The imagery of the events happening in the fortress
The narrator introduces the novel with a vivid description of the unfolding events in the fortress. Through this rather explicit description, the reader is able to visualize the happenings, namely, the darkness as it engulfs Cape Wrath, the storm as it blows in from the North Sea. The imagery becomes more pronounced when the author uses a simile in which the rolling of the clouds is compared to the rolling of molten lead: "As darkness fell on the cliffs of Cape Wrath, a storm blew in from the North Sea. There had been many storms at Cape Wrath before, but this one rocked around the fortress as if a DJ were spinning dark matter. Waves boomed against the cliffs, clouds rolled like molten lead and all those elements in between warped in the night as if part of the strange event that was occurring in the fortress. "
The nurses treatment of the implnated army
The writer presents the way the nurses care for the implanted army in a way that facilitates the creation of mental images in the reader's mind. In particular, the reader is able to perceive their caring nature, a concept which is further enhanced by the simile. The narrator said: "The nurses treated the wounds around the implants as if they were caring for crops or things, just stuff, not the living, breathing, feisty children who had filled the arcades with rush and noise..."
The behaviour of the implanted army as it stirs and wakes up
Emma Clayton, through her exemplary language use and appropriate application of stylistic devices, presents vividly the scene of the waking of the implanted army. Her vivid presentation of the same facilitates the conceptualization of the scene by the reader: "But as darkness fell and the storm rolled in, the implanted army began to stir. It breathed, faster. Eyelids flickered as if brains were rebooting. It whispered and writhed, frowned and tangled in its long white gowns and sheets, until it looked like a shoal of fish trying to escape from a net."
The imagery of the waking implanted army, the nurses reaction, and the surroundings
The narrator describes the events that follow the rising of the child army. First, the imagery begins with the comparison of the army's rising to mist. The reaction of the nurses is further presented in conceptual terms where it is compared to the witness of rising corpses in a morgue. Finally, the surroundings are presented in a way that enables the reader understand the tense situation outside: "But as the army began to rise like mist from those long lines of beds, the nurses were gripped by dark horror, as if they were witnessing a morgue of corpses rising. Some tried to bully the children back to their beds, as if they were still just children, but most ran as if a dam had burst. Waves boomed against the cliffs. Wind howled. Darkness warped. Now it felt as if the storm was inside the fortress. The implanted army rose, and the nurses ran, gasping with fright."
