by J. M. Porup
“…as we know it,” Buck said.
What do you need the Collective for, anyway? Shade demanded. Your electric-whatzit?
“We depend on the Collective,” Linda said, “for everything.”
She led him through a wide tunnel into a large chamber with a hole in the floor. Pallets of food pills, water pills, caffeine pills lay stacked around the loading bay.
You steal from the Collective!
“The Collective provides for our basic needs. Yes.”
You people are parasites destroying our world, he thought.
“I told you,” Linda said, “it’s symbiosis, we’re not—”
Lies, Shade snarled. Killing parasites cures the host. It does not destroy it.
Linda withdrew her arm from his, stood apart. “I’m sorry you feel that way.”
Without warning, a Dream Police cruiser rose up through the gap in the floor and settled next to them.
Oh thank the Collective! Shade thought. They’ve come to rescue me!
The door hissed open, and half a dozen monsters jumped out. They grabbed boxes of food and water pills, began loading them into the cruiser.
What the—? Shade’s eyes bulged. You stole a Dream Police cruiser?
Buck chuckled. “We did. Many years ago now.”
Shade looked again. It was an ancient police cruiser, a model not in use for hundreds of years. But how did you get it down here? The Crust is how thick?
“A kilometer, easy.” Buck shrugged. “We tunneled up topside, brought the moving box down here, filling in the tunnel behind us as we went.”
The monsters finished loading the moving box, and piled back inside.
But they’ve all been unplugged, Shade said. How do they operate the moving box?
A man stuck his head out the window. “Shade!” he called out. “What a surprise! Glad to see you could make it.”
It was Frank, the Dream Policeman he and Kann had unplugged just days ago.
How did you— Shade stammered. You’re a dreamer? You? But how—?
“I’ve got a sudden hankering for mosaic tile and macramé. Come by and I’ll show you my new project!”
So saying, he piloted the moving box down through the hole in the floor.
Shade turned to Linda and Buck. But he’s been unplugged? How does he operate the cruiser? The only way to control a moving box is with your mind.
Buck said, “Our scientists have developed manual controls.”
Manual?
“Instead of using your mind,” Linda said, “you use your hands. Levers and wheels and whatnot.”
Shade shook his head. Unbelievable. The lengths you people go. It makes me sick. You suck the Collective dry, all the while infecting upstanding nodes like Frank and me with your disease. And you’re not even people anymore—just look at you! He gestured at Buck’s horns, Linda’s chest. Monsters. Not even human. Less than human.
Linda raised her eyebrows. “And your song?”
The melody trilled inside his head, but he battened it down. You took me there, to her, to Maude, on purpose, he thought. To infect me even further.
“Did I force you to love Maude’s song?” she asked. “was that my fault? Was that hers?” She lowered her voice, whispered in his ear. “Or was that yours?”
Shade’s head spun. What was real and what was dream? Where was the Crust, and the sky he knew? He pushed her away.
I am infected by a disease. A contagion that could spell humanity’s doom. And you are part of this! The woman I love!
She recovered her balance. “Do you?” she asked.
Do I—
The Prime’s words echoed once more inside his head:
Do you love her?
The memory of their recent lovemaking came back to him. He hung his head.
Yes, he said. I do.
She patted his cheek. “That is not true, Jimmy Shade. But it is sweet of you to say so.”
You are no longer part of the Collective, he thought. How can you know what I think?
“Because you are a dreamer,” she said. “Dreamers are incapable of loving anything but their own dreams.”
Buck tapped his hoof on the lead floor. “Let’s continue the tour. It’s a long way back to the surface. The king wishes Shade to be well-rested. Tomorrow is decision day.”
The goat-man gestured to a nearby tunnel, but Shade did not move.
No, Shade thought. I’ve had enough. I’m not waiting until tomorrow. I have made my decision. He waved a hand at the warren of passageways that led off in every direction. Just tell me how to get back topside and I will go take my medicine.
Linda whirled on him. “You want to go? Then go.”
Buck put a hand on her arm. “Linda…the king’s dream.”
“Maybe the king is wrong. Maybe he picked the wrong dreamer.” She shook her arm free, turned back to Shade. “See that tunnel?”
Shade looked where she pointed. Um…sure.
“Half an hour climb takes you to a police station. HQ, in fact. Grate leads straight into a cell.” She crossed her arms. “Go ahead. Turn yourself in.”
You mean…I could just walk out of here? Right now? You aren’t going to stop me?
“The only rule down here,” Buck said, “is that rules were made to be broken.” He shrugged. “If you must go, you must go. Only you know your destiny.”
Shade gaped at them. You’re serious?
Linda turned her back on him. “Go.”
He went to her, to hold her in his arms one last time, but she pulled away.
I just want to go home, he said. Can’t you understand that?
“Sure,” she said, without looking at him. “The only question is, where is home?”
Home is the Collective. Where else would it be?
But she made no reply.
Shade hung his head and sighed. I will miss you.
“After they ChemLob you, you won’t even remember me.” She wiped her eyes. “Goodbye, Jimmy Shade.”
So this was it, then. She didn’t want him. Well, that made things easier, anyway. He’d just have to—
But in a flash she threw herself into his arms. Her heart thudded against his chest.
After a long moment, she pushed him away.
“Go home,” she whispered. “Go home, you hear?”
Linda—
“Go!”
Without another word, Shade entered the tunnel she’d indicated and began to climb. He stumbled in the dark once or twice, his head lamp directed toward the distant curves and upward bends of the tunnel, eager to catch sight of the end of his journey. To feel the comforting hum of the Collective once more in his head, to take his medicine and be at peace…
How bad could it be? A drooling half-wit, doomed to clean the dust from the streets, or work in the hydroponic gardens. Better that than to spend the rest of his life below the Crust as a dreamer.
Shade rounded a turn and there, far above him, a light. He continued to climb, and soon stood beneath the grate. He peered up through the bars.
The water pill cooler stood in a corner, next to Boss’s bed. Shade could just make out the rack of unpluggers, ChemLob jabbers and bandoleers on the wall. A couple of cops shuffled past, slung freshly-loaded bandoleers over their shoulders, and departed.
He lifted the grate and poked his head above the surface. The timer in his head reversed and began counting upward:
44:49:53.
44:49:54.
44:49:55.
He could sense the Collective now, their comforting embrace. Could they sense him too? All he had to do was climb through the grate and into the cell—to freedom.
Hi Boss, he thought. Did you miss me?
But in the instant he thought this, a high clear voice sounded inside his head.
A song.
Maude.
Or was it his own voice?
Every note, every inflection…the music expanded to fill his brain.
Shade paused, hand on the grate. Go fo
rward, he told himself. Go home. Do the right thing. Go back to the Collective. That dream—that song—was a mirage.
But how could it be false? A thing of such beauty? How could there be right or wrong—to a song with no words? He paused, terrified, unable to go forward, unable to go back. The song grew in force and power until he thought his heart would burst.
Who’s there? Boss said. Where are you?
He could go back down to the surface, Shade thought. Just for one day. He’d already made up his mind to return to the Collective. That wasn’t going to change.
Why not go and hear Maude’s song one more time? That wouldn’t hurt anything, would it? Maybe learn to sing himself. Twenty-four hours and he would be back, lifting the grate again, pushing himself up into the police station’s cell, begging to be ChemLobbed.
Who’s there? Boss demanded again. A sharp intake of mental breath. Shade? Is that you?
Shade commanded his limbs to climb out of that hole, but him arms and legs refused to obey. He had to hear Maude’s song just one more time…
Hi Boss. Yeah, it’s me, he thought. You would not believe where I’ve been! Did you know there’s a city of dreamers living down on the surface? And they’re all monsters!
What are you talking about?
And there’s a king of the monsters who has four legs and has a dream that one day soon the worlds of Work and Play will be reunited.
Boss chuckled inside both their heads. Don’t be ridiculous, Shade. Those are bedtime stories to scare child nodes with.
I’m serious, Boss. There are thousands of dreamers who threaten the Collective’s very existence. We have got to go down and wipe our this nest of vipers before they destroy the Collective.
Shade, you’ve been down in the sewers too long. Come up and take your medicine like a good boy.
A pair of Dream Police trotted down the hall.
Panic seized Shade. If they ChemLobbed him now, they’d lose all of his knowledge of the Dream Cities below. They’d never be able to kill those dreamers.
Boss, here’s my raw data. Check it out. Shade uploaded all of his experiences over the last day and a half into Boss’s brain.
Boss cried out. No…it can’t be…you must have been hallucinating. This isn’t real. It can’t be.
The Dream Police fumbled with the lock on the cell door.
I’m going to gather more intel, Boss. When I can prove what I’ve just told you, I’ll come back. Tomorrow. We need to plan an invasion to kill off these dreamers!
The cell door opened. Shade dropped below the grate and climbed back down the ladder. As soon as his head went below ground, the timer resumed its countdown to zero.
Shade jogged back down the tunnel. Would they follow? He knew where he was going in the darkness, and they did not. The grate squealed open, and bootsteps pranced behind him. Within minutes, however, the sound faded as he put distance between himself and his pursuers. He slowed to a walk.
Less than forty-eight hours to gather enough evidence to prove to the Collective that this was really happening, that their mortal enemy lay hidden beneath the Crust. He had to go back down to the City of Dreams—for the Collective’s sake.
But part of him rebelled.
Why didn’t you stick to your plan? Why didn’t you turn yourself in?
He whimpered, then relaxed. He had not failed. He was collecting reconnaissance for the Collective. That was why he was going back to the surface. If he let them ChemLob him now, they would never know the truth. He would learn to sing and bring that knowledge back to the Collective. Prove he wasn’t hallucinating. Then they could exterminate these Dreamers.
Shade strode down the tunnel now, head held high. He felt free. He had no more decisions to make. He would sleep well tonight. Come dream or nightmare, he was ready.
Buck and Linda were waiting for him at the tunnel mouth. Linda grinned when she saw him. Neither looked surprised.
“Well,” she said, “shall we go?”
On one condition.
“Shoot.”
Tomorrow I will be back here saying good-bye—forever.
Her face did not flinch. “Alright.”
On the condition, he continued, that the singing monster lady—
“Maude.”
—Maude teaches me how to sing.
“Once you return to the Collective, the ChemLob will erase the memory,” Buck said. “What’s the point of that?”
Understanding dreamers will help me hunt them down and kill them better.
“You won’t be working for the Dream Police after they ChemLob you,” Linda pointed out.
She was right. How could he deny it? The work will go on without me. He lifted his shoulders, let them fall.
Linda stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the nose. “You want to go see Maude?”
He nodded.
“I know just where to find her.” She took his hand, pulled him away from the tunnel mouth. “Come on!”
She led him back to the staircase, and with a whoop Linda and Buck leaped into the air, grabbed the pole and slid from view.
Shade almost didn’t follow them. Get out of here while you still can! he thought to himself. All you have to do is walk back to the Collective right now.
In thousands of years, the Collective had managed to ignore the City of Dreams. How likely was it that he, Jimmy Shade, was going to make the slightest bit of difference?
But he had to know. What it was like. To sing. He had to!
He sighed, leaped awkwardly into the air, took hold of the pole, and returned to the City of Dreams.
Chapter Fourteen
Linda led Shade from the landing pad up the slope of the great crater into the city itself. Before, he had seen only the tunnels beneath the ruins. Now he stared around in wonder.
They walked through a maze of ancient streets. A thick layer of dust covered everything, which puffed up in clouds with each step as they trudged along. Rusted shapes with what may have once been wheels littered the thoroughfares. In some, ancient skeletons still sat, preserved, no doubt, by the radiation. The skyscrapers bent away from the crater, once molten-glass frozen in mid-air.
Extraordinary, Shade thought. For so much to survive for so long, these monuments to man’s folly. A shame the Collective had not arisen in time to prevent this holocaust. True utopia could have been achieved without paying such a high price—most of humanity wiped out, the planet poisoned for billions of years by radioactive fallout.
He wondered why the Collective had never cleaned up the radiation. If the Collective was able to transmute elements to create the lead Crust, why were they not able to transmute the radioactive elements into something innocuous?
“They are,” Linda said quietly.
Shade flushed. He was beginning to feel awkward. Everyone could hear his thoughts, but he could hear no one else’s.
How do you mean?
Linda squeezed his hand. “The Collective wants to live in fear. They want to live in the air, they want to build a crust between themselves and the real world.”
I—I don’t understand.
She sighed. “I don’t either. But such is the way of the world.”
They came to a large circular building without a roof. One side, unprotected by the skyscrapers, had collapsed from the ancient explosion. The other half—really more like two-thirds—remained standing, largely intact.
Shade gazed up at the building. What is this place?
“The ancients called it a stadium.” She tugged on his sleeve. “Come.”
They stepped across ancient chunks of broken concrete and entered the great oval. Far above them, the burning globe atop the golden spire illuminated the city. In the middle of the stadium, a groundscraper plummetted to the ground. Shade approached it, caressed the leaden surface. Amazing to think that fellow nodes worked, ate and slept on the other side, he mused. They have no idea what’s going on down here.
A sound rang out behind him, and he turned. The most beauti
ful sound he had ever heard, even more beautiful than before.
The woman-singer-monster Maude came into view, her mouth open, arms outstretched at her sides, singing as she approached, and Shade thought his heart would break. He clutched his chest. He was far too young for a heart attack. What could it mean?
Maude drew nearer. She looked Shade in the eye as she sang, and it seemed to him that she was singing for him and him alone. A cool breeze pricked his tongue. He shut his jaw.
Linda rested her chin on his shoulder. “Now do you understand?” she whispered. “Why I would rather die than leave here?”
He put his finger to his lips. Sshh!
Maude halted in front of Shade. She finished her song in a crescendo that made Shade’s organs quiver, then she fell silent, and the silence rang in Shade’s ears more painfully than anything he’d ever known or felt.
Shade and Maude stood there for a long moment, facing each other, saying nothing.
The words tumbled from his head in a confused jumble. I wish I could sing like that.
Maude reached out a green and purple claw and touched his arm. “I thought you wanted to go back topside?” She nodded at Linda. “That’s what I hear, anyway.”
I do, Shade thought. And I will.
“You still have a day or two to make your decision.”
He checked his timer:
42:00:01.
He shook his head. Tomorrow I return to the Collective. I have made my decision. ChemLob will cure me.
Maude pursed her warty lips. “The ChemLob will kill your dream and erase these memories.”
Yes. I know.
“Then why do you want to sing? What’s the point?”
Before they ChemLob me, I intend to prove to the Collective the City of Dreams exists.
“By singing to them?”
Yes! Then they can come down here and exterminate you all.
She raised her eyebrows. “I might ask you, then,” she said, “why should I teach you?”
Oh! Shade had not thought that far ahead. Because I can’t help myself! he burst out. I have to sing. I’ll go crazy if you don’t show me how.
He fell to the ground and clutched her scaly purple knees.
