Terranovus

They kept me in a coma like state for days.

Stuck inside a body that refused to move, twitch, shiver or even open its eyes; though, I was able to hear, smell and feel everything. The journey back to Terranovus was hell. It felt as though I was stuck in a dream, a nightmare filled with confusion and fear. My mind always thinking, always twirling, always spinning, stuck.

I wasn’t able to fight them. I laid helplessly as they transported me back to Primus and placed me on a bed in a hospital.

Uncertainty and dread consumed me. What did they want with me? What was going to happen? Why did they not kill me? Why did they want me alive?

Quickly, I lost track of time. Nights merged into days and days merged into nights. Sometimes I heard doctors or nurses at my side discussing my vitals. At first, I screamed and shouted at my muscles to move and fight the concoction of drugs that was running through my veins but soon I admitted defeat and wished I was dead instead.

As I grew bored, my thoughts turned to Tommy. I missed the way his lips moved against mine that night on the rooftop of my old apartment building. I relayed the memory again and again until bossy Tommy with calloused hands shoved the memory away. I barely recognised the new Tommy. Where had the old Tommy gone? Did he disappear the moment I left the Sectors? Entrapped in nothing but a memory? I had changed too. I didn’t need protecting. I was able to take care of myself.

And that was when my thoughts turned to Philon. Kind, charming, and secretive Philon. How had I not realised Flynt and Philon was the same person? I couldn’t recall any significant detail from the masked men.

Thinking of Philon, I pondered if the Army had selected the McKinley family for my architectural skills and my dad’s engineering knowledge or if we were really chosen because Philon took a fancy towards me at the ball and encouraged his dad to select us. If I had money, I would definitely bet Philon played a role in it. And if Philon had played a role in it, then I hated him. It was his fault for dragging me into this mess, his fault for blackmailing me to risk my life, his fault that Hyun was dead.

Never once, in my coma like state, did Philon or my family visit. At first I was angry, but then I realised the Army had probably banned all visitors. Perhaps to steer off any rescue attempt. But who would bother rescuing me now, I laughed to myself. The resistance knew the Army’s secrets now. I was of use to no one, anymore.

I did receive one visit though. A visit from somebody I thought I would never meet again. Alfred. The old man with the analog watch I had sat next to at the ball. He visited outside visiting hours.

He sat by the side of my bed and looked at me for a while. Although the drugs pumping through my body stopped my eyes from opening, I was able to hear him quietly breathe beside me.

“Oh, Tabitha,” he finally said, “you’re quite the little troublemaker, aren’t you?”

I wanted to laugh and tell him he was right.

“It was when you asked me about my watch, that I knew you weren’t an average typical girl. That night, I logged into the e-learning system and looked up your grades, top of the Sector for graphic communications. I was quite impressed.” My heart skipped a beat and the monitors near my head picked up my increased heart rate.

“Ah, yes. I know you can hear every word you say,” said Alfred amused. At that, my stomach flipped backwards uneasy. Perhaps he wasn’t just a typical old man too. “You see, Philon, that boy you’ve appeared to take quite a fancy to, mentioned your father was an engineer so it was only common courtesy to invite him and your family to join us in Terranovus. My instincts were right. That transportation hub you designed is remarkable. At only sixteen years of age ... miraculous! And yet, you wasted your talents by becoming a nuisance to the Army. Treason, destroying Army property, stealing an aircraft ... oh my, I could go on forever.” My insides squirmed uncomfortably as Alfred held my hand. Get away from me, I wanted to scream.

“The choice is yours, Tabitha. It’s quite simple really. Live in luxury and become the world’s best known architect or, die.” Alfred gently patted the back of my hand then pushed his chair back and stood up. He shuffled out of the room but paused as he neared the doorway.

“Goodluck, Tabitha,” he said, and then he was gone.

I didn’t sleep much that night. Every time my body went to drift to sleep, missiles and blackened corpses filled my mind and I shook my body awake. It was only when a doctor entered my room and started commanding nurses to do this and that, did I realise my hellish nightmare was soon about to come to an end. They stopped the drugs.

Slowly, hour by hour, I was able to move a finger, a toe, a foot, then my legs. When I regained the ability to speak, I asked every nurse and doctor every question I could think of. Where was I? Where were my parents? What was the Army going to do with me? Every question was answered with silence.

When I was finally strong enough to stand and keep down a meal, two soldiers entered the room and lifted me into a wheelchair. They handcuffed my hands together and waited for a doctor to sign my discharge papers. Panic started to settle in.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked the soldier. I watched her thank a doctor then wheel me out of the room. She didn’t answer me.

The two soldiers wheeled me down the corridor and into an elevator. The elevator took us to the basement, and from there they wheeled me down a long dark corridor underneath the city. Ten minutes later, we arrived at another elevator. It had a plaque next to it with the words “Courthouse” engraved.

It was judgement day.

The elevator took us up to the 13th floor of the courthouse. I waited anxiously for the doors to open and when they finally did, I gaped at the interior design of the courthouse. Made of wood, marble and glass, the materials intertwined to form curved walls and swirling ceilings. The soldiers wheeled me out of the elevator and down a hallway to a large double oak framed door. I heard a murmur of voices from the other side of the door and looked up at the expressionless soldiers apprehensively.

The doors swung inward and revealed a large courtroom filled with over three hundred people. The murmurings stopped and everyone turned to stare. The soldiers pushed me down the aisle and I watched those in the back rows stand to get a better view, whilst others whispered to their neighbours and threw me dirty looks. I saw it written upon their faces, who was this girl who dared to stand up to the Army? I fidgeted with my hospital gown nervously and stared at the ground as the soldiers wheeled me to the front of the room and into the witness stand. It was only when they applied the wheelchair’s brakes, did I dare to look up. The room was larger than I thought. It was shaped like a theatre with stalls and a balcony.

I scanned the crowd for faces I might recognise and I saw Maria and Neo from school, Hyun’s parents, Primus Academy teachers and my parents. My parents sat in the front row looking sad and sombre. My mum was dapping her eyes with a tissue and smiling encouragingly, whilst Dad gently patted her back and avoided eye contact with me.

A few seats along sat Philon. He was wearing a business suit and his face was expressionless. I wondered if he thought I was going to dob on him.

“Miss Tabitha McKinnley, do you know why you are here today?” asked a voice from the other side of the room. I turned to the Mayor of Primus who was sitting at the head of the courtroom on a raised platform. He had his hands placed together and was looking down at me sternly.

“Yes, Sir,” I said solemnly.

“You have been accused of committing crimes that include treason, trespassing, stealing Army property, using weapons without a license, stealing an aircraft, escaping from custody and injuring soldiers and other employees of the Army. What do you plea?”

My heart stopped and I didn’t know what to say. I was guilty, I did do all of those things. Everyone in the room was looking at me with an array of emotions. Shame, disappointment, shock, anger ... it wasn’t like that!

“Not guilty,” I pleaded. The room erupted in whispers and accusations.

“Miss Tabitha, shall I remind you that we have the majority of your crimes on CCTV?” asked the Mayor. I blinked away my forming tears and looked up at the exquisite ceiling made of curved wood and opaque glass. I could just make out a blue sky on the other side. If only everyone from home could see how blue the sky actually was.

“I didn’t have a choice. I was blackmailed by the resistance,” I fought back. Again the room erupted into more whispers. My parents were still and watching me intently. I should have told them, I realised, I should have told them the truth from the start. The Mayor remained quiet so I continued. “When my family’s name was drawn from the lottery I was kidnapped. I told my family and the authorities I was taken by a gang who were planning to use me as ransom but that wasn’t the truth. I lied. I was kidnapped by the resistance and they told me if I didn’t do as they said they would kill my friend.”

I heard the words liar, traitor and attention seeker bounce across the courtroom. The Mayor slammed a hammer on the table in front of him and demanded silence. He stared at me intently and with an incredible amount of integrity

“Soldiers!” he called out. “Fetch the truth serum.”

My stomach backflipped. Truth serum? Was he serious? I thought the Army truth serum was just a childhood story. It was told if you told a lie, the Army would inject you with a serum and force the truth out from you. But I haven’t lied, I told myself, I did tell the Major the truth.

I glanced over at Philon and saw he was looking pale. Now he was definitely worried I was going to dob on him. I saw his eyes glance at the exits. Run now, Philon, I thought, whilst you still have the chance.

A side door to the courtroom opened and a nurse walked through pushing a trolley. On the trolley was a clear vial and a syringe. The entire room fell silent and all eyes followed the nurse over to me.

She positioned the trolley by my side, and without saying anything, she pulled my hospital gown down to my shoulder and prepared the syringe. I didn’t mind needles, but this was a big one. Once the syringe was filled with the clear liquid, she studied my arm and pushed it into my skin.

Immediately, the cool liquid spread through my arm. I shivered and a sense of calmness instantly washed over me.

“Done,” the nurse declared and she tidied up her things and left.

All eyes in the room were on me so I turned to the Mayor patiently.

“Tabitha,” spoke the Mayor, “please tell me your full name and place of birth.”

“Tabitha Zaina McKinley. Elon Hospital, district 6th of F18.” The words flowed out of my mouth without any thought or effort.

“Now, can you please tell me a lie that you’ve kept secret from your parents?” asked the Major, gently smiling. I wanted to punch him in the face but at the same time, I could feel the truth serum working, flicking through my memories and all the lies that I’ve ever told my parents. Just one lie, I reminded the truth serum.

And so the serum picked one memory and I flinched with embarrassment. Another, I begged, what about that time Jack hit a Toff and we ran away? The truth serum laughed and forced the muscles around my mouth to move.

“Tommy and I made out on the rooftop during our last night together. I told my parents all we did was talk.” The crowd sniggered and I covered my mouth embarrassed. My mum looked amused, as though she perhaps had already presumed this, while my Dad did not look pleased at all.

“Thank you for that, Tabitha,” smirked the Mayor, “now, can you please tell us your story from the beginning.” I nodded and nervously played with my fingers as the truth serum did its work

“It’s true,” I found myself saying. “The first night I learnt of Terranovus was the night of the ball. When my family’s name was called a few weeks later I was shocked, then scared as the crowd around me grew angry and recognised me. I ran as fast as I could, and whilst I was running someone grabbed me and threw me into the back of a car-”

“That is impossible,” interrupted the Mayor, “all vehicles are owned by the Army.”

“It’s the truth,” the truth serum spat back and the Mayor leaned back in his chair thoughtfully. “I was knocked unconscious, and when I woke up I found myself in an underground basement. There were two men in the room and they told me the lottery was a fake, a cover-up by the Army. My family was chosen because my dad was an engineer and I was known for my interest and good grades in architecture. They wanted me to spy for them. I said no, so they threatened me with Tommy’s life.” The room was quiet and slowly processing what I had just said. Perhaps some had heard of a resistance before but others definitely hadn’t.

“Who were these two men? What were their names?” the Mayor asked. My blood grew cold and I started to panic. I couldn’t rat on Philon, I couldn’t! The truth serum pulled on my vocal cords and I fought back. We don’t know for sure if Philon and Flynt are the same person, I told it, the one who kidnapped me could have been a different Flynt. The truth serum pondered for a moment, weighing my debate.

“Geoff and Flynt,” it finally said and I gave a sigh of relief. The Mayor wrote the names down.

“Is there anything else you can tell me about these men?” he asked. No, no there isn’t, I told the truth serum, we don’t 100% know that Flynt and Philon are the same person. We can’t lie and say that we know for sure when we don’t. I felt the truth serum struggling to identify the truth.

“No. But once I arrived here they continued to threaten me through my Ingo.”

“That is impossible,” once again said the Mayor, “all outsiders cannot communicate with anyone in Terranovus.”

“I’m just telling you what happened Mr Volkov,” I said angrily. “In their first message, they gave me 48 hours to uncover Army secrets. I visited my dad at work and that is when I overheard two workers talking about radiation and soil. I researched volcanoes and thought the two didn’t connect so I hid inside one of the convoys visiting the wastelands and saw the destruction for myself. You killed, burnt and destroyed this land. I told the resistance what I saw and they demanded to know which land you were going to destroy next.

“At the dinner party, I overheard you, Mr Volkov, and your son talking. That was when I learnt the Sectors would be destroyed next. I told the resistance and they told me to destroy the servers. I told Hyun and we agreed to do it together. I stole my dad’s work pass and entered the Army base and well, you know what happened next.”

The room was silent. Not one whisper could be heard. My mum and dad were shocked, Maria looked upset and Philon looked relieved.

“Thank you, Tabitha,” said Volkov, and he glanced down at his notes, “now tell me one last thing, who else do you know of that works for the resistance?”

Philon grew pale again.

“Flynt, Geoff,” I said and the truth serum tugged on my vocal cords, “and my friends Tommy, Simon and Jack. A girl named Kali. The leader is called Jarryd. And there’s a man named Brutus.” Philon ever so slightly shook his head and looked down at his lap disappointed. The truth serum made me say it, I wanted to tell him.

The Mayor nodded and wrote notes.

“Thank you, Tabitha,” he said, “now please step outside whilst we bring other witnesses to the stand.”

I didn’t understand. What other witnesses? The only other witness, Hyun, was dead. The soldiers wheeled me outside, but close enough to the door that I was still able to hear what was being said inside.

I heard Mr Alderton, my graphics communication teacher, tell the court about my design skills. He said my eye for detail was invaluable to the future vision of Ziller, Primus and Terranovus. But then Ms Zhou spoke and told the court about my spat with Ava. Guilt tore through me. It was a reminder that simple past mistakes could bite you in the ass when you least expected it. Next, Ava spoke, and much to my surprise she admitted she had ridiculed me and initiated the fight. Maria spoke too, although she didn’t have much to add apart from the fact I was nice and helped her with her graphic communications homework sometimes.

My parents took to the stand too. They explained they didn’t know about the resistance and the secret messages. My mum said I was upset when I didn’t have signal on my Ingo but once I connected to the Primus network I was quieter and more reserved. She started crying at that point so my dad took over and said I was overly keen to check out his work and appeared nervous and anxious at home.

Philon spoke too. His statement made my heart long for him. He said he was attracted to me. And at the dinner party I had begged him for details about the Army’s plans but he refused. He said I appeared upset and desperate. At that, I felt a tear run down my cheek and wiped it away. It was true. I was incredibly desperate at the dinner party. In one way, I still was.

Before I knew it, I was escorted back into the courtroom and sat once again in the witness stand. I stared at my mum who was sobbing uncontrollably into my dad’s shoulder. Her reaction scared me and I wanted to cry too. What had the Army decided? What was my fate?

The Mayor peered down at me and sighed gravely.

“Miss Tabitha, your verdict has been decided. You have admitted to acts of treason, stealing and destroying an Army property, stealing an aircraft, using weapons without a license, trespassing, escaping from custody and harming soldiers and Army employees. We have heard testimonies from members of your family, friends and your teachers. Altogether, it has been concluded that you are guilty of all charges. You had many opportunities to report the resistance to us but did not. Therefore, you worked with them, and are in this court, considered a rebel.” The crowd was quiet and in one way that was worse. This wasn’t right! This wasn’t fair!

“But-” I went to argue.

“Miss Tabitha, do not interrupt me,” the Mayor warned sternly and continued. “However, due to your high level of architectural design skills and the need for such skills in Terranovus, it has been decided that you will not be sentenced to death. Instead, your memory will be wiped of these past events and reintroduced to society through our corrective services.”

My mind was still processing his words as two soldiers marched forward and wheeled me out of the witness stand. I turned to my parents confused, memory wiped? What the hell did that mean? Did that technology even exist? My mum was uncontrollably crying, with relief or sadness or both I did not know.

I stood up from the wheelchair on my weak and unstable legs and turned to the Mayor.

“But they said they would kill Tommy if you knew they were blackmailing me!” I screamed at him. The soldiers took the wheelchair away and caught me just as my legs gave way.

“You also told us your friend, Tommy, is a member of the resistance,” replied Volkov simply.

“How was I supposed to know he went behind my back and joined them?” I spat back and turned to Philon angry. “You guys blocked the communication towers! It’s your fault I didn’t know!” The soldiers dragged me down the aisle and I found I was too weak to fight back so I continued screaming. “It’s your fault for sending those missiles to the Sectors! It’s your fault for only moving the elite here! It’s your fault for killing those hundreds, thousands, millions of residents that lived here before we did. You killed them! You murderers!” The crowd gasped and I wondered how any of them was able to live with themselves for knowing what their leaders did to this land.

“Goodbye Tabitha,” coldly spoke Volkov.

“You are all murderers! All of you!” I screamed. I kicked, I spat, I fought with the soldiers all the way back to the elevator. It wasn’t until the doors opened and they threw me in did I collapse to the ground in tears. I wasn’t the culprit, I was the victim. I dislocated my shoulder, I was kidnapped, was blackmailed, snuck into an Army base, destroyed servers worth millions of dollars. I had fought in a fighter jet, shot down missiles and distracted soldiers from killing hundreds of innocent resistance fighters.

I was Tabitha McKinley. A victim. A survivor. I was strong. Independent. Fierce. Let them try and take away my memories and break me. Let them try so I can then rise and laugh in their faces when they fail.

Let them try so I can prove them wrong.

Let them try.