Season 04 - Episode 03

‘escape so just’

“We've searched the Fifteenth,” says Si to everyone around the table. “There's nothing there either. I don't get it. GovCo must have food stockpiles somewhere. Just think about the size of the algae farms, how much food they produce every week. Where's it all going?”

“Hmm,” says Ny, frowning as he thinks. “I can't help but feel that we're missing something here. You're right of course, they must have the food somewhere, but why are they hiding it? Guarding it in a big secure compound with dozens of EnFo's, I could understand that, but hiding it? They don't know anyone's looking for it. They don't know about us.”

“On that,” says Es, looking serious and angry. “I found out today that we've moved the projector we set up in the Forty-Fifth. We used that one to convince GovCo there'd been a collapse up there to keep them out of our way. If they see the collapse has miraculously disappeared they're going to work out what we're doing!”

“That was me,” says Ko quietly, staring down at the table. “Sorry.”

“But why would you do that?!” cries Clo. “You've put the whole Resistance at risk!”

“Now, Clo,” says Ny calmly. “Don't blame the lad, it was my idea.”

“Yours?!” asks Clo. “What were you thinking? And why weren't we told?”

“You're right,” says Ny, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. “I'm so sorry, I should have told you, I forgot. There's just so much going on, it's hard to keep track.”

“Alright,” says Es. “Forget that bit. Why did we move the projector?”

“We had a crisis up in the Seventeenth,” says Ny. “Refugees had set up home there, not realising it's a strategically important block. GovCo branded them a Church sleeper cell and were moving in to exterminate them. We needed the projector to cover their escape.”

“So just make a new one!” says Si, hotly, drawing nods from the others. “Mo's team can churn them out in under an hour now. Why move one we're already using?

“It's not the...” Ko begins.

“Right now,” Si continues, talking over Ko. “GovCo just seal up the rooms they think have collapsed and forget about them. If we move our projectors then all it takes is for some bored EnFo to check the wrong camera and they're onto us!”

“The problem is...” Ko tries again.

“It's really not ok to...” Si presses on again but now Ny interrupts him.

“Si!” Ny snaps. “Will you please just let Ko speak? He's knows what he talking about.”

All eyes turn to Ko who swallows and licks his lips, then nods and starts again.

“Production isn't the problem,” says Ko carefully. “You're right, Si, Mo's team can make as many projectors as we need as quickly as we need. The problem is power.”

“What do you mean?” asks Es coldly.

“Each projector,” Ko continues. “Uses a lot of power and we have a lot of them out there now. GovCo are rationing the electricity just like the food so if we add even one more projector now, the power drain will knock out other systems and then...”

“...and then GovCo will notice,” says Clo. “And work out what we're doing anyway.”

“Yes,” says Ko. “Sorry.”

“So we're screwed then!” says Si.

“Not necessarily,” says Ny, looking pained. “We just have to think carefully about how best to deploy the projectors we already have.”

The meeting drags on until eventually Ny excuses himself, telling the others he has urgent Resistance business to attend to. He strides purposefully from the room but when he returns to his room and his chair, he sits slowly and painfully and sighs with grief.

“Well, we're in it now, love,” he says to the empty chair beside him. “To the death. Either the we overthrow GovCo and seize The Levels or we're all dead.”

He thinks of what The Resistance expect of him and feels a deep ache in his bones. His stomach grumbles with fearsome hunger but he's too tired to get out of the chair. He looks at his mechanical hand, turns it back and forth. Mo has told him it will last for a hundred years or more. Shame about the rest of him, he thinks.

“I know, love, you're right,” he says. “We have to try, no matter what, but it's going to be a hard fight and I just don't think I'm going to live long enough to see it through.”

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