Skeletal Read online

  ‘Real guard now, huh?’ I say, voice lowered.

  ‘Yes.’ he says flatly.

  His posture is stiff, back straight, shoulders square, like a guard would stand.

  ‘Here to turn us in?’ I ask.

  He relaxes and leans up against the column.

  ‘Would I do that?’

  I shake my head. Of course, he wouldn’t. He may be a guard but he’s still my friend.

  ‘Do you know what caused the explosion?’ I ask, pushing wet strands of hair off my face.

  ‘I thought you might have an idea.’

  Kian eyes my sopping clothes and dishevelled appearance.

  ‘We were there for a science project,’ Bunce blurts out, stepping away from his hiding place in the shadows behind me.

  I knew it. He’s already breaking into a sweat and Kian hasn’t even begun to question us.

  ‘Allow me to escort you home, young master,’ Kian speaks gently to Bunce, as if he is a little boy, ‘it’s not safe here.’

  ‘I stay with her.’ Bunce says, defiantly crossing his arms over his patchy shirt, which is still dry in places.

  ‘As you wish,’ Kian says, blank-faced.

  He turns his attention back to me.

  ‘My guess is an experiment gone wrong. ERU took a scientist out of there.’

  ‘ERU?’ Bunce says.

  Kian glares at him as if he is a child interrupting an adult conversation.

  ‘Emergency Response Unit,’ he says to Bunce. ‘My team has been sent to secure the area and clean up the mess.’

  ‘They know we were there?’ I say.

  Kian lowers his voice.

  ‘You’re not their main concern, they’re looking for someone, a maid.’

  ‘A maid?’ I say confused. Surely, they don’t think a maid blew up the lab.

  ‘Cara!’ Bunce chimes in.

  A bolt of lightning strikes my mind.

  ‘Kian,’ I slap both hands on his chest, ‘I think I know why they want Cara, can you help me get out of here?’

  ‘Why do you want to leave? You’re doing so well.’ He frowns.

  ‘I’m not! I hate the place!’ I say, louder than I should have.

  ‘Sky, please, we’ve been over this, this is the best place for you.’

  Bunce stays quiet. I lean in close to Kian.

  ‘I think Cara has this serum, that’s why they want her, I’d bet a month of food rations that she’s stolen the cure for the Morbs genetic obesity.’

  Bunce gasps.

  ‘What?’ Kian scoffs, ‘Surely you didn’t buy into that crap about the rat?’

  I grasp Kian’s pressed shirt with both hands.

  ‘Can you get me out of here or not?’

  ‘No, Skyla!’

  He backs away, his shirt yanked from my grip.

  ‘Please,’ I beg, grabbing his sleeve, ‘I’m going out of my mind in here! Do me this favour. I’ve done enough for you over the years.’

  Bunce still hasn’t said a word, apart from that gasp about Cara being a thief. He keeps his eyes down, hands clasped behind his back like he’s already a prisoner, waiting for Kian to bind his wrists together and take him away.

  A crash shakes the floor, I grab hold of Kian’s arm to steady myself. It’s sounds as if the tube ceiling has caved in.

  Kian brushes my hand away and peers around the column.

  ‘Shit!’

  ‘What was that?’ I whisper.

  ‘Lockdown.’ Kian grunts, ‘come on, I’m taking you both back to your apartments before we’re all stuck here.’

  He grips my bare arm, pinching the skin.

  ‘Kian, let go!’

  I struggle against his grip as he tugs me along, into the tube, Bunce follows, shrieking when a heavy shutter comes down behind him, sealing off the Mall area.

  ‘Sky, don’t fight me,’ Kian says, striding along the tube, while I trip over my bare feet, pulling away from him. I look back at Bunce and plead for help with my eyes. He looks away. ‘You need to tell your master and mistress that you had nothing to do with that explosion. Run away and they’ll think you’re involved.’

  I stumble along beside Kian, clawing at his thick fingers which are cutting off the circulation in my arm, bruising it. I’m gonna boot him in the nuts if he doesn’t let go. Except I don’t have any boots on and my bare foot isn’t going to make much of an impact. I twist and tug, he tightens his hold on me.

  ‘Perhaps you should loosen your grip,’ Bunce says in a mousy voice as he scampers along behind us.

  ‘Perhaps you should let me do my job, young master,’ Kian snarls over his shoulder. We reach a shaft, the one close to the Vable’s apartment. Kian bears down on Bunce who shrinks down, ‘or shall I tell your mother you were obstructing a guard on duty?’

  Eyes on the floor, Bunce shakes his head.

  ‘Cowardly little bitch,’ I spit at him through gritted teeth.

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Bunce sighs, hurrying to keep up with Kian’s long strides, ‘I know Cara, she’d never steal anything, she’d die before she’d betray my brother-in-link.’

  ‘What was she doing there then, Bunce?’ I growl back, allowing Kian to drag me along.

  He shrugs.

  ‘She’s always back and forth from the labs.’

  ‘Why didn’t you say this before?’ I spit, ‘We could have asked her to find the cure!’

  ‘Like I said, Cara is loyal,’ Bunce frowns, ‘She’d turn us in in a second.’

  A voice springs from Kian’s wrist.

  ‘23-06 where are you?’

  Kian doesn’t stop moving, he drags me along while he speaks into his talking wrist.

  ‘On my way, shutter came down and separated me from the squad, I’ll have to take the long way around.’

  ‘Copy that.’

  ‘I have to get back to work,’ Kian stops in front of the shaft, ‘Can I trust you to go back to your apartments?’

  I nod, but I don’t intend to do any such thing. Kian lets go of my arm then drops his hand down to catch mine before I can get away.

  ‘More shutters could drop, I need you to go home and stay home, okay?’ He says, his green eyes flit around my face, trying to read me like a book.

  ‘Why are they dropping shutters?’ I ask, ‘Bit dangerous.’

  ‘Morbs stop moving when the siren sounds and wait for an announcement. They don’t move during lockdown, never been a case of one being crushed to death by a shutter,’ he grins at Bunce, ‘… yet.’

  ‘That’s true,’ Bunce says in agreement, not picking up on the fact Kian was insinuating he’d be amused if Bunce was crushed to death, ‘we’re the only dummies moving about, and the guards, but they’re skilled,’ he quickly adds before rambling on about how fantastic guards are, clearly trying to impress Kian. It has the opposite effect.

  ‘I mean it, Sky,’ Kian says as he strides away, ‘go home.’

  I scowl. He knows he can’t tell me what to do. Go home, he says. I intend to. A few days ago, I saw a way out, what I hope is an exit out of the complex. That’s where I’m going.

  ‘Well, goodbye, Bunce.’ I say, chirpily as I step into the lift, ‘I hope I never see you again.’

  I press the button for the Vable’s floor and he wedges his large frame between the doors.

  ‘Wait!’ he says, lips quivering, clearly hurt by what I said, ‘We made this plan together and we’ll see it through to the end, together.’

  I shake my head.

  ‘Not a good idea.’

  I push against his fleshy arm and try to force him back through the doors.

  ‘I’m coming with you!’ he says sternly.

  I push harder, my hands sinking into his soft body. I can’t budge him.

  ‘You’re not!’

  I lean my body away from him and up on tiptoes, I push my hands into his side, throwing all my weight into it.

  ‘I can help,’ he says, and forces more of his body firmly in between the half-closed metal doors.
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  ‘With … what?’ I strain, slamming my bony shoulder into his large frame, ‘Would you move already!’

  ‘I want to be the first to take the cure.’

  I stop pushing but leave my hands resting against his shoulder. I grin at the idiot Morb. He’s off his head.

  ‘We don’t know if it even works, the serum could kill you, if the city doesn’t first. You don’t know what it’s like out there, Bunce,’ I puff, and shove him in the ribs.

  ‘You need me. If Cara has ‘stolen’ the cure, she’ll talk to me. She trusts me.’

  ‘I’m not going after Cara,’ I say, agitated, why won’t he take no for an answer? ‘I’m going into hiding. I can’t help you, Bunce.’

  ‘You can’t hide from Central,’ he says.

  I stop trying to shove him back through the door and stand, hands on hips.

  ‘I can’t stay here.’

  I don’t want to talk to him anymore, I just want to go! Things happen, circumstances change, a new direction is needed. Why does he need to plan every little detail?

  ‘Neither can I, not when there’s hope for a better future.’ he says, eyes like steel, determined.

  ‘What about the unfiltered air?’ I say. I’ll say anything to get him to move. ‘What if you get outside and can’t breathe?’

  ‘I would rather look into the sun just once and risk blindness than live my life without ever feeling its warmth on my face.’

  I’m silenced by this sentence. A sentence I know well. The last words my grandfather ever spoke. I fall back into the lift, to the floor. Bunce squeezes through the doors, which swish closed behind him.

  ‘How do you know those words?’ I ask.

  I fall into a daydream. I’m not in the lift with Bunce anymore, I’m back in the centre of town, black clouds above me, a waterfall of tears falling down my cheeks.

  ‘I heard it when I was a boy, on the VS, I think, a documentary or something.’

  ‘A documentary?’

  I lean back, head clonking against the cold metal, damp dress hanging on me the same way it would if it was draped over the back of a chair. The lift begins its ascent. My limp body rocks with it. The emptiness inside me is like a river run dry.

  ‘I didn’t get to see the end,’ Bunce goes on. ‘My mother switched it off.’

  He leans against the metal wall, opposite me.

  ‘It wasn’t a documentary,’ I say, flatly. ‘It was my grandfather’s execution.’

  I choke back the sorrow. My grandfather’s death is still difficult to talk about. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever talked about it with anyone. Not even Kian.

  ‘Your grandfather was executed?’ Bunce frowns.

  ‘What you said just now … about the sun … those were his last words to me, before they killed him.’ My eyes water.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Bunce says. ‘I didn’t know.’

  I hold my forehead.

  ‘I can’t believe it was broadcast.’

  Bunce shifts over to my side of the lift and picks up a strand of my sodden blond hair. He lets it drop though his fingers.

  ‘That little girl, who ran out to him, that was you?’

  I nod.

  ‘He died for what he believed in. It took years for me to accept that,’ I say, and it did. I still haven’t fully forgiven him for leaving me but I have at least managed to accept why he did what he did.

  ‘What did he do wrong?’ Bunce asks.

  I can’t stop the rage, it bubbles up, spills over and erupts. I lunge for him, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck.

  ‘What did he do wrong? Automatically, you think it was his fault! Skel turned criminal, fucking scumbag, right! You over-privileged little bastard! What do you know about it? What do you know about anything? NOTHING! That’s what!’

  ‘Skyla, my apologies, I didn’t mean to …’

  He squirms. I let go of him before I choke him to death. I scream with frustration and punch the floor of the lift with my fists.

  ‘I can’t take anymore!’

  Angry tears gush. All the stress, all the pressure, it rushes from me, my body convulsing with the expulsion of emotion. My shoulders heave. I’m losing my mind. I can feel it – it’s all slipping away.

  ‘Skyla …’

  A pudgy hand is on my shoulder. I look up, and Bunce’s eyebrows bow, his mouth turned down in sympathy and regret for what he said.

  ‘He didn’t do anything wrong.’ I sniff. ‘He organised a protest outside City Hall. Central tried to shut it down, there was some conflict and my grandfather was accused of assaulting a High-Host.’

  Bunce gasps and clamps his chubby hand over his mouth.

  ‘The bastards were trying to take our market away. Thanks to my grandfather we got to keep it … the cost was his life.’

  We sit in silence for what seems like an eternity, our bodies swaying with the upward motion.

  ‘That’s exactly why you must let me come with you,’ Bunce says, his voice soft as a lullaby. ‘Your grandfather wouldn’t want you to hide, on the run for the rest of your life. I’ll take the cure and then if it works, I can give it to others.’

  ‘You’d risk your life for something that might not even work?’ I say, ‘that’s not very Morbihan of you.’

  Bunce struggles to his feet, he’s nowhere near the size of a fully grown adult Morb but his frame is a lot larger than any Skel’s and thus he’s not as nimble or light-footed. He leans against the opposite wall. I push my trembling body up the inside of the cold metal lift to face him.

  ‘Morbihan are fascinated by statistics,’ he says, matter-of-factly. ‘Sixty percent chance this artificial organ will be effective, eighty percent chance the body will reject that one and so on. I know the odds of success aren’t in our favour but you’re right, there’s more to life than being stuck inside a bubble, acting out the same boring routine every single day. There’s got to be more ... and I want to find out how much.’

  The lift jolts to a stop and I’m flung forwards. Bunce catches me by the arms and I slip down, my face level with his crotch. I glance up at him.

  ‘Thanks.’

  He blushes and pulls me up onto my feet. The lift lights blink off and a robotic voice rings out of the speakers. We stand perfectly still in the darkness and listen.

  ‘This is an announcement. The complex is in lockdown. Please remain calm. All shafts have been temporarily deactivated and tube entrance will be denied. This is for your own safety. The cooling system will be unaffected. Stay inside your apartment. If you are outside your apartment, please refrain from any unnecessary movement about the complex. Once the guards have completed their objective, all power will be restored. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you for your patience.’

  ‘Help me with the door,’ I say, pushing my fingers into the gap in the metal, the gold paint on my nails chipping off.

  Bunce squeezes in behind me and we pull the door back. Bunce grunts as he forces the left one back, the right one opens on its own as its twin is shifted. We’re between floors. My floor at the bottom and Bunce’s above. The gap to Bunce’s floor is too small for him to fit through. I slip down and my bare feet slap against the cool marble. Bunce follows behind me but is less graceful, he lands on his feet and stumbles a few steps forwards, managing to keep his balance.

  ‘There’s an emergency stairwell a few apartments down from my sister’s, I’ll go get my stuff and then meet you at the bottom of it, do you know the one?’

  ‘Yes,’ I say. I was right, there is a way out.

  We set off in different directions. I stop and look back.

  ‘Bunce.’

  Bunce skids to a halt, his sneakers squeaking against the polished marble floor.

  ‘If things don’t work out …’

  ‘I understand.’

  ‘There’s no going back … for either of us.’

  ‘I know,’ he says, determined.

  I nod and I sprint away, dress flapping
around my legs in tatters, makeup smeared in clumps down my cheeks. He’ll probably have second thoughts once he gets back to his apartment. He won’t come with me. I relax a little at the thought of doing this alone but part of me feels relieved to have someone fighting my corner, someone who also doesn’t believe that the system works. I try to think of a lie to tell my masters. Nothing comes to me.

  I arrive at door twelve in seconds and once inside, I still haven’t thought up a lie. I creep past the loud paintings which are quiet in the lockdown forced darkness. They can’t see me but if they could and if they could talk, I imagine they’d be shouting, ‘she’s here! She’s here! She’s done something terrible!’ I peer round the doorframe and into the minimalist lounge. It’s dark, strips of moonlight sneak through the closed blinds and zebra stripe the floor. It’s too quiet. Where are they?

  I make my way to my room and as soon as I’ve closed the door I tear the yellow rag-doll dress from my body, change into my work uniform – black pants and shirt – then quickly dash into the shower room and turn on the cold tap. I splash my face with the fresh water. Aware I will never have access to clear water like this again, I cup my hands tight, let the water fill up and greedily drink it before it drains away through my fingers. I splash more on my face and my makeup slides off, running black and pink into the sink and down the plughole.

  As I leave the shower room I pull my lank hair up into a high ponytail. I reach for my knapsack, then decide I don’t need it – if they find out it’s gone, they’ll know I ran. I pull socks and the snood from it then wonder if my mistress will know I kept my Skel uniform? She might check my bag. I shove the bag and the torn dress under my mattress. That way they’ll take longer to figure out what happened to me. I carefully pull each sock over my blistered and glass splintered feet. I didn’t bring my boots, and heels will be useless on the streets. There is nothing else, all I have are twenty pairs of different coloured foot cripplers. I decide on socks only.

  Outside the apartment, I tiptoe back past the shaft until I reach a door marked ‘Stairs’. No palm-pad, I push it open, and sure enough, there’s a flight of winding stairs before me. I hurry down in my socks, feet making no sound. I pull open the door at the bottom of the stairs and thump! My body bounces off a guard. Not Kian. Not good.