by P. S. Lurie
As I walk, stopping myself from breaking out into a sprint, I turn to where Lester is. He is watching me. I smile and carry on to my father’s desk, ignoring the sweat on my forehead. The guards will be here in a second. As I walk past a workstation, I pick up a wrench and slide it up my sleeve. I check behind me. Lester is focused on something else.
Above the sound of conversations and hammering, my ears pick up the beep as people arrive at the hub. It could be anyone but I don’t have the liberty of checking. I race across the laboratory, jumping over a trolley that suddenly appears in my way. The man pushing it yells at me and people stop what they’re doing and turn to see what the raucous is.
“Zeke Samuels,” an authoritative young voice calls.
I hurry to the corner. The man sorting out the baby’s watch is too distracted to prevent me from knocking into him and breaking my freefall. I lean my wrist into a groove in the workstation between two magnetic elements and my identification watch springs open. I’d be undetectable if it wasn’t for the soldiers who have their guns trained on me.
Two guards move through a path cleared by the crowd. I drop the wrench and do a heinous thing instead. As I glance at the two boys marching towards me I grab the baby from its mother and use it as a shield.
Selene
“Explain what’s going on here,” Ronan says sternly, after everyone else has left and I have to remind myself that even with his commanding tone he’s only an eight year old.
“There are a few hundred of us,” Jack says, our designated spokesman that we unfairly left everything to. The rest of us listen to him narrate what happened, impressed with his confidence that has built up over the six months. “Mostly whole families that escaped during the cull. Some weren’t so lucky. Dante for example is alone but I don’t know his story. The Middlelanders took us in and we told them about the world behind the Fence but not what it looked like. During the year that we were Rehoused, they worked out that the water really was receding but didn’t set up base camps farther away because the ground was still untenable. They waited but no one ever arrived. Until us.”
“President Callister knew they were all out here,” Ronan says. “But she didn’t care. There aren’t enough of them to bother her. And if it’s families then she shrugged it off as women and children. Actual children, unlike...”
“Why now?” Melissa asks.
“The fortress was a temporary holding ground. They can’t sustain the population. Resources will diminish and the heating system isn’t going to endure another winter. The freezing altitude is no place to build a utopian society. Now that the seas are settling it’s time to rebuild and you’re in their way. Once I learnt of this I knew I had to act. Until now I’ve been trying to work out what was happening with Theia.”
Ruskin sits, leaning over a map that only highlights parts of the Upperlands and is light on details of the fortress. “What do we do about their army?”
“They’re fixed on killing you. They’re convinced that they are serving a great duty. They forgot about the Middlelands a long time ago.”
“It’s not that easy,” I interrupt, thinking about my own experience of not being able to have my mind wiped completely. “You should know that.”
“Yes, but only when I saw Theia.”
“Selma,” Melissa says.
“That was the trigger,” I agree. “When I saw my mother in the arena during that last announcement.”
“But those kids survived because their parents died during the cull,” Jack adds, miserably. “You said you had a plan.”
Ronan nods, almost apologetically. “The soldiers are coming here. All of them, or if any stay behind it’ll be a handful. If we attack and kill President Callister then they’ll be defeated.”
“They really don’t know about you?” Jack asks.
“They think I committed suicide. I have a couple of friends, who I managed to help remember the past. They smuggled me out.” Ronan points to his other arm; I hadn’t noticed a dial and a miniature keypad sewn into his uniform. “Communication devices. I can contact them but the Upperlanders can listen in so I’ve turned it off. I’ll use it if and when we need to. They’ll be opening up the Fence but if we hurry now we can make it through the tunnel. I assume that’s how you got out of the Upperlands.”
We all murmur in agreement. It was how Ruskin and Jack and their families entered the Upperlands before the first cull, straight into an apartment block and how the four of us later left the Upperlands after recuperating for a few days in the hospital; whilst Jack and Ruskin stood watch, Melissa kept me alive, terrified we’d be found. Neither an army nor a single watchman came. Not even Maddie or anyone else we wondered about, eventually accepting everyone had died in the blasts although I have my private reservations about Nathaniel.
When the others could move my body without killing me, Ruskin and Jack led the way back to the tunnel that had taken them a few scouting missions to find. They spent the journey in fear of my health but also in fear of what we’d encounter past the Fence.
“There’s no way we’ll go undetected,” says Melissa.
“We might not need to. If their army is here, we have a fighting chance.”
“To kill President Callister?” Jack exclaims.
“Yes. And rescue Theia and Leda.”
“That’s crazy,” Melissa and I say at the same time, and she continues with what I’m thinking. “A couple of hundred people waltzing into the Upperlands whilst the army breezes past and takes us all out.”
“Only a few of us need to go. The fortress will be undefended. They won’t expect it. Everyone else needs to set out on boats like they did during the first cull. Either way, no one can remain here by the end of today.”
“You’re sure they think you’re dead?” Ruskin asks.
“I’m not sure I would have made it alive through the Upperlands if they didn’t. They won’t rule out foul play entirely though.”
“Your friends?” Melissa asks.
“There are a few of us that don’t believe in utopia. Anyway, what other choice do you have? I tell you what, I’ll wait outside as you decide and let me know.” With that Ronan leaves the four of us to make a decision that will determine everything that happens from this point on.
“Should someone monitor him?” Ruskin asks.
Jack replies as he sits on one of the chairs opposite Ruskin. “He can’t do much damage here even if he is a traitor. I’m hesitant to go back but if he’s telling the truth then what choice do we have?”
Melissa and I draw close; the four of us once more in a huddle.
“Let me get this straight,” my housemate says. “We hide everyone and a few of us walk into the Upperlands, which if it isn’t a trap is a damn sight dangerous. And we stroll up to the fortress and take out all of their leaders. Retrieve Theia in the process. That about it?”
“Sounds excellent,” I say, beginning to jog on the spot. I have to steady myself when my balance betrays me but I brush it off. “Let’s go.”
“Jack?” Ruskin asks.
“I’m guessing you’re in. I can’t stop you and I’m also not letting you go without me. Melissa, we’re basically blind in the Upperlands without you.”
“I should be looking after the Middlelanders,” she says, thinking out loud. “They need medical help. I won’t be good up there.”
“Ok,” Jack says, “That makes sense.”
“Idiot,” she says with a smile. “If there’s a chance to rescue Theia I’m leading the way.”
Ruskin snorts and playfully punches Jack’s arm. “Looks like you ran out of time to save us all.”
“Guess so. You think anyone else will come?”
“Travis is a definite. Dante? Maybe a few others too,” Ruskin replies. “But only a few others. Without weapons, we’re just sitting ducks. Too many people and we’ll be slowed down. We need strength but stealth too, especially if we’re going in daylight. You realise that if Ronan is lying then it’s certa
in death.”
Jack takes Ruskin’s hand and interlocks their fingers. “He would have killed us already. I didn’t want war or a single part of this but they’ve killed everyone we ever loved and they need to pay. We’ve talked about this moment for so long and we can’t watch and wait. We need to act now. This time tonight it could all be over.”
“One way or another it will be,” I say, excited for the prospect of searching for Nathaniel but shudder because this could turn out to be a suicide mission.
11 A.M. – 12 P.M.
Selene
Ruskin fetched Ronan and the others and we reconvene, allowing Jack enough time to update Travis and everyone else about our plans; Ronan didn’t seem surprised by our decision to return with him to the fortress.
“I’m thrilled this one has talked some sense into you,” Travis says, clearly delighted that Ronan’s arrival has ended our inertia and any thoughts of delaying long gone. “Claire?”
“What happens when we encounter the children?”
“It’s them or us,” Jack says, conversely to what he would’ve believed not too long ago. He’s right that we have no possibility of surviving if we falter against trained militia however old or brainwashed they are.
“Shoot first, think later,” Dante says.
Claire shakes her head.
“You don’t have to come,” Travis says. “Only those willing to remember what we’re up against. You screw up and we’re all in danger.”
“It’s fine,” Claire replies. “I’ll figure it out.”
“What about your children?” Tess asks her.
“I’m protecting them better by coming with you rather than cowering with them on a boat.”
I know she’s unsure, whatever she says, because that’s how we’re all feeling except maybe for Travis and Ruskin who are baying for blood. The children we may have to kill were boys and girls that were in our schools before losing their parents and being Rehoused. Their families gave their lives for them to survive the flood and little did they know what they were really sacrificing themselves for: an army sourced from Middlelanders in order to kill off their own society. It’s been a long contest, one in which President Callister and the echelons of the Upperlanders have kept their hands clean whilst working towards their endpoint, like a strategy game played at arm’s length.
“What about the rest of the Middlelanders?” Ruskin asks. “Definitely out at sea?”
“Yes, the sea,” Jack says. “They can’t hide here if the soldiers have heat-sensitive glasses. Even if we could make it to the Upperlands first, they’d be on enemy soil.”
“True.” Ruskin looks at Ronan with suspicion. “Any traps...”
Ronan interrupts. “Unplanned encounters.”
“Or ambushes,” Jack continues, compromising on the word.
“They’re dead if we don’t succeed,” says Melissa.
“They survived at sea before,” I say, but I know this time the Upperlanders won’t stop until they’re all dead. They left the fleeing Middlelanders to die out after the great cull and weren’t expecting them to survive but this time the Upperlanders want a total clearout. “It’s not worth debating. I guess we just have to survive.”
“Dante, Samuel,” Travis says. “What’s the situation with boats?”
“Enough for everyone if we load one day’s worth of water and food,” Tess’s boyfriend says. “Two days at a push,” he concedes.
“That’s decided then,” Ruskin says. “They leave immediately. Only a few of us go. If we avoid the army then we don’t need strength in numbers. We take out the brains and figure out the rest later.”
“There may be a few guards patrolling the Upperlands and fortress,” Ronan says. “But we should be able to avoid them.”
“Heat-sensitive glasses,” Jack repeats. I know all about them. They’re an integral part of how I survived that first night but also a reason the family with the young girl died in the market, somewhere I refuse to go even now; ghosts can follow me but I try to avoid their graves.
“So we make it up to the Upperlands before then, wait it out and break into the fortress after they’ve passed through,” Jack continues.
“Good, but she’s staying behind,” Travis directs his gaze towards me.
“In your wildest dreams,” I say.
“She’s a hindrance.”
“I’ll be as fast as you,” I snap back.
“I’m not talking about your mobility. You’ll be looking for Nathaniel.”
How does he know about him? I make a beeline in my gaze from Melissa to Jack. “Thanks for the solidarity.”
“He might be right,” Melissa says. “You could protect people on the boats.”
I cast my mind back to floating in the sea, when the bodies brushed up against me and then I imagine being one of the corpses, helpless and waiting. “No chance.”
“We’re wasting time,” Jack says. “Melissa and I will take responsibility of her.”
“You’re not my mother. I don’t need anyone to look after me. Besides, I know the Upperlands better than anyone except Melissa.” It’s a lie but one Jack and Ruskin are hardly going to reveal to Travis and the rest of his crew or they’ll become redundant themselves.
“She’s coming with,” Ronan says, decisively. “If Theia is being brainwashed then she will need people she remembers. Selene, Melissa and I are your best chance of turning her against President Callister.”
“Remind me why your sister is such a big deal again,” Travis scoffs.
No one replies. Theia kept my mother alive during their time in the barracks and went back for Ruskin in the prison. I blamed her for Henry’s death and then I failed her during the great cull. It’s complicated but I don’t care what the larger picture is; the heart of the matter is that I owe it to Theia to rescue her.
“That’s me, Ruskin, Ronan, Selene and Melissa,” Jack says. “Travis and Claire?”
“Yes.”
“Without a doubt.”
“And me,” Dante says.
Jack does a headcount. “Eight of us.”
Two more soldiers volunteer by stepping forward, of course both at the same time. “Samuel and Tess,” Travis says. “Good on you.”
“The rest of you,” Claire says, directing her orders towards the remaining men and women in the room, “March everyone down to the sea. Get everyone onto the boats and if they have heat-seeking tech then get as far away from the shore as you can.” She glances cursively at Ronan. “If they’re unaware that we know they’re coming then they won’t be prepared to deal with the water.”
“What about the elderly and impaired?” one of the feebler-looking men I’ve never seen before asks.
“Everyone.” Claire turns to someone who will be leading the exodus to the sea and has a private conversation with him, which I assume is about protecting her children. I wonder if Claire will say goodbye to them first and explain what she’s doing. I’m not sure I could part with my family, if I had any, so maybe not. I hope they’ll be proud of her either way.
I take a headcount. Ten of us will be heading into the Upperlands. I know what I said about focusing on Theia and being able to keep up but I need to see the debris for myself. I need to see Nathaniel’s final resting place.
What did I say about avoiding graves?
Zeke
“Put the baby down.”
Put the guns down and I might, I want to say, but there’s no negotiating; whether right here or in privacy I’m dead if I give myself up. I try and work out if this is all a mistake and what I saw was a figment of my imagination or a mental lapse or something else – a dream even – but I’m clutching at straws because the very real image of my father’s blood-splattered face is burnt into my retinas and I know that I’ll be next. The frantic mother is screaming at me, rightfully so. This isn’t how utopia should be.
Everyone in the room has trained their attention on me, paralysed from fear at the sight of a confrontation and I realise that
despite how much violence has existed in our lives we’ve either revelled in it or been so far removed that it feels like an alien concept.
Lester and my father’s friends must be confused beyond belief. There’s only one thing I can do: send their heads into a tailspin even more. I may not make it but I can disrupt the smooth functioning of President Callister’s rule before I die.
“They killed my father.”
“Zeke Samuels, you have disobeyed the laws of the new world order.”
“This isn’t utopia. Not if we’re forced to obey. I say one thing to counter President Callister and she wants me dead. You all know it’s true. You’re cowards if you let them kill me.”
The men watch from a distance. I don’t know what I’m expecting. Do I really think I can strike up a riot, some sort of overthrowing rebellion? These people know no better. I didn’t either. I’d be doing exactly what they were but I’m corrected when Lester walks up to the guards.
“Is it true about Jeff Samuels?”
Maybe I underestimated him.
“We are not at liberty to divulge specifics but Mr Samuels was a traitor to our society.”
“You killed him?” another engineer asks in disbelief. My father was a good man. I’m sure the guards wish this wasn’t the head engineer whom everyone was proud to call their manager. There are plenty of intellectual workers here but no one with the genius to troubleshoot such precarious issues that could keep the fortress functioning.
“Zeke, give the baby to its mother and come with us. We just want to question you.”
“They’ll kill me.” I see Lester and the others work it through, their thin veil of loyalty for President Callister slipping. I then use the one thing that will destroy any calm but also means that there’s no turning back for me: “They knew about the sea before the Utopia exploded. Don’t believe their...”