“Who’s Jathom?” Eli asks. I open one eye to see him dressed in a bright yellow shirt with his black pants and shoes that slip onto his feet. I sit up, rubbing my eyes with the palms of my hands.
“What are you wearing?”
“What? They don’t have clothes in Pura?”
“Not clothes like that,” I say mockingly, sliding my legs over the edge of the bed.
“So who’s Jathom?”
I look down at my feet. “He was my friend. He took care of me… he’s dead now.”
Eli inhales through his nose then exhales sharply. “Sounds like a good man. I think we would have been friends.” He pats my shoulder. “Well, if you’re up to it, we have some work to do. But first, breakfast.”
The table in the living room is just big enough for the two of us to eat together. Eli brings out a plate in each hand, full to the edges. There are different fruits, vegetables, and bread. I dig in, chewing wildly, moaning after each bite until it’s all gone.
Holding my stomach, I let out a sigh. Eli stares at me intriguingly. “What?” I ask. He shakes his head. “Oh nothing, it’s just been awhile since I’ve had company.”
“What do you do with your time besides farming?”
He pokes at his food and mumbles with his head down. “Oh… Not much these days.”
The conversation grows stale as I wait for him to finish. He takes a few bites, chewing thoughtfully, before swallowing and smacks his lips. The silence is ruptured when he suddenly says “There’s not much to do. Just avoiding the Blooders and surviving. That’s all one can do given the circumstances.”
Decrepit support beams hang precariously above us, barely holding together; the ceiling stained from years of abandonment. Eli’s head hangs down over his food similarly.
Timidly, I mutter, “I’m not really used to talking to people like this.”
He stops stirring his spoon and looks up at me. “I got that already.”
“I mean, Jathom and I spent some time together but it was always short-lived. I’ve never been able to just… talk to someone.” I shrug my shoulders.
After struggling to bite off a tough piece of bread, Eli asks me “What are you not telling me about the Sphere, Krys?”
Almost automatically I reply, “Nothing.” He looks at me knowingly.
My hands clutch the fabric of my shirt as I start to hyperventilate. “I… can’t…” I say in between breaths. The utensils clatter onto the plate as Eli moves over to me and squeezes my hands.
“Just calm down now, Krys, calm down.” He feels my forehead. “You’ve undergone a great deal of stress. But then again who hasn’t? Living like that can make you sick, it can even kill you.”
He puts his hand on my chest. “Your heart rate is a little high. Try this. I’ll count to four and you alternate between inhaling and exhaling.” He places his hand out with the palm facing up. “Breathe in.” He raises his hand as I take in the air. “Breathe out.” He lowers his hands and I expel the air harshly. We do this a few times and he rechecks my pulse.
“Back to normal. Seems that anytime you even think about it, you become hysterical.”
“It has that effect on most people,” I say sarcastically. A pair of gloves are thrown at me. “What are these for?”
“We’ve got some gardening to do.”
I didn’t notice it when we ran from the storm but there’s a newly built attachment on the house. The floor inside is just dirt. Wire fences separate the different fruits and vegetables. Corn, wheat, cherries, grapes, tomatoes, lettuce, and strawberries.
At the far end of the room are three small trees growing apples, peaches, and pears. “Here, let me show you how it works.” Eli opens a closet containing white plastic buckets. Written on them, the name of each fruit or vegetable.
“These were here when I first found this place. I take out every seed from the food I eat to replenish the ones I used.”
I can’t help but show the hint of a smile. “Who built it?” I inquire.
“I’m not sure, but I’m truly grateful for their hard work. This house was fortified to withstand harsh conditions. I think it was used for experimenting with plant growth. They produce food without any rays from the sun. This would normally be impossible but—” As he trails off, I hear a switch flick and the lights turns from a twinkling white to a tint of purple.
“These are—m”
“—UV rays. That’s what makes them grow so fast,” I finish his sentence.
“That’s right.” Eli nods his head. “They use the same technology in the fields, huh?”
“I’ve been a granger all my life. I know the inside and out of UV technology.”
“What is a granger?”
“A farmer.”
“My, oh my Krys, you sure are full of surprises.” He puts his hands on his hips. Over the next hour and a half, Eli explains to me the operations of the room. It doesn’t take much for me to catch on.
Afterwards, he shows me his purifier. A cone seven feet tall made from thick wood pieces that almost reach the ceiling. He explains that inside it are over twenty layers of charcoal, iodine, and sand.
As the water passes through it, the impurities collect within the layers and the iodine neutralizes the radioactivity. Then you boil the runoff for thirty minutes and you are left with truly clean water.
Outside the garden room is a metal container, large enough to fit a person. “The rain filled it up pretty good. This should last till the next one.” He puts on a pair of black rubber gloves. He fills an empty pail using the spigot at the bottom of the water container.
The dark brown water cascades out with a sickening whiff of sewage. He then carries it to the cone and dumps it in at the top. I can hear the liquid clash against the thick layers.
After about a minute, a steady stream of clear water comes out. “This is amazing!” He takes off the gloves and pours the newly purified water inside of his irrigation system.
At the top of each pen, the machine sprays it out just like rain. “It’s important not to spill the irradiated water on the soil Krys. As soon as you do the ground becomes unusable.”
“Just like me,” I reply somberly.
He folds his arms pensively before saying, “I’d like to show you something. It’s very close to my heart. Now, I haven’t shown this to anyone before, but I trust you.”
“What is it?” I ask.
“Oh, it’s better if I just show you.” He gestures me to follow and I do. We exit the garden room, walking to the east side of the house to a white door. Eli opens it slowly revealing stairs. “Where does this go?”
“I told you, it’s better if I show you.” My hand touches the rough cement walls as we descend into the basement. When we get to the bottom, Eli leads me through a hallway with two doors at the end. We stop at the farthest door and he turns around.
“Krys, as I said this is something I have yet to show another living person and it makes me a little nervous. I need you to promise me that you will never show this to anyone.”
The anticipation is brimming now. Silently I nod.
“Good.” He reaches his hands to the back of his neck. A silver chain dangles in his hands with a key hanging from it. He inserts the key and turns it, the door opening with a loud creak.
I jump, the sound having startled me. “Go on, son, just one step,” Eli points.
What is this? Is it another trick? What if he is in league with the Blooders and he brought me here to kill me?
I peer inside. It’d be cold enough to see my breath if the room weren’t so dark. I breathe in and step in.
“When was the last time you came down here?” I ask nervously.
“It’s been a while. A few months at least … I think.” Row after row of colorful lights burst on from the ceiling, illuminating the whole room with a mixed hue of orange, purple, and pink. Shelves cover the walls from the bottom to the top. Every inch of them filled to the brim with thousands of items scrunched together.
Stacks of old clothes, a trunk full of rusted rectangles with numbers and letters printed on them. Framed pictures of a man and woman kissing, another with soldiers holding their guns. Piles of thin paper books, some tattered and torn and others perfectly preserved. Hanging from the ceiling is a red two wheeled vehicle with pedals and handles. At the far corner is a miniature house painted blue.
“What is all this?” I ask wondrously.
“This… is my collection. I’ve spent years putting it together. These are the mementos left behind by our ancestors.”
I browse each shelf, losing myself in every object. “What’s this?” I ask pointing.
“That’s a camera.”
My eyebrows raise up. “That’s a camera? But it’s so big.” Eli walks in behind me with his hands behind his back. “An-and this. What’s this?” I ask curiously pointing to the framed pictures.
“Those are posters.”
“Pos-ters.” I repeat back.
“Yes, they used them to promote movies.”
“What’s a movie?” Eli grins. “It’s a video used to tell a story.”
I trace the frame with my fingertips. “The only videos we see in Pura are. . .” I trail off not, wanting to finish my sentence. “And these? These are books right?” I examine a dusty stack of worn literature.
“That’s right. Anything you’d like to know from psychology, foreign languages, art, dining, cooking, fighting, survival, writing. It’s all in here. Or at least everything I could so far.” I pick up the nearest one to me. The cover has been ripped off but I can still make out some of the faded letters. “I’m showing you this because I think it will help you.”
I blow the dust off of another book and open it. “Help me?”
“Yes, Krys. As I said when we met, you’ve suffered a great deal more than just physical pain. You’ve undergone very traumatizing mental pain that you keep reliving in your mind. It makes you paranoid and could cause nightmares, or even hallucinations.”
I stroke the dusty cover of another thick book, my eyes not daring to look up. “Krys, I can help you. I can show you how to reclaim your mind. But… I need you to tell me what happened. I need details. You’ve told me a little about the Sphere and Pura but I need to know everything, starting with that.”
He taps the screen of my BAND. Eli grabs a chair from the room next door and gives me time to gather my thoughts. “It’s a device used to keep order. They’re used for control.”
He folds his arms. “Control? How does that thing control you?” I hold it up to him, twisting my forearm from left to right. He leans over, delicately feeling it.
“When active, it can track your location, monitor your emotions, and record anything you say. It’s connected to the nervous system through the spine, using our body’s own electrical output against us.” I put my arm down. “To punish us…”
“Punish you for what?” Eli asks gently.
A lump forms in my throat as I wrestle with myself, the words don’t come out easy. “For being human.” I breathe in, counting to four in my mind and breathe out.
“What else does it do?”
I look down at it. “It’s the key to everything you need to survive in Pura. Access to your funds, food, buildings, everything.” I shake my arm in a foolish effort to fling the BAND off my skin. “This thing is a constant reminder of my bondage. I will always be a slave.”
With genuine compassion, Eli pleads, “Tell me more.”
Over the next few hours I recount to him everything. It’s interesting seeing the look in his eyes change from awe to horror to sadness and then back to awe as I finish telling him how I opened the Sphere doors.
“What were you expecting to find here?”
I shrug. “I’m not sure. All we were told about the outside was that humanity was out of control. After seeing all this, I believe them.”
Eli takes his pointer finger and pulls my chin up to meet his eyes. “No, Krys.” He puts his hand on top of the book I’m holding. “Do you know what’s in this book? The words on its pages? Do you know what you are surrounded by in this very room?”
I say nothing. He leans forward.
“History.” He removes his hand. “I can understand why you’re having such a hard time, Krys. You’ve seen so much death, and you’re still so young. How old are you?”
“I have twenty-one years.”
Eli straightens up and walks over to one of the shelves. “Why does IRIS control you, Krys?”
“What?”
He pulls a book off, reads the inside then puts it back into place. “Why does IRIS control the dependents?”
I picture the emblem in my mind with perfect accuracy. “We are told that—”
“—Why do you say we?” He interjects. I delay for a second to think about it.
“What?”
“Why do you say we? Who is we?”
“We, the dependents of Pura. The people that obey the Three Laws.”
“You’re not in Pura now, Krys. You are you.”
In my mind echoes a chant of thousands of people, we thrive together or die together. “We, um, I… was told that the world had been destroyed by the evils of man. That basic instincts needed to be contained or humans would fall back into corruption and death. The man who designed the Sphere, he believed that if given the chance, people would abuse free will.”
“So the ‘BANDs’ are used as a way to correct human nature,” he completes my thought.
“We’d both be sent to Cleansing just for having this conversation.”
“Well, that’s quite a tale.” A couple books fall down as his continues foraging through his hoard of novels. “Ah ha! Found it.” He shouts, holding up a book with no title.
“What’s that?”
“Krys, I’ve survived longer than everyone I’ve ever known. I’ve seen horrible things just as you have, and if it wasn’t for this book… This book taught me that instead of denying my circumstances, I should face them. I’ve accepted all the things that happened to me and in doing so, I have freed myself from guilt, fear, and pain that the lies bring you.”
I fumble with the unopened book and ask, “What lies are those?”
He puts his hand on my shoulder and looks into my eyes. “The same lies you’ve been living your whole life. The ones that say ‘You can’t’, the ones that say ‘you don’t have a voice’, the ones that keep you from who you really are.”
He takes his hand off, my face staring blankly back at him. Who is he? “You can be free, Krys. But only if you want to be. The only thing holding you back, is yourself.”
With teary eyes I reply, “Teach me.”
Eli smiles. “Let’s get started.”
Chapter 11
Morbidity and Mortality
The old cul de sac was meant to be part of a massive neighborhood. Originally, they planned to expand housing to accommodate the growing number of people moving to the nameless city. At least that’s what Eli tells me as we walk a mile to an abandoned playground, awkwardly placed in the middle of a dead wooded area.
I never had anything like this when I was young. It’s sad to think these devices, which were meant for children, were never used. “Remember, Krys, stealth is the key to life. I’ve survived this long because I learned how to hide. You’re strong, but I’ve seen plenty of strong men fall from a bullet to the head or a knife to the heart. Silence and anonymity can be deadly if you learn to use them. That way you can truly defend yourself.”
With folded arms I stand unimpressed.
“You don’t believe me?” He is amused.
“It’s not that I don’t believe you, it’s just that… you’re skilled for your age, but you can’t be that hard to find.”
He smiles, but with a little more zeal than usual. “Care to make a little wager on that?” His words echo through the field of dismantled rides.
Annoyed, I uncross my arms and accept his challenge, “Okay, old man. Let’s see what you can do.”
/> He puts his arms up jokingly, “Whoa, now. Don’t hurt me, son.”
I smirk sarcastically as he places his arms behind his back. “Ok. Close your eyes.”
I cock my head slightly to the side. “What?”
He makes a twirling motion with his finger.
“Oh, come on.” I say loudly, then close my eyes and turn around. “Do you want me to count or something?”
No response. There’s no noise to indicate if he’s moved or not.
I spin back around with open eyes at nothing. “What?” I whisper. I didn’t even hear his footsteps! Within just a few seconds, he vanished. “Okay, I was wrong. But I’m still gonna find you.” I move into a denser part of the blackened woods, spotting an object just out of corner of my eye.
The edge of Eli’s Jacket pokes out just a few inches from behind a tree. With a confident sneer, I casually walk to him. When I’m close enough, I jump out yelling, “Told you!”
The jacket hangs gently from a tree branch. Disappointed, I pull it down then feel something cold press against my throat as a hand covers my mouth.
“If you were a Blooder, you’d be dead. And the best part is, no one would have known.” Removing the knife from my neck, he takes the jacket and puts it back on.
“How?” I question in amazement.
“You’ll learn. Let’s head back, it’s time for our session.”
For the last three weeks, Eli has planned out thirty minutes a day to talk about the hard things. I went into detail about the function of the Atlases and the Council. I explained to him that careers are randomly assigned to dependents out of fairness and equality.
Today, I describe the difficulty of the fields, the weight of the tiller and the cruelty of the sentries. Especially towards me and Kalen. Then, Maxis jumps into my thoughts.
“Maxis, he was always pushing the limits,” I say with a hint of resentment. “He was always making jokes and slacking off.” I don’t notice the volume in my voice until I stop talking.
“Sounds like he knew who he was,” Eli replies.
“Yeah, being who you are is a great way to get yourself and your family killed. But at least he was himself right?” I say bitterly.
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