patted his arm. “What Reece told you was wrong, Casper. You’re very helpful, we all like you, and nobody is going to throw you out of the Hive.”
Casper brightened up again.
“I’d no idea that Reece had sunk to the depths of upsetting Casper,” said Forge, with an angry edge to his voice. “Well, you’ve convinced me that we need to take action. Who votes in favour of excluding Reece for Carnival?”
A host of hands shot up, including mine. Forge raised his own hand and did some solemn counting. “Twenty in favour. Are you abstaining, Casper?”
Casper gave him an uncertain look.
“Are you voting in favour?” asked Forge.
Casper shook his head.
“Are you voting against?”
Casper hesitated for a moment, and then shook his head again.
“All right,” said Forge. “Casper is abstaining from voting because he’s far too kind to vote to exclude anyone, however mean they are to him, so effectively that’s a unanimous decision. Reece is excluded until after the three days of Carnival celebrations. We don’t invite him to our parties. We don’t allow him in the corridor community room. We don’t talk to him. We don’t even acknowledge he exists.”
“The paramedic is coming now.” Shanna pointed at where a man was walking across the beach towards us. He was wearing the dramatic red and blue, diagonal striped uniform of Emergency Services, and had what looked like a chunky-wheeled stretcher chasing after him.
Everyone watched in silence as the paramedic knelt beside me. He tapped the white name badge on his shoulder. “I’m Barnard, and I’ve come to treat your injury. What is your name and identity code?”
“Amber 2514-0172-912,” I recited.
“Hello Amber.” He took a dataview from his pocket, tapped it to make it unfurl, and entered the code. “You’re seventeen, and live in Blue Zone, area 510/6120, corridor 11, room 6?”
“That’s right.”
“I was told that you injured your head climbing the cliff, Amber. Did you fall off?”
“No, I just bumped my head on the ceiling. There’s a slight cut, but it’s nothing to worry about.”
“Please lie down, Amber.”
I lay back on the sand. Barnard peered at my head, waved what looked like a mini scanner at it, and then scribbled my name on a white plastic bracelet and attached it to my wrist. I turned my head to study it, reminded of the tracking bracelets children had to wear until they were ten years old.
“Is your head hurting, Amber?”
“A bit.”
“I’ll give you some mild pain killers.”
He handed me two virulently purple tablets. I dutifully chewed and swallowed them.
“I’m taking you to a medical facility now,” said Barnard. “Once you’ve had an initial examination from one of their doctors, you’ll probably be given some stronger pain relief.”
“But I don’t need to go to a medical facility. It’s only a little cut.”
He ignored my protest, and brought the wheeled stretcher alongside me. I looked at it nervously, and was about to ask if I was supposed to climb onto it, when something slid out of the side and scooped me aboard.
“Please lift up your arms, Amber.”
I lifted my arms. Barnard fastened one strap across my chest, another across my legs, and started the stretcher moving. Despite the straps holding me in place, I grabbed at the sides of the stretcher to make sure I couldn’t fall off.
“Can one of us go to the medical facility with Amber?” asked Forge.
“I’m afraid that isn’t possible,” said Barnard. “Teen Level Cascade Triage is in operation.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means that all the Teen Level medical facilities are overloaded, so each case has to be assessed, and some may be sent to more distant medical facilities.”
“Why are ...?”
My words were drowned out by a siren sounding, followed by a deafening voice from overhead speakers. “Swimmer in distress! Clear the way for beach rescue!”
