That's Not a Dog!

Oh look! Another post. That can't be right... This one I wrote as a silly cheer me up for Adrian when he was doing his silly commute. He was so tired that it took him 2 sittings to read it the first time.  And it's really not that long...

That's Not a Dog

I first saw one when I was walking home from the pub one night. Out of the corner of my eye a shadow leaped across the space between two buildings. I turned my head immediately, but it had gone. I tried to put it to the back of my mind. It was always playing tricks on me late at night. The thing was, that wasn't the last time I saw one. I soon started to see them everywhere. A large, dog-like shape leaping stealthily from building to building. I had no idea what they were doing or why they were there.

It wasn't long before I saw them during the day as well. Always just out of sight, and always gone when I turned my head. I tried asking people around me if they saw anything, but no-one ever did. I tried to forget them. If no-one else could see them, then they weren't real; plain and simple. Why is nothing ever simple?

A few weeks after that, I noticed people started getting sick. It may have been happening earlier, but I didn't think anything of it until then. I wouldn't have linked them at all, but they seemed to cluster around the places I’d seen the shadows. I still may not have realised, but they started appearing in the news. An epidemic apparently; though no-one knew of what.

I didn't know what to do. Should I tell someone? Who'd believe me? Sure, I'd never been arrested, but I was no pillar of society either. What if they thought I'd lost it and hospitalised me? No. I'd keep quiet and see what happened. Perhaps it was all nothing. I clung to the hope that I was imagining it, but I knew I was just kidding myself.

What I didn't imagine was the deaths. I started to make a note of all the flats and houses I'd seen the shadows go into and then the people who got sick. I worked out that there was a wait of about four days. Sometimes the shadows would visit more than once and then someone else would get sick. Everyone was washing their hands constantly and wearing masks, but what they really needed to do was shut their windows. I had to do something; but what?

Then I saw one at my house. It was trying to squeeze through the small gap I had left underneath my window. It was a sweltering night, but I reasoned that something that big would never fit through such a small gap. I was right to an extent, but a snuffling, scuffling sound woke me up. I stared straight at it; well as straight as I could out of the corner of my eye. That was my first mistake. It saw me looking and, for a moment, stared back. Then it was off, leaping from wall to wall as it fled down the street.

I phoned Becky and told her I needed a place to stay. I packed a bag and caught a night bus to her place on the other side of town. Shit, I thought, I've really done it this time.

Becky was great. She gave me a cup of tea and a biscuit and, when she saw that I was in no mood to talk, went back to bed. I was going to have to tell her something, but that could wait until morning. Right now I had to lock all the windows and shut the curtains. I couldn't let them find me again.

I spent the day trawling the internet, even though I was supposed to be working. It was a quiet day; so I think I got away with it. I probably forgot a hundred things I had to do, but that was tough, I couldn't concentrate. I found out a lot. I wasn't the only person who'd seen them. God I love the internet! There were even groups who claimed to have seen them. I was a bit dubious about a couple of them, but one seemed promising and was quite close. The people all seemed to have jobs and looked reasonably sane. It couldn't hurt to go along.

I nearly left after the first ten minutes. I take it back. They were all crazies. After introducing themselves they began to rant about government conspiracies to thin the population. That kind of shit. I was just about to leave, when I noticed someone in the corner. Nobody spoke to her, but they all nodded her way as they took the small platform at the front of the room. I waited until the end; learned that it takes all sorts to make a world, and tried to smile non-threateningly as they went off in small chatty groups. She walked over.

"The meeting's over" she said wearily. "If you've got something to say it'll have to wait until Tuesday".

"I wanted to talk to you, if that's ok?"

"If you must" she replied, not even looking at me as she continued to stack chairs in neat little piles at the sides of the room.

"They can't really see them can they?"

At this she stopped dead. She didn't turn around, but carefully placed the chair she was holding back on the floor.

"I don't think I understand you" she said, her back still to me.

I decided to go for broke. She was surrounded by crazies, what would one more hurt?

"The dogs. The shadows going into people's rooms at night and making them sick."

Hell, I sounded like a three year old. She'd never believe me now. But her answer confused me.

"Who told you about that?" she said in a cold voice, as if I'd been doing something wrong. Like I’d been…oh. It hit me.

"I can see them too" I answered "Well, sort of; out of the corner of my eye. Every time I've seen them go into somewhere the people get sick."

At least I'd progressed to sounding like a ten year old. I still felt like I was a foot high and I'd been caught stealing granddad's gooseberries again. I held my breath. She paused for a long time. I wondered if I should say something else.

"You'd better come with me" she said finally and stalked out of the room. I looked briefly at the chairs, some stacked, some still in irregular rows, then my brain seemed to catch up with what was happening and I hurried after her.

She didn't speak or look round once as we strode to her place. I hoped it wasn't far. It was hot and I was already slightly out of breath. I'm not that unfit you understand. I walk most places, but the tension was getting to me and I wanted this over. Not much further and she turned abruptly entering a gate to the right. She unlocked the door and then, for the first time, turned to look at me. If anything she seemed a little disappointed that I was still there. She ushered me inside and shut the door.

Inside it was pitch black and stifling. She turned on the light and showed me into the living room. I heard the clinking of cups and the roar of a kettle and guessed she was making coffee. I hoped so. The coffee at the meeting had been terrible and I had only managed half a cup. I wondered if it had been on purpose.

She came in with a tray and steaming pots of coffee and tea. Yes, I decided. It had been on purpose.

"What are we going to do about it then?" I stared. She hadn't even put the tray down.

Her name was Linda. She had first seen one about a month ago, on her way back from a party. Like me, she'd dismissed it as too much alcohol. Unfortunately for her, she knew the person behind the window. In less than a week they were dead. Cause of death undetermined. They decided it must have been some type of severe virus. After that she kept an eye out for any more shadowy dogs in the middle of the night. She saw them everywhere, but like me, only out of the corner of her eye. That's why she'd started the group. It was just a chatroom to start with, but like me, she'd thought that the others sounded pretty genuine. She'd rented the hall and arranged for them to meet. Half-way through her first meeting she'd lost control. There were others in the group; much more forceful than she was, and they quickly took over, spouting conspiracy theories and secret drug trials. She'd stayed on, just in case someone genuine appeared, but they never had. She'd even stared seeing a psychiatrist, just in case. She'd come to half believe she was hallucinating herself.

I went back to Becky's that night and we both decided to let off a bit of steam. We hadn't been out for ages and needed a catch up. I hate to think how much we got through, but the sun was coming up when we finally reached home. I was just about to suggest I open the bottle of vodka I'd hastily packed, along with too few of my clothes, when I saw it.

At first I just thought it was just the bush casting a shadow, but a car went past. The bush's shadow moved, leaving a thicker, inkier shadow crouching underneath. This time it was not the corner of my eye, I was looking it full in the face. I couldn’t help the feeling that it wanted me to see it. What I had thought to be a dog was definitely no dog. Its back was covered in dusky grey scales that rippled as it growled. Its eyes were jet black and reflected the leaves of the bush and the house behind. What was worst was the mouth. It was long and pointed. It didn't open and contain the massive jaws and teeth like I'd imagined, but instead a sort of long scaled tube with lips that twitched menacingly at the end.

I grabbed Becky and ran. We were almost run over by a taxi. It sounded its horn loudly, but he must have seen the terror in my face, as he rolled down the window and yelled "get in". Becky, of course had no idea what was happening and was quite grouchy with me. The taxi driver didn't look too impressed either. He stopped a couple of roads over and asked what the hell had happened. I thought fast.

"There was a man crouched under the bush. I saw a flash, it looked like a knife".

He seemed satisfied. He didn't demand his fare at any rate. He didn't stick around either. It looked like Becky was going to meet Linda. That would be interesting. I wondered if we'd be any safer there if we went knocking on her door when it was only just getting light.

It took me longer to find Linda's house again than I had expected. In all the drama earlier I hadn't been paying as much attention as I should and, after the night I'd had, all the streets had started looking the same. Eventually I found it more by luck than memory. It was another baking hot night and everyone in the street had thrown their windows wide open. Except this one. This one was shut up tight and was pitch black, except for a small chink of light all the way around the door. This had to be the one. I knocked. Becky tried, and failed, not to giggle behind me. I hadn't had the guts to explain what was going on, on the way over, and she'd obviously made up her own mind that it was a prank or something. I'd have to tell her something when we were inside, but then we'd be safe and I could relax a bit.

Linda opened the door. I wasn't sure at first. I thought that maybe the chink of light had just got fractionally wider.

"What are you doing here?" She hissed through the gap "And who's she?"

I leant forwards and tried to think what to say, but she must have decided it was safer to talk inside and opened the door just wide enough for us to squeeze in.

Her lounge looked a lot stranger now I saw it through Becky's eyes. One wall was stacked high with books. There was a computer in one corner, a few pictures on the walls, a sofa and a coffee table. There may have been other things in the room, but they were all covered with computer printouts about dogs, aliens, shadows and anything else vaguely related to the things we'd been seeing. Becky was staring wide eyed at it all. She was still swaying slightly; and then, without warning, she fell asleep.

"That was handy" said Linda, in a way that was not altogether nice.

We sat talking over coffee and a softly snoring Becky, talking about the dogs or Not Dogs as we'd decided to call them, and deciding what we were going to do. It was quite clever really. We were going to be eco-terrorists; or even better, get eco-terrorists to do it for us. We were going to collect as much manure as possible and dump it on everyone's front gardens. The resulting stench would make everyone close their windows and voila! No more Not Dogs breaking into people's houses.

It sounded so simple. Go to all the right chat rooms; collect all the right people; buy all the right stuff; and then over the course of a couple of nights, spread the manure. No such luck! After a week we had one person, and I was pretty certain he was undercover police making sure we didn't actually do anything. People were dying everywhere. A couple of my friends were sick. I had to do something fast. Linda and I argued a lot, but we knew that we weren't really arguing. We were both frustrated. In the end I stormed out and went to the pub. It was probably the most stupid and best thing I've ever done in my life. The Not Dogs were everywhere. I'm sure some of them saw me, but I didn’t care. Linda's house was stifling, in more ways than one, and I had to get out.

I ended up getting completely plastered and talking to this crop dusting guy down from Dundee. He was a laugh, probably why I got so drunk, and I told him all about it. He chuckled all the way through and told me I should write it down and try and sell it to someone. I said yeah. Sitting there, in the bar, some of my friends propping up the far end, it felt like a story. Something you'd hear on the radio late at night. I smiled all the way home. I'm not quite sure why I went home. It must have been some kind of instinct. I didn't see anything anyway. If there were any Not Dogs, they didn’t bother me. A lot of the houses were boarded up and some of the street lights were out. It was nice to be home; in my own bed.

I woke up the next morning to hammering on my door. It took me a while to realise that it wasn't just my head. I staggered to the door and the stench was unbelievable! It hit me like a fist. It didn’t do my hangover any good I can tell you. I was then rudely turned around and my hands cuffed and you brought me here, not including the couple of times we had to stop for me to be, well, unwell. Sorry about that.  I really don’t know what else to tell you. We tried, we failed. Anyone in the pub could’ve heard me. I thought at the time they thought it was a joke. They thought I was a joke; I was pretty far gone. You can’t send people to jail for what they thought about doing though. Can you?

Forgotten Dreams

It's been a while since I last posted, but I have had a couple of stories on the go, so hopefully it won't be another year before the next one! This was inspired by a picture Ana brought to our writing group, of a teeny weeny clock perched on the end of a fingertip. I started thinking about what such a small clock would be for, and while I was doing it a few characters joined me.

Forgotten Dreams

Very few people know where dreams come from. Even fewer know how much care and planning goes into them. For Ana’s cast it was everything. They could spend months planning a really complex dream. Right now they were off stage and taking a well deserved rest. Ana was out. She wouldn’t be going to bed for hours. They had time to sit and talk about last night.

“Transition between those last two was a bit lumpy last night. Luckily she had quite a lot on her mind so I don’t think she noticed. What were you thinking? One minute she was in school and the next she’s running through woodland!”

“Sorry Seth. Two pages got stuck together and I didn’t notice. You’ve been working us quite hard recently.” James said this in a small, polite voice, but Seth could still hear the reproachfulness around the edges.

“You KNOW what this is about. They’re…”

“Yes, we know.” Judith put her hand on his arm. “They’re threatening to move us to someone else. Give the easy dreamers to some of the younger ones.” She smiled reassuringly up at him. “We know we need to stay with Ana. We know no one else knows about the clock.”

It was true. No-one else did know about the clock. But it was also true that they knew precious little about it either. It had started as a minute cog when they first moved in. They were young and inexperienced, but most babies’ dreams were easy: just recreations of the day before. As Ana grew so did the number of cogs. Now Ana was nearly thirty and the cogs had become a perfect miniature mantle clock. If they had been able to remove it, it would have fitted onto the tip of one of her fingers. They didn’t know what it did or why it was there, but they all felt it was important.

They had lived together at the back of Ana’s head for most of their lives, but they had all been somewhere else before. They had trained with established casts, in men and women, babies and children. Only a select few that were trained ever made it onto permanent casts. A few cameos in well established groups was the best that most could wish for. It was a great honour to be given your very own person; be solely responsible for their emotional wellbeing. So, either the clocks were in everyone, but mentioned by no-one; or, and as Seth expected, this was one of very few, or the only one.

Now they were going to be inspected, again, and Seth didn’t like it one bit.

Casts were not left on their own indefinitely. They all respected that. Inspections and the occasional secondment were to be expected. This was their third inspection in as many months and that had Seth worried. Regular inspections were for new or troubled groups; perhaps those that had lost a key member. They always scored well and yet here the inspectors were, again. Seth was worried they’d let something slip about the clock. He was pretty sure that no-one had seen it. No-one was ever allowed to be unsupervised in Ana’s mind. Some of the trainees found that a bit much, especially as Seth drove everyone so hard, no matter how new they were, but he insisted; and whatever Seth said went.

No matter how they grumbled behind his back the cast knew they were with the right leader. He let them try new things and always valued what they had to say. They had all seen enough of the other casts to see that this was not always the case. Cast members were rarely listened to at all, let alone had their ideas taken, developed, and put into the prime-time dreams. Every one of Seth’s cast members had seen at least one of their ideas used in that all important, just before waking, dream. Every one of them had been given at least the one chance to be truly seen by Ana and influence her day.

Seth abruptly got up and strode off. They all knew where he was going. He had moved his quarters so that he could sleep next to the clock; perhaps catch a glimpse of what it might do. They instantly lowered their voices, but continued to plan tomorrow’s “show dream”.

“She’s going through a good time at the moment. I still think we should do the masked ball again. I know Seth likes us to do something different in every dream, but we did it so well last time and we can add a few twists to keep it fresh.” Judith suggests.

“Yeah” Julia agrees in a low, but excited whisper. “It was so pretty last time. Lots of flashy set pieces for the inspectors.”

“You would say that.” James exclaimed. “You’re the lead!”

“We would need a lot of extras. Has anyone checked they are available? Seth will want to interview each of them separately beforehand; do we have enough time for all that?” Susan, calls over to them from a huge pile of costumes she’s sorting through.

“I think so.” Judith says decisively. “I think we should go for it. If Seth agrees, of course.”

“If Seth agrees” they all chorus.

It was unusual for Seth to let go of the reigns like this, but he’d been spending more and more time with the clock, willing it to tell him something. He trusted his cast, of course; knew none of them would let him down, and so he allowed himself to spend more and more time looking up at the huge face looming above him. It was as he stretched out underneath it that a thought struck him. Perhaps Ana knew something about it. Not that it was there, of course, but perhaps subconsciously. How to find out? It was forbidden to travel to any other part of the mind except those needed for the dreams. Everything ended up at the back of the mind at some point. No-one had ever been to the front, or, even worse, dared to look out of her eyes. But he just had to do something! With that he sprung up, almost knocking Judith over. She had been bringing him tea, but now most of it pooled on the floor.

“How goes the planning?” Seth asked her, completely ignoring the tea.

“Oh, fine. We were thinking the masked ball, but with a few surprise twists. If you agree…”

“Perfect. On you go then.” He replied in a muffled voice, through the large rucksack he was now packing.

“But…” was all Judith managed before Seth interrupted her.

“I want you to be prepared in case it’s me they’re after.” He turned and actually looked at her for a second, smiling. “I know you’ll do a great job.” He squeezed her shoulder and, with that, he hoisted the rucksack onto his back and left.

Judith was left standing, watching the space he occupied a few short seconds ago. She never dreamed they’d have to do this all by themselves, and for an inspection! Gradually she became aware of her toes becoming slightly soggy and looked down. The tea had spread to her feet. She quickly reached down and plucked a t-shirt of dubious cleanliness from Seth’s pile and mopped it up. As she walked back to the others, tea-soaked t-shirt in hand, she wondered how they’d take it. They’d be thrilled at the freedom, she was sure, but this was serious. Dreams could affect someone’s whole life. Were they up to it?

Seth felt elated! He was finally doing something. The clock had to mean something; clocks don’t randomly grow inside people’s heads for no reason, and who would know better than Ana herself?

It took him a whole day before he realised just how lost he had become. It had seemed so simple to start with. He was at the back of her mind and wanted to go to the front. The trouble was that none of the passageways was completely straight, and he had never left the staging area before and… yes, he had to admit he was lost. He was so frustrated and angry with himself he almost couldn’t stand it. He screamed and shouted and cried and then he did something he instantly regretted. He punched the wall with his fists. He had hit Ana! How could he do that? She probably knew nothing about it, but still, her wellbeing was the whole point of his existence, of all of their being here. How could he have hit her like that?

He slumped to the ground, not even bothering to remove his rucksack. He stared at the place his fists had made contact with her. He was sure the area was gong redder. He shut his eyes and tried to think to her how sorry he was. He stayed like that for a long time, until he found something sticking into his ribs. His head snapped up to see a small figure disappearing around a bend.

“Wait” he shouted after it, but no-one appeared.

“I don’t mean you any harm” he tried again.

Still nothing. He started to take off his rucksack and happened to look up. Three wide sets of eyes were looking at him from a gap in the ceiling.

Seth froze. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to scare them away. All that fuss he’d been making earlier seemed so stupid now, but to them he must have seemed like a monster. How…ah, he had it. Slowly he reached into his pack and undid a buckle at the front. All three sets of eyes flinched, but they stayed where they were.

“Cake anyone? I have some fruit cake I wouldn’t mind sharing. I don’t expect you to come down. I’ll throw it up to you. Is that ok?”

The three sets of eyes disappeared and his heart sank, but then he heard whispering and they returned.

“Yes please” a high pitched voice replied.

It took Seth a total of five throws to finally get the cake up to them. He was glad none of the others were here to see his dismal efforts. He’d tied it tightly in a handkerchief, so he hoped it would still be ok for them. All three sets of eyes still stared at him as he sat down and started to eat his remaining supply. He could hear sounds of enthusiastic mastication up above.

While they ate he asked himself why they’d never met before. As far as he knew his cast were the only people here. If there were children, there had to be adults somewhere, didn’t there. No-one would leave children here on their own?

“Have you got any more?” A voice called from up above, different to the first.

“Sorry, that’s your lot.” And, taking a bit of a risk “where are your parents anyway?”

Big mistake. The six shining lights went out, followed by a series of scrabblings, and then all was silent.

“Damn.” Said Seth to no-one in particular. He was too tired to go on now. He would just stay here for a while and move on when he’d had some sleep. He pulled out a blanket and made his pack into a pillow.

He was woken by the sounds of someone rummaging in his backpack. He opened his eyes to see two looking directly back at him, about an inch in front of him. Struggling, he realised he couldn’t move a muscle and his mouth was covered. Still, the eyes looking back at him went wide with fright.

“He’s awake, and he doesn’t look happy.”

“Tough, you’re hungry aren’t you?”

“Yes, but won’t he be angry?”

“So?” The voice he could hear seemed deep within his pack and was supremely unconcerned. Had they done this before?

 Seth tried to speak. “Wait, let me help you.” It came out in a muffled series of grunts.

“What was that?” The unconcerned voice asked, briefly pausing in his search. A small face came into view. Smaller than he’d expected from the cockiness of the voice. A hand reached over and removed the tape from Seth’s mouth.

“I can get you food.” Seth answered. “Come with me.”

“Oh” replied the boy disappointed “I thought you were going to offer us something good.”

“I am! Food, water, company, clean clothes.”

“Nah. We’re fine as we are.”

He went back to rummaging in the pack, but the other boy looked at him for a long time. Eventually they must have found what they were looking for because they left. He could hear them moving away behind him, but had no idea where they went.

Seth’s arms ached. He couldn’t feel his fingers. His toes were freezing and the worst part, he desperately needed to scratch his nose. Still, he’d been in worse positions. Once he’d been tied up hanging upside down from a hook, James Bond style. Another, he’d been hanging off a railway carriage trying to get in, while one of the girls was in pitched battle inside. At least this time he was on the ground.

He had no idea how long it took him to work himself free. He worked at the knots and little by little, they started to loosen. Finally they were loose enough for him to free his hands, and then it wasn’t long before the rope lay neatly coiled up next to him. He went through his pack. Very little had actually been stolen, and they’d missed the pocket at the front with most of his food. He should go on. He knew that, but he was also deeply curious. Who were these boys and how did they get here? If he left now he might never know.

Seth was well known for his epic sandwiches. He’d left in a hurry, but not before stopping off at the kitchens for supplies. He was after all, impulsive, not stupid. He made one of these now, in full view of the hole and then carefully placed it near the bend, but not so near that it could be taken without him seeing.

“For you” he said proudly. For not tying the knots too tight.”

He heard something that sounded suspiciously like “told you” from above, and then silence. He smiled to himself and settled down to wait. He didn’t have to wait long. Within a few minutes the smaller boy was peering around the corner, looking alternately at him and then at the sandwich.

“It’s Ok, it’s for you.” Seth smiled what he hoped was his friendliest and least creepy-looking smile.

The boy moved cautiously out into the open. He grasped the sandwich in both hands.

“I” Seth started, but too late. The boy startled and scurried off. “I just want to talk” Seth called up to the hole. Nothing. He tried a new tack. “Is it a nice sandwich?”

“Needs ketchup” said a voice from above. Then raucous laughter broke out from the direction of the ceiling. Seth couldn’t help laughing too.

“I’ll bear that in mind for the next one.”

All was silent from above and then a small face appeared.

“Next one?”

And so it was for the next few days. Seth made his epic sandwiches and the boys came more and more to trust him. He wasn’t to get the answers he wanted. None of them knew why they were there. For all they knew they had always been there, scavenging what they could. What was more interesting however, was that Seth was not the first man they’d seen. People were not common by any means. It could be ages between sightings, but there were others, and what’s more, none of them sounded like Seth’s cast. These were all new people that Seth knew nothing about. It seemed that his cast members were not the only ones in Ana’s mind.

The inspectors were not impressed by Seth’s absence. Judith could tell. They seemed to like the dream, and the other, lesser dreams, that Seth had planned before he went away, but they were definitely not happy. She wasn’t sure if it was the subtle pauses after every statement they made, their hopeful looks around the hall, or the fact that they demanded to see Seth about every twenty seconds that really gave it away. She’d done her best to keep it together, but everyone was getting jumpy. They were on a high after the show dream; she only wished that Seth could have seen it. He would have been so proud of them. Now the inspectors had been with them three days. This was unprecedented. No-one was ever inspected for three whole days. It was starting to show in the cast. Julia was getting shrill and emotional and James had become quiet and unengaged. They couldn’t take much more of this. Where was Seth? What was taking him so long? They needed him.

Seth was not doing so well. After expertly gaining the trust of the children he had uttered the immortal line “take me to your leader”. Unfortunately for him, they had. There was a definite Oliver Twist thing going on here. There was a man, that he only ever got to see from a distance, who seemed to be orchestrating the whole thing. Then there were gangs of children; mostly in threes and fours, but some larger. They all seemed to appear and disappear with some great purpose in mind. He didn’t like it at all. More to the point at the moment, they didn’t seem to like him.

Right now there was a lot of angry pointing going on and bigger boys, bigger than the ones who’d brought him here, seemed to be getting instructions. He didn’t think he was going to like those instructions very much. He could hear a scrabbling behind him. They’d taken all his things, he wasn’t sure what else they could take.

“That’s for the cake” said a small, high pitched, voice. It sounded familiar. “Go!”

Seth glanced around, but the child had gone. He leapt to his feet; staggered briefly as he had been tied up for really quite a long time, and then ran, as fast as he could, away down the nearest tunnel. He could hear shouts, but didn’t stop. He didn’t stop for a long time. Eventually, he found a small cove, hidden in the ceiling of the tunnel, hoisted himself up and curled into a tight ball. No food, no water and even less of an idea where he was than before. All he knew was that he had to get back.

Judith was beginning to despair. The inspectors had given up all pretence and were now systematically searching backstage to find out what had happened to Seth. So far they had found his old quarters and turned everyone’s lives upside down. If they hadn’t been so intent on causing the maximum amount of misery, they’d have found the clock two days ago. As it was, Judith thought that it would be hours rather than days. What would happen then?

“What’s this?” She heard from the distance in a triumphant tone.

“Oh”, she thought. “It’s all over”. She could hear triumphant cries and shoutings. She didn’t go to look. It was too late. Short of a miracle, there was nothing for them to do now. She sat down in amongst Susan’s carefully constructed costumes. That always made her feel better. She tried not to think about what they were going to do to them. The best she could see was that they’d be disbanded, perhaps sent to other groups of players. She tried not to think about players that just disappeared into the system, never to be heard from again. It hadn’t been her business then and she wished it wasn’t now. Perhaps…What was that noise? She’d dismissed it at first as being the inspectors doing whatever they were doing in the clock room, but now she thought about it, it wasn’t coming from there at all. It was a kind of rumbling, shouting kind of noise; and it was getting louder. Closer than that was a loud, what was that, a kind of loud panting noise and…

“Seth! Is that you?”

Seth took a deep, rattling breath and then screamed “RUUUUN” as he streaked past her.

She glanced towards him. There were hundreds of children running towards her. She started to smile, but before she could look towards Seth to tell him how stupid he was being, she saw the look in their eyes. She gasped. She ran.

Seth stopped dead in front of the clock, all thought of the boys behind him forgotten.

“What the HELL are you doing?!”

The inspectors, if that’s what they were; and he was pretty sure they weren’t, were all over the clock. Tools in hand, they had prised open, and in some cases off, small parts of the clock, and they were being collected by others on the ground.

Seth rushed towards them and tried to grab one of the men closest to him. Pull him down and off his precious mystery. He was rugby tackled to the floor. The wind knocked out of him. He could hear someone else enter the room at speed and shut the door. The men on top of him briefly looked up, but then returned to him. His hands were being roughly pulled behind him and a knee was being expertly pressed into the back of his neck. Someone was banging on the closed door. He heard a sob, but didn’t know who it was. The banging got louder and louder. It seemed to fill the whole room. There was a rumbling that echoed through the door and his whole frame. Finally there was a crunch and the door gave way. His attackers got off him and he was able to look up for the first time.

Judith was lying on the floor. Half of the door was on top of her, and she wasn’t moving. The men were standing and staring at the open hole that had taken its place. Through this hole was streaming, what seemed like, hundreds of small boys. They all looked angry. What’s more, they were all armed. Within seconds it would be over. Seth struggled to get upright. He was going to meet his end sitting up. He shut his eyes.

Suddenly there was deathly silence. He opened his eyes. Everyone was frozen, staring behind him. He turned too. There was a small woman standing in front of the clock.

“What the HELL is going on?”

The boys dropped their weapons and looked sheepish. The inspectors were eyeing up the exits. Judith began to stir and Seth awkwardly shuffled towards her, balance shot by having his arms tied behind his back.

“Can someone please explain to me what is gong on here?” Said the small woman in front of the clock. She was not shouting now, but she still looked furious.

Seth couldn’t work out who this woman was, and how she had managed to stop the children. Then, for some reason, he looked behind her. The clock; the wonderful, beautiful, mystery of a clock, Ana’s clock; had stopped. Could this be…

“Ana?” a small question escaped him.

She turned to him and smiled. He felt like his whole world was looking at him. He turned to see if Judith was seeing what he was and promptly tripped over the door, knocking himself out.

When Seth opened his eyes he couldn’t see much. He rubbed them slowly and tried again. Judith was staring into them, a worried expression on her face. He tried to sit up, but she gently pushed him back down.

“But what about…”

“Shhh, shhh, they’re all gone.”

He sat bolt upright and looked towards the clock. Briefly, he noticed that woman was gone, replaced by the steady tick, tick, he had grown to love; then the room span and he was forced to lay back down.

“Everything’s fine.” Judith reassured Seth, gently brushing his hair away from his eyes. “Everyone’s gone away.”

“But…”

“Rest” she commanded, slightly less soothingly. “It’s all over.”

He allowed her to tuck the covers back in under his chin. His brow still crinkled in a frown.

“If you must know, everyone is back where they’re supposed to be. The tunnels have been blocked and the inspectors sent away. It’s hard to argue when the point of everyone being here tells you to sort yourselves out.”

“Oh.” Was all he could manage. Any more and was afraid he might cry. He had had so many questions. He only got to see her for the briefest of moments.

“She left you this” Judith pushed something into his hand. She got up and walked away. He heard the door close behind her. Seth brought it up to his eyes. It was a small piece of paper. On it was written a few short words;

Thank you for my dreams.

Modified for Success

It's been a while since I posted a new story, but I'm planning to pick up the pace a bit over the coming weeks. I don't want to say too much about Modified for Success before you read it, so I'm not going to. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Modified for Success

It had already been a long day and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet! This lot were being particularly difficult. They just wouldn’t settle. Julia was used to the modified by now. They were an angry, violent and impatient lot, but usually she could handle them. This group were a real pain. It was a high-level meeting, something important about the economy, and they were being particularly antsy. There had already been two fights and, unusually, one of them had disappeared for a bit of a sulk. It had taken her a full fifteen minutes to find him lurking in one of the lesser used meeting rooms; shouting intermittently at the furniture. Julia had finally got them all seated around the table, or so she thought, when she heard a scream coming from the cloakroom.

It’s in her contract that she doesn’t have to investigate, but she found her legs taking her there before she’d even registered what she was doing. She had a pretty good idea of what would be on the other side of the door. This wasn’t the first time. But it still didn’t make it any easier to push it open and remove all doubt. There, in the tiny cloakroom, was a small businessman lying sprawled on the floor.

It was obvious to everyone as soon as he walked in that he wasn’t modified. He was a smart, official, and clearly terrified little man. Julia couldn’t remember when she’d last seen an unmodified businessman in one of her meeting rooms. She hadn’t thought there were any left by now. This one was now almost completely covered by a particularly thuggish-looking modified. There was a horrible slurping noise coming from him and she knew he’d begun to feed. Feeding in the meeting rooms was strictly prohibited, but there wasn’t much anyone could really do about it once they got started.

Julia remembered the extensive training they’d had for just such a situation. One afternoon. And she thought about how much more it really would have been useful to know before she’d started. That was why they were paid so well for unmodified. Many of them didn’t last long; you had to learn quickly in this job or not at all. She calmly pushed the panic button, that would almost certainly cause a grand total of nothing to happen, and cleared her throat, which certainly would.

“You know you’re not allowed to do that in here.”

She was quite impressed with how calm and confident her voice sounded. Her heart, on the other hand, was pounding so hard in her ears that she was surprised that the whole world couldn’t hear it. She prayed her knees wouldn’t give way. What little training she’d had told her that he should now get up and she could show him back to the table. Her own experience, and that of the other facilitators in the complex, told her that he was just as likely to refocus his attentions on her as do anything she said. The modified slowly turned his head towards her and stared. He stared for a long time. She held her ground. She was unsurprised at the absence of hurried footsteps coming up the corridor to save her. In fact there were no sounds of anyone outside at all. Perhaps they were keeping everyone away in case this one acted like the one last month. He got to his feet, looming a good two feet over her. He smiled; a teeth only smile. Julia smiled back; her best “everything is fine” type of smile.

“This way please”.

He started to follow her back to the meeting room table. Julia realised she’d been holding her breath and breathed out, catching the relieved expression which tried to run across her face just in time. The other businessmen barely looked up before returning to their heated discussions. She pressed a second button, next to the door, and her previously absent colleagues appeared in force with what looked like shots of vodka. The businessmen guzzled them appreciatively. The shots contained enough horse tranquiliser to knock her out for a week; they just smiled a little more and relaxed perhaps a fraction. They couldn’t risk the smell of blood on the returning businessman causing a rampage. The drinks would continue for about an hour, just to make sure.

Julia left them to it and walked back to the cupboard as fast as she dare. As she turned the corner, out of sight, she broke into a run. She hadn’t dared look at the state of the small man earlier. She prayed she was in time. As she burst, breathlessly, back into the cloakroom, the terrified man scurried away from her to hide under the coats, quivering. A very good sign. It took her a few minutes to coax him out and get a better look at him. His neck was bleeding profusely and he was already a sickly shade of grey. Julia wadded up her apron, knowing, even as she did so, that it was a week’s wages lost, and held it tight against his neck. She hoped the ambulance would be quicker than last time. It only comes from a couple of blocks away, but it could be hours before it arrives, depending on how many modified are out there today. If he dies now, he’ll become one of them, just another modified businessman, and there are far too many of those already. If he lives, he’ll definitely be scarred, maybe one or two side effects, but he’ll never be as bad as them. Julia tries to imagine the blood being stopped by her apron and pumping around his body as her arm shakes from the effort of stemming the flow.

She still finds them funny, despite seeing them pretty regularly, either at work or on the street. The ambulance men look more like medieval jousters than men of medicine. Their ambulances are more armoured than a tank, with a snow plough on the front to force their way through crowds or debris. She doesn’t exactly love her job, but she wouldn’t take theirs for the world. They’re well paid, but she doubts any of them get paid for long. There’s nothing that can stop the modified when they smell blood and form a pack, armour or no armour.

Julia adjusts them both, trying a less painful position to stem the blood that seems increasingly keen to leak from the little man’s body. She thinks about the last year. It seems much longer than a year. She feels as if she’s been doing this all her life. She hasn’t. It’s been just under eight months. This time last year she’d just graduated with a 2:1 and immediately landed a job looking at “the psychological side effects of modification”. She couldn’t believe her luck, who goes straight into a job like that with only a 2:1! She’d only been working for a couple of months when she’d realised why. The side effects were clear. There had already been two previous studies, but considerable donations had been made by an anonymous source to do a third. She knew what would happen, but she did it anyway. She officially and then, when she was immediately fired for incompetence, unofficially published her findings. Modification was dangerous beyond belief. The short-term effects were increased drive, efficiency and determination that seemed almost immediately to lead to increased success, money and power. Longer-term effects included distraction, volatility and extreme violence; and that was when the treatment went right. Even she hadn’t foreseen the blood-lust. She still saw some of her ex-colleagues on TV. Occasionally they were rolled out to proclaim it safe, say that everything was fine and that the problems were all being “ironed out”. Everyone knew the whole world was going to hell.  She wondered why anyone bothered pretending anymore.

The man lying in her lap was gradually losing consciousness as they waited. The blood had dyed her white apron a deep scarlet. It was beginning to be a real possibility that he wouldn’t make it. Julia sighed. He’d seemed like such a nice man when he’d first come in. He’d given her a nervous little grin as he’d taken his seat at the table. He’d made a point of calling her by her name. None of the modified noticed she existed until they wanted something, but it was probably best that way. Now it looked as if he was going to die because he’d left something in his coat pocket. He still had it clutched in his left hand; a pen. It had the name Nigel engraved on it. She idly wondered how Nigel had lasted this long. Perhaps it was inevitable that it was going to end this way. There wasn’t anything she could do for him now but try to keep as much blood inside him as she could and squeeze his hand.

It was tough to get a job as an unmodified. They took all the top jobs and made all the rules. The unmodified were left struggling to survive. Julia’s job was a very good one for an unmodified. It was much better than most of the people she knew. Most jobs involved tricky manual tasks that the modified had neither the skill nor patience to perform. They were long hours for little money. Still, it was better than no job at all and came with the added bonus that they were protected, while at work at least. She was paid well for the danger of working with them every day and keeping them happy; but it also meant that she saw the side effects up close and personal. Sometimes too close and personal. One day she’d been leaving the changing rooms when a modified, waiting to go into one of the meeting rooms, lunged at her. She was almost too far away, but he caught her by the ankle and immediately started to feed. Through an enormous force of will she managed to stay calm. If she’d panicked, the others would have become too excited and joined in. That would have been the end for her and perhaps a number of the other facilitators. The modified were ushered into their rooms, and, as soon as the corridor was cleared, she tazed him in the neck until he passed out. It took a while. She’d lost a fair chunk of her leg in the process and it had never been the same. The ambulance had taken a couple of hours to arrive and she’d nearly lost it. The large scar still hurt her when the weather was cold, like today.

This time it took them only half an hour to make it the three streets to the conference centre. She was grateful. The small man looked like a limp doll in her lap. Despite the blood loss they told her he had a good chance of recovery. She wondered if that was true. She hoped it was. She decided not to phone the hospital that night in case it wasn’t. Her boss sent her home and, although they didn’t charge her for the apron, they weren’t going to pay her for the rest of the day either.

As usual, Julia went home on the armoured bus. It was by far the safest way, even though she didn’t live far from the centre. It dropped her at the corner of her street and she hurried to the back courtyard of her building. It was nearly Christmas and there was snow on the ground, but she didn’t wear a coat. Better freeze to death than draw attention as an unmodified. She pressed the twelve-digit combination on the gate, opened it just wide enough to squeeze through, and shut it quickly, but quietly, behind her. With luck no-one had seen. George peered out from the kitchen in alarm and addressed her through the kitchen window.

“Why’re you home so early?”

She didn’t need this. At this rate she really was going to freeze to death. Her teeth chattered so loudly she wouldn’t be surprised if the modified in the street could hear her.

“Incident at work” she replied as casually as she could through her chattering teeth.

The worst thing she could do now was to look angry. She’d done that a couple of months ago. Not really angry, just mildly annoyed. He’d shut the door and left her out all night. She’d had to hide behind the shed so that the modified wouldn’t spot her. He’d been sorry afterwards, of course, but she wouldn’t put it past him to do it again. He took things very seriously. He looked at her suspiciously, but tossed her the opera glasses anyway. She still wasn’t sure why all this was necessary. No modified had ever got past the combination on the gate. Still, it was probably better to be safe than sorry, as long as he got on with it, quickly, that was. She fiddled with them for a few seconds, trying to line up the lenses with increasingly numb fingers. After an unnecessarily long pause, he stepped back from the window so she could read the word printed on the wall through the glasses.

“Teabags” she read back to him and couldn’t help a small smile.

George failed to function without tea and he relied on the memory of the others to keep him stocked up. With what they went through every day, it wasn’t surprising that they didn’t always remember. She’d managed to get him a small supply from work, but she wouldn’t tell him just yet. She’d defrost a little first and let him think she’d forgotten.

She went gratefully inside and straight to the range to bring feeling into her numb fingers and toes. She tried not to smile as she saw George’s hopeful look at her bag. There was a small, plastic doll, a little too close to the range. She bent down and moved it a safe distance away and caught George’s eye.

“She’s fine” he said before she’d even decided what to say, “she hasn’t cried once today”.

That was good news! It had only happened once before and that was on her birthday. Maybe she was going to get better after all.

Natalie had been bitten six months ago. She’d been heavily pregnant at the time and hadn’t been able to run away fast enough. She’d only been steps from the courtyard and George had rushed out and beaten it off. He’d helped her into a nearby bolt-hole, in the basement of an abandoned building. They’d all thought he was mad, burying a small stash of their limited supplies in that basement. It turned out that his paranoia saved them. The modified had wandered, dazed, into the courtyard. For a terrifying three days it poked around, looking, Julia was convinced, for signs of unmodified life. Usually the modified gave up after a few minutes, sometimes hours, but for some reason they’d managed to attract one with staying power. Finally it gave up and wandered off and they risked sneaking outside to lock the gate. Shortly afterwards George and Natalie came back. She was pale and withdrawn. At first Julia was worried that it was the bite. Maybe she’d lost more blood than they’d realised. Then she’d realised what the problem was. Natalie looked oddly deflated.

The only thing that seemed to stop Natalie from crying was a new doll. Dolls were in short supply since modified children didn’t seem to care much for them, and they were the only ones whose parents had any money. Still, the odd one cropped up here and there. Everyone in the house would go to great lengths to secure Natalie a new doll. When Natalie was happy it was infectious. Everyone in the house seemed to catch it and the world looked like a better place, for a short while at least. George liked to keep an eye on her. He made sure she ate and gave her clean clothes. It could have been because he used to have a crush on her, but it was more likely that he felt she was his responsibility.

As usual, it was dark inside the house. They only ever opened the shutters at night, and then all the lights had to be off. That wasn’t too much of a problem, though, with all the black-outs they’d been having recently. They all liked to ignore it, tell themselves that it would get better, but they all knew it had been getting worse for some time now. If they were going to leave, they were going to have to do it soon, before it was too late. They saw new streets levelled by the modified every day. The only reason they were still there was because of George. He took great care to make it look as if their building had been abandoned, like so many around them. The real problem was going to be that they had nowhere to go. The modified were everywhere.

Jade came home two hours later. She’d been on the night-shift at the factory and they’d made her work late again. She looked dead on her feet and even George took pity and let her into the kitchen before giving her the glasses. She could barely move her fingers, and it wasn’t just from the cold. Jade was part of a huge team of workers dedicated to producing the intricate clothing demanded by the wealthy modified. The fashions changed rapidly, but the result was the same. Longer and longer hours spent stitching intricate patterns and beadwork on endless garments that they would never get to wear. Jade read “teabags” and looked over at George apologetically.

“Don’t worry about it” he said, smiling reassuringly at her. “I can see you’re knackered. Go and have a nap before dinner and I’ll come and get you when it’s ready.”

She trudged gratefully upstairs to her room.

Dave and John were late. George had dinner nearly ready, vegetable stew and home-made bread, but they still hadn’t appeared. It was two hours after they were due home from the hospital that they appeared. Everyone had been nervously watching the courtyard for signs of their appearance. They looked shocking. Their faces were red, they were covered in mud, but they were both grinning from ear to ear.

“Got one!” they said together. They both held up a baby doll triumphantly. It was in a little woollen outfit, grubby and with holes in places, but everyone knew Natalie would love it.

“Where’d you get that?!” George asked in surprise.

“Modified kid” said Dave.

“Had it at the hospital” said John.

They both seemed to think that explained everything, and no-one found out any more as they all turned at a gasp of delight behind them. Natalie had obviously heard the noise and come to see what all the fuss was about. She rushed towards the boys and threw herself around the doll.

“Oh thank you! She’s beautiful!” was all they got out of her before she rushed up the stairs with the new doll clutched tight in her arms.

“That’s the last we’ll see of her tonight” John said, smiling broadly.

“Too bad” Dave laughed “I kinda’ liked her.”

It felt like a party that night. George even produced a magnificent sponge cake. Apparently he’d been saving the sugar for weeks and felt that tonight they deserved a treat. Julia had given him the teabags and now there was a steaming pot in front of them to share with the cake.

No-one mentioned the extra place at dinner. Toby hadn’t come back for weeks. They’d all been used to him disappearing for a day or two. “Fact-finding” he called it, but no-one really knew what he did. He’d just turn up, back at the house, starving, full of wild stories about whole unmodified communities, trying to encourage them to go with him. They’d all humoured him, but no-one really believed in what he had to say. If there were other communities they’d have heard about them on the radio, or from other unmodified.  He was always so vague about where they were and how many people had made it to them. Still, sometimes it was fun to get caught up in his excitement. This last time he’d been gone for much longer than he’d ever been gone before. They’d told Natalie he’d found one of these communities and he would come back for them, when the time was right. They all hoped he’d come back, but now it was becoming part of their reality that he wasn’t. Still, they always set him a place at the table, just in case.

Tonight, no-one even looked as George cleared the table and removed the clean plate and cutlery. It was too good a night. Right now everything seemed hopeful. Perhaps tomorrow would bring them better things. They played cards late into the night by candlelight, since the power was out again, and then one by one went drowsily to bed.

Julia woke with a hand clamped over her mouth. She froze. Had a modified got into the house? Were the others already dead?

“Shhh, it’s me” said Dave.

She struggled angrily to sit up, wrenching his hand from her mouth.

“What the…”

“Shhhh, they’re coming. Grab your bag and follow me.”

She groped around for her bag. Like everyone else, she always kept it under her bed, ready, at George’s insistence. She slid into her trousers and followed him quietly out onto the landing. She could just make out George and Natalie standing there, hastily dressed, Natalie clutching the new doll tightly to her chest, George holding their bags and clutching her, just as tightly. They were all there. She followed their eyes to the top of the stairs where a shadow stood. She couldn’t make out who it was. At that moment a huge explosion sounded behind them and lit up the corridor. It was Toby! He was alive! He was holding his finger to his lips and gesturing for them to follow.

They all crept downstairs and into the courtyard. There was a jet black, armoured van, parked with its back doors facing the house. These doors swung open and two men pulled everyone inside and made them lie on the floor. Silently, the men covered them with blankets and Julia heard the doors shut behind them as the van moved off. Even Natalie seemed to know how important this was and lay completely still, clutching her doll. The vehicle picked its way along the streets. Every so often there’d be a loud bang, it would reverse at speed and they’d head in a different direction. A few times they heard screams. Dave put his arm around Julia’s waist and pulled her slightly towards him. She didn’t know if it was for him or for her, but either way she was grateful.

They’d been moving in the same direction for a while, when the vehicle stopped. Julia thought it was far too soon for them to be out of the city.

“ID,” a rough voice said, obviously a modified. “What’re you doing out so late?”

Everyone in the van held their breath.

“Unmodified bodies for experimentation. They don’t like us out during the day. Scare the kiddies.” There was the sound of laughter from both voices.

Despite herself Julia felt herself hating him. She’d heard rumours about black vans taking the dead, and sometimes not so dead, away; about what happened to those bodies. Apparently at least part of it was true. She didn’t want to know that. Toby had made her know that and now she’d never unknow it. Is this what he’d been doing on his trips away?

“On you go, and oh, avoid the high street, getting a bit tasty up there” he laughed.

Julia knew some of the unmodified families that lived on the high street. They all worked in the factories and had been promised they’d be safe if they registered where they lived. George had convinced everyone in their house not to do it, just in case. It looked like he’d been right. That was something else she’d rather not have known about.

“Thanks officer” Toby cheerfully shouted over another explosion, and the van started to move again.

She knew she should be grateful. Toby had come back. He and his friends had saved them. But she was tired. Not just from being torn from her bed in the middle of the night, but from everything. She was rapidly approaching a “what is the point” moment in her life. She’d been toying with the idea for a while. It would have been easy at work. She’d pick a child, one that had come in with its parents attending a meeting, and she’d let it kill her. She shouldn’t be too disfigured, if she kept enough control. Then she’d just wake up, modified, and be able to get on with her life again. She knew she’d have the marks of a “turned” rather than a “made” and would never have one of the top jobs, but still, she could make a decent living and wouldn’t have to deal with constant fear.

The van stopped. The blankets were removed. Through the back doors, they could see that they were in a dark tunnel.

“So much for Utopia!” Julia said much louder than she’d intended. She felt everyone’s eyes on her.

“Sorry” she said quietly, looking down at her socked feet.

They all scrabbled to get their boots on in the confines of the back of the van and one by one exited it carefully. They stood, in a ramshackle line, and waited patiently for Toby to stop talking to the other two men. After a while he walked over to them.

“I know you’ve got a lot of questions, but there isn’t time.”

Julia wanted to protest, but felt that she should keep silent for once. She didn’t want to sound ungrateful. Toby handed her a map.

“The modified don’t come down here, so you should be safe.” Julia really didn’t like the emphasis on “should”. “The map tells you where to go. It’s about a week by foot, and a few more days once the sewers run out.” Oh god, they were going to be walking in a sewer for nearly a week! “There are tunnels, but be careful, some parts are safer than others.” Oh great, it gets better and better. “Good luck and I’ll see you on the other side.”

“Where’re you going?” Julia blurted out before she could stop herself.

Toby turned back towards them and, to her surprise, he was grinning.

“We’ve not just come back for you, you know.” And with that he got back into the van and it started to move off. One of the men hopped out of the van to lock the gates with a final-sounding clang before jumping back inside and shutting the doors behind him.

“Anyone pack a torch?” Julia asked.

For two days they walked in near-pitch blackness. A couple of times they had to stop where the tunnel was blocked and try a different way. The sewers were surprisingly clean and didn’t smell nearly as bad as Julia had expected.

As the week wore on, they all began to question their priorities with regards to packing. George had made them all pack plenty of water, and they had a few of packets of biscuits each, but some of the more personal things were proving less useful. Dave had packed his favourite vinyl. The number of records that he felt he couldn’t live without were decreasing with the miles. Now, after five days he had three left and Julia could feel another sacrifice coming on. She’d been smug at first. She’d only packed a few small books. She hadn’t thought she could live without books. She was rapidly thinking that she wouldn’t be able to live with them. Also, if someone had told her she’d spend days in a damp, cold, sewer she’d have packed more socks. No-one tells you about the importance of clean socks. Her boots had been fine. Comfy, waterproof, but no-one had mentioned the bliss you get from taking your socks off after trudging all day and the hell of having to put them back on to start walking again. She was lost in thoughts of her beautiful sock drawer back at the house when there was a noise above them. A manhole cover was being removed and a modified was clearly saying:

“And don’t come back up until you’ve found the problem.” An unmodified was coming down the ladder, slowly. He was clearly going to see them, whether they ran or not. They had no choice.

“Psst,” Said Julia. The man looked around and completely failed to see any of them.

“Psst,” Said Julia again as loud as she dare. The man leaned close to a pipe near the ladder as if listening to it.

“For God’s sake! Psst.” Said Julia in exasperation. The man saw her, but the conversation stopped up above the manhole cover and a voice shouted down.

“Did you say something?”

“Sorry,” said the man “the rats are fucking huge down here”.

“Shut up your whingeing and get on with it!” the modified shouted down and went back to his conversation.

The man reached the bottom of the ladder and walked over to them.

“What the hell are you doing down here?”

“We’re escaping!” Said Julia in surprise.

“You’re mad! There’s a new law about to be passed. Everything’s going to be alright. Minimum wage, holidays. Stupid to be down here wading through sewers!”

“I was there when they were discussing it. It’ll all be fine; as long as you don’t mind, increased hours, compulsory registration, rationing…” the man looked unconvinced “fine, just don’t tell anyone we’re here.”

“Fine.” He said, slightly annoyed, and started walking off down the tunnel. Then a thought seemed to strike him and he stopped. “What’ve you done?” he asked suspiciously and slightly louder than Julia was comfortable with.

“Nothing!” She hissed back.

“Mighty suspicious you lot down here when they’re just starting to talk about unmodified rights. Maybe there’s a reward?”

Julia’s heart sank. She was sure that running away wouldn’t go down well, whatever their excuse. Jade held out something that sparkled in the darkness. It was her mother’s diamond necklace. She couldn’t. She just couldn’t!

“No, Jade, we’ll give him something else!”

The man, however, seemed to think the necklace was exactly what he needed. He smiled broadly. “That will do nicely.” He snatched it from her outstretched hand and grinned.

They started off down the tunnel again. Julia caught up to Jade. She opened her mouth to speak, but Jade cut her off.

“I did have to you know.”

Julia gave her a squeeze. Behind them the modified called into the tunnel.

“What’s the hold up?”

“Oh”, said the man, grinning broadly “there’s a load of runaways down here. They just tried to bribe me with a necklace”. He laughed as the modified climbed down into the tunnel.

“You’d better not be pissing about down here.” The modified growled at the man.

“See” said the man, waving Jade’s mum’s necklace at the modified.

“Yeah”, said the modified, and shot him. Julia and the others stopped in shock.

“That’ll look great on my missus. Guys, come down here. We’ve got runaways!” He shouted up in delight.

That was enough to get the feeling back into their limbs. They ran. They ran and they ran. Julia took them down one tunnel and then another. Finally the sounds behind them faded. Perhaps the freshly shot unmodified was too much for the modified to ignore, or maybe they’d just got bored of the chase. When they were sure they were no longer being followed, they slowed and Julia tried to work out where they’d ended up.

“Yeah,” She said to the others, “unmodified rights, that’ll last about as long as my biscuits!” She didn’t mention that she now had no idea where they were.

They continued to walk for what felt like a small eternity, but they kept going. Their feet were sore, the food had almost gone, even George’s emergency supply, and they were beginning to lose any hope of finding their way out. No-one spoke, they just trudged on in the darkness. No-one said anything to Julia, but she was sure they all blamed her. Dave had tried to reassure her that it was all in her imagination, everyone was tired, but he’d said it so many times that it had started to irritate her. She felt like he wasn’t taking her seriously, that he was treating her like a stupid child, and so now he walked a little distance away from her. Every so often she saw one of them eyeing the manhole covers. She didn’t blame them. She’d thought about it herself. Just a short trip up and it would all be over when they were caught by the modified. Surely that was better than slowly starving to death down here.

They’d all stopped to sleep, but Julia couldn’t. She wasn’t going to give up. She had to stop feeling sorry for herself and do something about it. She’d got them into this mess and she was determined to get them out of it. From that moment on, every time they took a rest, she would wander off down some of the side tunnels and scout out the way ahead. She’d only come back when her eyes were too sore to see in the gloom. Each time she’d grab a few minutes sleep before the others got up and started to move again.

“You can’t keep doing that,” Dave had said, when everyone else had settled down to get some sleep, in what she was sure he felt was a supportive voice.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said rather snappily to him. She winced and rubbed the scar on her leg.

“Here, let me look at it” Dave said and, despite herself, she found herself rolling up her trouser leg. He rubbed her leg for quite a while and made a surprising amount of difference to the tightness she felt there.

“Thanks, but I can’t give up now. We won’t last much longer if I don’t get us out of here.” She smiled at him. Even she could feel it was a weak smile.

Dave looked like he was going to protest, and before she knew what she was doing, she leant forwards and kissed him. When they broke apart he looked stunned, but happy. She smiled at him and walked off into the gloom.

Julia was now thinking that he might have had a point. She wasn’t completely certain, but she was pretty sure that she was lost. She was trying not to think about it, because if she did she would panic, and that would make everything a whole lot worse. She went the way she thought she had come, there was a big patch of moss growing here that she thought she recognised, but perhaps not. She must have got turned around somewhere. She had been so careful. Damn it! Then she noticed what looked like weak light coming from a tunnel to her right. As she moved towards it, it got brighter. She reached the end and saw the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life. The sun was rising over fields of corn, and there was a sign. The sign read:

Wait here until Tuesday 9PM .

Julia screamed with delight! She could hear Dave’s voice calling out to her, but couldn’t make out what he was saying.

“Over here!” She shouted at the top of her voice.

She could hear footsteps running towards her.

“We’re here!” She shouted, “We’re here!”

Dave came panting around the corner, closely followed by the others.

“What’s wrong?” A pink-faced Dave panted at her “Are you ok?”

“We’re here!” She repeated pointing to the sign. “But I don’t have my watch!” Julia let out a sob.

Everyone looked at George.

“Don’t look at me! I can’t think of everything!”

Dave laughed and squeezed her tightly. “We’ll just take turns at looking out after dark. It’ll be fine.”

They all laughed, perhaps everything was going to be fine after all.

They’d been on the lookout for two nights and everyone was tired and hungry. They’d had nothing at all to eat that day and Julia’s stomach grumbled unhelpfully. It was her turn to keep watch for a few hours as the others lay on the ground behind her, trying not to use any energy. She sat at the mouth of the tunnel and looked out onto the completely deserted road. It had lost its spectacular beauty now and she was beginning to hate it. No-one ever seemed to use the bloody thing! A power plant smoked silently to itself in the distance.

She wasn’t sure when she first saw it, but there was definitely something coming towards them. After a while she could make out a big blue truck driving along the road. She called Dave over and they both stared at it.

“Could be nine” he said “you’ve been on watch a while now”.

They watched it get closer and closer and then start to slow. It stopped directly beneath them, turned its engine off and someone got out. The others came over and stared down at the distant figure at the bottom of the hill.

“One of us?” asked George from the back of the group.

“Who knows?” said Jade, “It’s far too dark to make him out.”

The man waved up at them.

“It is!” said Natalie, and she immediately set off down the hillside. The others hesitated, but then followed a little way behind; George rushing to catch up with her.

“Stop!” Shouted George grabbing Natalie completely off her feet. He started hauling her back up the hill by the waist as she screamed to be let go.

Julia didn’t know what his problem was at first, but she stopped running. Standing, she could make the man out more clearly. He was a modified! Natalie screamed and Julia saw the doll tumble off down the hill and towards the modified. George struggled for a second, but managed to get control of Natalie to stop her running after it. As so many times before, Julia didn’t think, she just ran towards it. It was Natalie’s doll. She had to get Natalie’s doll. It rolled to a halt, feet from the modified. She scooped it up and then looked up into the face of one of the biggest modified she’d ever seen. She froze. All that time she’d spent, seriously thinking about letting them take her; and now she’d decided that she wasn’t going to give in, wasn’t going to let them do it, and it looked like they were going to get her after all; and this one was big enough to tear her to pieces. There was no chance that she’d get away, even if it didn’t feel like her feet were glued to the floor.

“Hullo,” He said cheerily, “you must be Julia. Toby’s told me all about you.”

It took a while for her brain to process what she’d heard. Instead she screamed, but stayed rooted to the spot. Some of the others had grabbed branches and rocks and were coming down the hill towards them.

“No, no, no. Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you. See, backing away slowly.” As he did this he held his hands up placatingly in front of him. “I’m a friend of Toby’s, he sent me. It’s not my fault I look like this. Please…”

As Julia stared up into the huge bulk of the man’s face she saw that she’d genuinely hurt his feelings.

“I’m fine, he’s one of us” She said, turning to the others.

They looked suspicious but cautiously lowered their weapons.

Grant talked over his shoulder to Julia and the others who were wedged into the back of his cab. They always looked so roomy from the outside, but they were not built for six to sit in comfortably.

“There was a change of plan. When you missed the pick up, Toby thought it was safer for me to keep driving past than anyone else.” Julia and the others remained silent, all gawping at the giant of a man in the front of the cab. “Seriously, do I sound like one of them? I was bitten when they were still trying to keep the modified in check. I got treatment. Sure, I’m a bit bigger than I used to be, but I’m still soft and squidgy on the inside.”

Jade snorted and even Natalie gave a giggle. Everyone looked at her. She shrugged.

“We’re really grateful, it’s just a bit of a shock” Julia reassured him.

“You’re welcome.” Grant said cheerily and then gave them the best news of the day. “There’s food in the back by the way.”

There was a frantic scrabbling as they all tried to get to the back of the cab at the same time. John coughed and looked at them disapprovingly as he righted himself and they all fell back a bit. He looked around behind him and found a cupboard marked, helpfully, food.

They were all asleep by the time the truck stopped. They woke as the engine stopped, stretching as best they could and waited. Were they there or was it another checkpoint? They waited some more. Grant had been gone for ages and Julia couldn’t wait. She took the tiniest peek out of the window. Then she took another. She couldn’t believe her eyes. The truck had stopped in Edinburgh! She’d been here on holiday, years and years ago, but it was definitely Edinburgh. Nothing had changed. Well not much. It was evening and people were coming back from work. Real people! There were a few more soldiers on the street than she remembered, but they, too, were human soldiers. She looked around; the others started to poke their heads out too, so she got out to have a better look around.

“Who’d have thought it” Julia exclaimed to the world at large “Utopia is in Scotland! No wonder it took us so bloody long to get here!”

She saw Grant coming back with some other people she didn’t recognise. She made up her mind. Grant opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off.

“I want to go back” she announced.

Grant’s face fell.

“But why, what’s wrong?”

“Oh, no, no, nothing at all. This is all so wonderful. I just want to make sure we get everyone up here. There may be more like us left there, feeling like I did, feeling hopeless and scared. I can’t just start again up here without trying to help.”

With that Grant smiled and the other people grinned at her.

“That’s the spirit!” he replied “but at least have a cup of tea first!”

There was a whoop from inside the truck. Julia didn’t have to look around to know who it was.

So, that was my story. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading.

I'm planning to post my next story soon, so keep watching this space.