“Ride on top of the garbage? Yes, sir. That’s what we do.” Seth grinned.
“Oh, dear Lord.”
“Get used to it, boy.”
“I just wish I could wipe my forehead or something.”
“You could, but the health consequences of exposing your face wouldn’t be worth it. Trust me. But, the perk of this work is we get the best bathing privileges of anybody in the silo.”
“I suppose that’s something,” Antonio said, as he resumed shoveling. The men worked in silence for a few minutes.
“This is no kind of work for an old guy like me,” Seth grumbled, good-humoredly. “I could be sitting admiring the countryside, glass of wine in hand. You can produce a few bottles a year on your little share plot, you know.” Antonio grunted. “But, this looks like the best place to be for the foreseeable future,” Seth continued.
“What made you come down here in the first place?” Antonio asked.
Seth stopped digging. “My wife died around four years ago. I wanted some adventure, I guess. A different life. There was a rumor on the nets about this place, but few specifics on where it was. So, I came to Lyon and started looking. It was devilishly hard to find. I had to make many, many inquiries in the underworld, and get prior approval via a chain of people before they’d let me in.”
“Hmm. Who’s the actual leader?”
Seth resumed digging, as he replied. “Lord August. He founded the place, around forty years ago.”
“Ah.” The men shoveled in silence. Antonio took frequent breaks, while Seth worked like a machine.
At last, Seth stood up straight. He dropped the shovel, and pressed his lower spine while he arched his back. “Ah, that’s better. Okay, let’s keep going.”
“Can we take a break?”
“On the ride up, yes.”
“So not until we’ve filled this entire thing?”
“Correct.”
“So… if the ride up is a break, does that mean there’s more work when we get there?”
“I’m afraid so, boy. We get to move all the garbage to wheeled Dumpsters.”
“Oh, crap.” Antonio resumed working. A little while later, he said: “So where does it all get put once it’s in the Dumpsters?”
“Ah, that’s the interesting part,” Seth said. “There are two wide, round tunnels leading out from level fifteen. They go in opposite directions straight to service shafts, a couple of kilometers away. The garbage goes into those. We still need to get through the tunnels occasionally though, so we have guys welding cages to the sides. The trash gets stuffed in the cages, while leaving a path through the middle for access.”
“I am freakin’ exhausted,” Antonio said, a little white later. The tub was three-quarters full.
Seth stopped working and stood up straight. He looked at the contents of the tub. “I’ll cut you a break then. We can call this good for today.”
“Thank you.” Antonio wasted no time in hopping into the tub. He looked around and opted to remain standing rather than sit in the waste. He grabbed the suspension ropes for balance. They were soon on their way up.
Seth looked over at Antonio. “Work like there’s honor in it, boy.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re used to thinking of work in the traditional sense. A job, not to be enjoyed, by definition. And I suspect you’re even lazier than most.”
“Hmph.”
“But, work doesn’t have to be that way. You can see it differently if you choose to. Even shoveling shit is for the greater good.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The Eye of the Storm
Akio and Zara kept walking along the seemingly endless wide gray underground highway. There was little vehicular traffic. Refugees walked in both directions. They eventually came to an exit ramp on the right, which led down to the underground level of the city. Soldiers glared at Akio and Zara from a blockade at the top of the ramp, and motioned with their gun barrels to keep moving. Zara and Akio gladly did so. They soon came upon another ramp that led up. “Let’s head up there,” Zara said. “It probably leads to the ground level.” They were soon ascending, and out of site of the blockade.
“I guess the lower level is sealed off,” Akio said. “Not sure whether it’s by the rebels or the government.” Out of breath, they slowed down and resumed walking up the incline. Before they even reached the top, the underside of the city’s roof came into view.
“Wow,” Akio said, stopping to look up. “That is just amazing. The arches continue right across the sky. They must be hundreds of meters high.”
“We’re still six kilometers from the center of the city,” Zara said. “I’m exhausted. I have to stop and get something to eat once we get up there.” A deafening blast from a horn sounded behind them. Zara jumped into the air. “Jesus! What was that?”
“Run! Get out of the way!” Akio yelled, as he dragged her to the side of the ramp. She stumbled back, and they both collapsed in a heap. A column of black tanks and armored vehicles sporting machine guns whooshed past at high speed, within meters of them, heading up the ramp and into the city streets.
“My God, that was close!” Zara said, as the wind blew in the wake of the convoy. She and Akio got to their feet, and continued up the ramp. Soon, they were standing at the left side of a six-lane artery road, at ground level. Six- and seven-story buildings, with curved glass fronts, overlooked the road on both sides. The architecture undulated, in a wave-like artistic form, beneath the mighty jade cathedral roof. Multi-columned pillars marched in regimented lines into the distance. Zara and Akio surveyed the scene for a few minutes. Zara opened the midair map again and, with a downward gesture, rotated it to be side-on. “The underground goes much further out than the surface city,” she said. “They’ve tunneled out many kilometers in all directions.”
“Each of those pillars looks like it connects ground level to the ones both above and below,” Akio said, squinting at the display. “The bases of them are also subway stations.”
“Yeah,” Zara said. They looked up. More sleek black drones whistled overhead, as though looking for trouble, and some spherical ones hovered at various points, higher up. More ghostly vee-tols could be made out, with some difficulty, having turned a very light shade of green to disguise themselves, chameleon-like, against the roof.
Zara sighed, and looked back at Akio. “What would Kassie do? Where would she have gone? We have to try and think like her.”
“You mean like a brat?”
Zara scowled. “Now’s not the time! Come on man, think.”
He took a deep breath. “Sorry. Okay. Well, she’s with her friends, so it partly depends on what they’d do. I don’t know them at all,” Akio said.
“She’s smart. They’d have heard the news about the Extinction Switch not affecting people underground. She could have headed to the lower level. But, they may not have been able to get there, if the rebel army had already taken it over.”
“True.”
“I suppose the logical place to start would be around the underground access points at the pillars,” Zara said. “If she’s still above ground, she’ll likely be near one of those.”
“So, where do we start? There are dozens”
Zara shrugged. “Let’s just pick one.”
“Okay. Well, there’s one a few hundred meters off to the left, over there, so if we can get off this road, we can go to it.”
“We can get over the concrete barrier, there.” Zara pointed across the highway, a little further back than where they had come up from underground. There was a wall roughly a meter high that lined the road. “It looks like there’s a street that goes east, towards that pillar. That’ll also take us a bit closer to the city center.” The pair headed off in the direction Zara indicated. Once they had cut between the ultra-modern showpiece buildings lining the highway, they found themselves on a centuries-old street, lined with four-story brick buildings. “Chemin du Plat,” Zara said, seeing the black and gold
street sign. There were ornate wrought iron lamp posts and old-fashioned store fronts. Akio and Zara looked around. A steady trickle of people headed down the street past them, heading for the highway.
“There are several cafes, but most of them are closed,” Akio said. “Hope there’s someplace where we can eat.”
“Let’s keep walking. The city’s not destroyed yet, but you can feel the tension crackling in the air, you know?” Akio nodded. “The standoff. Both sides have a gun pointed at the other, locked and loaded,” Zara continued.
“Yeah.”
A hundred meters further down the road, Akio said: “This place seems to be open.” They headed inside.
“I’m fresh out of almost everything,” the portly lady behind the empty glass counter snapped. Then she sighed. “I’m sorry. I resolved to stay open until the last thing was sold, so people could have at least one more meal. Food deliveries have stopped.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Zara said. “We can go…”
“No, dear. Sit yourselves down. What can I get you?”
“What do you have?”
“Bread. That’s it, I’m afraid. I can offer you some toast. And a cup of coffee.”
“We’d love that.”
“I’m Marie, by the way.” Marie busied herself with preparing food. “Everyone else around here closed their cafes to keep the food for themselves.”
Zara and Akio nodded, sitting opposite each other at a varnished wooden table. “Do you know who’s in control of the city?” Zara asked.
Marie sighed. “The NPRF took over the lower level, so they could move their people down there to escape the… thing.”
“Yes,” Zara said.
“NPRF?” Akio said.
“New People’s Republic of France,” Zara replied.
Marie continued, “What I’ve heard from the people heading out is that the NPRF have taken the subway stations at the bases of the pillars, to stop people getting down, but the government still has the River Seine and the Fourvière hill, where the Basilica is. They can see most of the city from there, including a lot of the subway stations.”
“Right.”
“The government’ll have lasers and other beam weapons up there, I expect,” Akio said, “ready to melt the enemy. Possibly artillery guns too, if they brought in heavy armor via the river. Can you tell I’ve read too many books about wars?”
Zara frowned. “They couldn’t start shelling in here, though, surely? If they blow up a column or two, the roof will come crashing down.”
They wolfed down the toast in silence, then just sat and held hands across the small table for a few minutes. Marie hovered about awkwardly. “We’re looking for our daughter,” Zara said. She got up and handed Marie a photograph. “If you see her, my contact details are on the back. Assuming any of the nets still work.”
“Okay…” Marie’s brow furrowed, as she looked at it. “Isn’t that…”
“Yes, Kassandra Nishimura. And we’re Mr. and Mrs. Nishimura.”
Marie’s eyes widened, as she looked back at Zara. “Oh. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out. It’s a big city though. Any idea what area she’s in?”
“None,” Zara snapped. Marie looked hurt. “I’m sorry…” Zara said. “We just came in from space and walked into the city, and we’re exhausted.”
Marie shook her head. “It’s okay dear. If you’d like to rest, I have a spare bedroom…”
“Oh my God, we could so use that,” Akio said. “Are you sure it’s okay?”
“Of course.”
“Thank you!” Zara said. Soon after that, they were in the small upstairs room, with its separate single beds. Sleep overcame them quickly.
----
“You can do it!” Taygete shouted. Kassandra climbed up the rope for all she was worth. Soon, she was halfway between levels eight and nine—ten meters from the start. Her goal was to climb three levels, or sixty meters. Kassandra grabbed each knot with her right hand, pulled herself, grabbed with her left hand, and pushed up with her legs. So far, she was barely breaking a sweat. JC looked down from above, leaning on the railing with both elbows, wearing a stony expression. Twenty meters reached. “Seventy seconds left!” Taygete shouted. “You’re a little behind schedule, but you can do it! Keep going!”
“Oh, I forgot to mention,” JC shouted in a mocking tone, “I got the time wrong. It’s not a hundred and twenty seconds, it’s a hundred and five.”
“What? You can’t do that!” Kassandra shouted.
“Oh God, Kassie. Hurry!” Taygete shouted. “Fifty seconds!”
“Grrr!” Kassandra climbed furiously, now beginning to sweat. Twenty-five meters, thirty meters, thirty-five meters.
“Seventeen seconds left!” came the shout from below. Kassandra moved like a machine, grunting with each pull up. “Ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three…” Kassandra’s head was almost at the bottom of the walkway on which JC stood. “Two… one…”
“Time!” JC shouted. Kassandra pulled herself up to the top bar in one motion, and stood on the outer edge of the bridge, over the void. Her eyes were level with JC’s.
“You double-crossed me!” she yelled. “You changed the qualifying time!” Her eyes spat fire. He remained expressionless. Time stood still.
Eventually, JC said, “Good news. You made it. Welcome to Defender training, Cadet Nishimura.”
Kassandra broke out into a huge grin. “Woohoo!” She turned to Taygete, far below. “I made it! I’m in training!”
JC continued, “Okay, Nishimura. The bad news is combat training starts right now. There’s no time off anymore; we need as many Defenders as we can get. You will now live among the cadets, twenty-four seven. Your home is level thirty-one, adjacent to the base on level thirty. Head there now.”
“Yes, sir. Taygete, meet me on the way up!”
Kassandra waited at stairs on level eleven for Taygete, as she ascended from level eight. Before she had quite made it to the top, Kassandra’s eyes narrowed. “Did you know he was going to do that?”
“Um... well, yes.” Taygete, said sheepishly, as she reached level eleven. “I know you’re probably mad…”
“Too damn right! It wasn’t fair!”
“He does it to all the recruits. It’s a test. And then we’re made to swear to keep it secret. I’m sorry, Kassie.”
Kassandra’s face softened some. “Hmph. I’ll find a way to get you back,” she said, jokingly. Taygete smiled. “Where’s your sister at?” Kassandra said.
“Training. We’re on for nine hours a day now, except for the day before a raid, when we get to rest and sleep. The raids are all at night.” The pair began the climb to the next level.
Taygete shrugged. “If you train with the same grit you put into climbing, you’ll be fine. We have some very good instructors.”
“Oh…”
“You can’t rely on guns in tunnels, because of ricochet. It’s all hand-to-hand combat with knives.”
“Has a raider ever had to fight?”
“Yeah. A couple of times in the last few weeks. Some of us ran into raiders from other silos. No major injuries… yet. We’re having to go further and further afield to get food, and I guess they are too.”
“I didn’t know there were other silos.”
“There are eight, in a ring around the city,” Taygete said. “There’s a tunnel that connects all of them, at level fifteen. Halfway between each silo and the next is a service shaft, which goes up to the lower level of the city. They’re for city to access the underground water treatment plants and stuff, but they also work well for us to sneak up there. Trouble is, the other silos have the same idea now. We’re all having to work harder for less resources, and we’re crossing into each other’s territory. JC keeps saying there’s going to be an all-out war over food the way things are going.”
“Do you think he’s right?”
“Yes.”
Once they reached level twenty-four, Kassandra said: �
��I’ll see you up there. I have to go and get my stuff.”
“Do you want a hand to carry it?”
Kassandra shook her head. “I hardly have anything.”
“Okay. See you up there then.”
Kassandra headed back to the inner ring, and then out again to 24C. “Oh hey, Kassie,” Magana said.
“Hi! My big news is I’m now a Defender cadet!”
“Oh, awesome!” Magana turned around. “I’m glad for you, Kassie.”
“Thanks. Where’s Annabelle?”
“She’s teaching at the school on 22B.”
“Oh… I was hoping to see her. I have to start training right now.”
“Well, with all that rope climbing you’ve been doing, I bet you could get down there and back up before you’d be missed.” Magana pointed at the ropes that hung down past the walkway.
“Yeah, true. Well, tell the others for me. I’ll be back when I get a chance.”
“Okay.”
Kassandra walked out to the middle of the walkway, and was soon on her way down two levels. Once there, she made her way around from segment C to segment B. She approached the platform quietly, as she heard Annabelle’s voice, trying not to attract attention.
Annabelle sat on a chair, with a group of elementary school-aged children in a semicircle around her. “Now, who here thinks the Earth orbits the Sun?” she said. Every hand shot straight up. “Well, it’s not quite true. It’s really the Earth-Moon system that orbits the Sun. Remember when we did the experiment with scales?” Nods all around. “And how having a heavy object on one end and a light object at the other end means you have to balance it very close to the heavy object?”
“Yes,” several students said. Kassandra smiled, staying hidden as best she could.
“Well, the Earth and Moon are like that. There’s an imaginary point where they balance, which is one-eightieth of the way out along the line from the center of the Earth to the center of the Moon. That’s called the center of gravity, and that’s the point that orbits the Sun.”
The Extinction Switch: Book three of the Kato's War series Page 12
