Piercing Through the Silence

by James Sandepp

  Oliver didn’t appear to be around, and we decided to camp here and wait for him.

  Susie walked over to the kitchen table and sat down while I checked out the refrigerator, found it to be full of things and took something to drink. Oliver had stocked it well although I was not sure how he did it without getting caught.

  “I am sorry Marinette,” Susie finally gestured. “My dad acted harshly against you earlier. I know he cares for me, but he shouldn’t have said what he said about you because, to be honest, he doesn’t even know you and everything going on and really has no right to judge you.”

  Did Susie apologize to me? I could not believe what she was saying because it is the last thing I expected her to say to me after what happened tonight. She was thrown out of her own home by her own father because of me and instead of feeling sad, or at least, upset about it, here she was again thinking of me first.

  “I….. I….. don’t know what to say Susie,” I signed.

  “It isn’t your fault,” Susie motioned. “Seriously don’t feel guilty about it since I was the one who suggested we check my dad’s computer. You didn’t force me to do it and no one knew what would happen. My dad was protecting me as he always has.”

  I couldn’t let her sacrifice her life for me and be okay with it.

  “But still…. you can go back and tell your dad you made a mistake,” I motioned. “Tell him I forced you to do all of this. The Magistrate people will believe you and him and everything will go back to normal for you.”

  Susie banged her fists on the kitchen table.

  “Normal?” Susie indicated. “There has never been anything normal for a very long time on this planet because the life we all live isn’t normal.”

  I took a step back from her.

  “We human beings weren’t designed to live like this without being able to speak,” Susie signed. “Every living creature, except for us, can make their own sound and this sound identifies them in a unique way. All we do is talk with our hands which is so wrong and not part of our original design because we are supposed to be intelligent ones.”

  “But we don’t even know if what I can do is just a random thing or the real thing yet,” I motioned.

  Susie continued. “If there is even the slightest chance this is the real thing I am willing to take the risk and it is the reason why I walked out of my home because it matters. So, don’t think it is only about you. This is much bigger than you and yes you are my friend and I want to help you, but your ability could restore humankind.”

  There was a fire in Susie’s eyes, her face was getting a bit red and it was a side of her I had never seen before and I didn’t really want to see again.

  “I know you probably think I sound crazy,” Susie gestured. “But I seriously think what you can do isn’t some random thing. It is like a new beginning, a turning point for humanity and silence will no longer be the order because that stupid anthem is only the Magistrate’s way of controlling us.”

  Susie’s passion was great, but it could get us in trouble as well.

  “I am really grateful about what you did for me back at your place,” I signed. “I never expected it.”

  Susie stared at me, broke into a smile, her shoulders relaxed a bit and the tension on her face disappeared.

  We both heard a sound, turned and a shaved-head man walked in. Initially, I didn’t recognize him at all but the moment he looked at me I knew it is Oliver. Susie looked at me in fear and confusion.

  “It’s okay Susie,” I signed. “It is Oliver and he has found himself a good disguise.”

  Oliver turned to look at Susie, looked back at me and I knew he was not going to be happy as to why I brought Susie here.

  “Oh hi Oliver,” Susie indicated.

  Oliver smiled but didn’t say a word.

  “I need to use the bathroom,” Susie motioned.

  Susie was smart enough to know she needed to give Oliver and me a bit of space and she probably sensed Oliver’s hesitation at seeing her here as she walked out of the kitchen.

  “Nice haircut,” I signed with a smirk.

  “What is she doing here M?” Oliver motioned.

  I guess we just skipped the pleasantries and the it-is-good-to-see-you-again part. I quickly explained to Oliver what had happened to me since we went our own ways a couple of days ago and he listened without interrupting me.

  “I still don’t trust her M,” Oliver motioned. “She could be a spy the Magistrate is using to find out the truth about you and you shouldn’t have told her about your new ability. You need to be much more careful about who you trust. Look at the fake Amelia.”

  “If she was a spy by now she would have told her dad about me,” I signed. “And I wouldn’t be standing here in front of you.”

  Oliver looked at me and I realized I made my first crack in his anti-Susie armor and was finally getting to him about her.

  “Okay you could be right M,” Oliver signed. “I will give her the benefit of the doubt, but I will still be watching her. This isn’t a game anymore because the stakes are very high, and the Magistrate is starting to act like a crazy obsessed stalker.”

  “I know,” I motioned. “I will be careful with Susie.”

  As if on cue Susie walked back into the room and I didn’t know if she was listening to our conversation, but I didn’t care.

  “So guys,” Susie signed. “Do we have any idea what is the next step?”

  If there were any traces of her previous passionate episode it was no longer visible. I smiled at her as Oliver grinned and I knew it was a fake one.

  “Well Marinette finished filling me in on everything,” Oliver motioned. “Thanks for being there for her Susie and helping her when she needed it.”

  Oliver was good at all this meaningless chit chat and was able to turn it on and off like a light switch.

  “Wait. I know what we need to do,” I signed.

  Both of them turned to look at me.

  “Dr. Liverfield,” I indicated. “We need to find this person.”

  “Of course,” Susie signed and clapped her hands. “I completely forgot about her. She is a good place to start our next step.”

  Oliver was a bit slow. “Dr. who?”

  “The lady the fake Amelia talked about,” I signed. “I don’t know if she gave me a real name or not but it’s something worth checking out don’t you think?”

  “Ohhhhh,” Oliver indicated. “Let me go and get my laptop from the other room.”

  While Oliver was gone Susie looked at me. “Is he okay with me being here?”

  Susie was as quick as ever to know something was up with Oliver.

  “Yeah, I explained to him how you helped me and all,” I gestured. “Give him some time to get used to you being here. It has always been Oliver and I and now with you here, which I am very thankful for, he needs to know you are important to me too.”

  Susie knew I was trying to calm her doubts and she nodded and went to grab a drink.

  The reality was that I was not good in groups but then who was as groups were always challenging because there were so many competing personalities and agendas to deal with.

  Being with Oliver had always been my comfort zone and it was so easy because I knew him inside out, but handling Oliver and Susie at the same time was going to be new for me since both of them have such strong personalities and were similar in their ability to socialize easily but were rather different in their backgrounds.

  I really needed to take charge now since they were with me because it was the only way to keep them united and focused on helping me. Oliver’s suspicions of Susie’s weren’t going to disappear overnight just because I told him what happened and Susie was going to have to prove it to him which wasn’t an easy mountain to climb. I know it sounds unfair, but Oliver was the kind of person who didn’t believe in words and he wanted to see the actions which backed up those words.

  Oliver returned with his laptop, opened it and Susie and I both walked over to
him. A quick search for “Dr. Liverfield” returned a single address on the outskirts of Thomson.

  “I know this area of Thomson,” Susie signed. “It is full of large houses with farms.”

  “Ohhhh so you have been there,” Oliver motioned.

  The way Oliver signed it sounded a bit sarcastic to me, at least, but I was not sure if it was my fear talking to me about managing these two people.

  “Yes, my parents took me there once to visit someone,” Susie continued.

  If Susie felt something awkward in Oliver’s reply she didn’t show it.

  I didn’t know the history between the two of them and I didn’t have the time to find it out now. Something must have happened for Oliver not to trust Susie but, then again, he wasn’t the kind of person who trusted people easily, which I don’t know why. While he loved to babble endlessly on any topic, the matters of the heart were a non-starter and honestly, I couldn’t remember him sharing many personal matters with me either, but he was after all, your typical guy.

  “I know how to get to this area,” Susie signed. “There are buses going on those roads because people work on those farms.”

  I didn’t even know Thomson still had farms because in this age of technology I wondered why we would even need them.

  “I am surprised there are still farms,” I motioned to them.

  I was taught farming as an industry ended many years ago as technology was able to create near perfect natural food and so it was no longer necessary to grow them the hard way. Many people lost their jobs when it happened and, while there were silent protests in those times, those were meaningless because they lacked any power to make change. I realized now what Susie meant about the freedom to express oneself because if people had the ability to sound out their concerns it may have been a different kind of protest. In the end the silent protests ended as quickly as they had started and, while the Magistrate tried finding jobs for those affected people, many of them couldn’t survive in the new jobs and I didn’t know what happened to them in the end. Society is an instant news cycle heartless machine and when the story was no longer in the news no one really cared and our level of caring for something had become dictated by how long it survived on the news.

  “Ohhhh I know what you mean,” Oliver signed. “These aren’t the traditional farms although some may still use those old farming methods. These farms are done in the name of science if I remember correctly. Why didn’t I think of it before?”

  Oliver was getting too excited, which meant he was in his zone.

  “It makes sense now,” Oliver continued. “These farms are run by scientists and their organizations. Those scientists run all sorts of experiments on these farms and it could be a good hiding place for whatever the process is. No one would ever suspect looking in such a place.”

  My hope level started rising again.

  “Okay before we go anywhere we need a better way to communicate,” Oliver indicated.

  “What do you mean?” I signed.

  “We cannot use our phones and send messages anymore,” Oliver motioned. “The Magistrate could be monitoring and may even have the ability to read our messages. Having the Great Cyber Treaty doesn’t mean the Magistrate will follow the rules in these times since they are desperate now?”

  The Great Cyber Treaty was signed around fifty years ago and was in response to the non-stop cyber-attacks all over the world which ended with a great tragedy where hospitals worldwide were shutdown. Tens of thousands of people died during the week-long shutdown and not since the loss of our ability to speak had such a great disaster afflicted the planet. It affected every nation including those who had initiated the attack and forced all the nations to come together and pledge to destroy all forms of cyber-attacks and the means to do surveillance on people. While the treaty had to do with attacks the nations decided to include additional rules, one of which was preventing governments from listening in on their own people’s conversations. Without the ability to speak this was critical since humanity now relied on messaging as the primary means of communicating.

  “What else can we do,” Susie signed. “We need a way to send messages.”

  “While I was waiting for you I came up with this simple code,” Oliver gestured.

  Oliver pulled out and showed us a piece of paper. “It is like a secret code and we use the code when sending messages so even if anyone reads our message it will look like gibberish. I made copies of the code for you to use and Susie I have an extra copy for you.”

  It was a simple way to write messages in code and it was a brilliant way because it was simple. I was again impressed by Oliver’s ability to think far ahead and only he would think of such things.

  “Wow,” Susie signaled. “This is great Oliver. I hope we don’t ever have to use it.”

  “I hope so too,” Oliver signed.

  “So can you take us to the farm Susie?” I looked at her.

  “Give me a bit to check on the bus routes again to refresh my memory,” Susie motioned.

  THIRTY-FIVE

  Susie’s memory on how to get there wasn’t as accurate as I thought it would because we got off at the wrong bus stop once and ended up waiting an hour for the next bus. The last bus we were riding in was full of middle-aged people, with haggard and tired looking faces and clothes which were worn off and I figured these should be the workers, although I didn’t know which part of Thomson they came from, and all of them were silent as ever for the entire ride.

  The three of us were like foreigners and I remembered the bus driver giving us the “why are you on this bus” stare when we got on the bus. The workers got off at different stops and, as the bus reached our stop, we shuffled off it and, according to the map, we still needed to walk a couple of hundred meters while the sun did us no favors with its scorching rays. I could not feel any wind and I seriously can’t imagine how the workers managed to work in this crazy heat.

  I noticed the fields here were different from those on the west side of town as they were greener, full of color and occupied by robotic water patrols roaming around the area. Something else which made these fields stand out was the rows of plants growing in formation, but this surely wasn’t the old-style farms as there were drones on one of the farms hovering over certain plants and probably analyzing and sending back data on the health of the plants to some scientists. With all these robots and drones I was still curious why we needed workers to suffer out here but maybe there were still some jobs which needed the human touch.

  The only scientist I knew was my science teacher who was a real nerd when it came to science and whose outfits for class every day could be from the wardrobe of a mad scientist. I remembered him telling us being a scientist in Thomson wasn’t a great career choice because many scientists were invited to move to Vinder by the Council, but my science teacher seemed unhappy he wasn’t among those invited and this is why he said he turned to being a teacher instead. I guess Thomson wasn’t known for its scientists except here in these farms.

  Susie stopped and pointed to the next farm on the right side of the road. “This should be the one.”

  The farm looked no different from the rest we walked past but the fence around it was surprisingly low and if this place was “the process” the Magistrate was making it easy for anyone to enter it.

  “I am going to take a look,” Susie motioned. “The two of you wait here for me.”

  What? Why was Susie taking charge? I hoped her crazy passion for fighting for humanity’s right to speak hadn’t resurfaced again. I didn’t think she should be allowed to go but I decided to wait and see what Oliver, who seemed to want to take charge, was going to do.

  “But….,” Oliver signed.

  “The two of you are the most wanted in Thomson,” Susie signed and reminded us. “I know the disguises do help but we shouldn’t take a risk. The Magistrate may even be on the lookout for the two of you here.”

  Oliver crossed his arms in defeat and I was surprised Oliver
gave in so easily.

  I nodded at Susie. “Okay be careful.”

  Susie waved at us and we both watched her sneak over the fence and disappear into the fields.

  I turned to Oliver. “Why didn’t you stop her?”

  “Ehhhh well….,” Oliver started. “She has a point you know.”

  I waved him off and was annoyed for thinking Oliver could take charge.

  “I know what you are going to say next,” I signed.

  “Really M,” Oliver motioned with a smirk. “Am I so predictable?”

  “Yeah you are,” I signed and grinned at him. “Susie isn’t going to tell whoever is on the farm about us. Don’t expect the Magistrate to arrive in the next few minutes with their sirens blazing and take us away.”