Dream (The Waking Sleep Book 2)

by Lucy Adler

  Then he leaned on the bench and let out an angry groan.

  He slammed the top of it with his fist.

  He stood up and kicked the stool he had been sitting on. It’s metal frame clanged and scraped across the floor.

  “Help me!” he shouted into the air.

  Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out something else.

  A handful of splintered wood.

  He dropped it on the bench and stared at it. It was as white as his lab coat on the painted edges, and a normal light brown on what had been the interior.

  “Living blackness? Like ink?” he whispered as he shook his head in confusion. “Where?”

  Then he recalled the scene again. His wife unconscious on the bathroom floor, the door obliterated, its fragments scattered halfway down the hall.

  He reached over and grabbed the vial, holding it up in front of him.

  “What kind of... power...?”

  13

  Month: 4 | Day: 8-10 | Year: 60

  (Beginning 2 days ago)

  BE LUCKY, PHILLY

  Aury blinked her eyes a few times to focus them.

  Bare grey walls. Just a poster of the Progress Guidelines hanging over a desk.

  Her blankets were comfortable but she didn’t remember having blankets.

  Or a bed.

  She sat up with a gasp.

  “Max?”

  “I’m right here.” He was sitting on the floor just to her left.

  “Where are we?”

  “The Braidwood Inn,” he said with a smile.

  “The what?”

  “I didn’t think it was safe to continue the journey with you asleep. I’m still no good,” he said, pointing to his legs. “And I’m also a day or two behind you, until the Direx gets out of my system. I just thought it would be better to wait for you to be rested and awake, in case we need another dream creature!”

  “How long have I been out?”

  “Just a long night. Maybe ten hours.”

  Aury turned and set her feet on the floor. She stood up with a wobble as her head adjusted to the change of position.

  “Isn’t this dangerous?” she asked with a yawn.

  “Maybe,” Max said. “But we’re on the very edge of the city. I’m not sure they’ll have anyone looking for us this far out yet.”

  “Where’s Phillip?”

  “He went to get some food. He should be back soon.”

  It wasn’t long before their new companion knocked on the door, then opened it.

  “Hey, it’s just me,” Phillip said as he slipped into the room with a brown bag. “I didn’t have much money after paying for the hotel, so I just got a bunch of protein bars and some water. Sorry, not very exciting.”

  After locking the door behind him, he finally looked up at them.

  “Aurora!” he said happily. “You’re awake!”

  “Yup,” she smiled, quickly pulling back the strands of hair that had been hanging over her eyes and face.

  “How do you feel?”

  “I’m good!”

  “Excellent!” he said with a nod.

  They stared at each other a little longer, until Max interrupted.

  “Protein bar, then?” he said, waving his hand.

  “Oh, right, here you go,” Phillip said, tossing a few of them into his lap. Then he set the bag down and took a seat in the only chair in the room.

  “So, now that she’s up, where do we go from here?” he asked.

  “Clarence’s,” Max said with a full mouth.

  “Where?”

  “Jake said to go to the cabin if we got separated,” Aury objected.

  “You gonna carry me up the hill?” Max replied.

  “Hmm, I guess not.”

  “What’s ‘Clarence’s’?” Phillip asked.

  “A friend,” Aury said. “A safe place, outside Progress.”

  He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, chin resting on his hands. He was looking down at the floor.

  “Something wrong?”

  “I’ve never been outside Progress before.”

  Aury sat back down on the bed.

  “We’ll understand if you don’t want to come,” she said. “Does it seem scary?”

  “It’s not fear. At least, I don’t think it is. You guys grew up here, right?”

  “Mostly,” Max replied as he swallowed his last bite of protein bar.

  “It’s not like there’s supposed to be something dangerous out there, keeping you inside,” Phillip reflected. “It’s more that the thought just never occurs to you, you know? You just don’t even think about it. I mean, why would you, right? Everything good, everything worthwhile, is here. Out there... well, it’s just pointless. A waste of time.”

  “Think about it, Philly,” Max said, his cynical tone in measured contrast to Phillip’s philosophical musings. “What’s actually here? I mean, c’mon. You work, you eat, you sleep. If it’s supposed to be pointless out there,” he said, motioning behind him with his thumb, “then what’s the thing you’re living for here?”

  “Be nice, Maxy,” Aury said.

  “I am. I’m not attacking our new friend,” he said defensively. “It’s just this place I’m not so keen on.”

  “I get what he means, don’t worry,” Phillip said, giving Aury a smile. Then he thought about it for a while. “Think of the achievements we’ve made here. Science, medicine. Our city is healthy and prosperous. Everyone has food, a nice house, a nice car. It’s clean, and safe. You can walk around anywhere, at any hour, and you don’t have to worry about being mugged or killed.”

  “Assuming you haven’t been shot in the leg by the ‘servants’ of the all-knowing Doctors,” Max replied coldly.

  “Exactly,” Phillip laughed. “Which, like I said back in the prison, is why I’m helping you. As much as I see what Progress is on the surface, I’m feeling more and more uneasy about what’s going on beneath the surface. And I’ve only seen a little bit. Who knows what else is there?” Then he looked down at the floor again and shook his head. “But man, it’s still tough to think of leaving it behind.”

  “Well,” Max said, grunting a little as he changed his position on the floor, “no offence, Philly, but it’s a little late for second-guessing. You sorta made your decision when you nicked a jam and busted us outta the Franz!”

  Phillip raised an eyebrow.

  Aury translated.

  “Jam jar, car. Franz Klammer, slammer.”

  “Interesting.”

  “You have no idea!” she laughed. Then she came back to the subject at hand. “We have more friends out there. And they’ll be happy to meet you, especially when we tell them what you did for us!”

  More than her words, her sweet smile, overflowing with optimism, eased his mind.

  “Max is right, though,” he replied, “I really don’t have a choice now!”

  Then he stood up and clapped his hands together.

  “So, how do we get to this Clarence guy?”

  ____________________________

  They decided to wait until it was night to leave the city. Not that nighttime meant darkness, of course. But once they were beyond the burning lights of Progress, they would need to find a traditional car to make the rest of the journey. And they weren’t sure what their options might be.

  They pulled off the Road Network at the last fuel station just beyond the outskirts of the city. A row of fifteen or twenty large box trucks lined one edge of the lot. Three or four shiny white sedans were parked at refilling points spaced evenly in front of the brightly-lit convenience store.

  While fuel stations were common throughout Progress, those at the edge of the Road Network also offered long-term parking for people who happened to be leaving the city temporarily. They were usually delivery drivers, on their way to and from farms or factories that had yet to be absorbed by the ever-expanding metropolis. An adjacent lot allowed them to swap cargo back and forth between their vehicles fitted for the magnetic street
s of the city, and traditional ones still able to run on old-fashioned concrete and tarmac highways.

  They parked to the side of the shop and got out of the van.

  “So, what do you think?” Phillip asked. “How do we do this?”

  “You guys should check out the traditional lot and see what’s there,” Max said. “Maybe someone is heading out of town.”

  “You mean like ask them for a ride?” Aury replied.

  “I mean we can stow away on their rig,” he said.

  “But how do we know where they’re going?”

  “We’re on the north side. There are only so many routes out of the city at this point. At the very least, wherever we end up, we can try to place a call to Clarence.”

  “Let’s just have a look,” Phillip said. “Maybe we’ll get lucky?”

  He and Aury walked past the row of box trucks and hopped a low concrete barrier. The fine gravel of the traditional lot crunched beneath their shoes as they scouted out the dozen or so vehicles parked in three different aisles.

  “I hope your friends are ok,” Phillip said as they walked between two of the trucks. “You know, the ones that came to the Institute with you.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  “What were their names?”

  “Jake, Daria, Julia, and Corey. Oh, and Brix. She was the one we came there to rescue.”

  “I knew a Corey recently. Corey Lee. He was a scientist at the Institute. He wasn’t there long.”

  “What?” Aury said, stopping and facing him. “That’s our Corey!”

  “Really? So he was helping you from the inside?”

  “He was undercover at one point. It’s a long story.”

  “Oh, well, I’m so sorry then,” Phillip said, his expression turning solemn. “He was a good guy. I’ll miss him.”

  “What are you talking about?” Aury asked, squinting her eyes and cocking her head to the side.

  Phillip hesitated, looking confused.

  “He passed away, right? At least, that’s what they told me when I saw the coroner collecting a couple of bodies the day after you and Max were taken prisoner.”

  “No. No, no,” Aury repeated, shaking her head. “That can’t be right. I mean, what... why... no, there’s no way.”

  “What happened that night they captured you?”

  Aury tried her best to remember the details through the growing cloud of fear that now gripped her heart and mind. As she related them to Phillip, his eyes widened.

  “They must have killed him,” he said. “Then they told us that it was Corey Lee and that he had a heart attack. Nobody asked any questions after that.”

  Aury’s fear turned to tears as she knelt on the ground, covering her face with her hands.

  Phillip placed his hand on her back and crouched down beside her.

  “I’m so sorry, Aurora.”

  “Wait, you said there were two bodies?” she asked through the sobbing.

  “I didn’t get the name of the other guy. They just said he was a patient that had died of natural causes.”

  “But it was a guy, not a girl, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Jake...” she whispered as her voice choked up.

  “All I heard was that he had brown hair. And was maybe in his early thirties.”

  She looked up at him with a flicker of hope in her eyes.

  “Then that’s not Jake!” she said, shaking her head. “He’s about your age.”

  Despite the good news, her heart was still heavy. But she tried not to let herself keep crying. Instead, she stood up with a defiant huff.

  “We need to get to the settlement and tell them what happened. Then we have to find the rest of our friends.”

  “The settlement? Is that Clarence’s?”

  “I’ll explain it as we go. Let’s just find a way out of here.”

  ____________________________

  They strolled as casually as they could between the parked vehicles, trying not to look suspicious. There were only a few people coming and going, so it wasn’t hard to avoid interaction. Two different drivers had come out from the shop and jumped up into their trucks, while another had pulled in from the traditional paved highway. He parked in a special space at the edge of the lot, backing up as closely to the magnetic side as possible.

  Within twenty or thirty seconds, four guys came jogging out of the store. The newly-arrived driver made his way over to one of the shiny, white Road Network trucks and pulled it into place opposite his traditional one. The four guys helped him transfer about fifty boxes of various shapes and sizes. It didn’t take them long. Then the driver repositioned his first truck alongside the other traditional vehicles, and headed off towards the lights of Progress in the shiny one.

  “Well, we know he won’t be coming back for a while,” Phillip said. “Let’s see if he left the keys with it. What was that Max said back at the prison? ‘Be lucky, Philly!’”

  Aury laughed. But apparently he was luckier than either of them anticipated. Sure enough, the driver’s side door was unlocked and Phillip found the keys in a small compartment beneath the arm rest.

  “What the heck, Philly?” Aury said, obviously impressed. “I guess we’ll keep you around a little longer!” she added, nudging him in the side with her elbow.

  “It’s funny but we’re only able to steal this because of how ‘safe’ Progress is!” he laughed. “Who would leave their keys in their car anywhere else?”

  “That’s true. Once we’re safe, a couple of our guys can return it. But can you actually drive one of these things?” she asked as he dangled the keys triumphantly in the air.

  “I guess we’ll find out!”

  ____________________________

  While he wasn’t exactly skilled at handling the big truck, Phillip managed to get them down the road safe and sound. Albeit, a little slower than the rest of the cars that passed them.

  “Sorry, but this thing is like a dinosaur. I don’t want to go too fast.”

  “Just keep it moving and keep Progress behind us. That’s all that matters,” Max said.

  It should have been a couple of hours to Clarence’s but instead it took about five. They finally rolled in late the following morning and were welcomed with a smile and a hearty breakfast.

  “It’s great to see you, Clarence!”

  “And you kids, too!” he said, giving Aury a hug. “How’s my little girl?”

  “I’m happy to be here!” she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

  “And who’s this?” the old man asked.

  “This is Phillip,” she said. “He’s a new friend. Phillip, this is Clarence. He’s like the grandpa you always wanted.”

  They shook hands and then the three of them sat down for some eggs and toast.

  As they started eating, a family came through the doors into the shop. The parents looked like they were in their late twenties, while their little boy couldn’t be more than three years old.

  “Howdy, Franklins! What can I help you with today?” the old man called out warmly from behind the counter.

  “Just some rice, please,” the dad said, pointing to the large bags on the bottom shelf.

  “Certainly. Nothing else?”

  The little boy leaned against his dad’s leg, and his dad ran his fingers through his hair.

  “Do you have any fruit right now?” he asked Clarence.

  “I’ve got a box of peaches, just came in earlier this week from one of my suppliers.” The old man gave a wink in Max and Aury’s direction as he spoke. “They’re out back in the cellar, keepin’ from spoilin’.”

  “We’ll just take one, please.”

  As Clarence made his way out to retrieve the fruit, Phillip watched the family. They weren’t wearing the Progress wardrobe and he was intrigued by their clothing. The parents wore blue jeans with light tan boots on their feet. The father had on a flannel shirt, while the mother wore a pink hoodie with some words on it that Phillip couldn’t get a good l
ook at. The little boy was running a lap around the store now, his legs a blur in his blue sweatpants, while his upper body was covered in a black t-shirt that was obviously a little too big for him. He was smiling and laughing as he rounded their table.

  But beyond the colours and styles, Phillip also noticed that their clothes were dusty and dirty. There were also a couple of small but ragged holes in the elbow of the wife’s pink hoodie, and the knees of the man’s jeans. And it all stood in stark contrast with the pristine, crystal clear tablet tucked away beneath the husband’s arm.

  They eventually paid Clarence for their massive bag of rice - and the peach, which the man gave to the little boy. His eyes lit up as he held it in both hands and sank his teeth into it, the juices dripping down his happy face.

  “Catch ya later, Clarence! Thanks!

  “Always a pleasure, Franklins!”

  Phillip returned to his breakfast as they left the store. By now, Aury and Max were finished.

  “You alright?” Max asked.

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” he said as he scooped up some of his eggs. “These are surprisingly tasty, for eggs. What does he do to them?”

  “Nothing!” Max said firmly. “That’s the point! I’m sorry to break it to you, Phil, but you’ve grown up on a steady diet of crap. Now you’re finally eating right.”

  “What?” Phillip laughed, waiting for one of them to elaborate.

  “This is non-enhanced food,” Aury clarified.

  “Oh, how about that,” he said, taking another bite. He looked thoughtful as he chewed it. “Interesting...”

  Aury enjoyed the look on his face. She also smiled as she was momentarily distracted by those little curls of hair behind his ear again. She felt like a cat that wanted to bat at them.

  “Was that family...” he started, trailing off as he tried to find the right words. “Was that family... ok? They seemed kinda poor, or something.”

  “Cause they ‘kinda’ are,” Max replied with a tone that made Aury give him a sharp look.

  “Be nice, Max. Phillip’s only curious.”

  “I’m sorry,” he backed off, “it’s not you, Phil. It really isn’t. It’s the city. It’s the Guidelines. It’s the whole thing out there,” he said, pointing out the window.