♨ 

Beginning to walk away, Kate then glanced behind her. She gazed sadly at the cave as the patchwork of bobbing lights diminished. Along with the cave itself, quickly fading away into the darkness like an echoing whisper. 

"Flynn wouldn't want to hide this," Kate said in assurance. "He wouldn't care what the government thought of him! He's only been biding his time with the Purifiers here!"

"How can you be sure? There's no point in remembering the cave. Forget about it," Tom replied, with a gentle sternness to his voice. For he too glanced back at the fading display and felt a sadness and anger similar to Kate's own.  "It'll only do us more harm if we remember what we weren't supposed to see, like before- in the forest." 

But Kate could not understand why Tom still wouldn't express his disgust. Why he couldn't bare to uproot the government after what they had done to them. After what the government had dared to hide from them.

Kate was beginning to feel more and more like a dementia patient, a woman maddened with experience. One who, when she had something to say, would be disregarded as a sad rambling product of the cruel cruel world. 

"But that's the thing... It's like they don't even care if we've seen their secrets or not this time! As long as we don't speak of it. It's like they think we're too weak to respond!" 

Her voice mingled with the bubbling pockets of air- hanging in the water around them and glinting in their movements like the delicate drops of a crystal chandelier. 

Had Kate been looking at Blue, she might have noticed the increasing intensity of his frown and the shade that filtered over his eyes. Though she was not looking at Blue. Kate had avoided looking at him completely; afraid of being reminded that it was she who had almost killed him. 

It was in this moment that she felt the body of the facility nurse weigh heavy on her shoulders, her own back bent with the memories of the dead. 

*

"So, the Colonel said we'd need to collect the water and bring it back." Tom's gaze focused on navigating through the darkening path ahead. "Not that he thought we'd be alive but here we are. So, if we collect the water then hopefully we can..." he paused, finishing his sentence with the almost robotic phrase "earn forgiveness." Tom knew full well that to tell a Purifier loyalist he wanted to "get out of this hell hole and never return" was a recipe for disaster. He recalled gratefully Ray's warning about government watchers. 

"Finally! Good plan," said Blue. "OK, here I go." 

Reflexively, Blue pressed the buttons on his control pad in the complex sequence that he had learnt during Purifier training; despite his usual ease with with instruction, he flinched suddenly.

In the twilight waters Tom could just about read the downtrodden look on his face. " Of course!" Blue groaned. "How on earth could I forget! The water collector on my suit's broke. I've been training for this all my life and I get the dodgy suit!"

"Life can be so vicious," Kate affirmed, finding a particularly interesting spot of sand to stare at.  

Tom rammed his metal foot into Kate's leg, reminding her of the truth. That it was her own vicious nature that had put the boy in danger. 

"Don't bother collecting the water," he turned to Blue. "The less water pressure you put on your suit the better.  We'll just make sure we gather as much as possible. "

Blue looked angrily down at the metal glove that plugged his leaking suit  and then took a resigning step back. 

"And how are we supposed to collect this water?" Kate said. She had been curious to discover the inner workings of the Purification before, but now felt sickened and sour after her recent attempt at revenge had failed miserably. 

"Something to do with the pipes I don't know," Tom gesticulated.

"I thought you'd been listening!" 

"I was. The Colonel didn't say."

"That's because we're expected to know it!" said Blue, suspicion riding the youthful tones of his speech. "We have been trained for this."

"Yeah that's right..." Tom stared at the control board inside his suit, feeling as though he was in a foreign country. He only knew the basic controls and there were buttons in multitudes, each one holding an unknown function with an excess of unknown possibilities. 

"I oughta just leave you down here! Neither of you have any idea what you're doing," Blue stated incredulously.

"You ought to," confirmed Kate. "But, the Colonel wouldn't be too pleased if you came back with no water at all," she continued, falling back into survival mode and doing what she did best. "We all know how those who are disloyal to the government will be punished," she began to pace around him, circling him like one would trap their prey before the final kill. "Law Six..." she hissed over the radio. "Failure to carry out required jobs results in drown-"

"I know what Law Six is," Blue mumbled with his hand on his hips. It was a human display, ill-suited to the huge machinery he wore.

"Then you're going to need us," Kate affirmed smugly.

"Just show us what to do," Tom added.

"Alright. Fine. I will. But only to save my own skin. I couldn't care less what happens to yours."

How delightful, thought Tom. "Please, tell us how to activate the suit."

"Press the left circle then the right. Then the yellow up arrow button twice. That'll trigger both arms and unlock the glass pipe leash."

And within seconds the glass tubes that spun around Kate and Tom's suits uncurled from their wrists, flicking upwards into the water like adder tongues. 

"Now, hold down the textured blue button to begin Aquarist Suction," Blue said through gritted teeth. 

Suction, Kate repeated in her head, feeling the sudden urge to laugh in spite of her deep dark surroundings. 

By the time Kate had regained focus and found the button Tom was so eager to escape the depths that he had already begun to collect the water.  He guided the uncurled glass through the water, finding places which were less thickly polluted to ensure that the liquid could flow smoothly through the pipes and into the hissing suit.

Kate too held her wrists out in front of her and began the water collection whilst Blue watched helplessly on; grumbling, as the two trainees made shobby work of the Suction Process. 

*

"Well that wasn't so hard," Kate shrugged when she could see, from the inside of her metal suit, that the glass heart was brimming with murky brown water. She shook her head. Why her mother would chose such a life she did not know. 

She felt hot. Boiling in fact. The glass of around her began to fog up as the circulating water had raised the suit's internal temperature by 10ºC.

"I'm done," Kate heaved,  attempting to blow her hair from her face and failing the sweat stuck it to her forehead.

"Finally," sparred Tom. 

"Now press the pattern in reverse order," said Blue, looking skywards. "We're gunna have to climb up the side of the lake. No point in wasting any more time." 

Great. No-one mentioned rock climbing in the job description, Tom cursed as he added the looming and dangerously jagged rock face to his list of reasons to stay inside. 

Blue began to feel across the rock face- searching it with the dim lights of the Aquarist suit. When he felt it was secure enough he lifted himself onto the rock and started his journey up the lake's edge. 

Tom did not move.

"What's the matter?" Kate asked him smugly. "Are you too..." she flapped her arms like wings, impersonating the feathered creature as accurately as she could in a metal suit.  

She and Tom locked eyes. Kate didn't have to say it. For Tom knew what she meant. Though the creature itself was long gone, the idiom remained alive through tongue and speech. 

Are you too chicken? 

Tom was thrown back to that day in the forest, when he had stood alongside Flynn, Jasmine and Kate at the base of a towering tree. He'd challenged Kate to a race to the top. Called her chicken when she was hesitant. Then she cheated. 

"Not this time," Tom spat and leapt suddenly up onto the rock face. At first he dangled precariously, a single hand gripping the prominent stone. But he gained competitive confidence when he slammed his other metal hand into the rock and it didn't break under the force.

Kate too jumped up and grabbed hold of Tom's metal encased legs, using them as leverage to secure herself onto the rock face. 

"Stop! You're cheating. Again!" He kicked her away. 

"You never mentioned rules," Kate panted over the radio. Then she signed off, wanting to concentrate on the vertical race course ahead. 

The electricity of excitement buzzed through her veins and all at once Kate felt like a kid again. In this watery wasteland- devoid of morality but soaked through with secrets, Kate allowed herself to feel like a kid again. 

Dangerously, Kate leapt diagonally from each jutting rock whilst Tom was now pulling at his suit- his hand stuck deep in the rock as he had slammed it in there too hard. 

"Damn it," he muttered, seeing that Kate had now caught up with him. 

Fine, he thought in resolution. Let's play it your way.

Using his free hand, Tom reached over towards Kate and pointed the torch lights directly into her eyes. She retracted her hand from the rock above her to shield herself. All the while Tom tugged at his arm try to and release his hand from the rock's vice like grip. 

Screeching, Kate tried to rid herself of the light spots inked onto her vision. She dragged her hand across the rock face, trying to locate another protruding rock but her hand slid limply to her side.   

Hurry up, Tom thought- staring at his own hand.

Finally, the rocks surrounding his hand began to crumble away into the darkness as he broke free. 

Almost at once Tom found his footing in the hole he'd made further down the rock face and propelled himself higher. Then he slammed both fists into the rock. 

He didn't dare look back now. Though he grew tired from the physical force of pounding his limbs through water, no matter how adapted the Aquarist suit was. Looking up, Tom could see Blue climbing steadily towards the watered sky. A welcomed sight. 

Higher, keep going.

Tom's muscles ached, gripped tightly by a tension of adrenaline. 

He was on level with Blue now, climbing alongside him. Though Kate was once again close behind as she regained her vision. 

Blue stopped, letting himself hang from the rock over the long distance below him. Tom would've sped past him, had he not murmured a single horrifying word across the radio. 

"Jump,"

Tom stared at Blue. 

That's when he noticed something in his eyes. He could see that glint turning over and over on itself in his pupils. It was complete submission. An un-mitigated willingness to hand over his life to a cause he did not truly even know. As Blue leapt across into the darkness Tom felt as though he was watching a man jump to his death. Along with his morality. 

An acid sickness shot up his throat. 

This is what madness looks like, he thought.

Then a clunk. Something waited in the distance ahead of him, veiled by layers upon layers of water. He strained to see it. But he knew he had no other choice but to trust Blue. So he prepared himself for the jump, edging towards the chasm. 

"Just think of home, think of home," he said. Trying to settle himself.  We'll get out of here and find Jasmine. Then everything can go back to the way it was. 

Though Tom was starting to believe that it never could.

He climbed higher, making sure that when he jumped he would be less likely to miss whatever it was Blue had landed on. He let one hand go and allowed his legs to dangle, swinging them back and forth. Back and forth. Working up enough momentum so that he could let go and--- 

"Tom!" He stopped swinging. "Tom. I.. I need a hand..." That voice over the radio, it sounded so desperate. He looked down and just below him Kate was struggling to hold on to a rock. It was too small to sustain her weight. 

Who's winning now? He wanted to ask her. But the rock face was falling away, crumbling in bits and bouncing off the metal-glass helmet of her suit. "Please..."

He looked to the chasm and back to Kate. 

She was gripping so tightly onto the rock in above her. Tom knew if she let go now she'd fall. Who knew if the fall would be as kind to Kate as it had been to Tom. 

Crunchhhh

The protruding rock gave way completely, spewing up swarms of dust around Kate until he could see her no longer.

He threw out his hand into the darkness, hoping to catch her. Though felt nothing. No hand. No wrist. No metal armour. He waited for the sound of her body, coated in copper, falling to the ground. 

The dust began to ebb, affirming the emptiness of his palm- where a hand should have been. Kate's hand. Once calloused but made soft and smooth from the years she was isolated within the walls of The Forest Facility.

His heart slapped against his ribs. He thought about letting go of the rock and falling too, so that he could find her. But the dust still lingered and he had lost his bearings. He'd have to take it slow.

"Boy am I glad you've got big feet," a voice said quietly over the radio.  And the last of the dust cleared beneath his feet, revealing Kate who was clutching his feet for dear life. 

Tom shook his head in relief and pulled her up to the nearest rock as quickly as he could. Up close Tom noticed the gashes on the glass holes of her helmet.

"Are you alright?"

"Fine," she replied, regaining her breath and her balance. "Just don't think the race is over yet!"

"Kate you could've been seriously injured! You really want to continue this race?" 

She rolled her eyes. "Duh." 

"Lets just focus on getting across this chasm like Blue. He must've found the platform."

"Well he's not just about to throw himself off a cliff for no reason. Or maybe he just got tired of you!" she quipped.

"Who just saved your life?"

"You did," Kate replied, in a surprisingly mellow tone. "So um thanks."

 Tom began swinging again, lurching forwards and flinging himself through the water. It was strangely exhilarating. That feeling of speeding through water- not gas or a solid. But a liquid light enough to make you believe that you could fly.

After watching Tom dissolve into the lake Kate shuffled towards the edge of the rock and propelled herself across the chasm. She too whizzed through the water, parting it as she descended,  slamming down on the metal platform next to Tom. 

Whilst she could not see the floor through the murkiness she knew where she was. The tiny green spores floated around her. Though she didn't look at them as tiny annoyances now. Without them they might never have fallen to find another truth- that animals had survived the onslaught of the earth's apocalypse. 

"Ah you made it," said Blue, checking the time-o-meter on his dashboard. 

"Don't sound so surprised!" said Kate. She turned to Tom. "Let's finish this race. First one back to the Dam Lock is the winner."

"Fine," Tom prepared himself. 

"Wait. Wait. Not yet. If I win, I decide what we do next. Where we go. How we fight," said Kate. Tom shuddered at the thought of Kate having complete control. 

"Then if I win," began Tom. "-we spend all our time searching for Jasmine. If she's not in here. Then we stay in the Lake District and you stop bothering me and let me go back home."

Kate thought for a moment- her plump cheeks illuminated by the dim flood lights. 

"Deal."

"This is a waste of time," Blue said, anxiety in the cadences of his voice.

"Ready-"

"No. I'll count," Tom argued, trusting Kate even less now that the stakes of the race had been multiplied. She put up her hands- illustrating her innocence. "One, Two, three... GO!"

And they ran, following the denser trails of spores towards the door of the Dam Lock. 

It had been a short distance from the entrance to the chasm before and Kate was already ahead of him. 

Tom shot out his foot, immediately tripping Kate over. 

She toppled over, just managing to brace herself in time before her head smashed against the floor. 

"Tom!!!" she screamed.

But Tom wasn't listening. His pure fear had shaken him into focus. He could see the shadowey outline of the door now. And he reached it quickly, his eyes searching for the lock mechanism. It didn't take him long to find it. He slammed his hand on the button and the outer door rose open.

He darted inside the murky lock. What Tom could see of the room looked empty. "I made it!" he panted. "I made it! I'm first." he said, the statement sounding more like a question.

And, as if the Gods had been listening, Kate stumbled in with Blue. The door to the Dam Lock clamped tightly shut- initiating the drainage system. 

"I won Kate," Tom gloated over the radio. No reply.The lake water drained to waist level- revealing the 3 of them together and solidifying Kate's unresponsiveness.  "Do you know what it means?" Tom could see Kate's ginger hair shifting underneath the suit. She was listening. "It means we do what I say."

"No," came the bitter reply, as the last of the water drained away leaving the space free around them. Blue and Tom felt a catharsis like no other and the circular door to the Aquarist room steadily undid itself . 

"We made an unbreakable deal," Tom said in satisfaction. For he had won. Which meant this counterproductive fighting of Kate's was now over. 

After walking back into the room adorned with metal carcasses, Tom watched one of the suit's deconstruct to reveal Blue in his entirety. He looked shorter than his worn out voice had implied and much younger now that Tom could his acne covered face.   

"And how-" began Tom. 

"Unlock the three hatches at the bottom of the helmet." And as Tom did so the front half of the suit opened out like a greeting card from a murder. Just like before. He leapt out as quickly as he could, his arms feeling weightless all of a sudden as they were no longer trapped by metal encasing.  

Gracing the world with an almighty scowl, Kate did the same.

"There's no-one here," noted Tom after a while. "Must be still on their shifts."

Strangely,  Blue was unresponsive. He simply turned and walked back into the central room of the underwater compound. 

"They must meet back up on the platform after a shift," Tom said. 

Kate shrugged and they followed Blue out of the Aquarist room, leaving the metal exoskeletons in their closets. 

"Don't think the race changes a thing," snapped Kate. And Tom would've rolled his eyes.

But when they had moved from one tiled room to the next- time took a bite out of their lives.

The events up until that moment of transition were all that they'd remember of their time in the Purifier Compound.  For the immediate events there after were blotted out. Maybe it was from the brutal blows they had received to their heads or the magnitude of what was to come. 

Though, if you listened carefully you could hear the unconscious shuffling of Tom and Kate as, like puppets, their limbs splayed and contorted. It was the last resistance they could muster. Each limb was systematically giving way in domino sequence. They crumbled to the ground.

It seemed the puppet master had cut their cords.

Author's Note: Here it is! It's so strange because I imagined the next chapter about 3 years ago. Can't wait to get it down on paper! Stay awesome forest walkers- hippywitch