He got them back

 “For the final time, I would now like to hear the defendant’s alibis for each and every one of these murders.” I suck a sharp breath in as a cold fear grasps hold of me. The defendant. Steven Gunnarson. Me. An indistinct, blue-eyed, blonde haired middle-aged man. Pretty much the spitting image of half of Iceland, which is exactly what my job requires. Seven children from my small, Icelandic town, Selfoss, were found dead; one on each day of last week. Since the overpopulation of mainland Europe decimated the international trade industry in 2050, Iceland has had closed borders. And now, in 2078, I have been convicted of seven brutal murders that I didn’t, and couldn’t have committed. A corrupt government named “SAFE” leads the country with ultimate power and nobody can even come close to having enough people on their side to try and knock them off the top. Because of their lies, manipulation and deceptive spies and, I hate to admit it, maybe my boring, default appearance, I am hated by the entirety of Iceland. Except for my Lawyer, Leo – who is now shakily standing up to try to save me from a life sentence, a death sentence, or whatever the hell SAFE do to ‘murderers’ these days.

Leo has dirty blond, messy hair that flows from his head in naturally perfect waves. I know his intelligent, green eyes too well, as if I have been staring into them like they hold the key to my future … which, in a twisted way, I have, and they do. Judge Wolfgang is as different to Leo as she could be. Wirey, grey hair hangs limply from her head in an unattractively spider-like manner. Her eyes are a matching, dull grey and her nose is annoyingly long, with a gruesome hook on the end. Maybe I’m biased. She is trying to convict me of numerous impossible crimes.

       I try to ignore the disgruntled murmurs of the hateful audience behind me, whose harsh words seep into me like acid into flesh – painful and unstoppable. I stare at my feet, knowing that despite Leo’s charismatic, likeable manner, he can’t save me from this one. He can’t tell them the truth. Because I wasn’t in Iceland. I know a way past the immeasurably tall walls, thousands of SAFE guards, and miles of churning waves. He knows too. I’m the leader of a top secret, underground organisation called ‘Rebuild Iceland’ (the RI), and Leo is my advisor. Next week we plan to escape the country through an underground pipeline which used to hold wire that crossed countries to supply energy, but as I said, countries don’t really mix anymore. Nobody knows about this, except Me, Leo and the rest of RI. But it looks like I won’t be going anywhere. While all of the people who I’ve ever cared for leave to try and gather allies from the UK to help Iceland’s population escape, I will be stuck here rotting in a dark, damp, vile room, with no window, toilet, sink or bed until they come back. If they come back. That’s how prisons work in Iceland. Or maybe they’ll have mercy on me and kill me, instead of letting me turn insane from my own thoughts in a cell.

       As I begin to think of other unthinkable things that might happen to me, I let myself fall into the inescapable whirlpool of dread at my coming weeks, months and years. I’m snapped back to the present moment by a sudden swell of angry voices pushing into my back, before a grinning face appears in front of my own. “WE DID IT!!!!” Leo yells over the distressed shouts of the crowd, who are scared at the prospect of a killer being set free. Then it sinks in. A warm excited rush of joy replaces the cold, distant grief that filled my veins, “WE DID IT!” I bellow back, then confusion warps my joy and excitement into a very simple question. How did he do it? Leo convinced that detestable judge of my innocence. Maybe her eyes aren’t as grey and lifeless as I thought…? I glance over to her chair, but she has already left the room, as have the vast majority of the people behind me – keen to get away.

As the last audience member files out, the guards to our right allow us to leave through the side of the court, back over to Leo’s car. The harsh, northern wind hits me in the face like a frozen sledgehammer, snow swirling around us in the dark, late afternoon sky. As we jog to the car and slam the doors shut, leaving a warm, quiet silence that permeates the air. I close my eyes for a second and take a much-needed sigh of relief, excitement and undeniable exhaustion from the day of questioning. When I eventually open them, I see Leo doing his best imitation of the Cheshire cat and showing me his perfectly white teeth. I give him what he wants. “How on earth did you do that? I zoned out for a couple of minutes and you go and save me again! AGAIN!” I can’t count how many times my best friend has saved me over the past few years. I have done him some favours too, but it always seems to be him saving me at the end of things. My own questions have caused a wave of gratitude to course through me at what he’s done.

“Well,” he says still grinning, “Last week, when you were first accused, I checked who would be the judge at your final hearing.” (For some reason, SAFE gave us a new judge for every section of the conviction.) “Judge Wolfgang. My father used to know a Julia Wolfgang. He says that he saved her from being convicted for a murder she did not commit, just as I have to you.” Leo’s father was a lawyer, which must be partially why he is so good at it, “I knew I had to get into contact with Wolfgang before today, so I knocked on her door yesterday and explained the situation to her. Not the RI, don’t worry!” he assures me when he sees the look on my face.

“So, you’re saying that you managed to convince her to trust us, risk her life by going against SAFE, and displease the public by letting me go free.” I state, not posing this obvious fact as a question.

“Bingo. She hates the government more than you may think. I reckon she’s had more than one run in with them than she’s letting on. She might even be a good person to recruit for the RI you know…” He says this knowing my answer already as he pulls out the car park and heads towards the mountains, only a fifteen-minute drive from here.

“Absolutely not. No way. Not yet at least. We need to make sure she is truly against this government before jumping the gun and letting a mole into our group. Back to the point, thank you so much. I don’t know how I’ll ever thank you, this has to be, what, maybe the fourth time you’ve saved my life?”

“Fifth,” he quips cheekily

“Fifth then. Either way, you need to understand how grateful I am for what you did in that court-room.”

“Steve,” Leo replies, “you do know that it isn’t a thing that I need to be thanked for. I’d do the same thing every time.”

This brings a tear to my eye and a hard lump into my throat. ‘This isn’t like you Steve’ I tell myself, ‘Get a grip.’  

Still, there has to be a way to pay him for saving me. We pull into the drive of my rural farmhouse, coming to an abrupt stop outside. I stay in the car for two reasons: I really don’t want to get out into that spiralling snowstorm, and more importantly, I know how to thank Leo. He looks at me expectantly.

‘Spit it out, Steve, come on.’ The wind dies down as if holding its breath for what I’m about to say.

“Do you want to become a joint RI leader with me?” I said it, no going back now.

Leo looks at me quizzically, “You’re joking right?”

“Nope!” I laugh.

He does not laugh. He doesn’t even smile. “No. I can’t do that. The RI is yours, you made it, you lead it and it would collapse without you. I would only disrupt things, and probably bring people like Wolfgang in too early. Long story short I’d ruin it. I am completely happy with advising you so you can make sure that none of my ideas that are too crazy come to life.”

I open my mouth to speak, but I’m swiftly cut off. “Don’t try to convince me otherwise, I know this is to try to thank me, not to benefit the organisation, so don’t say something you’ll regret. I saved you because you’re my best friend, but also because there wouldn’t even be a way to get to the UK without you. I am honoured by your request, but I just can’t accept. I’m sorry”

After that long and unsurprisingly correct speech, Leo returns to his normal self. He smiles at me, says “I’ll see you tomorrow, then!” and unlocks the car door to let me out. That’s my cue. I step out into the gale.

“Bye, I guess.” Leo gives me one more of his signature gurns, before restarting the engine and driving round to his house just around the corner. I’m left standing on the pavement, dumbstruck. Why couldn’t he have just said yes. Then I wouldn’t have this aching sense of inadequacy deep within me, which I know won’t go away until I have a way of repaying him for saving me for the fifth time and some things even more important than me.... I open my front door, quickly, eager to escape the cold.

    The gratefulness is true, but the part about the murders isn’t. I have been lying to my best friend, one of the only people in the country who trusts me. I didn’t murder them, I’m not a monster. But the reason I know that SAFE’s evidence was corrupt is because the bodies of the seven children are in my house, very much still working and alive.

“I’m back” I holler up the stairs, as seven children come bounding down them and hug me with excitement,

“We thought you weren’t coming back Dad!” Yep. These children are my children. Technically, I’m responsible for their disappearances, but I only took back what SAFE stole from me, along with my wife’s life. They stole each of my children when they hit the age of five (the youngest only last week, at the same time as shooting my wife), and gave them to people who are high up in the hierarchy of SAFE to ensure that they would grow up in a household that is loyal to them. So not only am I thankful to Leo for saving me by unknowingly lying, but he helped me to save all of my kids without even realising. They should be able to have a free and good quality life when we get to the UK, which is much safer than Iceland. So overall, I’m in a very good position here, and I will tell Leo about my children in good time, but the gratitude I feel for him is vast, and I know I can never really thank him enough for what he did, but I will try my best. I have to, for my kids. He got them back.