by Chaim, Moran
I awoke in my bed. The main street was darker. The light from above was bluish and resembled the light from a full moon, which I guess was the case above ground. I hurried to the gym where she was waiting for me there. I could sense she wasn't the same. She was serious. My heart was pounding; I didn't know what do to. Was this still a date? Am I to be more assertive or just go along with her? I didn't know if she was trying to impress me or boss me around. I didn't like not being in control but it’s not like I could pick her up in my parent’s car and go to the movies.
She walked in front of me. I kept pace behind her, breathing her air, smelling her true fragrance. We turned right into the inner circle of the city. Then we started hearing gunshots from within the inner circle corridors. She was looking at me with fear in her eyes. The loud bursts were getting closer and closer. We already pivoted towards the exit when I looked back and saw two of Knaan’s guards falling dead right in behind us.
“What do we do?” She asked.
“Stay here.”
Instinctively my eyes fell to a fallen guards’ gun. I slid on the floor and stopped right before I reached the corner of the corridor. Then I crawled and grabbed a gun. In that moment the wall exploded next to me. Bullets ricocheted. I hid behind the wall and took a quick look at the gun, it looked like the one Viti gave me, and the basic mechanism looked familiar. It had more electronics and LEDs. Shots ricocheted off the wall again. Shanta was no longer there.
I had to time myself right. I thought I heard footsteps or something pounding against the floor. I took off my shoe and threw it behind the corner. Immediately shots were fired on it, and my shoe was riddled. I leaped around the corner and shot a soldier twice in the chest and once in the head. He was wearing a green IDF uniform. What?
I woke up in my room again in a state of hyper ventilation. Shanta was there holding my shoulder.
“It’s ok,” she smiled “I just had to know I could trust you.”
“What just happened?”
“You were still at the simulation.”
“How did you do that?”
“Come with me, I’ll explain everything.”
She led me down the stairs and through a series of small dark corridors. This time it was real and you could almost taste the mold and rust smells in the air. I didn't remember how to retrace the route in my head. The air was dense, heavier, and warmer. There was noise coming from within the walls, and it sounded like the repetitive growl of an engine or a turbine. I wished she would take me to her private hangout place. I was nervous and excited at the same time. Will she kiss me here? Will she do more? She went into a dark room and pulled me inside. The door was shut behind me. We weren't alone anymore.
“Roy, meet the resistance. Guys, this is Roy.”
This wasn't a date, this was a trap. I took the bait and got pulled into the belly of the beast. I couldn’t stay there; I was supposed to be in training tomorrow to do the best to blend in. I couldn't fall for the only girl who was dangerous to me.
There were three others beside Shanta, looking at me with disgust and resentment: the kid from the gym, who was standing next to Shanta, holding her hand. Was she with that ass wipe? Next to them was the short girl with curly black hair from Dr. Manu's lab, wearing orange overalls. Then there was the pony-tail doctor who gave me the shot on the first day.
Shanta turned to them and spoke.
“Roy is just out of the oven, and as you know he used to be a combat soldier, trained in all sorts of field warfare. But now, this is the best part, he got a job as the gun tech assistant.”
She looked at me and said, “With a little help from my mom.”
Everyone started to laugh and clap. Shanta was pleased. She made her mom help the resistance without realizing it.
“He will help us prevent the invasion.”
“What? No I will not. What the hell is this?” I interrupted her.
The boy from the gym stepped in and pushed me against the door.
“You don't speak like that to her, got it?”
My instincts kicked in and I grabbed this collar and his chin before I could even notice what I was doing. Shanta laid a hand on my shoulder. I released my grip.
“I'm not helping you, I have a job here.”
Everyone was looking at Shanta, who looked distressed. I wanted to go easy on her but I was not going to be pushed around and tricked by a bunch of kids. Let alone fight for them.
“Roy, you've been outside. You've seen the rust, the decay of the systems, and you’ve seen how addictive the simulation can be.”
“I've seen nothing, just heard the stories that you’ve told me. For what I know this place is the safest, happiest place on earth.”
“The Purists have tried to invade us in the past. They will again, and it's just a matter of time until they find a weak spot. Guess what will they find when they go inside? Thousands of innocent sleeping people who don’t know how to defend themselves. It's going to be a massacre.”
“We have guns,” I stated.
The pony-tail doctor interrupted. “How many are actually working? Do you know? And how many guards do we have?”
“We have enough, probably.”
Shanta cut in again. “Do you know why my mother had agreed to give you this job? It’s not because you're bravest and fittest. It's because you're expendable.”
I didn’t see that coming.
She continued. “Sure, you have more skills to survive out there but if something should happen to you, nobody would care.”
“What do you know about fighting?” I asked them while scanning their eyes with my gaze.
The gym boy got closer to me again. “Shut up now, we heard enough from you.”
He turned to Shanta, “I told you he wasn’t good, from the first day I met him. He's weak, he's not native, and he doesn’t care. He's an old man in a young's man body.”
“We all agreed he's our only chance, we need him on our side.”
“Well, he doesn’t want to. So now what? He'll just go back and snitch.”
“He won't snitch.”
Shanta was protecting me while trying to use me. I didn't understand what was going on.
The short girl with the curly hair interfered. “Yeah, how can we know he's not going to snitch?”
“Yeah,” said the pony-tail doctor.
“I'm no snitch,” I replied.
“So, will you help us?” asked the gym boy. I could see he was trying to restrain himself.
Will I get myself involved in a dangerous juvenile fight against a radical militant group after I just came back from being a dead soldier? The answer was simple.
“No,” I replied.
The gym boy took Shanta to the far corner of the room and spoke to her in private, and I couldn't hear anything of meaning. Then Shanta and the gym boy turned back to me. She was smiling, and looked more relaxed.
“Roy, I want you to meet the resistance. This is Bahomi,” she said, pointing to the gym boy.
Stupid name for a stupid kid, I thought.
“The curly one is Toya, and next to her is Dev.” She paused for a moment. “Why don’t we sit down? Can we all sit?”
She was trying to be the good cop now, while this Bahomi guy was being the nasty asshole cop. We all sat down in a sort of a circle. I indeed felt the tension decrease a little. She continued.
“What we do here is not a suicide mission. We don't want to provoke a war. We are trying to educate the people about the real danger. Every day we're inside this deathtrap city, dependent on the systems to protect us, is another day the Purists are training and learning more about us. They have taken those years to study us, waiting for a mistake or a system failure that will allow them in. And in the meanwhile what have we done? Became numb inside a simulation of pleasure. People can't do anything for themselves rather than wait for a technician to fix the problem. They say the simulation creates stuff from your memories and subconscious, but it’s always testing you in some way, so
they can study you to better control you. People don't know how dangerous this way of life is, and how fragile it is. They don’t know how to defend themselves against threats like the Purists, who want to steal the food and water. They assume that the resources will always be there, thanks to the mind-numbing simulations. The city needs to become human again. That's why we need you to help us train them. We’re not asking you to fight; we’re asking you to help us save our families.”
My days of being a soldier are over. I already died once and had a new life to build. I took a deep breath.
“I'm sorry. I can't do that. Let me out.”
I stood up and turned for the exit. I couldn't get involved in this farce. All I could see is a group of hormone-washed bored teenagers who want to ‘fight the system.’ I could lose everything I’d gained in the past days, which wasn't much. No thanks. I count on my laser guns to save us.
Bahomi stood against the door and was blocking my way.
“You’re not going anywhere, soldier.”
I hated him for always speaking quickly to me.
Dev, the pony-tail guy and Toya held my arms behind my back. It was four against one. No one was willing to let me go, and they were losing their patience. I was getting frustrated.
“You were a soldier, right?” asked Bahomi, right in my face.
I didn't answer. I had enough of this.
He got closer to my face, shouting at me. Dev and Toya grabbed me harder, holding my shoulder and keeping my arms behind my back.
“Were you a soldier?”
“Yes!”
“Can you shoot a gun In the real world?”
“Yes.”
“Can you teach others?”
“Maybe.”
Maybe he was trying to convince me that I was capable of helping them by saying yes all the time. Like I was supposed to serve and protect by a flip of a switch.
“I already died once and I’m not going to—”
“—isn’t that a miracle? Listen to me now because soon there won't be any of us alive in here.”
“And if you're wrong, what happens to you?”
Shanta got back into the conversation.
“My mom is the president. Trust me when I tell you that the threat is real.”
“So why isn't she doing anything?”
“As always, she and the council think technology will prevail, which is why they want us to stay plugged into their digital utopia. Those are the foundations of this place.”
“Then why is she wrong?”
“Because we can’t do it forever,” said Dev directly into my ear.
Shanta stepped near me. “One day our machines will stop working and there will be no guns left and no sentinels to protect us. Hell, maybe just the air conditioning will stop working. Or there will be a bug in the program and people will have to surface.”
“This place is run by quantum computers, isn’t it?”
The curly haired Toya interrupted.
“What if the whole city becomes a shooting range? Think of it. Ten thousand people, who haven’t ever seen daylight because they were born into the simulation, will be held as hostages. They’d be sitting ducks.”
“They will be ten thousand strong. That’s power.”
“If they are trained and collaborating, which they are not,” Toya answered.
“How old are you?”
“Sixteen,” she answered.
“And you?” I asked Bahomi.
“Same,” he replied.
“This is classic.”
I was exhausted of the whole debate.
“Classic what?” Bahomi asked with a sneer.
“Never mind.”
Bahomi turned to Shanta. He looked furious and she looked disappointed.
“That's it. I'm sorry, but I told you, he's not one of us. He doesn’t care.”
“I am one of—”
“—shut up!”
I looked at Shanta, and the cheerful Shanta whom I held on top of a whale, was gone. Who was standing there was a different person completely.
“Look, just let me go and I'll never tell anyone, ok?”
Shanta was silent and it made me angrier.
“I prefer asking nicely.”
She looked at me with fire in her eyes.
Dev and Toya pushed me back and pinned me to the wall, I twisted Toya’s arm and threw her at Dev but Bahomi grabbed my head and slammed it to the wall. I fell on the floor and they left before I was able to stand up.
Chapter 10
I banged on the door for awhile but no one came for me. Not even Shanta. I couldn't believe it; I was locked up by a bunch of stupid kids playing war games. I was supposed to go back to training, do my part and to blend in. Now I was involved with the second most hated group in the city. And to think; Padma didn't know that her own daughter ran the show. How genius was that? I was stuck there with no food, no water and no bed. I was afraid it would take a day until Isaac or Viti sent someone to look for me, and maybe another day until somebody would find me.
My attempts to open the door were futile because it was a sliding door and I couldn't get a grip. I managed to bust open the vent for the air supply on the ceiling with my fist but it was too high and too narrow for me to go through. I decided to rest and wait, to save my strength in case one of the resistance members came back. I sat down and dozed off.
I awoke after about an hour. A metal clunk echoed through the room and I thought someone was outside the door. The room became fully dark except for a little emergency light, which indicated there had been another power outage. Maybe the Purists attacked again. I called for help but still no one heard me. I thought about Isaac's Mantra: “Everything I said or did is my sole responsibility. Everything is connected. Everything changes.” It didn't help. I was still helpless and I started to blame myself for falling for Shanta. What a manipulative bitch.
I fell asleep again and woke up to the sudden to the sound of Bahomi opening the door. Why him? He touched my shoulder with painful precision to make sure I was awake.
“I'm awake, damn it.”
“Come with me,” he said slowly for the first time.
I got up and walked behind him, as if I had a choice.
“If this is some kind of initiation I'm not falling for it.”
“Shut up.”
I didn't like him and he didn't like me either. Not enough to be polite. We went through the water system corridors. They were grey and leaking. I assumed the pipes lead from the sea, pumping salty water into the desalination systems. When we reached a ladder leading to a hatch above, he handed me a cactus suit. Not again…I was still riddled with red dots. We both dressed up though, and he did it so fast it seemed he didn't mind getting stung by the suit.
We went to the surface and the humid air stood still. There was no dust flying around and the temperature was reasonably warm. I could see the night's sky so clearly. Billions of stars were looking down at us. The wind turbines were moving slowly and the cameras were scanning the grounds. The ground was dry and every step of ours sounded like we were crushing bones. The moon was half full and low in the sky so we barely cast any shadow. He had chosen a perfect time to be out; we were like ghosts. Walking didn’t hurt as much because I managed to find the right angle to spread my arms and legs. I felt stupid and I probably looked stupid but it worked just as Viti said. Crossing the circle of guns through a hole in the fence was the scary part. I knew they couldn’t see me, but going out of the safe zone was ball-shrinking. And I wasn't 100% sure if my former stealth abilities could be applied while wearing a cactus.
I followed him for a few minutes until we reached the peak of a nearby hill.
“I'm going to show you something I think is better for you to see with your own cocky eyes.”
“I don't have cocky eyes.”
“Yes you do. You think you are better than everyone because you died once and you are the only one that can figure shit out.”
“Whatever you
say.”
“You think that just because you don't belong here you shouldn't be involved, but you need to see it. Because this will make you understand.”
“Just show me already.”
We climbed over another boulder and the air was so humid my lungs almost refused to let in the air. Bahomi crouched and then crawled to a viewpoint. I did the same but a lot slower. In the desert every sound you make carries for miles; like whale songs in the ocean.
“You find it hard to believe the city endures so many attacks and invasion attempts. You think we exaggerate.”
He handed me thermal binoculars and I hung them on my neck. I watched the foot of the hill and began to see little dots of light moving around in the distance. They looked like flickering candles. I followed the light deeper into the valley and there it was, a whole city, alive and moving in the middle of the desert. There were tents and sheets of cloth stretched between them, supporting tin plates and barrels and solar panels. I could see people moving underneath the whole structure like blood cells under a skin. They were skinny, there were a lot of them, and they all carried guns.
“Do you understand what you see?”
“The Purists?”
“They have little resources. They use seismic equipment to find water, and special greenhouses to grow plants. When they can't, they destroy another group and take their resources. They just move to another place when they need to.”
“They didn't destroy us yet.”
“Strategic investment. They know we're worth the wait.”
“Because we're self-sustained?”
“Right.”
“How can they claim to be pure if they want to rely on our technology?”
“When it comes to food and water, there are no rules to these guys. They will destroy everything. Trust me, no one is pure.”
I couldn't trust him even if he'd told me the earth was round.
“But they are supposed to be pure, right?”
“It's different here. We started hearing about them long ago. When the droughts began people fled north to the Arctic Circle and the Scandinavian countries; where it was still green. That's where they first hit. They even prevented scientists from developing cold fusion energy. They grew and grew and destroyed everything they came across. They were too weak to bother us at first but now they are ready. They are here and are waiting for the right opportunity.”
