Tony Ballantyne - Recursion

“We should have reached the road by now,” whispered Alison. “I think we’re lost.”

“No, this is right,” whispered Eva.

“In that case, why can’t we hear the traffic?” Alison snapped.

“I don’t know.” That had been worrying her, too.

“It’s the woods,” Katie murmured. “They muffle the sound.”

“Good point,” said Eva, although she was sure she detected a note of uncertainty in Katie’s voice. She pushed her hand into her pocket to feel the lime twig.

“What do you think?” she asked, but there was no reply. Her brother had gone. She almost turned around at that point, but just then there was a sudden blaze of light before them and a roar of noise that sent a wind dancing through the surrounding twigs and branches.

“Shit!”

Eva didn’t know who had shouted; she rather thought it might have been her. She felt incredibly relieved and foolish at the same time when she realized that she had just seen a truck rushing past on the main road before her. There was another whoosh as three cars zoomed past in rapid succession.

“I think we’ve found the road,” she whispered, then started to giggle.

The four of them clustered at the edge of the forest, just hidden from the occasional traffic that roared past in a blaze of lights, their nerves jangled. Alison held her coin in one hand.

“Okay, heads we go straight on into the woods on the other side, tails we take the road. We’ll toss again for left and right if appropriate. Fair enough?”

“Yes,” Nicolas said.

“No,” said Katie. “That choice favors the road unduly. If it’s heads, we should toss again to see whether we go forward or back.”

“Go back? But that’s ridiculous,” Nicolas spluttered.

“If we are going to try to fool the Watcher, we have to follow the coin,” said Alison. “Every time we ignore the toss, we’re allowing our personalities to shine through, and the Watcher can read our personalities. We need to hide them from it as much as we can.”

“Alison is right.” Katie gulped, then continued quickly, almost without pause. “Anything that we decide for ourselves can be deduced by the Watcher. It set the motion sensor at the edge of the wood in case we came this way. Who knows what else may have picked us up? If it can guess our next move, it may set more traps. We have to try to be unpredictable. If the coin says go back, we go back.”

She gasped for air. They all waited a moment for her to get her breath back, then Alison spoke.

“Okay, you heard Katie. Are we agreed?” she asked.

“Agreed,” said Nicolas, after a moment’s hesitation.

“Agreed,” said Eva.

A truck rushed past, sending old burger wrappers spinning around them in a gust of apple-scented fumes. Alison tossed the coin as silence slowly resettled on the wood.

“Heads,” she called. “Okay, we’re not going to follow the road. So, heads we go forwards, tails we go back.”

In the dim light, Eva could just see Nicolas’ silhouette shake its head slowly.

Alison spun the coin again. “Heads again. Okay, straight across the road and down into the deeper woods.”

“This is stupid,” Nicolas said. “What can we do in there? We can’t travel very fast and we’ll get lost. In a couple of hours they’ll be out with IR detectors looking for us. They’ll have us back at the Center in time for lunch.”

Alison sighed deeply. “Nicolas, I thought we agreed?”

Nicolas was obstinate. “So what? It’s stupid. We should head along the road, lose ourselves in a town.”

Eva pushed a hand in her pocket and began to fiddle with the springy piece of twig. She was tempted to just turn around and walk back to the Center. What was she doing, out here in the middle of the night with a bunch of loonies tossing coins to see where they were going? She could be back at the Center, receiving help while she talked to the ghost of her brother. She laughed a little at the absurdity of the thought.

Katie was speaking now, trying to be reasonable, but her voice sounded high-pitched and nervous.

“Nicolas, how do you know we would lose ourselves in a town? If the Watcher expects us to go there, it will have senses already waiting. We may think that we have escaped, but all the time the Watcher could be leading us closer to itself. There may be an empty building with a loose board over the window inviting us inside. Or maybe we’ll see a truck just ahead all parked up for the night with the back open, waiting for us to stow away inside it. How do we know it wouldn’t be a trap?”

Nicolas sighed, exasperated.

“I know what you’re saying, but we’d be stupid to fall for something like that, wouldn’t we? If we saw something as obvious as a truck with the back open, we’d ignore it. Or maybe toss the coin then. But not now. This is ridiculous. This is leading us nowhere. What do you say, Eva?”

The question took Eva by surprise. She guiltily pulled her hand from her pocket and stared into the darkness.

“I don’t know,” she stammered. “I take your point, Nicolas, but I think we should listen to Katie. This was her plan. She knows what she’s doing.”

Alison spoke up.

“Anyway, Nicolas, I want you with us.” She used her little girl voice. Eva wasn’t sure, but she thought there was something there, right at the edge of her vision. Was Alison touching Nicolas?

Nicolas’ voice was grudging. “I want to stay with the group,” he said. “But this is stupid.”

“Do it for me,” said Alison. “Just this once.”

He’s never going to fall for that, Eva thought, but Nicolas spoke and his voice was strained. Just what was she doing to him? Eva didn’t want to know.

“Okay,” Nicolas whispered. “I’ll come with you. But just this time.”

They waited for a lull in the traffic before running across the road. There was a ditch at the far side between the road and the trees, then the rusted remains of a wire fence. Alison took the flashlight from Eva and swung the beam left and right.

“There’s a gap this way. Come on.”

“Shouldn’t we toss the coin?” Nicolas said petulantly, but he followed anyway.

They stumbled through the ditch until they came to a point where a rotten wooden post originally holding up the wire fence had fallen. Alison held the torch to form a path of light and they skipped across it, the wires twanging beneath their feet. Alison threw the flashlight to Eva, who caught it and then used it to illuminate the path for her companion. There was a roar of a truck approaching, headlights washing onto the road, and Eva turned off the beam. She turned it back on to find Alison picking herself up and rubbing her knee. The metal lace grips on her boots were tangled with the wires. Alison angrily pulled her foot free.

“Are you okay?” Eva said.

“I’ll be fine,” muttered Alison, taking the flashlight from her. “Come on.”

They walked on through the woods, following her.

The smell of leaf mold gave way to that of pine, the ground became springy and clear of other obstructions, the trees regularly spaced. The land began to rise and fall in regular waves and walking became a lot more tiring.

“We’re in a managed forest,” said Katie. “There will be roads. They will be easier to follow.”

“Only if the coin says so,” Alison said grimly.

Glancing up through the gaps in the trees, Eva could see pale morning light creeping over the world. A gentle rain was falling above; around them they could hear the steady drip and splash as it made its way through the canopy to fall to the ground. They came to a narrow forest road, a long scar of mud churned by heavy tires into water-filled ribbons.