The digi-screens around Green Park sprang into life. Their blank screen was now ablaze with colour and slowly Conrad’s face came into focus. Kayleb could see apprehension in Conrad’s eyes.
‘You must all go home. There is nothing to fear,’ he said. ‘You must all leave the park immediately until the situation has stabilised. Our protective shield will stop any terrorist attack. You are safe but you must all return to your homes. This is not a request; it is an order. Police officers will be sweeping through the crowds shortly and anyone found loitering will be punished.
There will be another broadcast in twenty ...’
Conrad paused and looked startled. David appeared on the digiscreen alongside Conrad. Kayleb and others nearby inhaled sharply with surprise. David had been beaten and his face was battered and bruised. Kayleb felt ashamed, ashamed that he had let this happen to David and ashamed that Conrad was his cruel mentor.
‘What are you doing here?’ Conrad asked David. ‘Who let you out? What happened to you ... Who did this to him?’ Conrad asked those around him, invisible to everyone in the park. Kayleb felt a little better. At least Conrad had not ordered David to be beaten but Kayleb was still concerned about David’s condition.
David began to talk. Conrad tried to push him out of the camera’s view but was unable to, as David had shielded himself from those around him. He looked very old and weary and was having difficulty maintaining his shield as he spoke.
‘I am sorry that you are all afraid,’ said David, addressing the crowds in Green Park. ‘You must not be. I promise that no harm will come to you. The first craft will enter the shield soon. Please stand back when it lands. The craft is still hot and you will be burnt if you touch it.’
Kayleb looked at everyone’s faces in the park. They looked frightened and angry. An older man standing near one of the screens shouted out. ‘You bastard! There are thousands of you coming. We won’t stand for it!’ The man picked up a hardened lump of earth from the edge of a planting area and hurled it towards a digi-screen. The sod of earth hit the screen, striking the image of David’s head. David flinched with pain.
Kayleb watched as others in the crowd grabbed what they could and with anger threw it at the digi-screens too. David did not move. He held up his arm to protect himself from the assault. Kayleb watched on in horror as David sank down to the floor as a metal rod harpooned the screen. It was almost as if it had speared David in his chest. Kayleb couldn’t understand how David could be feeling the blows when he was over in police headquarters in the broadcasting room. Conrad looked confused. He couldn’t understand what was happening to David. He looked like he was being attacked by an invisible assailant or was having a heart attack.
The crowds around Kayleb were acting like animals. He couldn’t understand their mentality. The police began to move among them and were using their stun guns on anyone acting in a threatening way. Men and women dropped to the ground as they were knocked out by the stun guns. People were beginning to run from the park. Kayleb looked around him. He knew that he needed to run too; he did not want to be stunned. Some of the screens were beginning to explode. Green Park was a dangerous place to be. Kayleb turned to run and then saw a familiar face. Rowan was running towards the same gate as him; he didn’t seem to be with anyone. Kayleb caught Rowan up by the gate. Kayleb called out Rowan’s name but he did not hear him. Kayleb called again and this time Rowan turned to look at him.
‘Rowan, it’s me,’ said Kayleb.
Rowan looked blankly at Kayleb.
Kayleb was puzzled. Rowan did not look himself. ‘It’s me, Kayleb. We did our task together. You remember, don’t you?’
Rowan shook his head. He did not remember Kayleb but then he smiled.
‘Oh I remember you. You used to go to the same school as me. You were in my class, weren’t you?’
Kayleb stared at Rowan. He was getting nowhere. Rowan really had lost his mind and then it dawned on Kayleb that he must have been to the Decam Centre and his memory must have been cleared.
The last digi-screen exploded. It was just over their heads. Sparks rained down on them both.
‘I know it’s hard for you to believe it,’ continued Kayleb. ‘But you really did do your task with me and you have met David too, that old man we just saw on the screen.’
Rowan looked confused. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never met that man in my life. I have done my task. My mentors said that I returned home a hero and it was a wonderful moment for them. The reason I can’t remember it is because I must have had a knock to the head when I was fighting a beast in the wilderness.’
‘You really don’t remember anything, do you?’ asked Kayleb.
‘No,’ said Rowan. ‘I’ve been feeling very tired lately. What was your homecoming ceremony like?’ Rowan asked Kayleb but he did not let him answer. ‘The police will get us if we stay here. My mentors have gone; they were with me a moment ago. I must get home. Look at all the people around us who’ve been stunned. They’re bound to be thrown out into the wilderness. God knows what will happen to them out there. I was lucky to get home in one piece.’
Kayleb was beginning to get annoyed with Rowan and couldn’t believe that he couldn’t remember anything about his task. ‘Surely you remember something of your task? Indigo, the meat store on the Isle of Wight, David and Cornwall ... Surely you remember Max and being in the stud pen?’
‘No, I just remember eyes, green eyes ... Sometimes when I’m dropping off to sleep I see them staring at me,’ Rowan said but then his eyes widened with fear. He was looking behind Kayleb.
Kayleb twisted around and saw a police officer running towards them. The police officer was holding a stun gun and was ready to fire. It was Cornwall. She was in full combat uniform. Her fair hair was tied back and, although her visor was pulled down over her face for protection, her green eyes were clearly visible beneath.
‘Quick, run!’ Kayleb shouted to Rowan.
Max barked, sensing impending danger.
Cornwall was approaching fast. She had recognised both Kayleb and Rowan. Kayleb started to run but Rowan stood still and stared at Cornwall, transfixed.
‘Nooo!’ Rowan shouted out. ‘Keep my nightmare away from me.’
‘Then run!’ shouted Kayleb. ‘For God’s sake, run!’
Kayleb, Max and Rowan fled from the park with Cornwall close on their heels. It was difficult to run through the crowds.
Kayleb saw an ICE centre across the street. It seemed a good place to hide, as there were always crowds of people in there at the weekend. They ran through the reception area unnoticed, as all the staff were at the window watching the gilth spacecrafts that now littered the sky like a snowstorm of ice crystals.
Kayleb couldn’t run as fast as Rowan and his lungs felt like they were about to explode from running. He knew that he would have to stop soon. Cornwall fired her stun gun at Kayleb. It just missed him. He felt the pellet brush his ribcage. He dropped to the ground as if he had been hit and lay still at the entrance of an ICE room as if he had been stunned. Max stopped, too, and nudged Kayleb’s arm, whimpering. Cornwall didn’t stop.
She continued to chase Rowan and looked determined to catch him.
Rowan ran for his life. His mind was racing. He remembered everything the moment he had seen Cornwall’s eyes. He was livid. He had come full circle and was back where he had started. He didn’t want to remember his task. He had been quite happy before he had bumped into Kayleb and now here he was with his life in ruins again and with a psychotic police officer chasing him. He hated Cornwall. She was a blemish on London’s perfect society and he wasn’t going to give her the chance to manipulate him again.
Rowan ran down a corridor at the back of the ICE centre towards a fire exit. The corridor ended here and there was no other way to go out, other than by the fire exit door, Rowan hoped that the door would open easily. He looked over his shoulder and saw Cornwall at the other end of the corridor. He couldn’t see Kayleb and he hoped that he hadn’t been stunned. Rowan knew that he was in firing range and he wondered why Cornwall had not opened fire. He was an easy target. Rowan reached the fire exit door and slammed his hands on the panic bar to open it.
‘Rowan, wait!’ called Cornwall as she lowered her stun gun. ‘Rowan, listen. I’m not going to hurt you.’
‘Like I believe that!’ Rowan said defiantly.
‘I wouldn’t hurt you, Rowan. You belong to me!’ she said, trying to draw breath.
‘You’re sick, Cornwall! I don’t belong to you and never will!’
‘You don’t understand,’ said Cornwall. ‘I love you!’
Rowan looked at Cornwall with disgust. His head hurt, his body had pins and needles all over and he felt sick.
‘You’re pure evil, Cornwall Keyboard. You need help!’
Rowan pulled up the panic bar and saw Cornwall raise her stun gun again. Quickly he flung the door open, fled out of the building and then slammed the door shut behind him. He heard the stun shot hit the door. He felt really ill. His whole body was shaking and he could feel cold beads of sweat running down his face. He felt like he was going to faint and he knew he wouldn’t have the strength to hold the door shut if Cornwall tried to open it. Rowan leant against the door, shut his eyes and leant forward, hoping that the dizziness would pass so he could run again.
Moments later Rowan opened his eyes again. He had recovered and felt very calm, almost as if he had not felt ill at all. He looked up at the sky: there wasn’t a cloud to be seen. He was surprised that such a grey day could suddenly change so dramatically. Rowan looked down at his clothes. They were not what he had been wearing moments ago. Rowan breathed in and out slowly. He knew instinctively that this wasn’t the same day but in fact, a day that he had spent before. Rowan looked around him to see if he could remember exactly which day it was. The sun was low in the sky, so it was almost evening, and then he suddenly remembered being in the same square in London the day before his sixteenth tubeyday. He had been waiting for his mentor, Dale, to come out of the ICE centre and had been wondering what it would be like to experience an ICE. He was going to try a sporting trial experience.
Rowan looked across the square. Dale’s work colleague had waved to him and, just as he remembered, he saw him wave.
The enormity of what had just happened to Rowan was sinking in. This was the exact time that Indigo had set for him to go back in time. The police officer had opened the coffin lid just as the computer had completed its task and had somehow set an emergency time delay because of the interruption. Rowan was fifteen years old again and tonight he would be taken to the bottom of the well in France with Kayleb to complete his sixteenth-year task. Kayleb looked at the exit of the ICE centre. Dale would be out at any moment. Rowan was eager to get back home, so that he could prepare himself for the task. He would go to bed fully clothed wearing walking boots on his feet and have his pockets filled with every gadget he could find to help him carry out his task. His plan would be to get back to London by himself and go straight to the Decam Centre to have his memories of the task erased. He wished he had done this before.
This time he would leave Kayleb in the well. If Kayleb came with him then he would only slow him down and he would also avoid Cornwall, she had been no end of trouble. Rowan smiled for the first time in months. Life was going to be so much better from now on.