Oceania: The Underwater City

by Eliza Taye

  “So, Dr. Wilcox is floating around in a submersible for the whole weekend?”

  “Not exactly. He’s also using this opportunity to do tests on the SCUBAPS.”

  After he finished changing, I showed Dylan to the rabbit hole, sliding under first and allowing him to follow.

  Dylan paused when we got to the road and asked me what it was. Puzzled, I stared at him and said, “What do you mean what is it? You have roads in Oceania.”

  “Yes, of course we have roads, but I’m talking about the material. It looks so different.” Dylan reached a hand down and smoothed it over the black, dotted surface.

  “It’s just asphalt. They melt tar mixed with gravel and then it hardens and creates asphalt. I’ve heard it has an awful smell when being laid.”

  “Okay, then.” Dylan stood up but continued to stare at the asphalt as if he were analyzing a chemical substance.

  “Oh, no.” I glanced down at my one bike and realized that we might not be able to make it back in time. I was sure Dylan didn’t know how to ride one since they didn’t have them in Oceania and I couldn’t pedal it all the way home with both of us on it.

  “What? What is the problem?” Dylan came over and stood gazing down at my bike.

  “I only have the one bike and I don’t know if we’ll be back in time if we have to walk.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m sure I can figure out how to do this and we can both ride it back.” Dylan took the bike from me and examined it. “Can you show me how to ride it?”

  “Yeah, it’s easy. You just put your feet on the pedals and push them to make the bike go. You use the handlebars to steer. The trickiest thing is learning how to keep your balance on it as you ride.”

  “Is it anything like riding a motorcycle?”

  I gawked at Dylan as if he were from Mars. “You’ve ridden a motorcycle, but never a bike?”

  Dylan peered at me through slit eyes. “I’ve heard of a bike, but I’ve never ridden one…unless motocross bikes or motorcycles count. There are virtual video games like that in Oceania, so that’s how I’ve been exposed to it. Here, let me give it a try.”

  Dylan swung his leg over it and started pedaling. He was wobbly at first, but it didn’t take him more than thirty seconds to get the hang of it. After about a couple minutes of trying, he was riding as if he’d been doing it since he was a kid.

  Confident he could ride my bike instead of me, Dylan tried several times to figure out the perfect location for me to stand or sit. His determination paid off and eventually we settled on me standing on the bolt sticking out from the rear wheel spoke and him pedaling. I had never been on a bike with someone else and it was awkward as can be, especially with Dylan on the pedals. Even though he was steady at first, when he got to the section of the road that went downhill, he had problems stabilizing the bike and we nearly rammed into the fence several times before we finally made it to town.

  All the while, Dylan kept pointing things out, asking what they were and wanting to know how they worked. The hover cars especially fascinated him since he’d never seen a car before. The standalone shops downtown were a marvel to him because nothing had its own building in Oceania.

  Finally, we made it to Gran’s house. The blue shades of early dawn had long gone and the sun shone down on the front of the house, illuminating even the small porch. Dylan stared in awe at the freestanding house, taking in as much of it as he could.

  I left him out front and climbed into my bedroom through the window I had left cracked. Patiently, I waited for Dylan’s knock on the door and went to answer it, passing Gran watching TV on the couch in the living room. Pretending to have just awoken, I faked a yawn and stared groggily ahead of me.

  Opening the door, I greeted Dylan as if I hadn’t just seen him moments before. “Hey, Dylan, come on in.”

  Footsteps caused creaking on the old hardwood floorboards, alerting me to Gran’s presence.

  “Well, well, this must be Dylan Baker. It is very nice to meet you.” Gran extended her hand toward Dylan.

  “And you as well,” Dylan shook her hand and followed us inside the house.

  “Dylan, are you hungry at all? I was just about to make breakfast. Is there anything in particular you want?”

  “Uh.”

  Dylan didn’t seem to know what to say, so I quickly rescued him, in case he suggested a food item we didn’t have on land. “Eggs and toast are fine, Gran.”

  Gran looked over at Dylan as if she wasn’t certain if that was okay for him or not. “All right, then. Eggs and toast it is.”

  We ate with idle chatter at the table. Gran wanted to know everything she could about Dylan, which of course, were all lies that we’d cooked up this morning. Gran seemed satisfied by his answers and before we knew it, all the food was eaten.

  “Thank you very much for breakfast,” spoke Dylan, rubbing his stomach.

  “You’re very welcome.” Gran smiled, the wrinkles on her face multiplying. “Alexandria and I just need to get our things and we’ll be ready to go. You can wait here if you’d like.”

  Dylan nodded. “Okay.”

  Rejoining in the foyer with our bags, Dylan picked up his pack and followed us to Gran’s hover car. I noticed his eyes grew large when he saw it and I was glad that Gran couldn’t see them.

  I have to admit I’d wished Dylan could see the hover cars that we had in the cities. Gran’s model was very old—from 2250. It had a rust orange color and was shaped like the body of a beetle. One big hump in the center was the cab where people sat and the shorter front area housed the technology. The trunk encompassed the back end and solar panels dyed to match the color of the car covered the roof. Like all hover cars, they were self-driving, but Gran’s old car still had the option of manual driving, unlike the newer ones.

  I opened the door to the back seat and climbed in, followed by Dylan. We both threw our bags in the trunk and then returned the middle seat to its former position.

  Gran climbed into the driver seat and then turned around to face the both of us, a smile gracing her face. “Are you two ready to have an awesome weekend in San Francisco?”

  I could feel Dylan’s excitement radiating off him, an excitement that mirrored my own as he exclaimed quite loudly, “Yes!”

  Chapter 18

  The hills and isles of San Francisco came into view, gray and green peaks jutting out in a sea of turquoise. The Golden Gate Bridge loomed over it in the distance, partly clouded in fog. Skyscrapers towered up into the atmosphere like trees in a forest, their bases just above the lapping waves of the sea.

  The hover car glided about five feet from the reaches of the waves as it veered towards the carport of San Francisco. It joined many other vehicles on their way to the city—still one of the largest in the country. Joining the fray of the double lines, the automatic cars followed an invisible road.

  Looking over at Dylan seated to my left, I couldn’t help but smile when I saw his expression. His clover green eyes increasingly broadened at his first views of the city. The Golden Gate Bridge seemed to garner most of his attention even though it only hovered about a hundred feet above sea level, nearly half of its original height.

  Gran must have glanced in the rearview mirror and noticed Dylan’s face because the next thing I knew, her voice was reaching back to us. “Are you shocked, Dylan? Have you never been to San Francisco before?”

  “No, I haven’t. It is incredible!”

  Gran guffawed. “If you think this is amazing, you should have seen it years ago before the sea began threatening to take it over.”

  “Is there a way I can?” wondered Dylan with wide eyes.

  Gran furrowed her brow but didn’t say anything about the awkwardness of his statement. “Well, if you really want to…I could take you to the San Francisco Museum. They have a special exhibit going on to celebrate the quincentennial of our nation’s Declaration of Independence. Supposedly, the exhibit has a virtual portion that can send you to anytime in our history over t
he last 500 years. It’s been hailed as state-of-the-art and a must-see for any visitor to San Francisco this year.”

  “Could we?” Dylan’s eyes shot over to me, with genuine elation and curiosity burning within them. “Would you be all right with that, Allie?”

  My mouth already hung agape. I had no idea there was such an exhibit going on. Seeing the smile in the corner of Gran’s lips, she’d meant to surprise me with this. “Of course! We have to go to that!”

  The hover car decelerated to a stop in front of the single line of cars being admitted into the city. Due to overcrowding issues, only a certain number of tourists were allowed into San Francisco at a time. I hoped that we had arrived early enough to be accepted in.

  We waited patiently until it was our turn to enter the city. At the kiosk stood a humanoid robot dressed in a navy blue uniform that included a captain’s hat with an anchor emblem on it in golden thread. It took note of the number of people in the car and our basic information.

  “Hello, and welcome to the magnificent city of San Francisco. How long will your stay be?” It asked.

  “Only over the weekend,” replied Gran with a small smile.

  “Do you have your lodgings already set, or would you like a free brochure code for your omniphone that denotes all of the available lodgings in the area?”

  “No, we’re set. Thank you.”

  “Very well, enjoy your time in San Francisco.”

  “Thank you.” Gran nodded and instructed the GPS in the car to take us to the museum.

  The car led us through the city, staying several feet above the wide streets that had transitioned from being for cars to walkways for humans. Footbridges linked the streets separated by large patches of water, allowing the overwhelming number of pedestrians easy access to the entire city. Lamp poles lined the streets illuminating the dark paths untouched by the sunlight above due to the height of the skyscrapers. Numerous drones flew through the air as mandatory police officers like in every major city, some carrying additional lighting.

  I’d been to San Francisco once before when I was very young. My father had brought me to the city while on a photo assignment. We stayed for quite a while, but we didn’t have long to visit locations that weren’t part of his subject.

  The people strolling on the streets below us were very different from those back in Sunnyville. Solid colors of white, gray, and black seemed to be the norm in this technologically advanced city. Robots roamed the city picking up trash, delivering packages to apartment buildings, policing traffic, and other things they were programmed to do. The only way to tell the difference between them and the humans they walked amongst was by their mechanical strides.

  The hover car maintained its height as the terrain below it gave way to water once more. Glancing out the window down at the footbridges, I noticed the stationary path in the center was boarded by rolling treads. Closely, I examined every walkway, bridge, and structure as we continued on to our destination, not wishing to miss a thing.

  Passing tower after tower of silver structures, we finally arrived at what I assumed was the museum. The building had to be the most outdated structure in the city that wasn’t considered part of Old San Francisco. Clean white-painted bricks bordered identical windows on either side of the quadruple-wide doorway. Columns stretching from the bottom of the third-story down to the ground were reminiscent of the pictures I’d seen of the Capitol building in D.C. Above the columns, linking the two innermost ones was an ornate overhang that draped down to nearly the top of the first story. From end to end, the building took up almost half of the block.

  Opening the door of the car, so Dylan and I could get out, I kept staring at it in awe. In gold letters, it said, “San Francisco City Museum” large enough that it could probably be seen from two blocks away.

  “All right, you guys. I shouldn’t be gone for more than a couple hours. If you guys want to leave early or decide to go somewhere else, call me and let me know.”

  “We will, Gran, don’t worry.” I grinned and gave her a small wave.

  “All right, you kids be good.” Gran pressed the button on the control panel and the car hovered off down the road.

  “Come on, Allie, what are you waiting for?” Dylan dashed up the front steps encompassing two levels and beckoned me to come on.

  Mimicking Dylan, I ran up the steps to join him, hardly able to contain my excitement at the exhibit we were about to see. By the time I got there, Dylan was already holding the door open for me, still urging me to move faster.

  Entering through the doors, we passed another set of doors into the main part of the lobby. Inside, a slightly musty odor greeted us as if the building really was as old as the exterior suggested. Based on what I’d experienced in immersion movies, it could have been any 20th century lobby. Feeling engrossed in history, I stepped forward toward the ticket stations eliciting a creak from the floorboards.

  Dylan was already flying to the ticket station, getting in a reasonably long line. Joining him, we chatted about the list of things we couldn’t wait to see.

  “We should go to the beginning of the nation in 1776 and then experience everything from then on,” suggested Dylan eagerly.

  Laughing, I responded as we reached the robot ticket master. “That’d take much longer than we have in a lifetime, let alone this weekend.”

  “I know, but I just want to see it all.” Dylan hopped once excitedly. “I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this.”

  The woman in the line to our right glanced over at us with a face that indicated she thought Dylan was crazy. Ignoring her, I asked the robot for two-day passes to the museum and swiped my omniphone over the meter to pay for them. The two tickets flashed on my omniphone, giving us passage into the museum. Following the line of other people to the entrance hall, we entered the arched doorway to the right of the ticket stations.

  Instantly, we were transformed into a world very different from our own. The walls flashed a multitude of colors along with projected scenes and murals, narrated by voices of people long gone, but not forgotten echoing through the hall. At the beginning of each new voice, faces appeared to let the visitor know who was speaking.

  Dylan spun around in amazement, striving to take it all in at once. Reaching out he touched the walls as if by making physical contact with them he would be connected to the people of the past.

  Dylan and I were eager to learn more about our history and soak up as much as we could. Both of us lingered for much longer than the other visitors, who simply continued through the hallway after seeing a sliver of it.

  Reluctantly, Dylan and I pulled ourselves away from the enchanting wall projections and followed the path of the other visitors into the next room. I’d seen other museums that had immersion portions, but the room we entered nearly knocked me off my feet. The space was so expansive that it must have risen directly to the ceiling where a skylight shone rays of sunshine down to the floor. Gazing up, I saw that the ceiling was dome-shaped, leading down to the circular room. Projected on the ceiling in thirty-second intervals were murals from the most famous muralists ever to live. Like in the previous room, they were all digital images, but unlike the other room, the quality of the pictures appeared as majestic and detailed as the Sistine Chapel must have been the day Michelangelo painted it.

  At long last, I pulled my enamored gaze from the ceiling down to eye level. Around the circumference of the room were stools placed beneath low-hanging counters with VRI helmets and headsets on them.

  “Welcome to the Hall of History. Here you may take a journey through any point in time of American History that you wish,” announced a female voice that echoed through the space. “All you have to do is don a VRI—or Virtual Reality Immersion—helmet and press the controls on the console to begin your adventure. If you wish to take your journey with someone else, you may use the headset to connect with them. Just sync the headset numbers to the same channel and you’ll be on your way. Enjoy your experience an
d if you have any problems, let one of the attendants standing around aid you.”

  “Allie, take one of these and put them on. They say these will give you a virtual tour of history.” Dylan’s face beamed brightly as he stretched the tether on the VRI helmet as far as it would go, gesturing for me to hurry and come sit by him on the console.

  I eagerly complied, taking the helmet in my hands and gently placing it down over my head. Securing it, I felt the pressure squeeze snuggly on my skull and the pulsators start to warm up. I couldn’t help but think that these pulsators were outdated compared to the headsets of the OVRR on Oceania. They could only connect your sensory organs to your experience; it didn’t allow you to make your own experiences in-situ. Either way, this would still be fun.

  With a smile growing in the corner of my mouth, I snapped down the visor to the helmet and picked up the headset in front of me. Feeling on the side of the helmet, there was a knob next to my ear; I turned it and attached the earpiece to it. Next, I adjusted the microphone piece to the front of my mouth.

  The screen blinked to life and a robotic voice asked, “Who do you wish to link with? Choose the number on the screen that corresponds to the number on your headset.”

  Oh great! I’d forgotten to check the number on my headset.

  Dylan saved me when he called out, “Hey, tune your headset to channel 5, that’s the one I’m on!”

  “Okay,” I replied, speaking five into the microphone.

  “Complete. You are now linked to all other headsets on channel 5. The program will start now.”

  The connection screen disappeared and the visor began to dance with the same images from the entrance hall. An obviously human female voice announced from within the headset, “Are you ready to take a tour of 500 years covering the best and worst moments of our nation’s history? You will see the bad…you will see the good. You will see the moments in history that defined us as a nation—from the birth all the way to the present. Are you ready to start your journey?”