Piercing Through the Silence

by James Sandepp

  “I am not the one who said it,” Oliver gestured. “And if it happens well….”

  I punched Oliver in the shoulder.

  “When did you first find out you were on the news?” I signed.

  “It was right after I reached my friend’s place and I was lucky to turn on the news,” Oliver motioned. “Then I saw it and, initially, I was shocked because I didn’t expect the Magistrate to show our awesome photos the way they did.”

  “They are desperate,” I signaled. “It makes them more dangerous.”

  Oliver nodded. “They don’t want whatever you have to get out because they know it will bring chaos into their world of order.”

  I tried my luck. “So what’s with you and Susie?”

  “What do you mean?” Oliver motioned.

  I didn’t give up. “What happened which makes you not trust her? Knowing you, something must have happened.”

  “It’s history M,” Oliver signed. “It was school stuff which now really isn’t so important. Seeing Susie again brought back those old memories, but I need to try and let it go and move on as there are much bigger things happening now.”

  “Thank you for trying,” I motioned.

  I didn’t want to push Oliver too much anymore on this topic because if it was minor school stuff I could handle it but if it was something serious I needed to know since the last thing I needed was their history putting us all at risk.

  Susie returned after a while and described what she saw to us. She managed to crawl and avoid any workers and drones on the fields and once she reached the other end she saw three buildings. She said one of them looked like a barn, the other was the typical farm house and the third was a mysteriously enclosed building.

  “Did you try to get a better look inside any of the buildings,” Oliver gestured.

  “There were too many workers walking around,” Susie motioned. “I don’t think this is your normal farm running some experiments all in the name of science.”

  “Because of the workers you mean,” I signaled.

  “The number of workers for this place is quite large,” Susie gestured. “I couldn’t tell but I saw at least fifty to a hundred.”

  I exchanged glances with Oliver. Why did a farm need so many workers these days and wasn’t technology supposed to help reduce all of them? One hundred would be a large number and most of the farms we passed by appeared similar in size but I didn’t notice any of them having such large numbers of workers. Even in the bus only a handful of workers got off at each stop.

  “You can’t really tell they have so many workers until you reach the three buildings,” Susie signed.

  The moment she finished saying it we heard a truck approaching and we crouched so as not to appear so visible as the long truck passed us and stopped at the entrance to this farm.

  The back of the truck was full of more workers for a farm which had so many already as the automated gate opened, the truck entered, and the gate closed.

  “We need to go into this place together,” I indicated.

  I was quite certain this was not going to be a dead-end since unlike the other places we had visited this was a living breathing location.

  Susie and Oliver both agreed, and we followed Susie onto the farm.

  THIRTY-SIX

  Sneaking through the field on our knees wasn’t as easy as it looked because we needed to avoid both the workers and any robots tending to the fields. As I moved forward I noticed the apples and grapes growing on the farm but then stopped and signaled to Susie and Oliver who were ahead of me. They both turned to look at me and Oliver didn’t seem pleased as to why we needed to stop but I pointed at the purple thing growing between the apples and grapes, and although I didn’t know if it was a fruit or a vegetable, I knew I had never seen such a fruit before.

  “Do you know what this is?” I signed to them.

  They both shook their heads, Oliver didn’t seem so interested, Susie indicated for us to continue forward and reaching the other end of the field we stopped and watched.

  There was an open space between us and the three buildings, which were quite big and were exactly the way Susie described it. My attention was immediately drawn to the enclosed building which was several floors higher than the other two and, from where I was crouching, there did not appear to be any door into it. It was possible the door could be on the other side of the building, but the enclosed building also had no windows of any kind and seemed to be built of a kind of solid metallic material.

  A group of workers, each carrying a large basket of the purple fruit thing and walking single file appeared from the right side of the fields and passed by us quietly. I noticed there didn’t appear to be any apples or grapes in the baskets making me wonder what was so special about the purple fruit thing. It could also be that this group of workers was in-charge of the collection of the purple fruits only.

  I watched them walk pass the enclosed building, headed towards the barn, the lead worker opened the barn door and they all entered one by one. I was surprised that there wasn’t any lock to the barn but, then again, from the outside, at least, it looked like your typical barn.

  As the last worker disappeared into the barn I realized the open space between us and the three buildings was empty and glancing about I did not spot anyone else around. Instinctively, I darted across the open space to the enclosed building, could hear some shuffling of feet behind me and was sure Susie and Oliver were thinking I had gone crazy and were probably in panic mode by now but I didn’t have time to explain my reasons for doing what I was doing. The strong attraction to the enclosed building was tempting me in more ways than one and I needed to know what was inside this enclosed building. Once I reached the enclosed building I turned the corner and went to the other side.

  The open space was no longer visible, and I should be safe at this location but, unfortunately, there was no door on this side of the enclosed building either and the risk I took to get over here wasn’t worth it in the end. The building was like a fortress with no way in or out and there were more fields extending beyond the rear of the enclosed building. I turned back, checked if the open area was empty again and Susie and Oliver were quite upset and frantically waving for me to come back.

  After watching and waiting for a few more seconds I returned to them and made it right on time as another group of workers emerged from the fields walking in the direction of the barn.

  “What the hell were you thinking M?” Oliver signaled as I crouch next to them.

  Mr Predictable was mad and he wasn’t shy to show it.

  Susie remained quiet and was smart enough to know to stay out of this argument.

  Oliver noticed me smile a bit. “I am serious Marinette! There could have been people on the other side of the building maybe even guards, robots or worse.”

  Wow! Oliver called me by my first name and I could not even remember the last time he did that. I stopped smiling, looked down and wanted him to think he had won the argument which was better since I did not see the point in explaining to him my reasons. For whatever reasons I could feel this enclosed building had something to do with my life.

  “Okay okay I get it,” I motioned.

  “Was there a way into the building on the other side?” Susie signaled.

  “No there isn’t anything,” I signed. “The whole building is really enclosed. We need to find out what’s going on here because there is more going on here than it appears.”

  “Did you guys notice something about the workers earlier?” Susie motioned. “I must have missed it before.”

  “No what?” Oliver motioned.

  He seemed to have finally calmed down.

  “The workers aren’t from Thomson,” Susie signed.

  “What???” I motioned in surprise.

  Oliver waved at me not to make too much movement.

  “How do you know?” Oliver signed.

  “There is something different about them and they don’t have the same look
as those just now in the bus,” Susie gestured “I can’t tell what exactly the difference is, but they do seem a bit younger than those in the bus.”

  I was learning how good Susie was at noticing things out of the ordinary.

  Why would this farm bring in workers from somewhere else unless there was something to hide from the locals in Thomson? There were towns on either side of Thomson, but I rarely met outsiders walking around town.

  “Maybe this is the reason for the truck we earlier saw entering this place,” Oliver signed. “The nearest town they could bring them in from is Grindall, which is about a two-hour drive from Thomson. I know there is only one road that connects Thomson to Grindall and it goes through some mountains and isn’t an easy journey.”

  “But we don’t know for sure if they are from Grindall,” I signed. “They could be from anywhere.”

  Oliver shook his head. “It would be difficult to know for sure without speaking to one of them and I don’t think we want to talk to any of them.”

  The next group of workers disappeared into the barn.

  “Come on, let's go inside,” I signed and started to get up.

  Oliver shrugged and followed me, although I knew my sudden streak of recklessness still hadn’t gone well with him.

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  The three of us raced to the barn because if anyone was to come out of the fields right now they would easily spot us. We went around the barn, hide on the other side and Oliver was sweating, my heart was beating too fast to keep count, but Susie seemed calmer than I expected. Oliver glanced about as I opened the barn door slowly, peeked inside, found it empty and we went inside and huddled in one corner.

  The inside of the barn looked like your typical barn with wooden floors, some hay in one of the corners and a staircase which went up to the next two floors but, other than this, the barn was empty as if no one had walked into this place.

  “What? Where did the workers go?” Susie signed in confusion. “They didn’t just disappear, and we didn’t imagine those people, right?”

  “No, we didn’t,” I motioned. “Something isn’t right here.”

  “I am going to check upstairs,” Oliver motioned to us.

  I nodded and let him do his I-am-the-man-in-charge thing and we both waited as Oliver climbed the stairs to the first floor and we lost sight of him for a bit before he appeared and started climbing to the next floor.

  He appeared again from the top and signaled to us. “There is no one here at all.”

  None of us had imagined the group of workers going into the barn because they definitely went inside, and I glanced at the back wall, looking for another way out, but did not see anything.

  Oliver motioned for us to come up and we both climbed the stairs to where he was.

  Oliver pointed to the back window. “I want to show you something. Look there.”

  Susie and I peered through the window and stretching across the fields were many robots and workers, not just fifty or a hundred, but literally hundreds of them. This wasn’t a normal farm doing some experiments but more like a mini-farm city.

  “No wonder the workers are not from Thomson,” Susie motioned. “It seems like they are using hundreds of them.”

  “So many workers require a lot of money,” Oliver interrupted.

  “It now makes sense why they don’t want Thomson workers,” Susie signed. “If so many workers were hired from Thomson there would be many questions about this farm and people would start gossiping and snooping around.”

  “It also means only one thing,” I indicated. “This farm must be controlled by the Magistrate and the Council because something this big can only come from the top. The movement of such workers isn’t something a single organization can do on its own but it would be easy for the Council.”

  Oliver’s eyes widened, and I realized he wanted to say something, but he couldn’t because he hadn’t expected me to make the connection so quickly. Normally, Oliver was the smart one always sharing his vast knowledge on any subject but this time I got there faster and, knowing it, I tried not to smile and ignored his half open mouth.

  “Do you think they are housing the workers somewhere in Thomson?” Susie gestured.

  “I doubt it,” Oliver signed. “Although Thomson is quite large it would be hard to hide so many workers. I suspect they must be moving the workers in and out between the towns.”

  “Maybe they are housing them somewhere in between the towns,” Susie motioned. “I can’t imagine them moving all these workers around every day.”

  We heard the barn door open and all three of us quickly crouched onto the floor as another group of workers entered the barn and I was glad we were finally going to find out what was really going on here. The group of workers walked straight towards the back wall of the barn, stopped, formed a large circle around an area and one of them pressed something, which looked like some kind of switch, on the back wall and right before our eyes a compartment emerged from the barn floor and I realized it was a big open-air lift. Once it finished emerging the group of workers entered it, one of them pressed a button on the lift, the lift started descending into the floor and the barn floor was again restored to its normal appearance as if nothing had ever happened.

  There was a secret lift taking the workers and their baskets below the surface of the barn which could only mean the entire barn was a camouflage for this lift and there was an underground facility where the real action was taking place.

  “Now we know what’s going on in here,” Oliver signed.

  “We need to get into the lift,” I motioned.

  I realized I was jumping the gun by suggesting what was on both their minds.

  “Wait a minute, M,” Oliver signed. “What we need to do is take a step back and think carefully about this because we do not know what is down there. There could be guards at the bottom and the moment we get off the lift they would capture us and then it would be the end of all this for us.”

  Susie nodded. “I agree with Oliver on this. Let’s think about coming up with a plan first.”

  The two of them had become a bit more cautious than I had expected and I understood their concerns but where did we go from here if we didn’t go down the lift. Oliver and I were wanted fugitives and the only way, at least for me, was to go forward despite the risks and find the truth.

  “We came all this way,” I signed. “We cannot give up now because there isn’t anything, at least for me, to go back to. There is something going on here because there is no need for any farm to have a secret lift inside its barn.”

  The look on Oliver’s face said it all for me and I think he must have been getting tired of losing to me.

  “I know,” Susie motioned. “Did you notice all the workers who enter this barn never leave it? It means there must be another way out somewhere, which is probably down there.”

  “Just so we all agree,” Oliver signed trying to take charge again. “If we get caught down there then it’s no one’s fault.”

  I nodded, grinning at him and he stared at me as we followed him down the stairs.

  “Ready?” Oliver signaled.

  One last time he wanted to make sure we were ready for the consequences of this decision. I knew I was ready for anything now, but I was not sure about Susie.

  Both Susie and I nodded.

  Oliver pressed the button, the lift slowly emerged from the floor and once it stopped we got in. Oliver then looked at me one more time, I indicated for him to start, he pressed the button and the lift started to take us down into the dark unknown.

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  The journey down to the bottom felt long, but in reality, took less than fifteen minutes. I was surprised the lift shaft was such a deep one confirming again the Council must be involved in building it since there wasn’t anyone else with such power and resources who could do it. Fortunately, the shaft was lighted, the lift ride was smooth and all of us remained quiet on the way down.

  As the lift sl
owly descended my thoughts began to pick apart my sense of determination at getting to the truth about “the process”. What if what Oliver said was true? If there were guards at the bottom of this lift then they would surely hand us over to the Magistrate. In my rush to find out more I didn’t think of a backup plan if we got caught and I hope I hadn’t caught a bit of Susie’s crazy passion. I didn’t know what would happen to Susie and Oliver but, for me, I would be analyzed by doctors like an animal to find out how come I could make sounds. I tried to block out such thoughts, but the silence in the lift helped my anxious thoughts multiply like a virus.