Season 03 - Episode 27

‘footsteps his flight’

Ak is on the run.

Ever since the thing with the lift, he has been running. Ever downwards, dozens of floors a day, sleeping as little as he dares, not even stopping to scavenge, just running. He still hasn't seen his pursuers but he knows they're there. Doors open and close in the distance, objects left in one place are found moved to another and once he thought he heard footsteps.

His flight has carried him through the huge towering machines and production plants of the industrial sector and into the cavernous algae and fungi farms. All of it is silent and still, dusty and dead.

Ak is exhausted and thirsty and hasn't heard anything of those hunting him for several hours. He stops by one of the enormous algae vats and starts to look around. He remembers being taught about these places as a child.

The rubbery algae is grown in enormous sheets then cut down and processed to take the form of any kind of food you can imagine. This is where all the food in The Levels comes from. Except that it isn't. The vats are all dried out and filthy, clearly untouched for years.

He doesn't understand.

Ak stops and dumps his bundle in front of a dark, lifeless terminal and stabs at the buttons hopelessly. Nothing happens. He frowns his confusion and fatigue then turns on the spot, staring around as if hoping to find an explanation hiding in some nook or cranny.

As he peers about the place, a tiny metal creature with a red light on its back scuttles out from between the vats and slips silently into the back of the terminal. Ak turns back and hopelessly presses one last key. The screen springs to life as the terminal starts to boot up.

“Hey!” Ak cries happily. “The Williamston touch! Still got it.”

The terminal displays a list of status reports which he beings to flick through. He doesn't understand the dates and so can't tell how old they are but over a period of what looks like decades, a pattern does emerge.

Occasional resource requests become increasingly numerous and urgent over time. Similarly, initially rare reports of equipment malfunctions and repair requests grow ever more common, then turn into requests for more trained staff. Eventually, individual machines are closed down and mothballed, despite demands for output rising ever upwards.

He chews his bottom lip as he thinks, then a nearby sound breaks Ak out of his reverie. He has lingered long enough and needs to get back underway. He gathers up his things and then pauses to listen again carefully. He hears nothing but is sure they're nearby.

Ak nods to himself seriously. He has evaded them this far, he just needs to keep doing what he's doing, using his new found skills to keep himself alive and out of the clutches of these invisible stalkers. He can do this.

With new resolve, he swings the pack over his shoulder and turns to leave...

...and walks straight into the men standing behind him.

The man in front is blonde, wearing a bizarre looking suit and hat, with a face like thunder. The men at each of his shoulders are taller and wider and dressed all in black. They have bowl shaped helmets strapped to the top of their heads and hold heavy nightsticks.

“You're under arrest,” growls the blonde man.

“What?” says Ak, staggering backwards. “Who..? What? What for?”

“Possession of prohibited technology and criminal trespass,” says the man. “You will surrender yourself to these Enforcement Officers and come with us.”

“What technology?” asks Ak, his eyes darting around as he takes another step back.

“These?” says the man, producing a glass jar containing a tiny little metal creature.

“What's that?” asks Ak, staring at the thing in the jar.

“You should know,” says the man. “You brought them down from The Deadlands.”

“The Deadlands?” asks Ak. “I don't understand and trespass? What do you mean?”

“This is private property,” says the man, glancing at the jar himself before lowering it.

“Private? Owned by who?” asks Ak.

Just for a second the blonde man appears genuinely confused by the question.

“The Government Corporation,” he says then. “Obviously.”

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