There is no one in the immediate surroundings which is odd but we carry on. We walk around the corner and follow the short path to the central hall where we are met with a flood of people. I feel a hand grab my arm and I assume it’s Artie’s until I look down and see that it’s far too small and far too fragile to belong to her. My eyes meet those of a small girl and for a second, only a second, I think it’s Elara and my heart beat quickens and I can feel my blood racing in my neck and I feel dizzy and lightheaded and scared and nervous. But it’s only for a second because then I see that her hair’s the wrong colour and her nose is too small and her ears too big and she’s not my sister. She’s crying. Even though she’s not Elara it’s not as if I’m going to leave a crying girl alone in the middle of a crowded hall so I bend down, my knees hurting slightly from earlier.
“Hey, are you okay?” I’m at her level now and I can see that her hair is knotted and there’s a thin layer of dirt over her face that’s been cut through by tears. She doesn’t reply so I ask another question, “Are you lost?” This time, she nods. “Where are your parents?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice is high-pitched and quiet,
“Do you know why there’s so many people here?” She shakes her head and then I feel another hand grab my shoulder.
“Luca,” Artie’s voice sounds strained and urgent, “We’ve got to go, now. Zed was right, something’s happened on the line and we need to get back now.”
“I can’t just leave her, she’s lost.”
“We have to go.”
“I’m sorry,” I look the girl in the eyes and stand up. “How bad is it?” I say, now speaking to Artie.
“It’s bad, we need to get back now.” And we start to push our way through the crowd and back to the stairs. My heart is hammering against my ribs again and I can feel Artie’s doing the same as she stands next to me. We race up the stairs as quietly as we can and once we reach the top we slow our pace.
“What happened?”
“I’m not sure, but it’s bad. They’ve shut off the network.”
“But–”
“I know, it’s never happened before.”
We run across the hall, I can feel my knife pressing into my side. My arms drive either side of my body and Artie is just behind me, “Zed,” She shouts, “something's happened.” He walks out of ‘AR BKS’ and his face is contorted with a concoction of worry and fear. Puck, Liam, Ash, Tim and May follow him.
“We went down to the station and everything was shut.” I pant, my heart still knocking against my ribs. “Something’s happened.”
“Do you know what?” Zed’s voice was, as always, calm and level, no hint of any fear trickling into it.
“No clue.”
“When we went down,” Artie continues, “There were so many people there, it was packed. I overheard someone talking about the line being shut. They said that it was something to do with the Government.”
“Solids?” Liam turns to Zed,
“Maybe.” Zed doesn’t break his gaze with me and Artie,
“We should go check it out.” I notice the slight wobble in Liam’s voice as he speaks, there’s an understandable amount of fear in him.
“Puck?” Zed curls his hand into a tight fist at his side, “Get the knives.”
“I’ll monitor all of you through your chips, stay with your partner.” Zed walks slightly in front of me, a bag slung over his right shoulder. “We go down and we split up into pairs, try to find out what’s going on. We meet back here in one hour, it’s 16:20 now. If you’re not here by 18:00 and you’re not replying we will assume something’s happened and act accordingly.” No one feels the need to reply as we all know that something bad must have happened for the network to be shut down.
