Frey moved slowly into the garden. She suspected her mouth was ajar, but wasn’t able to close it.
It was huge. Trees and bushes spread out around them, an actual lake opening up on her right, with benches and little paths twisting between the foliage. There were open places where patches of grass stretched like smaller fields, others that were packed with trees. Somehow she knew the scale of it shouldn’t surprise her.
But it did. Nature was a thing that didn’t thrive in Slum City… The sight baffled her and Frey wondered when she would stop being able to sustain more information…
Probably when I die.
But as amazing that the greenery was, it wasn’t what her eyes stopped at. The entire place was covered with a glass cupola, this one so clear and clean it was hard to even make it out. It was nothing like the hazy digital projection of dome. This one let the sky, the real sky shine through in with all its splendor and light.
Frey hadn’t realized until then how very little she had been able to take in while escaping from Dome.
She moved towards the closest patch of open grass, feeling like she was walking in a dream or something. After standing in the grass for three long heartbeats she just sat down. Jon came after her. She fell back in the grass.
“I… I just need to lay her for a while…” She breathed, not taking her eyes off from the clear blue sky. Her knees were still shaking. She could hear Jonas lying down next to her. This was just what she and Jin used to do. Laying down on a rooftop together, looking up at a sky.
But this is the real thing…
Jon crossed his hands under his head as he stretched out.
“They told us the dome was supposed to protect us from radiation and the forces of nature. Without it, we’d die. I kept asking myself all these questions and never understood why there weren’t any openings built into The Wall, or who was doing the drop if nothing could survive on the outside.”
“And as soon as anyone asked any questions…”
“They disappeared,” she said again.
Jon was silent for some time. “Who told you what the dome was there for?”
“I don’t know. It was just information everyone knew. It was just common knowledge; like that the city’s called Slum City. Although I don’t know if we named it ourselves.” Frey felt like she was talking to Jin. She knew him too well to stop. “We weren’t told anything even close to the truth,” Frey said. “God, we never knew anything at all!”
“Hey,” Jon said as he propped himself to the side. She forced herself to look away from the sky. “I know it’s probably a lot for you to take in right now, with everything else you have seen and heard, but I think you would rather know.” He sat up and crossed his legs. Frey did the same, more slowly. “My grandpa loved to tell stories from his upbringing and as a kid, I loved to hear it. He told me of the time before the voting, before Hole existed. There was a big gap between rich and poor and the city was having trouble with murder, theft, riots and destruction of property. The amount of poor grew and the problem escalated until it became a real danger to the wealthy society.”
“The three houses wanted to find a more permanent solution to the problem than building enclosures around the rich parts to protect the wealthy. They felt closed in, caged and didn’t keep it a secret that they thought it should be the other way around. Maybe they got the idea from the situation, or maybe they had a bigger plan all along. Whatever the cause, there was a voting when grandpa was just a teenager.” Jon scratched his smooth chin, the only thing keeping him and Jin apart. “They even let the kids vote. The whole plan was to close in a part of the old city and build a wall around it. Unanimous decision. Hole was built and Dome around it. He told me that one week the poor were, causing trouble and the next they were gone, only a few stragglers here and there.” Jon raked a hand through his hair. “It sounds like they must have erased the memories of the people they put in Hole and that would explain why no reaction was caused from those put in after…”
“What do you mean, “after”?” Frey didn’t want to interrupt him, but felt she had to.
“Well, in Alya, if you commit a crime, say like rape or murder or abuse, you are sent to Hole. But the surest way to be sent there is to become poor.”
“What?!”
“If your economical situation goes below a certain amount, the bank will contact the three houses and they will look into your situation, deciding your fate.” Jon shrugged. “At least that’s my theory.”
Frey found she had to stifle a harsh laugh, lest Jon thought she’d gone crazy herself. “So they put their problems in a little cage and throw away the key. And this is the government you live under? And you people know about this? It’s common knowledge and, what? No one cares?”
“The government had the decision settled about creating Hole long before the voting begun. They all saw a way to bask safely in their wealth and they took it. Hide the horrible and ugly truth and soon it’s easy to ignore it even if it’s still right under your nose.” Jon pulled a strand of grass away from the rest. “After a while it’s just like everything else. It became a part of everyday life and if you ever thought of questioning it…” He tossed the strand aside. “Let’s just say that those people weren’t around for long. Suddenly their income was spent and there might even be traces of a sudden murder, the evidence leading straight to you. All the three houses need to do is approve the accusation and throw you into Hole.” Jon laughed out loud, staring at the ground. But it was a shaky laugh. “Ask questions here and you are thrown into Hole, ask question in Hole and you are pulled out. Either way, they seem to be doing a pretty god job at killing us.”
Frey hadn’t wanted to hear them comparing the troubles of Slum City with their Alya, but now she wasn’t so sure anymore. In a way they were very alike. The three houses kept rebellion in check using fear.
Fear of the unknown. Very clever and very effective. She looked at Jon and thought of the massive complex underneath them and of all the people who were working against the government. They all knew what would happen if they were caught and yet they still did it.
“Why?” They sat so close they almost touched and Frey wondered how they could have ended up so close. “I mean, why are you doing this?”
Jon gave her a crooked smile and shook his head a little. He stroke his stubby chin with his thumb. “My dad never liked grandpa. Grandpa was one of the richest men in Alya for years. He was obsessed with success and money. Grandpa also never gave anything away for free. “Greedy bastard”, dad used to say when he talked about him. He got kids pretty late, more by a mistake than anything and was already seventy when he got dad.”
“Seventy? Are you serious?!”
Jon laughed a little at that. “It’s not like it’s that old.”
A chill went through her. “What’s the normal lifespan here?” She asked suddenly.
“Well, with the help of cell enhancement, I’d say around hundred and twenty, give or take a few years.” He looked uncomfortable after seeing her expression.
Frey couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “No one in Slum City reaches sixty. No one,” she said, knowing he wasn’t the one to blame, but not able to control herself.
Jon didn’t have an answer for that. He just shook his head after a while.
“So, how old does that make you?” He didn’t look older than Jin, but now she wasn’t so sure. He could be going on seventy himself for all she knew.
Jonas laughed quietly, a deep chuckle. “I haven’t been around for that long.”
Frey couldn’t help but smile at his tone. She pulled at her long braid.
“You know, it’s strange. I don’t normally… tell people about my life, even those I’ve known for years. You're making me talk.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said, trying to hide the nervousness. Jin had said the exact same words to her when they had first met.
“Anyway, when my grandpa died, dad wasn’t too sad to see him go.
And he wasn’t the only one. Grandpa had gotten himself enemies.” There was a short pause and Jon scratched his ear with his little finger. “The man who murdered him was sent to Hole. He had two kids and a wife. The wife was sent to Hole soon after and the kids put into another rich man’s home. I’m not overly convinced the wife had done the things she was accused off.” He pulled off another strand of grass, a habit that made him seem younger. “Makes me wonder about the accusations on the man who was said to have murdered grandpa.”
Frey shifted a little. “You think the three houses set him up?” She asked.
“I think they are as power hungry as he was. He wanted to become a ruler of the three houses and was becoming a threat to them. They made sure he would never be one, using permanent measures.” Jon played with a little flower growing by itself next to his knee. He didn’t pull it out.
“My dad listened to me about as much as you would to any of the furnisher. He was a lot more like grandpa than he would ever admit. When I was eleven, I told my mum of the suspicions I had about grandpa’s death. I don’t think she was ever so scared in her life. I can’t remember what she said to me, or how she said it, but I remember I never shared any of my thoughts after that.” He frowned.
“She left shortly after. She just packed her things and was gone, telling no one where she was going. I wouldn’t have minded if she’d gone alone, but she took my little sister with her…” Now their knees were touching. “I was recruited by the government patrol around fifteen. I thought it would be a great opportunity to get closer to the government that way and try to learn more about Hole. That’s where I met Luke.” Jon paused for a few seconds, seeming to think back all those years. “He must have seen something in me then, something I thought I hid very well, because he shook my hand one time after training and I could feel the note he passed to me through it. “Careful what you show outwards. Library 10pm. Man in white coat will be there”, the note said.”
“He was talking about Li.”
“Yes. I went, controlled face and all and met Li for the first time.” He put his weight on one hand and cocked his head to the side. “After two days I was one of the resistance and I’ve worked with them since. The more I heard about Hole, the more I wanted to know about it. When I saw the first recording from down there, I finally understood how very human you were.”
“When you have been so cut off from something, you start to forget about it. Seeing people walking around down there, with very human needs and problems.” He laughed suddenly and Frey twitched, again having to remind herself that this was Jon, not Jin. “Although I am still working on believing I have a person from Hole before me and that she seems very human so far.”
“That,” Frey said. “I will try to take as a compliment.”
Maybe it was because they were sitting so close, or maybe because it was just in his nature to do so, but Jon reached out and ruffled her hair with that crooked smile. He blushed and pulled his hand back.
“Sorry. I don’t know why I did that… haven’t done that since my little sister and I lived together.”
“It’s fine. I’m kind of used to it.”
“Why did you call me Jin before?” He asked suddenly.
Frey didn’t know what to tell him first. She decided to tell him the truth, if only a small part of it. “He’s a friend from Slum… from Hole. I was confused. You remind me a lot of him and to tell you the truth, Jon, I feel like I’m on somewhat stable ground for the first time since I got here.” She looked away from him. “Let’s get back down.” Frey had decided what she wanted to do. Or maybe she had always known…
Chapter 10
“I’m just goanna get it out there,” she said, looking at all of them in turn. “I want in. I want to fight these bastards. There are many down there that I count as family and I’m not leaving them to fend for themselves. I’m in, if you’ll have me.” Frey was glad she was clean and had new clothes. She felt better than she had in her entire life. She felt powerful, like she finally knew what to do.
Lukas closed his eyes and smiled, Tina winked at her with a big grin. Harry and Lallie nodded seriously, relief plain on their faces and Jon gave her a crooked smile. Somehow that warmed her more than anything else.
“We can start with showing you the last thing Chris managed to dig up from Dome. Lallie and I’ve worked on getting it decoded and the sound just came in.” Harry leaned forward. “I have to warn you though, Frey. It’s from an interrogation and it’s not nice.”
Frey took her seat next to Jon and looked up at the screen.
“I’ve seen bad before,” she only said.
The screen flickered to life.
The room was small and very normal looking by Frey’s standard. There was a black screen at the end, acting like a window for the people on the other side. The room was square, with cold green walls, dirt and scratches covering its sides and a small tag of yellow graffiti in one corner. In the middle was a small steel table with two chairs. There was one door to the right and a bright white lamp extended from the roof. Frey knew this was inside Dome, but the room was clearly built to resemble something that might have been found in Slum City. The man sitting to the left, however, was clearly not from there…
He was wearing a black suit and a yellow tie. It was very clean, only a handful of wrinkles crinkled at the joints. His hair was plastered back with some kind of hair-gel and his face was clean-shaven. The camera was angled towards the person in the other chair.
Her heart had stopped. Tim’s small body was sitting in it. He was clearly not aware of what was happening around him. Either he had gotten a good hit on the head, or he was still affected by whatever they had used to keep the orphanage asleep.
“This recording is from the night before you were brought up,” Tina said.
Frey looked at Tim. She was glad he wasn’t totally aware, because she knew they would kill him…
The sound came out strange, as a soft echo; “Did you work together with anyone else?” The man asked. His voice sounded bored, hollow. “Where are they hiding? Do you have a leader?”
Tim’s eyes didn’t focus on the man in the room. “I’m good. I did nothing wrong. I went to bed, I was goanna make my bed after lunch…” His voice was a mumble. “I told Father I would make my bed after lunch…”
“Recording of parents?” the man asked into the air.
“Parents deceased, sir.” A voice answered in the speakers.
“Waste of our time. This one has no information.” The man stood up and walked out of there. When he passed Tim, he reached into his pocket and placed something small and round at Tim’s temple. It glowed yellow for some time and then started blinking faster and faster. Before the man with the suite had reached the door, Tim’s body suddenly convulsed once and then went slack, blood slowly trickling from his ears and nose. Tim’s stared at nothing. The screen went black.
“That’s called a brain taser. It sends an electric shock that overload and kills the brain,” Harry said. “We don’t know if he was indeed working with someone, or have a name on the boy yet but-“
“Tim,” Frey said quietly, still looking at the screen. “His name was Tim.” She chuckled. “You could say he was working with me…” she turned her head slowly back to the table. “He overheard me talking about the cameras and started looking for them himself.”
“I’m sorry… we should have warned you…” Tina said.
“You did warn me.”
“They even kill children… This recording, however horrible it is, means another weapon on our hands,” Lallie said.
“Weapons?” Frey asked her.
“We’ve been gathering visual proof of what is going on inside Hole and Dome. Without visual recordings, we have no evidence,” Tina answered.
“There is another thing you should know. Alya isn’t the only city that have created a thing like Hole and Dome…” Harry said.
“Well, our country definitely started the bloody idea,” Lallie to
ld her brother.
“Since when was our country ever second in starting anything?” Luke put in with his deep voice.
“Wait,” Frey interrupted them. “You're saying there are more… more city’s that does this?”
“Only the ones wealthy enough to overpower common sense. The governments saw the effect on Alya and dived into the idea, and only a few years later, every major city on the planet had their very own Hole…” Jon explained. “We have contact with two other resistance groups, one in Kalya and one in Fonu. We haven’t been able to reach out further than that yet and truth to be told, we can’t help anyone until we help ourselves.”
“The other cities… they look like this one?” Frey asked him.
“The main ones do,” Tina answered.
“And everyone is ruled by a government?” She asked.
“There’s scattered encampments in the deserted where the government can’t reach. The once we have outside Alya call themselves desert dwellers and they certainly don’t live under any government.”
“What about them?” Frey asked the gathering.
“What about them?” Tina frowned.
“If you can get people like that to join, then numbers would grow and fast.”
“There’s no way to get them into the city, Frey,” Lallie pointed out.
“What about presenting the idea at least?”
“Well, we’ve got nothing to loose by trying,” Tina answered, scratching her ear.
“Right,” Harry said and clasped his knees. “Does anyone have something that can’t wait until the next meeting?”
“I do,” Frey said. She couldn’t hold it any longer. She had watched that package for some time now, wondering what the heck it was, but it was getting inevitable and she suspected that the pills illustrated on the front was something more than just painkillers…
“What are those?”
The room was silent for some time. Tina’s eyebrows were up as he looked at the table, searching for whatever she could have meant. “What is what Frey?”
The Yellow Pill Page 7
