by Daniel David
“Bad scan. Please try again,” the door called out into the silence.
The voice made Zoe jump and stumble backwards from the building. Stupid, she hadn't thought of that! She stared in shock at the red light.
“Bad scan. Please try again,” the door called to her once more.
This was bad, Drones would certainly be on their way now. Worse, if anyone was inside, the door could open any second. Zoe leapt back around the corner and grabbed her rucksack as she sprinted past. She had planned to rest here for a couple of hours, but now she had to get as far away as she could, as fast as she could. As she ran, Zoe kept her right arm limp by her side to keep the blood flowing through the stem. It wasn't ideal, she'd be pushing out more blood than she should, but she had no choice.
She ran until her heart was hammering on the back of her throat. She ran on even when her leg muscles began burning for forgiveness and the stitch in her chest felt like a blade twisting between her ribs. In her head, she sang a tune that matched her strides, some ridiculous nursery rhyme thing that made no sense, but it kept her going and kept her thoughts from how it all might go horribly wrong.
If you head into the woods and run
The hunter’ll catch you and take out his gun
If you head into the woods to hide
When AarBee finds out, you'll wish you had died.
When her lungs just couldn't feed her body anymore and her legs began to wobble beneath her, Zoe slowed down and eventually dropped to her knees. She gulped at the air that dragged in clumps down her throat and wiped away the sweat on her face, which was making her eyes sting. She turned around for the first time, and although the power plant had ducked out of view behind the dark undulations of the park, a distant searchlight cut a fuzzy line from some unseen Kite high above, through the dewy air and onto the ground below. She knew the thermo-camera could pick her out too, but hoped she was far enough away now to avoid its focus.
Zoe felt for the stem on the back of her hand, but it was gone, shaken out by her charge further into the dark. She had no way of knowing now if all the bots were out, so she would just have to hope she was clean.
When her breathing came back under control she took a swig of the water in her rucksack, stood up on her aching legs and began to walk again, slower this time. The stars were out and on full display now, dusting the sky with silver and gold and as they stretched away towards the horizon, Zoe could see the wilderness rising up to meet them. Another few hours and she would be at the wall.
When she finally arrived at the towering barrier, she turned back towards the Metropolis and looked for the red light on the top of the airport beacon, to line it up with the intermittent white light that flashed above the central server. She wasn't far off. She tracked along the fence for half a mile or so and when the lights aligned, the hole appeared as promised behind a clumsy flap of grey material.
Zoe crawled through, her clothes getting wet with the dew and her rucksack snagging a little on the rough edges. Inside the smashed cavity, it smelt of concrete dust and sulphur, the sharp points on the floor jabbing and scratching at her hands and knees. As she emerged on the other side, the wilderness came right up to meet her, a twisted mass of tree creepers and spider webs.
She walked slowly through this new, wild and untamed landscape. Brambles and thorn bushes knotted around her feet and giant trees with thick trunks that warped and bulged upwards towered over her. There were noises everywhere. Water droplets plopped onto the wide leaves that yawned over the tangled undergrowth, distant birds called in echoes above the trees and, every now and again, something would rustle and scurry in the shadows around her.
Zoe walked for a while, to get further into the wilderness and further away from the hole. The adrenalin had left her now and, although her senses were alert and vulnerable, exhaustion rose to the surface, she had to lie down.
A little further on, Zoe found a massive tree that offered a round, secluded cradle in the giant twists of its roots. She pulled her dark brown sleeping pod from the bottom of her rucksack, shook it out and lay it down in the hollow. She took the knife from her rucksack and clutched it in her fist, then threw the bag into the pod. After a scan around the tree, which confirmed nothing other than the fact that it was too dark to see anything, Zoe climbed in and zipped it closed. She planned to have a drink, a little food perhaps, but as she lay her head down and marvelled for a moment at where she was, sleep floated down onto her and wrapped her in a slowing quiet.
Leah
Day 1
It was just a normal Friday until the lights went out. So ordinary that Leah had forgotten most of it before it was even over.
Ben and Rachael had kicked up the usual ruckus, before finally settling into bed at around 9pm. Bedtime was always hyper these days. Since Uncle Daniel had migrated, he always hollered around bedtime. It was sweet, but wound the kids up so much and left Leah to calm them down again, alone. Youssef's work on the Metro server cluster invariably kept him out until late, leaving her to fill the role of angry, impatient, humourless and – finally – guilt-ridden parent, whilst he scored easy points and affection whenever he breezed momentarily through their lives.
Leah tried not to feel bitter. They had a good life together and Youssef did everything she could expect him to do. He was loving and loyal, considerate and attentive. On her birthday, he would make her breakfast in bed and on the days she needed to get away or spend time with her friends, he would take the kids to the sprawling parks and savannahs outside of the Metropolis, spending the day playing hide and seek or playing games on the Holler.
As a reward for his loyal service, their apartment was a little larger and higher up than most. Their clothes were a little finer, a few extra luxuries could be found in the kitchen cupboards and the kids would be spared the worst apprenticeships in exchange for both his and their dedication. She felt ungrateful then, that her otherwise enviable life was shot through with loneliness and anger. A light mist of sadness permanently drifted through her mind, occasionally thickening into great banks of despair that isolated her in a momentarily inescapable gloom.
As the kids whispered quietly back and forward between their two rooms, Leah grabbed a bottle of spirit from the kitchen and glugged a large measure into the juice glass she had swilled out under the kitchen tap. She took a gulp where she stood, squinting her eyes as the liquid tore down her throat before mellowing in her chest. She tipped her head back slowly and took a deep, diving breath, which cycled in and eventually out of her lungs when her chin lolled back down to her chest. She took the bottle and the glass with her into the living room and, after dimming the lights with a swipe of her spare little finger, sank gently onto the lounge chair and let her body topple onto her side.
She stared blankly forward for a second, enjoying the momentary lack of thought and movement that she could coax into a dizzy paralysis, before being snapped back by the chirp of the Holler Box that lay under a delicate veil of dust in the corner. She sat up, but didn't look to see who it was. She needed a minute, just a minute. It was the case with her life that as one set of tasks faded, the next would immediately arrive. As if everybody conspired against her, secretly plotting when to make their demands and giggling to each other at her endless exhaustion.
When the Holler's calling stopped, she called out: “Show last visitor,” and Youssef's name popped up brightly in the air. That was strange she thought, Youssef never called at this time. She stood up to check herself in the mirror before calling him back and, as she played with a stray curl that twisted down her cheek, the lights flickered once and faded. Without a sound, the room went dark, gently succumbing to the night. For a second or two, Leah held her breath within the unexpected blackness.
In the expanding dark, distant alarms began to call out, echoing eerily through the enormous gloom that melted the walls of every apartment and united their occupants in a communal pause. After the first few, more and more joined in, crying out for power and prickling
Leah's senses as she searched through every layer of sound for explanations.
“Mum, what's happening?” Rachael's voice at the door made her jump back to herself, and the claustrophobic dark of the living room.
Rachael looked tiny, nervously clutching the doll that had been her bedtime companion for all of her three years of sleeping. Ben wasn't with her, doubtless already fast asleep and unlikely to be woken by anything except an earthquake or marching band.
“It's OK darling,” Leah reassured her as she opened her arms towards her, “the power's just gone out for some reason.”
Rachael snuggled into her arms, which folded tightly around her in a reassuring squeeze.
“Daddy will be working very heard to get it fixed, don't you worry.” Leah stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head, “I'll bet it's exciting where he is!”
“Will Daddy be OK?” Rachael tightened her arms around Leah’s middle as she asked.
“Yes, of course darling!” Leah pulled Rachael's head into her belly, forcing mother’s comfort and reassurance into her thoughts. “He'll be absolutely ok. Daddy is very safe and he knows just what he's doing there. Besides, he has Drones and Hollers to help him, so he won't have to do anything really dangerous.”
Leah loosened her grip a little and ran her hand over Rachael's soft, silky hair. They stood together in the darkness, holding on to one another, both wondering what could have happened and both thinking about Youssef. Power cuts never happened. Leah couldn't remember the last time the power had gone off, for any reason. Perhaps when she was younger. Perhaps when the servers were still new.
“Come on,” she smiled at Rachael, “let's get into bed, not much to do here in the dark. Want to sleep in Mummy's bed?”
Rachael made a little inwards gasp of air, which meant yes, and the two of them headed slowly through the dim corridor to Leah's room. Rachael jumped straight into bed as Leah made a swift change from day clothes to nightclothes and cleaned her teeth, before they both curled into the warmth of the covers.
Rachael was asleep in minutes whilst Leah lay still in the silence, her ears tuned into the myriad of sounds that seemed to spawn and crawl in the darkness. She listened expectantly for the sound of Youssef at the door, wondering all the time what he could be doing and why he wasn't back at home.
Day 2
When the morning light began to fur the edges of the night, Leah crept out of bed and onto the balcony. She hadn't slept really, perhaps one or two moments, but for most of the night she had drifted on the surface of sleep, listening to the shadows and agonising over what might have kept her husband away all night.
From the balcony, the Metropolis languished in an eerie quiet. The sounds that had kept her alert all night had vanished and now it seemed like the world was on tiptoes. The hum, the ever present, low tone of activity was gone. Instead, the slightest breeze whispered across her ears and, every now and then, an unidentified metallic dragging or far off voice would swirl passed her in concert hall echoes. Down below, one or two figures moved silently along the boulevard, perhaps hoping to go to work as normal, or looking for friends and neighbours to share information.
In the building opposite, perhaps a couple of floors down, Leah noticed a woman standing silently on her balcony. Her arms were wrapped tightly across her chest and her head tilted down as she scanned the streets below just like Leah.
“Hey!” Leah called out to her.
The woman looked up and Leah could see she was much older than she had thought, perhaps in her late forties. Almost everybody had migrated by their mid-thirties, only Time-outs, Ghosts or Lifers were still physical after thirty-five. Leah wondered what had kept this woman here.
Leah waved her arm above her head, as if to illustrate her shout, and the woman took one hand out from under her arms and acknowledged her with a faint wave back.
“Do you know what's happened!?” Leah called over slowly, cupping her hands around her mouth to aim her voice.
The woman stood still and stared back at her for an uncomfortably long time, her hand now tucked back under her arms. Leah wondered if she hadn't heard her properly and was about to shout for a second time, when the woman dropped her gaze and moved silently off the balcony and into her apartment. She left the door open, and the thin gauze curtain that blocked off Leah's view into her room fluttered about in the void.
“Who was that?” Rachael's voice came from behind her and made her jump slightly.
“Oh, Rachael, will you stop creeping up on me! That's the second time you've done that to me.”
“Sorry, you were shouting and it woke me up.”
“Sorry darling, you just made me jump, that's all,” Leah walked to her and brushed her bed-hair away from her face.
“I don't know, a woman who lives over there. I thought she might know what had happened, but I don't think she could hear me.”
“Don't you know what's happened, Mummy?” Rachael pleaded at her and Leah immediately realised her mistake.
“No, I don’t mean that darling, I do. It's just I've only just woken up and I thought she might know some more.”
“Where's Daddy?”
“He’s still busy at work.” Leah wanted to leave it at that, but Rachael's eyes stared expectantly towards her, insisting that she wasn't finished. “But he'll be home soon, and then he can tell us all about it.”
Rachael smiled at her with satisfaction.
“Shall we wake your sleepy brother?”
They woke up Ben and made breakfast in the kitchen. There was no power for tea and toast, pancakes or any other of the usual breakfast comforts, so Leah made fruit salad and topped it with a little ice cream from the silent freezer. A treat to take their minds from the uncertainty of the situation and the continued absence of Daddy.
After breakfast, they got dressed and decided to head outside to explore the newly silenced streets. It would be a little adventure. Out on the landing, they knocked at Christophe's door – the only other person they knew in the apartment building, on account of him having two children of a similar age. Christophe had worked as an engineer for AarBee, designing conurbations and roads and recreation spaces, but an accident a few years ago had taken his wife from him and broken his legs so badly that now he stayed at home, looking after his children. He could have migrated to escape his injuries, both physical and emotional, but had opted to stay with his children until they were old enough for him to go.
It was dark in the corridor and they waited in a little pool of torchlight as Leah knocked once and then twice on Christophe's door. There was no response and although Leah strained to hear sounds from inside the apartment, nothing came.
After a couple of minutes, they gave up and headed for the stairs, for the long walk down to the light of the boulevard. The dark made them talk in needless whispers. On normal days they would hurtle boisterously towards the lift on their way to school, shopping trips or fun days out with Youssef. But today it felt like they didn't belong here, that the dark had claimed their spaces from them, so they kept their voices low to keep their trespass a secret.
The walk down the stairwell took fifteen minutes, with Ben loving the thrill of the suspense every time they turned a landing corner. Rachael was not so keen, holding on to Leah's hand with a fearsome grip and chastising Ben every time he made too much noise. A foul smelling current of warm air raced continually up the shaft of the stairs, and the building let out creaks and moans periodically as it adjusted to its lack of energy. Every now and then a door would slam somewhere further up or down the stairs, making them all jump and winding Rachael's grip on Leah ever tighter. They never heard voices though and there were no other adventurers on the stairs. Perhaps everybody else was keeping their presence a secret too.
When they finally reached the ground floor, the daylight was rushing so fiercely through the glass entrance doors they each let out a little yelp and shielded their eyes when Ben opened the heavy metal door, which kept the stairwell sealed away from
the outside. The buildings four lifts sat forlornly in the lobby, their doors wide open and helpless, emitting faint battery powered beeps that would eventually count down to nothing.
Outside in the morning air, Leah felt a little of her uncertainty lift. Although the boulevard was peculiarly empty, the daylight and sunshine were at least familiar and she felt relieved that not everything had changed. The children began to run around the empty spaces, enjoying the temporary playground that had sprung from nowhere. They chased sparrows that bounced around in small groups and had races for one side of the street to the other.
Leah looked back up at her apartment, which now towered above her and noticed a few figures high up on their balconies, taking her place watching the handful of explorers who drifted about below. She waved a wide wave over her head. She wasn't sure why, it just seemed to happen. Perhaps she wanted to demonstrate that everything was OK, to send a little of the daylight that warmed her face back up into the apartments. She couldn't tell if anyone waved back, they were too high up and the brightness of the sun forced her to look down often. So, as she curled her fingers to close her greeting, the darkness from the apartments instead seemed to leap back into her, channelling down her arm like black lightning and dissipating in little bubbles of loneliness in her stomach.
She thought about Youssef and wished that he was with her. She missed his face, she wanted to feel his arms around her and squeeze his hand like Rachael squeezed hers. She wanted to know that he was ok. She wanted to escape the agony of not being in contact with him.
She ushered Ben and Rachael further down the street, sending them ahead as an advance party to find someone else on the boulevard. As they reached the crossroads, a few hundred yards down the street, they found a street vendor selling fruit and soft drinks, with a small cluster of people around him. Leah recognised one of the men there from her apartment block.
“Hi!” she called enthusiastically, her pace quickening as she approached. “It's so nice to see people! Where did everybody go?” she smiled and gestured around the boulevard.