Children's Games: A Story of Modern Consequence

Chapter 38

~Joshua~

Joshua left the pharmacy thinking about what freedoms he could have once he left Unit 352... but also what it would take to earn that freedom. Everything he thought that was true.... everything that was worth Maria getting killed for... suddenly seemed impossible and not well thought out.

She had clearly gotten something wrong.... yet if it was wrong, there would be no reason to kill her. Something was still going on, but Joshua didn't feel as sure as he used to be. He peered over at Emilia as they travelled up the tunnel and wondered what she thought about all this. For a moment he wished that he could switch places with her and look at all the details with a fresh mind.

But the thought was impossible. The next best option would be to tell her everything, and with every passing day, he felt like he might have to. His plan was to slowly feed her all the things he'd figured out, and her memories would restore themselves, just like how Maria had influenced his own regaining of memories. Her procedure must've been different if she's still clinging so hard to the ideas that Dominik is pressuring on her. There was clearly still a part of her that saw that man as a protector.

After she had passed out last night, he told her everything, even though he knew that she wasn't listening. And by the end, he realised just how insane he sounded. He was glad that she wasn't listening because she surely would have turned him away. After all, that's what I did when Maria told me.

The conference transmission had also given him more questions than he could answer, such as the mention of Alistair. The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Alistair Stark, had claimed neutrality at the start of the war, leaving the Commonwealth before anyone. Rumours of them working with Australia had been heard all over the country, and Joshua had seen a few clues himself in each exploration of the council building. He wondered if the Kiwis were as good as their stereotype promised they were.

"Why are we going to take the tunnel?" Anna whispered, ever annoyed. Dominik had mentioned it as they were leaving, which made for a treacherous journey, one that none of them were fond of after running up those flights of stairs only hours ago.

"I don't want to use the builder's lift and see the workers from this morning. We'll look suspicious," Dominik whispered back. "We need to draw less attention to ourselves from now on."

"Why?" No one answered Anna's question.

There were quite a lot of people emerging from the tunnel, so there must've been another train to drop off even more people wearing the signature homeless attire. Luckily, they didn't look dirty and injured as if they had been salvaged from a bomb... but they did look starved and distressed. A lot more guards than usual escorted the crowd, and they all looked on high alert. Joshua tried to look just as concerned as the rest of them, seeing as word had most likely spread that something bad happened behind their security lines last night.

The people in the street that were already residents of Fimiston frowned at the arrival of the new people. They were already sweltering in the heat, trying to get their tasks done before it got too hot; a day set for record highs. The newcomer's kind of just stood there, looking out to see if anyone would offer them open arms. The people of Fimiston didn't move a muscle, hoping that their bad attitude would be enough to dissuade the new people from staying.

They finally entered the tunnel as soon as it emptied, and it was a satisfying relief to feel the cool air blow from the shadows. The tunnel was a spiral that directed up at a steady pace with tracks for a mechanical cart or carriage, much like the tracks they had seen last night in the corridor leading to the bunker. In this hallway of sorts, there were also bright lights that lined the corners of the space, with large grates that delivered adequate ventilation for a tunnel so long. It made Joshua think about the two guards that he and Emilia had stuffed right outside the vault door... if it was a ventilation system, then the bodies would be left relatively cool, and perhaps not rot and smell straight away.