The Hourglass Read online

  Finn wiped a tear of laughter away from his cheek. “We are so screwed.”

  “What if we knocked out one of the guards and used his wristband to get us out?” offered Marland, ignoring their outburst.

  “How are we going to knock out a guard without anyone else noticing? And where are we going to go? We’re on a ship. Our supplies get dropped to us from the air and the guards only change shift once a month,” replied Sarah sensibly.

  “Mr Painter only left a few days ago,” added in April morosely.

  “Right,” continued Sarah. “So they won’t leave again for another month. Even if we find the boat they leave on, I can’t drive a boat. We would have to somehow survive on it with no food until they leave again. Unless one of you can drive a boat?”

  Marland and April shook their heads.

  “It couldn’t be that hard, could it?” speculated Finn.

  “Finn, you can’t even swim,” replied Sarah.

  “That doesn’t mean I can’t drive a boat.”

  “No, but when the boat inevitably bursts into flames, I don’t want to have to tow you across the ocean.”

  Finn raised a finger and opened his mouth as if to protest.

  “Remember the bus?” interrupted Sarah.

  Finn closed his mouth again.

  They sat in silence, each of them trying to work out how they could get out of their predicament.

  “Do you even need to get off the ship?” asked April. “What if you could just avoid the selectors?”

  “Maybe,” said Sarah thoughtfully. Then she thought of Holden disappearing overnight. “But we couldn’t really rely on that. I mean, when I was working in the infirmary they sent out transport overnight to collect just one kid. Imagine what they would do for three of us.”

  April looked deflated and Sarah felt like she was being harsh. “But if that’s our only option, it’s one I’d take.” April gave Sarah a small smile.

  Finn stiffened on the other side of the table and Sarah glanced around. A burly, large-set man in an ill-fitting suit was approaching their table.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  April Sommers

  “April Sommers,” he said, comparing April’s face to a small picture of her that he held in his hand. April nodded numbly. His voice was deep and it rumbled as he spoke. “You’re to come with me.”

  “What? Wait, no. You can’t take her. She’s not fourteen yet. She’s only thirteen!” said Sarah, standing up. She looked around. This wasn’t making any sense. Only April was being taken and she was in the wrong age group. The rest of the prisoners were chatting to each other, not paying them any particular attention.

  Finn had stood up as well. “She doesn’t match the Hourglass group’s demographics,” he said clearly and earnestly, attempting to approach the matter civilly.

  Huge crease marks appeared in the man’s forehead as he frowned at them, confused. “I don’t know what you’re going on about,” he said slowly and deeply. “I’m not with the Hourglass group.”

  “Then where are you taking her?” asked Sarah.

  “To some fancy lawyer up on the deck. You got yourself an important Uncle, April Sommers. He’s managed to get you transferred and put under house arrest.”

  “Oh,” said Sarah, surprised.

  “You lucky girl,” said Finn, a grin breaking out on his face. “Best of luck to you.”

  “Who exactly is your uncle?” demanded Marland, amazed.

  “Nobody,” muttered April, who was looking oddly embarrassed.

  “The Mayor of Colton,” replied the man, who was eavesdropping shamelessly and wanted to get a move on. He wanted April to come willingly. If the Mayor found out that he had mistreated his niece, it might end badly for him. The others gaped at her. Colton was a big city and extremely well protected. Her uncle had a huge amount of influence.

  “You had a real, live, influential politician in the family and all you tell me is ‘he works for the government’?” said Marland, aghast.

  “Sorry,” said April apologetically.

  Marland huffed. “Did you know he was going to use his influence to get you out?”

  April shook his head. “I thought he would be too ashamed,” she said dryly. “A black market seller in the family doesn’t make for good politics.”

  “He knows what’s going to happen,” said Sarah, realisation dawning on her. “That’s why he’s getting her out now. He doesn’t want her to be part of it.”

  “But she’s under the age limit,” Finn pointed out sensibly.

  “Not by much. Not enough to be absolutely sure that they wouldn’t take her.”

  “Ms Sommers,” said the man, his patience finally breaking, “we have to go. Now.”

  Marland jumped up and wrapped April in a bear hug. “Be good,” she whispered in April’s ear. “Do what your uncle says. He’ll trust you. Then find out the secrets. Let the world know.” She let April go and beamed at her. A grin escaped April without her consent.

  “I’ll try and persuade him to get you guys out,” she promised. “You’re not even meant to be on this ship anyway. You’re the wrong class of criminal.” The guard had very gently grabbed hold of her arm and was now leading her away.

  “Good luck,” said Sarah.

  “Be bad!” yelled Finn.

  Suddenly April broke away from the guard, sprinting back towards the group. She stopped in front of Sarah. “Sarah, the Hourglass Symbol.” She spoke hurriedly, worried about the guard coming to get her. “Remember you asked me about that? There was a disagreement within the Hourglass Group. Some of the members broke off from the main Group and went into hiding, taking their research and experiments with them. They marked themselves with the symbol so that they could identify each other. They’re meant to be dangerous.” The guard had reached her side now. He took a firm grip of her arm and pulled. April didn’t have a chance. She was inexorably dragged along behind him. “Sorry,” she yelled, “I only just remembered! Please be careful!”

  As April left through one of the side doors the bell rang. It was time to go to the factory floor.

  “We should tell people what’s about to happen,” said Marland. “We have to let the others know.”

  Sarah and Finn nodded. As they walked with the crowd towards the factory they told the others around them. They were universally dismissed.

  “I don’t understand,” said Marland, “why don’t they believe us?” She sounded distressed.

  Sarah wasn’t as surprised as the other two. She had known it was going to be a difficult task from her attempt to tell Gretel the night before. Sarah turned around to look at the people behind her, trying to find others who might listen. She caught her breath in surprise. The Warden was standing at the end of the corridor, her gold Hourglass broach glinting brightly on her chest.

  Sarah turned back around and grabbed Finn’s and Marland’s shoulders, stopping them. The people around them complained and so they squeezed themselves against the corridor wall.

  Finn looked at Sarah quizzically. “What’s up?”

  “They’ll be in the factory waiting for us,” she said.

  Finn frowned. “How do you know?”

  Sarah nodded back down the corridor. “The Warden…”

  Fin and Marland looked. “So?” asked Marland.

  “So, there’s plenty of room and heaps of guards, and I just know. Yeah, I know,” she said, in response to their looks, “I sound crazy, but I’m right.”

  “If you are right and we go through those doors, then that’s it.”

  “We should split up,” said Marland. “Each of us needs to find a guard and say we need to go to the toilet or something. At the very least it’ll buy us some time.”

  Sarah shrugged. “I don’t have any better ideas.”

  “Then let’s do it,” said Finn. “No goodbyes,” he said, stalling Sarah. “We’ll meet up afterwards.” He strode away from them before anyone could say another word. Sarah gave Marland a quick, nervous smil
e and then headed back into the stream of people. A bored looking guard, who had been standing in an alcove, stepped out and stopped her.

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  Sarah doubted that this guard knew what was going to happen. If she did she would have looked more interested.

  “I need to go to the bathroom,” said Sarah.

  “You’re due on the floor,” replied the guard, barely looking at her.

  “I’m going to explode all over this corridor if you don’t let me go.”

  Mr Wall appeared from behind them. “What’s the issue?” he asked, not even looking at Sarah.

  “Bathroom request,” drawled the guard.

  “Then take her,” said Mr Wall impatiently.

  The guard rolled her eyes and languidly escorted Sarah the fifteen metres to the bathroom. Sarah followed her but glanced back at Mr Wall. He was watching her go with an odd expression on his face. Not for the first time she wondered how much he knew. They reached the bathroom and the guard waved a hand in the direction of the door and then leaned against the wall, waiting for Sarah to be finished already and exit so that she could be escorted back. Sarah pushed the door open and entered. The bathroom was empty. She entered a cubicle and sat down on one of the shut toilet seats to wait for Marland , and almost immediately stood back up again, pacing the room. A minute passed and still Marland hadn’t arrived. Two minutes passed. She hoped Finn was ok. Sarah stopped pacing as a low rumble penetrated the room. She hurried to the door, her hand on the handle and her ear pressed against the thin sheet of metal as she tried to hear more. There were one or two loud cracks and then the sound of a few people screaming. The noise was that of a hundred prisoners protesting. She was right. The Hourglass Group had been waiting for them on the factory floor. Sarah nearly jumped back as she heard the guard on the other side of the door swear. Her hand grasped the door knob just before the guard pushed on it from the outside. There was no way, Sarah thought firmly, that she was going to let her open that door and take her away to join the others. The guard was putting all her weight against it now and Sarah had to brace the door with her shoulder. The guard was bigger than her, however, and the door didn’t have a lock. She couldn’t hold out for much longer. She resisted one more savage twist of the doorhandle before she heard the guard swear in exasperation. The tension in the handle eased. Without releasing her own hold she pressed her ear against the door. The guard’s footsteps echoed dully throughout the metal corridor as she gave up on getting to Sarah and instead ran towards the ruckus happening on the factory floor. Sarah made herself count for a full minute before she opened the door. She flung it open quickly and hurtled out, only to run straight into another person. The person clamped a hand across her mouth before she could yell.

  “Sarah, calm down, it’s me!” It was Finn’s voice. He released his hand and she breathed a sigh of relief. “Where’s Marland?” he asked.

  “I don’t know!” replied Sarah anxiously. “She never came in!”

  Finn grabbed her by the hand and pulled, running in the opposite direction to the noise. “We can’t hang around to find out. We’ll do what we can later. C’mon, Sarah!” He tugged harder and Sarah flew down the corridor after him. It was craziness. She was hyperaware of everything that was happening around her, yet at the same time she couldn’t recall how they made it up another flight of stairs. She realised that they were heading in the same direction as the infirmary.

  “Where are we going?”

  “To get us a boat.”

  Sarah didn’t reply. What was the point in arguing when she didn’t have a better idea? They hurtled up the same set of stairs that Sarah had enjoyed the small wisp of breeze from a few days earlier. They halted before the door leading onto the deck. They had been lucky so far in that all of the guards seemed to be involved in the riot going on downstairs and that none were loitering in the corridors. The deck was a different story. Peering through a small window set into the door they could see at least three people walking around. Two of them seemed to be standing guard near the ships guardrail. Sarah could just make out a ladder attached to the rail. All of the men outside were wearing jackets to protect them against the weather. It was raining lightly. The third man was waving at a helicopter that looked to have just taken off. She guessed it was April’s and she felt a sudden surge of envy. She put the feeling aside. She had other things to focus on.

  “That must be the Hourglass group’s boat to transport the prisoners,” said Sarah softly, gesturing towards the two men and the ladder. She doubted that the Hourglass Group would move them all on a helicopter. There were just too many of them to transport. A boat made much more sense.

  Finn nodded in reply. “Can you see any other boats?”

  Sarah scanned the area. “No. You think there would be lifeboats, right?”

  “They probably store them somewhere else,” replied Finn. “Somewhere less accessible to the prisoners.”

  “It’s not like we’d ever need them in a hurry or anything,” joked Sarah. Finn’s lips curled up in a half grin. The man who had waved to the helicopter moved out of sight around the side of the ship.

  “We’ll hide on the Hourglass’ boat,” said Finn, the grin on his face growing as the idea took root.

  “What? They’re the ones we’re trying to avoid, remember?”

  Finn shrugged. “Then they definitely won’t look for us there.”

  Sarah opened her mouth to argue and then shut it again. “They would take us back to the mainland,” she said, thinking it through out loud.

  “If we’re lucky the warden might even think they took us as part of the experiment.”

  Sarah nodded at the guards. “We still have the issue of them.”

  As if nature herself had heard Sarah’s whisper, the light rain turned into a downpour. The two men standing next to the ladder ran for cover. Unfortunately their cover was also where Sarah and Finn were hiding. There was no room up near the door for them to hide. They bolted down the staircase as the door behind them opened up. Reaching the bottom of the steps they looked around. The corridor was long. There were no doors studding the walls. Sarah made a quick assessment. They would have to run at least twenty metres either way before they could find anywhere to hide. She grabbed Finn by the hand just before he took off down the corridor and dragged him under the stairs. They crouched down. They could still be seen through the breaks in the individual stairs if someone was paying attention. Sarah hoped that the Hourglass men would simply continue on down the corridor. They would have a chance then. If the men rounded the stairs and walked the other way they would be spotted for certain. The men stumbled down the stairs not a moment later. They were swearing as they went, shaking the rain off their jackets and wiping their hair out of their eyes. One of them sniffed.

  “May as well join the others then,” he said.

  “I didn’t want to guard the bloody ship in the first place,” replied the other one sulkily. “Who do they think’s going to take it? All the damn prisoners are below.” Still sniffing, the pair walked down the corridor away from Sarah and Finn. They waited until the men turned a corner and then sprinted back up the stairs. There was nobody on the deck now. The rain was pouring down so violently that it was hard to make out the far end of the ship.

  “Ready?” asked Finn.

  Sarah nodded, her heart in her throat. “Let’s go.”

  Finn tugged at the door. Nothing. It had locked automatically behind the guards. Finn tugged it a few more times, angrily. When nothing happened he kicked the door.

  “Finn..” said Sarah softly. He kicked the door again, harder. “Finn, stop it.”

  “I can’t.” He rumpled his hair in frustration. “This can’t be it. This can’t be it, damn-it!”

  “We’ll find another way.”

  “There is no other way, Sarah. This is it. We’re-” he stopped talking abruptly and stiffened all over. A man was clambering hastily up the stairs. It was Mr Wall. His fac
e was red with exertion and he was puffing. To Sarah’s everlasting surprise he barely spared them a glance. Pulling out his keycard, he swiped at the lock. The door buzzed open and he shoved it wide, letting in a torrent of rain.

  “Well,” he yelled at them over the wind, “get going!”

  Finn was the first to break out of their shock. He gave Mr Wall a grateful nod and grabbed Sarah by the arm, tugging her along as he jogged out into the rain. The wind hit them like a cannon, buffeting their bodies so that they were slowed down almost instantly. They were drenched in seconds, their clothes offering no protection at all. Sarah took three steps and then wrenched her arm free.

  “But why?” she yelled back at Mr Wall over the rain.

  “Find them, Sarah. Do whatever it takes. Find them and save us all.”

  “What? I don’t understand!”

  Finn grabbed her more firmly this time, pulling her along. “C’mon Sarah, we don’t have time!”

  “The mark!” yelled Mr Wall, tapping his own shoulder blade in the same spot where Sarah’s hourglass burn was. “Find them! They can stop it! They can stop the war!” If Mr Wall said anything else it was lost in the wind and the rain. Sarah gave up and ran with Finn. They made it to the ladder leading down onto the boat. Sarah grabbed Finn’s shoulder, stopping him just before he swung over the edge onto the ladder.

  “Wait,” she said, yelling into his ear above the wind, “what if there are people on the boat?”

  Finn shook his head and pointed to his ear. Sarah managed to make out his lips saying ‘I can’t hear you.’ She went to try again but it was too late. He had swung himself over the edge and was descending the ladder. After a second Sarah followed. The rain made the metal ladder treacherous. Twice her feet slipped from out beneath her. She would have dropped down completely if she hadn’t kept an arm crooked through the gap in the rungs as she descended each step. After what seemed like an age she finally felt a solid surface beneath her feet. She dropped down and crouched immediately next to Finn. The boat was of a similar size to the one that they had arrived on, only instead of having to descend down a set of steps to get inside, a long cabin was built on the deck. They had landed on the back of the boat, away from the stern and steering cabin. Like the prison ship, everybody on this boat had also retreated inside. They crept up to the side of the cabin and peered in through one of the cabin holes. It was empty save for two long rectangular benches running along each side. Finn started to grin like a maniac.