Perilous Page 4

  I activated the sleep field, lay back on its cushion of warm air, and gave a sigh of relief.

  Buzz sat down in the armchair. “You’re obviously from Teen Level,” she said chattily. “Are you one of the eighteen-year-olds about to go into Lottery?”

  “No, I’m only seventeen, so Lottery is still a year away for me.”

  “I went through Lottery last year. I expected to be assigned to be a teacher like my parents, but ended up doing this job instead.” She shrugged. “It just proves how hard it is to predict a Lottery result.”

  Teachers were all at least Level 40. I wondered what Buzz’s parents thought of their daughter being assigned to run errands in the depths of the Hive. “Were you disappointed?”

  “No, this is far better for me. I told you that I talk all the time – you must have noticed that yourself – and I love meeting new people. Now I have work where I get to talk to lots of different people.” Buzz paused for breath. “What did you do to your head?”

  “I bumped it on one of the stars in the ceiling of Teen Level beach.”

  Buzz burst out laughing. “You don’t look tall enough to manage that.”

  I groaned. “I’ve a feeling I’ll be hearing jokes like that for weeks. What happened was that I was doing the ‘C’ grade cliff climb with my eyes closed, missed the ledge at the top, and thumped my head on the ceiling.”

  She pulled a cross-eyed face at me. “Do you normally climb cliffs with your eyes closed?”

  “I don’t normally climb cliffs at all. I’m scared of heights. Forge suggested that climbing the cliff might help my fear and ... Well, I knew it was a bad idea, but I agreed to try it anyway. I find it hard to say no to him.”

  “Forge is a bully?”

  “Oh no,” I said hastily.

  “Forge is a good looking boy then? You’ve got a crush on him?”

  “I find it hard to say no to Forge, but I’m sure that isn’t because I’ve got a crush on him. At least, I’m almost sure.”

  I hesitated. I’d never discussed this with anyone before today. I couldn’t possibly talk about it to Shanna, because she was Forge’s girlfriend, and confiding in anyone else in our corridor group could lead to trouble as well. I’d considered trying to explain it to my mother on one of my weekly visits home, but decided that she either wouldn’t understand or would get worried. It was far easier to tell things to a stranger, especially one as friendly and talkative as Buzz.

  “If I did have a crush on Forge,” I continued, “then I’d surely want him to be my boyfriend, and I don’t. Forge is in a relationship with my best friend, and I’m happy for both of them.”

  Buzz pursed her lips. “If it’s a crush, then it’s an unusual one. I had a crush on a stunningly good looking boy on Teen Level, and I was so desperate to get him to kiss me that I deliberately jammed the controls on a lift to get us stuck in there alone together.”

  I giggled. “Did it work?”

  “Oh yes. It worked absolutely splendidly. We had a glorious fifteen minutes before Emergency Services rescued us.” She gave me a wicked grin. “You wouldn’t want to trap Forge in a lift with you?”

  I shook my head.

  “Is Forge a charismatic leader type?”

  “Definitely.”

  “Then perhaps that’s your explanation. The boy is naturally persuasive.”

  “I suppose it might be that,” I said doubtfully.

  “Has this situation been going on for long?”

  I was too embarrassed to admit that it had been going on since the day I moved to Teen Level. “For a while.”

  “Has it caused you problems before?”

  “Not really. Forge spends a lot of time surfing and swimming, so I got drawn into trying both of those. I gave up surfing after a nasty wipe out, but I enjoy swimming.”

  “Forge didn’t try to pressure you into carrying on with the surfing?” asked Buzz.

  “No. I’m sure he won’t pressure me to try cliff climbing again either.” I was regretting trying to explain the Forge issue, and tried to end the discussion. “It’s never been a real problem. I just felt that my reaction to Forge was a bit strange.”

  “Have you tried dating any of the other boys on Teen Level?”

  I was startled by the question. “Not yet. Do you think that dating someone else would stop me reacting oddly to Forge?”

  “It might. Even if it didn’t, a few dates would hopefully be fun for both you and the boy.” Buzz gave me a thoughtful look. “You still aren’t experiencing any sickness or dizziness?”

  “I feel perfectly well.”

  “I’m not seeing any signs of memory loss or confusion.” Buzz leaned back in her chair, briefly stared up at the ceiling, and then gave a decisive nod. “I don’t see any need to keep you here overnight, Amber. I’ll take you back to the reception desk and authorize your discharge now.”

  Chapter Four

  I gave her an incredulous look. “You’ll authorize my discharge? Are you allowed to do that?”

  “Yes. A doctor has already treated your injury and prescribed tablets for you to take back to Teen Level. You just needed a psychologist to check you for signs of certain possible complications.”

  “I didn’t know you were a psychologist,” I muttered, trying to remember exactly what I’d said to her.

  She smiled. “Well, I am, and I’m happy to clear you for immediate discharge. Your head will probably continue hurting you for a few days. You can take one of your tablets every six hours to help with that. If you’re still in pain a week from now, or you find yourself experiencing any memory issues or blurred vision, then you should contact me again. You’ll be sent a copy of your medical discharge report. If you call the number on that, it will come straight through to me.”

  I was still struggling to adjust to this situation. “But you don’t look high enough level to be a ...” I realized how rude that must sound, and broke off my sentence.

  “I’m a Level 1 Psychological Therapist.”

  Level 1! I gaped at her, stunned and appalled. I’d been chattering away to a Level 1 Psychological Therapist.

  Buzz laughed. “There’s no need to look so worried, Amber. I work with patients on many different levels of the Hive. There are several techniques for encouraging patients to relax and talk about their fears. When I’m working with low level patients, I find the simplest and most effective method is to wear low level clothing. Visual messages and body language can often be far more important than words. Instead of being an intimidating, well-dressed, superior member of the Hive, I make myself approachable, literally putting myself on the same level as my patients.”

  Buzz stood up, and I hastily rolled out of the sleep field and stood up myself. She gave me another of her infectious grins, before leading the way out of the room.

  “The people who live in nearby apartments to me get very confused by my varying clothes. I met a new neighbour yesterday when I was wearing Level 80 clothing. He thought I was there to clean the corridors, and helpfully pointed out a smear on the wall.”

  I gave a bewildered laugh.

  “I’m planning to call on him this evening, and watch the poor man’s face when I explain who I really am,” added Buzz. “He’s deliciously handsome, so I think I’ll wear the new dress that I bought last week. It manages to be frighteningly respectable while dreadfully suggestive at the same time.”

  Buzz babbled on about her new neighbour during the walk to the reception desk, and the processing of my discharge, then waved farewell. As I headed through the double doors, a packet of tablets in my hand, I could hear she was already chattering away to her next patient.

  Once back in the open area outside, I paused to put the tablets in my pocket and look around. If I went along the corridor on my left, I knew I’d reach an express lift. The problem was that I’d been strapped on a stretcher in that lift, with a grey-masked nosy staring down at me and reading my thoughts. I knew it was an irrational reaction, but I never wanted to set
foot in that particular lift again.

  I could see apartment doors in the corridor straight ahead of me, so I turned to walk down the corridor to my right. There weren’t any doors on this corridor, just wall murals with park scenes. Given the clue from the murals, I wasn’t surprised to reach a junction, where there were double doors with the green park symbol on my left, and a corridor with a set of slow, medium and express belts on my right.

  I stopped walking to think. I was on Level 93 of the Hive, somewhere almost vertically below Teen Level beach, so I’d be close to the boundary between Turquoise Zone and Green Zone. I had to get back up to Teen Level, and then take the belt system south to my room in Blue Zone.

  I was feeling tired and strained. My head was starting to ache too. It was tempting to have a rest in a park before facing the journey, but I’d no right to trespass in a Level 93 park. I wasn’t even sure what parks would be like on such a low level of the Hive.

  There was a sudden squeal of excitement, and two small girls ran past me. They couldn’t have been more than three years old, so they struggled to open the park doors. I stepped forward to help them, and automatically followed them inside.

  I found myself standing on a gravel path, and shaded my eyes with my right hand while they adjusted to the glare of the park suns overhead. The two girls were heading to join a group of other children in a sand filled play area to my right. A green flash came from the right wrist of one of the girls, which meant an anxious parent was checking the location of her tracking bracelet.

  I laughed, remembering how often my parents had checked my location when I was a child, how embarrassing I’d found it, and how relieved I’d been to reach the great age of ten years old and be free from my tracking bracelet. Becoming thirteen, and moving to Teen Level, had been a far less welcome milestone, and now the even more significant age of eighteen was growing ominously close.

  I shook my head to banish that thought, and looked round at my surroundings. I saw a grove of dwarf oak trees to my left, and a large grassy area straight ahead of me, where an activity leader was showing a gaggle of children how to do a complex Carnival dance involving glittering silver ribbons. The older ones of about ten or eleven were making a good attempt at copying him, but there were a couple of five-year-old boys who were just running in circles round a nearby structural pillar, waving their streamers and screaming in excitement.

  Everything about this park brought back reassuring memories of my childhood on Level 27. I’d played in a bigger sandpit, I’d danced on grass that was mowed more frequently, and the flower beds had had a richer range of colours, but this park was in a better state than the one I frequented now on Teen Level.

  Three men were walking towards me, one of them gesticulating wildly as he explained something to the other two. I stepped aside to let them reach the exit door, and then followed the gravel path. It reached a stream, and I paused to peer into one of the pools. Yes, there were fish swimming there. Again, not such multi-coloured fish as I remembered from the Level 27 park, but no different to those on Teen Level.

  I was feeling horribly thirsty now, so I walked on looking for a refreshment kiosk. Apartments might be smaller on Level 93 than on Level 27, but the parks seemed to be at least as large, if not even larger.

  I finally saw a red and white striped kiosk standing near the edge of a small lake, and was hurrying towards it when a blue-clad hasty appeared from a side path. She turned to frown at me, and I froze guiltily.

  “Have you had an accident?” she asked. “Do you need medical treatment?”

  I peered down at my tunic, and saw the dark marks of bloodstains streaked across the blue lettering that proclaimed me a supporter of the Blue Zone teen surfing team. “I had an accident on Teen Level beach, and was taken for treatment at the medical facility down the corridor from here.”

  I knew the hasty would be asking for my identity code next to check my story. That would be followed by questions about why I was walking round this park instead of going straight back to Teen Level, so I hurried on to offer my defence. “I’ve got a long journey home, and I’m still feeling tired and shaken after my accident, so I thought I’d rest here in the park for a while before heading back.”

  I braced myself for the inevitable lecture about how I should have taken a lift straight back to Teen Level and rested in a park there, and was stunned when the woman just smiled.

  “That’s a good idea.”

  She walked over to a nearby bench and sat down. I looked after her, confused that her behaviour was so different to the hasties I’d met when I visited my parents. Then I realized the obvious point. My parents lived on Level 27, and I was on Level 93 now. Clearly the hasties were more worried about people trespassing on high levels of the Hive than low levels.

  There was a shrill bleep from the direction of the hasty, and an automated voice spoke. “Hazard perimeter breach. Path 4. Rushton 2527-0355-317.”

  The hasty jumped to her feet, and hurried off to intercept a small boy who was ignoring the flashing red bracelet on his right wrist and heading for the lake. I laughed as I saw her shake her head at him, and sternly point the way back to the approved, child-safe area of the park. Now that was exactly like the behaviour of hasties on Level 27.

  My headache was getting steadily worse now, so I decided I should take one of the tablets I’d been given. I’d definitely need a drink for that, so I moved on to the refreshment kiosk.

  An elderly man stood at the counter. He stared at the bloodstains on my tunic, and asked the same question as the hasty. “Do you need medical help?”

  “I’ve had medical treatment, thank you. I just want to buy a drink.”

  The man nodded. “If you’re hungry as well, then our meal deal is the best value. That includes a free bottle of drink and a crunch cake.”

  I studied the poster with the kiosk price list, and was relieved to see things were barely more expensive than on Teen Level. I decided I was hungry as well as thirsty now, and the man was right about the meal deal being the best value.

  “I’ll have the cheese meal deal, with chocolate crunch cake, and do you have a melon flavoured drink?”

  He laughed and pointed at my tunic. “You’re not just far from your home zone, but far from your home level as well.”

  I gave him a confused look.

  “If you were on Level 93 to visit your parents, then you’d know we only have the basic apple, orange or lemon drinks,” he explained gently. “Asking for melon drinks shows you’ve lived far higher up the Hive.”

  I wasn’t sure how to reply to the comment about levels, so I stuck to the topic of drinks. “In that case, I’ll have an apple drink, please.”

  A minute later, I had a large bottle tucked under my right arm, and was holding a huge chunk of bread smothered with cheese and mixed salad in my right hand and a crunch cake in my left hand. A bevy of lake ducks were advancing on me optimistically, so I retreated to a quiet spot by the stream where I just had a single, hopeful rabbit watching me.

  I took one of my tablets, gulped down some of my apple drink, and then started eating. I was halfway through my meal before I remembered Shanna’s comment about Level 93 being close to the sewage reclamation systems on Level 100.

  I hesitated for a second, and then told myself that Shanna’s remark had been ridiculous. Our Hive city was underground, and all our water and air was recycled, but the reclaimed water and stale air went through full purification on Level 100 before being sent back into the supply systems. The water here on Level 93 couldn’t be any different from the water higher up the Hive.

  I started eating again. The bread was fresh, the cheese had a strong but pleasant taste, and the drink and the crunch cake couldn’t be faulted. The salad leaves were too coarse and bitter for my taste, so I shared them with the rabbit before stretching out on the grass with a sigh of repletion.

  The tablet was obviously working, because the pain in my head had eased. I lay in blissful idleness, admiring the
violet flowers on a group of nearby bushes, and listening to the birdsong coming from the trees. Occasionally, a small bird would swoop above me, heading for a nest box attached to the top of a nearby structural pillar.

  I wasn’t sure if it was the effect of the tablet, or my large meal, but I found myself yawning heavily. I closed my eyes, intending to have a short doze before heading back to my room on Teen Level, but woke to find the sun-effect lights in the ceiling had dimmed to moon brightness, and the tiny lights of stars had appeared.

  If the park lighting had switched to the night setting, then it had to be past ten o’clock in the evening. I’d slept for over six hours!

  I sat up in alarm, and looked round to see the welcoming park of earlier had become a place of ominous dark shadows.

  Chapter Five

  Level 93 had seemed reassuringly like Teen Level earlier, but now I was conscious of being over forty levels and a zone away from my home corridor. I scrambled to my feet, groped my way round a dark mass of bushes, and headed back towards where the lights of moons were reflected in the smooth lake water. I’d never had any problems finding my way round our area park on Teen Level at night, but I wasn’t familiar with the paths here, and I’d no idea where the exits were.

  My best plan was to find the refreshment kiosk again. It would be closed for the night, but it would still be a useful guide to finding an exit, because a park kiosk was always on the major path through a park.

  Finding the kiosk was harder than I expected. Its red and white stripes had been instantly noticeable in the daytime, but now it was just another shadowy shape among those of trees and structural pillars. Once I reached it, I had a choice of going left or right along the path. Both directions should lead to a park exit. I turned left and soon reached double doors that had a glowing green exit sign.

  I hurried through the doors, feeling buoyant with relief, and saw I was at the edge of a brightly lit shopping area. Despite the late hour, there were a surprising number of people moving from shop to shop. I supposed there were a lot of shift workers living here on Level 93.