Inner City

by Norton, Scott

  Callen was calm in the face of such protests. He explained about the world outside the City and the people known as the Outlocked. The memories he’d had from his first journey as a child proved to be real. The City, overcrowded and overregulated, was choking itself to death, while the Outlocked lived lives of primitive abundance and freedom. Together the two worlds could have the best of everything and Callen was determined to let people know this. If his parents didn’t trust him enough to help him do what he was sure needed to be done, then he’d find a way to do it on his own. He knew from his parent’s reaction they were leaning towards turning him in and he challenged their love and loyalty to him as their son. In his view the supposedly uncivilised Outlocked seemed to have a far better sense of kinship. Especially if he couldn’t rely on his parents to be loyal to him over the laws of the city.

  Annie and Raegher were shocked to have their twelve year old bond with Callen challenged in such a way. Raegher moved to a moulded stool surrounding the plastic island bench in the kitchen’s centre.

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

  “Raegher, don’t,” pleaded Annie trying to stop anything from being said that may not be able to be taken back.

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

  Annie drew breath at the thought. Callen said nothing. He glanced to his mother with a blush painting his face as the remembered morals, taught by the city, swept over him. He looked away - silent.

  “Oh, Lord, no,” said his mother, “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, was admitting to a crime that could effectively forfeit his life. In absolute horror, Annie turned to face Raegher who was looking at Callen with a steely glare.

  “No! Raegher. He’s our son. Our son!” Annie pleaded.

  Raegher looked to Annie. They stared at each other. She could tell by the look on her husband’s face their family had come to an end. Raegher rose from the stool and looked to Callen.

  “I’ll give you one hour. But if you tell them we did this we’ll deny it. Understood?”

  Annie had begun to tear. She gasped, unable to be brave any longer. Callen moved to her and mother and son shared one final hug. Unable to hold her emotions, Annie began to weep openly and loudly on her boy’s shoulder. Callen went to break away, but Annie held him fast. She knew she couldn’t keep him in her arms any longer, but the tragedy of losing a son was too much for her and delaying the inevitable, for even a few seconds, seemed her only protest. At the doorway to the kitchen Callen stopped and looked to Raegher.

  “Thanks, Dad.” He paused. “I’m sorry I’ve let you down.”

  Callen walked out letting the door slap back and forth after his exit. Raegher went to Annie and took her in his arms. Her sobbing continued and it wouldn’t be stopping any time soon.

  Callen went straight to his room and hastily threw some clothes for both him and Eve into an old plastic sports bag. When he came downstairs he didn’t stop on his way to the door.

  “Come on, we’ve got to go,” he said as he held the door to the apartment open.

  “What’s going on? What happened with your parents?” she asked.

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

  “You haven’t done anything,” Eve protested.

  “It’s not their fault,” Callen said, “It’s just how things are here.”

  He took Eve’s hand and they left the house. Callen hadn’t given any thought to where they might go, but it didn’t alter the fact that, for him, home was no longer home.

  In the hall outside his apartment, Callen helped Eve change into some of his old clothes. When he was satisfied she’d pass for a typical teenage city girl they left the building. Passing moulded shops and apartment buildings they looked like any other young couple walking the streets. Callen was setting a slow and deliberate pace. The pair didn’t speak. Eve wanted to, she had a thousand questions she wanted answered, but there was something about Callen’s manner which kept her silent. Occasionally he’d point to indicate a desire to cross a street, or move against the flowing crowd around them, but that was all the communication they shared. Finally, as they stopped on a curb side and waited for a multi transporter to pass, Eve saw something that gave her relief; a park; bursting with green. It stood in the very middle of the clean, smooth surfaces of the city. It may not have had the same unwieldy lack of symmetry as her homeland, but it was far closer than anything else she’d seen.

  Callen walked to the centre of the garden. A small artificial lake provided a central point, away from those taking time out on the lawns. Surrounded by large ferns to either side, it allowed a degree of privacy as the couple came to a halt and sat down on the cool resin surrounds. They were alone. Eve noticed the artificial greenery 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 to view without living in and it only added to her confusion.

  “What do we do now?” she asked.

  Callen thought for a moment.

  “Wait,” he said, trying to portray an air of confidence.

  “Once it’s dark we’ll be able to get going again.”

  “Where to?” Eve asked, desperately hoping the answer would be back to her homeland and away from this mixed up world.

  “To the university. If we can make it there while it’s dark, we’ll be safe. Then tomorrow, we’ll get some of my friends to help us.”

  Eve was worried by the suggestion. His own parents had just failed them and in the process turned Callen from a missing person to a fugitive. If this was the response from family, how could they expect any better from friends?

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

  “Why would they do that?”

  “Your parents did,” she said and almost immediately regretted it.

  Callen went quiet. He had no more to say. He couldn’t defend his parents any more than he could explain the ways of this world to Eve. Callen understood why his parents had reacted as they had and while he didn’t like it, he knew it was motivated by a higher responsibility to the city and the laws that ensured its survival. He knew Eve felt family loyalty should override such responsibilities, but this was a sign of her heritage, not his.

  After almost half an hour of sitting in silence, Eve reached over and put her hand around the crystal that hung from Callen’s neck. He was starting to look defeated and that sight was the only motivation Eve needed to try and lift his flagging spirits.

  “You’re inside this, aren’t you?” She asked in a manner that required no response. “Is it better or worse with this thing?”

  Callen furrowed his brow thinking how to explain it. Eve leant forward and kissed him. Callen panicked.

  “You can’t. Not here. We’d be arrested.”

  “For a kiss?”

  Callen nodded. Eve was shocked and knew the man she’d met in her world was now struggling with his own. She kissed him again. Callen jerked his head away and again whispered his protest loud and long to Eve, who sat patiently listening, without hearing a word. Her hands had minds of their own and Callen wasn’t sharing their thoughts. They grabbed and pinched at him. Eve was quick to use the cloak of darkness as a defence to the argument spilling from Callen concerning the dangers of being seen. The others within the park had all gone, so his pleas were having little effect. He was fighting a losing battle against a very determined and sexually aggressive opposition.

  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 harmonise. Callen couldn’t believe he’d allowed such a thing to occur in a public place. His eyes wandered to the bushes
around him and his memory flashed back to when, as a young boy, he’d stood on the other side of the very same bushes and watched as another young couple broke the same laws they’d just broken. 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 was a sobering thought and one that brought the reality of his mission back to the forefront of his mind.

  Chapter 17.

  Under the cover of darkness, Callen and Eve made their way through the deserted city and onto the grounds of the university. Callen began to search for a good place to hide. The plastic rockery garden, filled to overflowing with large green plastic ferns, gave the perfect resting place. Callen sat in the middle of the ferns. Eve cuddled up close as he went to work planning their next move. It was a bold one and Eve didn’t hesitate pledging her support.

  The couple settled further into the garden, locked in each other’s arms. It was the perfect opportunity to talk. They covered recent events, with Eve asking about the things she’d seen since her arrival. They spoke of Callen’s parents and their attitude towards him, growing up in the city and about the pointlessness of the plastic nature. They talked of their escape from Eve’s world, Ky’s attempts to stop them and Eve’s resulting violent action to escape, an action she was still feeling extremely guilty about. And finally, they talked about Lien and how he must be coping at this very moment.

  When Eve finally brought up the subject of Callen’s friends, the conversation took on a very different tone. Callen admitted he shared some of Eve’s doubts about relying on anyone but themselves. He knew such doubts didn’t speak well of his homeland, but he wasn’t feeling too patriotic anymore. Eve had the right to see the City for what it really was. Its shortcomings were the reason Callen had risked so much to come back and try to change things for the better. Even if no-one believed the things he had to say, they would at least have heard his story. If he could make just one person understand things could be better, it could still be enough to plant a seed that would grow into the new world he’d hoped for. Eve leant forward and kissed Callen passionately on the lips. It was the best way she knew to show him how much she liked his fight.

  The morning broke with its filtered light bringing a view of the surrounding city landscape. Callen and Eve still lay in each other’s arms, having fallen asleep, waiting for the day to arrive. Eve was first to stir, waking to the sound of footsteps. She woke Callen. He took a moment to orientate himself and then, held Eve calmly, but firmly to her place. The footsteps faded. Callen allowed his head to rise like a stem through the undergrowth of the polymer palms. The steps were those of the first student of the day. A smile broke out on his face. He turned to Eve and signalled it was time to move.

  They walked quickly to the smooth synthetic grass quadrangle at the centre of the university and sat on the slightly raised step that separated the walkway from the aesthetic green landscape. Eve felt uncomfortable. They were the only two people in the whole area; an area that was elaborately planned and laid out for crowds and movement; an area which now sat silent and empty. Callen assured her the emptiness would soon disappear. All they had to do was wait for a covering of students to make them invisible in an ever growing crowd.

  Thirty minutes later they were surrounded by other students. Mostly they were young and boldly dressed in the uniform of the young. They walked with intent, meandered without purpose, strolled with a casual social focus and ran in a race against no-one. This was a gathering of the most promising students the city had to offer and every inch of the university’s space was alive and multiplying with still more young people in a continuous arrival of colours shapes and sounds.

  Callen looked to the hands of the clock held high on the far wall by nothing. It was time to put their plan into practise.

  They moved as one, making their way past students who were locked in their own important conversations about all things, or checking through bags to sort notes taken in the vain hope of remembering past lessons. These were the minds of tomorrow, fast transforming into the new generation of the regulated city. If Callen was to reach anyone, it would be in this community. He was nervous, but no longer in fear of being turned in.

  The couple walked slowly along the winding plastic tiled path. They were caught behind other students with their own destinations. Callen let the group go on ahead as he turned and climbed a flight of stairs to the door of a nearby lecture hall. He opened the door and ushered Eve inside. From the back of the hall, there seemed a cavernous drop to the teaching floor below. A sea of chairs stretched, as if forming their own descending hill. Below stood Professor Klim, writing on a plastic screen with a pressure pen, transferring his notes to a compuboard behind him. He glanced up, taking little time to study the two early arrivals.

  “Take a seat and be quiet or leave. There’s still twenty minutes until we begin.” With that his head turned back to his notes.

  Callen indicated for Eve to follow. He walked down the steps until they reached the Professor. For the second time he raised his head from his work.

  “I thought I asked you to sit,” he said with some annoyance in his voice.

  Callen reached into his coat pocket and showed the butt of the gun.

  “Have you ever seen someone killed before?”

  Klim went cold. His eyes didn’t move from the weapon. He gently took his hands away from his screen and dropped his pen as he backed away. Callen remained still. They definitely had this man’s attention.

  “You’re not giving a lecture today. I am. I want you to introduce me and then sit down and listen with everyone else.”

  On hearing this Klim immediately lost the fear from his eyes. It was replaced by curiosity. He’d never had his class hijacked before and the demands intrigued him.

  “What are you going to talk about?” he asked.

  “Wait and see.”

  “Who are you?”

  “No-one important.”

  “Is that how I introduce you?”

  “I’m Callen. This is Eve.”

  Klim’s face took on another expression, one of a memory close to being recalled.

  “Callen?” he said, trying to place the name.

  “You spoke in one of my classes before. You’re a student here? Yes?”

  “You’ll know everything about me soon enough,” Callen said.

  Klim nodded. The day was off to a grand start as far as he was concerned. Whatever Callen had to say intrigued him and while the students would eventually arrive and hear this impromptu lecture without any build up, Professor Klim would have to endure the most tantalising twenty minutes of his life.

  Callen and Eve sat in the very front two seats. The Professor had long since flicked off his linked computer screen. He watched the couple as he quietly noted every new arrival into the hall. Callen and Eve didn’t speak a word. They didn’t communicate in any way, except for the small movement of Eve’s hand, as she moved it to cup Callen’s in a show of support. Klim moved his eyes quickly to take in the gesture, something not lost by Callen, who moved his hand away and repositioned his arms to make the reflex movement look less defensive to their audience of one. Callen shifted his focus to Klim’s eyes and he easily won the psychological war as they locked themselves in a momentary staring match. Klim went back to watching the arriving students.

  Before long the seats were as close as they would come to being full. Late comers were now individually flashing light into the slightly dim hall, as they flicked the door open and entered. There was a rumble of indistinguishable conversation amongst those assembled. Movement was everywhere, with heads turned, pens juggled, nibbled and used as percussion instruments around the room. The professor called his lecture to order. The crowd gradually hushed until he was left speaking alone. One voice heard by everyone present and cabled live to the tens of thousands watching through their home viewers.

 
“I had a lecture arranged for you today that will have to wait for another time. We have something different this morning, a guest speaker, a student of this university who has kindly volunteered to speak to us on a topic of his choosing. His name is Callen and I’d ask you to make your peer welcome.”

  With an outstretched arm in Callen’s direction, Klim left the podium. Callen stood and walked into position to speak. He glanced over the few hundred faces present. They stared at him with interest and in silence. This was something they’d never encountered before and that held their attention. Callen took a few seconds to get used to the feeling of being watched by so many intent faces. He looked to Eve, who simply nodded. It was time to say what he’d come to say.

  “When I was seven years old, I was reassigned from my parents. I ran away from my new home hoping to find my original parents again. I didn’t know where I was running, I just ran. I tried to hide in a park and was attacked by a boy who stabbed me.”

  Callen looked to Eve. She flashed a reassuring smile as he continued.

  “I was bleeding, but not enough to stop me running and I managed to get away. I ran into the carriage system and found a door that led even deeper underground. My attacker had been following me and he stabbed me a second time.”

  Callen undid his shirt and showed a noticeable scar near his ribcage. He then dropped his shirt from his shoulder and pointed out the second large scar on his arm.

  “The only reason he didn’t kill me was because I was small enough to crawl through a tunnel and I got away. The tunnel led to the Outlocked lands.”

  Callen looked to the Professor whose eyes lit up. Callen had just answered a question put to him some time ago by Klim and the moment wasn’t lost on either of them.