The Last Signal
An imaginative composed by Isabelle (Year 9, St Peter’s Catholic College-Writer’s Collective Elective)
The world had gone quiet years ago. No radio waves, no rescue beacons - only static. The government in charge fell silent, skies were painted black from failed wars, and the bio-chip everyone long ago trusted became the path to their tombstones.
That’s why the signal mattered.
Kane Vex stood before the imposing gate of Castle Gravenhold with his torch clutched tightly and visor flashing blue. The message arrived in short, breathless bursts:
“help me… trapped… please…”
It was the first living transmission in seven years. His heart raced within his body. Someone is alive. But how? He queried himself.
The castle rose from ash-covered plains like the skeleton of a giant. Once a research fortress for the Biotech Order, it currently loomed weakly, the towers veined with vines and forgotten cables that pulsed faintly in the putrid mist.
Kane adjusted his vest and stepped through the fractured archway. Inside, the walls purred with a low mechanical sound. He followed the signal deeper into the castle’s depths and every step echoed off marble floors stained with rot, rust and a toxic fluid in some parts.
After a trek down a corridor, Kane found just one door left accessible and not welded shut.
“Bingo. They must’ve failed to remember this door,” he mused to himself, voice rumbling off the walls. Then - movement.
A figure twitched on the floor, curled up vulnerably in the corner of his vision. Kane swung out his favourite weapon, a sleek pocket knife. He preferred them in case of a sudden up-close encounter.
“Speak!” Kane demanded with a point of his knife aimed at the individual, but as he approached from the doorway, it became clear. The stranger was a broken half-android, half-human; its human face had peeled away to reveal the circuitry beneath. With another twitch, the creation soon succumbed to its fate and lay still.
Kane’s visor showed the signal growing stronger. He pursued it to what had previously been a cathedral with high ceilings, shattered stained glass, and a chandelier dominating the space.
And there, in the centre, was her.
His eyes softened at the sight, the first breathing human he’d seen in years.
A girl-human-bound upright by a mess of black cables. They glowed dimly, weaved through her limbs and into her delicate spine. Her eyes opened when he came near, conscious and aware, but dull and fragile.
“You sent the signal?” Kane inquired, pocket knife remaining in his grasp.
The girl nodded and spoke with concealed pain. “I wasn’t sure anyone was left if I’m being honest.”
“Who are you?” He questioned more firmly this time.
“I’m Liz,” she stated. “Technician, Gravenhold Systems Division. I tried to stop the virus before the network consumed me. It uses the wires to keep me alive, that’s part of its control loop.”
Kane examined the cables closely; they connected her to a pulsating pillar behind, a red light moving through like blood with veins. He brought his knife to one particular wire, holding it there. “So if I cut these-”
Liz jerked away, her breath hitched. “Don’t,” she interrupted, almost pleading. “The castle’s network runs in me; you sever it here, it’ll trigger a containment lockdown. And I’ll die with it.”
His eyebrows furrowed at the predicament. He didn’t believe she was a threat or a trap; she seemed scared and genuinely wanted help. Kane slid his knife out of sight and looked around. The cathedral was filled with dead terminals, yet one remained functional. High above in the observation tower, labelled CORE ACCESS.
Kane glanced back at her. “Then I’ll shut it down properly.”
With that, he moved fast through the upper halls, guided by the visor’s blinking and Liz’s voice cracking through the comms.
“The terminal’s in the control observatory,” she said. “Password is still active. LIZ, all uppercase.”
Kane passed multiple rooms with abandoned experiments. Pods containing remnants of synthetic soldiers, leakages of unknown liquids, it all told a story he knew too well.
Halfway up the tower, the castle fought back. Walls shifted and groaned like a living beast. A drone dropped from the ceiling and screeched static - but Kane hardly noticed.
The screams flooded back.
Gunfire, shouting, the overwhelming acrid stench of smoke and blood. Civilians trapped, signals dying, no one to save them. He had run. He had tried to help. Yet it wasn’t enough. Faces circle in his mind - each one belonging to someone he couldn’t save. His chest tightened almost impossibly. No. Not again, he told himself. This time, he wouldn't fail. He wouldn’t freeze uselessly.
Kane forced his mind to stay in the moment just as the drone lunged for his face. He fired two shots and the drone convulsed and toppled down to never be seen again. The closer he got to his goal, the louder the castle breathed.
“It knows what you're doing…” Liz whispered in disbelief.
Within the control room was a hollow dome of glass and steel, overlooking the scene below. Screens blinked feebly as he hastily slid into the terminal chair and entered the password in: LIZ.
The screen powered on and a warning was displayed:
DISENGAGEMENT WILL COMPROMISE SYSTEM STABILITY. PROCEED?
Kane didn’t hesitate; he clicked yes without a second thought.
The castle screamed in protest.
Sirens wailed while the lights flashed crimson. The structure shook roughly, with each tremor more violent than the last. The comms came to life again with Liz’s voice.
“Hurry, it’s pulling me back with it!” She begged urgently.
Kane bolted from the terminal whilst floors caved and pipes burst. He leapt over a collapsing pillar and sprinted for the cathedral. When he finally reached it, the cables had gone wild, twisting as serpents would.
“Cut the main line!” Liz gasped as the cables suspended her midair.
He wasted no time and sliced his blade through the thickest cable. Sparks erupted simultaneously with green fluid leaking across the floor. One by one, with each swing of his blade into a cable, Liz was freed.
She fell into his arms, trembling and breathing heavily from the ordeal. They didn’t speak for a long moment. Kane wanted her to catch her breath. He soon steadied Liz.
“Can you walk?” he asked in a murmur.
Liz nodded with a grateful smile. She walked to the main gate, leaning against Kane’s body. Once they stepped into the open air outside, the castle let out one final roar until it settled. The duo slumped to the ground.
“Is it over?” Liz mumbled as she gazed upon Castle Gravenhold. “You know… Nevermind. I shouldn’t. It’s not the time or place.”
Kane raked his gaze over her, noticing the way Liz fidgeted. “No. Go on.”
“Well,” Liz swallowed hard, her voice barely audible. “I.. I’ve been trapped in that system for so long. For weeks, Kane.”
He nodded steadily, his eyes encouraging her to continue.
“Thank you for saving me. I know I didn’t deserve it. To be freed from my rightful punishment” Her words drifted off with a stifled sob.
Kane’s expression turned concerned. “Liz, what are you talking about? No one deserves that fate. What makes you think you do?”
Liz wailed, her voice cracking. “I helped maintain this place back before it was abandoned. I thought I was saving lives not…this!”
“Hey, it’s okay. We all did things we’re not fond of. You did what you had to, what you were brainwashed into thinking was right.” Kane cooed.
He wrapped his arms around her, rocking Liz’s sobbing body. Kane flinched at how fragile she was.
Eventually, Liz’s cries ceased, leaving them on the ground. Kane switched his transmitter off and then froze.
Static.
And then a voice almost too faint to hear.
“Help me… trapped… please…”
It was Liz’s voice.
She looked at him with horror in her teary eyes.
“It’s still transmitting, isn’t it?”
Kane’s body stiffened. “Yeah. We’ve got to go. Now.”
He ushered her away from the castle, the signal continuing to play like a heartbeat as they departed.
