......... Leonard was shouting at somebody to get out the way. He was still holding onto Zack’s arm and pulling him forwards and.........
Zack went inside and put his telephone into his pocket. He took the lift up to the thirtieth floor. Leonard was there, younger with fuller cheeks. He asked him if he wanted to talk about it but Zack said that he didn’t, that it was personal. Leonard told him that if he changed his mind he would be there. He made a coffee. He sat at his desk and got out his diary. The office filled with light, streaming in as if every dawn was rising in unison. He ran to Leonard’s office. The floor beneath him rumbled, a sensation that he had never felt before, like the floor was resting on a surface of jelly.
........ then Leonard slammed the door shut.
“Zachary, are you OK?” Leonard was peering down at him, his eyes wide, and his smile fixed and tight. “You looked in a daze there for a moment.” Zack was sitting on the edge of his bed, his room, his home, his life for an unknown and poorly counted number of years.
“I can’t believe it, Leo.” Zack’s hands were resting on his chest, across his heart. He was trying to breathe, his lips pursed together like they were sucking on a straw.
“That’s it, Zachary. Just take a few deep breaths,” Leonard said as he sat crouched in front of him. His face was still red, his eyes swollen and sore. In that vision Zack realised that the only thing that matched his luck was the incredible loss of every other resident, not only in Delta, but the rest of New Omega.
“I’m sorry, Leo.” Tears welled in Zack’s eyes and a single droplet escaped onto his cheek which Leonard brushed away.
“Sorry?” Leonard asked. “Don’t be sorry. Come on now,” he said, resting a comforting arm across his shoulders as he sat at Zack's side. He was the closest thing Zack had to a friend or a father left. “What could I do with a life in Omega Tower? I’m old. I’m not even sure they let old chaps like me in there. Now come on, they’re coming for you. It’s time to get yourself together. I’ve snatched you a few quiet moments by getting you here for your things, but we have to leave in a few minutes.”
Zack sat nodding, agreeable and thankful for Leonard’s willingness not to show his disappointment. They both knew it existed. He had lost too. A wife, a family, a home. There was nothing left for him except this. This was his reality. But Zack could no longer sympathise with his misfortunes. They were no longer the same. Zack stood up and grabbed his blanket and pillow from the bed and bundled them up before thrusting them into Leonard’s arms.
“You have to take my things, Leo.” This room will be ransacked once word gets out. Nothing will be left. You have to take anything you can.” Zack searched around looking for something of use. A spare overall, too big but available. A jumper, holey but still an extra layer. He opened the satchel and pulled out the iPod and pushed it along with the clothes into a pile in Leonard’s arms. He reached under the mattress, pulled out three ration cards.
“Be careful with these. Don’t go crazy with them. There are enough water rations on here to see you through a month without your own.” He reached into another drawer, pulled out an old wallet. There was a photograph in there. It was Zack and Samantha in the summer, when days were long and life felt even longer. Youth lived in the couple who Zack no longer recognised as himself ever being part of. They were cuddling on top of some steps. “Paris,” Zack said. “Years ago.” He took the picture and tore it in half, separating their heads. He slipped the half with Samantha on it into his pocket, handed the other half to Leonard.
“Why?” Leonard said. “I’m not going to forget you.”
“There is always part of me that stayed outside of this tower, but I thought that part of me had died. Now I can feel it again. But the part of me in here,” he paused to wipe away another tear, “it was only kept alive by you. Part of me will stay here with you, and maybe on some of the darker days you can look at this and remember that. Maybe it will help.”
“It will,” Leonard said, his eyes glassing over. “We have to go,” he said quickly, slipping the photograph in his overall pocket.
“No, stay here.” Leonard looked surprised. “If you come, somebody else will get this stuff. The crowd will probably follow me. Can’t you hear them?” Outside the door there was a chant of Zack’s name, demanding their hero winner. “Take the things next door as soon as we have gone. Leonard nodded.
Zack stepped forwards and crouched down. He opened his arms and wrapped them around Leonard's body. They held each other, both knowing that something else had ended. Their heads rested on each other’s shoulders, and Zack drank in the smell of him without any care for any disease that he might catch. It wasn’t important anymore.
“You take care, Zachary.” They both stood up. “I don’t know what I would have done without you in those early days. I’ll miss you.”
“Likewise, old man. Don’t lose hope. Maybe your clouds will clear after all.”
“Maybe,” Leonard said, not seeming convinced.
“And if not, I’ll find a way to bring back some sunshine into your life.” He held Leonard’s cheek in his hand, Leonard fighting back the first tears of a goodbye, Zack’s fingers sliding around to grip his neck. He pulled him closer. “There is a way out of here, and this is not the only way.” They both nodded their heads, only one of them really believing it. “I’m coming back for you one day.” He walked to the door, opened it a fraction and the cheering became louder. Leonard sat back down. The cheering faded as Zack closed the door.
He was gone.
The Dawn: Call of Omega
(Book Two)
Copyright © 2014 Michelle Muckley
British English Edition
First Edition
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, places, or events is in every respect coincidental.
This work is licensed for your personal enjoyment, but may be lent and copied without prior permission. These permissions extend to your personal use only, and do not intend to cover the copying of the material for distribution to the general public.
For extra copies, and further information about the author, please visit:
www.michellemuckley.com
All rights reserved.
ISBN-978-1502384263
ISBN-10: 1502384264
For those who push me to be better than I am
The tyranny of some is possible only through the cowardice of others.
Jose Rizal (1861-1896)
leave your courage at the door
Chapter Thirteen
“They won't close,” somebody screamed.
Zack’s ears were ringing, struck by the anonymous screams and shouts coming from every direction, words of excitement pummelling him from all around.
“Is he in here?” shrieked another.
It was a voice coming from near the front of the lift doors. They were still wide open, only managing to jerk inwards before being forced back by a mass of entangled bodies. Zack arched upwards in an effort to rise above the crowd, pushing himself up on the shoulders of the people beneath him. He couldn't see the door to his bedroom anymore. It was as if life in Delta Tower and the people inside it were slipping away from him already. The melee of bodies was shoving each other left to right, arms and legs intermingled and moving as a collective surge of hysteria. Every time it managed to drag him back down like quicksand. People wanted to get in the lift, desperation edging them in closer to the winner, jockeying themselves forward. Somewhere to the right of Zack's head, a fist struck bone. A bright streak of blood whipped across the crowd from a split lip, and the break in tension was enough to cause a temporary parting of the crowd. It offered Zack a snapshot back to the life he was leaving behind. There was a man with his hand on the door to his old room. Leonard was still in there.
“No,” Zack shouted. He surged towards the space in the crowd, but as he gained an inch of advantage the bodies reconnected and the chance was lost, forcing
him back. The intensity of the voices amplified, anger rising like mercury in the sun. The man whose knuckles were guilt-stained by an accusatory shade of crimson was pushed from the lift. It was enough. “Wait,” Zack shouted, but the doors were already closing, rendering life on level thirty a thing of the past.
Those in the lift celebrated their position, and those who had been pushed out could be heard on the other side of the doors complaining. Fists were being drummed against the metal, but the lift was already descending and the noises from above faded along with his memories. Zack stumbled to the floor as if he was drunk - on the excitement, perhaps, but it could have been motion sickness from the amount of pushing and pulling. He felt a hand grab at his shoulder and somebody pulled him to his feet. Those around him started chanting, their voices so loud that the words became indecipherable as they ricocheted from the walls. Zack's instincts were yelling at him to go back, to make sure that Leonard was safe. But somewhere in the chaos the fear for his safety got drowned in the maelstrom of the crowd, dragging him down, luring him beneath the surface. Their buzz was infectious, and with each breath Zack took it consumed him. He managed to articulate one last, “Make sure Leonard is alright,” to the nearest set of ears. But then the fever took him. He was really leaving and he was already forgetting. A new life. He had won. Had he really won?
When the doors of the lift opened on the ground floor it was near impossible for those on the outside to distinguish the winner from the crowd of bodies jostling forward. Zack was like the queen bee amongst thousands of workers. The news had already filtered through Delta Tower and the lobby had filled to near capacity. There was a stream of Delta residents bursting from both stairways, but the other lifts had already been decommissioned by the Guardians. The fact that Zack had managed to travel uninterrupted from level thirty all the way to the ground floor could only be explained by a blockade of Guardians on each floor. Delta Tower had got organised, and it had done so with speed. Brutal speed, controlled by force.
Zack could hear some sort of announcement, a voice mumbled through a megaphone. He thought perhaps he heard his name, but it was like a sound in the night, vague and indistinct, the origin uncertain. The people from the lift were hurling themselves forward and Zack was carried forth like a broken branch or an autumn leaf swept along by a stream. But the surrounding crowd was also pushing forwards, contracting in on Zack. Over the heads and shoulders of those in front of him Zack could see the Omega personnel concentrated by the main doors. It was just a snippet, like a flash of light, a bolt of lightning. But in that moment the image was fused to his mind.
The Omega Tower personnel had erected a tent-like canopy through which faceless workers filtered out, dressed in suits that looked perfect for space travel, only lighter and without the padding. All white. Some of these people were erecting a series of barriers and seemed to be instructing the Guardians of Delta Tower to defend the perimeter. Their white bodies and black balaclavas lined the barricade to keep the crowds back, using the only weapon they had at their disposal to control the situation. Force.
Screams were interrupted by the blunt blow of Assisters striking skin and bone. Blood was shed. But people were determined. Their faces lunged towards Zack, some of the eyes blackened or bloody, clothes torn but smiles wide. With Zack's success they had all won something. A taste of freedom. Their chains had been loosened. They could feel it in their feet, their fingers, their skin, alive as their blood swirled around their rampant hearts. Even the idea of freedom to somebody who has none is a temptation to hope. Freedom for one, it seemed, brought faith to the many. Something had been given.
It was surreal to Zack to see the Guardians taking orders. Up until now there had been no chain of command to which they answered. The Guardians had been the lowest and the highest link to authority. But now it was different. The world outside Delta Tower had penetrated their confines, and things were changing. Maybe this was how it had always been. How could Zack know what happened beyond their corner of their world? The Omega Tower Personnel had succeeded in erecting a series of barriers which extended outwards from the tent at the doorway in the shape of a bell. There were over twenty of the suited androgynous workers, replicas of an Omega ideal, patrolling the perimeter alongside the Guardians. Zack hoped that Leonard would lie low for a couple of days, blend into the background. It would take time for the fallout to settle. He thought of Leonard in his room, and then of the other men with their eye on what was inside. Zack turned, looked back to the lift as best he could through the crowd. Then the stairs, crammed with bodies, all surging forwards. There was no way back. “Please be OK,” Zack whispered to himself as a set of hands pulled him forwards. Tonight had fired up the residents of Delta Tower, but it had done the same to the Guardians. More blood would be spilt over the next few days.
Some of the citizens of Delta were pinching their noses, their palms falling over their mouths. People were scared to be so close to an exit, fearful of the integrity of the tenting. Fearful of the outside world. It was easy enough to be scared. Those from Omega were zipped into impenetrable suits, protected from the elements. The best the Delta residents had was a hand or a dirty sleeve. They were scared to breathe, but yet still they were here, coughing with their hands over their mouths. To miss the only excitement since the doors of Delta Tower were closed would have been an even bigger risk. The world they inhabited didn't harbour excitement or action. The only way to survive life inside of Delta Tower was to persevere, to endure the inertia of existence without complaint or malaise. Just like New Omega commanded by its tenth creed. But when something like this happened it gave you something to feed from. This event would live on for years to come. Everybody wanted to witness the day that the fortunes of Delta turned. The only real risk was not being part of it.
In the bell-shaped perimeter, somewhere around where a stationary pendulum would hang, two Guardians were standing. The Guardian who had pulled Zack from the crowd was now behind him, pushing him forwards. The Guardians parted, allowing Zack to step through into the space beyond, and a hush settled over the baying mob.
“Don’t come any closer,” said the nearest suited person. The voice belonged to a woman. She reached down to her hip and from a clip on her belt she removed a small device that reminded him of the old devices that a nurse might have used to measure the temperature of your forehead. “I need you to hold out your wrist for me. The right one.” There was no doubt about what she wanted to see. Zack held out his wrist and pulled up his sleeve to flash the tattoo. She held up the small scanner against his wrist, covering the numbers and the triangle. She waited, a moment that felt as if it was weighted down by every bad decision he had ever taken. Two beeps followed.
“Mr. Christian,” she said, removing the device. Her words came out in a way that made him think she was smiling. “Welcome to Omega Tower.”
A smile burst like the blossoms of spring onto his face, a natural unstoppable smile. He felt relief, happiness, sorrow and excitement all spilling over him. The smell of forgiveness was just beyond the horizon. The crowd regained its enthusiasm. The woman stepped aside and Zack felt his left foot pull up, a step forming somewhere in the subconscious of his brain. But before he could execute it, he felt the past pull him back. This wasn’t just another step. It wasn’t towards the place he slept, or the water treatment plant where he worked. It was a step into the unknown, a step over the threshold into another chapter of life, which meant leaving another, older life behind. Zack could feel Leonard here with him more than ever before, guilt of his abandonment swelling like rainwater in an underground cave. He tried to imagine him making his bed, adding the new quilt and pillow. Maybe he was wearing Zack's jumper. Zack had always promised himself that he would help Leonard in the latter years of his life, but now he never could. He knew that by being there for Leonard he could satisfy the need within him, created by the void of absent parents, betrayed girlfriends, and shattered dreams. Being there would help him to become good again.
To atone for his mistakes.
“You need to follow me,” said the woman, whose face and features remained covered by the blacked-out visor. She held out a gloved hand, an invitation into a new life. Zack braced himself, fought the memories aside and stepped alongside her. The Guardians closed the space behind him. He could still hear the cheering of the crowd, but his initial excitement for leaving had vanished, and in its place surfaced a fear of everything on the other side of the orange zippered door. He was leaving everything he knew behind, willingly this time, all for the hope of finding a better future. He remembered his last vow to Leonard, that he would find a way to get him out. If he didn’t leave he would never be able to fulfil this promise. By never leaving, how could he ever return?
As Zack approached the orange tenting that covered the doors, another suited Omega worker stepped forwards and unzipped the tent. The woman with the wrist scanner took a step closer to the door before stopping and turning back to Zack. The white suit glowed orange from the reflection of the tent, like the glow of sunlight on a face as it dapples through a window on a cloudy day. An alien sight to Zack. The glow altered the properties of the visor, and as she turned to him he could see her face for the first time, a small upturned nose and a mouth which had rested into a soft smile. “Mr. Christian,” she said again, kinder this time, “it is time for you to leave Delta Tower.”
Zack gazed past the Guardians behind him. His eyes travelled over the old marble reception where immaculate women once sat, their faces painted with a smile. The pond where fish once swam. Next, the dead trees, their life reduced to brittle, dusty stumps of bark. As if Zack was the answer to their prayers, the people of Delta Tower had flocked to watch his ascension. Some of the crowd wiped away tears, shed for their own lost chances, for the futility of hope, or perhaps for their faith. In him. The Guardians held them back. Zack wondered if beyond the doors to the basement was a scene of quiet, if those trapped down there knew what was happening, or if they hated him for it. The division between their subterranean world from the one above ground was never more evident than when they were in such close proximity. The people down there were like sand in the ocean, always sinking to the bottom.
The Dawn: Omnibus edition (box set books 1-5) Page 13
