Sure wish that man in the suit were still out to get me. I knew it was just a voice in my head, maybe an image, fictional, maybe not. Maybe he was real, or a figment of the black drug pumped into my veins.
I was still walking.
Briskly, down the cold roads, cars zoomed above as they flew past the tall buildings, miles high, miles and miles, just as I walked.
Interesting really, how it came to be, yet people still argue the world is moving forward. The argument truly is, where? What world? Why now, we have larger things to solve? Like maybe, I don’t know, being stuck on another planet, while all of our people are being enslaved on Earth!
I was out of breath, and stopped but the yelling inside my head didn’t stop. I was spinning and out of control, it was like being stuck in that house, all alone, being chased by my worst nightmare, locked away for good.
At times I believe I deserved this, and it was my Dad who put me in danger because of his job and all that as Commander of the Fleet. It really wasn't though, in fact, it wasn’t anyone's fault, not my mom’s, not my dad’s, or even Angela’s, who I could care less about. I know that is mean of me to think.
What is a brick wall, but a metaphorical tissue of hardened layers, it has nothing but everything to do about being torn down. Walls are to be torn down, and that was what I was trying to do. With Sam and Tommy, trying to escape it all really, I want nothing to do with this so-called “save the world” mission.
I could see Toodles, and so not to look so deranged, I pushed my hair back, and wiped off my underarms from the sweat despite the chilling cold. This planet is strange.
Looking at the shop from a corner, was like looking at a diner in an old movie. Like the ones Unity outlawed because they brought us back too far, or whatever lame answer they gave to dignify that cruel act. Something as censored as that should not have to be erased from history.
It all flickered before me, truly, no color or anything. Just bright whites and blacks, grainy grays and lines, black flaps from an old film projector. Something most people my age had no idea even existed less than ninety years ago.
Nostalgia. An idea that has prevented many people from seeing what is wrong with it all. Maybe it was the age of exploration, maybe it was the successful landing on Mars that placed us, in our minds ahead of anything out there in the world.
I started walking to the doors, Sam smiled at every customer, she radiated beauty. Her dad casually listened to the music that played on the old stereo that sat in the back corner of the bakery. It’s an infrastructure out of the modern city. A place people went, to sit and enjoy a morning crisp bagel.
I opened the door, it flung open widely screeching, and I was greeted instantly as Sam’s dad remembered who I was.
“Sonny, nice to see you back! So much has been happening in the city, I have thought of you often and wondered if you would make it back out here,” he said to me excitedly.
“I am doing alright, I had to beg my parents to let me come back into the city. I have to take the train from where I live, and lately there have been a few political issues, you could say aboard there,” I said.
Sam’s dad continued, “I heard about that, reminds me of when there were issues on the trains long ago. Public Trust in that kind of transportation, it really was low so long ago. Before they started floating, they ran on tracks.”
“What do you mean? On tracks?” I asked.
He spoke softly but intelligently, as if the knowledge had been hidden before us, “There were actual tracks, physical things, like the pavement of roads are to the wheels on automobiles, just as tracks of rail were to the wheels on trains. There were many issues back when the railway system began to advance, sort of like how they replaced the pavement with copper, so the nitrogen batteries could lift the automobiles off the roads. It is the innovation like this, that has made transportation so much safer than it was.”
I took thought into his words and figured, nostalgia hadn’t been lost, maybe just now more than ever, it didn’t matter what it was like back then.
Sam came walking out from the back and threw the door, and she briskly smiled and ran up to me embracing me like it had been years since we had last met.
“I didn’t think you’d make it back. We thought you’d be stuck on the base!” she said.
“I know, that it what your dad has been telling me about,” I said.
We just kind of stood there for a minute, admiring whatever it was on each other faces there were to admire.
I began, “I am happy to be back. My friend Tommy drove me down here because my parents insisted, and he is really nice. He said he’d be here soon after I arrived. He thought it’d be best to catch up, but I have something to explain to you, and it is serious, and I wonder if maybe you’ve been thinking about what me, Tommy and many others have been wondering about our place here.”
“What do you mean? Here?” she asked.
I said, “there is so much I have to tell you, and you might not care, but I was in some trouble the past few years. I came out of it and Unity shut me up for trying to prevent whatever I know from coming out, which you will too soon know.”
Sam started to speak, “you know, why don’t we sit down for a bit, and enjoy something to drink. This seems important to you, and it seems like an adventure to me. I need more adventures, so let's sit.”
She looked over at her dad, “Dad, can you please grab Luis and me something to drink. We are going to sit and talk for a bit if that is okay?”
“Sure sweetheart, I'll be out in a second Samantha,” he said again softly.
We took a seat at the corner window as I did the last time I was there.
Sitting in the same worn chair and Sam facing the glass, away from it all. It was intriguing to know how, in a way, we never probably thought of where we might sit. It was just customary to our subconscious, a place that has dictated human thought for thousands of years.
Sam started first, “so, Unity tried to keep you quiet? About what?”
“They ran experiments on children, sent them away, to the alien planet. All this happened, and now here we are. We all woke up one morning, just another day, didn’t know the difference between Earth and other planets. Yet we got purple and red snow as if all the birds in the sky had been cut and bleed into the planet. No one seemed to be questioning because Unity was trying to protect itself from the fact, that we had been moved, unknowingly in our sleep, to Planet KS. New York is the only place left on this dying planet.” The amount of worry carried in her eyes. I hoped she believed me.
“You are joking, right? I mean surely, you’re a writer, and this is just an idea?” she said, and I tried not to laugh.
I responded, “Samantha, I wouldn’t come all this way, if I didn’t believe you could help make a difference. I need you to keep this quiet, and that if you do believe me, I trust that you won't tell anyone.”
I was relieved when Sam said, “I believe you Luis, I do. I need time to process, it is hard you know, it’s one of those subjects hard to wrap my mind around, but it makes so much sense. I never realized it before, but I haven’t heard one single thing on the news about anywhere but here. I haven’t seen real white snow in the past three years.”
11
Sam had the same feeling as I did just as I had been with Anthony when he first came to me, shocked and a little less relieved than I was.
Sitting in The Diner made me realize that there are many situations in a person’s life that depend on trust and hope, and in that case, I hoped that Sam was able to trust me.
I sipped slowly on my coffee and tried not to make a disgusted face, since I didn’t pour any of the thick cream into the cup of black smoldering liquid.
It was if I had been here before, sitting here, not after the first time I had, but before the first time, I was on KS, in New York City. I felt that I had been here back on Earth, as a kid. This feeling of nostalgia is nonstop, it fuels my hope and trust of others, an
d I figured maybe Sam would pull through.
Sam looked at me, and back out the window and said, “I know what you are saying is true. I have this feeling that everything around us is alienated. It is the same as it was, but we are not where we figure we are to be. The government is making us think we’ve won, but there is nothing that has been won, just silence.”
I replied, “sometimes, it takes an idea or a story, a point to make someone realize what is really going on. I am just as surprised as you.”
She kind of chuckled, a nervous chuckle, “Luis, if there is one thing that I know it is I know what winter is like, I know what spring is like and I know what autumn is like. I know what the sky looks like from home, and this isn’t home. No one knows do they?”
I continued, “Unity doesn’t want anyone to know, they don’t want us to know, and they don’t want me to talk. Now, four people know, you, Tommy, Anthony, and me. We all know, and they would’ve killed me the second that they found out that Anthony showed up.
I can’t go home, and neither can Tommy. I think that we ought to figure out what we are going to do beforehand. Like I said, we need to wait for Anthony to contact us before we make a move.
We will meet Anthony in room 124 when we get the call. We need help from outside the realm of society. Someone else who knows what is going on.”
She looked at me again, “what do you mean? Someone else knows about all of this?”
I replied with a hint of sarcasm considering I wasn't sure how to answer her, “yes, a scientist who discovered this galaxy. In fact, his goal was to use Planet KS as a good cultural study. Supposedly".
She looked at me, with less emptiness than before.
"So, this Dr. Kolash might be able to help us, but where is he now?" she asked.
"Anthony knows," I sipped my coffee again, as we sat there in silence.
Tommy walked in through the door of the cafe. I looked over, and smile. "There is my friend," I said to Sam.
He walked up to us looking down and lifted his head smiling to meet Sam.
"This is my friend Tommy, he has been a longtime friend. We reconnected after I got back, and it turned out he had a feeling something was wrong here." I said.
Tommy said quietly, "yeah."
Sam started to say something in midst of the awkwardness, "it is nice to meet you, Tommy. This is crazy, I just can't believe that all of this is happening. One moment everything was fine; we've won the war, the next you realize we are all that is left on the planet that was trying to destroy us."
Tommy replied, finally breaking the boundary for a sort of connection, "I think that we need to focus on keeping this quiet. Sam, your Dad seems very nice, but I don't think we should worry him. Unity is trying to stop us from speaking, and when they find out why we are really in New York City, they'll try to find us, and take us out like they did my parents."
"With the blackouts, the city goes into a full panic. The one that happened the other day, for instance, it was as if all the lights turned off, and I am not talking about the lights on the streets or in the apartments, but the actual sun was not there," Sam said.
I kept thinking of the guys who were in uniform on the train who killed all the people. I don't know who they were, but I hope it wasn’t the Fleet. I asked myself over and over, where is the fleet, and that was essential. They were gone.
That is why my dad doesn't go to work, that is why my mom is so plastered with her "happy" atmosphere, her soft lines, wrinkles and cigarette-like smell.
"You know, the first time I tried to come back, I took the train, and there was a blackout. The train had to stop, and the lights turned off, and now remembering, it was cold, it was night, yet I left during the day. There was no sun," I recalled.
Tommy said, "I don't know what to say, I haven't looked outside for so long. It is school, homework, school homework. Over and over. Do you think that it is just a gimmick being played?"
I said, "it is possible. It is possible it is all just a natural occurrence here. Like our night and day and our blackouts are really the sun just being hidden, like an eclipse. I feel like there would be no point in hiding it.
You guys wouldn't believe how real they have made all of this. Even stepping up in our hotel outside the balcony, looking off past the city, there was nothing. It was as if New Jersey disappeared, it was as if New York City was the only city on this entire damned planet."
As if the world knew when I stopped speaking, the lights turned off and flickered. Sam looked at her Dad.
"What is going on, why isn't the generator kicking on?" she asked.
Over the outside intercom system, like those in the cities with nuclear power plants, came an emergency system announcement.
"Attention People of Earth, we are issuing a World-Wide blackout period. While many of you are concerned about the being of these short periods, we at Unity would like to remind you that we are looking out for your safety. Conserving our power, and staying out of sight is our top priority. Please stay in your homes, please stay out of the elements, and remember, close your blinds and lock your doors. There is no need to be concerned. We will announce when the blackout is deemed unneeded. Unity."
We all sat there at the corner table, from a bright and colorful bakery cafe, now remained a dark and exposed one.
"We need to go upstairs, it isn't safe here," Sam’s Dad said.
All three of us nodded our heads, and began to move as Sam’s Dad went to lock the glass door.
It felt very much like we were in an exposed, thin glass cube, that could easily be broken through.
We headed up the stairs, an imperfect set of shapes I’d never seen before. Everything was meant to be so perfect, but not here.
Sam’s Dad spoke sternly again, “head this way, there’s a room at the end of the hall. We can stay the night there, I’ll be down the other hall.”
We all nodded again. I tried to keep calm, but after the train incident, I didn’t know what to expect in the city.
Sam led the way for Tommy and me. When we entered the small dark room, she illuminated a candle, something I had only seen in pictures, and the walls were illuminated.
Bright pinks, purples, and reds came from her wallpaper, majestic and peaceful and personal.
I said, “I’m not trying to sound insulting, but I didn’t think there’d be so much color in this room.”
Sam replied laughing, “why, is it because everything these days are white, black and grey?”
I said, “I guess sometimes I just forget there used to be a time that color still existed, now it is so expensive since all the supplies and dyes went to the Fleet.”
Tommy chimed in, “hey, you guys ever wonder what the Fleet actually did with all the materials they took? Let's be real guys, I didn’t see much color in their uniforms, so what other purpose did it have?”
I replied, “I’m not much of an expert in Fleet things, but I agree. I don’t remember my dad’s uniform ever being pretty like this. Maybe a pale set of yellows, purples, and reds, but the uniforms were always blue, I thought, with small decorations here and there.”
We sat for a moment in silence when Sam said, “whatever they used it for, this place was here before then. The “Cafe” building my Dad has lived in his whole life, passed down by his parents, their parents, and my great grandparents, parents, this place used to be so busy.
It wasn’t quiet or anything, always loud music playing, waitresses with pretty dresses, people with taste and style who came for the popular diner experience. Now it is so outed, that I can hardly even imagine what it would be like now if it were ever so busy.
My dad always said, it’ll be slow Samantha, but it won’t ever go under. So, I have lived believing that, but there is so much that I think we as a whole society have forgotten.”
When Sam stopped talking, I started to think, as I always did about what the old days were like. In reality, it doesn’t matter, not even now matters, nothing mea
ns anything, if it was there, it was unreal.
I forget sometimes grandparents that we aren’t really here or there, we are on a different planet, sadly with different perceptions of the situation at hand.
“I really need that call from Anthony soon, I just hope it isn’t now,” I said.
Tommy replied to me, “You won’t be getting any calls!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Startled, all three of us fell to the floor. Closer than we ever thought before.
“What was that?” I whispered with fear.
“They aren’t able to get in, are they?” I asked freakily.
Sam looked at me, “no, no, we will be fine. They won’t come in. They aren’t here for us. They are here for the outsiders.”
I kept thinking over and over again, of the torture I endured in the Ward of KS. I remember being forced to watch as a kid and was poisoned and sent into anaphylactic shock, forced to watch what my creation could do to a single human being.
“What outsiders?” Tommy asked.
“Well, when this all started happening, gunshots always came from the streets. The man told my Dad that they were taking Outsiders, or people Unity was considering to be dangerous to society, something like, “they could be against us, the aliens embedded into our society”. I know it sounds crazy, but they act like…”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“They act like, they are doing us a favor. There are never bodies in the streets though,” I explained.
I looked over at Tommy shaking, ask I blew out the candle that once illuminated the room. It is strange, how a flame could make such a big room feel so small, and in immediate darkness make the room feel so empty.
“Do you think these Outsiders are people from KS? Like left behinds?” Tommy asked in a whisper.
Sam replied, “they could be, I’ve seen one or two before. Always very confused, their eyes are grey and empty, they all wear the same outfit every day, but manage to look so clean.”
The World of Hope Page 8