Revolution in the Underground

by Michaels, S. J.

  “Right!” Kara exclaimed, as if returning to a selfless revolutionary plane.

  “And… ya… basically we walked around and found Luna… and then… well… you know the rest,” Maggie said, wanting to complete her story.

  “Okay, just what the heck is going on!” Ember shouted, as if he had been holding something in for sometime. “It’s our turn for some explanations!”

  “That’s fair,” Sven said understandingly. “We’ll explain everything.”

  “Feel free to interrupt at any time,” Kara said, herself demonstrating her point. She looked at Sven to see who should begin the explanation. They started to speak at the same time and both stopped when they heard the other speak. This happened two more times. On the third time, Kara raised her voice and continued speaking after Sven stopped. “You’re in the Underground. Don’t worry if no one from your village knows about us, because chances are, no one here knows anything about any of you. About five hundred years ago there was a great war—so great that all of existence was threatened. The Underground was built as a last-ditch international effort to save humanity.”

  “Abigail! Do you know about Abigail?!” Maggie asked inanely.

  “What?”

  “Do you know about her letter?!”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “It’s okay,” Ember said to Maggie with a look that seemed to say Not now. Let her speak. There are more important things to be discussed. Ember was still rocking, but seemed to have increasing composure.

  “Anyway…” Kara said, “The Underground was once a glowing metropolis—engineered to support half a million people and last for hundreds of years. People were selected from around the globe to come live in the Underground. The whole of human knowledge—all of our history, all of our scientific achievements, everything—was handed over to us in the form of a main frame computer.”

  “Computer?” Maggie and Ember both asked in unison.

  “It’s a machine that does stuff… Don’t worry about it for now,” Sven explained, clearly enjoying Kara’s rendition of the story and evidently desiring to return to it.

  “A government was formed. They were given the main frame computer… and then the Great Gate was sealed.”

  “Why did they—”

  “So no one can get out,” Sven explained. “The engineers believed that the Earth wouldn’t be safe for at least a quarter of a century so they designed a special gate to protect the populace.”

  “Protect them from what?”

  “Deadly viruses? Nuclear radiation? Mutated creatures? No one knows any more… but that’s hardly what’s important,” Kara said.

  “But the Gate… The Gate is really important,” Sven said with a face that seemed to suggest that he really liked to talk about it. “So… I’m going to give you a lot of details now… It’s okay if you don’t memorize them all… okay?” Ember and Maggie nodded. “This Gate has a few ingenious designs. First and foremost, it was designed to be the only practical entrance and exit to the Underground. Is that clear? Secondly, it was made so that it couldn’t be opened for at least two hundred and fifty years. It’s year five hundred now. Third, it can only be opened in two ways.”

  “Three ways,” Kara said, quick to clarify.”

  “Three ways! It can only be opened in three ways!” Sven said, excitedly correcting himself. “The first way is from the outside. The city was built with sensors that would open the door if it determined the outside world to be hospitable.” Sven’s jaw was open, and he stared at Maggie and Ember with a dorky smile. “Do you get it?!”

  “Yes…” Ember said doubtfully, lowering his brow, suspicious that some conclusion had missed his grasp.

  “No, you don’t get it! You guys! You’re it. You’re the proof! You came from above. You’re the proof that the outside world is hospitable again! The Gate must have been opened! You’re the proof that they lied!”

  “But we already knew that, didn’t we Sven,” Kara said, clearly annoyed about something.

  “Yes, but now that there’s two more of them, it’s undeniable!” Kara gave Sven a disgusted glance.

  “Maybe there was a problem with the circuitry,” Luna suggested.

  Kara and Sven gave her a dirty look. “You’re not thinking! You have to see with you mind!” Sven said enthusiastically, tapping his head with his finger. “They’re hiding it from us.”

  “Whatever,” Ember said, wanting things to start making sense quicker than they were. “What are the other two ways to open the gate?”

  “The other ways,” Sven continued, “are from the inside. The engineers were worried that the gate might not open… For reasons similar to what Luna just suggested… a problem with the circuitry, faulty automation, broken sensors… whatever… so they gave the government a code… but only a handful of people alive today know where that code is… and they’re not the type people that are going to share. The rumor is, however, that the code is the genetic sequence of a plant species that used to be common in the Underground.”

  “What about mutations?” Luna challenged. “There is genetic variation within each plant… Independent assortment and crossing over will cause a varied sequence…”

  “I know, I know,” Sven said quickly and defensively. “I don’t know how it works, but I’m sure the engineers took it into account. They knew about all that stuff. Maybe the Gate only requires a certain amount of overlap between the codes. I’m not a scientist or an engineer.”

  “Why do you think that a plant sequence is the code?” Luna asked.

  “Soon after the present governments came to power, about three hundred years ago,” Kara explained, “they began eradicating the plant species Toxicodendron radicans. Why else would they go through all of the effort of annihilating the species?”

  “Tell me Ember… Maggie… where you’re from… Erosa… does there exist a plant with three leaflets, a hairy vine and a long middle stem? It makes you itch if you touch it? You might know it by the common name, poison ivy.” Sven was on the edge of his seat, his excitement practically springing from him.

  “Yes, of course!” Maggie said, grateful to be able to offer reason for enthusiasm. “I used to run into it all the time as a child… but it hardly bothers me anymore because I’m so used to it.

  “You didn’t, by any chance,” Kara said slowly, “bring any with you… to the Underground… did you?”

  Maggie and Ember looked at each other, not yet understanding the significance of the question. “No, I don’t think so,” Ember answered. “You can check our clothing, but I doubt there will be any.”

  Sven let out long sigh as if he expected that answer. “If only…”

  “What’s the last way?” Maggie asked, not wanting to see him upset.

  “The last way… oh ya… the last way… is to break through it manually!”

  “But…” Kara added, trying to be upfront, “the Gate isn’t exactly something that can be broken through easily. It would take a lot of people a really long time to break through it.”

  “Why can’t you just dig around it,” Ember suggested.

  “We could… but… we wouldn’t know where we were digging,” Sven explained. “You have to remember too, that the engineers designed the Gate to be the only practical entrance or exit. You are right, it is a possibility... and it has been tried before… The fact that you came from somewhere else tells us that there must be other ways in and out. I like the effort…”

  “Also, they have the whole perimeter under surveillance… but still… it’s always an option,” Kara said. “My father and mother were big believers in this. They believed that there existed another way out of the Underground and spent their entire lives trying to prove it.”

  “Who? Who do you keep referring to? Who’s doing this?!” Ember shouted.

  “Oh, right,” Kara said, “I’ll explain… About three hundred years ago people in the government started to worry that they would lose their power once t
he Gate was opened… At first they used it to justify their existence. They would tell the people that they had discovered the rest of the planet was in ruin and would never be safe, and that the Gate would never open. Then they started to change their story a little bit… they would say that the Gate was never really designed to be opened but rather to keep other things out… crazy things like that… stuff that didn’t even make any sense… and then… more recently, within the past hundred and fifty years or so, they started denying the existence of the Gate altogether. They say that there is no such thing as a sky and routinely argue that the Underground is all that ever was and ever will be—that there is no world outside, that the universe is the city itself, nothing more, nothing less.”

  “That’s preposterous! They can’t get away with that!” Ember screamed, jumping to his feet. Never before had Ember ever dreamed of such corruption. Even in his most delirious states, he could never conceive of a conspiracy so great. “If they want to stay here, that’s one thing! But they can’t force every one else to do the same! We are all living things for crying out loud! We have a right to move about as we please! This… This… is a giant prison!! Why would they do that?! Why?!” Ember had worked himself up to a complete frenzy.

  Sven stood up as well, and leaned in with utter seriousness, “You remember this. Remember this feeling that you have! Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you are wrong! There are people here… within our own buffer zone… that will tell you that the governments are good… that they are here to help their people and that all this hatred we harbor is just a giant misunderstanding. There are, if you can believe it, apologists among us that say that they are glad that the governments don’t let us leave.”

  “How?! How can they say that! There is a whole world out there! If people don’t like it, they can always go back! People should at least be given the option!” Ember was livid.

  Sven smiled, greatly enjoying Ember’s raw passion. “There is some intellectual stimulation to be found in defending the preposterous. There will always be those intellectuals that will tell you the absurd and act like it is the profound. Only fools can’t tell the difference. They will tell you that a white wall is green and expect you to believe it.”

  “What?! That doesn’t make any sense!”

  “No, Ember, it doesn’t. They make all sorts of strange metaphysical arguments. They will say things like, ‘what is a universe but an isolated system? If we arbitrarily set the Underground to be the boundaries of the said system then we can contain the universe.’”

  “But doesn’t referring to it as the Underground defeat their own argument,” Maggie opined.

  “Well… they wouldn’t call it by that name, but that’s not the point.”

  “And you know what,” Kara said grimly, “it’s working. They have actually convinced people that it is not worth knowing that there exists a great, unexplored world around us. They have convinced some that it is okay to go about our selfish lives without concern for the government slaves. That’s how they work… They start off with the most absurd argument they can think of and hope for a compromise. They are so far extreme, however, that once you meet them in the middle, you are already lost. They will make you think that you’re crazy. It’s even worse outside of the buffer zone. The governments have literally convinced their population that one plus one does not equal two.”

  “Governments?” Maggie said curiously, “Is there more than one?”

  “Oh yes…” Sven rushed to explain. “After the government started lying about the Gate, they split into two. Nobody really knows why it happened… but I have a few theories myself…” Sven waited for someone to ask.

  “What’s your theory?” Luna inquired at last.

  “If there’s only one government, then who’s the enemy?” Sven smiled as though Luna, Maggie and Ember, would all follow the same path of reasoning from this singular prompt and arrive simultaneously at the same conclusion. “Having two distinct governments allows each state to externalize the antagonist. It distracts from the real enemy. It was all done on purpose. Can’t you see?! They are working together to control the people! Why else do they perpetually prepare for war without ever actually going to war?!”

  “It may help,” Kara suggested, “if we explained to you how the Underground is divided. Think of the Underground as a giant rectangle… this is a bit simplistic, but it should communicate the major points. The left third of the rectangle is controlled by the Empire of Imperium led by a man we call The Tyrant. The right third of the rectangle is controlled by a kingdom called Auctoritas, and it is ruled by a man we call The Despot. Auctoritas is a little bigger by both land and population, but Imperium is far more powerful. Both have a strict totalitarian regime with a very hierarchal structure, and powerful cults of personality. In Imperium, the masses believe that The Tyrant is omnipotent and omniscient. Auctoritas isn’t much better. They teach their people that it is a mortal sin to leave the kingdom and that the only thing in life that should be loved is the state. There are stories about children suspecting their parents of treason and turning them in to authorities. We, of course, can’t possibly know how bad it really is… And, in the middle third, between the two, is us… the Buffer Zone. Sometimes called just the B-Z.”

  “Roughly speaking, Auctoritas and Imperium have four tiers,” Sven explained. “This, is, of course, a general approximation… in reality there are some differences between the two but, you’ll have to forgive me for simplifying it for now… At the very top is either The Tyrant or The Despot… though it is highly probable that these figureheads don’t actually exist. Below them are the inner ranks. These are high security government dignitaries. Below them are the lower ranks—mostly government functionaries and bureaucrats—people without which the government wouldn’t run. At the bottom are the commoners. The commoners probably comprise anywhere from one-half to three-quarters of the overall population, but they are the most disenfranchised. They live in conditions even worse than ours.

  The inner ranks, as might be expected, live in complete luxury. Some people even believe that they have places outside the Underground that they don’t tell anyone else about. The lower ranks, have a much better standard of living than the commoners, but enjoy almost no freedom. They are probably the most scrutinized people on the planet. Even though they probably all hate their government, if they express it in any way, they will be killed. The commoners are mostly allowed to do whatever they want so long as they fulfill the government quotas and don’t organize against them. Some people believe that if a revolution is going to happen it will be from the commoners… but they are a deathly bunch… they have lived on strict rations for so long and have been so brainwashed that this prospect seems unlikely.”

  “You mentioned a buffer zone. The B-Z, I think you called it?” Ember said.

  “Yes,” Sven continued, “that’s where we are. The B-Z was created as an intentional division between Auctoritas and Imperium. It is probably the smallest of the three sections but it has more people than both of the states combined… but… we are the weakest. We have no government or central organization—they see to that. We are a very fractured people whose existence is only tolerated because of the necessity of separating the two governments. Should they see us organizing in any way, they will come and break it up. They have no problem intervening in our affairs, and frequently send officers to survey us. By and large, however, they leave us alone. It’s important to note that, besides for the inner ranks and the occasional officer, people aren’t allowed to enter or leave either state. The punishment, if discovered, is death. So, to be clear, not only are we trapped in the Underground, we are also trapped in the B-Z.

  And… as I said earlier, there are lots of different kinds of people in the B-Z. Some of us, particularly the scholars, are apologists. Others, like are ourselves, are revolutionaries. Most people, however, simply don’t care. They don’t care about freeing the brainwashed slaves of Imperium and Auctoritas, and they do
n’t care about seeing the outside world. All they care about is their own existence. I don’t doubt that some people are simply frustrated… I’m sure some people turn to their self-interests because they think the cause is fatally doomed. I myself can empathize with their feelings of insignificance… but… I truly believe—and Kara, correct me if I’m wrong—that most people just simply don’t care. There is a kind of amoral malaise that shrouds the Buffer Zone.”

  “Nope, I agree,” Kara said with a nod. “I will add that you two are very lucky that you landed here, because if you didn’t… or if you had wandered out of the zone by accident… you would have been killed. You see, Imperium and Auctoritas, having already taken the position that there is no outside world, will see you as a threat to their very existence. You have the power to remind everyone that there is something out there. You can unify the people and offer them hope!” Tears were now streaming down her face. She got up quickly, but calmly, and ran to a corner of the palatial room.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Luna asked.

  “Kara has had a tough life,” Sven explained. “You see, Maggie and Ember, you’re not the only ones who have come to the Underground from the outside. Kara came when she was only five.” Ember and Maggie gasped audibly. “No, she’s not from your village. Kara’s from… well… I’ll let her explain it to you… It was, however, difficult when she first arrived. Fortunately, a kind family found her before the authorities did. When she told the revolutionaries where she was from, they all laughed at her and called her crazy?”

  “What?! Why? Aren’t they on your side?” Ember said angrily.

  Sven sighed. “You don’t understand… Kara, and her adopted parents, are/were eccentric characters. It was very easy to discount what they had to say… I, of course, believed her, but I understand why others didn’t… You’ll understand soon enough… At any rate, that’s why she’s so glad to see you. Now that there are two of you claiming to be from the outside, the revolutionaries will have to believe you. You guys are going to be celebrities. Every revolutionary in the B-Z will want to see you. You’ll have to be careful though, because officers from Auctoritas and Imperium will be looking for you too… I think,” Sven said, looking up at the room’s white tile ceiling, “that part of Kara is jealous of all the attention and honor you guys will get… and that she didn’t get… It’s not like her, you know… you’ll have to forgive her… but she is only human… she has a lot of baggage.”