Beyond the Sea

DYAD - 1962

A siren howled from every corner of the DYAD building. Susan Duncan looked up sharply from her desk, then picked up the telephone and dialed a number, tapping her nails on the desk as she waited. When there was no answer, she hung up, checked her watch, and frowned. It had to be a problem with the specimen. It was the scheduled testing time. She sighed.

There was a knock on the door, then it opened, and Ferdinand entered, clearly bearing bad news.

Susan sighed again. “Oh dear,” she said, “What happened? Has it been secured?”

Ferdinand shook his head, scowling, the lines on his face deepening.

“She’s escaped. Suchong is dead. Four other staff rendered unconscious.” He gestured to the door. “You’d best review the footage. Seems our ‘big sister’ has some new tricks.”

She took the news rather well. Suchong had been brilliant, as a doctor and scientist, completely unfettered by the ethics and petty morality of the surface. Naturally, this made him somewhat unpredictable and occasionally a megalomaniac.  And now he had been neatly taken out of the equation, and Susan was in charge of the entire project.

“A great shame,” she stated, and headed towards the surveillance room.

Helena had reached the upper levels and was halfway to her old bedroom before the alarm began to rouse people. The sound was piercing; it set Helena’s teeth on edge and only made her move faster. She could hear footsteps hurrying in her direction, but she was already hidden by the time they ran past. She looked around the room. It was a mess, just the way they had left it. She sniffled, wiping an arm across her face. The room was full of Sarah still. Her drawings on the floor, her shoes lying haphazardly from the last time she kicked them off, her hair ribbons on the rug.

Helena crouched down and picked one up, rubbing her fingers over the red satin, twirling it around her hand and brushing the silky texture against her cheek. She imagined she could still catch the scent of Sarah’s hair.

The sound of footsteps came back and Helena stood up, swiftly tying the ribbon around her wrist and moving to the vent opening. She carefully lifted up the poster that covered it and shimmied in, letting the poster fall back down, hiding her again. She stayed still as she heard the door open, then a brusque voice say clear. The door shut, and Helena breathed again. She started crawling towards Rachel. She could sense the other girls anger. It was like fire.

The route she took was leading her past Rachel’s mother's office. Helena slithered to the vent and peered through the opening. The office was empty. More footsteps sounded outside, short precise steps. Helena smiled as Rachel appeared in the doorway, and touched her fingers to the grate. When Rachel didn’t notice the waggling fingers, she spoke softly.

“Rachel! Psst, sestra-Rachel!”

Rachel froze for a fraction of a second, then lifted her eyes to the vent, turning as she did so her back was to the ever-present security camera. Without lifting her head, she hissed,

“What are you still doing here, Helena? Everyone is looking for you.”

Helena grasped the vent opening and pulled her face closer.

“I came to fetch you, of course.”

Rachel’s eyes darted up, then away.

“Why?” Her voice was faintly incredulous. “I’m not your sister. And. And you’re nothing to me. Just go. Before they catch you.”

Helena studied Rachel’s face - lips in a tight line, eyes cast downwards, perfectly blank. But she could read what was happening behind the mask. Anger. Fear. Indecision. Loneliness.

She opened the vent and stuck her head out. Rachel’s eyes opened wide and she quickly turned and shot an electro-bolt at the camera. It made a sad noise and tilted downwards, red light fading.

“Are you trying to get caught?” she snapped.

Helena sighed.

“Sarah wouldn’t want me to leave you here.” she said in a reasonable tone. “And I.” She touched her mouth thoughtfully. “I don’t want to be alone. You are all I have now.” She tilted her head to the side and looked at Rachel. “You are lonely too. I can feel it.”

Rachel’s mouth tightened even further. Then her shoulders drooped by the merest degree. She couldn’t deny that. For all her mother’s talk of more suitable companions, there weren’t any other children left to be friends with. Even if she’d wanted friends, which she didn’t. And, it was so boring here. All they wanted her to do was practice and study. She was escorted everywhere by guards armed with taser-batons. They’d moved her into her own suite of rooms, and locked her in every night. They’d known she had been sneaking down to see Helena. It was humiliating to even think about. They’d been watching her the entire time, like it was all part of their experiment.

“So what do you suggest? We just...go and live with the splicers?” Rachel shook her head and crossed her arms. “That’s ludicrous, Helena.”

Helena made a mmm sound and plastered her hands to her cheeks, flashing her teeth in a grin.

“I know where we can go.” she said. “Maty had a place. A safe-room. We can get there through the tunnels. And then -” she shrugged. “We find a way to get to Sarah. Or she will come back for us.”

Rachel looked at Helena skeptically. But the girl's face was full of sincere and unquenchable hope and belief. Rachel found herself wavering. She didn’t think Sarah would ever come back, but it became harder to believe that in the face of Helena’s absolute certainty and the burning gold of her eyes. She looked up at the other girl, and then at the darkness behind her.

“I’m not going through the tunnels.” she stated flatly.

Helena huffed at her. “Are you trying to get me caught?” She shook her mass of blonde hair, like a lion.

Rachel sidled over to the doorway and peered out.

“They’ve already searched this floor. We can get out through Little Wonders. But we need to go now, before security comes back.” She’d managed to give her own guards the slip easily. They’d all been called to help with the search. But someone would come looking for her. They always did. And she was bored with being watched.

Helena studied her with those strange golden eyes, then slid out of the vent, landing in a crouch. When she stood up, Rachel’s eyes widened slightly. When Helena moved towards her, Rachel took an involuntary step backwards. Helena was much taller than she’d been the last time Rachel had seen her. It was somewhat intimidating. But she recovered quickly and merely set her jaw, refusing to drag her head upwards to meet Helena’s gaze.

“Come on then,” said Helena. Rachel nodded, once, and headed towards the doorway.

Only to be blocked by Ferdinand, and Susan Duncan.

“Going somewhere, Rachel?” he asked, smirking. Susan just smiled in satisfaction when she saw Helena, and lifted the tranquilizer gun in her hand. Rachel stiffened, and raised her hand to zap her mother, but could only watch in surprise as the gun flew out of Susan's hand and clattered onto the floor at Helena’s feet. Helena’s mouth twitched in a smile. Her eyes moved between Susan and Ferdinand, who had pulled a baton out of his jacket and flicked it open, the charge whining.

Rachel heard Helena make a noise somewhere between a scoff and a growl. But Rachel moved faster this time, and she threw both hands forward. The temperature in the room dropped and Susan shouted at her as Ferdinand slowly became encased in ice.

“Rachel! What are you...stop!”

But it was too late. He was frozen solid.

Susan took one look at Rachel’s face, her horrified visage reflected in the twin pools of silver. She stepped backwards into the hall, turned, and ran.

Rachel took a half-step after her, flames already dancing along her fingertips, until Helena gripped her shoulder and quietly said no.

“No time,” she added as Rachel pulled away, shooting her a venomous look. Helena jerked her chin at the ice-block that was Ferdinand. “What about him? He’ll thaw out eventually.”

Rachel smiled. Helena thought about sharks.

“No, he won’t.” Rachel declared. She walked around the desk, trailing her fingers along it, until she reached Ferdinand. She lifted a hand, placing her fingers on the ice, not even feeling the cold. She could faintly see the man’s face, frozen in terror. Literally. She realised Helena was beside her, also raising her hand. The two girls looked at each other sidewards and reached a silent agreement. They pushed.

The frigid mass tipped and fell, smashing into a thousand tiny shards of bloody ice.

Rachel felt a thrill in the pit of her stomach. Helena’s hand hovered above her shoulder again, then dropped. She moved towards the door.

“We need to go,” she hissed. “Now.”

Rachel dragged her eyes away from what used to be her monitor and followed her. She could come back, anytime, and deal with her mother. She looked forward to it.

The two of them ran down the hallways until they reached the doors to Little Wonders, now warped from the ice that had covered them. Helena shoved them open easily and looked around curiously. Everything seemed...smaller now. She half expected to see Mr Bubbles still lying on the floor. She missed him. But there was no time for nostalgia.

Tightening her lips, she kept moving, trying not to outdistance Rachel. Helena could sense something new within the other girl. No…not new. But it had become more prominent. A kind of darkness shot through with silver. As unkillable as Helena suspected herself to be, turning her back on the other girl for too long was probably a bad idea.

Rachel had paused to reseal the door with a thick layer of ice, then she joined Helena at the exit to Rapture proper, sending short bursts of electricity at every camera she spotted. She was silently surprised they hadn’t seen any guards on the way out.

“Yes,” agreed Helena, “Security should have guards posted down here.” Maybe they’re scared she thought, with a strange sense of pride. She noticed Rachel glaring at her with narrowed eyes, and raised her own eyebrows questioningly. Rachel shook her head.

“Stay out of my head, Helena.” Her voice was cold, but Helena heard the undertone of bitterness.

Oh. Helena couldn’t stop herself from feeling out gently...then she stopped. Rachel had been under lock and key and constant surveillance for months. Someone poking around in her mind was just as bad. Helena pulled at her bottom lip, then nodded.

“Okay, sestra-Rachel,” she said agreeably, “I will not -” she waved her hands around and searched for the right word to describe the feeling she had picked up. “ - invade your head.”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “And stop calling me that!”

Helena’s shoulders slumped and she looked down at her hands.

“Yes...Rachel.”

Rachel turned away, fists clenched, and concentrated on her breathing for a moment. Then she sent a stream of electricity at the keypad which opened the front doors. There was a crackling and buzzing and sparks flew, then the double doors swung inwards. She walked out into Rapture. Helena trailed behind - her mass of hair brushing against the top of the doorframe. She felt an intense surge of longing for her sister, and a seemingly bottomless well of sadness.

Rachel was smiling now, a small smile of satisfaction. One arm across her chest, tucked into the elbow of the other. One hand tapping fingernails against her jaw. There was a still a slight buzz around her hands. Her eyes moved around the area, then looked down at her clothing. She was still wearing a version of the pinafore dress, the same style she’d been wearing most of her life, it seemed. I’m fourteen, almost, she thought indignantly, I shouldn’t be dressed like a child. She turned her head and looked Helena up and down, taking in the baggy pyjamas and bare feet, noting the red ribbon around one wrist, ignoring the tear-filled golden eyes.

Rachel clasped her hands together in front of her and said brightly,

“Let’s go shopping.”