The ARC 01: Tainted Read online

  ‘Elle, trust me, this has nothing to do with Chelsea. I need to try and find the truth. I need to know what happened to my family, what could one day happen to us. Will you please come with me?’

  I pause and fold my arms across my chest. With no one taken in over six months I’d slowly begun to feel safe here. The bad memories of constantly losing friends and family, and the fear of being taken myself, had slowly dissipated. Part of me had started to think maybe the danger had passed, that maybe people weren’t going to get sick any longer.

  Then last night, when I heard about the stars, I had dared to feel optimistic. Dared to dream that maybe there was hope for us yet. With Chelsea taken only hours ago it’s clear I was a fool to feel hopeful. If Quinn was right, and a wave of people are about to be taken, we are in more danger than ever.

  It’s becoming clearer and clearer we can’t just keep waiting around until another one of us falls sick and disappears. We have to uncover the truth the Council have so obviously hidden from us for our entire lives. I just worry the truth is far worse than we’ve ever imagined.

  ‘How are you even going to get up there?’ I ask.

  ‘As part of my engineering apprenticeship I’ve been studying the schematics of the ARC. There’s this old maintenance shaft that runs between all of the levels over in the East Wing. I suspect it goes all the way to the top.’

  ‘Surely they would know about it?’

  ‘I don’t think so. They make new plans every couple of years of the ARC and I’ve been crosschecking between them all. There’s only one plan that even mentions the shaft and it’s from way back when the ARC was first built, before impact even occurred. I don’t think anyone’s used it since then.’

  I shiver and rub my hands along my arms. Some old abandoned maintenance shaft sounds dangerous, like the kind of thing you’d expect teens to find in a horror flick. I also suspect it’s likely to be dark and small, not exactly my favourite combination. ‘It doesn’t sound very safe,’ I grumble.

  ‘I’ll look after you,’ Sebastian says, with confidence. He falters though when he looks me in the eyes. ‘But if you’re not sure, I won’t hold it against you if you want to stay behind.’

  ‘I’m just nervous about the shaft,’ I admit. ‘But, that’s not enough to stop me. Do you really think I’d give up the chance to see the top levels? I’m coming with you. Even though it will probably kill us both.’

  Sebastian laughs and takes a hold of my hand. ‘Are you sure?’

  I laugh and try to ignore the way my hand tingles in his. Taking a deep breath I pull my hand free and step towards the door. ‘No, definitely not, so we better leave before I come to my senses.’

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  The shaft is the type of thing my worst nightmares are made of. The small metallic chute is only just larger than an average-sized man and the rusted metal ladder that can be seen in the dim light of Sebastian’s torch looks ready to crumble with the lightest touch.

  I glance down at the time on my cuff and shiver. Midnight. I shouldn’t be surprised it’s so late; it took us a lot longer to get to the shaft than we’d expected. The whole section of the wing has fallen into disuse and the massive room that houses the shaft appears to be some sort of communal dumping ground for all the unwanted things in the ARC.

  The large, dark space is crammed to the brim with mounds of broken, abandoned items. It took us some time to make our way over the old, lifeless machinery and to shift the assortment of cracked bedheads and beaten up cupboards, to find our way to the back of the room.

  Despite all that effort, I was secretly pleased when we finally found the small metal door to the shaft had rusted shut after so many years of disuse.

  I probably should’ve packed it in then. I’d always known the shaft wasn’t going to be my cup of tea and it was a perfectly reasonable excuse to give up. Sebastian is uncannily handy though, and it only took him several minutes to do some nifty work with a crowbar to open the door to the world’s smallest manhole.

  ‘I’m not going in there,’ I say, shaking my head. ‘No way. No how. No.’ There is no light in the shaft and I can barely see two feet up or down it from the light that spills in from the room. ‘You could’ve told me your precious schematics showed a tiny tunnel to hell. It would’ve saved me the trip out here.’

  ‘I didn’t realise it would be quite so small,’ Sebastian admits. ‘But on the upside we’re only a couple of floors down from the top. We’ll be in and out of there so quickly.’

  I try to let his words calm me, but the thought of going in there has my blood running cold and my body freezing up. ‘Let’s just get this over with,’ I mutter, my words braver than I feel.

  Sebastian shines the beam of his torch inside the shaft. ‘Do you want to go first or should I?’ he asks, leaning in to look down it. The drop in there is endless and my stomach plummets at the thought of climbing up some dodgy old ladder.

  ‘I’ll go first,’ I say, desperate to just get it over with already.

  I take a firm grip of the rungs on the ladder before stepping my feet onto the ones below.

  ‘You’re doing great.’

  ‘Haven’t gone anywhere yet,’ I respond through clenched teeth. Taking long breaths I start to slowly climb upwards. I can hear Sebastian close behind me as we make our way higher.

  My hands feel sweaty and I worry constantly about losing my grip. I’m terrified, but the terror seems to push me forward rather than freeze me up. I know the only way to be safe again is to get out of here, so I keep moving forward with determination.

  ‘Elle, stop. I think you’re by the hatch now.’ I look over my shoulder to find a small door behind me. ‘Do you see that lever?’

  I nod. It’s red and quite large, so it would be hard to miss even without Sebastian shining his torch directly on it.

  ‘Okay, now I want you to very carefully reach out with one hand and pull on it.’

  ‘You want me to do what?’

  ‘You need to open it up so we can get out,’ Sebastian explains.

  ‘Right,’ I respond, my voice quivering. I loop one arm around the ladder to hold myself securely in place and reach across the gap between the ladder and the door with the other. My fingers only just grasp the handle so I have to lean out further to get a hold of it.

  My whole body feels heavy and I’m fairly certain my stomach has abandoned ship, deciding instead to plunge into the depths of the bottomless shaft. I attempt to wrench the handle down, but it won’t budge.

  ‘It’s stuck!’ I panic.

  ‘Just try it again,’ Sebastian suggests calmly.

  I gulp and lean out further trying to put more muscle behind it as I pull down on the handle. ‘No it’s definitely stuck,’ I gasp, pulling back to the safety of the ladder.

  ‘Should we try the next level up?’ Sebastian asks.

  I peer up into the darkness above, and am surprised to see the ceiling to the shaft several feet above us.

  ‘We’re at the top,’ I call down to Sebastian.

  I hear him grunt in response and mumble about it not making sense.

  ‘So what do we do?’ I ask, beginning to panic when he doesn’t respond.

  I feel Sebastian’s arms grab the rungs by my legs. ‘Let me have a try at the door. Can you move up a few steps?’

  ‘Yeah, but first just give me one more shot,’ I respond, feeling a sudden rush of resolve. This time when I reach out I feel surer of myself. Putting as much force into it as I dare, I pull down on the lever and feel the smallest movement.

  ‘It’s starting to go,’ Sebastian says, as I wrench on the thing harder.

  After a few more hefty tugs it thankfully begins to move. There’s a loud groaning sound that echoes down the shaft, as the lever pulls down further.

  ‘I did it!’ I say excitedly, when the door swings open. It will only open slightly as it knocks against something heavy on the other side. It’s a wide enough opening though that I should be able to fit through
easily.

  I look down at Sebastian grinning, but am confronted by the long drop I have to cross over to get out of here. My stomach lurches and I quickly snap my head back up to look at the door. I’m so desperate to get out of the shaft, but I can feel my fear surging again.

  I stare resolutely at the door, refusing to look down, as I reach one arm and leg out across the gap to the safety of the room. My hand is shaky as it grasps onto the frame of the hatch and while I may not be looking down, my whole body is fully aware of the empty space below.

  Taking one deep breath, I fling myself across and barrel my way into the dark and foreign room. Only moments later I hear Sebastian swear as he emerges after me himself.

  Dim blue lights light the room and my eyes are slow to adjust. It’s difficult to tell where I am until Sebastian lifts his torch and shines it around the room. It lands on long white sheets that have been draped over objects of various different sizes.

  ‘Where are we?’ I ask quietly.

  Sebastian moves closer to one of the sheets and throws it off. A puff of dust is tossed into the air and the small specks of dirt flicker as they hover in the beam of light shooting from the torch. Sebastian clears his throat and shines the torch onto the imposing wooden desk he has revealed.

  A computer monitor sits on top of it and stacks of manila files are piled over the remaining space. Sebastian moves closer and picks up one of the folders, opening it to inspect further.

  ‘What’s in there?’ I ask, coughing as I inhale some of the dust.

  ‘It’s a file on someone,’ he says, flicking through the pages. ‘Test results I think.’

  I instinctively take a step closer so I can peer over his arm at the open folder.

  Sebastian glances over to me before his eyes continue skimming over the page. ‘His name is Simon Ward and he lives in the West Wing. Well, lived. It says he’s deceased.’

  ‘Where do you think this comes from?’ I ask. ‘What tests were they doing?’

  Sebastian shrugs. ‘I have no idea. You’re the one who wants to be a doctor one day, what do you think?’ He passes the folder over to me.

  I look over its contents, reading the file more thoroughly than Sebastian’s cursory glance. ‘It says they were trialling some sort of gene therapy,’ I eventually say, ‘but I don’t understand half of what I’m reading, so who knows what exactly they were doing.’ I pass the folder back to Sebastian, not wanting to look at the picture of the dead man’s face any longer.

  Sebastian continues reading over it. ‘Look at the date. The file is from ten years ago. This guy’s long gone,’ he says.

  I shudder and walk over to another one of the covered shapes in the room. It’s much larger than the others and I feel curious about what’s underneath the sheet, but also cautious.

  I trail my fingers along the face of the white sheet, listening to Sebastian as he continues to talk about the man in the file.

  ‘Under his results it just says ‘Level 2’. What do you think that means?’

  I shrug. ‘No idea.’

  ‘It’s got to mean something,’ he mutters under his breath. He’s quiet as he continues reading.

  I bend down to carefully lift up one corner of the sheet. Pulling it up, I find a glass cabinet that houses a series of vases. I tug my sleeve down over my hand and wipe the thin coat of dust from the glass. Using the small light from my CommuCuff, I can clearly make out words inscribed into the small bronze tag that labels the first urn. ‘In Remembrance,’ is engraved on the first line followed by a name and two dates…

  I gasp and quickly drop the sheet back down.

  ‘You alright?’ Sebastian asks.

  ‘Yes.’ I stumble backwards, accidently bumping into a chair as I manoeuvre away from the cabinet. ‘Yes, I’m fine.’

  ‘Should we see what else is up here?’ Sebastian asks, tossing the folder back on the table.

  I glance back towards the cabinet. ‘Yeah, let’s go. This room gives me the creeps.’

  We move out into the hallway, which is also dark and completely deserted. I don’t know what I expected to find, but it appears as if no one’s been here in a long time. The emptiness is eerie and the thought of the urns filled with people’s remains, abandoned up here long ago, makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

  ‘Does anyone even come up here anymore?’ I ask, instinctively whispering in the abandoned hallway.

  Sebastian opens the door to another room only to find more covered furniture. ‘Doesn’t look like it,’ he says as he closes the door and we continue down the hallway.

  ‘Why would they bother to seal these levels off if there isn’t anything here?’ he wonders aloud.

  I open the next door we come across, expecting to see more of the same. ‘I wouldn’t speak so soon,’ I murmur.

  The doorway leads to another hallway, but it’s clear even in the dark, that this one is lined with cells.

  Sebastian shines his torch through the clear glass wall of the first cell, then into the second. ‘Are you thinking the same thing I am?’ he asks, turning the torch onto a third.

  ‘They’ve got hospital beds in them, and life support equipment. Do you think this is where…’ I can barely finish the sentence. It’s quite obvious this is where they brought the tainted. They were sick and needed help, but I guess they also needed restraint.

  ‘So why aren’t they still here?’ Sebastian asks, distress creeping into his voice.

  The question I’m more concerned with is: what did they do to them? My stomach drops as I think about the urns again.

  ‘I don’t know,’ I respond softly. ‘Maybe we’ll find something in one of the other rooms?’

  Sebastian nods sadly and I take his hand, guiding him back out to the main hallway. He’s quiet as we continue checking out the other rooms and I can tell he’s worrying about his family. There’s nothing I can say though to make it any better. I don’t know anymore than he does about where they’ve gone.

  ‘Do you think they’re dead?’ Sebastian asks when we turn down yet another abandoned hallway. The question shocks me and there’s no easy way to respond.

  ‘You know I think they’re still alive,’ I say simply. ‘Just because we haven’t found them up here doesn’t mean they’re dead.’

  ‘Yeah I know. I really thought we might find them here is all.’ Sebastian falls silent again, and I leave him to his thoughts.

  We reach a door at the end of the hallway that’s locked. Sebastian puts his shoulder into it as he tries to shove it open, but the door stays firmly shut. After several more failed attempts he steps back and runs his torch light along the doorway, as though searching for another way through. The light catches on a shiny biometric security panel and I realise our search is at an end.

  ‘It’s no use,’ I say, gently placing my hand on his back. ‘There’s no getting past one of those, unless whoever helped you with the Council Chambers can do it again?’

  ‘No. They can’t,’ Sebastian responds flatly, before shaking my hand off his shoulder. He slowly paces away and then throws his torch down on the ground swearing. ‘I really thought I’d find them up here,’ he growls. ‘I thought I was finally close!’

  ‘We tried our best,’ I say quietly.

  ‘Well it’s obviously not good enough.’ He bends down to retrieve his torch, which thankfully survived the fall. ‘How can I protect the ones I love when I don’t even know what I’m up against?’

  I can feel my heart breaking for him as he says this. ‘No one expects you to stop them from being taken.’

  ‘I realise that Elle, but it doesn’t change the fact that all I ever wanted to do was to keep my family safe and I’ve quite obviously failed.’

  They’ve been gone for such a long time I’m surprised to hear him only telling me this now. Sebastian turns and begins to walk back the way we came.

  ‘Maybe they’re in a different area up here? That door there is locked for a reason. They could be right behind it,
’ I say, catching up with him.

  Sebastian shakes his head. ‘I don’t think so. Think about it, when was the last time you actually saw people walking along the top Atrium walkways?’

  I try to remember and quickly realise he’s right, I haven’t seen anyone in years. There were never many people to walk along them in the first place, and the few I did see were back when we were kids. I’d assumed the reason for their absence was bad timing. I hadn’t realised it had been years though.

  ‘This place is totally abandoned and obviously has been for a while. It’s clear there was a time when they kept the tainted up here and they’re not here anymore. They’ve either been moved somewhere else, or they’re dead,’ he says bluntly.

  I open my mouth to argue with him, but then close it when no words come to me. He’s right; the tainted aren’t here anymore. They’re somewhere else or they’re dead.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The next day at school I can’t stop thinking about last night’s exploration with Sebastian. I feel haunted by the experience and my thoughts are constantly drawn to what’s happened to the tainted. It’s beginning to seem more important we find out.

  For so many years I assumed they were simply in another section of the ARC. It’s becoming clearer though, they’re nowhere close anymore and those empty cells we found only lead me to believe the worst. Just thinking they may be dead makes me feel queasy. It’s enough to make me completely lose my appetite.

  At lunch, I notice Gemma’s eyes flicker down several times to the full bowl of food in front of me. Thankfully she doesn’t ask me why I’ve barely eaten anything, because I have no idea what I’d tell her. She’s completely focused on the dance and spends most of the break coming up with absurd ideas on how to get a good outfit.

  I’m too distracted to point out the many obvious flaws in her plans. She should know setting off a fire alarm probably isn’t going to help the situation. Instead I give a brief yes or no in response to each of her ideas—it’s mostly no.

  My eyes focus on the doorway to the cafeteria and the students streaming in and out. I haven’t seen Sebastian all day and I’m concerned about him. He’s so sad at the moment and I don’t know how to make it better. There’s also a small part of me that worries there was more to his friendship with Chelsea than he’s letting on, but I try not to focus on that.