22
The alarms rang around them. Tom and Issie stared at each other, wanting nothing more to embrace but they knew they didn't have the time, not anymore.
"Well, it looks like they know I'm here." Tom said. "We don't have a lot of time. Seal the doors to this room and when I say, open the tanks."
Ray and Issie exchanged a glance and did as Tom said as below, Tom rushed to the control panels located on each of the tanks, entering the code that he'd created whilst holed away in his abandoned home. Once done, he whirled around and began changing the dosages, swapping the chemicals and drugs out. He needed to be quick but bring them around somewhat gently. Otherwise it would be like a scuba diver rising to the surface to fast. Pop!
From the observation deck, Issie and Ray watched he ran around the room. Ray had a quick look at the CCTV monitors.
"People are evacuating."
Issie followed his gaze. "We have a bigger problem though. Right on cue."
A squad from the Wells security team were pushing past people in and effort to get to the tank room. Issie pushed the intercom button. "Tom, hurry. Wells has sent a team in already."
He didn't show that he acknowledged it but he moved quickly, so quick Issie had no idea what he was doing. He looked like a madman down there. Frantically hitting the computer keyboards and running to the tanks to change the drugs that were being pumped in their body. She wished she could be down there with him. Suddenly, he stopped and looked up.
"That should be it." He shouted up at them. "Open the tank doors."
Issie entered her key code. Hesitating just a moment, she looked at Ray.
"I hope this works."
Just as she was about to press the button though, Tom held up a hand.
"Wait."
They looked down at him as he started moving slowly across the room. There was a sound, something coming from the corner of the room. A noise, just audible over the sound of the alarm.
Chip, chip.
Clink, clink.
Vmmm.
Vmmm.
As Tom neared the source of the sound, behind one of the tanks, he squinted into the shadows and could make out a figure.
"Hello?" Tom said, wary.
Momentarily, the figure paused, looking in his direction, before continuing, harder and faster than before.
"Excuse me, can't you hear the alarms? You shouldn't be—"
But Tom stopped. He was close enough now to see exactly what the man was doing. The man stopped. A rumble and a roar could be heard now above the alarms.
Crack.
Crack.
Crackcrackcrackcrack.
Tom looked at the wall, which was now starting to splinter, water dribbling out.
The man turned to Tom and smiled.
"Atishoo. Atishoo. We all fell down."
Tom ran back into the room.
"OPEN THE TANKS DO IT NOW DO IT N—" he began to shout, but he never finished. He was drowned out by the sound as the wall behind him exploded open and the water gushed out, knocking him from his feet and started to fill the room, fast.
Transcript of Interview with Sarah Barr. August 30, 2015. Conducted by J.P. McNair.
We had to take a break, to allow her time to compose herself. It was proving harder for her to remember this than it had everything else.
I sit there in the living room, looking around. It's sparse of personal effects, but homely. Minimal. The window looks out onto a row of houses and then the river and hills beyond.
Despite everything that's happened, I can see that she's trying. Trying to build a life, a new one. Perhaps something that echoes the life she had in Fredrick Street, or perhaps it was something wholly new.
When she returns, she smiles at me apologetically.
"I'm sorry. I thought I'd told you the toughest part. But I suppose, really, this is the worst because this was the only time my real life infected the dream one of Fredrick Street."
It's fine. You can take your time.
"I know. It's just, it feels like something that happened to another person, which I suppose I have the experiments to thank you, but, it doesn't make it any less difficult."
You're talking about the failsafe scenario?
She laughed. "Christ, they always have some sort of fancy name for it. Yes. I'm talking about the failsafe scenario. And I only know the one they'd built for me. I'm sorry – I don't know the others and Kim never told me what she had to go through."
What did you see?
"What I had been running away from."
YOU ARE READING
The Quest For Perfection (Is A Damn Fine Thing)
Mystery / ThrillerFor the residents of Fredrick street, life is just perfect in their small community. They have everything they ever wanted and more.Sarah has the family and the body she has always wanted while Jessica is a popular high school kid with grades as hig...
