"The Overseers will want to investigate," he advised, offering me a hand in order to climb to my feet.

  "How long?" I said, following him out at an angle from the bridge. The stairs were the hardest. They'd already been relatively steep, now they were steeper and almost sideways.

  He tapped his earpiece and said Simon's name a few times. "No signal. Does yours work."

  I'd slipped mine into a pocket when I'd lost contact. It had been too distracting, feeling it in my ear but knowing it was useless. I replaced it now and pressed the centre to activate it.

  "Simon?"

  "Lena! Thank God," came his frantic reply. "Cardinal drones approaching. They'll use Riddell Road to get to you the quickest. Alan's approaching from the point via Geh Dowee Ave."

  "That means absolutely nothing to me," I advised him. I'd never been to this part of Wánměi before. All that existed here were ancient works associated with shipping and obsolete oil refineries.

  Wánměi no longer required petrol; all vehicles were solar and battery powered. Everything we needed for that, we imported. In exchange for drones and human cargo it seemed.

  What sort of world existed beyond our borders? I didn't have the heart right then to search for an answer.

  "It means," Simon said, "drones approaching from the front of the ship. Alan coming from the back."

  I didn't point out to him that I did know what "bow" and "stern" meant.

  "We've got close to one hundred people to move," I announced, as Tan and I came out onto the lopsided deck and saw the chaos first hand. Most had survived the collision well enough; battered and bruised, the odd scrape welling red with blood. But a few had been knocked unconscious, several more were bleeding freely from significant gashes. And a couple had been thrown overboard; not lashed down tightly enough.

  I stopped dead in my tracks, speechless. No idea which way to turn, how to ease their suffering. I'd pulled them from a basic, but perfunctory and safe container, out into hell.

  "Help me!" one older lady called, as she cradled her husband's heavily bleeding head in her lap.

  "He won't wake up!" a mother cried in Wáitaměi as she clung to her young son.

  "Daddy?" a child sobbed in D'maru.

  Everywhere I looked was devastation.

  "We can't get one hundred people out of there, Lena," came Trent's steady voice over the earpiece comms. "You need to triage and take those who are the strongest. The rest will have to fend for themselves."

  I shook my head, watching as Tan went from one group of people to the next, untying lashings, easing the unconscious onto their sides, checking airways, instructing family members to put pressure on open wounds.

  My hands fisted, my eyes darted from face to face, then further afield. I couldn't spot the drones yet; they'd arrive in trucks, dozens of drones per vehicle. I couldn't see Alan yet either, but my vantage point from the ship's lopsided deck was limited.

  What I could see was row upon row of abandoned buildings, the odd sheltered lamp light filtering through where darkness should have only been.

  I wondered how many people lived in what was once upon a time industrial Geh Dowee. I wondered how many people would be brave enough to go against the Overseers and help out. Making it back to base for any of us was nearly impossible right now. But hiding, and then escaping when daylight struck? That might work.

  "I need a distraction, Simon" I said. "Can you delay the drones?"

  "Um, yeah. Maybe."

  "I also need the street-cams in this area blacked out."

  "OK, got it. What else."

  "Public power to Geh Dowee cut."

  He whistled.

  "What are you doing, Lena?" Trent asked.

  "Saving the strongest," I said and went straight for Tan. "Start getting them over the side as quickly as possible. Drones are on the way. The uninjured pair up with an injured. Everyone goes."

  Tan nodded.

  "I'm announcing our arrival," I added, and then took off running back towards the bridge.

  We may not have been able to control the vessel's speed, but some of the functions on the bridge had been released to us when I'd used the guard's keycard. I'm sure with more effort and time we could have worked out how to override the entire system, but what had become available were emergency facilities.

  Cutting the engine completely wouldn't have got us back to Wánměi, though. But steering around an obstacle allowed us to navigate back to our shores.

  And now announcing our presence would have to do.

  The alarms in the bridge were still sounding when I slid back into the room and skidded across the slick surface to the semi-circular control panel. I searched the blinking lights and confusing dials, half watching Tan lowering rope ladders over the side of the deck closest to the ground. Women and children were climbing down already. The injured being cared for until the last minute when they'd be forced to move as well.

  I found what I was looking for, and unable to warn anyone, simply went ahead and pressed the button. Holding it down for five long seconds and then repeating the action again and again. The Overseers already knew we were here. Most of those squatting in Geh Dowee would have heard or felt the collision to some degree. But venturing outside their safe havens? A little more incentive was required.

  The ship's horn was low and loud, an ominous warning of a large vessel approaching. We weren't approaching, we were already here. But sounding the horn invited those who'd heard our arrival, and perhaps decided to pretend it was nothing that concerned them, to venture out on the streets.

  I wasn't trying to offer up sacrifices in order for the people with me to get free. I was hoping the spirit of a united Wánměi might prevail. And doors would open to those trying to hide in Geh Dowee tonight.

  After the tenth foghorn blast, I found the loudhailer. Letting the ringing settle on the air for a suspended moment, I then leaned forward and spoke into the microphone.

  "Citizens of Geh Dowee," I said, my voice reverberating off the walls of the bridge and outside the windows. "One Wánměi!"

  A shout came up from those still on the deck, a singular moment of raised voices in complete agreement. It sent a shiver down my spine.

  I raced back out of the bridge to find Alan on the deck helping Tan lower the worst to be injured over the side in makeshift baskets. The relief at seeing the rebel made me smile a greeting that had his dark eyebrows rising in surprise.

  "Making an entrance, Lena?" he asked.

  I couldn't stop smiling.

  "Setting the tone," I offered, grinning further.

  "You're next," he said, nodding towards the rope ladder which was now vacant.

  "I can help."

  "Boss's orders."

  "I didn't hear any orders," I argued, stubbornly.

  "They were given while you were out of range."

  Hmm. I was sure I was being played.

  "Are you questioning our leader?" he asked, a steady look in his eyes conveying how bad that would look in front of Tan's men. Who I noticed had also climbed aboard and were helping with the injured.

  Tan, for his part, pretended not to hear Alan's and my conversation. But I knew he'd not hesitate to use my disagreement with Trent's leadership in any argument that might arise back on base.

  I couldn't quite work out Tan's endgame. Whether he wanted to lead this army or not.

  "Well," I said, walking towards the rope ladder. "If the leader's spoken I shall do what I'm told."

  Tan snorted in the background confirming just how much he was taking in right then.

  Alan slowly shook his head, but turned his attention to the person currently being lowered over the side.

  I climbed over the edge of the deck, not worried about the still quite significant fall to the ground from here. Heights never bothered me.

  "And you guys?" I said, before I started to climb down. "Better get off before the drones arrive."

  "Don't worry about us, Honourable," Alan drawled, lifting his arms up to show me the flight-suit wings attached beneath.

  Sirens and flashing red lights started to appear against walls of abandoned buildings in the distance. It was time to leave. I took one last look at who was left on the deck, relieved it was no more than a dozen people. Some of which I feared wouldn't make it through the night, let alone make it off the ship's deck.

  My eyes found Tan's. He held my gaze. Silent words shared in a look.

  Be careful.

  I nodded, and then used the sides of the ladder to slide to the ground several long metres below.

  My shins protested at the jarring my body received on landing, my first step felt off kilter; balance shot after being on a sea faring vessel for so long. Any other time I would have enjoyed the sensation. Knowing I was experiencing it because I'd been sailing.

  But any amusement at my unfamiliar gait was lost when the first truck with drones on-board screeched to a halt at the other end of the reserve we'd crashed into. Some people were running off into the thicker part of the natural park-like grounds, attempting to get lost in amongst the shrubbery. But that way led to the old oil refinery, and somehow I doubted aid could be found there.

  I turned back towards Geh Dowee itself, noting most of the refugees had, thankfully, headed in that direction.

  One last look up the side of the stricken vessel; no sight of Tan or Alan, and I was off.

  Running for my life, evading capture by the drones, and hiding - all a necessary part of my world right now. I prayed it wasn't the norm for the rest of my life.

  Of course, it depended on how long my life was going to be.

  I made it to the street and the first looming dust and salt spray smeared building before I saw a drone. The windows boarded up, the door nailed shut. I moved onto the next building and found it much the same. If people were squatting here, they had taken time to enter the buildings in a way that didn't leave their path detectable. Everything looked abandoned. But I could have sworn I felt eyes on me as I moved from shadow to shadow, attempting to gain access where access was denied.

  Several long minutes passed, the sirens so much louder and overlapping, letting me know multiple trucks had arrived. Search lights shone up into the night air, not because they expected us to take flight - the buildings weren't tall enough for my usual somersaulted wing-suit escapades - but because it sent a warning to all who fled.

  Making them panicked. Making them slip up and get caught.

  Cries of alarm and shouts of defiance followed that thought, then the ominous whine of laser guns. Many.

  I stopped dead in my tracks. Still in the shadows, but not moving. I was breathing too quickly, unable to get a complete lungful of air. Desperately praying that what I was hearing was not what it sounded like.

  Wiping had meant erasing not death. Until I freed them from a container ship and let them loose on the streets of Wánměi. There would be no second chance. The drones were seeing to that.

  The sound of synchronised boot steps pounded out from every direction. Shiloh's voice rising above the distant whine of a laser.

  "Citizens who resist arrest will be wiped," she said. "For the better of the people. For the future of Wánměi."

  My hand fisted at my side and I searched the darkened shadows of the street I was in. A child darted across the road and leapt into the outstretched arms of its mother. I'd seen them on the ship. I didn't know their names. There hadn't been a father figure, just the mother and her young daughter.

  A drone marched around the corner of a street between where the mother and child crouched, and where I stood. His glowing eyes tracked slowly towards them and not me.

  I could hear other drones approaching. More footsteps. More loud thumps through the ground as their feet hit the pavement in unison.

  "You there!" the drone shouted. "Identify!"

  The child screamed. The mother sat in terror, her body shaking, her arms wrapped futilely around her precious daughter.

  The drone took a step towards them.

  I didn't think. I just acted. I banged a fist against the rattling metal of a sliding garage door at my side.

  And eerie glowing eyes turned slowly until they locked on me.

  Chapter 8

  Here Goes Nothing

  Lena

  By the time the drone registered I was a greater prize, the mother and daughter had vanished into the darkness. The drone ignored their retreat, a buzzing having started up inside. Red now shining from once bright white eyes.

  "Hello, Shiloh," I said softly, but she'd heard.

  "Honourable Selena Carstairs. Please prepare for arrest."

  No highest regards anymore. I smiled.

  The drone stepped closer. More footsteps sounded out behind my back.

  "Haven't seen the Chief Overseer lately," I offered, with a well practised shoulder shrug.

  If computer operated robots could sneer, I'm sure this drone would have.

  "The Chief Overseer is under the tightest security levels," Shiloh replied, keeping up a conversation in a bizarrely normal fashion. "He regrets his absence from public view."

  "People need to see their leader, Shiloh," I pointed out.

  "The Citizens of Wánměi will not question the Overseers' rules."

  I laughed. It was more a huff of incredulity than outright mirth.

  "The Citizens of Wánměi are tired of the rules, or hadn't you heard?"

  The drone took another step, almost as though Shiloh was holding the machine back when all it really wanted to do was charge me. I wondered what the normal sPol and iPol drones' instructions were. If any of them actually still existed, that is.

  "You have not been model," Shiloh announced. "You have not behaved accordingly."

  I just stared at the drone, tight lipped, waiting for it to get closer. If I moved, all bets would be off. I just needed it a little nearer. The footsteps from the drones at my back were getting louder. Judging distance, though, with the boarded up walls of factories and industrial premises either side making their thudding cadence rebound and echo, was impossible.

  I just prayed I'd have enough time.

  "You should not desire for more than you have," Shiloh added. "Wánměi provides all that you need."

  Spewing doctrine as though it was her base code. This was the Shiloh General Chew-wen had created. The bedrock of our society's wellbeing. But somewhere along the way something had been corrupted. General Chew-wen or a computer programme?

  "But have you been a model Citizen today, Shiloh?" I asked, making sure my hands remained relaxed at my sides, even though the need to clench my fists was overpowering.

  The drone stilled. I could have cursed my desire to bite back. Just one step closer, that's all I needed. And I had to challenge Shiloh enough to make her halt in her tracks?

  "I haven't got all day, you know," I added, sure the drones approaching from behind were nearly upon us. "What's it going to be? Arrest, wiping or death? Because, let's be honest, Shiloh. They have never been one and the same."

  "Prepare for arrest," she repeated, and whether that was an answer or just a command that had been programmed into her, I didn't know.

  But she did take a step closer.

  And I pulled my laser gun and fired.

  The whine was erratic. The pitch ear-splitting. The buzz and hum escalated along with the increased sizzle and heat from the laser beam. So much so the entire gun began to burn the palm of my hand. I was still wearing a glove. Albeit a slightly worn and battered one, but I could feel the searing pain as though I wore nothing at all. I could smell my burned flesh as it mixed with the melted metal and plastic of the drone.

  And then as it crumbled to the ground I spun on my heel and hurled the laser gun towards the drones at my back, just as they rounded the corner.

  I didn't have time to duck for cover. I was blown backwards, all air knocked from my lungs, as the laser gun exploded a foot off the pavement, several metres from me, but practically at the boots of the drones.

  The street lit up like a fireworks display, the boom sounded like artillery. A flash of light so bright blinded me, and the skin on my face began to blister. Hitting the ground was the easy part. Breathing again seemed far more difficult.

  My ears were ringing. My chest seemed too tight. My skin stung. My eyes felt like they were bleeding. And still I rolled to my stomach and tried to get up.

  Only to collapse back to the pavement again. And then again.

  Get up! Get up!

  I coughed in smoke and God knows what. My hand screamed in agony as I placed weight on it. My shins joining in the fun as I managed to get up on all fours. My elbows wobbling with the effort. And then I was stumbling, and pitching sideways, like I was back on the deck of the container ship. I lost my balance completely and ended up on my side in the gutter, bruising my hip. Then with more effort than I'd care to acknowledge I was up again and bouncing off the wall at my side, which kept appearing before me out of absolutely nowhere.

  I knew I was disoriented. I knew my inner ear must have been affected. I also knew those drones were not alone and more would come.

  Sounds started to breach the ringing; a thump which could have been drone feet jumping over their fallen comrades; a bang which might have been a door falling open at great speed; a high pitched whistle which could have been the sound of falling mortar. Then just as quickly the sounds of laser beams and screams in the distance mixed with my own heartbeat and heavy breathing as I ran up a side street and ducked into an alcove to catch my breath.

  I needed to rest. My head was still spinning. I needed to bend over and clasp my knees, so my chest wouldn't feel like it was about to explode outwards. I needed water to quench the thirst and dull the smoke scratched roughness in my throat.

  I couldn't have any of those things, so I breathed through my nose in controlled bursts and fumbled with the mirror in my vest pocket. My right hand ached, but I ignored the sting of the laser burn, finally managing to fish my mirror out and peer around the corner of my hiding place.

  Drones stood across the end of the street. I closed my eyes and softly banged my head back against the door behind me. Frustration and exhaustion battling for prime position inside my mind.