by Jiny Lee
So, we decided to go down. But before going down, we had to take care about some problems. The guards were not a problem. Purple could handle them easily.
'The problem is,' said Alex, 'the death traps on all over the 13th and the 14th floor. And even though we somehow managed go down stairs, we had to deal with the day walkers once we got there,' Alex had done a plenty of research while he was moving up and down the stairs with Wonder.
'But we don't know what kind of people they are. Maybe they would be helpful to us.' said Kimmy.
'Yeah, and maybe they're not. We have basically zero information. We'll be able to find that out after we get there. Anyways, it's worth a shot. If there is a vault, there will be a huge sum of money. I bet,' said Purple.
...
We started to make a detailed plan. The most dangerous threat for us was the traps on the 14th and the 15th floor. There could be sentry guns, UV projectors, and all kinds of killing machines. In order for our success, we needed to find the way to cut down the power for a short period of time, because if the power cut was sustained for too long, the cartel would know that something's going on.
We found out that the power source of the traps on both floors were from the same generator chamber on the 20th floor. Fox said the power cut shouldn't be sustained for longer than 60 seconds. Perhaps a few more seconds could be alright but not more than that. And after we reached the 12th floor, we had to improvise since we had no idea about the prisoners, the day walkers.
And finally, we needed to have one person to stay above to cut the power. Kimmy told us that she could handle that.
We planned to be divided into two groups and to go down at two times. It was for our safety in case the mission was a failure. So the plan was; the first group goes down with a radio and see if it's safe for the second team to come down. If the first team doesn't signal even after 24 hours, the mission is considered a failure and the team two doesn't try to go down and save the team one.
Fox and I were the first team. That way, if the things went wrong, we'd have Purple as a guard and Alex and Wonder as a vendor for a better shot.
The day before, we gathered in an empty room on the 15th floor. We talked over and over about the plan and all the possibilities. Everything had to be perfect. We drew a simple map of the two floors based on our memories and discussed the route over and over again.
13
When the day came, Kimmy went to the generator chamber on the 20th floor with Alex and Wonder. Purple was patrolling around to make sure no guards come near. Fox and I were preparing near the gate.
There were some people on the 15th floor but not many. They were all poor people and they were just busy doing their jobs. They were not surprised by the visitors. They didn't care about me and Fox, which made it easy for us to focus on our job.
It didn't take long before Kimmy signaled us through the radio. We took a deep breath and rushed down stairs.
There was nothing more than traps on the 14th and the 13th floor. We could see some UV devices, and heavy weapons, supposedly traps all out of power. We ran until we were out of every breath since we had to make it in 60 seconds. At first, I tried to count the seconds but soon I gave up since it was meaningless.
I don't know how many seconds it took. Fox was running faster than me. I ran till I nearly passed away, trying not to be lagged behind.
The hallways on those two floors, especially on the 13th floor, were not changed much. they were all the same hallways that I'd seen all my life. Once full of people I knew, but now full of death traps. But I didn't have time to fall in that appreciation. I ran and ran and ran until we reached the final gate to the 12th floor.
When we reached the gate, we stopped for a moment and saw the timer on Fox's watch. We had a few seconds left.
I examined the gate. It wasn't even a gate, but just a simple door with a bar crossing it. We carefully removed the bar and made our way into the 13th floor...
And goddess! I can't forget the scene I saw there. It wasn't like a criminal warehouse as we had heard. They were just, normal people. Just like everyone of us in the building. Some had mechanical arms and legs as we had heard, but they were far from killing machines. It was just an artificial synthetic arms and legs with delicate designs. There wasn't any machine guns on it, not a hammer, nor a spiked knuckles. They were nothing more than synthetic limbs. They were artistically designed, sophisticated engineered master pieces.
When we opened the door, they all looked at us with that eyes widely open with shock and owe. I'm not sure that's the right words to describe those eyes but they were surely having their eyes popped out. They were like, 'How the hell did that gate just opened and a man and a woman came out?'
There was an awkward silence for a moment. We prepared ourselves to put our hands on a pistol and pull it out at any moment and started to slowly walk down the stairs.
Then one of them came toward us with his arms held up high. He said, "Hey, how did, are you from...?" and I said, 'Yes.'
What the heck was that conversation? After a pause, he suddenly bursted into laughter and started to call people out. He said, 'Hey! Everyone! Come over here! They said they're from upstairs! Holy! I didn't even dream of meeting a vampire in my entire life!"
People started to gather around us. Kimmy asked, "Wait, what? Vampires? What the hell is that?" and he said "Yes! Do you guys really drink people's blood?"
I said, "No! Where did that come from?"
He looked surprised. He wasn't joking. He said, 'Everyone in the city thinks you're vampires and drink people's blood in order to survive.'
As I didn't say anything, he continued.
'Where's my manners at. I'm Jacques. Sorry about the fuss. I have so much to ask you. People! Take them to the courtyard! Let's have a conference!"
I had no time to be baffled and wondering about what that conference was before we were surrounded by hundreds of people and taken to the courtyard.
They gave us two small chairs and made us sit down in front of everyone. Then people started to ask us a bunch of questions. The most surprising and the weirdest thing of all was that, in the middle of all that fuss, they were so organized that they didn't have any trouble raising their hands to take turns asking questions.
I could see at the moment that they were not criminals or monsters as I'd been informed. They were, on my first impression, nicely organized and highly civilized citizens.
So suddenly, The mission that we had expected to be perhaps the most dangerous and risky became something like a press conference. They looked at me and Fox as if they were looking at movie stars. Their questions were also like we were some sort of celebrities.
One lady asked what our names were. I answered, 'I'm Endy and this is Fox,' and they were like ooh. You know, a long 'ooh' people make when they hear something truly interesting or when they are trying to show that they are impressed. Another lady asked us if we were married. I said no, and Fox said we were like brothers and sisters.
Another guy asked us what do we, the people in the building, called them. He said he wanted to know the names we use to refer to the people like them. I said 'Day walkers, or just the people in the city.' He seemed to like the way we called them day walkers. He said it sounded mysterious and prodigious. I didn't even know what the word 'prodigious' meant.
Some other questions continued but surprisingly, they didn't ask us a single question about why we came down. After the 'conference,' they showed us our way to an empty room with two beds prepared. They even treated us food. Some good food like hot chickens and vegetables. Jacques brought the food himself and we had a little more conversation.
He told me that he was sorry he couldn't treat his guests with some fine cuisines. I wanted to say, 'Try some of what we have everyday in the building and you'll say this is a bloody gourmet.' Instead, I shortly said, 'No way, this is amazing. Thank you for your hospitality.' And I told him that we'd heard they were criminals. He said they might be. He said they w
ere people who were considered to be unqualified citizens in the city.
The ones with artificial arms and legs were war veterans, some others were formal politicians, and still others were retired businessmen and so forth. In short, they were sent as prisoners in a political prison camp.
I asked Jacques, 'What about you? You were also one of the veterans?' He said he was an artist. He said he drove a campaign against the city government.
'What campaign?' I asked. He said it was about an equality of well being for all citizens in the city. Fox said, 'So you were an activist?' He said, 'You may call me that way, but I'd prefer to be called a revolutionary.'
After we finished our meal, he brought us some tea. It was the first tea time that I'd ever had in my life. We had some more deep conversation. We learned that he had a kid and a wife outside. At first, he said, his wife was trying to take him out of there. But as time went by, he said he just wanted them to forget about him and live their lives.
After that tea time, I told him that we had to bring the other friends downstairs, too. So we called Purple, Alex and Wonder to come down the next day. after we took a good rest in that room as Jacques suggested. They all had that 'conference,' too. It was hilarious to see them since they were just as unprepared as we had been. We didn't mention anything about the atmosphere in advance. We just told them the day walkers were not hostile.
They were really nice to us. At first, I questioned their unquestioning hospitality cause that was one thing that is missing in the building. There is no one in the building who could possibly show that much hospitality to a total stranger.
It was truly amazing but wasn't the most amazing. The most amazing thing was that they didn't have any order or a system to maintain the society. There was no leader. There was no rule. They all seemed to be programmed to be good citizens. They were so sophisticatedly trained to be the part of a system that I even felt a sort of unexplainable fear. I could feel that they were not like us. They were a different species, I thought to myself.
While I was feeling confused about them, Purple seemed to accustom himself pretty easily. He told me that we could trust them. He said, 'They are like a little child in a grown man's body, a child who grew up without a parent to tell them don't talk to strangers,'
So we decided to tell them everything. Not everything actually but pretty much. We told them about the cartel, the situation in the building, what happened to the rebels and what we came down for. Jacques seemed deeply moved. He was a campaign artist and had that burning revolt inside his heart. He said it was so inhumane. He said he wanted to help us bring a change in the building.
He was ambitious. He soon started to bring people together. You see, Daug was good at bringing people together, but Jacques, he was on another level. He knew how to move people's heart and make people believe that they should do what is right. To be more specific, he was good at making people believe that what they were doing was right and what the others were doing was wrong.
I thanked him for helping us. But on the other side of my heart, I was a bit worried about him because it was different from what I had seen and learned on my own.
Living in the building, I learned that there's no meaning in shouting out that something's wrong, because the voice itself won't bring any difference. No matter how hard you shout, no matter how badly you want things to change, you got to admit that the world doesn't change by some shiny slogans. The only thing you'll see is another shitty today exactly the same as the shitty yesterday.
So you become numb, everyday, insensitive to the absurdity of everyday life. We're prisoned inside the building, exploited by the cartel and no one gives a shit about us and no one dares to say, 'It is wrong!' Of course we know that there must be something wrong, but at the same time, we know that there's no point in complaining when we don't have any power. It's like you want change, harder than anyone else but you're giving it up every second since you know you don't have any power or will to make it happen.
When we were the rebels, we wanted to change things, too. But maybe we didn't dare to believe that we could change everything one day. That's probably one of the main the reasons we failed.
We were too doubtful. As a matter of fact, we should do something boldly to change the system. We had to have faith in our will and in our power. I mean, Daug was a nice, considerate person. But he was too nice and too considerate. We had to take a chance and march higher and higher even though that would mean deaths of our friends and families. Perhaps all of us would've been killed if we tried to march up. But because of our hesitation, because of our self-doubt, after all, the cartel easily wiped us out without any hardship, got rid of any potential threat, probably received a lot of money from the city by selling the 13 floors, and even got the benefit of making the other people in the building obedient.
Perhaps we needed a man like Jacques. If he had been leading the rebel, the things might have been pretty different. Perhaps he could have made it happen. But, I didn't know why, I couldn't help feeling unsure about Jacques. I knew he was pure and enthusiastic, but that purity and enthusiasm looked dangerous to me. Well, I soon decided to stop thinking of him that way, but perhaps, I shouldn't have.
14
Jacques helped us finding the vault. He lent us every tool we needed like hammers, drills and all that. But it was difficult to find the secret vault after we reached there.
It took much longer than we'd expected. I was worried about Kimmy. She was alone upstairs. We sometimes contacted her through the radio but still I was worried. Talking through the radio for a long time could be dangerous, too. She said she was fine all the time. Sometimes she didn't sound so good but she always tried to keep us relieved.
As time went by, Jacques and Purple became friends. They were about the same age, though Jacques looked a bit older. They spent time together talking about their thoughts about the world. Often times they agreed but at other times they disagreed deeply.
Both agreed on the point that people should be treated equally, but they disagreed on the degree of that equality. Jacques argued that people should be treated equally just by the fact that they are human, despite their age, gender, or any other conditions. Purple said he wanted to believe that was possible but said he doubted the feasibility. He said there are things that can't be equal like, the people inside the building can't go out under the sun to begin with. People who are poor and without power can't enjoy the luxury of the richest people in the world. Jacques said that's because of the social structure and we had to change that. But Purple maintained, 'Sometimes, there are things that we can't change.'
As for me, I wanted to believe Jacques. I often dreamed of me and Diane spending time together on the beach on a summer's day. But we can't. We would burn and melt down under the sun light. Would there be a cure for this? I had no idea.
While Purple was spending most of his time on his discussion with Jacques, Alex and Wonder became celebrities among the people. They would talk about the stories of the building or the stories of the rebels as if they were giving a speech or telling stories. It was sure that the day walkers didn't have much of an entertainment down there. They all loved it. If Alex and Wonder had asked them for a fee, I'm sure they would've gladly opened up their wallets. They could have made a theatre if they'd wanted to.
They were good at delivering speeches. They were like comedians on their stages. At the same time, they were good at choosing the right words. They did tons of speeches in front of people but they always avoided saying anything that could be problematic. We surely did some things that we're not so proud of. It was in order for our surviving, though, but still.
I told you that Alex and Wonder were from the first floor and started to help the rebels from quite an early age. But I didn't tell you what exactly led them to join the rebel. Well, It's not a pleasant story.
I was told by Fox one day when we were in the rebel about their story. When Alex and Wonder were about 13 years old, a man tried to take Won
der. He was a junky. He was high on Wax and he tried to take Wonder to a quiet place where there was no one around. Alex found out that she was missing and when he found them in a dark, abandoned room, Wonder was half naked and the man was trying to take off his clothes. Alex got mad and he stabbed the man's . The man died and Alex became a murderer.
If he was caught by the guards, he was sure to be sentenced to death. So he joined the rebel. From then on, he changed a lot. Most people thought he had always been outgoing, positive and optimistic, but he was intentionally pretending to be strong. He didn't let people see his weak part. He tried to be tough and insensitive to negative emotions all the time. All because he didn't wanted to worry his sister.
Thanks to him, Wonder didn't seemed to have gotten a huge trauma after the incident. Of course she wasn't totally fine at all times. She had difficulty talking with guys when Alex wasn't around. Even I felt awkward sometimes when I was with Wonder alone.
Not many people knew this story. Only a small number of people including Fox, Purple and Danny knew this but that wasn't a one hundred percent sure version of it. No one asked them what had really happened since we didn't want to force them to recall. We just waited until they told us what really happened.
...
Sometimes when I wasn't pretty busy, I joined the crowd and saw them telling stories. One time, they were talking about the old stories in the building. About the goddess and how it started.
Well, from the people's perspective, the story of the building would be just a part of their history. But to us, since we didn't have any written forms of history of the world outside, it had become myths and legends. The most popular story was the story about the first people in the building.