The Edge

by Jacob Wenzel

  When Desmond was about six months old, while working in the laundry, Molly cut herself on a knife that someone had left in a jumpsuit pocket, she developed an infection, and a high fever. When she was unable to get out of bed to work, the guards took her outside and shot her. Larry had already left for the day to work in the paddies, so didn't find out about it until that evening. He was beaten by the guards and demoted to hedge detail as punishment for expressing anger. He and Edgar then planned their escape, which went pretty much as Maggie had described it, with Susie stumbling, and falling too close to the hedge, she was pulled in before Larry and Edgar could get to her.

  They found the lodge by chance, someone had stocked it with a huge supply of food not too many years before, and had installed solar panels on the roof that were still working. Perhaps one of the upper echelon Soshes had managed to smuggle food out with plans for return, but had never made it, they had no way of knowing. There were also a number of old weapons, whoever had stocked it had been planning either an assault, or was expecting a major offensive.

  Many of the rooms still had luggage in them, whatever had happened here, people left quickly, without packing. They had food, they had clothing, and, with the solar panels, they had power.

  The food supplies, of course, dwindled as the years went by, and after about five years, Edgar decided to go back down the hill in search of more. A few months later, when Edgar had not come back, Larry made the decision to go after him. He took as many of the weapons as he could reasonably carry. Having no way to get back through or over the hedge, he started walking around the perimeter. After a few days he found a stream that went under the hedge, he noticed that the hedge never reacted to fish in the stream.

  This is exactly what he had hoped and planned for. He wrapped the weapons and his old worker jumpsuit in plastic, put on a diving mask and snorkel he had found in one of the abandoned cars, (why someone would bring those things to a ski resort, he had no idea). Larry dove into the stream, he had not been swimming since he was a kid, and he had no way of knowing how thick the hedge was at this point, be he hoped he would not have to come up for air under the hedge. He didn't have to, the stream carried him swiftly under. He traveled back along the inside of the hedge to where the rice paddies were. He hid the weapons and slipped on the jumpsuit, and waited. He lucked out, after two days, a group of workers came very close to the woods where he was hiding, and when the guards were occupied with some other workers, he slipped in among them.

  The guards never seemed to count workers, or, for that matter, distinguish between them, they never noticed that they had one more worker going back. He asked around his old barracks about Edgar, some remembered him from before, but no one had seen him recently.

  Over the next week, he was able to check out the other barracks in their compound, he moved between them and spent several days in each one, in the fourth one, he found a man who had worked with Edgar in the kitchens, and had seen him a few weeks earlier. He spoke very softly, almost a whisper, “He was trying to get back into the Sosh kitchens, he had some sort of plan, but he wouldn't talk about it, he said it wasn't safe.”

  The next morning before work, a woman approached him, “You're looking for Edgar 471187?”

  He nodded. She continued, “He's not here anymore, some Sosh woman came, and picked him up.”

  “A Sosh came here?”

  “Things changed while you were gone. Yeah, the guards may not have noticed, but we did, you and Edgar disappeared, then he came back, and now you're back. Some say that you're spies for the Deux, I don't buy it. You escaped, didn't you? Anyway, The Deux's getting lax, like it's not always paying attention, some of the Soshes have started coming here to pick up workers for sex, they pick them up just before lights out, and then bring them back a day or two later, the guards don't care, they don't mess with the Soshes. I've been a couple times myself, got laid, got some good food instead of that mush we get, pretended I was a Sosh for day or two, no work, it was great.”

  “Someone took Edgar for sex?”

  “That's what I said, about a month ago, only she didn't bring him back.”

  “How do I get in on that?”

  “Just go outside after supper, hang around, unzip your jumpsuit to your waist, show your muscles, I'll be out there, and if neither one of us gets picked up, you're welcome in my bed. I'm Nelli.” she said, looking him over.

  That night, nothing happened, and he took Nelli up on her offer. The next night, a car rolled up to the barracks, right past the guards, Larry guessed it was one of the higher up Soshes, as it was a nineteen-nineties model, and still in pretty good shape, lower echelon Soshes got the older, more poorly maintained cars. There had been no new cars built in a hundred years, since the Deux didn't care about status symbols and there were plenty of old ones that could be kept running. The car rolled past Nelli and a couple of other women, it paused beside Larry, and the window rolled down, a heavy man of about sixty looked him over, and rolled away. Larry was relieved, he wanted to get picked up, but not that badly. The man in the car picked up a skinny teenage boy and then left. About ten minutes later an older car rolled up, this one was driven by an attractive woman of about forty-five, just starting to gray, and looking very elegant. Larry hadn't seen a woman wearing makeup since he'd been sent away from the Soshes. He recognized her as a casual friend of his mother. If she recognized him, she showed no signs of it. She motioned for him to get in, he glanced at Nelli, nodded, then got in.

  She drove over the old freeway in excess of a hundred miles an hour, it was virtually abandoned. He knew where they were going, the Sosh colony in Portland, where he had grown up. She didn't speak until they were almost halfway there, “I've never done this before, I mean, other than with my husband... he died two years ago, I heard some of the women were doing this, I didn't know the Deux was allowing it.”

  Larry didn't say anything, and they didn't speak the rest of the way to Portland.

  There were about ten thousand Soshes in this part of the Northwest, and over half of them lived in one large, spacious building overlooking the Columbia. She pulled off the road with a few miles left to go, “There are some of my husband's old clothes in the back seat, put them on, I can't take you to my apartment dressed like that.”

  He got out and changed, then got back in. “Why not pick up one of the local workers? I know there are a lot of them in the city.”

  “There's too much chance of running into them again here... too much chance of getting involved. That's not allowed.”

  They pulled into an underground parking garage, and then took an elevator up to her apartment.

  “Take a shower, it's in there, to the right.” she pointed toward the bedroom.

  “I took one after work, it's mandatory.”

  “Take another one, I have better soap, and shampoo, not that you really need the shampoo.”

  The shower felt good, he hadn't had a hot shower since he left the lodge, daily showers were required in the barracks, but the water was always cold. He was just standing, enjoying the hot water, when she stepped in with him. He thought she wanted to do it in the shower, but she stopped him, “Just touch me, gently.”

  Gentleness in lovemaking was not something to which Larry was accustomed, sex in the barracks was matter-of-fact, straight forward, and more often than not, little or no affection, this was a new experience for him, and he liked it. They were gentle with each other through the night. In the morning she said, “I don't even know your name, I'm Beatrice.”

  “I know, I'm Larry.”

  It took a moment, and then there was a flash of recognition in her face, she drew back, and grabbed the sheet and covered herself, “Oh my God! Larry, Laura's son?” At first there was a look of horror on her face, and then she started laughing, “My God, I can't believe I just did it with my friend's son... and it was great! Wait a minute, you knew it was me, and you came with me anyway?”

  “Before I was taken away, I used to fantasize ab
out you, you were. you are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, I only stopped thinking about you when I met Molly.”

  “You got married?”

  “Workers can't marry, but we stayed with each other, we had a baby.”

  “Why did you come with me, if you've got a family back there?”

  “The guards killed Molly when she couldn't work.”

  “I'm sorry, and the baby?”

  “He's safe, I think.”

  “You think? You think he's safe? In that awful building where I picked you up?”

  “He's not there.” He explained how he escaped with Edgar, and the kids, and why he came back.

  “So you left the kids alone to try to find Edgar, now what?”

  “I don't know, he's the brains, I'm just the big guy, if I can find him, he can figure out what to do next, how to get food back to the kids. I hid a bunch of guns near the hedge. After I find Edgar, I'll go get them.”

  “And do what, shoot the guards? It won't do any good, even if you can damage them, they'll just send more.”

  “If we kill enough maybe we can frighten off the others.”

  “Larry, the guards are robots, you didn't know that?”

  “That does explain a lot, but no, I didn't know.”

  “I might be able to help you, but you'll have to talk to your parents.”

  “I don't want to see them, they turned me in.”

  “I know. They didn't have a choice. If they hadn't, they would have been killed, and when they found you, they would have killed you, too.”

  “I know, but it's still hard to forgive them after I got shipped off to the rice paddies.”

  “They saved your life, isn't that worth something?”

  “You've never had to live as a worker, we're treated like animals, worked fourteen hours a day, seven days a week, and killed when we can't work anymore.”

  “Well, if you want to find Edgar, you'll need to go to them.”

  “You won't help me if I don't.”

  “I can't help you, they can, I think they know where he is.”

  “They know him?”

  “I think so, they had someone staying with them, he arrived about a month ago, they said he was a cousin from San Francisco, but he had the look of a worker, like he'd had a hard life. They found a place for him, staying with another friend, I offered to let him stay with me, but he chose her instead, younger and prettier.”

  “I don't think she could be prettier.

  “Well, he chose her, I don't know where they live, but your parents do.”

  “I don't really have a choice, do I.”

  “Not if you want to find him, of course, you could just stay with me, maybe we could find a way to get your kids down here.”

  “You don't think the guards would find me?”

  “I don't think they would notice, they don't seem to be paying much attention anymore, like they're distracted by something, people are getting by with things that they never would have gotten away with a couple of years ago.”

  “Like picking up workers for sex?”

  “Exactly, you aren't going to think badly of me for doing that, are you, I've been lonely, and well... really horny since my husband died.”

  “Why would I think badly of you? In the barracks, you get sex with whoever, whenever you can, it's one of the few pleasures in life. When I was with Molly, I only did it with her, but I'd had a lot of other women before, and a few since, it's no big deal.”

  “Anyway...” she was clearly uncomfortable with the subject, “People are getting away with a lot of things, I mean, if you do something really bad, you can still get into trouble, but it has to be pretty major.”

  “When can we go to my parents' place?”

  “I'll call this morning, I can't tell them why I want to see them, the phones may still be monitored, I'll just tell them I've met someone new, and they have to meet you, we'll save the surprise until we get there.”

  When she called, Larry could guess from Beatrice's end of the conversation what was being said, “Laura? This is Bea, are you busy this afternoon? Oh, is there any way you could put that off till tomorrow? No, it's really important... well.. I've met someone I really want you to meet... no he's not from Portland, and he's only going to be in town for a couple of days.. oh, would you, that would be great... oh, he's looking forward to meeting you, too... okay, lunch would be great... couldn't we meet at your place instead? It's always so noisy there... no, I'll pick up something... Italian okay? Great, see you at noon, bye-bye.”

  “We're on?”

  “Yes, we just have to take some food over, let's get showered and dressed.”

  Her husband's clothes didn't fit too badly, a little tight around the chest and neck, but workable. She insisted he wear a jacket and tie, “The better dressed you are, the less likely the guards are to stop you.” He'd forgotten how to tie the tie, and she had to help him, which he didn't mind at all, she also insisted he wear a hat, since his extremely short hair was not at all in style.

  His parents lived in an apartment about two dozen floors up, but they had to go down to the restaurant level on the third floor to pick up food. There appeared to be nine different restaurants on the level, all offering different menus, but they were all connected to one central kitchen, and workers moved from one to another as needed. Beatrice had called ahead, and their food was ready by the time they got there.

  Larry's mother opened the door, and didn't seem very surprised to see him, “Hello, Larry.”

  Larry was more than a little bit uncomfortable, he wanted to hug her, and at the same time, he wanted to yell at her, he did neither, “Hi, Mom, how have you been?”

  “I'm sorry we did what we did, we didn't have much choice.”

  “I know, where's dad?”

  “He got called out of the city on an emergency.”

  “Out of the city? He's a veterinarian.”

  “I know, it's weird, he's never been called away before, and they wouldn't tell him where they were sending him.”

  “That's not surprising.”

  “He called when he got there, but he wasn't sure where he was, but he said he flew over the North Pole to get there.”

  “He's got to be in Europe, somewhere, why would they fly a vet halfway around the world.”

  “There aren't that many, and he is one of the best.”

  “They don't even let workers see a doctor.”

  “There are a lot more workers than there are animals, since the world started getting hotter, they've been dying off. But you're not here to talk about animals, you want to find Edgar.”

  “How can I find him?”

  “Wait about ten minutes.”

  “When Bea called, and was so insistent, I had a hunch that it might be you. I called Trish, and she and Edgar are coming over.”

  He started to tell her about his family, her grandson, she patiently listened, “I know everything up to when Edgar left you at the lodge. He told us all about it, and he said that if he didn't get back soon, you would probably show up sooner or later, it was just chance that it was Bea who picked you up. It's none of my business, but did you two...”

  “You're right, it is none of your business.” Bea said.

  When Edgar and Trish arrived, Edgar asked about the kids, and then wasted no time in laying out his plan. “This became more difficult than I had imagined, I had hoped I would get work in the kitchens again, and just stash food away, but I was stuck in the paddies. I took a chance with getting picked up, and when I got here, I convinced the woman who picked me up not to take me back, but to help me find your parents, they were the only names I had here. I've managed to stash quite a lot of food just outside the city, but I need a way to get it back to the lodge.”

  “We can't just drive them back?”

  “No, the Soshes now have a lot of freedom, but only within the hedge, there's no way we can get out by car.”

  “I have weapons hidden in the woods near the paddies w
here we used to work, I found a stream under the hedge. We can drive back to there.”

  “The guards won't let us anywhere near the hedge. The only idea I can come up with is this, Trish drives us back to the camp, then waits, hiding in the woods with the car, we rejoin the workers, make a break for the woods when the guards aren't watching, use the weapons you've hidden to create some sort of diversion, then Trish drives to where we are, and with luck, the guards won't notice.”

  “Trish would be risking her life, or at least her place among the Soshes.”

  “I'm willing to do that, I want to come with you, I'm already risking all that by hiding a worker.” said Trish.

  “I'm coming, too.” added Beatrice, “What's left for me here?”

  “Then we'll take two cars, we can carry more supplies that way, maybe enough for a year.” said Edgar “What kind of diversion?” Larry asked.

  “That depends on what weapons you have.”

  “I found a bazooka among the weapons stored at the Lodge, I think somebody was planning an assault on the Deux.”

  “Or at least planning to take a stand there. If the bazooka works, we can take out most, if not all of the guards at the paddies at once. After we get on the trucks, they all group for a minute, before we return to the barracks. So we escape, hide in the woods until they load the busses, take them out, then Trish and Bea join us.”

  “Why don't we just wait till dark, and they can drive out once the guards have gone?”

  “Do you want Bea driving through the paddies, after dark, with no lights?”

  “Good point, that's why you're the brains here. But we shouldn't both go at once, if we get caught, it will be both of us, and the kids are going to starve. I'll go the first day, and if I don't make it, you try it the next day, that is unless the ladies object to hiding in the woods for two nights.”

  Neither of the women objected.

  Larry's mother spoke up, “I know how the weapons got to the lodge.”

  No one spoke.

  She continued, “While you were still living with us, your father was sent to check up on some cattle out near the airport, they were kept in an old barn. He was trusted by the Deux, and it allowed him to drive out there on his own, it was near the old Armory, he found a bunch of weapons hidden in one unused section of the barn, he speculated that when the Deux took over, that somebody at the Armory hid them. They must have been a hundred years old, but they'd been carefully packed. When he came home, he told your uncle Ted about it, Ted was a Colony supervisor, and had the more privileges than anyone else in Portland, but rather than reporting it to the Deux, he and your father formed a plan, it seems that one of the privileges that he had was limited unsupervised travel outside the hedge, so he traveled up to it three or four times a year, each time taking more weapons and food. He installed solar panels he had requisitioned for the colony. After he had it stocked, he was going to sneak us out, his girlfriend, you, your father, and me. Before he finished, he was caught with the weapons, he disappeared. We weren't sure if they knew about your father's involvement, but they were watching us very closely, that's why we had to turn you in, we were already close to disappearing, ourselves. I'm sorry, but we had hoped to come rescue you, and then somehow get to the Lodge, it just never worked out.”