Inner City

by Scott Norton Taylor

  Chapter 16

  Callen and Eve neared the stairs to the underground carriageway. Callen put his bag down and rifled through it. He brought out a pair of microfibre pants that were small enough, when folded, to fit in his palm. When he shook them, they snapped to full size and hung, without any visible creases.

  “Put these on,” he said holding them out to Eve. He took off his jacket and held that out as well.

  “This too, I don’t want you standing out. And give me the gun. If we get picked up, you’ll be in enough trouble without them finding that on you.”

  Eve handed him the gun as she dressed. When she finished, Callen looked her over and nodded approvingly. She’d pass for someone from the city.

  “Last chance to turn back.”

  “Who will you say I am?” Eve asked.

  “We’ll tell them the truth,” he answered. “Once they hear what I’ve seen they won’t care about anything else.”

  “What if they don’t believe you?”

  “How can they not believe me? I have you as proof.” Callen came to Eve and wrapped her in his arms. He looked into her eyes and kissed her. He had no idea what lay ahead; the City was a world of technology and vast corporate economies; a world of a thousand rules and regulations; a world with little time or consideration for individuals, but Callen believed he was about to change all that. He knew they were risking a lot by revealing their relationship, but he felt sure the laws would change once people knew there were resources at their doorstep to support an increasing population. Callen smiled reassuringly and led Eve into the carriageway tunnel.

  “When a carriage comes lean into the wall. Don’t worry how close it looks like coming. Close your eyes if you have to.”

  Eve nodded, but she looked nervous. As brave as she was, her imagination knew how to conjure her worst fears. A moment later a roaring wind came. Eve froze and looked to Callen a few paces ahead.

  “Here comes one,” he screamed. “Remember, push back into the wall.” He took up his stance, exaggerating it slightly to demonstrate. Eve mimicked his pose. The wind increased.

  “Get ready,” Callen yelled as he saw the light from the carriage round the bend. Eve looked to the piercing light in absolute terror. Seeing Callen braced, with his back firmly pressed into the white plastic wall of the tunnel didn’t ease her fears. He looked like he was bracing against being swept away by a torrent. Eve wanted to yell out for reassurance, but any sound she made was drowned out. Then the floating serpent came, flashing its clear frames, giving sight into its belly. Eve could see people within, swallowed whole, sitting, standing, swaying. She felt the wind whip by, and the light flicker as the windows sped along. Then it was over. Eve had been holding her breath. She exhaled as if she’d been underwater. She gulped in a breath and began panting as she watched the carriage and the light it came with disappear. Callen failed to notice Eve’s reaction and began to walk as he called casually over his shoulder.

  “And now you know what a carriage is.”

  Callen came to a standstill short of the well-lit platform. Eve caught up to him a moment later.

  “Why are we stopping?”

  “See the passengers?” Callen said, pointing to people milling around, waiting for the next carriage to arrive. Eve nodded.

  “We have to wait until a carriage comes. The platform will fill up with people getting off; then we’ll jump up and walk behind them like we were with them. We’re heading to that exit over there.” He pointed to the exit at the far end of the platform. The wait made Eve nervous, but she didn’t protest. They were in Callen’s world. She trusted he would keep her safe. The moment a carriage pulled up, Callen grabbed Eve’s hand and dragged her out into the light. He jumped up to the platform behind the carriage and pulled Eve up after him. A holographic guard appeared just as Eve swung her leg onto the platform and dragged herself to her feet.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” the guard yelled with annoyance.

  “She dropped her crystal,” Callen said. “We were mucking around. You know,” he added with a playful, almost boastful tone. “She was being a tease, waving it at me. I went to grab it, and knocked it from her.”

  The guard went quiet and looked at Eve with a pornographic leer.

  “You should have let me get it for you, sweetheart,” he said as he came close to Eve, “or don’t you trust me touching your crystal?”

  “She won’t do it again,” Callen said as he grabbed Eve’s arm and dragged her away. They walked together up the ramp towards the exit gate. The guard watched them leave before his image disappeared.

  “That crystal you wear, it’s important?” Eve asked off the back of the exchange with the guard. Callen began to explain. They had a good half hour’s walk and he’d need every second to detail the body scans that were encrypted onto each person’s crystal and how those crystals held the programs that created the illusion of shared intimacy.

  It was four in the morning. The streets were emptier than during the day, but the size of the city’s population and the need to run production around the clock meant people were still easy to find on the streets. Turning a corner and arriving at a plastic prefabricated building that looked like all the others, Callen swiped his crystal across the front door. Eve had no idea how he knew where he was. Every building seemed identical. Callen laughed as the red light at the door flashed green. The door clicked as it unlocked. They entered and rode the lift to his floor. Callen opened the door to his family’s apartment. He entered and gently called, ‘hello’. There was movement in the bedroom. Annie emerged looking like she’d stepped out of a tumble dryer.

  “Lights,” she commanded and then squinted and held up a hand to shield her eyes from the brightness that lit her returning son. She launched at him and hugged tightly, firing a million questions. Callen didn’t answer any. He matched his mother’s warm embrace, before squirming his way out of the sleeper hold she had on him.

  “I want to tell you everything, but I want to tell you and dad together.”

  “I’ll get him. You know how soundly he sleeps. Give me a moment. We’ve been so worried.” Annie headed back to her room.

  A short time later, Annie and Raegher Helfner sat on their plastic lounge suite, astonished. They greeted the story their son told them with incredulous stares. Both kept glancing towards Eve, who sat quietly at Callen’s side trying to look friendly. Eve smiled at them whenever they looked her way and gave little nods as Callen tried to reassure them she wasn’t dangerous. Annie and Raegher’s tight smiles looked unnatural. They stared at the girl and shifted down the couch away from her like she was about to lash out if they were within reach. Callen’s parents had a duty to report their son. He’d confessed to making contact with an Outlocked, even helping one enter their City. Callen and Eve sat nervously as Callen’s parents got to their feet. Raegher nodded slowly in agreement with nothing. He smiled at Eve, a patronising, insincere smile. He stretched awkwardly, a stretch that didn’t look natural in any way.

  “I’m going to talk things over with your mother in the kitchen,” he said, “Just for a moment.”

  “Can we get you anything?” Annie added.

  “No, it’s too late for anything like that,” Raegher said, cutting her off and taking her by both shoulders to guide her out of the room into the adjoining kitchen. On entering the kitchen, Raegher went straight to the viewer phone and dialled the emergency number.

  “What are you doing?” Annie shrilled in a horrified whisper.

  “Shhhh!” Raegher urged. “Something’s happened to him,” he said in a low, clear voice. “A knock on the head or drugs. Maybe she’s forced him into this or forced him to take a mind drug. She’s screwed up his thinking. At least that makes sense because he would never bring an Outlocked here, not into our home! We’re lucky to be alive if that’s what she is!”

  “She looks so normal,” Annie said in wonderment.

  “That’s why I think it’s drugs. If she were Outlocked,
she’d be full of diseases, and God knows what else. Yes,” Raegher said in a stronger voice as he connected with the emergency services. The phone went dead as the power to the apartment cut off.

  “Hello? Hello!” Raegher shouted at the phone. Callen entered the darkened kitchen a moment later. Raegher looked at him accusingly.

  “You did that?”

  Callen nodded.

  “You told me I dreamed being out there when I was seven. I didn’t. I’ve proved that. Everything I thought happened to me did,” Callen said. “What they teach us about the Outlocked is wrong. I’m going to make sure everyone knows.”

  “What are you on?” Raegher asked accusingly. Callen looked at him confused.

  “It’s okay, sweetheart,” Annie pleaded. “If she gave you something, we understand. It’s not your fault.”

  “Mum, I’m not on anything. I know what I’m doing. You have to stop thinking the way they’ve taught you to think. None of it’s true.”

  Annie and Raegher stood stupefied by the ideas coming from their son.

  “I have to turn you in,” Raegher said quietly.

  Annie turned to her husband with concern, then looked back to Callen.

  “They’ll come for us if we don’t,” she defended as she fought off tears. Raegher turned to his wife, holding her, assuring her they were doing the right thing.

  “You don’t believe me?” Callen questioned. There was a standoff for a moment as they looked at each other in silence. After a long moment, Annie spoke, apologetically.

  “We want to, but what you’re telling us,” she trailed off. Callen reacted with disappointment, but he wasn’t surprised.

  “You always said you believed in me. I guess that’s not true.”

  The comment caused Raegher to flare, he’d been doing his best to hold his temper, but it burst from him in an angry rush.

  “You think we don’t love you? Is that what you think?” Raegher challenged in a cold tone.

  “Raegher, don’t,” pleaded Annie, knowing the signs of him losing his temper. She wanted to stop her husband saying something he couldn’t take back.

  “He comes back with this incredible story. He brings a girl with him. I assume you’ve slept with her?”

  Annie drew a sharp breath at the thought, her hand rising instinctively to her chest. Callen blushed heavy as he looked to his mother with shame.

  “Oh, Lord, no,” she exclaimed, reacting to the look on her son’s face, “You wouldn’t do that. You wouldn’t. We brought you up better than that.” Annie’s eyes were wide with fear. Her son, the boy she had given every ounce of love and devotion to for the past twelve years, was admitting to a crime that would ruin his life. In maternal desperation, she turned to Raegher who was looking at Callen with a steely glare.

  “We can’t tell them he’s done that! He’s our son!” Annie pleaded. Raegher looked to Annie. They stared at each other as Annie let her tears flow freely. She knew her husband well enough to read his face; their family had come to an end. Raegher slowly turned to Callen.

  “I’ll give you one hour. If you tell anyone we waited, even a moment, we’ll deny it.”

  Annie’s tears leapt off her cheeks. She gasped for breath, unable to hide her hurt any longer. Callen moved to her and shared a final hug. Annie wept loudly into his shoulder. Callen went to break away, but Annie held him tight. She knew she couldn’t keep him safe anymore, but the tragedy of losing a son was too much and delaying it, even for a few seconds, seemed the best she could manage. At the doorway to the kitchen, Callen stopped and looked to Raegher. His father said nothing, so Callen walked from the room. Raegher went to Annie and took her in his arms to console her over the loss of their son.

  Callen went to his room and grabbed clothes to stuff in his backpack. When he came downstairs, he didn’t stop on his way to the door.

  “Come on,” he said to Eve, as he held the door to the apartment open. Eve hadn’t moved from where she’d been sitting.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “They’re giving us an hour. Then they’ll call the police.”

  “Why would they call the police?”

  “It’s not their fault,” Callen defended, “It’s just how things are.” Callen took Eve’s hand as they left the house. He hadn’t given any thought to where they might go. All he knew was this home was no longer his home.

  In the hall outside the apartment, Callen helped Eve change into some of the clothes he’d brought. When he felt she’d pass for any city teenager, they left the building. They walked alongside the moulded shops and apartment buildings and blended in with early morning pedestrians as commuters made their way to work. They looked like any other young couple walking the streets. Callen was setting a slow, deliberate pace. The pair didn’t speak. Eve wanted to, she had a thousand questions, but there was something about Callen’s manner that kept her quiet. Occasionally he’d point to indicate they should cross a street, or move against the flowing crowd, but that was all the communication they shared. Finally, as they stopped on a corner and waited for a multi transporter to pass, Eve saw something that gave her relief, a park; bursting with green. It stood in the middle of the clean, smooth surfaces of the city. It had none of the unwieldy lack of symmetry she knew from her home, but it was closer than anything else she’d seen since entering the City.

  Callen walked to the centre of the garden. A small artificial lake provided a central point, and the bushes hid them from anyone using the park as a shortcut between streets. They found a place to rest, surrounded by large bushes to either side. The couple made themselves comfortable on the cool resin banks of the lake. They were finally alone. Eve looked to the artificial trees and bushes around her, each branch, each leaf, each blade of grass perfect and identical. The grass was synthetic, the ferns plastic, the water chlorinated and filtered. It was a world created to view, a superficial, perfect replica of life with none of the living.

  “What do we do now?” she asked. Callen thought a moment.

  “Wait,” he said, trying to sound confident. “Once it's light and there are more people we’ll blend in a little more.”

  “Where will we go?” Eve asked, desperately hoping the answer would be back to her land and away from this mixed up, imitation of a world.

  “To the university,” Callen said. “They’ll listen to me. I have friends there. They’ll help us.”

  Eve looked concerned. Callen’s parents had failed them and turned Callen from a missing person to a fugitive.

  “What if your friends turn us in?” she asked.

  “They won’t,” Callen assured more out of hope than conviction.

  “Your parents did,” Eve reminded and almost immediately regretted it. Callen went quiet. He couldn’t defend his parents any more than he could explain the cultural lessons ingrained into every citizen of the City from their first day of schooling. It was a relentless pursuit to control the way people thought, and it was one of the reasons Callen was so determined to bring about change. After almost half an hour of sitting silently in the darkness, Eve reached out and put her hand around the crystal that hung from Callen’s neck. He was looking increasingly worried. Eve tried to lift his flagging spirits.

  “You’re in this?” she asked. Callen brightened and nodded.

  “Is it better or worse?”

  Callen tried to explain, struggling to find words to describe how an artificial substance could take the place of living flesh, how a projected image could substitute for the intensity of two people being intimate. Eve leant forward and kissed him. That one kiss rendered his arguments hollow. Callen flushed and pulled away.

  “We have to be careful. If they see us, we’ll be arrested.”

  “For kissing?”

  Callen nodded. Eve looked at him, starting to understand. The man she’d met and fallen in love with in her world seemed a shadow of himself since coming home. She wouldn’t have it. She grabbed him and rolled from the banks of the artificial lake to hi
de them under the overhanging branches of a nearby bush.

  “There’s no way they can see us now,” she said as she kissed him again, this time with more passion, seducing him to join her. Callen whispered a protest. Eve traced her hand down his stomach. His protest died. She held him down, wriggling and moving further under the long, slender branches of the bushes. Slowly she began to undress them both. Callen simply lay in awe, enjoying wave after wave of pleasure as she explored his body.

  Callen and Eve lay out of breath, their clothes open and in disarray. Eve rolled off Callen. It took a moment for their breath to soften. Callen couldn’t believe he’d done such a thing in a public park. His eyes wandered to the bushes around him. His memory flashed to a time long ago, as a young boy he’d stood on the other side of similar bushes and watched another young couple do what they’d just done. He sat up and tried to ignore a horrifying thought. Perhaps he wasn’t the first to return from the Outlocked lands. Perhaps others had returned to spread the news of the world outside only to be dealt with by authorities. It made him more determined to do what he’d come to do. He couldn’t afford to be arrested for a public display of affection before he’d had a chance to tell people what he’d come home to say. It would be the last sexual indiscretion – he swore. Eve grabbed him and tickled his ribs. Callen leapt and lurched; he gasped and pulled at her hands. She climbed on top of him and pinned his arms, digging her elbows into his ribs and reducing him to tears. Eve kissed him. The sky was beginning to show a lighter shade of grey as the sun approached the horizon. Callen looked out through the branches. They were still alone, still hidden, still able to act on instinct. His vow of chastity would start tomorrow, once the sun had risen to mark the new day – he swore.