Shades of Freedom

by Linda McNabb

  “What's the problem?” Johan tried to sound as unconcerned as he could, but it wasn't easy.

  “We are looking for an escaped prisoner. Two men were seen entering here a minute ago. Where's the other one?” The guard shook Roma like a rag doll as he spoke.

  “I'm sure your prisoner is nowhere near here. It was me that you saw with him.” Johan wondered how he was going to sort this one out. Sometimes he hated being the leader.

  “Where did the blood on his shirt come from?” the guard demanded and stared at Johan.

  “My friend and I had a disagreement and Roma came out to sort us out,” Johan pointed towards Gil who stood on the far side of the square. Even from that distance it was clear he had been in a fight. “Gil came straight back in and we followed him a minute later.”

  Johan sounded so casual and believable that he surprised himself. “Isn't that right Gil?” Johan now turned his head and raised an eyebrow at Gil who nodded briefly.

  The guards looked from Johan to Gil and then back to Roma. The state of Johan and Gil's clothes, dirty from moving all the bricks, was probably the deciding point that made the guard drop Roma and take a step backwards.

  “I don't want to see you lot fighting. It's against State Rules.” The guard pointed his finger at Johan who just smiled.

  “How about we go and find you two a spare keg of something to warm your bones before you head off.” Johan sent Roma a look which said they would talk later and he led the guards off towards his room beyond the stairs.

  It took only a couple of minutes to get the promised keg and the guards left quickly to resume their search for the prisoner. Johan's forehead creased into a frown as soon as they were out of sight. Where was Roma?

  **

  Roma watched the guards follow Johan and then quickly looked around the square. Where did the man go? For someone so badly hurt he had certainly disappeared fast. Finally, Roma found him lying down behind a large trough full of dirt that looked like it had once had plants in it. He looked terrible and Roma didn't bother to tell him to stay there as he doubted the man could get up anyway.

  Roma held a finger to his lips and sat on the edge of the trough as he turned and waited for the guards to come back through the square. He only had to wait a short time and they left without even looking his way. Johan, however, was making a beeline for him.

  “What was all that about?” Johan didn't look angry but he had a determined look on his face that told Roma he wanted to know everything.

  “This man was being chased by them.” Roma pointed to the man lying motionless behind him. He didn't have a chance to continue as Johan hurried around to the man and called for help to get him moved.

  “Get him to the first aid room,” Johan ordered the two men who came to help. “And wake Marge up, he needs a few stitches by the looks of those cuts.”

  Roma stood up and started to follow the men but Johan pulled him aside.

  “I think we need to have a talk.”

  Roma followed him and wondered if he had done the right thing in bringing the man back here. It was the only thing he could have done and he prepared himself to defend his actions.

  “You did the right thing,” Johan told him after they were in Johan's room. “But try not to get caught next time.”

  Johan's first comment dissolved Roma's tension and he relaxed as Johan poured them both a large drink from a small pottery flagon.

  “The guards that patrol around here are easily bribed but we don't want to push our luck too far.” Johan raised his glass and skulled the contents.

  Roma went to do the same but the instant the fiery liquid hit his throat he began to cough.

  “What is this stuff?” Roma managed to squeak as he felt his throat go tight.

  “Cider. We make it ourselves. It makes a good bribe since they can't get it anywhere else and they've developed a taste for it. Take another sip, the second one is better.”

  Roma doubted that, but he gave it a try and was surprised to find it was indeed much smoother. After a third sip he welcomed the jolt it gave his senses. He was onto his fourth when the door opened and Gil came in. He didn't look at Roma and Johan poured him a drink too.

  “He's okay. No serious damage done. He says that his name is Ren Charat and he was going to be shipped to Belgara but he escaped,” Gil reported.

  “Charat?” Roma exclaimed. “I know him.”

  The memory of the beating he had almost received in the holding cells came back clearly to him. He smiled to think that he had repaid the favour without even trying to.

  “Maybe we should hand him over then. If he's a friend of theirs then he's probably more trouble than he's worth,” Gil sounded bitter and gave Roma an unfriendly look. Roma took it as the insult it was meant to be but didn't comment on it. He would have to find out what Gil had against them.

  “What happened to your face?” Roma asked Johan and Johan smiled as he touched his hand to his swollen lip.

  “Your daughter didn't agree with something I did.”

  “Kala did that?” Roma was horrified. Why would she do such a thing? As far as he knew she had never hit anyone in her life.

  “And Gil...” Johan added and Roma nearly dropped his glass. He took several quick drinks and shook his head in disbelief. At least he knew why Gil seemed to dislike the family as much as he did.

  “I'll make her come and apologise,” Roma promised, feeling very embarrassed.

  “We deserved it, so there's no need for apologies.” Johan filled Roma's glass again and then his own.

  Roma looked at Gil to see if he thought the same but Gil just gave him an icy stare and left the room with a loud bang of the door.

  “Don't take any notice of Gil. He's just tired,” Johan explained.

  Roma still wasn't sure what to think but after several more mouthfuls of cider he began to relax again. He even began to feel a little bit proud of his daughter. He had been the boxing champion of his Sector in his younger days and it looked as if Kala had inherited his gift.

  **

  The room was far too bright to be morning as Kala reluctantly opened one eye. She squinted at the sun that flooded her room through the uncurtained window. She closed her eye again and rolled over so that the sun was on her back but it was no use as she couldn't get back to sleep.

  Slowly the events of the previous twelve hours came back to her. First the trip into First Sector, Johan's little test, the roof collapsing and finally her father nearly being arrested again. Some of her feelings of dislike for Johan had disappeared when he had helped her father but she wasn't ready to completely forgive him.

  She sat up, wide awake now, and looked at the view from her bedroom window. It wasn't a pretty sight as all she could see was waste land, derelict buildings and the dividing wall. Only a few hours ago she had been on the other side of that wall, stealing from the State.

  Just thinking about it reminded her that she was starving. It must be after lunchtime by the position of the sun. She wondered if they had been given their share of the food yet and decided to go and look. As she stood up several Marcs fell from her pocket and she emptied all her pockets of them and pushed them under the mattress on her bed. She would decide what to do with them later.

  The whole apartment was silent when she came out of her room and a quick look around confirmed there was nobody home. Where were they? Was mother okay? She looked in the cupboards in the small, basic kitchen and frowned as there was no food there. Why hadn't they been given any? Her stomach rumbled loudly and she knew she would have to go and look for some food, and soon.

  Kala had no idea where to start looking for her family so she headed for The Square. Maybe Johan would know where they were and she would ask him why they didn't have any food.

  It was getting to be a familiar sight as she came down the last of the stairs and into The Square. Nobody seemed to be doing anything except sitting around talking. It looked as if they were all waiting for something to happen. Very few pe
ople were smiling and just the sight of them all made Kala feel depressed. No wonder they had all been so excited by her Holocom call the other day.

  “'ere comes Slugger,” whispered one woman as she nudged her friend with her elbow.

  “Who would have thought she could take on Gil and win? Not me for one.” Her friend didn't whisper and Kala forced herself to pretend she hadn't heard.

  “I'd say he had it comin'. I wish I'd been there to see it.” The first woman wasn't whispering either now and she finished off with a long sigh.

  Kala dared a quick glance in their direction and both women grinned at her.

  “Good on ya Slugger. It's about time we had someone around here with enough guts to stand up to Gil.”

  It seemed as if she had been accepted as one of them but she only smiled at them. She didn't want to risk saying the wrong thing and ruining it all. Her family wasn't here but she saw Johan across the other side of The Square and nodded goodbye to the two women.

  Johan was sitting on a bench and leaning against one of the poles that held up the high ceiling. His legs were drawn up onto the seat and as Kala came closer she noticed his eyes were closed. A shiny black bruise on his right cheek stood out clearly and she felt a brief wave of guilt which she dismissed with a smile. He had definitely deserved it. Just as she smiled Johan opened his eyes and saw her there.

  “You should smile more often. It suits you,” Johan said as he stretched his legs out and Kala felt her smile collapse into a frown. She didn't want complements from him.

  “I wanted to ask you a couple of things,” Kala said quietly knowing that many ears were listening and waiting for a bit of gossip.

  “Somewhere a little more private?” Johan suggested and Kala nodded gratefully as she hadn't wanted everyone to hear her asking for food.

  Johan leapt to his feet, totally dispelling the idea that he had been sleeping. She followed him to a deserted corner of the square and sat down on an old box. Johan pulled up one and sat down too, a little too close.

  “You'd be surprised how many people here can lip read,” Johan explained. “Is it something important?”

  “Well, not really... “ Kala felt her cheeks heat up and suddenly felt embarrassed. “It's just that I don't know where my family is... “

  “Alissa is playing with Katee and I can show you where your parents are,” Johan supplied and looked at her waiting to see if there was anything else.

  “... and I was wondering about our food... “ Kala felt even more embarrassed when Johan started to laugh.

  “Is that all? I thought it was something serious.”

  Kala felt her anger starting to surface again at his attitude and she fought to control it. Food was serious if you didn't have any.

  “I guess I should have explained the way things work around here. I was rather preoccupied by a couple of other things that I was completely wrong about.”

  By the look on his face it was about the closest she was likely to come to getting an apology from him for his test of her loyalties.

  “Follow me and I can solve both of your problems at the same time.”

  He stood up and waited for Kala to do the same before leading the way to the back of The Square. There was another set of doors here and they led to a set of stairs. Luckily there weren't many, as Kala was feeling quite weak and she almost sighed with relief when they levelled out in front of a door leading to a huge room.

  It was full of tables and chairs and three of the walls were made of glass. It was completely deserted at the moment and Kala wondered if this was where her parents were supposed to be.

  “This is where we all eat,” Johan explained. “You can come here twice a day, children can come three times. We only brought your food up to your room while you were settling in. From now on you have to come here.”

  “My parents?” Kala queried as she looked at the counter against one wall. A woman stood behind it looking bored and huge steaming pots were behind her. Kala's senses caught the aroma of the food and she completely missed Johan's answer. She saw that he was walking across the room and she hurried to catch up to him.

  “Down there.” Johan stopped by one of the glass walls and Kala stared in surprise. The wall looked down over a beautiful garden with meandering paths and seats placed here and there. It was mostly smoothed rocks of different colours and sculptures with a handful of bushes dotted here and there. It was so totally unexpected in a place as barren as this sector seemed.

  “It's called The Conservatory. Cris looks after it and gets terribly upset if anyone leaves a mess or breaks a branch.”

  Kala could see people wandering the paths, children playing tag and then she spotted her mother and father sitting on a bench looking at a small fountain. She relaxed a little now she could see they were okay but something else puzzled her.

  “Why are the children all running around in there? Shouldn't they be in school?” Kala followed Johan over to the counter while she waited for his answer. He dished her up a large plate full of hot food and steered her to a table that overlooked the conservatory before he answered.

  “There aren't any schools in this Sector. The State doesn't think that they are necessary,” Johan said flatly. “My mother used to teach the children until... “

  Johan fell silent and stared at his hands for a few seconds. Kala had no intention of asking what had happened to his mother, it was obviously still painful for him. He looked up and there was such a look of sorrow in his eyes that Kala completely revised her opinion of him.

  He wasn't the monster she had convinced herself of before and she wished she hadn't hit him last night. If she had been in his position she would probably have done the same thing.

  “I can teach them,” Kala offered softly and Johan looked hopefully at her. “I was a teacher in First Sector.”

  “That's wonderful,” Johan smiled and Kala felt like telling him that he should smile more often too.

  Kala suddenly realised that she hadn't even touched her food yet and set about finishing it before it became cold.

  “I'll show you the room that used to be used as a school room,” Johan said as she ate. “It will be good to have them learning again.”

  Johan rose from the table when she did and followed her as she returned the empty plate. He reached over the counter and picked up a small plastic bag.

  “You get some fruit leathers and bread each week to keep in your apartment,” he said as he handed it to her. Just then Gil appeared at the doorway.

  “Johan, we need to go over some things for the meeting later,” he shot a look of pure dislike at Kala

  “Meet me in The Square later and I'll show you around a bit more. You’re welcome to attend the meeting at eight if you want,” Johan smiled at Kala as he spoke and then followed Gil from the eating hall.

  Should she apologise to Gil for hitting him? She doubted that he would listen anyway so it was probably best to just keep out of his way for a while.

  Kala found her way back down to The Square and headed back to her apartment with her food. She felt much better and decided that life in Level Ten wasn't as bad as she had thought yesterday.

  She reached her front door and stopped. It was open a little bit, had she forgotten to close it? The doors here didn’t lock at all but she was sure she closed it and she pushed it open the rest of the way.

  “What the... “ Kala almost dropped the bag of food when she saw that the apartment was a total shambles. She went inside after listening and deciding there was nobody there. The sofa and chairs were upside down and all the cupboards were open. Cautiously, she opened the bedroom doors and saw they too had been messed up.

  What was going on? Why would someone do this? Then a thought struck her, her Marcs. She went into her room, lifted the corner of her mattress and saw that they were all still there. Well they hadn’t found them. It was the only thing they could have been after as they didn’t have anything else to take.

  Kala quickly began tidying
the apartment so that her family wouldn't see what had happened. There was no point in getting them worried. She would get to the bottom of this by herself.

  **

  Johan gathered up his notes and checked his watch. It was almost eight and time for their monthly meeting. He hated these meetings as they always turned into a huge argument. Maybe he would bring up the leadership issue today. He had been putting it off for months now but it didn't look like his father was ever coming back so he would have to do it soon.

  He had been the leader by default ever since his mother and father, Cora and Nole, had mysteriously disappeared just over six months ago. His father had been a strong leader and since he had been gone the morale of Level Ten kept getting lower and lower.

  Nole had been planning a raid of State Headquarters which he had thought would be a way to end the tyranny once and for all. But he had disappeared before even the most basic planning had been done.

  Now everyone expected Johan to lead them all to victory but he wasn't sure he could. He had done the best he could to fill his father's shoes but they expected too much from him.

  Who would take over the leadership? They should let everyone have a say in who they wanted to be their leader. It would be a new way of doing it but isn't that what they believed in, changing the way things were done?

  He left his room and entered the crowded Square. A path opened up for him and he made his way quickly to the central Holocom platform. It wasn't used for much else these days and he instantly thought of Kala and her Holocom message. She had only been in Level Ten for a couple of days but it seemed as if he had known her for years.

  He made a quick search of the crowd and couldn't stop the smile that touched his lips when he caught sight of her. She hadn't come back for the rest of her tour this afternoon and he wondered why.

  “Get on with it,” a muttered comment came from behind him and he turned and saw that it was Gil. He looked just as bad tempered as he had been all day and the teasing he was getting about being beaten up by a girl wasn't helping.