Tommy had the car get us to the hotel extra fast, I can recall the smell of his car. It was warm and crisp. It was always the more atmospheric characteristics I remembered.
Sam said, not to anyone in particular, “I am sure my ol’ grandma, Mrs. Jefferson will be happy to take us in. My grandpa has been gone for quite a while now so she would be happy to have us.”
Tommy asked without thinking, “what happened to your Grandpa?”
“I don’t really know. He was never around much and I figured since my Dad never talked about him, he was just kind of aloof doing his own thing. I don’t really know Tommy,” she finished her sentenced sad, perhaps thinking about her Dad.
Tommy kept quiet the rest of the ride further into the city. The sky hadn’t started darkening yet.
We arrived at the tall hotel. The bright yellow and red neon lighting lined the edges of the entrance to the hotel. Something that wasn’t there the day before.
I looked over at Tommy and said, “I don’t remember it being decorated like this.”
Tommy replied looking curiously up at the top of the tower, “yeah, man this is getting stranger and stranger.”
Sam also looked up at the towering boxed palace, and she went around to the back of the car, opening the trunk retrieving a bag.
“What is in there?” I asked.
“Nothing heavy, just some items in case we need extra resources when we get up there,” she responded.
Tommy mentioned, “that’s a pretty ugly purple corduroy bag Sam. Where did you get that? The 20’s?”
He laughed just joking and all.
The concierge went up to Tommy to take the keys to go park the car, but Tommy resisted and said that we would be back down in ten minutes.
We all walked in, like a pack of soldiers into the hotel. I felt like we were being watched. I didn’t notice anything suspicious, however.
I motioned Tommy over to the Tubes in the center of the main lobby area, where we inserted our keys to enter each Pod that came down.
“Here, take my keycard, Sam. Just type in our room number, 5056. It’ll shoot you up,” I said.
I inserted my key card first and entered the Pod whose door opened first, and I handed her the keycard.
The cool breeze of air shot through my clothes as the Pod shot up into the upper shafts. Approaching the top, it felt like it went on forever. Watching the floor drop beneath my feet, if I fell, I knew I would certainly die.
The Tube finally began to stop, and the door shot open. It was much darker, but our door was still down the left side.
When the three of us got into the hall, we walked briskly over to the door 5056 and entered.
Inside, was a mess of papers, pictures, and graphs.
“Do not flip on the lights!” a strong voice came from inside of the room. “If you turn them on, the hotel will already know we are inside. They don’t know because we have only slid our key card, but I have it switched to show that each time is to exit.”
“Anthony? Where are you?” I asked.
He came out from behind the wall, and he was dressed in ragged grey pants, and a white shirt.
“What happened to you?” Tommy asked.
“Who are all these people Luis?” Anthony asked.
I motioned introductions starting with Sam, “well this is Sam, I met her at this small diner in town. This is Tommy Bombardi, you’ve met him already.”
I was confused.
Anthony responded, “oh, right, right, you’re Tommy, got it. Nice to meet you. Sam? Were you over at Toodles?”
Sam replied, “yes, I was there with my father since I was a little girl. Hard to believe that they took him.”
Anthony replied quickly but softly, “oh, I am so sorry to hear that. It is hard, and they are cruel people. They can’t get away with this, the best thing you can do now is remember your father with all your memories, good and bad, we will get him back.”
Sam didn’t really reply. He went on to what had happened, “so, long story short, I was on my way to Dunshop on foot because there is no way to get there by transport. They have the whole thing walled off like a tiny greenhouse.
I was able to get through because those sick bastards up in Unity don’t have the resources to waste energy on electrical fences nor the people to guard them. As soon as I entered, I knew what I was getting into. I did tons of research, and the little information in the Unity database I hacked, had trace files that recorded the strange lucid substance within the honeysuckle flowers there.
It is amazing, the science behind it all. I didn’t expect Kolash to be out in the open or anything like that. I figured, oh he might as well be in a cage or a jail cell somewhere hanging from his ear’s upside down. No. In fact, he was in the center of some strange chant.
These people in robes were all around him, they didn’t speak a word of English. They wouldn’t move, and I tried to take Kolash but he wouldn’t listen, kept his eyes shut, and started screaming the moment I took him outside the fence.
These people came running at me in their silly robes, tried to take him back inside, and tried to douse me in that stupid suckle pollen that has everyone in there medicated. It was a nightmare really, so I had to come back because at that point, border security saw me, and I went running but they lost me in the city transit because I use a fake I.D.
We need to go back, we need to stay somewhere on the outside of town, get out of this room, bleach it all, take all our stuff, trash and particles, and get moving because I think they know I am here. They saw me and changed the whole hotel since I got here in the morning, and I am not quite sure what this all means.”
Anthony stopped talking because he was out of breath.
He walked around the room and started pointing at pictures to explain, “see this here is the wall, and on this map here we are, and here is Dunshop. It is not hard to get there. This city basically drops off outside the limits, no joke. In fact, you guys do realize we are the only ones on this floor. Everyone is on these floors, just so they cannot see out and above the other towers. That would expose the secret.”
“We can stay at my Grandma’s. I already told them. My grandma ol’ Ms. Jefferson lives in this small house out on the very edge of New York City. I know because I went there a week or so ago,” Sam said.
“I thought you said you didn’t know it was there?” I asked.
“I didn’t think we’d actually go. I didn’t think that this would happen, and I didn’t think Anthony would even show up, I think in my mind I was hoping this was a game that could be easily won by it never actually happening,” Sam said.
Anthony looked over at Sam, “I don’t want to frighten you, but this is the least of our problems. We are on another planet, not even on Earth, in New York City, a fake alternate reality, with a government whose only option is to get through this is to slowly exterminate anything left from KS, until we all believe this is what is left of Earth.
We don’t know what is going on down on Earth. We aren’t even really sure who could help us. I don’t understand how this all even happened, or how they could even do this to anyone. But it happened, and here we are, us four.”
Thoughts rattled my mind, and him clarifying the situation didn’t seem to help at all.
The separation between here and there was what made the situation so tense. The idea, that there might not be anyone left.
Anthony spoke again, “I think we ought to go to lil Miss Sammy’s Grandma’s place. I honestly don’t think it is safe here, and if they knew I was here then they would’ve killed the lights and taken us already.”
“Let me just get my computer to figure out where she lives. I have her address in an email somewhere, it's just not on my phone,” Sam said.
She pulled out the ugly corduroy bag and unzipped it. She pulled out a silver, old laptop which actually had black keys that lit up when it was turned on.
“So, I have her address, 33 Grove Drive. It is only twenty minute
s from here,” Sam said.
Anthony scuffled and started pulling off all his pictures and papers off the walls, and he shoved them into his black sack that he slung across his shoulder.
“Ready?” Anthony asked.
We left the room quickly after wiping everything down with bleach. Anthony made it important, with paranoia, that there not be any traces of him being there.
We headed down the hall, and we entered the center floor to prepare to take the tubes.
“The hotel is going to want to take our cards and I.D. as we exit the hotel. One of us needs to go and turn them all in,” Anthony said.
Sam replied, “I’ll do it. I have an I.D. from my old school. I think I can make up a story or something to get them to let me go.”
“I think we should take the stairs, I don’t like them knowing that we are on our way down to exit the building. Leaving the key cards for someone to take down with them could draw suspicions considering we only have two, and there are four of us,” he spoke so quickly, it was hard to keep up.
He didn’t even wait for us to get understand the plan or ask questions. We walked through the circular Tube room, into another dark hallway, a door stood closed at the very end of the corridor.
Anthony went up to the door, like an undercover agent, and he scanned a white key card against the magnetic strip, and it flashed green and the door slid open to the right.
“What was that?” I asked.
He didn’t reply, he rushed through the door and we began the long descent down 50 flights of stairs.
Step by step we tripled down the stairwells, faster and faster, there was no stopping us. We were falling forward like the gravity was looser here.
I had to stop for a breath.
The steps could still be heard, reverberating against the solid cement walls.
“Wait up guys! Please!” I yelled.
They didn’t stop, like a nightmare, I felt as though more steps followed behind. My heart was racing, my blood pressure was high, and just as if I were still suffering from the effects of the black drug I was once addicted to, my vision started to shake, and it felt as if I was being forced down to the floor.
I was shaking and trying not to cry, and out of my eyes, I could barely see but a spot of what was Anthony coming to pick me up.
He grasped his arms around me, and he lifted me up to bring me down to the bottom of the stairs, by the end of the thumping, and the bottom of floor one, my vision had returned and this allowed me to stand up.
I finally held grasp of the ground, and the sound of the follower ceased.
"Did you guy hear that behind us?" I asked.
Tommy responded, "I think it was just the echo of our footsteps."
Anthony pitched in, "we need to go, we need to keep moving regardless if someone is following us."
We continued running through the hotel, pushing through the people who seemed to all be standing there as if waiting for something.
Sweat was running down my back, irritating my skin because of my heavy bag. Tommy had disappeared, and Sam was right in front of Anthony expecting the car to be ready as we exited the rotary door.
Anthony took a deep breath with his hands on his knees.
“Where is he at? Where is the car?” he as rhetorically.
“He’ll be here in a minute. I am sure there is no trouble,” Sam said.
14
Tommy had been running about down the side of the building, and into the pasty garage where a human probably hasn’t set forth in more than a hundred years.
He panted, flying past each corner hoping no one would jump out and grab him.
Surprisingly, he made it down into the bottom corridor 5B where the Cadillac was supposed to be sitting.
“Where the hell is the car? It should be right here!” he said out loud.
The lights flickered intentionally.
He quickly jolted over to the small blue locator box for attendants to manually search for cars based on their make and plate numbers.
He typed in; Cadillac, Blue Plate Number: 43B2F, “Not found.”
“Fuck!” he said out loud.
Tommy ran over to another blue box on the other side of 5B. He quickly typed in the car information again, and it popped up with, “Error, Car, Not in System.”
He shook his head, “this can’t be happening, this can’t.”
Footsteps of several people came like tip tapping from the top of a stairwell. He quickly slid under the stacked cars and hoped that the grey stingray he was under would not roll down on top of him to be driven up to the street level.
He sat quietly, trying to hold his breath, and protect his sweat from pattering on the concrete.
A man shouted, “this is your first warning! Come out now or be put down! We know you’re in here Tommy. We’ve been watching. Hell, we’ve known where you’ve been this whole time. We knew you and Luis would talk, we knew Anthony would come to the rescue. We knew about Sam’s Dad, and oh boy what a kill that was!
Come on Tommy, you don’t want this. Your love for Sam, your love for Luis, that doesn’t matter. We have your family.”
Tommy held his breath, turning bright red from anger, he had to lay there, he had to win. He had to pick his version of what winning was.
At the moment, Tommy jumped up and out from under the car, he screamed, “you got me! Come on! Take me. Why don’t you shoot? You don’t know me, you don’t know my friends. You don’t know shit about this place, hell I doubt Crylser even told you why you’re fucking with us.”
The man now clearly seen, huge muscles and a very steady eye, “you're coming with us, and so are your friends. I don’t really care why I am out here trying to round you up, but you have to be worth hella shit the stir you’re causing higher up at Unity.”
“You don’t have me, frankly you never had me at all! You don’t have my family. They have been killed. I was told so myself, by Crysler. You don’t have shit I want because all I have wanted has been taken away!” Tommy continued to scream from the far distance with his hands above his head. He mumbled words to himself, but no one could hear.
“Round him up boys, take him down,” the leader commanded.
Tommy bent down on his knees. Sobbing, his red face, and his bright blonde hair. He sat painfully, scrapping his legs against the concrete, banging his hands on the solid ground, his hands bled. The men walked in.
15
Sam, Anthony and I continued to panic as to where Tommy was. We still stood in front of the hotel, and there was no one to be found outside. As if all of New York City had emptied out, we still stood in the quiet of the day.
The sun beat down on us, and my heart continued to flutter with fear.
“We can’t wait, we need to go down there right now. We need to go,” I cried out loud, so very tired and exhausted.
“We need to wait, we have to wait! Tommy will come, and if he doesn’t we will go down,” I said.
“No, I think I should go, I’ll go down there and I will see what is up. Wait here, I will be back, if anyone comes, just run, run and I can meet you at Toodles. I don’t think they will believe we would go back there because of what happened,” Anthony said.
Anthony rushed down around the corner and into the dark undershirt of the hotel. Sam and I stood there, looking around, it was nice because of how alone I felt we were.
“Do you think that they are coming for us?” Sam asked.
“I don’t think so, they have a plan, but I don’t believe that they would be willing to kill us or take us. They know what we have, what threat we pose, but they know we are the only ones who can fix this catastrophe, know what I mean?” I said.
“I guess, I just wish we weren’t standing here right now, if they come for us, I am running. I don’t think I have the energy for it though,” Sam replied.
Anthony was sprinting down and around the dark cement corridors, and his old cracking legs led him further towards the danger.
He
heard screaming so he stopped right before turning on the lower level, sweat dripped down his face; there was no cool New York air in there.
“What is it you have against me?” Tommy’s voice came from the open car filled room.
“You can’t do this, or keep doing this to me, you hurt me once, and I don’t think that anyone will forget that I existed.”
Anthony peered around the wall.
“Fuck,” he whispered under his breath.
Tommy laid on the ground, with dry syrupy blood coming from his nose, the big men didn’t speak, three of them just stood there, waiting.
They gave him one more kick to the face, and the three men gathered their bags and walked back into the hall to exit. Anthony quickly ran out not waiting for them to come back, one of the armed men, looked back and saw Anthony, but he didn’t move.
“We need to get you going, we shouldn’t have let you come down here alone, we really need to get out of here,” Anthony squatted down to Tommy.
“Thank you, I think the car is right over there. They disabled the systems so I couldn’t find the car. They moved it or something,” Tommy got up as if he hadn’t been hurt at all.
Anthony examined Tommy’s bruised face and wondered why he didn’t show some kind of despair.
Anthony asked, “are you sure you are okay?”
Tommy replied sarcastically, “yeah, I am completely fine, this is nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
Anthony decided to drop bothering him, after all, feeling he was obligated to the safety of the kids.
“There it is,” Anthony said.
“Sometimes I wonder, if all there is to life, is a set of rules and steps, then why is it we are still here, and he is not dead,” Anthony thought to himself.
The World of Hope Page 10
