Blocks

by Tara Basi

  “Get in,” one shouted, as Piglet slowed to a hover.

  Jugger grabbed Mina and ran towards the open door, with Battery Boy carrying Pinkie and Stuff right behind. Jugger bodily threw Mina through the door and jumped in after her, closely followed by the others. Piglet powered off and headed for the Block edge, leaving the last of the insects behind.

  Everyone rolled around the inside of Piglet as it burst into the light, banked and rose sharply high over the wastes. Mina was even more amazed than the unexpected arrival of Piglet to find the bald people were Grain and Sara, looking like they’d been dipped in blood.

  “BB,” was screamed from somewhere, filling Piglet’s small hold. Mina jumped, terrified that an alarm had gone off and something catastrophic in the battered ship had failed.

  “Tress?” Battery Boy whispered, looking unsure as he turned towards the sound.

  Mina got roughly pushed out of the way as a haggard older woman she didn’t recognise flew past her and crashed into Battery Boy.

  Mina turned to Sara, “Guess we got a lot to tell each other.”

  Chapter 11 – Better Dead than Blocked

  For a long moment there was so much to say that no one said anything. The only noise that could be heard over the roar of Piglet’s engines was Tress’s happy sobbing as she and Battery Boy rocked back and forth in each other’s arms. Mina was about to start the story telling when a more immediate question came to mind.

  “Where are we going?” Mina said to Sara, looking at the empty seats at the front the ship, assuming Sara had Piglet on auto-pilot.

  “Good question, we’ve been locked out ever since it picked us up and then came for you. I’ll have a look,” Sara said, as she crawled into the front of the cabin.

  “You’re not flying it? Who is?” Mina asked, confused by Sara’s statement.

  “Who’d you think Tea Bag,” Trinity squawked, startling Mina. She’d forgotten it was still on speaker.

  “Who the hell is that,” Grain asked, startled by the unrecognised voice.

  “It’s Trinity, it’s my personal interface, gone public,” Mina explained, remembering that no one on the Small Business had ever talked to Trinity.

  “Greetings, huddled masses,” Trinity announced.

  “The worm, but how did you get past the Block’s defences?” Mina asked, and already another hundred questions for Trinity were piling up.

  “Short version. Reference is the Block’s human interface and it’s not that difficult to hack. It was particularly vulnerable between Tracy getting gutted and Tippese taking over. The worm’s acting like a minor level Boss, it can issue orders, open a door, send a Crawler on an errand and even let a ship like Piglet come and go,” Trinity explained.

  “We can do anything then, take the whole place over, get people out,” Mina shouted enthusiastically, wondering who poor gutted Tracy and Tippese were.

  “Absolutely, and there’s a Father Christmas. Duh! Numb nuts, you weren’t listening. Reference is like a drop of water on the roof of the Block compared to its main system. Mess with anything significant and it’ll stomp all over us. We’ll get away with little things, less now that Tippese is up and running, so long as we don’t muck around with the QQ.”

  “Your interface is super bitchy,” Sara called from the cockpit. “Modelled on anyone we know? Anyway, Piglet’s headed nowhere in particular just away from the Block, and the controls are unlocked.”

  “But it’s making sense, we need to be careful. Is there somewhere safe where we can land and just talk things out?” Grain asked.

  Mina felt like tearing in to Trinity, but Grain was right, it could wait until they exchanged everything they’d learned.

  “Anywhere you like, as far as I can tell Reference is completely disinterested in anything that goes on outside the Block fence,” Trinity answered.

  Sara found some open country and directed Piglet to land. Once on the ground and with Piglet’s engines silenced the ship’s human cargo unloaded their stories, like something dirty that needed discarding. Just when Mina thought their tales couldn’t get any worse Grain started describing the Vat. She wanted to scream at him to just shut-up, but Mina listened carefully, doing what she was supposed to be doing, learning everything she could about the Blocks.

  “We need to contact the Maxinquaye, let Cole know we’re safe and decide what to do next,” Mina concluded as their storytelling came to an end.

  “Shit, can’t believe we forgot, Tippese had them all killed,” Sara said, shaking her head as she stared at her feet.

  “I stopped that, just in time,” Trinity said. “Weak moment when Tippese took over, so I sort of told Reference to forget the order. Hopefully he didn’t ask again and they’re OK. No need to thank me, really, not for saving everybody and the rescue. I mean, any super-competent, fast thinking, wonder-system would have done exactly the same.”

  “Give me that box,” Sara squealed, as she grabbed Trinity and planted a big wet kiss on the metal casing.

  “Mind the paintwork,” Trinity cooed.

  “I’m jealous,” Grain said, then laughed, and laughed, and everyone joined in though it wasn’t clear to Mina if everyone was laughing at the same thing but it was a great sound.

  “Let’s call Cole,” Mina said, when the laughter died down.

  The conversation went on for hours. At first it was joyous. Cole thought them all long dead and then the recounting of their horrific experiences became a terrible ordeal. Regurgitating everything again brought out new horrors they’d forgotten and the old ones only got worse in the retelling. On the Maxinquaye they found the stories difficult to believe. Cole and Greg tried to suggest there might be other interpretations of what they’d seen and been told. Cole eventually accepted the new Block reality, even if he didn’t want to. Greg stubbornly insisted they were mistaken.

  Tress and the children didn’t seem interested in the arguments, they drifted away to explore the nearby countryside. Mina found it hard to imagine that Battery Boy and Stuff hadn’t seen grass for years, and Pinkie and Tress hadn’t felt the sun on their faces for just as long. Then Mina remembered the ten years aboard the Small Business. She hadn’t seen them either, for even longer.

  Eventually, exhaustion overtook everyone, the sun was setting and they decided to sleep on what they’d heard and decide what to do in the morning. There was enough food left on Piglet for one reasonable meal.

  “We should start a fire,” Mina suggested, after they’d finished unloading the last of their provisions from Piglet.

  “Not safe,” Jugger answered quickly.

  “There’s nobody out here, everyone’s in a Block or behind the fence,” Mina said, trying to get Jugger to relax.

  “Fine, I’ll sleep inside, you can take your chances out here.”

  Later, after everyone had eaten, only Grain, Sara and Mina stayed outside and slept by a roaring fire they kept going all night. Jugger and everyone else went inside Piglet and shut the door. Mina realised it would be a long time before the children and Tress felt safe anywhere.

  In the morning they finished off the food and then everyone assembled inside Piglet to continue the conversation with the Maxinquaye. Knowing more about the Blocks didn’t make the choices any easier. The conversation went back and forth for a long time.

  “We can’t do much unless we access or crash the main Block system, the one Trinity couldn’t access,” Cole concluded.

  “Yes, OK, but how?” Sara repeated.

  “Take out the gateway,” Mina said, the idea had just popped into her head.

  “You mean the place the oblongs go, near the moon? Why?” Cole asked.

  “It’ll muck things up, just like losing mission control buggered the Small Business,” Mina responded, remembering how all this had started.

  “It will most certainly bugger things up, as cave woman suggests. It’ll be like hitting a wasps’ nest with a stick,” Trinity threw in.

  “Explain,” Cole said, still finding i
t awkward conversing with a disembodied Trinity.

  “Every time our Block lined up with the gateway, or whatever it is, a huge amount of data got exchanged. And before you ask, I’ve no idea. The data stream was super-compressed and encrypted. We can’t even detect the signal but the worm saw it, and it seems very important to the Block,” Trinity said.

  “Exactly, it might make the Blocks vulnerable if we cut that link, the worm might be able to take control,” Mina said, itching to get on and actually do something.

  “And the wasps?” Trinity pressed, apparently determined to rain on Mina’s parade.

  “Hit them with a bigger stick,” Grain answered for Mina, which was just as well as she didn’t have an answer.

  “Meaning?” Cole asked.

  “If we hit their comms, the wasps are likely to come and investigate. So we hit them first, maybe scare them off,” Grain answered.

  “Gee and I thought Tea Bag was dumb,” Trinity chipped in.

  “Shut up Trinity, what do you mean Grain?” Mina asked, starting to worry about where this was going.

  “Send some moon-buster bombs through this gateway thing, before we blow it up, terrorise the wasps,” Grain answered.

  “Yeah, and poison the blood, kill whatever’s using it, that should scare the bastards off,” Sara added, remembering the awful ruby lake.

  “On the other hand, the Blocks could self-destruct and take out the whole planet. Or, trying to be positive, a huge alien armada turns up and eats us all for lunch,” Trinity shouted, its voice thick with exasperation.

  “What about us, don’t we get a say?” Battery Boy said, speaking up after a long silence.

  “Sure, what do you think?” Mina asked, feeling a little guilty that she hadn’t involved the children and Tress more.

  “You’re telling us if we fight back we might get killed, right?” Battery Boy asked.

  “Not just us, everyone in the Blocks as well,” Mina explained.

  “That’s OK then,” Tress said, without emotion.

  “What do you mean?” Cole asked, puzzled by the turn of the conversation.

  “Better dead than Blocked,” Battery Boy answered.

  “You all think that?” Cole said, looking out at Jugger, Stuff and Pinkie from the view screen.

  “No, you only stand and fight when you can win or you can’t run, otherwise you run,” Jugger answered.

  “Fuck sake, it’s bloody obvious. It’s what he said. Right? You people got no clue, got no chance against the Block,” Pinkie shouted, then turned and smiled at Jugger.

  “Who’d have thought the natural born killer and the skinny kid in sun-glasses would be the only ones making any sense,” Trinity said, sounding surprised.

  Stuff didn’t say anything, his eyes flicked back and forth between Battery Boy and Mina looking for an answer, until he eventually gave up and shrugged. The conversation stalled for a long time.

  “We’ll need to think about this. You need to set up a base of operations. We’ve found a record on the Maxinquaye of a huge emergency military base and civilian shelter under Central Park, in New York. Completely self-sufficient, power, water, air, the works and it’s a long way from any Block. You might even find some survivors down there, free people,” Cole said, happy to steer the conversation back to easier choices.

  “Think we killed the last free people,” Battery Boy said.

  “What are you talking about boy?” Cole asked.

  “Old man called Worry, and his lot, said they were the last free people, anywhere, and those huge insects killed them all. We brought the insects.”

  “Shit yeah, and we find any more free people like Worry in this Central Park place, we’re gonna kill them too, right?” Pinkie said.

  “I hadn’t thought about it like that. They were free, I suppose. No Bands, spiders, living outside the Block,” Mina whispered.

  “You’re right, we’ll kill them all,” Jugger said to Pinkie, with a big grin.

  “Grain, once you’ve set up a base, call us. Meanwhile, we’ll take the Small Business and scout out the gateway area, see what’s really there. Out,” were Cole’s final words before he signed off, finding it easier to ignore the children’s intervention.

  Only an hour later Piglet was headed towards New York. Sara was up front with Jugger, Battery Boy, Pinkie and Stuff. Grain, Tress and Mina were sitting in the hold. There wasn’t much talk in the back of the cabin, the children up front chattered excitedly for a while each time they spotted something new and wondrous on the ground. As Piglet headed out over the ocean, everyone grew silent and Mina fell asleep.

  She woke in time to see the skyscrapers of New York appearing on the horizon. The city looked pristine as though the Blocks were something she’d dreamt.

  Pinkie started to become agitated as Piglet got closer to the massive towers of the city, glistening in the sun against a bright blue sky. Mina began crying quietly, the sight of the city and knowing it would be empty made everything so real, unbearably true.

  “What’s that, you ain’t taking us to some new Block?” Pinkie asked, pointing with one hand at the skyline while poking Mina in the arm with a bony finger.

  “It’s a city, our city. When I was really young I lived in a place just like it. Before the Blocks. It was wonderful, full of people, full of life,” Tress said, staring ahead at the fast approaching skyline.

  “It’s true, I saw the old vids in school, on the screens,” Stuff added.

  “They right Jugger, is it OK?” Pinkie asked, turning to Jugger.

  “Never saw no vids, but heard about the cities. It’ll be OK, anyway I got my gun,” Jugger answered with a smile, patting his trouser pocket.

  “I want a gun,” Pinkie shouted.

  Mina smiled and wondered why she was smiling? Jugger and Pinkie were becoming a very scary pair. Piglet descended and wound its way slowly along Fifth Avenue between the towering blocks towards Central Park. Mina looked out over the city and at the buildings passing close by. Some giant had thrown a huge can of green paint right down the centre of Fifth Avenue, splashing the buildings on all sides. The street below was almost invisible under its lush carpet of wild vegetation. Creepers climbed up buildings, street signs and hung down from traffic signals. Animals startled by Piglet’s passing scurried for cover, elk, fox, deer, packs of dogs and who knows what else that Mina couldn’t see. Thousands of birds rose out of the burgeoning trees just ahead of their flight path and flew up into the sun to wheel around and re-settle the avenue once Piglet had passed.

  Skimming low, Sara set Piglet down in a less overgrown area in the middle of Fifth Avenue. The park had become a jungle, impossible to land in. Down on the ground it was even more obvious the city had been empty for decades.

  Stepping out through Piglet’s airlock into the sunshine Mina found herself facing a green wall of rampant growth. Just getting into the park was going to be a challenge.

  “Wait here while we take a look around,” Mina called back to Tress and the youngsters inside Piglet.

  “We need something to cut through that, I saw a hardware store back there as we landed,” Grain said and turned, heading back along the avenue towards a couple of store fronts at the end of the block.

  Sara moved off behind Grain and Mina followed, her gun in hand and ready in case anything with big teeth burst out of the greenery. The hardware store Grain thought he’d seen turned out to be an up-market outdoors shop, which was even better. As they waded through the knee high grass towards the front door, Mina spotted a forlorn ‘Closed’ sign.

  Even now, Mina felt guilty when Grain smashed a glass panel and reached inside to unlock the door. She followed Grain and Sara inside. The store looked remarkably untouched except for the thick layer of dust over every exposed surface. Dummies sporting hiking outfits, climbing gear, camp leisure wear and other outfits Mina didn’t immediately recognise watched them as they wandered through the shop. All the plastic people made the absence of real people even more poignant
. Grain headed for the back, Sara started pulling open drawers.

  “These are OK, I’m going to change,” Sara called out, holding up sealed bags of clothes.

  “Sure, good idea. I think I’ll get the others, they could do with some new outfits as well,” Mina called after Sara as she hurried off to find a changing room

  Mina returned to Piglet and brought Tress and the children back with her. As they entered Sara was happily modelling a snazzy looking hiking outfit.

  “What do you think?” Sara called out as she twirled around.

  “Looks great,” Mina replied, thinking she might as well get a change of clothes as well. She’d been in the same outfit for days.

  “What’s this place?” Battery Boy asked, looking puzzled as he slowly surveyed the room.

  “It’s a store, take what you need, clothes, boots, sleeping bags. I’d grab a rucksack first though,” Mina said. It was so easy to forget they didn’t know about so many of the things she took for granted.

  After a moment’s hesitation Tress and the children descended on the shop like locusts. Grain returned carrying a big bag which he dropped on the floor making a loud metal clang.

  “Help yourself,” Grain said.

  The bag was full of some the biggest and nastiest looking machetes Mina had ever seen. She pulled one out and felt its weight; it gave her a strangely reassuring feeling. Jugger was by her side and helping himself to one of the menacing blades before she even realised he was there. Their shopping trip went on longer than expected. Everyone got new clothes, boots and lots of goods they’d probably never need. Tress and the children went particularly crazy, ending up with more gear than they could possibly carry and Stuff seemed to be wearing three of everything.