As soon as the door closed behind him, Jonah moved the sharp object under his hand and patiently cut the strap at his wrist. He proceeded to cut the other straps tied to his wrist and ankles, and softly jumped off the bed. Talitha’s father said he had hours before he would be interrogated again, but he knew that anyone could enter the room before that time.
He ran to the corner of the room, where he had spotted a vent near the top of the wall. He jumped on a table and – after some painful effort – pried the cover off with the metal object from the bandage machine. He weakly lifted himself into the vent, and crudely covered the vent behind him. He knew it wouldn’t take them long to figure out that’s where he went, but he hoped it would delay the officers a bit more than if he were to leave the hole wide open.
He crawled through the vent shaft long enough to know that he was at least a few rooms away from where he started, and realized that he had no idea where he was. The vent split off in multiple directions, and taking the wrong one would mean capture or simply taking too long to try to save Talitha.
He looked down at the steady glow of the wristile on his arm. He had no idea how to use it, but remembered watching Talitha use hers with only the swipes of her finger. Touching a single lit circle close to his thumb, the wristile glowed brightly with new circles that appeared. Small images were centered in the circles, and below each was text. Reading and writing was never one of Jonah’s strong suits, but he quietly sounded out the various options that were displayed: “Facility Messages… Communication… Room Automation…” The one that peaked his interest, however, was Citizen Locator.
He pressed the button, which took him to a different screen with the alphabet and a prompt of “Citizen:,” and a blinking line. Hunting the keypad, he spelled out “Talatha.” The screen turned red with an error message that read, “Citizen not found; please enter first and last name, or Identification Number.”
He spelled out “Talatha Koomi.”
The screen turned red again, this time displaying, “Citizen not found; did you mean Talitha Coomy?” Jonah whispered yes before realizing there were two boxes below for yes and no. He tapped yes, and after a loading message said “Searching…” for a moment, a blinking red dot appeared on a map of blue lines against a black background.
He whispered “Yes!” in celebration.
But he soon realized he had no idea where he was in relation to the blinking red dot. After frantically touching all around the red dot, he instead touched the small image of a house and ended up back at the main screen with the options and images. He followed the same steps to get back to the Talitha’s red dot, and touched different images that spanned across the bottom of the map. When he tapped something that took him to a screen that did not look helpful, he tapped the home image and started over. He did this several times.
Finally, he touched the small image of a gear, much like the ones he’d seen at Schultz’s. Boxes popped out from the side, which gave new promising options that he once again sounded out: “Directions to Location… Save to Schedule… Schedule Magnet Tram…”
He clicked Directions to Location, and like magic, the screen zoomed out, and shown a separate green dot, with a white line criss-crossing between the blue lines. It was obvious that these paths weren’t through the vents.
.- .-- .- -.- .
After silently traveling through the vents for some time, Jonah was staring through the slits in the wall at a table. The white line directing him to the red dot lead him to this room, and he was looking at a wristile, plugged into a box on a table along the opposite wall. It was obviously Talitha’s.
He looked around the empty room, hoping to find some clue as to where she was. When every nook and cranny had been analyzed, he slumped into the floor of the vent, defeated.
He had no idea what he could do, save trying to re-integrate into the Facility and ask questions. But he knew that previously he had the luxury of stealth - no one was looking for him, and no one had a reason to wonder about him. Now, he was sure that, as Atria had said, he was on everyone’s mind. If he was seen by even a single citizen, it would most likely mean his - and Talitha’s - death.
He closed his eyes, knowing that it was a miracle that he’d gotten even this far with the wristile. Searching through the options on the initial screen, he found nothing that could help him.
Instead, he slowed his breathing and listened.
At first, all he could hear was the air blowing against him, and the beating of his heart. But he relied on his experience hunting game. He had no rifle in his hand, but his heart and the wind were his constant companion. He tuned them out.
Against the metallic walls, he heard a faint noise. Like wind that was irregular, competing against the steady breeze in the vent. Stalking the noise, he slowly and silently made his way through the pathway.
As the noise grew louder, he knew it as the sound of crying.
When his eyes peered through the slits in the walls, he saw Talitha slumped in a corner, dirty and unkempt. But still the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
“Talitha,” he whispered, not wanting to be heard by any officers or trigger any recordings. She didn’t respond.
“Talitha!,” he whispered a bit louder. “TALITHA!”
She looked up, rubbing her eyes and nose. At first, she looked at the door, expecting one of the reoccurring visitors from previous days. When she saw no one there, she scanned the room.
“Talitha,” Jonah whispered softly again, poking his pinky finger through the slit. “Up here - in the vent.”
“Jonah?” Her voice was frail and broken. She said it with one part desperation, one part disbelief. She wondered if it was someone playing back his voice from a recording. But then she saw his finger.
She jumped up and exclaimed, “Jonah!,” in a breathy cry, keeping her voice quiet. She ran to the wall, jumped on the metal slab bed, and touched his finger. “Is it really you?”
“It’s me,” he said. “Are you okay?”
“They said you were dead!,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Not yet - but close… Are you okay?”
“I’m okay now that you’re here.”
“I’m going to try to kick the vent open. Stand back.”
Talitha stepped down from the bed, while Jonah turned himself around in the duct. He braced his back against one wall and kicked hard against the vent cover. Kick. Kick. Kick.
Finally, the vent broke free from all but one corner, barely held affixed to the wall by a single screw. Talitha subdued an involuntary celebration, but almost immediately jumped on the bed and pushed the vent closed.
“Someone’s coming,” she whispered. “Grab the cover and keep it closed.”
With that, she quickly jumped off the bed and ran into the corner. Jonah barely connected into the lip of the vent, precariously holding it shut with the tips of his fingers. The edge dug into his skin, but he held tight.
A Control Officer stepped in front of the bar covered doorway, looking all around the room. His Stunner was extended in his hand. “What was that noise?,” he demanded.
Talitha, heart pumping with excitement, jumped up and kicked the metal plate in the middle of the floor toward the door. She passionately screamed, “I’m hungry, I’m dirty, and I’m tired! Why won’t you turn off this light?!”
The Control Officer just smiled. “We were wondering when you’d crack. You lasted longer than I figured. Sounds like another day or two and you’ll be happy to comply with anything the Chairman asks.”
Talitha, figuring she’d need to keep up a fit of rage in order for them not to come back at the sound of new noises, jumped up and grabbed the two remaining slimy metal plates which had all been tossed into the middle of the floor in the mornings. She threw them at the officer, and they clanged loudly against the bars.
“Ha! Whoa, there, girl,” the Control Officer snickered, “You’re going to hurt yourself!” He laughed to himself as he walked away, sheathing the Stunner in hi
s belt.
Talitha walked up to the door, making sure that the officer was gone, and ran back to the wall, jumping on the bed.
Jonah let go of the lip of the vent, slicing the skin of one of his fingers. He disregarded it, and rotated the vent on the remaining screw. He shot both of his hands through the opening to grab her in order to pull her inside.
Before he could, she put her hands on both sides of his face.
And kissed him.
Electricity shot through his body, more powerful than the Control Officer’s Stunner, making him feel like his heart was going to explode. The hair on his neck stood up, and goosebumps rose all over his skin. He grabbed her waist, and pulled her off the bed, closer to himself. Her lips pressed against his like they were magnetic, with a force that would never release.
She pulled away, her lips still barely grazing his. “And yes,” she said adamantly.
“Yes, what?,” Jonah asked, confused and floating.
“Yes to your question.”
“My ques—”
“Yes to your question about pursuing me. I’ll marry you today if I can.”
Jonah, a huge smile crossing his face, bent forward to cross the tiny gap between their lips and kissed her again. Even though she had been trapped in the cell for three days, her breath was the sweetest thing he had tasted in his entire life. They remained embraced, him in the vent, and her lifted up pressing against the wall, for what seemed to Jonah like both forever and no time at all.
He lowered her to the metal slab for a second, took a deep breath, and said, “I have to get you out of here.”
She held his face for a moment, then realized that they were wasting precious time. But it didn’t matter to either of them in that moment. Even if they were caught, the scene felt perfect.
Talitha put her hands on the ledge of the vent entrance, and Jonah lifted her from under her arms. He rolled to the side as he lifted, until they both shared the cramped vent. It was everything he could do not to stop everything and kiss her again.
He turned back to the opening, and rotated the vent cover back to its original position, bent awkwardly. “They’ll definitely find it, but hopefully not immediately,” he whispered.
They scurried into the depths of the duct, taking twists and turns away from the cell, and away from where he originally came.
“We’ve got to get out of this place,” he said when they caught their breath with their backs against the wall. “We need to find Surface Duct 37(C).”
Their fingers were intertwined, and he didn’t know if his palms were sweating because of their rushed movement, or because of how close she was nestled up against him. She raised his wristile, using his finger as a writing utensil. She quickly navigated to another map of blue lines against black, with a complex line between green and red dots. “Follow this line,” she said.
They quickly but quietly passed through countless passageways, trying to guess which way to go when a hallway didn’t exist in the ducts as it did below them. After a while, they could hear frantic footsteps filling the halls below them.
“I don’t understand it, sir!” a Control Officer yelled below them. “All of the locators are tracking him, but when we enter the rooms, he’s not there!”
“Keep looking!,” another Control Officer snarled. “Check every cabinet and trash shoot. They can’t hide from us forever.”
“Could he be on a different level?,” the first officer reasoned.
“The Central Facility Computer does not lie. If he was on a different level, it wouldn’t be telling us that he’s on this level!”
“Yes sir!”
The officers were tearing at everything in the rooms surrounding them, ripping down cabinets and breaking the glass in the walls.
Talitha looked through the slits in the wall after they had been traveling for some time, and recognized the surroundings, now occupied with multiple Control Officers tearing it apart.
“Jonah,” she whispered a moment after crawling past. “Was that my room?”
“Yes,” he said softly back, “that’s good. That means we’re getting close.”
“Does that mean you could see me? Without me knowing?”
His face flushed red, embarrassed. “Uh…,” he stammered, his stomach suddenly turning in knots, slowing down a bit. “Yes… I’m sorry - I didn’t mean to—”
“No, it’s okay,” Talitha grinned sheepishly. “After everything you’ve done for me, I… It’s okay.”
Jonah apologized again, pausing mid crawl.
“Jonah - you can needlessly apologize later when you’re finished rescuing me,” she smirked, giving him a nudge.
A short crawl later, the duct widened out and they were able to stand. They passed by the fabric that Jonah had tied into the grates in the floor. He disregarded the wristile, making the rest of the turns by memory.
They stopped in front of the ladder, the same one that he found - how long ago was it? Jonah couldn’t remember, but he pushed her up the rungs first.
“Wait, Jonah,” she said suddenly.
“What? We’re almost out!,” he said desperately.
“I can’t just leave, knowing what I know. Other people have to know that the surface is safe. There have to be other people like me - like the laborers - who don’t want to be trapped down here. If we leave without telling them, the Leaders will just make up a story and no one will know the truth.”
Jonah looked down the corridor, checking to see if there was any immediate danger. “What will it take to do what you need to do?” he said, after seeing none.
She let go of the ladder and found a panel in the wall labeled CFC Terminal. She grabbed a cable protruding from the uncovered opening and plugged it into Jonah’s wristile. “Uplink Established” covered the surface, and she again used his finger like a paintbrush.
“Hopefully, my wristile is directly connected to the main terminal, because I can access it from yours if so. We’re all given backup passwords in case one of our tiles has to be replaced, because then we can access a backup from the mainframe to restore on a new one. I don’t need to get a backup, but with the same password I can basically use yours to control mine. Technically, I can access it if it’s not directly connected, but it would take a lot longer,” she explained as she tapped and dragged at the screen with his finger.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I’m glad you understand all this stuff,” Jonah said, continuing to scan the area.
“I’m going to try to connect into my wristile, and send the videos out as private messages to…well… everyone I can,” she said, trying to simplify.
“How long is it going to take?,” he asked impatiently.
“I don’t know yet - the files are large, but I should be able to initiate it without having to wait for it to actually transfer.”
Jonah stopped paying attention, because he was focused on footsteps. He didn’t know how close, but it sounded like the same floor grating that they were standing on. “How long now,” he said, trying to remain calm. There were two sets of footsteps echoing through the chamber, moving quickly.
“It’s displaying a progress bar. We’re at twenty percent, so maybe another few minutes,” she said, slightly shaking.
“Can we do this later?,” he asked. “Can we come back in a few days and finish it?”
“I don’t know, Jonah,” she pleaded, “they might completely seal us out if we leave now. If they seal us out, then they cut off all chances of anyone else getting out. And if the Facility runs out of Resources, they’ll be trapped until they starve to death.”
“Ok,” Jonah said, poised for the footsteps that were much closer. “But get ready for another fight.”
Almost as soon as he said it, the two Control Officers rounded a corner and saw them. Their Stunners were extended, approaching quickly, but with caution.
“How much time now?,” Jonah asked, stone cold.
“It’s at eighty percent,” she answered. “We
don’t have enough time.”
He pulled the cable out of his wristile and freed up both hands, which resulted in “Uplink Failure” appearing on the screen. “Get far behind me,” he sternly said to Talitha. She obeyed. She was afraid that trying to spread the message about the surface was not only going to get them both killed, but that the message wouldn’t even get out anyways.
All of a sudden, both officers rushed toward them. Jonah easily kicked one of the officer’s Stunners out of their hands, simply surprising the officer that held it. He then ducked under the other Stunner and rushed behind the officer, grabbing his arm as he passed.
He whipped the Stunner around, grazing the other officer, knocking him back only slightly. They must have the power turned down, Jonah thought to himself. He assumed they would only turn it up when they had him at their mercy, so that they wouldn’t risk killing each other. The officer shook his head and stood straight.
Jonah was trying to wrestle the Stunner out of the officer’s hands from behind him, knowing that it would be nearly impossible for the stick to connect with him without connecting to the officer as well. They struggled the Stunner back and forth, while the other Control Officer patiently moved behind them. As soon as he was at Jonah’s back, he sprinted in and bear hugged him from behind.
The Control Officer still holding his Stunner yelled to the other, “Now hit him with your Stunner!”
The other officer, panting, screamed back, “He kicked it away from me - I don’t have my Stunner anymore!”
“Why didn’t you pick it back up?” the first officer exclaimed. “Where is it?!”
“Right here,” Talitha said. She shoved the end of the stick into the officer at Jonah’s back.
The power shot through all three of them, knocking all of them down. The Control Officer at Jonah’s back fell to the side, Jonah fell nearby, and the officer still holding his Stunner fell on top of it. The electricity surging through his body caused his hand to grip tightly around the handle, while his body convulsed.
Talitha turned to the other officer who was slowly standing, and adjusted the Stunner with her finger. She prodded the officer, and after a moment of spasms, he collapsed to the ground.
The Surface's End Page 16