“You've seen flowers before?” Jonah asked.
“Of course I've seen flowers before – look at my desk.”
He turned his head a bit and reached out to the vase containing a bouquet of lifeless fabric flowers. He pulled one close to his nose and smelled the synthetic perfume that was contained in its stem. Placing it back in the vase, he said, “Smell one of those.” He pointed to the flowers on the ground.
She looked up at him. “I suppose these are real flowers from the surface, right?”
He nodded.
“This isn't funny to me, Jonah.”
His heart sank.
“It isn't funny to me, either.”
She stood, disregarding the flowers, and pressed her fingers against the surface of the glassy wall. Immediately, the boundaries of the room were covered in a beautiful meadow with countless flowers. “That's the year 2104,” she said with a cold voice.
“And this,” she continued while touching the wall again, “is today.”
Immediately, the screens turned gray. Fires burned in the distance and ash rained all around the walls. No matter where he looked, the image remained the same. The picture disappeared and she sat back down in the floor after tossing the flowers on her bedside table.
“Flowers have been extinct for hundreds of years,” she said. “They weren't found to have any necessary qualities, so the leaders of the time decided to ban them rather than waste water on them. Is that your real job? You're part of the Synthetic Committee, and have access to the computers that can make things like fake flowers and nuts?”
“Talitha... If you would come with me to the surface, I could show you—”
“So I can walk into some trap where there will be a housing unit full of people laughing at me, the unhappy girl who wishes she was on the surface? No thanks.”
“How can I prove to you that I'm not lying?”
“Not lying about the surface, or about being from Sector 20?”
“Ok... Sorry... Sorry about the Sector 20 thing,” Jonah said looking down. “I knew you wouldn't believe me. A man named Rayev was telling me I looked like I was from Sector 20, and so I figured that was the only way I could... I didn't think I should tell you the truth at first.”
“Come with me,” she said, standing up and walking out of her room. He followed.
“Mom, I'm taking Jonah to see our Sector's Education Center,” she called out. He heard no response, but they walked out of the Family Unit.
The Education Center was similar to the rooms in the Coomy's home. They made their way into a small, dark, circular room that, when the door closed behind them, looked as if it had no exits. There was a bench in the center of the floor.
Talitha touched the wall, then her wristile, and sat on the bench. She motioned Jonah to sit beside her, and he did.
She showed various scenes of the outdoors pre- and post-Surface's End by controlling the walls by touching the glass surface on her arm.
“These look like the same images as the walls of your room... Why did we come here?” Jonah asked.
Talitha frowned indignantly, as if he'd asked an obvious question that he already knew the answer to. “The wall tiles in each Family Unit can only access a small amount of the Central Facility Computer's information. We can access far more here.”
“So this room has all of your information? Every bit of your knowledge is on these walls?”
Talitha's furrowed brow rose as she let out a little chuckle. “You sure are good about not breaking character, Jonah. This is just our sector's Education Center.”
“So this is like your schoolhouse?”
“Sure, if you'd like to call it that,” she responded. “This is one of the Sensory Theater rooms where all the classes come to experience a bit of what life is and was like on the surface. Our Educators can control scents and temperature, but you have to have access from the Education Committee to do that. Anyone with a wristile can change the video and sound, though,” she said, letting her hand curiously slip over the dark glass on his wrist.
“What do they let you smell, then?” Jonah asked, gulping. “What temperature do they say it is on the surface?”
“Don't act like you haven't sat in on the lectures about the Surface's End,” she said, quickly pulling her hand away from his wrist and placing it on her own wristile. “It's hot. It smells awful. They never set it to the actual temperature, though, of course – otherwise we'd all die. There's nothing like it anywhere else. The Lecturers always describe it as burning sulfur, as if any of us are supposed to know what that means. The Educators never let it last long, because some of the kids inevitably get sick or pass out or something.”
“Hmmh,” Jonah sighed. “Brother Philip, our preacher, talks about burning sulfur. I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about it except for him, and he's always using it to describe hell!” He laughed just a bit, wondering if whoever was trying to convince everyone that the surface was unsafe was taking a page out of the book of Revelation.
“Preacher? What's that?”
“Oh, you know,” Jonah responded. “He's like one of your Educators, but he only really teaches about Jesus and the Bible.”
Talitha's eyes widened. “You've read the Bible?”
“Of course,” Jonah said. “Er, at least some of it. It's one of the few books my family owns... It's been in our family for—”
Talitha cut him off.
“The Bible is one of the first books that was banned. I've looked for one, and as far as I can tell there hasn't been one in existence for at least three hundred years.”
“So that's what will convince you, eh?” Jonah smiled. “I'm sure Brother Philip will be excited to give a Bible to someone who has never seen one. All I need to do is bring you one, and you'll believe me?”
“I've seen these images since I was a little girl,” she said motioning to the pictures moving on the walls. “Why do you think that I would be so gullible? If you can synthesize individual Food Substances and flowers, you could make a book.”
“I'm not trying to fool you,” Jonah said. “I've seen the surface differently all my life. Not hot, burning sulfur. I see a surface that is alive and fresh; a place where food and water spring up out of the ground.”
“Out of the ground – like dirt, right?” she said, not truly listening. Pointing to the walls, she said “Show me.”
“I don't know how... I can only show you by taking you there.”
“How did you get here, then? Where did you come from? I mean – what doors and paths?”
“I came in through Surface Duct 37C.”
She tapped on her wristile, and the walls of the room changed to the image of snowy gray. “That's where you came from?” she asked sarcastically.
“No,” he answered, looking curiously at the moving pictures.
“Well, that's the Surface Duct that you mentioned – they're all recording video into the Central Facility Computer at all times.”
“Will you go there with me?” he asked.
“I'm still... I'm still not ready to trust that you aren't just setting me up to laugh at me,” she said sadly.
“Well then, show me what they showed you,” Jonah said. “Instead of me trying to convince you, let me see how they convinced you of the Surface's End, and why no one has attempted to leave the Facility.”
“Oh, crazy people have tried,” she laughed. “Criminals, usually. People who are on the run from the Control Officers, or have defied the Regulation Committee so badly that they'd rather take the chance on the surface, I guess. They've all died trying...” Talitha's expression morphed into disgust. “...and the Regulation Committee circulates images of their burned bodies. To show us how the Facility protects us.”
Jonah narrowed his eyes.
“Well, show me something to convince me that I'm wrong – that there's no way I could be from the surface.”
Talitha tapped on her wristile, and a moment later the wall in front of them was filled wit
h books. The edges of the picture ended abruptly into walls that had turned blank. From the corner of one of the walls, a man walked out wearing a dark suit. The suit was more like the clothes that he might see on the men of his town at chapel than anyone in the Facility, but much nicer. As if someone from the Facility had seen the townspeople's Sunday best and decided to improve upon it.
“Hello children!” the man beamed as he moved to the center of the picture. “I'm so excited to get to teach you about the Surface today!” He moved his hands superficially, as if preparing to take a bow. “I'm Mr. Adams.”
“This is the first lecture in the series on the Surface's End,” Talitha whispered. “We see it when we're much younger.” She rolled her eyes, adding, “but you knew that.”
Jonah thought about defending himself, but kept quiet in order to hear the speech emanating from somewhere in the walls.
“You know, I'll bet some of you ask your parents a lot of questions! Probably questions like ‘Where does Food Substance come from?’ and ‘How does the door know to open when I want it to?’ Well – those are great questions, and we're going to spend time talking about things like that! In fact, the place we live – The Facility – takes care of a great many things, and I am happy to say that I helped build it! In order to talk about this wonderful Facility, we look back in time. All the way to the year 2104.
“Actually, that's not that long ago for me – right now it's just the year 2109 – but it might be much later than that when you're watching this! In 2104, there were some scary things going on outside of the Facility.”
As he spoke, moving images appeared on the wall around his head. The images were of children crying, of people fighting, and of crowds yelling. Mr. Adams motioned his hands in the directions of the pictures.
“It might sound strange, but before we lived here, many children didn't have homes, or families, or even food to eat. The Leaders knew of all the bad things that were happening, so we came together and built this place to protect you! We made sure that you would always have full tummies and warm beds.”
The negative images were replaced with families embracing, sleeping babies, and children with toothy grins eating Food Substance that had more color and texture than what he saw on the Coomys' plates.
“We realized that people weren't able to take care of themselves on their own, so we started building a wonderful home all the way underground, away from the scary parts of the world. We knew that if everyone came together and worked really hard, the Leaders would be able to make sure that everyone could have everything they needed.”
The video skipped with a motion of Talitha's hand, and she whispered, “Maybe that's a little too early.”
The man was again in a room full of books, but had a different color suit on.
“...but the poverty was severe,” Mr. Adams continued with a slightly sterner voice, images of riots surrounding him. “Some of the wealthiest citizens were exploiting the poorest citizens, making them work in these horrible conditions. The Leaders, at that time called the Government, put regulations on the wealthy in order to end the exploitation, but many of them closed their factories instead of simply abiding by the new laws. The Government imprisoned many of these men and women for abandoning their employees, but the economic collapse was hastening.”
Another flick of Talitha's fingers, and the man was wearing another suit and had white streaks in his hair. Pictures of machines moving dirt surrounded him.
“...acquired almost forty million acres, or a hundred and sixty billion square meters, of land beneath the surface to build the Facility. Much of it was donated, but many of the wealthiest land owners actually demanded to be compensated for their land. This is, of course, despite the fact that the Leaders were the rightful owners of the land, which the occupants acknowledged by paying taxes – or usage fees – on all property. This was also despite the fact that since the Facility was being built underground, the surface was barely changing.
“We designed the Facility to harvest many natural resources – drawing water from water tables, harvesting minerals from the surrounding ground, and created thermoelectricity by drilling deep into the earth. These property owners were claiming that they owned the resources on their land, and were selfishly fighting to deprive the future citizens of the Facility of these resources. These fights continued until the Surface's End.
“The social unrest was continuing, and the Leaders pooled more and more resources in order to finish the Facility before any major disaster struck. Over the decade of construction, as they completed Sectors, the Family Units were being filled with families of the most beloved citizens of the time, including social activists, celebrities, and the Leaders themselves.”
Mr. Adams paused, his eyes darting to the side for a moment.
“Umm...,” he continued, “It might be necessary to note that the word celebrities denoted someone who, at the time, was well-known and seen as perhaps more important than others. They were private citizens who were artists, musicians, or actors, and who were generally compensated much more than their peers, though their work had the same merit. After the Surface's End, the idea of the celebrity was lost over time, since the compensation of resources was equalized. Also, the Regulation Committee prohibited individuals from profiting off of others, so the arts were realized to be a waste of energy by most.”
Another flick, another suit. Mr. Adams had visibly aged, but still seemed just as energetic with his gestures. His hair obviously had been dyed to his younger self's color.
“...and almost as soon as the Facility had been filled, violence on the surface turned into an all out war. When enemies found out about the Facility they started attacking nearby sites, and the Leaders made a unanimous decision to seal all entrances, and within a week the radiation levels on the surface had gone up ten fold. Miraculously, the cameras we had set up at each surface duct were still working. Unfortunately, the images that they projected were of a scorched earth. The fires that started those three decades ago are still burning today. Our hope is that one day they will cease. But our trust is that the Facility will sustain us until they do.”
Talitha touched her wristile, and the gray snow surrounded them once again.
“That's definitely a vague overview, but that's the general idea,” she said, as if all doubts of the Surface's End were erased.
Jonah continued to stare at the moving pictures.
“I don't understand,” he said.
“What do you mean, you don't understand? Mr. Adams explained—”
Jonah cut her off.
“I know Mr. Adams explained it, and I understand what he was saying. For the most part.”
He paused.
“Before you started the lectures, you were going back and forth between images of before the end and then after... Don't you find it strange?”
“Don't I find what strange?” she asked.
“Well – he spoke of attacks. Of a war, even,” Jonah said, continuing to stare at the depressing animated walls. “If there was a war, wouldn't those images show it? Especially since he showed so many violent images while he spoke?”
Talitha sat still for a moment. Then she touched her wristile, saying, “Well, then, let's find the moment right before the entrances were sealed.”
After the screen jerked to a similar gray scene, the debris moved quickly in reverse. The motion sped up as she slid her finger across the glass on her arm.
The screen went black for a moment then a beautiful meadow appeared, still quickly animating in reverse.
“Just a minute,” Talitha said, touching the glass.
The images moved forward slowly, then the wall turned black, save for white letters.
Classified: Central Facility Computer Archives
“Hmm... That's odd – I've never seen that message before,” she admitted.
“And what about the people entering the Facility?” Jonah continued. “Is there an image of them?”
Talitha naviga
ted the walls to a main Facility entrance not long before it was sealed. A smiling couple holding black bags walked towards an open door guarded by a man in a uniform. Behind the couple was a family of four, their toddler scooping up dirt with his parents’ approval. The scene was silent.
Talitha sped up the happy procession, families rushing toward the entrance, and ended at the same classified black screen.
She rubbed her eyes and stared at her wristile. Jonah assumed that it volunteered information, but he waited for her to announce it.
“Where's the unrest?” she finally asked. “The fear?”
She looked at Jonah as if, for the first time, he might actually know something she didn't.
He simply shrugged.
After a moment of pause, Talitha went back to her wristile. She repeatedly looked up to see the same Classified message.
“What are you looking for now?” Jonah asked after some time.
“Well – at first I was just trying to find other cameras from the same moment as when the first camera was classified, and they all are... Now I'm trying to find some of Mr. Adams later lectures – after the ones that they showed us in school – that might talk more about the war that ensued... But they're all classified too. It doesn't make any sense! Why would they classify Education Lectures?”
They sat for a moment staring at white letters lighting the room.
“Jonah?” she asked, breaking the silence.
“Yes?”
“Would you go with me to the Central Facility Computer? I mean, if you really want to convince me that you're not lying about the Surface. If we're there, we should be able to see some of the archived footage.”
“Yes!” Jonah shouted. “Where is it?”
.- .-- .- -.- .
The Magnet Tram, in Jonah’s eyes, seemed to be another strange magical contraption.
Multiple metal cubes only slightly larger than his bicycle trailer seemed to be suspended in midair. They moved quickly to a short line of people, and would pause mid-air. Each time a cube arrived, a single person would exit the box through an opening that suddenly appeared, and then a single person would enter from the line. As soon as the exchange occurred, the cube would silently zoom away, never touching the ground or the walls.
The Surface's End Page 11