by Andrew Gates
More and more the old childhood friend would walk around in public, show his face in crowds and talk to strangers. It seemed like his secrecy was becoming less and less of an issue when the government had so much else to worry about.
Trace had been living with Iris for a week and a half now. He would stay awake most of the night and sleep on the couch most of the day, though his nightly presence did little to comfort Iris as she slept. She often stayed awake during the nights, wondering if Trace was really there doing his job. Part of her thought he could turn on her at any moment. Though to his credit, he never did anything wrong. In fact, he had protected her from burglars three times already.
In the rare chance he was awake in the daytime, Iris often found him either drunk or covering his bottom half with a blanket to conceal what she guessed was nothing good. Despite the kindness he had shown her over the past few days, she could not help but remain suspicious.
Finding Ophelia would square everything away between Iris and Trace and finally get him out of her home. Unfortunately, despite a week and a half passing since the two of them united, Iris had made no progress on finding his daughter. She called all of her fellow teachers and even Tim, yet none of them knew a thing. Fortunately school would start again on Monday after a long 11 day hiatus. Iris would likely see Ophelia there.
“What did you buy?” Trace asked as they hastily made their way through the halls.
“A few apples and some bread. Not a lot, but as you said, ‘we’ll make do’,” she replied as she passed a young couple sitting on the floor of the halls in torn sweats.
“They’re dressed like you,” Trace added, jokingly.
Iris ignored his comment. He seemed to enjoy saying the wrong things at the right time. As if that were not annoying enough, Trace’s leg appeared to be recovering quickly. He was now walking faster than Iris, who struggled to keep up behind him.
“We’re not in a hurry,” she said, trying to get him to slow down.
“I’m in a hurry,” he replied. “You’re not.”
Sometimes she forgot he was a wanted criminal. And I’m working for his hunter no less.
Without her regular job, Iris had a lot more free time in the past few days. When she was not out getting supplies or calling about Trace’s daughter, Iris spent the rest of her time conducting Dr. Parnel’s research. Despite everything Trace had told her about Parnel, work had to go on. Iris had a deal after all.
The evolved languages had taken up the bulk of her research lately (and the bulk of her thoughts). Iris was no scientist, but she applied the skills she knew, looking to see if there was any indication of something like this happening in surface history. Despite reading through days’ worth of books, Iris was still baffled by how the English language could change so significantly in just 200 years.
Tomorrow Iris would have to submit her weekly report, just like she had done for the last several Sundays. She guessed Dr. Parnel would not be pleased to see another report without a lot of new information, but with the mantis attack and the halls in chaos, Iris doubted a sparse report was Dr. Parnel’s top concern.
“Don’t get away from me. Stay in my line of sight,” Iris ordered, catching up to her hasty bodyguard.
“Chill, would you? I’m just walking. My leg is almost 100 percent. If those fucking cocks come back here, I can really fuck them over now,” he replied.
It was because of quirks like these that Iris still felt uncomfortable around Trace. Iris assumed fucking cocks meant one of the people he had warded off in the past few days. That was another thing about Trace. He loved his curse words.
When Trace first came to her, Iris could not believe he had no other friends to go to. But as time went on, Iris could understand why there were so few people in his life. When they were kids, Trace seemed like a normal, happy child. He spent his nights staying up late, playing on his pod, and spent his days running through the halls, playing wall tag or light chasers. These days he was a self-outcast. He spent his nights drinking and masturbating and he spent his days skeptical of authority, perhaps to the point of delusion.
Dan had come over to Iris’s home a few times since the mantis attack. At first she wondered how he would react to this man in her residence. Unsurprisingly, Dan seemed just as tense around him as she did. Iris could remember their first interaction well.
“Nice to meet you,” Dan had said as they shook hands. He tried to be polite as he eyed up this new stranger.
“Well, Iris has a boyfriend,” Trace responded, breaking the handshake. “I didn’t believe it.”
“Iris tells me you used to be friends.”
“I am her friend,” Trace corrected.
Iris could not help but step in.
“He’s my bodyguard. And it’s temporary,” she clarified.
Trace gave her a look. Clearly, he was hurt by that. Dan took a step away from him and placed his hand on Iris’s shoulder, protectively.
Dan and Trace’s relationship had not improved much from there.
Iris wished Dan were here right now. But Dan was back with his family. He had responsibilities of his own. Iris understood that. Otherwise he would have been the one protecting her instead of Trace.
The teacher continued walking through the halls with her bag when she heard her pod start to beep. She reached into her sweatpants pocket and pulled it out, looking at the screen.
“Is that your boyfriend?” Trace asked.
“No,” Iris replied, “it’s my mother. Again.”
She put the pod away and let it go to messages. Her mother had been calling more frequently in the past few days. Iris started to ignore her messages altogether.
Trace looked at her as if he were both disappointed and confused.
“I hope my daughter never acts that way to me,” he said. This was one of the first serious things she had heard him say in a while. She almost did not know how to react.
“As crazy as you are, you must be a good parent. My parents are not,” Iris replied.
“They seemed nice growing up,” he said.
Iris kept eye contact with him as she walked.
“I was a kid. I didn’t realize that they were a bad influence on me,” she responded. “And they didn’t approve of you.”
“They didn’t?” Trace asked.
Iris shook her head.
“No. And the thing is… you were probably the best influence in my life at the time.”
That comment seemed to make him smile.
As they approached the corner of the hall, Iris could smell something burning. She turned her head as they arrived at the intersection. To their right, something was on fire. Vandals cheered around it in a circle.
“Let’s keep going,” Trace said, pressing on her back to guide her forward.
It was nothing Iris had not seen in the past few days. She was surprised how fast she had become desensitized to these types of things.
“I wonder what that’s about,” Iris said, figuring she should say something about it.
“Who fucking knows? Just keep going. It’s not a far walk,” he replied, still pressing his hand on her back despite crossing the hall.
“You can remove your hand now,” she said.
He pulled away.
“Just trying to protect you.”
“I know, but it’s unnecessary.”
Trace gave her a look and took a few steps away.
“Well fine. Let’s talk about something else then. Tell me, what was so bad about your parents?”
Why won’t he drop it?
“It’s nothing, just ignore it,” she answered, hoping he would be quiet.
Trace did not seem amused by that answer. It was as if he took it personally.
“Look, I just want to know. I don’t want to make the same mistakes,” he explained. “I see a lot of Ophelia in you.”
Iris sighed. She could understand his concern. Trace may have been crazy, but his love for Ophelia was true. Iris could understand why he was so afraid of losing
her.
“Okay,” she said hesitantly, “I’ll tell you.”
Trace’s ears seemed to perk up.
“My parents held me back from the very beginning. First they held me back from you. Then they held me back from… everything else. The world,” she explained. She could tell Trace did not follow. “I was timid in my childhood. You were the first person to bring that out of me and my parents did not like that. They wanted me to stay home, away from you. Then when I was in high school… well, that was the first time I had my own freedom again. I could escape my parents and live the way I wanted to live so long as I was in the halls of the school. I made lots of friends, discovered what made me happy, and then when high school ended, you know, right when I was ready to enter the real world, they pulled me back in again,” Iris explained.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I guess me being free was an issue for them. They told me not go to college, not to occupy my time with the real world. They wanted me to stay there with them,” Iris explained.
“And you think they did it on purpose?” he asked.
Iris paused. She did not know the answer to that.
“I… I don’t know,” she said. “But I think so, yes. Why else would they do it? Why else would they plead for me to stay?”
“I don’t know.”
“Me neither. And now I’m 30, working my first real job. All because of this path they set me on.”
“At least it’s a good job. My first job was shit,” Trace added. Surprisingly, that comment actually made her feel a little better.
“True,” Iris agreed, “but it’s like they set me up for failure.” Iris did not know if she was explaining this well. “Do you know what I mean?” she finally asked.
Trace nodded his head. “I do, but I don’t think it was on purpose. No parent would want their child to fail.”
Iris wondered if maybe he was right. If there was one thing he seemed to know, it was parenting. For once, Trace seemed like the most logical person in the conversation. That was something Iris doubted would ever happen again.
“Maybe. It’s just… I don’t want to have anything to do with them anymore,” Iris said. “I used to at least listen to the voice messages. Now I don’t even listen.”
“Why?”
“I guess I’m just afraid of getting pulled back into their world again. I don’t want to fall back into where I used to-“
“You won’t,” Trace interrupted. Iris was caught off guard by his intrusion and suddenly realized that she had been talking quickly.
“I… I won’t?” she asked, trying to talk slower.
“No. You’re a smart woman, Iris. You’ve learned. You know who you are now,” Trace explained. “And I think the next time you get a call, you should answer.”
This was a side of Trace that Iris had not seen. He was a gentle, logical and compassionate. She never expected to feel this comfortable with him.
She took a deep breath and stopped for a moment as she thought about it. No parent would want their child to fail.
“You’re right,” she said, surprised by her own words.
Trace took a few more steps before realizing that she had stopped. He turned and looked at her with a smile.
“Good,” he said back to her.
For a moment Iris felt strangely at peace. She took in the feeling.
“Now are we going to keep walking?” Trace asked.
“Yeah, yeah,” Iris replied, “I was just… you know, thinking.”
“Well you can think and talk at the same time, right?”
Back to the same old Trace again.
They were almost home now. As they rounded the corner, the hall that would take them to her residential sector was blocked off by thick black barricades. There were at least 40 Navy patrolling the area, far more than normally found together in one place. Many of them carried a type of rifle Iris had never seen before. It was thicker than a regular rifle and had a large case on the bottom.
Rather than turning down the hall to get through, Trace went straight forward, bypassing the Navy altogether. He walked at his normal pace, trying not to draw any suspicion. Iris followed his lead.
When they were finally clear, Iris turned to him.
“Did you hear about this on your earpiece?” she asked.
Trace shook his head and kept walking. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure they were truly out of range and then responded quietly.
“No. It’s weird. They don’t look like regular Navy and I don’t think they’re here for law enforcement.”
Iris noticed that too. There were way too many in one place and their equipment looked different.
“What do you think they’re doing?” she asked.
Trace glanced around his shoulder again.
“It looked like they were setting up a defensive position. They’re probably a special unit. That would explain why they’re not bothering with regular peacekeeping.”
“Why would they do that?” Iris asked.
Trace checked his shoulder again and leaned in close.
“They’re expecting another attack.”
Iris felt her heartbeat pick up. She had not felt this afraid from a single sentence in a while.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
Trace shrugged.
“I’m not sure of anything. But those guns they were carrying weren’t machine guns. Those were grenade launchers. Heavy duty shit,” he explained. “And that area they have blocked off was hit by the UBE. You know, the one you saw.”
Iris nodded.
“They probably expect another attack in the same place,” Trace continued, “and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve got tons of these defensive positions set up all throughout the station.”
In the days that followed the attack, the media had a frenzy getting out any small piece of information about the mantises as they could. The President came out in a press conference almost immediately, calling the creatures UBEs or Unidentified Biological Entities. He explained that he would do everything in his power to recover from the incident. Nothing was said of a second attack, only that unity was our ally.
“Why wouldn’t they tell us about another attack?” Iris asked.
“My guess is because they know it’ll cause even more panic. Ortega’s a dick but he’s a smart dick. He’s just now starting to get this anarchy under control. If he announces that the UBEs are coming back, all the progress he’s made getting this situation handled is gone. And there won’t be a slow recovery period this time.”
“He doesn’t have control of the situation now either,” Iris said. “How is that any different?”
“Look at where we just came from, Iris. We were at a fucking hall market. Look what you’re doing on Monday. You’re going back to work. You’re right, things are complete shit, but there’s a slow recovery. Things are improving… gradually.”
“So you think the government is fixing it?” she answered.
Trace simply shook his head.
“The government isn’t doing anything. The government doesn’t have enough power to do anything. They never did.”
“Then why do you think things are improving?” Iris asked.
“Things are improving because of a false faith in the government,” Trace answered. “It’s nothing they did. When people think the President is strong, they start behaving better. That’s what all this strength through unity shit is all about. How many times have you heard the word order on the news in the past week and a half?”
A lot of times.
“A few times,” Iris lied, curious to see where Trace was going with this.
“Well, it’s been a lot,” Trace continued, brushing off Iris’s answer. “This totalitarian, strong regime shit is just a ruse. The Atlantic Federation has never been able to do the things it says it can. Ortega’s just playing the intimidation game like presidents always have. These last few days are proof of that.”
“What do you mea
n?” Iris asked, genuinely intrigued.
“Let’s go back to last Wednesday. That’s when everything was truly out of control. The government could not control the people. There was disorder. But after a few iron fist messages on the news, things started improving. You see? The strong government that Ortega promotes only exists if we believe in it.”
“And we do believe in it.”
“Yes. We did until last Wednesday.”
“But not anymore?”
“Not right now,” Trace replied, “but it’s slowly coming back.”
Iris had never thought about it that way. She knew Trace was crazy, and in this case, a lot of what he said was probably nonsense, but he had an interesting point about the power of actual strength verses perceived strength. I should do some research on that, Iris thought.
Thankfully Trace was quiet for a while after that. The two of them just walked in silence for the remainder of the trip. But Iris could not get over the fact that Trace could be right. As overly skeptical as he was, there very well could be a second attack on the way. Why else would the Navy have gear like that?
The last thing Iris wanted was to become like Trace, but she could feel herself changing her view on the government. Whether she wanted it or not, a bit of him seemed like it was slowly rubbing off on her.
When they finally arrived back at Iris’s home, the first thing they did was check for irregularities. In the past few days they had come home to find missing items, graffiti and, at one point, even squatters. But today everything seemed undisturbed. Iris put the apples into the refrigerator and the bread out on the counter.
“It’s like we’re a regular couple or something,” Trace joked as he walked off to the bathroom.
Iris glared at him. She did not find it funny.
The toilet flushed and her bodyguard walked out from the room a few seconds later with a grin on his face. Iris sat down on the table, making sure she could see the whole room in case Trace did anything stupid.
“I just thought of something,” he said. “Can I use your pod?”
“Why?”
“Because I just thought of something.”
Iris was hesitant, but she ultimately caved in. He had not done anything wrong so far.
“Don’t do anything that will break it,” she said, “and don’t do anything illegal.”
