When we keep walking, there is a strange taste inside me. You know that moment when you begin to solve something, when you have not solved it yet but you can feel that you will be able to. For the first time among the days I spent waiting, one day is shouting, "I am doing something." This feeling is good, but dangerous. Because a person suddenly starts thinking he is important. And beside something like Helix, thinking you are "important" usually does not end well.
Liam keeps checking the mouth of the bag. As if someone will suddenly come out and take it from his hand. His movements are childish, but he is right. We did not find this notebook in the middle of the camp. It was inside a hidden box. If something was hidden, it was hidden so that it would not be found.
When we get close to the camp, the wind gets a little stronger. There are wave sounds from the beach side, but this place is further inside. People are moving among the tents with the drowsiness of the morning. Some are carrying water, some are looking for cigarettes, some are doing nothing and just sitting. This is the routine of this camp. Everyone who comes here eventually splits into two: the ones who wait and the ones who search. Now I am one of the ones who search too.
Liam asks, "Should we show this to Riley?" There is excitement in his voice, but at the same time a slight hesitation. For him Riley is someone who both gives confidence and causes fear. When you love someone, your brain starts acting stupid. When the person you love tells you "be reasonable," reason suddenly starts feeling like an insult.
"No," I say. "Let's understand it ourselves first."
Liam's face looks like it is about to fall, but he recovers immediately.
"Okay," he says. "Anyway, if Riley saw this she wouldn't stop talking for three days."
I laugh, but there is no laughter inside me. Because there is something I noticed just now. Someone is watching us. How do I understand it? There is no sound. No footsteps. I do not see a shadow either. But in that relaxed disorder inside the camp, there is a rhythm. When people move randomly and one person's movement is too regular, it stands out immediately.
There is a man walking parallel to us between the tents. I cannot see his face clearly. He acts as if he is looking at something else, but he keeps staying on the same line. As if he is not following us, just coincidentally going in the same direction as us.
I look at Liam.
"Hold the bag tight," I say.
"Why?" he asks.
"Hold it tight," I say again.
He understands something from my tone. The joke drops from him, and he presses the bag against his chest. Even though he is normally a loose person, when he feels danger he suddenly becomes serious. Maybe that is why he survives in this camp. He acts stupid, but he is not stupid.
I turn not toward our tent, but toward the more crowded part of the camp. I think crowded is safer. If someone is going to do something to us, they do not want witnesses. The man is still parallel. Sometimes he disappears behind a tent, then comes out again. It still looks like a "coincidence," but now it is so obvious that I start getting angry.
"Cole," Liam whispers, "is that guy looking at us?"
"Yes," I say. "But don't make it obvious that you noticed."
"How do I not make it obvious, the guy is basically undressing us with his eyes," he says.
"Don't make it obvious," I say again. Because this game has two sides. If I make it obvious that I am watching him, then he will make a move too. If I make a move, the eyes of Helix watching us from somewhere may make a move too. This camp is under Helix's shadow. Nothing here stays completely "between us."
We enter the crowd. A few people are talking, one is shouting, some look like they are fighting but they are not. In camps people are always shouting at each other. When the sounds mix together, the follower's job becomes harder. I suddenly change direction. I go around behind a tent and enter another path. Liam comes after me. A few seconds later I turn back and look. I see the man. He stops. He looks around. Then he keeps walking.
At that moment I understand that the man does not want to lose the trail, but he also will not come close to us until the right moment arrives.
"Let's go outside the camp," I say.
Liam's eyes widen.
"Why are we going outside, are you crazy?" he says.
"Because if something happens here, everyone watches but no one helps," I say. "If we go outside, at least we will see what is happening."
Liam's face turns into an expression that says "that sentence makes sense but I'm still scared." He grips the bag even tighter.
I turn into the path behind the camp. This path is not the one that goes toward the old camp where we went in the morning. It is a shorter and less used path. It goes through bushes, reaches two large rocks, then passes through a small hollow and opens onto a clearing. These sides are always quiet.
The moment we enter the path, the sound behind us changes. The hum of the camp fades. The wind is heard more clearly. Leaves rustle. Footsteps are heard more clearly. I do not turn around, but I feel that the man is there. He came after us. Now "coincidence" is over.
"Don't run," I say to Liam. "If you run, he runs too."
"I don't want to run anyway," he says, holding his breath.
"Great," I say. "Then shut up."
It may not be possible to see it clearly, but Liam shuts up.
We come to the rocks. Here I stop for a moment and look back. The man is not hiding anymore. Twenty meters behind. And not alone, there is a second one too. The first man is in front, the other is a little further back. This means they are approaching in a planned way.
"Hey!" the man in front shouts. "Wait a minute!"
There is an order in his voice. As if he is camp security. That tone triggers something in me. Because Helix's tone is like this too. It does not request, it orders.
I do not stop. I only walk faster. The men speed up too.
"Cole, should we run?" Liam asks.
"Now," I say, and we run.
The moment we run, the world narrows. Trees, bushes, stones... all of them become obstacles. Liam is not faster than me, but he is more panicked than me. Panic speeds you up, but it also makes you careless. Liam catches on a branch and loses balance. I pull him by the arm and keep him upright. The bag does not fall. If the bag falls, the notebook falls. If the notebook falls, it goes into these people's hands.
We enter the hollow. The inside of the hollow is slippery. My foot slips, but I do not fall. Liam falls. Onto his knee. He swears.
"Get up," I say.
Liam gets up, but his face tightens with pain.
"My knee is gone," he says.
"I don't give a fuck about your knee," I say. "Get up."
I speak harshly, but that harshness gets him up. There is no time to ask nicely anyway.
The moment we reach the clearing, I hear a sound. Not a metal sound. A very short beep. Immediately after that, a thin mechanical movement sound. This is not a sound I have heard outside the camp. This is Helix's sound. The sound of autonomes, scanners, that cold system. I stop running.
Liam stops too because I stop.
"Why did we stop?" he whispers.
"Because we came to the wrong place," I say.
There is something among the trees ahead in the clearing. At first it looks like a shadow. Then the shape becomes clear. A metal body. This is not one of the autonomes that walk around the camp. They look more "showy," they make themselves more visible. This one looks as if it was made to hide. It stands among the trees. As if it was waiting for us. At that moment the footsteps of the men behind us stop. They stop too. There is a second of silence on all three sides: us, them, the autonome.
Then the autonome moves. It turns its head slightly and looks at us. It is not very close, but I understand that it is looking at us. I expect a sentence. Something like "Unauthorized area" or "Violation detected." But it does not say anything. It only scans.
A small light comes on in its chest. Not red. A colder color. The light moves around like a line. I guess it is measuring us. Distance, heat, pulse... I do not know. But it is measuring.
Liam whispers, "Cole… why is this here?"
"Because we found something," I say.
Even while saying this sentence, my stomach tightens. Because now I understand that the men following us may not only be chasing us to take the notebook, but may also be driving us toward Helix. Or Helix put them here. Or the autonome being here is not a coincidence.
A voice comes from behind me.
"Give the bag!" the man in front says.
The time for "let's wait" must have passed, because now he says "Give it." Liam's arms tighten around the bag.
"We're not giving it!" Liam shouts.
There is fear in his voice, but also stubbornness.
The autonome turns its head toward the man very quickly. So quickly that it feels like an animal reflex. This scares me more. I think the autonome is analyzing the voice, calculating the threat level.
The voice of the man behind us drops. As if he notices this too.
"Okay," he says. "Okay… calm…"
The man takes a step back. The other man takes a step back too. Both of them suddenly stop being hunters and take the role of prey.
At that moment I understand something very clearly: these men are not Helix's men. If they were Helix's men, they would not be afraid of the autonome. Or they would hide their fear. These men are afraid. Which means these men are either people from inside the camp.
The autonome takes one step. Liam's breathing gets faster. I control my own breathing. Because if I do not control it, I will make the wrong move.
The autonome does not come closer to us. It stops two meters away. It lowers its head slightly. As if it is "reading" us. Then the light on its chest flashes once and a low sound comes from inside it. Not speech. More like a system sound. Like a confirmation sound.
The man behind me suddenly changes direction. He tries to run away. At that moment the autonome moves. Just one movement. It raises its arm and extends it toward the man.
It does not even touch the man's chest, but the man suddenly collapses to the ground. As if his leg has been cut off. He falls and his breath is cut off. The other man freezes. This does not show that the autonome shot him. It shows something worse: the autonome did something to the man's nervous system. Electricity? Needle? Gas? I do not know. But the man collapsed to the ground.
Liam says, "Holy shit…"
My mind starts working even faster. Because now the autonome will turn to us. We will either fall too or run. But running will not help. This thing can catch us even among the trees.
The autonome turns its head toward us.
Liam holds out the bag to me.
"Take it," he says.
"What are you doing?" I say.
"Take it," he says again. "I'll distract it."
"Don't be ridiculous," I say. But Liam has already taken one step.
Liam shouts toward the autonome:
"Hey! Hey, robot! Look at me, look at me!"
This sentence should be funny, but it is not funny. Because Liam's voice is shaking. But still he is brave. I told you this kid is not stupid. This is exactly that: a not stupid person doing something stupid. Which means sacrifice.
The autonome turns toward Liam. At that moment I pull back with the bag in my hand. But I do not run. Because I cannot leave Liam here. If I leave him, this notebook loses all meaning. That feeling inside me of "for the first time I am doing something" will turn to shit if I sell someone out.
The man on the ground groans. The other man looks like he is about to run but cannot. The autonome sees him too. In this three-way chaos I think about what I should do.
The man on the ground points at the bag with his finger and calls out.
"The key…" he groans. "Under the bag next to the notebook."
I understand that I need to go to that underground box we opened in the morning. It is close and we did not close the lid. If I can run there, I can save Liam, but it might also be a trap. I have no choice but to trust the man.
While Liam distracts the autonome, I start running. My knees are burning, my breath gets faster, but I control it. In my mind, the sentence "I have to save Liam" keeps repeating.
I reach the place where the metal lid is. The place we dug is still disturbed. I immediately throw myself inside. I lift the handbag next to the place where I took the notebook. I had looked inside it the first time I came, but it never occurred to me to look under it.
I start digging and trying to find the box that the key will open. Instead I find a bag. From inside it only a small black device comes out. No spiral on it. No Helix stamp. But it has a screen. On the screen only one text is blinking:
BLIND SPOT – 47 SEC
For a second I do not understand what it is. Then the word settles into place: blind spot. The moment the autonomes cannot see. The period when system scanning is cut off. 47 seconds. I grip the device. The owner of this notebook did not only count people, he also built something against Helix.
On the side of the device there is only one button. My thumb waits over the button. I take a breath. If I press this button, something will happen. I do not know what. But now I have to make a decision.
I run toward Liam. I throw myself back onto the path. My feet slip on the sand, but I do not care. When I enter among the trees, I hear the autonome's sound again. Liam's voice has gone silent. That is not good. My heart jumps into my mouth. I press the button immediately.
The screen of the device suddenly goes dark. Black. Then from somewhere far away, a sound comes as if something has shut down. The light on the autonome's chest flickers once. The glass surface on its head makes a tiny movement, as if surprised.
I run toward Liam. Liam is on the ground. His breathing is fast. But he is alive. I grab him by the arm and lift him up.
Liam looks into my eyes.
"What did you do?" he whispers.
"I'll explain later," I say. "Run now."
The autonome tries to move again, but something is wrong. As if it sees us but cannot lock on. As if it finds the target but cannot decide. This is a 47-second window. We have to get out of here during this window.
We run. I do not turn back. The 47 seconds must be over, but I do not think anyone is behind us. After we get far enough and before reaching the camp, we stop among the trees. I sit Liam down by a tree and sit beside him too. Liam needs to rest and recover, and if we go to the camp like this we will be exposed to too many questions.
While sitting, I tell him about the device and the key I found. After trying to answer a lot of questions I do not know the answers to, I see that Liam can stand up by himself. I stand up too and we continue toward the camp.
"We are not telling anyone what happened today," I say.
"Okay," he says. "What are we going to do with what we found?"
"We will hide it in my tent. Tomorrow morning we start examining it," I say.
When we enter the camp, all our friends are sitting on a blanket by the beach and laughing. When they see us, they call us over.
"We're coming right away," Liam says. "If Riley knew what we went through today, she would be running into my arms right now."
Liam can return to himself this quickly.
"You go ahead, I'll hide these in the tent," I say.
Liam nods and goes over to them.
I enter the tent and think about where I should hide the things in my hand. In this tiny tent, everything is in plain sight. There is nowhere to hide anything.
Then it comes to me. Someone who wants to find this will look at the tents first anyway.
I leave the tent and go to the opposite side from where Liam and the others are. I lean against the tent, take two big steps, and start digging there. Everyone takes three steps.
While digging, I keep scanning around. After digging enough, I throw everything inside and close it. Closing is a much easier movement than digging. To make sure there is no sign of digging, I throw the sand there to the sides and make the ground look natural.
Because I am covered in sand, I take off my T-shirt and go into the sea. Since I am already in, I swim a little too. I get out of the sea and go to them. Liam is sitting looking at the sea. Riley is on his right. Mason and Jennifer are sitting hugged on the right side, Caleb and Jade are sitting hugged across from them, on Liam's left. They have built a romantic U shape.
I sit next to Liam. Both so I can shut his mouth if he says something wrong, and so I can look at the sea instead of watching the couples.
"You disappeared in the middle of the day," Riley says.
"We went to the forest," Liam says.
"Again?" Mason says. "One day you really are going to get lost."
"If we get lost, we'll call you first," Liam says.
Jennifer laughs. Caleb is drawing something in the sand with a stick. Jade is looking at the water. For a while everyone talks among themselves. Riley is telling something about a new group that arrived. Mason says Helix took in fewer people this week. Jennifer says she does not believe that. Liam throws stones into the water from time to time.
I listen to the conversations only halfway. My mind is still on the notebook. I wonder who wrote that notebook and why. Right at that moment, a hand touches my shoulder. I turn by reflex. I recognize the face standing in front of me immediately. One of the men who chased us in the forest.
Without thinking I grab his hand and twist his wrist hard. Because the man is caught unprepared, he slips one step back, but immediately recovers. At that moment the second man behind him steps forward. Liam stands up.
"What the fuck is going on?" he says.
The man tries to say something, but I do not let go. I pull him toward me and push him. He loses balance and falls onto one knee, but immediately stands up again. Meanwhile the second man grabs Liam's shoulder. Liam swings a punch by reflex.
The punch lands on the man's face, but this only gives a one-second advantage. The man immediately recovers, grabs Liam, and the two get into it. Because Liam throws the first punch, he has the advantage, but the man in front of him is stronger. Liam suddenly takes two blows and is thrown backward.
When I see this, I push the man in my hand and throw him to the ground. He slips on the sand and falls on his back. I immediately run toward Liam. I hit the man who is holding Liam by the collar with my shoulder. The man loses balance and falls to the side. I get on top of him and raise my fist.
Just as I am about to bring it down, the first man on the ground shouts.
"Stop! Stop, man!"
My fist stays in the air.
"We didn't come to fight!"
I stop for a second. Liam is also looking at me, breathing hard. A short silence forms on the sand. The others are looking at us from where they moved away, but they seem not to fully understand what is happening.
I lower my fist and let go of the man's collar.
"If you are going to talk, we are not talking here," I say.
The man nods. Together with Liam, we take them a little away from the beach, toward the rocks. The noise of the camp does not reach there. The sound of the waves is stronger. The men sit on the sand.
One of them wipes his face.
"The notebook is ours," he says.
Liam and I look at each other.
"What do you mean?" Liam says.
"The notebook you found in the forest," the man says. "We hid it."
"Why?" I ask.
The man stays silent for a while. Then he looks at the sea.
"Because we are trying to understand Helix."
Liam laughs.
"You are not the first people trying to understand Helix."
"But we saw some things," the man says.
The second man takes a small metal piece out of his pocket. I recognize it. It looks like the blind-spot device.
"You saw this," he says.
"Yes," I say.
The man nods.
"We made it."
Liam raises his eyebrows.
"How?"
The man shrugs.
"One day we found a broken autonome in the forest. It had fallen to the ground and was not working. We took its parts apart and made two of these devices."
"How did you do that?" I ask.
The man thinks for a while.
"Something strange happened," he says. "I did not exactly know what I was doing. But when I took the pieces in my hand... I could feel where they were supposed to fit."
"What does that mean?" I ask.
"I don't know," he says.
The feeling I have felt too comes to my mind. That feeling that comes when I do something with the reflexes left from my previous life, the one I do not remember.
"I understand," I say.
The man turns the metal piece on the sand.
"After a while, we realized that this confuses the cameras."
"Helix cameras?" Liam says.
"Yes," the man says.
There is silence for a while. Then the other man speaks.
"You are wondering why we kept the notebook."
"Yes," I say.
"Because Helix does not take people during the day," he says.
Liam frowns.
"What does that mean?"
The man looks at the sea.
"They come at night."
"Who?" Liam asks.
"The autonomes," the man says. "On some nights we watched from the beach. They come quietly. No one notices. They stop in front of a tent. They take someone out from inside."
"And then?" I say.
"Sometimes they take them inside," he says.
I look at the man.
"Sometimes?"
The man looks back at me.
"Sometimes they don't."
The smile on Liam's face disappears.
"Where do they take them?"
The man shrugs.
"They put them on a ship and send them away."
"What do you mean?" I say.
"We don't know," he says. "But some people do not wake up in the morning. No one notices because the camps are always changing anyway. And the ones who notice think they entered inside."
Liam looks down at the sand.
"And you wrote this down."
The man nods.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because when our turn comes one day... we want to know what we are getting into."
No one speaks for a while. The sound of the waves hits the rocks and comes back, the wind lightly moves the edges of the tents on the camp side. The things they just said keep turning inside my head. Helix takes some people inside, and sends some others away from the island.
As long as I have lived here, I never noticed this. Or maybe I was not supposed to notice it. No one I knew ever had their turn come, and when my turn came I thought I would go to the door myself and enter inside.
Liam says something next to me, but I do not fully hear it. My eyes drift unwillingly toward the camp tents. From far away everything looks as it always does. People are talking, somewhere a fire is burning, someone is laughing. But now that image no longer feels as innocent to me.
An idea forms in my mind. I know Helix has cameras and autonomes, but for someone to be quietly taken from a tent at night, those are not enough. A human has to be helping Helix. Someone the person being taken knows and trusts. Otherwise many people would shout in panic. Even if they were knocked out before being taken, there would still be some escapees.
This means there are some people here too, inside the camp. Not people waiting like us, but people watching us. And if that is true, then someone I know is working for Helix too.
From now on, I have to be more careful.