Part 0
Synopsis: The reality of the Mass Breakout crisis is driven home - to one young Sap, at least.
This story is set in early 2020 and is the fifth story in the Kindred Spirits sequence. Recommended reading order is:
1) Kindred Spirits - Two Aims, One Destination
2) Kindred Spirits - Double Bluff
3) Kindred Spirits - Slipping the Net
4) Kindred Spirits - Consumed by Fire
5) Kindred Spirits - The Stair
This story is based on the television series 'The Tomorrow People', created by Roger Price and owned by Thames Television/Freemantle Media. It also features original characters and situations created by, and the intellectual property of, Jackie Clark and Elizabeth Stanway, October 2003.
The rhyme quoted in this piece, which gives the story its name, was written by Hughes Mearns (1875-1965) in his work 'The Pyschoed'.
Many thanks to Anyta for her very helpful and thorough beta-reading and to Jackie for helping to shape this story and for letting me share her visions of the future.
Comments would be welcome to tiylaya@yahoo.com
'As I was walking up the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
I wish, I wish, he'd go away.'
That rhyme freaked me out when my mother read it to me. I woke screaming with nightmares and I couldn't explain to her that not being able to see anything scary was what made it so bad. Of course, I was just four years old and that was almost twelve years ago. The words still send a shiver down my spine though. It's astonishing that anyone could have written such a prescient piece of paranoia way back then. It's even more astonishing that parents have been scaring their kids with it for generations.
These days, of course, it's not funny any more.
As far back as I can remember there have been speculative news stories and wild rumours about the Tomorrow People. To us kids they were just bogeymen, hiding behind closets to jump out and snatch us away from our folks. To our parents they were a lot scarier. Can you imagine what it would be like to have someone trawl through your thoughts? Can you imagine how it would be if your teacher or boss or parents knew every disrespectful or rebellious idea that passed through your head? Can you imagine the perfect crime? No fingerprints, no forced entry, no heavy lifting gear; just the incredible mind of some powerful creature who might not share your worldview, your morals, your ... humanity. Those were the rumours that scared our parents, and as we grew up, they scared us too. The Tomorrow People have become the ultimate people 'who aren't there'. We might meet them every day and never know it.
Oh, the governments still officially deny the Tomorrow People exist. It's probably just about the only thing that all the world's heads of state have ever agreed on. And yet every country seems to have a wing of their military with some unspecified mandate to protect the security of the state. Every government has introduced new national security laws in the last five years or so, passed through parliament with little more than a pretence of discussion. And now, in every country in the world, the authorities have set up isolation camps. They're meant to isolate dangers to society. You know - persistent criminals, anarchists, the incurably insane. People were edgy at first. They thought that this was going a bit too far. They're used to the idea now though, and who can argue convincingly against something that's designed to protect normal people - people like you and me?
Sometimes we worried, a bit. No one knows quite what's caused all the riots and tragic accidents across the world in the last few years. Even if the press could find someone willing to admit to being in one of the mobs, they could rarely give a coherent explanation for their actions. There were usually rumours of strange behaviour. Often there were stories about someone being promoted unjustly, of someone knowing things they shouldn't. No one wanted to voice their suspicions that the people who were lynched were Tomorrow People. That would mean facing up to what they feared most.
Even what happened over in Canada didn't get me more than a little curious. I mean, everyone knew something had happened. There was a night of rioting and chaos. Thousands of people vanished suddenly and thousands were sent to one of the first big camps. There was a bit of fuss in the press, but the Government here threw some kind of media blackout across it and I think over there they were even stricter about the reports. The Canadian people didn't even know as much as we did.
I didn't know the rest of it myself, not until this afternoon when I actually started to look. There are records if you know where to find them, and someone out there in cyberspace does.
There were over two hundred extra deliveries to the crematoria in Toronto that day.
I never knew that. Not until today. I keep telling myself that I didn't know how dangerous things really were.
If I'd known this group was here on the web, if I'd known there were so many people with so many stories to tell ... I might never have had one of my own. But this group is still small, even if it's growing fast. I think most people out there in the real world don't want to know the truth about what's happening - after all, until now I never wanted to know myself. It's not as if the Tomorrow People are real, I told myself. It's not as if this thing could affect you, or your family or friends now, is it? I used to really believe that, and now I'm ashamed. Does it matter if the people dying alone and in fear aren't people you know and love? They're still people.
****
So what got me thinking? Well, it was Rob. We've been friends since we started school - almost since I was young enough for my mother to scare me with that strange little rhyme. We play football together. We go to the same school. I suppose everyone has a close friend of one kind or another. Rob and I have never talked about it. We're best mates, that's all.
At least, we were until a couple of weeks ago. I guess it happened quite quickly. One moment, Rob and I were both sitting, chewing our pencils, struggling with a maths test. The next moment Rob was staring at the teacher with a strange look on his face. I noticed the funny expression when I glanced up in search of inspiration. Then I saw Rob start scribbling away at the paper. I think I grinned a bit. If Rob or I couldn't think of the answers we usually just scribbled down nonsense. It was a bit of fun really, to see who could get away with the most outrageously wrong answers. Clearly Rob was stuck already and I was only halfway through the answers I was pretty sure of.
I teased him a bit about that after the test, but he just grinned and wouldn't talk about it. He wasn't grinning the following day when the teacher called him to the front of the class and commended him for learning the work so thoroughly. 'Robert' had got 100%, she told the class. Rob just couldn't wait to sit down. I think that until that moment he hadn't believed what he had felt the day before. But for the next few days he was almost himself again. Sure, a couple of times he answered questions before I asked them as we hung out on the school steps. I tried not to notice, but each time he gave me a worried look - almost as if he were scared of me.
I don't remember now what I was thinking back then. I think I was starting to be scared too, though. All my life I'd heard stories about how a Tomorrow Person could get into your head and change you. My friend was changing in front of my eyes. Was there a Tomorrow Person around somewhere, twisting Rob's mind? I didn't think it out so coherently, but the fear was there. And then Rob collapsed.
We were on the football field, playing in the local kids' league, when Rob just fell to the ground clutching his head. Everyone saw, everyone rushed to help. In the end the coach went with him to the hospital. My dad just frowned as he drove me home to wait for news. I didn't get any though. The next day I went around to Rob's place, but his parents didn't want to talk to me. Rob wasn't going to live there any more, I was told. He had new friends and they were looking after him. His parents didn't want me visiting again. Rob would be back at school tomorrow, but he wasn't coming back to live with them. I didn't understand at the time why his Dad looked so angry or why his Mum had been crying, so I just went off and the next morning I stood on the steps outside the school and looked for Rob.
He turned up so close to the start of school that I didn't have a chance to talk to him before Registration. When I could grab a word he just shrugged off the questions. He had just had a virus, he said. A twenty-four hour bug. It was nothing to worry about.
After that he was more careful. He didn't ace any more tests. He didn't answer questions before they were asked. But sometimes his eyes would go vague and distant. He wasn't around after school any more - just went off with these new 'friends' of his. And once, when we walked past the locker room, a hundred metal doors rattled in their frames.
****
I noticed the man watching Rob three days ago. I almost told Rob himself, but something had come between us. I wasn't quite sure any more that I wanted to trust him, and besides, I was curious. So while the strange man was watching Rob, I crept around behind and watched the man instead. After an hour or so, I inevitably got careless.
I wasn't ready for the two strong men who wrestled me into the back of a parked van. I was even less ready for the ID card that the man I'd been watching thrust into my face as he joined us. Special Intelligence, he said, investigating a threat to national security. And 'Robert' was involved.
Now, I might have been scared and more than a little irritated by the way Rob had been treating me lately, but we were still mates. And I wasn't going to land him in anything. I said as much and the Intelligence Man fixed me with a steady look.
Robert wasn't in trouble, I was told. He was being used. He was being twisted by a force outside his control. I'd heard the rumours, hadn't I? Well, of course, the Intelligence Man couldn't say anything one way or another. The best thing I could do to help my friend would be to co-operate. All I had to do was to tell the Intelligence Man about how Rob had been acting lately. About anything strange that had happened.
I hesitated, staring at the badge the man still held in his hand. I didn't like this. I didn't like it at all. Did they mean it when they said they wouldn't hurt Rob? I mean, these guys were with the Government, weren't they? So they had to be the good guys. They wanted me to sneak on my best mate, but they told me it was for his own good. How could I be sure?
They would help Rob, I was promised. The man in charge looked sternly at me with steady grey eyes. Rob was being used, he repeated. They'd bring back the Rob I used to know. They would stop whoever was changing him and give me back my friend.
Well, Rob was in trouble wasn't he? Of course, I told the Intelligence Man everything. There was no other choice I could make.
I was on the other side of the sports field when they took him away. There were just a few of us kids there and a wave of his ID by the Intelligence Man was enough to shut most people up. Rob screamed, clutching his head just as he had done that other day. He shouted something about them taking it all away - he looked scared as he asked how they'd done it. I didn't hear the reply. Desperate to know what was going on, I ran up to them as they put Rob in the van.
They were taking Rob away to get him some help, they said. He'd be back at school tomorrow and it would be the old Rob. They wanted to thank me, they said, for all my help.
****
I waited outside the gates before school yesterday. I wanted to grab Rob and talk to him before we ran into the crowd at school. I guess I wanted to see that he was my old friend again. I wanted him to tell me I'd done the right thing. But then the bell rang and I assumed I must have missed him somehow. I waded through the crowd, looking left and right, heading for the steps that led up to the school's main door. Even then I was only just starting to feel the sick fear that's settled in my stomach.
As I was walking up the stair, I realised Robert wasn't there.He wasn't there again today.
I wish he'd never gone away.