Fight or flight

The alarm beats in perfect time with the thud of my heart. I have less than a minute.

Obediently, I stand and press myself against the far wall. The gentle shuffling noises in the cage to my left tell me Wren is doing the same, as does Ray’s footsteps to my right. Jack mirrors our position.

Cassie, predictably, does not. I can hear her hissing insults to the guards and slamming herself against the bars.

In all honesty, Cassie scares me.

The screech of Wren’s door closing signals their arrival. Although I’ve seen them every day of my remembered life, the guards always cause a ripple of fear at first sight. There’s something about their heavy boots and spiked helmets that unnerves me, and their uniforms are so bright under the sterile lights that I can barely stand to look at them.

As always, I focus on the lead scientist. Or, more specifically, the locket hanging from her neck. I’m not sure why it always grabs my attention. Maybe it’s just that I’d rather not look at the woman directly, with her neat sheet of blonde hair and dark, probing eyes.

She extends her hand to me impatiently and I have to fight the abrupt urge to refuse. Instead, I offer my arm. She yanks it into place and inserts the needle. As they go through the usual questions and examination, I study the locket. It’s heart-shaped and silver. Not in particularly good condition, although it does appear to shine in comparison to my dull surroundings. There’s a slight scratch on the face.

I almost work up the courage to ask about it, but there’s a scuffle during Cassie’s exam. I think she must have tried to push past the guards, because I can see one has been knocked against Jack’s cage. Jack laughs, clearly delighted, and pokes the guy through the bars. Ever the troublemaker.

The guards in my cell rush out to help but nothing comes of it. Even Cassie can’t take out four guards singlehanded. The scientist pulls my needle out and they all leave swiftly once the rounds are finished.

Cooper comes in with our meals a half hour later, right on schedule. I can hear him chatting to the youngest of the group - twins, Ella and Rose. He’ll make his way along the rows until he gets to my cell. Unfortunately, I’m one of the last, and before he gets to me he has to pass Lory. Lory’s by far the oldest in here. Coop says he looks to be in his seventies, but he’s got the best sense of humour. He can also speak for hours. It hasn’t been tested, but we have a running joke that Lory could talk underwater, which means his daily chats to Cooper take an age.

Cooper’s not like the other scientists. He’s younger, for one. But he’s also kind. He talks to us, not at us. Sometimes, when he looks at me, his eyes are almost guilty. I think he wishes he could help us leave.

“Hey, Maggie,” he smiles when he finally gets to me. “I brought your favourite.”

I see Jack roll his eyes at the weak joke; we get the same meal every day.

“Better than any restaurant,” I reply sarcastically. Not that I would know.

He flips the packaged tray so that it’s vertical and slides it between the bars.

“Hey, Coop? What’s it like?”

He sighs. It’s a question I ask most days, and one that always gets a different answer.

“It’s cold today. Not freezing, but enough that your fingers will go numb if you don't have gloves. Across the road, kids are playing in the park. They’ve all abandoned their puffy jackets to run around in the sun and their parents are chasing after them to wrangle their layers back on. I saw a boy hide his sister’s scarf in a tree, and the mum got so cross her face turned red. Someone’s been paid to sweep the leaves up into heaps so the park grass is clear but they’re fighting a losing battle, there’s just too many. I’m glad though, there’s nothing more satisfying than leaves crunching beneath your feet – except maybe jumping in the big piles. And the sky! The sky is so blue it almost makes you forget that your cheeks sting and you can’t feel your nose. It’s like… like you can feel it, deep and icy in your chest.”

More than anything, I wish I could see that sky.

My thoughts must be written all over my face because Cooper’s waiting patiently for my follow-up question. It’s not one I ask often because unlike my first, the answer is almost always the same.

“Why am I here, Cooper?”

He takes my hand through the bars. My pale hand looks as white as the guard’s uniform against his tan skin but he gives it a squeeze. His eyes have that same sad, guilty look I’m used to seeing.

“You’re here to save us all.”

I don’t bother pressing for more. Between the twenty or so of us in this room, we’ve pieced together a semblance of a story. The human race is dying. We are part of an experimental trial that aims to replenish the species. There’s only speculation as to how because the memories of our past have been suppressed. Some people think they’ve been erased completely, but I’m sure they haven’t. Every once in a while there’ll be a flash. Just the barest hint of a feeling. Like I’ve seen something, or smelt something, or heard something before. Then it’s gone, and I’m left trying to catch a feeling that dissipates as quickly as smoke through my fingers. It happens a lot with the locket.

The current theory is that we’re here to be cloned. Or worse, we are the clones and that’s why we have no memories. I’m not sure I believe that, though. It’s too bleak.

Cooper’s eyes are shining with unshed tears.

“I don’t understand,” I whisper, annoyed that my voice cracks and wobbles. “Why can’t we leave? We’ll come back, we’ll still help. I promise. We’d just be free.”

“I think it’s time you go now, Cooper,” Ray says quietly from next door. Ray’s the dependable one, always there to calm us down if we get scared or overwhelmed. His deep, warm voice rarely fails to soothe me, but it does today.

Cooper sighs and nods, quickly passing Jack and Wren their meals without another word before leaving through the heavy white door at the end of the corridor.

“I don’t know why you listen to him,” Cassie says in disgust once the door has sealed shut. “I bet he’s lying through his teeth. There’s nothing out there at all.” She doesn’t fool me; she listens just as carefully as everyone else when Cooper describes the outside.

From my cell, I can only see Jack properly. He’s smaller than I am but what he lacks in height, he makes up for in what Lory says is ‘mettle’. Ray calls it bravado. Cassie calls it idiocy.

Say what you want about him, but nobody claims he’s boring. Jack’s also the only one of us with an accent, which Lory finds hilarious considering no one has any memories. Sometimes I wonder if he’s putting it on just to make life a little more interesting.

“Hey Mags,” he whispers conspiratorially to me. There’s not much point, as everyone can hear us, but I can see his cheeky, crooked grin.

Ray groans. “What mischief are you up to now?”

I hear Lory’s distinctive cackle from a few cells down. “Leave the lad alone.”

Jack ignores them both. Instead he leans casually against the wall and swings a small metal key from his finger. “You said you wanted freedom. Well, I aim to please.”

Then, he unlocks his door and steps out. There’s a shocked cry from Ray and explosion of confused chatter as everyone tries to work out what’s happening. As Jack opens our cages, he explains his theft from the guard that Cassie pushed.

It’s so strange to finally put faces to a voice. Ray’s light blue eyes are stark against his dark skin. Wren’s shorter than I thought.

We only have five out when the alarms start blaring.

“Go!” Lory shouts from still inside his cell. “Run while you have the chance!”

Jack throws him the key before grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the end of the corridor. We run out of our room straight into a chamber full of heavy, white doors.

“Split up!” Cassie shrieks as guards burst through the far end.

Jack, Ray, and I dive to our right. We dash through room after caged room. I feel myself slowing; I’m not built for running.

We sprint into a large area with tables and chairs set out in small groups, some occupied by guards. There’s a clear box in the wall and I can see it leads to a place with no walls and green ground. I can only assume this is grass. The guard closest jumps up and grabs my arm but I claw at his eyes until he lets me go. I am desperate, and freedom is close.

I smack into the clear box but it doesn’t break. Ray yells at me to step aside and I do, just as he throws a chair at the thing. It shatters into a thousand sparkling pieces. The moment it does I’m climbing through, despite the stinging pain I feel on my hands and legs.

By some miracle, Jack and I make it out. I glance back to see Ray, blocking the guards with his body.

Jack tugs my hand and I turn my eyes forward. It’s so bright outside I have to squint as we stumble across the grass towards a long black path in front of the building. Something big and metal beeps aggressively at us but we push on, across the black patch.

We don’t stop until we reach a concrete ledge. Far below us I can see a wide space littered with what can only be trees, standing tall and strong. There are people too. Lying on the floor, chasing each other, using all sorts of contraptions. Faint laughter drifts up to us. Piles of bright colour lie below. Cooper’s park.

Then Jack’s hand is ripped so violently from mine my shoulder aches. I see a familiar white uniform pulling him down, away from me.

“Go, Maggie!” Jack cries. So I do the only thing I can think of. I jump.

But I don’t fall.

I fly.

It comes to me in flashes.

The warmth of my family around me.

Something soft against my cheek.

A gentle push, encouraging me to go.

I have been here before. Flying. Falling.

A face above me, floating. I know this face, but it’s not quite right. It’s young. Too young.

“Mum, look!” The boy’s face disappears for a moment before a second face swims into view. This face is familiar too, but it chills me to my core.

“A magpie! She’s hurt, mum. We should help her!”

“Or maybe…” the woman murmurs. “She can help us.”

She leans in further and something shines at her neck. A glint of silver. Heart-shaped, with a single scratch on the face.

I feel myself being picked up carefully but everything is fading fast. The last thing I hear is the woman calling distantly to her son. “Let’s go, Cooper.”

And then… darkness.

When I open my eyes, my vision is fuzzy. Every movement causes a rustling to fill my ears and my head to pound.

I look up at the sky; a clear, bright, icy azure which seems to stretch across both ends of the world. As it blurs from blue to black I think of my friends, still trapped in their cages; Lory, Rose, Ella, Ray, Wren, Cassie.

And I swear, from somewhere high above, a jackdaw cries.