Utopian Uprising: Prisoner of the Mind

by Brian Craft

  Orion scans around and first notices a large, oddly familiar red billboard, and then he notices that GL's hands have no scratches or scars. He asks her, ‘What happened to your hands?'

  GL holds her hands out, palms down, to inspect them. Suddenly, scars appear all over the backs of them. Orion steps toward the border and stops when he spots a small yellow flower growing from the crack in the concrete just before the boundary Hivebeam.

  He looks back to the red billboard again. ‘This isn’t real,’ he says, and the words echo across the city. Citizens appear as ghostly doubles of themselves, standing near themselves. The boundary beam intensifies and a wall of blinding white light rockets into the sky, arching into a dome that encases the entire city with a crushing final silence. It softens into a blue-wash with white plastic clouds drifting aimlessly by.

  Fray appears from nowhere, gasping for air, his face turning purple.

  ‘Just let go, Orion,’ GL prompts. ‘It’s the freedom you want.’

  Orion extends his hand to physically move Iris’s hair from her eyes, but he can’t seem to reach her. Like she’s eternally beyond his reach.

  ‘False awakening,’ Orion states as everything slows around him.

  ‘The flower,’ Iris interjects. ‘We need to wake up.’

  He crouches and plucks the flower. Raising it to his face, he focuses all his thoughts on it. A torrent of voices rises to a thundering chorus in the air around him.

  He throws his head back and unleashes a furious scream...

  Echoing into the chamber around him, Orion’s own furious scream jolts him awake in the Icarus chair. His eyes fling wide open like emerging from a hideous nightmare. The color erased from his irises and now shaded silvery-white and gleaming. It’s a leap beyond awakening in Hivemind. His emergence jolts the rest of the group, too. All eyes fling open, silvery-white and gleaming. Each awakening channeler is met with terrifying cries from themselves and their companions.

  The unified screams erupting from six sleepers screaming themselves awake from a collective nightmare staggers the control room spectators away from the glass. Witnessing the event, and the channeler’s gleaming, zombie-like eyes is a nightmare in itself.

  Burroughs stands frozen in disbelief, his mouth hanging open, as Pace turns away altogether.

  The silvery-white gleam in Orion's eyes persists as if he can see between two realities. Staring into Orion's open eyes, Fray suffocates right in front of him. ‘Do you see?’ Fray’s voice enters Orion’s lucid mind.

  “Shut that goddamn thing down!’ Roman yells.

  Before Burroughs can disconnect and isolate the power of Icarus, the liquidy energy around each chair begins to expand.

  One by one, the field around each chair merges with the next, combining into one unified field. The second they connect, completing the full circle, an energetic shockwave arcs outward, scarring the silvery walls. An enormous thud shakes the top of the building and ripples downward until it rattles the foundation. Then everything powers down.

  Plummer and his team have to force the Icarus door open to subdue the team who are already climbing from their chairs. The techs hesitantly step into the chamber, the bizarre phenomenon still beyond their comprehension. Even Plummer hesitates before slowly approaching the channeling team.

  Each channeler's eye color is returning to normal but retains some of the gleam like a residual effect. All except Jax, the intensity of what happened has burned him out. His body lies totally relaxed, a gentle smile on his face, and his eyes half open and still gleaming slightly as he drifts away.

  The fearful techs drag everyone out. Except for Orion, who achingly drags himself from the chair, his energy spent. Plummer approaches him warily and stoops to look in his face.

  Orion’s eyes gleam with more intensity than the others. He’s still entranced by the experience. The sight of his condition is enough to keep Plummer back, allowing Orion to right himself.

  Burroughs watches them hauled away, but GL pulls free of her jailor and rushes at the doctor. Glaring into his eyes, she juts her hand forward and grabs his chest. Burroughs spasms and drops to his knees. Looming over him now, she clutches his head on both sides. The scared tech tries to yank her back, but something is anchoring her to Burroughs, and her strength intensifies inside her disgust for him.

  The doctor’s eyes roll over white as GL knifes her amplified mental power into his mind. A furious scream erupts from her as the malicious fantasy of killing him meets the reality. He responds with only a grunting, garbled yell that exhibits his pain and is quickly swallowed into his own throat.

  One of the jailors reaches toward GL with a tazer-glove but Plummer arrives and holds him back. Beholding the uncanny spectacle, Plummer’s voice trembles as he warns, “What will that do?”

  The jailor looks at his glove and then to the urgency of GL, some kind of science experiment freak, murdering Burroughs right in front of them. His only choice, he swings his fist as hard as he can, slamming GL in the back of her head.

  She releases Burroughs, and they both crumble to the floor. GL is out cold.

  Burroughs fury gets him to his feet quickly. He sways, holding his head like he’s about to fall but snags Plummer’s shirt to steady himself. “Get them out!”

  Orion is dragged past them, completely spent and barely able to look up at Burroughs. He has no will left to fight. His eyes have dimmed, but still, a hint of the silver gleam remains.

  Pace joins the exodus, still shaken, but stops to gloat over Burroughs. “You’re right about the personal visits. Much more revealing. No magic new world order today.”

  Pace enters the elevator already packed with the channelers and techs. The doors close and it descends away from Burroughs and his miraculous dream that was Icarus.

  The elevator travels silently down into the shadows. As it descends, the shining lift passes through slender beams of sunlight slicing across the darkened building interior. Several of the magnetic façade tiles cloaking the skyscraper have failed and dropped free, opening pinholes, and letting in the light.

  A fleet of drones rallies with replacement tiles and is already repairing the breach.

  Mind Mastery will be online again soon.

  CHAPTER 22

  The team was separated after the Icarus event and only minutes later, Terrence walked ever so slowly along the long black glass corridor of sublevel detention, past the glowing green buttons that can only mean one thing. The long elevator ride down told him everything about the fate waiting for him. He was going to hell, and when the doors opened to the darkness of the six spoke-like passageways, it drove the point home.

  He wasn’t a fighter, and he knew he wouldn’t fight now. So, he savored every last moment of his sentient life by feeling his heels hit the floor, roll across his foot to his toes, and propel him forward. Mindful of his breaths, the sensation of air passing through him feels like life itself. He drank in what little detail there was here in dark, hoping that somehow these details of life would remain with him as he disappeared into the void.

  Sline watched anxiously near the elevator as the techs guided Terrence farther and farther into the shadows of Corridor #3. Soon, they weren’t visible at all, until one of the techs opened the door to Terrence’s new cell. The green light flooding the corridor, allowed Sline to see that they had reached their final destination.

  The second Terrence saw inside, he lurched backward and the techs caught him.

  “No,” Terrence mumbles. “No, no, no, please don’t put me in there.”

  They forced him forward, he tried to resist but his bare feet slid across the smooth floor until he was inside.

  Sline can tell from a distance that he was loaded into the cell, and he engages it.

  Terrence stared out the front of the glass door, hands pressing the invisible surface until his feet slid back and lifted into the air by his mag-cuffs. At the same time, his arms pulled back and to his sides and his belly sagged downward, back arched, floatin
g mid-cell. A beam of light hit his forehead and his expression froze in horror.

  After that, the front of the cell shades black, and Terrence was gone.

  Scryberg had to be tazed into submission during the descent from Icarus. He was lying face down inside the elevator and awoke in time to see Terrence forced into his cell. The second his friend was gone, Scryberg jumped to his feet and ran.

  He sprinted as fast as possible down one of the black glass corridors into the darkness. It was a pointless effort because the path dead-ended at nothing. He frantically searched for any kind of exit in the solid wall and then turned to prepare for a fight.

  The techs cautiously closed in on him, like a cornered animal they knew they’d catch if they didn’t do anything stupid. Sline opened several empty cells behind them, the faint green glow spilling into the passage.

  Scryberg yelled and charged at them, the force of his flight knocked both them into the walls, and he raced for the elevator.

  Sline quickly engaged the controls for the open cells and a brilliant green flash snared Scryberg, holding him motionless for a second, and then he slumped to the ground unconscious.

  Their last moments of freedom, only a fading memory now.

  …

  Burroughs stomps through the doorway into his office where Roman and Pace are already waiting for him. Pace is preoccupied with the discovery of the bizarre ant colony. Controller Pau quietly leans on the corner. While Roman has taken up residence in Burroughs own chair and impassably stares the doctor down.

  “My machine worked,” Burroughs blurts out defensively. “You all saw it. You saw how it controlled that deviant man.” He walks over to dislodge Pace from the ants by pressing between him and the colony case. “I invented Hivemind,” he says, pushing it in the director’s face. “I did! And the telemetry worked here, only better.”

  “You call that better?” Pace rebuffs him. “It broke. The entire building shook! And it caused a panic in the process. And that was only a few people!” He turns to address Roman. “Order and routine, that’s what keeps this city working.”

  “My innovation didn’t break,” Burroughs spits out, “the channelers broke.”

  Roman stands to weigh in on the argument. He straightens his suit and asks, “When can you be ready to broadcast?”

  “You can’t be serious!” Pace interjects. “It’s mind control! We can’t do that.”

  “We already do it,” Pau cuts in. “We’ve been doing it for years. It works.”

  “That’s different,” Pace states.

  Roman strolls the room a few steps, anchoring in the middle of the group to display his control of the situation. “It’s not different, it’s enhanced. It’s progress,” he says. “Burroughs?”

  The doctor strides past Roman and reclaims his chair. “The broadcast capability of this building is complete. And Icarus will be repaired with equal efficiency.” He spins his chair halfway to the windows and looks across the city at Societal Services. “I need better minds.”

  “No! Out of the question!” Director Pace states. He knows where this is going. “You cannot cannibalize Hivemind for your own, freak show!”

  “Does he have to be here?” Burroughs asks Roman.

  Roman ignores Pace and moves close to Burroughs.

  “Orion was chair #1 in Hivemind.” Burroughs rubs his chin gingerly as he schemes. “He carried my invention farther than any other has. But I got him only after he became deviant. He was broken when I got him.” He lifts his hands in a magnanimous gesture, trying to present an air of righteousness. “And the rest of his team are merely the best I could get.”

  “We can’t interrupt Hivemind function though,” Controller Pau states.

  “Finally, a voice of reason,” Pace says, trying to put himself back in the mix.

  "Oh, no, no, we won't shut it down," the doctor continues. "We extend Prime Shift by four hours and meet it with an equal twelve-hour period by Third Shift. They'll be paid, of course."

  Pace anchors his fists on Burroughs desk, furling his brow and squeezing his lips together, trying to look imposing. “You can’t rip out the entire Second Shift!”

  "Ninety-nine beautifully pre-conditioned minds, ready for me to guide them a little tiny step further." Burroughs savors the thought. "From one evolutionary idea to the most revolutionary idea ever."

  “Governor,” Pace fights back. “I put myself into Hivemind.”

  “A deviant act,” Burroughs slides the comment in under his breath.

  “I wanted to feel what it’s like,” Pace continues, throwing his last Hail Mary into the argument. “To have my mind wiped out for eight hours. To disappear like that, into nothing.”

  “He thinks service to Hive is nothing,” the doctor says, undermining Pace again.

  Pace steps around the desk, wedging himself between Burroughs and Roman, addressing the governor, “Twelve hours will take half their lives. And what about those that are forced to be in here with him? You saw what happened today.” He can barely bring himself to give any attention to the doctor. “My God, and what about the millions who will disappear under the blanket of Burroughs monstrosity?” Pace finishes with a flurry so the emphasis will hang in the air. He knows he’s spent. That’s all the argument he’s got.

  Roman veers away from him and looks at Pau. It’s smart to get at least one additional city planner to agree to the plan and tip the scale. They surely can’t ask Advocate Abbey, who is conveniently absent today.

  It only requires a second for Pau to decide, and a slight nod of his head to put this plan into action.

  The governor immediately marches for the door. “Do it.” Then he’s gone.

  Pau exists right after him, stealing one final glance at Pace in passing.

  …

  Orion and the last of his companions wait in the pin-dome. No images on the ceiling, no extrusions from the floor. The seamless room and milky-white light distort distance, alter perspective, and erase time. Like lingering in purgatory, Orion, Iris, and GL await Burroughs to decide their fate.

  Iris cradles Orion's head in her lap, his eyes squeezed shut, and his fingers scrunched into unnatural fists, constricted by the energetic surge from Icarus. The exhaustion caused by his fight with the machine has drained his body, but still, he can't get any reprieve from the whispers tormenting his mind. Even in the overcrowded spaces of his awareness, Orion battles to stay alert.

  “The elevator,” GL says. “If we can get to that.”

  “There’s no way,” Iris quietly replies, “they’d catch us.” Her own will to fight has been drained, too. She’ll resist until she can’t anymore. But at this moment, locked in pin-dome with their primary weapon cycling through sanity and insanity right there in her own lap, she’s struggling and desperation is circling her.

  "The main lift isn't the only access," Orion quietly adds. His eyes still closed. "There are too many people here for only one elevator."

  “How many people are here?” GL senses that she already knows. In fact, she can feel them since Icarus opened her mental doorway, and Orion aimed her in the right direction to pass through it.

  “Thousands,” he says, sitting up, still unstable but beginning to pull himself together. “Soon, there’ll be millions more.”

  He manages to stand with Iris steadying him. He circles the room, scanning the dreamy, non-directional effect of the light and shape. Ambiguous and white, it’s an environment of non-focus. It all depends on your point of view, is this room calm and safe or unsettling and confining? Considering a madman imagined it, Orion knows the answer despite how the chamber lulls him into feeling.

  He steps to the door. There’s a small window that has been shaded white. He tries to unfurl his finger and can’t. Instead, he presses his knuckle against the glass and a tiny clear area appears, but it closes on him. He tries harder, but the little window sputters, then won’t open again.

  “I can’t do it,” the words feel like nails jabbing his tongue.
The stress of trying allows the whispers to fill his head again. But a persistent train of thought keeps playing over and over, cutting through the static. The surrealistic oddity of recent events and the plain insanity of what’s happening in him defy logic. It’s a miracle that he’s not a crying mess balled on the floor. He thumps his head on the window, hoping he can scatter the voices and jar his mind loose. “Why did I wake that day in Hive?” he says, almost to himself. He even dares to listen to the voices for a second, in case they have an answer.

  GL joins him and takes his hands. She turns them so she can see his scratches and scars. “You know I can feel them now too. The people,” she says. “But I’m not really sure if it’s a good thing or bad. This feeling is what you’re feeling isn’t it? Only 10,000 times more.” She lets go of his hand ever so slowly. Her own hands hovering one above and one below Orion’s crumpled fist.

  His hand begins to shake. The whispers in his mind drift into the distance and in the quiet opening of his mind, GL’s voice comes to him, ‘One.’

  Like a corpse reanimating, his fingers slowly extend in jerky fits. One knuckle after another frees its lock, digits align until they are finally straight and strong again.

  She stumbles back a little and Orion catches her. The energetic display is a big step for GL. She’s surprised and a tiny chuckle rolls out as she looks at his hand very satisfied that it’s able to grip her arm. “Nice catch. Now, where are the other access points?”

  He steps away and inspects the seams of the locked. “Did you ever notice the red way-finder never turns us certain ways?” He looks a little more alive now, turning to face GL. “Go where they don’t want us to go.”

  “Shit,” GL cracks a sheepish smile. It’s so obvious. “And I wouldn’t even need super powers to figure that out.”

  “That red line pissed me off at first, locking me on course. Then when I needed it, I gave in. That left me free to look around.” He smiles back at her and then closes his eyes in an obvious display. “Then I started looking around some more.”

  Iris has edged away from them, the confines of their situation starting to overwhelm her. Plus, the conditioning Burroughs forced on her resulted in depriving her of the special connection Orion and GL are sensing. Instead of being infused with a collective energy, she feels only anxiety creeping across her skin. Some of it hers, but some of it tingling in from around her.