The Hunger Rebellion

by G F Cusack

  Again, Will nodded silently.

  “Go on then, what are you waiting for? Get out of my sight.”

  Will didn’t hesitate any further; he turned and headed to the door. As he exited the room, he pondered that he could have offered some elaborate excuses but with Brand, less was more. The less time you spent in his presence when he was angry, the better your chances of survival.

  Again he opted for the stairs after leaving the office as the thought of being in an elevator box made him visualise being caged in, but this time he walked at a more leisurely pace. The reprimand he had just suffered was still stinging him and he would ensure that the next time he’d have the right information, whatever the cost.

  Walking down the steps, he reflected that Brand wasn't happy with the results of the raids. From his own perspective, one teenage girl escaping seemed insignificant when it was compared with the killing of over a hundred rebels.

  One never knew what Brand’s plans were. That was one reason why he’d survived so long. Another was that he was so brutal that few people would have the courage or resources to challenge him and survive.

  When Will eventually reached the bottom of the stairs, he flung open the external doors and took in the fresh, cold air, thankful that he had survived another day.

  7

  Pepper and Flo north of the cabin

  13 August 2202

  During the two-hour trek from the cabin, Flo was developing a plan. It was clear to her that Pepper was primarily a mercenary as, unbeknown to him, she had been reading his mind.

  He had been thinking of ways to leave her that wouldn’t prey on his conscience.

  Although the Farm had plentiful resources, she didn’t know if it provided enough of an enticement to guarantee he would take her all the way there.

  She did sense some empathy in him though so she decided to take a chance. Then she began to mentally prepare for the time that they would rest.

  Pepper had deliberately taken an erratic route and had not identified anyone following them. As soon as he felt they were clear of the cabin, he motioned for her to stop.

  Seizing the moment, Flo surprised him by beginning to talk. “Before we go any further, I want to ask if you will escort me to the farm.”

  Pepper didn’t reply straight away. He remembered his old adage of ‘what’s in it for me’ and was reticent to actually agree to accompany her even though he doubted if she could survive on her own.

  Sensing his resistance, she continued with her pitch. “The Farm has lots of resources – not just produce; we also trade with nearby strongholds of rebel fighters. If you escort me, I guarantee you will be rewarded handsomely.”

  “How handsomely?” Pepper asked. He was slowly warming to the idea of a payday at the end of a relatively simple trip.

  “More than you can carry on your back,” she replied.

  “You’d be surprised how much I can actually carry on my back!”

  Pepper had lost his trade goods at the rebel stronghold and his remaining supplies had literally gone up in smoke with the cabin. Realising that his immediate options were limited, he was tempted by this opportunity to quickly replenish his losses.

  Trying to put on an air of indifference, Pepper laid out his terms. “I will accompany you north as far as your so-called Farm, but only if you do exactly what I say, when I say. If you don't, I’ll leave you where you stand, do you understand?”

  Although she could read Pepper's emotions as well as his mind, she sensed some kind of edge in his demeanour and felt he wasn’t joking about the chance of abandoning her if she failed to meet his demands. “Okay, if you keep me safe, I will do as you ask.”

  With that, Pepper extended his hand. “I always shake on a deal.” She took the hand and the bargain was struck.

  “If we are heading on a long journey, I need to be sure that you can make it. Is your pack comfortable? Is anything rubbing?”

  “My shoulders are a little sore.”

  Pepper pulled back her jacket to check her shoulders. She might have been a farm girl when she was abducted but she had become soft during her captivity. He noticed her shoulders were already red after only this short distance.

  “Take off your jacket and your top. I’ve got some ointment in my pack.” As she was disrobing, he wrapped a spare pair of socks around the shoulder straps of her pack for extra padding. Pepper also took more of the stores out of her pack and stuffed them in his. “This should help but if it gets too sore, let me know.”

  “Thank you,” Flo said as he rubbed the ointment into her shoulders. For such a powerful man, he seemed to have a gentle side.

  “I’m used to travelling alone so I tend to travel fast. Don’t try to be a hero. If you feel that you can’t keep up, let me know. I will give you regular breaks and supply food and water. But no whining.”

  She nodded to show she both understood and accepted his words.

  As they headed north, Pepper cautiously viewed their surroundings. He was still unsure why he had taken on board this young woman. Why had he deviated from his normal self-centred survival instincts? The fact was that he now felt responsible for someone and it was not a feeling that he liked.

  8

  Introducing Zap in the Sanctuary

  01 August 2202

  Ethan had been a computer programmer since he’d been a young teen. Everyone called him Zap but his stepfather had named him Ethan.

  As a Company data analyst, he had access to lots of information, including details about all of the Sanctuary’s food supplies. He knew that plenty of food was being produced. Even though some of the crops were being used for biofuels, plenty of food was left over to feed everyone, if it was properly distributed.

  Like most people among the masses, growing up he had been taught that the Water Wars had happened because of a worldwide shortage of water and other resources. Whether it was greed or necessity that had led the companies to fight for control over these resources, the fact that they had fought was in no doubt. The people had been told that the fighting had not just reduced the planet’s population but had damaged the food chain to levels where humanity was struggling to survive.

  The Water Wars had been over for a hundred years now. Maybe the shortages at that time would have justified some of the Company’s draconian measures but Zap was unsure why it was still using them.

  Maybe it was because he was too young to have become set in his ways or maybe it was because of his logical way of thinking. He couldn’t fathom why the needs of the few were leading to a shortage for the many – the huge inequalities just made no sense to him.

  So many people were starving, being forced to fight for the entertainment of others and finishing up in the gel plants once they reached forty-five years of age. At the same time, a small minority was allowed to lead a life of excess and greed. It was for these reasons that, at an early age, Zap had decided to join the resistance.

  Because of his technical skills and intelligence, people saw him as a lot older than he was. Still, with the standard life expectancy set at forty-five years, at seventeen he was fast approaching middle age.

  Zap was conscious that the fear-mongering propaganda of the Company played on the anxieties of the masses. The Company pushed the narrative that the resistance was causing more damage to the fragile environment – an environment that the Company pretended to protect.

  Working on the main computer systems, he had identified that the technical setup was designed for misinformation. As he was uniquely positioned to access this data for the resistance, he had chosen to investigate this discovery further.

  It was a dangerous pursuit because the Company was brutal in stamping out any dissension. Being caught (or even accused of) breaking the Company rules could spark an early trip to the gel plants. Yet very few people, not even his friend Dick, were as skilled on the computer as he was. Zap had spent most of his life working on machines and was well practised at hiding his tracks on the technical highway.

>   Zap had been very young when his stepfather had noted his proclivity for technology and machinery. Their privileged position also gave him access to machines that were out of reach of many others.

  It was this access and encouragement to learn more, tinged with his natural curiosity, that had made Zap a formidable computer hacker. The Company’s dedication to developing his skills had only heightened his curiosity. Little did the Company know that the resource that it had created had become a weapon against it.

  Initially he had only supplied the rebels with small amounts of information – locations of supply depots, access codes to storage vessels and security timetables. These acts could put him in danger but he was confident that he’d covered his tracks so none of it could be traced back to him.

  Recently he had noticed an increased pressure from the resistance for more information. His communications with his contact were becoming more frequent and Angus was asking him to provide ever more detailed information.

  He felt that he was heading towards a tipping point: soon he would be seen as a full member of the resistance. For some time, he had been wondering how far he would go.

  In an ongoing self-talk, he had been considering the balance between salving his conscience and looking after his own safety. In reality, though, he knew that he had long passed the point of no return. If he was caught now or caught doing something more serious in the future, the punishment would be the same.

  He would be tortured until they got as much information as they felt possible and sent him to the gel plants. There he would become just another ingredient in the diet of the masses.

  9

  Through another’s eyes

  10 August 2202

  Zap was hoping for a good night’s sleep as the last few nights had been restless with weird dreams. He assumed that everyone dreamt of somebody they recognised at some stage. He often saw people in the streets, the poor, the starving and even beautiful young women. He dreamt of all of these people on occasion, especially the young women.

  For the last few weeks his dreams had been different. He wasn’t dreaming about somebody, he was dreaming of being somebody. It was as though he was in that person’s body, feeling their breath rise in their chest, feeling the softness of the pillow under their head. It was all very strange.

  The person he was in his dreams lived somewhere different. He could tell this because the pictures in their head were unlike any he’d ever seen.

  Zap had lived his whole life in the Sanctuary and the locations in his visions didn't seem like anywhere he knew. Some of the people in the visions, though, seemed similar to the commoners he encountered travelling around the Sanctuary and in the fighting pits.

  He was aware of the disparities between his life and others’ – not everyone was as fortunate as him. He had his own apartment with fresh running water, as well as a good job that supplied plentiful food and other luxuries. Some people might even call Zap one of the elites, but he knew that he wasn’t on their level of greed and gluttony.

  The person in his dreams had a very different life. At times it felt as though their wrists were sore from being bound. He assumed that they were a prisoner although his gut feeling was that this wasn’t the kind of bad person who would commit a crime. They also seemed to have a feminine side, although dreaming of being a woman seemed strange to him. To be honest, the whole thing felt strange but for now he assumed that he was in a female head.

  There was something else about this person – the way they felt about men. He got an overwhelming sense of fear of men as predators and he assumed that the female wasn’t very old, perhaps around his age. Yet a male even of his age wouldn’t feel so timid so this convinced him of her gender.

  Zap had been fortunate that he had never had to survive off gel packs. The thought of eating another human being, however much they had been processed, was repulsive to him. The person of his dreams had been forced to survive on whatever scraps she was given. Sometimes she was given parts of gel packs, and the memories of eating them were burnt into her psyche for him to experience. The revulsion that she felt, knowing that someone else had needed to die for her to survive, was almost too much for her. She had great empathy with her fellow humans.

  Zap didn’t see himself as a bad person but he was clearly dreaming with someone a lot nicer than him. Someone with a strong moral compass. While Zap hated to see others bullied and he felt angry about some of the Sanctuary’s elite inhabitants, this person seemed to see the good in everyone and wanted everyone to survive.

  Zap had been brought up with the view that for him to survive, others needed to suffer. He had recently started questioning this upbringing, especially after his discussions with his trainer in the pits, Angus.

  As he’d had two restless nights, he decided to go to bed early. Most nights Zap caught up with Dick, his work colleague and neighbour. Zap was better with machines than people so finding someone who he could chat to was a bonus. Dick was an easy listener – never judgemental and seeming really interested in everything Zap said. Tonight Zap just wanted a rest.

  That also cut out going to work out at the fighting pits, which he did some nights without Dick, who did not share his enjoyment of it. Zap relished the primal nature of being sweaty among all the warriors and pushing yourself in that environment.

  On more than one occasion, Zap had asked Dick to accompany him. But after the last rejection, he had stopped asking. Dick was not a skinny person – in fact, he was a bit overweight – but he was a good friend to Zap so he didn’t push it.

  The dreams had been getting more vivid and it was becoming harder to relax. Angus had taught him some mind-clearing techniques. After years of training warriors, Angus knew what worked. He said that some people suggested letting your mind go blank but for a warrior with an active mind, you needed movement to relax. A blank space could be filled with the nightmares of previous battles and bloody opponents.

  Zap focused his mind on clear running water, filling the space in his mind with images of a torrent of water flowing steadily through rocks and boulders. He was becoming one with the water and felt his body flowing through the space between the rocks, without a care in the world.

  Very quickly Zap found himself sinking into a blissful sleep. Yet he had not been sleeping long when he felt a mental jolt. It was hard to tell if he was still asleep, was dreaming or had woken up. Suddenly he was inside her head. He felt as though his body was frozen against a wall, as though his limbs were too heavy to move. He could only sense the dark as his eyes seemed frozen shut.

  At first, Zap felt like he was lying in bed but frozen with fear. He couldn't move any of his muscles; his arms and his legs were all stuck rigid to the bed. She was also rigid – he could feel her fear. She was unsure of what was happening, but she knew that moving would draw attention to her.

  He could hear loud noises, bangs. It sounded like gunfire. He had heard gunfire before from his apartment. But that had been at a distance: apparently a night patrol had opened up on some trouble causers and the sound of the gunshots had travelled easily through the still, silent night. After curfew, not much moved in the capital.

  These shots were closer and there were lots of them. He could hear people screaming – although he wasn’t sure if he was hearing or feeling them screaming. The sensations were alien to him, like feeling somebody else’s sensations but muffled. He could feel that her hands were tied behind her back. In previous dreams they had felt sore after she had been unbound; this time, they were still tied.

  A feeling of desperation was overwhelming him. She felt as though she could do nothing so Zap felt it too. He could do nothing. He was just an observer of his own life, or more like someone else’s life.

  He felt the eyes closing tighter as though not seeing the danger would make it go away. He knew this was irrational and so did the woman he was inhabiting. Fear sometimes overcomes rationality and it was clear she was terrified. He was unsure how long she had been frozen stiff wit
h fear.

  Slowly he felt something grab their arm, like he was now one with this woman. Her eyes shot open and, even though he was still asleep, he could see through her eyes. Staring back at him was a tall, dark man, with several visible scars on his arms. The sight of a large man made the woman even more scared and her breathing almost stopped.

  The man was trying to pull her away from the wall and, although she was resisting, the man seemed genuinely concerned. Using his superior size, he swept her down a hallway with him.

  When they paused, he quickly drew a knife from his pocket and cut the ropes.

  The man was opening up some kind of passageway when he suddenly spoke. “What’s your name?”

  Zap felt himself murmur, “Flo.”

  He heard the man say, “Okay Flo, if you want to live, you are going to go through this tunnel as quickly and quietly as possible. Don’t stop once you are in there as I’ll be right behind you and I don’t want to hurt you with my big heavy boots!” Suddenly the spell was broken and Zap was back in his own head.

  What had just happened? Where had he just been, whose head was he in? This was getting stranger and stranger and the link was growing stronger. He knew she was in danger and, even though he didn’t know who she was or where she was, he felt an unexpected bond forming. He wondered if he could do anything to help her.

  He would have to discuss this with Dick and even Angus the next day. Two heads are better than one and three are better than two – but only if they are trusted heads.

  Anything out of the ordinary could get a person an early trip to the gel plants. He had already told Dick that he had been dreaming of someone, but this was taking it to another level.