Complex City

by G H Edwards

  “So all the companies started a war with each other to own the country, just to make money?” Claire said, accepting that it answered a few questions but was too outrageous to be true.

  “I think it started with the money, but then they went after the only thing bigger than money,” Tim said, leaning back. “Power. They stopped countin’ their money, and started countin’ their power. They count how many people they control.”

  “Why didn’t anyone report them to someone?”

  “To who? The government? They were the ones who let Evergreen do this.”

  “Isn’t that illegal or something?” Claire asked.

  “It’s ain’t illegal if you get the laws changed.”

  “What about the news? Didn’t they report any of this?”

  “Ha, the news!” Tim slapped his leg. “They were bought out a long time ago, probably by the company that owned Evergreen. Don’t ya see? Everything has been bought up. They own everything now: the stores, the gas, the power companies—hell, even the government.”

  “And they did this to get more power? And they get more power by owning more people? And they pushed your town into cities so they could own more people?” Claire said skeptically.

  “Yeah, plus, think about how much cheaper it would be for ’em to not have to bring power to anywhere but one area. That’s why they keep ya’ll locked in so tight.”

  “But no one is forcing people to live in the cities. There are no fences or gates holding people in.”

  Tim paused for a moment. Claire thought she had gotten him with that point.

  In a casual voice, Tim said, “When ya looked ’round my place, did you see any fences holding our animals in?”

  Claire thought about that for a moment; she had seen a little out of the windows before the sun had set, “No I don’t think so,” she said.

  “But we have a ton of animals. Why don’t they just leave?” he asked.

  There was silence in the room, as even Jenny had paused her cleanup to listen. “We line the property with jagged rocks that the animals don’t wanna walk on,” Tim said. “That makes it harder for ’em to leave; but they’ll still go to find better grass to graze on. So, we take a lotta care of the animals’ grazing area. We water it and plant things the animals like to eat. The animals have the freedom to leave, but in a way, they choose to stay here.” Tim sat back in his chair and grabbed a metal cup he’d been hiding next to his chair. He took a long drink and smacked his lips as he finished.

  Claire nodded slowly. “So you’re saying someone has made the cities a good place to live so we won’t leave. That doesn’t seem like a crime. And no one has taken care of the roads or bridges, so city people won’t want to leave. That doesn’t seem like a crime either.”

  “Didn’t ya say they stopped the airplanes too?”

  “Yes, but that was to stop the spread of geri…” Claire trailed off, hearing how stupid that sounded now.

  “Oh, and don’t forget they spread all kinds of stories about anyone who doesn’t live in the cities,” Tim said. “How we’re all freaks and criminals and comin’ near us will get ya killed.”

  “Well, yes… But no one took away our freedom to leave, and none of what you’re saying is illegal.”

  Tim paused as he loaded his next comment. “Slavery was legal once, but that doesn’t make it right. And freedom, please don’t use that word ’round here because you don’t even know what it means. Ya’ll have the illusion of freedom. They let you have just enough special toys to make ya think you’re free, but you ain’t.”

  Claire sat still, trying to find a retort that would prove she was right, but she was having trouble. “What is it you’re drinking?”

  Tim’s familiar smirk reappeared. “Just a lil’ bit of…Billy juice,” he said with a laugh. “Jenny, get Claire here a nice cup of my drink.”

  “Honey, trust me. Ya don’t want any of that,” Jenny called out from the kitchen. “It’s the same stuff he uses to strip the paint off the house.”

  “Woman, I didn’t ask for yer opinion. Now get her a cup and fill mine up too,” Tim barked, thrusting his cup in Jenny’s direction.

  Jenny took a loud breath and retrieved his cup. She left through the back door and return a few moments later with three metal cups. She handed out two and kept one for herself. Tim looked at her with surprise.

  “Well, it ain’t very often we have something to celebrate ’round here.” Smiling, she held up her cup. “So here’s to you and your husband’s health.”

  CHAPTER 24

  Claire’s eyes were drowning in tears by the time she was finally able to breathe enough to make a wheezing sound. Jenny’s initial cough made the sound Ol’ Blue made when it shut down. Tim was laughing so hard he had more tears in his eyes than the women did. Jenny and Claire spent a few moments curled up on the floor, coughing. Jenny eventually made it to her feet and retrieved tin cups of water for her and Claire. After drinking the water, Claire finally was able to take in enough air to produce a laugh. Soon the three were laughing together.

  Although Claire was pleased to see that her second sip was much better than the first, she hoped she hadn’t burned off her taste buds. Nearly instantly she felt herself become slightly dizzy and felt a bit like she was floating. She sat back and exhaled loudly, looking around the old house and thinking about what Tim had been saying.

  “How do you know all this stuff about the cities?” Claire asked, feeling braver.

  “Well, that’s a whole different story.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” she said, as she took a small sip of her mystery drink.

  “Well,” Tim started as he leaned back, “when I was a youngin, military trucks used to drive by every once in a while. We didn’t know where they were from or what they were doin’. They’d just speed by from both directions and seemed to have no schedule. I used to sit by the road and wait to see if I could see one drive by. Since they hardly ever drove by, I’d spend hours and hours waitin’ and hopin’. Finally, one day I saw one; it was huge and painted as black as the night sky. I saw the faces of the men driving it, and they seemed so powerful and important. It was then that I decided I wanted to go see the cities when I got older. So when I was about your age,” Tim, said pointing at Claire, “I told my mama and daddy I was leavin’, packed up my things, and started walkin’ down the road hopin’ to catch one of them trucks. I walked for five days before I saw one. I was able to wave ’em down, and amazingly they let me ride along. It was a Houston Standing Army truck, and it was heading back to the city. I didn’t care which city picked me up; I just wanted to see one of em’. I met all the guys, and they told me all about their city. Their world was very different than mine, and I was excited to see it. When we finally made it to Houston, I couldn’t believe how big and fast everything was.”

  “Wow, so you’ve been to Houston!” Claire said shocked.

  “I’d never seen anything like it. Miles and miles of buildings so tall I swear they touched heaven.”

  “Where did you live?” Claire asked excitedly.

  “A few of the guys let me stay with them in their barracks. I slept on the floor. They started off nice, but then they treated me like a stray dog. They’d bring me to parties as a joke, and they’d all have a good laugh at the Billy. Hell, they even called me ‘Billy,’ like it was my name,” Tim said angrily. “Eventually word got out that I was there, and one day someone came by and offered me a job. I was excited at first until I found out what the job was.”

  “What was it?” Claire asked.

  “Well, after some ‘training,’ I joined a group of guys and would drive around the city looking for people. We were given a list of people track. We would find ‘em and watch ‘em for a long time.; and the then after a while we’d…” Tim trailed off into silence.

  Claire leaned forward in her seat, eyes wide, and waited for Tim to finish.

  “We’d grab ’em up. We’d snatch the people, tie ’em up, and throw ‘em
in our trucks,” he said, looking down. After another pause, he continued. “I was told they were criminals and it was our job to catch ’em, like we were the good guys. Hell, sometimes we were even given police uniforms to wear and police cars to drive, but most of the time we wore ratty old clothes and drove around in old beat-up trucks. I didn’t really think about what I was doin’ or why I was picked to do it. I only did it for a lil bit; I couldn’t take it. I started askin’ questions about where these people went and who was paying us, but no one would tell me.” For the first time, Tim looked weak and vulnerable.

  Claire sat with her mouth hanging open. There was a silence in the room, and even Jenny had stopped cleaning to listen.

  “But I caught on eventually,” Tim went on. “Every time we grabbed a family, there’d be someone there with a camera. Whoever we were workin’ for was connected to the news stations and would tell ’em where we would be. It wasn’t until later that I watched the news and realized what was going on. The reports were everywhere about how crazy and criminal the Billies were, and there was film of me snatchin’ people and yelling like a madman in my ‘Billy accent’ to prove it. They told me to yell and talk to people around and I did it! They used me to give my people a bad name!”

  “Oh, my God,” Claire mumbled. “Who were the people you took?” she asked, fearing the answer.

  “They were just poor people. Usually living in an alley behind some block or somethin’. As far as I know, none of them really were criminals.”

  Claire heard her breathing speed up; she was thinking of when she had seen her classmate Shelly taken by the police when she was on her way home from school. She didn’t know what to believe anymore. “Do you know what happened to the people?”

  “Yeah, well, after I started to ask questions, they stopped using me to snatch people and I started to work for the army,” Tim said. “My job was to help take the people who were snatched and drop ’em off in the country. I’d pick out the places where they’d be kicked out of the trucks. I was told that if I ever told anyone, I would be killed. After dropping people off a few times, I jumped out myself and hid, then made my way back home.”

  “Did you ever find out who was paying you? Was it the police?” Claire asked

  “I’ve had a lot of time to think about it, and I don’t think it was the police, because one time we got caught mid-snatch by the cops and we were taken to jail. We thought we were in real trouble, but we were only there a few minutes before we were released. Just walked right out the front doors. So we knew it was someone very powerful, and it wasn’t the army, because I knew most of those guys and they were good people—dumb but good. No, I’m pretty sure a company was paying us.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because of how we were paid. We were given cash and a fully paid-for apartment overlooking the ocean. That place was bigger than this entire house. It was like a dream; we lived like kings. Everyone else who lived in that building was a big business person, and I knew ya couldn’t get those apartments without having connections like that. All the apartments were owned by one company; I think they were called ‘Allen’ or something.”

  “Allen Corp. Yes, they still own them,” Claire said.

  “Oh, yeah. Allen Corp. Owned by this prick named Arthur. I remember him. He’s who I thought owned everything in the city. He seemed to have an major amount of influence and loved having the power to choose where people lived. I met him once. He thought I was a real side-show attraction.”

  “He died a few years ago. His son Terry Allen took over. But he seems like a nice guy.”

  Tim laughed. “Yeah, right. Let me guess—ya’ll live in a small apartment in a block. Am I right?”

  “Well, yeah, but most people live in the blocks.”

  “Do ya’ll have fancy jobs or big connections?”

  “No.”

  “So ya’ll live in one of the shittier blocks. And the only way to move up is to kiss the owner’s ass, am I right?”

  “Well, not officially.”

  “Yeah, but you know better, don’t ya? And one last guess: there are very few places to live in Houston, and they’re all owned by Allen Corp. And no matter which of his buildings you live in, they’re all the same low price.”

  “Yeah,” Claire said.

  “Yeah, he’s a real nice guy. He buys up everything so everyone has to live in his buildings, Keeps the prices low so everyone thinks he’s a nice guy. And everyone knows who he is so he can be treated like a god in order for ya to move up. He’s just the next in a long line of assholes who are pullin’ the strings in your city. Hell, he probably helped his old man buy everything up.”

  “What makes you think he owns everything?” Claire asked.

  “Funny you should ask that. At the same party where I met Arthur Allen, I met another old rich bastard. I didn’t care who he was until one of the guys I worked with told me he owned Evergreen. Well, I’d been drinking a lot back then, and I was mad about what they did to my town, so I went up to him. I told him off good right in front of everybody; I thought I might kick his ass right there. Then the old man looked like he was gonna take a swing at me—that is, until old Arthur Allen gave him a look. The old man, the owner of the most powerful utility company, dropped his hands and looked like a kid who was in trouble. It was obvious who owned who. That’s when I realized Allen owned Evergreen. He pushed everyone into the cities and made em’ live in one of his buildings. Then to keep ’em there, he used the news stations, which he probably also owned, to push out the lies about us.”

  “If the news stations are lying to us, then what do I really know?” Claire said, falling back into the couch deep in thought. The implications in her mind were snowballing and things were starting to come together.

  CHAPTER 25

  The next morning, Claire woke early, the sun shining through the thin white curtains. She felt rested and was happy the mystery drink had no effect on her that morning. She thought back to the night before and the strange things Tim had discussed. She was still unable to fully process what she had heard but somehow felt better about her decision to go to Miami. She didn’t know what she could believe and was eager to talk to Michael about it. She rolled over and found he was still asleep. She gently checked him over and left him to rest while she got ready. She had decided they couldn’t waste any more time. The conversation last night might have changed things, but it didn’t stop the virus. They had to get moving to Miami before it was too late.

  After she had packed her small amount of items, she went out of her temporary room and down to the living room. Jenny and Judy were working together in the kitchen, cooking. The house was filled with the smells of a large breakfast. As Claire walked across the house, Judy squealed with joy and tripped as she ran to her. She bent down and scooped up the small child. She had a brief chat with Jenny and went outside to look at the weather with Judy still in her arms. The day was clear and sunny and less hot than it had been; she decided it was a perfect day to drive.

  Judy led her around the farm and showed her all the animals and land they took care of. The fields were long, with rows and rows of plants. Behind the house were several flocks of animals and a large red barn. She saw goats, two cows, and a lot of chickens running about. Even farther in the distance, more animals were kept. Judy had clumsily led her to an unused field next to the farm where the girl climbed a small tree. Claire looked back across the rough overgrown field and to the layer of intimidating-looking jagged rocks that Tim had mentioned the night before. Just as the tough exterior ended, lush green grass was growing where the animals ran. Inside the yard it was a beautiful scene. Claire spotted Tim working near the old barn behind the house. He was scrubbing and scraping blood off a table he had propped up outside.

  “What’s he doing?” Claire asked Judy.

  “Daddy’s cleanin’ the table. He killed a cow for ya.”

  “For me?”

  “For you and Michael to eat today. It was Isabel.�
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  “What was Isabel?”

  “The cow. Her name was Isabel.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Was she your friend?” Claire asked, crouching to eye level with Judy.

  “She was real nice. I’m not supposed to name ’em, but I do. Don’t tell Daddy, okay?”

  “I won’t,” Claire said, and wondered if they’d ever tell her Tim wasn’t her real father. “I’m very sorry she had to die. You must be sad.”

  “Nah. Sometimes things have to die for other things to live. That’s what Daddy says.”

  “You’re a very smart girl.”

  Judy smiled. “We haven’t eaten a cow in a real long time. It’s always a big mess.”

  As Claire watched the older man clean up, she felt a sudden affection for him. He had butchered one of his few cows simply to give her and Michael a nice meal. He put on a tough face, but the more Claire got to know him, the more she could see he was a good person. Remembering everything he had been through, she could see why he didn’t trust anyone but his family.

  Judy led Claire on a short trip around the fields. The two returned to the house and found Jenny preparing the table for breakfast. Tim was called, and Claire went to wake Michael. She helped dress him and assisted him down the stairs, nearly having to carry him across the room. They all sat around the table and began the prayer ritual that was similar to the night before, but the morning’s prayer felt much less awkward for Claire.