Inner City

by Scott Norton Taylor

  Chapter 21

  Eve sat on a plastic moulded bench in a well-lit room. The door had a small eyepiece that, from inside, magnified the outside world to a blur. High above on the wall, a black plastic lens, resembling a small ball, protruded. Through this, the city authorities watched and listened to Eve’s every move. They saw her tense up as the cell door opened and they watched her father tentatively enter and sit next to her. The feed from the cell was beamed straight to the Chairman’s office as he sat, side by side with Gerda on his large leather couch. They looked like old friends sharing a movie on a lazy afternoon.

  “They want you to ask Callen to make the statement,” Lien said to Eve, making sure he didn’t hide what he’d come to do.

  “I won’t.”

  “No, good. You shouldn’t. I’d be disappointed if you did.” Father and daughter sat in silence. Lien put his arm around Eve and hugged her tight. He kissed the side of her head and stayed there, pressing his lips to her in a show of fatherly affection.

  “Tell them I won’t ask Callen to do it.”

  Lien nodded as if ready to go, but he never moved from his seat.

  “You love him, don’t you?”

  “More than anything. I can’t even describe how much, Dad,” she admitted, her tone conveying how the intensity of her feelings scared her.

  “You’ve been feeling okay?” Lien asked with concern. Eve looked at him, thrown by the strange segue. Lien smiled with knowing compassion.

  “If Callen says what they want him to say, you can both come home. They won’t bother you again.”

  “And if he doesn’t?”

  Lien reached out and took Eve’s hand. He spoke softly, quietly, as he looked into her eyes.

  “Your child’s going to grow up without a father.”

  The door to Callen’s cell opened. He braced himself, ready for whatever the City had for him next. When he saw Eve, he ran forward and took her in his arms. They kissed before holding a tight embrace.

  “They only let me see you so I could ask you to say what they want,” she said.

  “You know I can’t,” he replied quickly. Eve nodded. Callen smiled, reassured that Eve understood him so well. They stood holding each other for a while and then Eve timidly began to speak from within their huddle.

  “If you did say it, we could live the rest of our lives together as Outlocked.” She paused and looked up to see the concern across Callen’s face. “You’ve done enough to change things,” she pressed hopefully. Callen moved away from her. He assumed she’d been convinced by others, including Lien, to tow the line.

  “Are they threatening you?”

  Eve shook her head.

  “Lien?”

  Eve shook her head again.

  “I’m pregnant,” she said softly. Callen wasn’t sure he’d heard correctly. He looked at her, his eyes searching for confirmation. She gave the smallest nod and smiled. Callen stood back, not knowing what to do. He gave a silent speech, his mouth opening and closing without a sound. He stared in wide-eyed disbelief and then came to Eve and put his hand on her stomach. She placed her hand atop his and smiled again. Callen broke into a beaming smile. He lifted Eve and swung her around in a hug. It was a moment of sheer joy as the reality sank in. Callen had realised one of his life’s great dreams; he was going to be a father. Of all the things he’d ever imagined achieving this was the ultimate prize and one that seemed most unlikely. Now it was real; he was to be the father of a child to the girl he loved. The couple’s celebration lasted only a moment longer as Callen came back to earth. He was to be a father, whether he returned with Eve or not. Even those lucky enough to be assigned a child would hardly dare dream the child would be theirs biologically, but he was being given this gift at a price. It came with a choice, a choice to stay true to his principles; a choice about what sort of person he was and what sort of world he would leave for his child. He desperately wanted to live, he wanted to share parenting their child, but he didn’t want to sacrifice everything he believed to make that happen. He closed his eyes and stood as if chastising himself for his character. Eve’s eyes grew wider with fear. A single tear ran down her cheek. Callen opened his eyes to find her crying. She knew what he was going to say.

  “I can’t,” he said, his voice quivering. He wanted to join Eve in tears. He went to take her hand, but she pulled away. She loved Callen so much that right now she hated him. She brought her hands to her face and cried loudly into them.

  “Please,” Callen said. It was all he needed to say. Eve turned and threw her face into his chest, wrapping her arms around him. Two guards entered the cell and pulled the couple apart. Callen protested but was touched by a charge that stung his hand away and brought a scream of, “No!” from Eve, as they roughly pushed her through the door. The cell was locked. Callen looked to the camera on the wall of his cell.

  “I’ll never say it! Never! I’m going to be a father! Do you hear me! My child! But I’ll never say what you want me to say!” Callen slumped into the wall and slid down to his knees where he sobbed. Alexis Prior turned off his viewer. He was already trying to think of what else he could do to change Callen’s mind.

  Lien was ordered to leave the city with Eve. She had to be sedated, knowing Callen’s fate. She knew leaving him meant leaving him forever.

  Twelve hours later Eve woke in her room back at camp. Lien sat anxiously beside her. Her senses dulled, she managed to raise her head and look around. The sedation was still in her system, but she was quickly returning from her drug induced haze. Callen’s image came to her. She sat bolt upright. Lien caught her and held her tight as she tried to get up from her bed.

  “Don’t. It’s over.”

  “It’s not over! He’s still alive. I have to help him!” She slurred.

  “There’s nothing we can do.”

  Eve looked to her father like an animal sizing up prey.

  “If you hadn’t helped this wouldn’t be happening!”

  “I was protecting you,” Lien defended.

  “You’ve killed him! You didn’t protect me. You’ve ruined my life!” The two began a wrestle, Eve trying to win her freedom to nowhere, Lien holding her tight, pinning her to the bed.

  “I’m sorry,” he said once she calmed.

  “Gerda can stop it!” Eve screamed into his shoulder with renewed fight.

  “No,” Lien countered. “She can’t. She can’t do anything. Callen’s the only one who can stop it.” Lien had finally come to understand the true nature of the worlds he belonged to; old and new. The Outlocked may have been beyond the city walls, but they weren’t beyond their reach. Gerda’s relationship with the Chairman was a hollow diplomacy. It was the equivalent of a polite smile to avoid an awkward conversation. If the city found an economic use for anything the Outlocked had, they would renegotiate their relationship. This simple truth left Lien with little he could trust. His entire life; his role as a guard; it was all for show. He thought how foolish he’d been not to realise this before, but he tried not to let those thoughts fester; he had to concentrate on helping his daughter through her grief; grief for a man still living.

  “He’s a remarkable man to stand up to them like that,” Lien said, revealing just how much he’d come to admire Callen for what he was doing. “The only way he can save himself is to help them lie. And lies are what he’s fighting to expose.”

  Eve began to sob. Lien went back to holding her tight.

  “I should have been listening to him, not trying to tell him what to do.”

  Eve looked at her father and saw a truly remorseful man. It would take some time for her to forgive him, but she took comfort that her father finally saw as much in the man she loved as she did.

  Eve’s mood would swing from despair to fury over the next few days. She struggled to live alongside, what she felt were, Callen’s last moments of life - moments she would never share. Lien did everything to console her, but what she needed was time.

  A whole week passed bef
ore Alexi Prior, and the city board decided on their next course of action. Callen’s will was holding firm, but the authorities were not giving up. The door to his cell opened. Callen came to his feet in the hope he’d be allowed more time with Eve. The hope was short-lived. A man and woman stood in the doorway. Callen didn’t know them. He went back to sit on his bench, unimpressed by the visitors who stood staring at him.

  “Hello, Callen,” the woman said in a soft, faltering voice. The man said nothing. He stood gazing at Callen. Callen looked to them again, unmoved. The woman smiled sending a chill through Callen’s core. He didn’t recognise either of these people, but that smile - he recognised that smile. He looked harder at their features and saw younger faces he recognised.

  “Mum?” he said in amazement, not believing it possible. Leona Carrus nodded as she burst into nervous laughter and brought a hand to her lips. Tears escaped her eyes. Callen looked to his father. He too was on the verge of tears.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “They told us to come,” Leona said. “We didn’t understand because it meant breaking the law, but they insisted. They told us the law didn’t matter.”

  “We’ve been watching you on the news,” Jonathan said. “We knew it was you from the very first report. We just knew.” Callen and his parents sat down to talk. Leona and Jonathan asked a thousand questions. Callen was happy to answer them all. The only tension came when Callen asked why they’d come. The question met awkward silence. Leona and Jonathan looked at each other and Jonathan gave his wife a slight nod.

  “They want you to say you made it up. If you explain that you won’t be in any more trouble.”

  “You don’t believe me?” Callen asked, looking disappointed, fearing Leona trusted the government’s version of events and not his.

  “It doesn’t matter what we believe. They’re going to kill you if you don’t say what they want,” Jonathan warned. Callen looked to his first parents. Despite the lost years, he still loved them, and it mattered to him what they believed – it mattered very much.

  “They’re lying to us,” Callen stressed. “They don’t want anyone asking questions. They made up those media reports. Did you see Eve’s parents? We don’t even know who those people. They have them crying for her to come home. They want people to be scared of what’s out there. Real leaders make you feel safe; they don’t scare you into doing what they want.” Callen paused, looking to his parents, searching for a sign they understood.

  “They’re scaring people into settling for less. Whatever they convince people to give up, they grab for themselves.”

  “I know it sometimes feels like that,” Jonathan said in a sympathetic tone, “Especially at your age. It’s hard seeing things you want but can’t afford. On ads, in the shops, everywhere you look, but that’s the incentive. If you work hard enough, then one day...”

  “No!” Callen cut across. “That’s the biggest lie of all. You worked hard for years, you both did. What happened?” Callen looked to his first dad, feeling sorry for the man.

  “There was no reason to take me from you. If I’d been two years older, I could have stayed. That makes no sense unless it’s a warning; keep producing or else. I tried to find you. Instead, I stumbled onto something that might change everything about our lives. They told me it was in my head. I was seven, and they were so scared about what I found they tried to make me think it never happened.”

  Callen explained how his search to reunite with them took him beyond the city’s wall. From the age of seven onwards, he detailed everything he’d experienced. When he finished, his parents sat in shock.

  “You believe me?” he asked hopefully. Leona and Jonathan sat nervous, still unsure. “What’s out there changes everything,” Callen insisted. “The years it takes to qualify for a family, all the things people give up because they don’t have the money or the time – all that changes.”

  It was difficult for Leona and Jonathan to understand what Callen was preaching. It went against everything taught. To believe a world of individual freedom and opportunity existed just beyond their doors was asking a lot. They’d been told their whole lives those goals came through years of sacrifice; that beyond the city wall held danger, and a breach threatened their lives. Everyone knew these truths by heart, but Callen was adamant – they weren’t truths and opening up to the world outside held more promise than staying locked within.

  Jonathan carefully tried turning the conversation back to the statement the government wanted him to make. Callen realised he hadn’t convinced his father of anything, but Jonathan was only thinking of his son, a son he’d never stopped loving.

  “Why not just say it? You don’t have to mean it,” Jonathan pleaded. Callen reacted with a mixture of pity and growing resentment to his father’s view. The moment Jonathan sensed his son’s attitude he began to waiver. Leona had her back to them both, unable to support her husband, but not brave enough to defy the government’s request for them. She was thoroughly ashamed of herself for agreeing to try, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop Jonathan or make her feelings known. Jonathan paused as the tension in the cell grew. He tried a new angle, to re-frame a more persuasive argument and convince his lost son to do as asked. He built up to a crescendo of rhetoric, but stopped short, faltering mid-sentence, listening to his half truths.

  “Jesus, listen to me,” Jonathan blurted in a moment of cathartic self-realization. “You keep doing what you think is right!” Jonathan grabbed Callen’s shoulder and brought him forward in a manly hug.

  “I’m so proud of you! You’re braver than I ever was.” He embraced his son. Callen was in shock. His father, a man lost to him for a dozen years was risking his freedom to lend him support. Leona joined them. Holding Callen as tightly as any mother could, she wept, as all three embraced for the first time in over a decade. The visit came to an abrupt end. Those monitoring the meeting had seen it come to nought. The cell door opened and guards forcibly removed Leona and Jonathan. It was a moment born out of bizarre circumstances, and it would bring nothing but emotional pain. Neither side had the opportunity to say goodbye. Callen’s emotions erupted. He roared in frustration as he watched his parents taken from him for the second time in his short life.

  “We love you!” Leona shouted as they roughly dragged her from the cell.

  “We both love you!” Jonathan added behind her. Callen came to rest at the foot of the door as it closed him in. His eyes began to water as he tried desperately to hold his emotions in check. He couldn’t; he had no emotional energy left. He began to cry quietly.