Divided We Fall

by Adam Bender

  “Want to ride?” he asked suddenly.

  Her eyes widened.

  “On the roller coaster,” he explained quickly, clearly embar-rassed. “Over there.”

  She looked ahead and saw the crimson red tracks snaking around the stars. Now she felt humiliated, too, for misinter-preting his words. It had just been so long since the last time they…well, now wasn’t the time to be thinking about that.

  “Yeah, let’s go!” she said.

  “All right, and then we can get something to eat afterward. I figure it wouldn’t be a good idea to do it the other way around,” said Seven, laughing slightly.

  She chuckled and in a low voice said, “Nooo, no it wouldn’t.”

  It felt good to laugh with him. She felt as light as a child. “Hey, I’ll race you!” she exclaimed.

  “You’re on.”

  They lined up behind one of the boardwalk’s wooden planks. Eve counted down. “Ready…Set…Go!”

  Eve and Seven took off down the boardwalk. Clearly, he didn’t remember how fast she was. He didn’t catch up until just before the imaginary finish line. Eve flung out an arm to stop him from passing and crossed first.

  “Hey, wait a minute!” he protested.

  “Yeah! Take that!”

  They strolled laughing into line for the roller coaster. The guy running the ride must have thought they were crazy, but she didn’t care. When she was with Jon, nothing else mattered.

  The Red Lion was a dank and dingy club that smelled thickly of cigarette smoke. But being here with the love of her life made it somehow easier to stomach. He was coming back to her now with drinks in his hands, looking at her like she was the only girl in the room. Just the way he used to.

  Even though she had encouraged Jon to take the mission, at the last minute she got so worried that things would never be the same between them. She felt so relieved knowing that even without memory he still desired her.

  She took the pint from his hand. “The band should be coming on soon,” she said.

  He took a sip of his dark beer and some of the foam trans-ferred to his lip. “You just can’t wait, can you?”

  That was true, thought Eve, but probably not for the reason he was thinking. She just wanted to get to the part where he’d be holding her close.

  “What can I say?” she laughed, sticking out her tongue. “I love this stuff.”

  He kissed her as the lights dimmed. The little girl inside jumped for joy.

  The crowd began to cheer. They got louder still as Adrian and his band, Beacon, strolled out onto the stage. Without saying a single word of greeting they began to play. The sonic boom took her breath away.

  Eve leaned back into Seven’s arms. She could feel him wanting her as she brought his hands around her hips. She half-turned and gave him a devilish look meant to show him the feeling was mutual. Eve began a slow grind to the thump of the bass. Sometime into the third or fourth song of the set, Eve took Seven’s hands and brought them gently up to her breasts. At first he was hesitant, but with a little encouragement began to understand what she wanted.

  “Thank you very much,” Adrian was telling the crowd. “Okay, this next song is about living in fucked up times. They took my parents. Don’t let them take you.”

  The audience roared, but Eve felt sudden fear as she realized the time had come for the next phase of Seven’s mission. She wasn’t sure she was ready. Adrian was a Heretic, yes, but he was also Seven’s friend. It broke her heart knowing how much pain this might cause her fiancé. She prayed he would forgive her.

  The world shifted into slow motion as Adrian began to play. A red light appeared in the center of his forehead.

  Danny Young lifted his semi-automatic pistol and squinted down the barrel. He smacked his lips a few times, took a deep breath in and blew out one quick stream of air. Finally, the leader of the Underground pulled the trigger. The recoil shook his hand and he nearly dropped the gun.

  Seven stepped up to the counter to see what damage Danny had done to the paper man hanging several meters back. He failed to detect any.

  Haru whistled.

  “Well, that’s a turn off,” Ana said dryly.

  “Shut up,” Danny replied. “Shooting is what I pay you people to do. Speaking of which, Seven’s up.”

  The excitement in Young’s voice made Seven cringe. He didn’t like how eager everyone was to see him fire a gun. It was Ana’s fault. She kept bragging to everybody about how sharp a shooter he was, hyping him up like he was some kind of legend. Honestly, he didn’t know what to expect. Knowing that Jonathan Wyle was an excellent fighter didn’t give him any confidence. Someone might as well tell him that his older brother was a great shot. So what? Sure, Seven had survived a few scraps, but maybe he’d just been lucky.

  “They had to send two Elites after the guy,” bragged Danny. “Two!”

  Seven’s shoulder cried out in pain as he picked up the gun. It hurt enough that he had to drop the left arm entirely and shoot with just his right. He knew he wouldn’t have as steady a shot, but he didn’t have much choice.

  The truth was that he had been dreading this. When last night Haru suggested that the four of them visit a firing range in the morning, Seven immediately resisted, pointing out–cleverly, he thought–that they didn’t want to arouse suspicion. But Haru reassured Danny that he had a “hookup,” and that his Engine Valley based team of operatives had been shooting there for years.

  Now the owner of the range strolled over to watch. He had a stinky cigar in his mouth and a bag of potato chips tucked beneath a flabby forearm. Haru had introduced him earlier as Pug. He wasn’t in the Underground, but Haru called him an honorary member since he always let the rebels use his firing range, no questions asked.

  Seven took a deep breath. Then, in one quick and easy motion, he lined up a shot and fired.

  Potato chips and profanity sprayed from Pug’s mouth. Ana laughed giddily. Everyone else was speechless.

  Even Seven felt a little awestruck by the perfectly round hole he’d cut into the center of the paper man’s forehead.

  Eve bit into the donut and regretted it instantly. This was already her third–at least. It seemed entirely possible that her hand had picked up and fed her another without Eve ever realizing it. It was difficult to resist the treat in a place that smelled so good all the time. She wondered why Haru wasn’t fatter.

  She was sitting on the sofa, half-watching the TV with Talia. All she could see of the girl was a blue handkerchief poking above the coffee table. Its owner was sitting cross-legged on the floor with all of her attention on the screen.

  They were watching a documentary titled “The Amazing Story of Susan Levi.” The film consisted largely of interviews with Levi, her friends and family. It was supplemented by photographs and video footage of Levi looking triumphant about this thing or that. The film had begun with Levi’s mother discussing her daughter’s birth and first years on Earth. Apparently, when little Susan was eight years old, she told her mother she wanted to be president. The film had just gotten to the point in Levi’s life when she began to seriously consider a run for the Loganville city council.

  “But how would Susan Levi reconcile a career in politics with a blooming romance?” the narrator asked. “More after these messages.”

  Eve was beginning to regret declining Haru’s offer to join them at the local shooting range.

  Shaan had been sitting with them earlier, but left after becom-ing frustrated with the TV show and subsequently losing an argument to switch the channel. Talia resisted vehemently, until finally Shaan bolted up from the couch and went away to fiddle with a computer. The weird thing was that Talia didn’t seem to like the show that much, either. Every few seconds she made a snarky comment about what Susan Levi said or what she was wearing.

  Eve had a simple solution–she stopped paying attention and thought about how she was going to get Jon back.

  “Danny, seriously, I am fucking impressed by your man here,�
� exclaimed Haru. “Not in a gay way. Well, maybe a little in a gay way. No, I’m just fucking with you. But I mean, damn, Seven, you want to join my squad here in the Valley?”

  “He’s mine,” said Danny, taking an ambitious bite of a roast beef sandwich.

  The three men were sitting in a booth at a deli a few blocks from the firing range. Seven wasn’t quite sure why they picked this particular establishment; the only thing slimier than the floor was the turkey in his sub. He took another, tentative nibble before giving up on eating completely. “So, Haru,” he said, “are you on the Underground’s council or whatever?”

  Haru nodded. “For the Engine Valley region. Originally I worked under Danny’s father in the Capital when Danny was still a teenage street urchin. Now he’s an urchin with power.”

  Danny smirked. “Don’t make me fire you.”

  Haru cackled. “I’m just jealous because Danny gets all the fine ladies while I’m stuck here in the fucking Valley.”

  Seven’s eyebrows shot up. “Not so many fine ladies in the Valley?”

  He shook his head. “People don’t come to the Valley to play. They spend all day breaking their backs in the factories and spend all night forgetting about it, first in the bars and later at the strip clubs. They’re mostly men, and the few women we do have look like they need a bath more than a man. And yeah, that includes the strippers.”

  Danny pounded the table, laughing.

  “You got some nice ones in your crew, though. I like that Eve babe. She seems feisty. Did you know her when you were in the Guard, Seven?”

  He hesitated. “I don’t remember.”

  “Oh that’s right. Danny was saying you’ve got amnesia. Sorry, I forgot. Well, for what it’s worth, I hope you banged her.”

  Young dropped his sandwich. “Now come on, Haru, she’s promised to help us take down the president. Let’s treat her with a little dignity, shall we?”

  Returning to the table, Ana sat down next to Seven. She looked miserable. “Just a heads up,” she warned, “if you need to use the restroom, wait until we get home.”

  Seven changed the subject. “So Haru, based on your con-demnations of the proletariat, I take it your day job isn’t in a factory?”

  Haru smiled. “You saw–I run a donuts shop. Keeps me relatively busy when I’m not conspiring against the government. Ironically, my best customers are with the Guard.”

  “Oh,” interjected Ana, “tell him why it’s called Harry’s.”

  Haru groaned. “Because the people here are too dumb to say my name right. When I first moved to the Valley, I introduced myself to five goddamned people. Apparently, all of ‘em heard ‘Harry.’ When I opened the shop, I figured I might as well make it easy for the–”

  “–Hello,” came a meek voice behind Seven’s back.

  The others looked curiously over his shoulder. Seven swiveled in his chair and, despite being in a sitting position, found himself at eye level with a young woman, probably in her twenties or, at most, early thirties.

  “May God be with you,” she said, frowning slightly.

  Seven realized he must be making a face, and tried to force a smile. He wasn’t quite sure what to say. May God be with you, too?

  Ana spoke up. “Can we help you, miss?”

  “Did you hear what I was saying over there?” she asked, indicating the far corner of the room where no one was sitting.

  “Uh,” said Ana, “no, we were having a conversation here.”

  “Oh,” said the small woman, frowning again.

  “What did you say?” Danny asked brightly.

  Haru scowled at him for the question.

  “It’s important to go to church,” she said. “Were you in church today?”

  Haru glanced whimsically at his phone. “Oh darn! Is it Sunday already?”

  The girl opened her mouth to speak but didn’t say anything. She just gaped at them.

  Seven felt uncomfortable so he turned back to the table. The group exchanged looks.

  “The thing you have to understand about the Engine Valley,” Haru told them, “is that this place is more full of ‘sin’ than most towns. Unfortunately, a town full of sinners tends to attract missionaries.”

  “You should have gone to church today!” the girl yelled louder than Seven could have ever anticipated. She stormed off before they could respond.

  “So if this place is so bad,” asked Seven, smarting a little from the outburst, “do you really think the Enemy is going to bother with it?”

  “This place may be a shit hole,” said Haru, taking a huge bite of his sandwich and then talking with food in his mouth, “but it also represents a huge chunk of the economy. If you wanted to bankrupt this country, blowing up the Engine Valley is a good place to start.”

  Seven thought about the Enemy’s offer to put the Underground in charge if the rebel organization assisted in the invasion. “Did Danny show you the message from the Enemy?”

  He nodded. “I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t intrigued by the idea at first. I mean, shit, we’re already a bunch of traitors. But Danny talked me out of it. He reminded me that our goal is to make this country a better place, not blow it all to Hell.”

  “Don’t give me all the credit,” said Young, turning to Seven.

  The acknowledgment surprised Seven. “Oh,” he stammered. “Well, all I said…I mean, we’re not going to win people to our side helping someone whose idea of bringing freedom is dropping bombs all over our Capital. And anyway, I kind of think the Enemy might be a symptom of a larger problem in this place.”

  Haru looked intrigued. “How do you mean?”

  “It’s so divided here. Guard versus Underground, Patriots versus Heretics. Of course we’re under attack. We were all so concerned about our internal issues that we forgot to worry about threats from the outside. Now the Enemy is here and they’re taking advantage of the disharmony. Maybe they sent that message because they want to exploit our problems and tear us apart from the inside.”

  Young agreed with a solemn nod. “Divided, we fall.”

  “So what,” asked Ana, “are we supposed to make nice with the Guard?”

  “I’m not saying that Danny and the president should hold hands,” said Seven. “But fighting each other isn’t going to get the Enemy off our shores. The only way we’re going to end this war is if we stand together as one nation.”

  “But what about our mission here?” said Ana. “If Eve can get us information about Patriot ID, and it stinks as bad as it smells, we need to get it out to the public immediately. We can’t just hold that information back until the War is over. That could take years.”

  “If we do it right, I think we can avoid anarchy and maintain a united front against the Enemy,” said Young. “I mean, no one is actually going to support Patriot ID when they find out what it is. It’s the president who wants it, and everyone else has just been following orders.

  He put down his sandwich dramatically. “When we tell everyone about it, we just have to emphasize that the answer is not a violent revolution, because that–as Seven says–would cripple us at a time when we need to be strong. Instead, our message must be to let our democracy take care of the problem. My family has connections in the Congress, and I have it on good confidence that they will support impeachment if we provide them with enough dirt.”

  “What about the Church?” asked Seven.

  “If the Headmaster has any brains, he won’t let the president drag the Church down with him. The politics will be so rotten that he’ll have to separate himself and support impeachment.”

  Haru scratched his head. “Supposing all that goes down like you say,” he said, “how do we ensure the next president isn’t even more of a prick than Drake?”

  “Well…as you know, my father ran one of the largest corporations in the country, not to mention one of the largest foundations for charity.”

  “So what?”

  “So, when an election is announced, the son of philan
thropist Daniel Alexander Young–a martyr executed by the bad old president for his opposition–intends to announce his candidacy for president.”

  The announcement hung in the air for what felt like an eternity.

  “I’ve been thinking about it a lot,” Young continued. “I’ve got a face that ordinary people recognize and a name that unites the Underground. I know my father would have been the more logical candidate, but there’s nothing we can do about that, is there? I think he would have wanted me to do this in his place.”

  Haru smiled encouragingly. “I think you’re right.”

  “This isn’t to say I completely know how to do it,” Young hedged. “I’m going to need all of your help and advice.”

  Haru smacked Danny lightly on the back. “You’re going to do fine, dude.”

  “Good luck, Mr. President,” Ana said in a breathy voice.

  “I think it makes a lot of sense,” said Seven, “but we’re going to have to work on your image.”

  Danny checked to make sure he didn’t have any blond hairs sticking up. “What do you mean?”

  “On the radio the other day, they basically called you a rich playboy who parties hard every night and every day. I’m just not sure you’ll have the family values vote.”

  Danny laughed and waved it off. “Oh, that image. That’s just a cover. I do all that just to throw people off the scent of my role in the Underground.”

  Haru cackled. “Yes, and he also does it for the women.”

  Young grinned. “Okay, so it’s mostly a cover. But I must concede the point to our friend Seven. I’ll probably have to start spending nights in.”

  Ana tapped him lightly on the shoulder. “If you want, I could pretend to be your first lady.”

  Haru couldn’t contain himself. “Oh, you wouldn’t be his first lady!”

  “Hey, shut up,” Danny whined. “You are so not helping my image right now.”

  “What a whore!” The exclamation from Talia snapped Eve out of her musings. On the TV screen an absolutely radiant Susan Levi was exchanging rings with her groom.