Epic

by Alexander Strijewski

  The boy had been in an evolution of young men walking towards to the hard labor camps on the south side of the city. He knew he must’ve lost his parents for him to be in caught in a group like that. He stood out to him because he was the only one who actually looked him directly in the eye. Something that was almost unheard of in this, hellhole of a city where everyone ran on automatic. An endless parade of insipid, eyes glazed, zombies trudging on onto their empty existences. Brevin had actually looked up at him, almost unwittingly begging him to save him! Nym always had a spare cap on his person for just such an occasion, he just never expected he would get any use out of it. But that day he did. That was four years ago.

  He sat quietly and watched as the boy slipped into REM sleep and as he usually did, began talking in his sleep.

  “No no no NO! I didn’t touch it, I swear!”

  Nym laughed. He could only guess at what images danced through his head. But it took his mind off things. In the morning Brevin would have no recollection of what occurred. Any and all nightmares and monsters would disappear like an ephemeral wisp of a forgotten thought. Only to be replaced by a far more deadly and grim reality than he ever could have dreamed up in his wildest imagination.

  Such a bright spirit he was, raging with curiousity and eagerness to explore the world. How much longer could he keep this up, thought Nym. He wouldn’t be able to keep him cloistered in this wretch of an apartment, in this pointless existence for the rest of his life. Not Brevin. Just last week he had noticed him eyeing the door with a contemplative intense sort of look, as if planning something. He didn’t blame him. If he didn’t do something, things would come to a head regardless and all would be lost. Nym made up his mind that night, tomorrow would be the day he would tell him.

  “It can’t be! No it can’t be! No no no NO!” cried Brevin

  Was Brevin reading his thoughts? No he couldn’t do that. He took another long look at him. It would have to wait for the morrow.

  * * *

  Being a lab technician on contract had given Nym the oppurtunity to study emissions and wavelengths. It was just a periphery study, it wasn’t supposed to go anywhere really. His actual contract involved experimenting with chemical compounds most attuned to receiving and conducting radio frequencies and bandwidths and optimizing both expenditures and durability for mass informational super highways. It was mundane work, much like just about every line of work in this city was, but he had to do it. He doubted the current modality using imploded hyper-concentrated carbon fiber as a insulator would be surpassed, but he was paid to experiment and to try. Month in and month out he sent in his reports saying the same thing, no luck. He wondered if anybody ever actually even read his findings and reports, he doubted it. Otherwise they would probably send him more intelligent experimental substances to test with. But a paycheck is a paycheck. No, everyone had their own nook and was super specialized in this society, if you could still call it that. But it was his supplemental study of wavelengths that had given him his first clue.

  He prepared the next solution was just about to bring his gear back online when he noticed Brevin approach.

  “Uncle, I finished my books. Do you wanna check me out?” he handed him the data-pad with a text that read, ‘Advanced Semi-Conductor and Nano-Techniques’

  “Sure.”

  Nym browsed through the syllabus, data that the boy had already been through 3 times, he had learned everything practical there was to know. The remaining data fell into the theoretical, wow your peers with erudite knowledge category as far as he was concerned. There was very little left to teach him, he was very learned. He looked up at him.

  “Brevin,” he put the pad down, “I think it’s time we went over some other more important things. You are old enough now that I think it’s time we go over life and why some things are the way they are.”

  Brevin perked up, “Like why we can’t go outside!? Like what those strange noises that we hear coming from downstairs sometimes are? Like this thing!?” He pointed at his cap.

  “Yes. I will go over all these things, but I’m warning you, the reason I have withheld things from you is not because you wouldn’t understand them, it’s because if you ever did know them, they will shock you and you may not be able to handle it. You may not recover. Because things just aren’t how they seem.”

  Brevin snickered, “Oh come on uncle. You’re just cautious in your old age, never goin’ outside, always checking the windows, not letting anyone in other than your courier, and only if he correctly knocks exactly to your code. You’re a hermit, I know that. There’s nothing wrong with that. I just feel like I’m ready to go see the world for myself. I’m smart enough and strong enough that I can start to take care of myself.” But fear started creeping in when he saw Nym wasn’t joining him in his mirth, he was just kept looking right at him.

  “No, I’m afraid it’s not that simple my young friend. Now… where to start? Well let me ask you something, before I adopted you and you started living here with me, before I made you wear that silly cap, do you remember any of the time before that?”

  Brevin laughed again, as if gaiety could keep back the approaching lion, “Well sure uncle, of course I remember! Let’s see there was the time I… There was my Birthday when some friends… well you know, you were there. We had the ahh… “

  Nym forged ahead, “How about your parents. Do you remember them?”

  “Well yeah, I mean theres my dad and he…”

  “What’s his name?”

  “Oh well it’s… “

  “Think hard Brevin! What’s his name? Your mother then, what’s her name?”

  “Hold on I can remember it’s... “

  “Brevin can you remember ANYTHING from before you were seven? Anything at all?”

  “Well I could..” Nym could see that the shock was slowly starting to set in, “No I just can’t seem to remember right now, but I know that I could if I tried. Just give me a minute.”

  He gave him time. It was hard seeing the boy struggle so hard with something so simple when just minutes ago he was solving nano-equations. Brevin’s brows furrowed with frustration. Nym wondered if the time was right after all, “Uncle why can’t I remember? Do you know my parents? Can I see them?”

  “Look I can see that you’re starting to get scared. I knew this was a bad idea. I don’t mean to hurt you. Just know that I’ll always be right here by your side no matter what. Here, let’s just continue with the lesson and we won’t worry about it ok? The last chapter…”

  The boy made him put the pad down.

  “No.” A determined look filled his small visage, “Uncle. Nym! Tell me! Why can’t I remember my parents? Where are they? I want to know.”

  “Are you sure Brevin?”

  “Please.”

  Nym didn’t answer right away. He took him by his hand and slowly lead him to the window, the same window he had stared out for endless hours of his life. He handed the boy his binoculars, “What do you see?”

  He took the lenses and adjusted them for his size and pointed them to the city. “Well there’s the buildings, the same buildings we always see, there’s the cobblers den, the meat shop that we never go to, that over there is where…”

  “No! The people.”

  “Oh. OK well…” He adjusted his lenses and pointed down, “there’s some people down there. OK well, there’s a group of 3 men walking down the street, nothing strange about that. They’re headed in our direction.”

  “OK now look closely. Look at their eyes.”

  Brevin focused to be able to see their faces clearly. “What do you see?” Nym persisted.

  “Well, they look like they are really determined on where they are going, like they can’t be interrupted.”

  “Right! They can’t be interrupted. Now look at some other people and see if they have that same look in their eyes.”

  Brevin did.

  “Do they have the same look?”

  He nodded.

&nb
sp; “You will notice that everyone in this entire city looks like…”

  “Oh no wait! Those ones over there look ok.” He pointed to a side street mantled in the shadows of the nearby government administrative hall.

  Nym peered over to the right where they stood, “Oh, those are the enforcers. They work for the government. Yes they are different, if not worse. They are not effected, but they enforce those who are.” He went on, “you see Brevin, every single soul in this entire city is in a trance. They don’t know where they are. They don’t know who they are or what they are doing. They can’t remember their pasts and they are being commanded by powers that are not their own, they are enslaved.”

  Brevin gawked. “What!? All of them!? But I have friends. I have parents. That’s impossible!”

  “Well ask yourself this, have you ever met your friends in person, can you find any people out there without that look in their eyes, or for that matter, have you ever even met your parents?”

  Brevin went back to scouring the city with his lenses. “There has to be somebody. That can’t be.. Well all my friends..”

  “…Exist only online!” Nym finished for him. “They don’t exist in actuality. As for your parents, I really don’t know where or who they are. They may be somewhere, but are most definitely lost in the trance themselves. A lot of the material that you read online is controlled by government agencies and they want you to think certain things. I have kept you from a lot of it. But you and I think freely, we may very well be the last free thinkers on this planet. But now let me ask you this burning question, and this may never have occurred to you. Why have you never even bothered to try to look for parents or meet your parents before now? Don’t you think that’s strange? ”

  Brevin kept searching people faces. “I don’t know, I guess I have been happy living with you the whole time?”

  “For four entire years?”

  Finally he dropped the binoculars and slumped over and sobbed. “You’re right. They all have that ‘look’.” He broke down in tears.

  Nym came over and locked him in an embrace. “It’s all right my friend. I’m here for you. Don’t you ever forget that.” He fought back his own tears.

  * * *

  The next few days were not the usual happy days they were accustomed to. Brevins routine studies were left behind. Instead he was looking for holes, he tried to meet more people online, tried to recollect his parents. But they were all dead ends. His “friends” all seemed to have a patterned response that he noticed only once he carefully looked for it. Were they real? There was no video of them, only text. His parents, he simply didn’t know who they were, but he had never bothered to try to find out.

  He was very careful with his cap, even glued it down in places where it had gotten some wear. He still didn’t know where that fit in, but he trusted Nym, who had always looked after him. Maybe if he knew just a little bit more about what was happening they could do something about it.

  Nym had explained that the reason he believed that there were no other cities was that all communications about there being other places were contrived. He didn’t believe there was any travel out of the city by virtue of the fact that there were no airports, there were no bus lines, or other means of travel. The only reason they were ever to believe that there was an elsewhere was because of the data feeds to their consoles. There was no actual proof they really existed however.

  He turned over to him, Nym was busy working on one of his gadgets again, surveying the readouts and making notes like he always did. He walked over, “I’m ready to know more Nym.”

  “Call me uncle.”

  “No I think I’m ready to face things as they are. You are not my uncle. We are friends and you rescued me from the streets. Please Nym, tell me what you know.”

  He sighed. “Look I wish it wasn’t this way but it is. If you really want to know then let me show you, but you really should get some more rest, you’ve just been through quite a shock.” Brevin held steadfast, it was clear he wasn’t going to budge unless Nym went on. “All right come over here then. All my life I have worked with frequencies and wavelengths. It’s my job to optimize reception and expulsion of radio and light transmissions through metals and electronics. You see this scope? The Internet passes through the air at a certain wavelength and is picked up by our routers. Sound travels at a certain wavelength. Light also travels at a much much finer wavelength and much faster. It was discovered that certain emotions and efforts of the body can also be measured on a scope. They exist only in a very fine almost imperceptible band, but can be observed by sensitive enough equipment.”

  He took out one of his emitters and set it to emit a weak pulse. “Now you see that, that is emitting an invisible wave through the air right now as you can see.” He showed him the scope. “If you were to get angry right now, or extremely fearful, and I were to measure this on you, you will see a tiny fluctuation in the signal.”

  “Now as we go through the various wavelengths from bottom to top, we consistently have to change the bandwidth as we go up and down. It can do down to as low as 0.00005 cms between trough and crest. Maybe there are other things that can be picked up if you go even finer, but the limit of our current technology takes us this far. Now when we were taught how to study these bands it was explained that there were certain bandwidths that were off limits or always over-saturated and unusable. Here let me show you some.”

  He flipped some switches and adjusted some dials to range through the bands, Brevin was riveted. Nym had taught him all about these things growing up, probably for just this moment. Nym set the audio feedback to minimal. Then he hit a band just above human hearing and the scope immediately went of the dial.

  “There! That’s one.”

  He continued tuning through different settings and there was a screech.

  “There! That’s another. There are 2 or 3 more like that. Those are not natural emissions, they are man-made. Now let me show you what happens when I place a piece of metal between the emitter and receptor.”

  He took a metal plate he used for testing he had under his sink. He set the emitter to high and passed the plate between the two objects. There was no change in the stream at all.

  “Now let me show you what happens when you pass lead between the two.”

  He grabbed another plate from his stash which was normally used to deadening and insulating sound. He passed it between the two objects and the signal completely stopped!

  “Whoa!”

  “Right. Lead has the interesting capability of stopping wavelengths, whether it be sound, radioactive, anything, even emotions oddly enough.”

  “That’s why we have to wear these hats at all times?”

  “Right, they are lined with lead and prevent the harsh wavelengths from penetrating our skulls.”

  “But what would happen if we ever took them off? And where are they coming from?”

  “If we took them off, we would end up like them.” He motioned to the window, “they have been conditioned to act a certain way and if they were ever to stray then a disruption will be picked up in the field and the enforcers would be on them in minutes. Because we have these on we can think what we want, feel what we want, do what we want. As for where its coming from…” He lead him back to the window. He pointed out to the center of the city, to the great tower that seemed to pierce the very heavens themselves with is mass, “it’s coming from there.”

  “All right but that can’t be the end. What about my family? Where are they?”

  “As part of the wavelength penetrating your skull for seven years of your life, you have been conditioned to believe that everything is fine, that you wouldn’t want to change anything from the way things are, including interacting or knowing your parents. You were meant to be an unknowing slave. I’m sorry, but I have no idea where or who your actual parents are.”

  Brevin was still indignant, “But look, if we are the only ones left who can have free thoughts and be ourselves then
we can fight back! Better yet they will never even suspect us. We can blindside them!”

  “Whoa, whoa! Who said anything about fighting back? I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

  “But we have to do something. Look at all these people Nym! We can’t let this go on.”

  “Look we are in far more dangerous circumstances than you believe. Because we have never been under the emissions, our thoughts would disrupt the band all the time because we have not been conditioned. If we were picked up, the enforcers would be at our front door literally within a few minutes. Those screams you hear outside, are people who had ‘wrong’ thoughts, probably they felt unhappy with their lives and wanted a change and boom! Just like that they are taken away. I don’t know what happens to them when they get taken away but I do know that I never see them again. They may be killed right away or put through some sort of brainwashing. But whatever it is, if it ever happens to either of us, then I can tell you for a fact that we will never see each other again, our lives would be forfeit.”

  “I think you must’ve been subjected to the emissions too much yourself Nym, to not want to fight back at all. I’m surprised at you, that you would just sit here in your sheltered world, living out the rest of your life in fear.”

  Nym looked down at the floor, “Yes Brev, you’re right. It’s true. I’m scared. I don’t leave here because I’m afraid. I don’t want to die.”

  There was a silence.

  The silence was broken by a scream from outside. They both went up to look. Another commoner had been taken away by two enforcers and lead to the Government building.

  “There, that man probably had a dream for a better life, if only for a moment. And that dream was crushed right before our eyes.” Brevin shot pleading eyes up at Nym, “We know too much, we have to do something! We have an opportunity here to actually do something, to make a difference. I’m still adjusting with all this, I had no idea any of this was going on, but now… everything is different!”