Roxal closed her eyes and clenched her jaws together at this lie. It will soon be over, she thought. I will not have to listen to this ever again.
“To make sure you Travelers remained on course, we, members of The Keepers’ Representatives caste, were enlightened and selected for ascension to lead you. We are one with The Keepers and ensure that their vision is implemented.” The projected scene now switched to the eight brown and black-robed Reps, one for each section of the compound.
“Then there is the Talented and Honored Citizens caste. They are the Instructors who teach the Travelers and the Medics who heal us all. They are former Travelers who have pleased The Keepers and have begun the path of ascension. They are the shining example to which all Travelers should aspire.” Again the scene changed and showed a wide angle view of the golden-yellow-clothed Citizens solemnly staring up.
“And at the base of our caste system is the Helpers and Laborers caste. But being the base does not mean you are unimportant. Quite the contrary. For any mighty edifice to stand, the base must be strong. Therefore, it is because of your strength that we continue to survive. You, Helpers, provide much-needed support to our Travelers. And you, Laborers, provide much-needed support to everyone. Both of you are examples of true obedience to The Keepers. We Keepers’ Representatives are honored to be served by you.” A wide angle view of the olive green and slate gray-uniformed Citizens now showed. The angle was so wide that their faces appeared as a multitude of dots of various skin tones that ranged from light to dark.
“It is because of you all, everyone doing his or her assigned tasks as The Keepers have ordained, that we have survived. And it will be because of everyone continuing to do their assigned tasks that we will continue to thrive. And, our continued obedience will also result in the rescue of the Earth from suffering the destruction from which we were rescued.”
At that moment, someone shrieked, and Roxal stood. She was ready for action. “Blasphemers. Blasphemers are everywhere!” someone yelled.
Now more and more people stood. She looked up at the Reps’ platform and saw them looking over the edges. She knew they had no idea what was happening. Then there was a commotion. Edo had told her that as a distraction, Resistor members in various castes would start yelling and causing other disruptions to draw the Security Force members to them. Then the rest of the members, like Edo’s cell, would leave and perform their assigned tasks.
Around the corner to her left, she heard what sounded like fighting. She could not see what was going on, but thankfully, it did seem to be loud enough to serve its intended purpose. As the noise to her left was growing, she also heard what sounded like shouting and arguing from below her in the Laborers and Helpers’ caste seating area. Everyone around her was now standing and looking around. Most people looked confused. Roxal did not know if everyone was truly confused or if this was an act.
There was not much time for her to think about it because finally, the Security Force members appeared. They were running across the floating walkways that connected the seating areas to the outer wall. This was it!
The Security Force members were in the aisle on the left side of her row. They were spreading out, she assumed, so they could better control the crowd. So Roxal turned and ran towards the exit on the right. Climbing over people, pushing those who were standing in her way, crawling over seats when she had to. She needed to get out before she was captured by the Security Force. She made it to the aisle and ran for the door. She looked at the other spokes and saw people running towards the exits. She did not know if they were running to escape the Force members or because they were also members of the Resistors. Nor did she deem it important enough to think about for long. She just ran to her assigned location.
Once she escaped the assembly hall, she ran through the compound. When Edo had told her the plan, and their parts in it, the first thing she had to memorize was where in the compound she needed to be and how to get there from the assembly. As she ran, she could hear him speaking the words in her head, even though he had told her using their hand language.
As planned, she made the two right turns in a row and was in the older section that he had mentioned. As he had said, it looked nothing like where they lived. The walls and the floor were made of the same metallic material to which she was accustomed. However, these walls did not look as polished or well-kept as walls and floors in their section. Furthermore, the floors were covered with dust and dirt so thick that footprints of people who had been there could clearly be seen. The lighting overhead was also dimmer, as he had said it would be. When she looked up, she saw some of the light fixtures were completely dark while others were showing very little light. Some were dim because of dirt covering the fixtures. Others appeared to be on the verge of dying.
Roxal realized that she was no longer running but walking, taking in all that she was seeing. Continuing down the hall, she could hear the faint sound of some sort of machinery. She began to run towards it. Finally, along a long stretch of wall, a door appeared on her right. It was black and metallic and also old and unpolished. A few steps past the door was the container. No one else was there, so alone, Roxal began assembling the explosive as she had been told to do.
Though the container looked solid, it only took two strong kicks before the first cracks appeared. Three kicks later, there was a hole large enough for her to reach inside. Careful to avoid the jagged edges around the hole, she reached in and began pulling out the contents.
She had five pieces of the explosive on the floor in front of her. Her right arm was in the container up to her shoulder, feeling around inside to make sure she had everything, when she heard voices behind her. She yanked her arm out as she turned around to see who was approaching. She fell and was scrambling to her feet as she watched four people running towards her. None were wearing black, and one of them was Edo.
She ran to meet him. They embraced, and a strangled sob escaped her. He pulled her away.
“What happened? Did you have to defend yourself against the Force members?” Edo asked and pointed to her arm.
“What?” Roxal looked where he was pointing and saw that her arm was bleeding. She had no idea that she was injured. “No. I think I just hurt myself getting the pieces of the explosive.” She turned to look back where she had laid the components, and the three other people who had arrived with Edo had already begun assembling it.
Of the three people, one was another Helper and the other two were Travelers, though Roxal had never seen any of them before. The Helper, a female, had shoved her arm into the container up to her shoulder, also searching for something. Before she could tell the Helper that she had already done that, the Helper pulled out one more package.
“I have it, Edo. Where do I need to place them?” The Helper was ripping the package open as she asked.
“I will show you,” Edo said and walked past Roxal.
Roxal watched as he gave the Helper her instructions and then replied to questions that the Travelers were asking. The four of them worked together seamlessly. She realized then just how much she did not know about Edo’s work with the Resistors. She walked over to see if there was anything that needed her assistance. Then the sound of more people approaching made her turn around again. This time, she saw a group of about eight or nine people approaching. The person in the lead was wearing long black and brown robes, followed by Security Force members wearing black. They had been discovered.
CHAPTER 10
Lauren sat in the empty design lab with music playing through the wireless speaker connected to her iPod. It was Saturday, and she wasn’t concerned about anyone being disturbed by her music. Her prototype microprocessor sat on the worktable in front of her. She stared at it, then turned back to her notebook, rereading her notes on the latest design changes she had made to the chip. She was desperate for any sort of inspiration or breakthrough.
She was in a design slump. A block of some sort was keeping her design from moving forward, and she d
idn’t know what to do. She had never been in a situation like this before. And adding to her personal frustration was the pressure from Lucas asking for constant updates on her progress. It was as if he thought she was intentionally holding back a working chip that she would only produce if he bugged her enough.
But her design problems and Lucas riding her were not the only reasons she was in the office on a Saturday. Another reason was she needed a break from Kyle. Lately, they just didn’t seem to be in sync. He was still sweet and understanding. And, since she had promised to set the wedding date as nine months from whenever she was finished designing the microprocessor, he’d even stopped bugging her about the wedding. But still, things just felt off. She didn’t know how Kyle was feeling because he was trying to give her the space she said she needed to work. However, if she were honest with herself, Lauren didn’t know if she was happy or angry that he was pulling back.
She knew she loved him, and that he loved her. But recently, she had begun to wonder if they were really meant to be together in the long term. Maybe that was why she didn’t want to set a wedding date or plan the wedding in the first place. Maybe deep down she really didn’t think a marriage between them would work.
She pushed away from the workstation. “Ugh,” she grunted in frustration and turned her back on the prototype. This was not the time to be making major life decisions.
Work was stressful and she hadn’t been sleeping well. This meant she was in no mental state for deciding anything of consequence. “Instead of coming into the office, I should have gotten a massage,” she said to herself out loud.
She walked back over to the workstation. She sat down and rested her head on her folded arms and closed her eyes. Maybe if she let her mind wander, it would help. Her normal go-to fix, Pixy Stix, still weren’t helping, so she had to try something. She began with her meditation breathing. The music playing from her iPod slowly faded into the background, and she began to feel weightless. Then her mind felt like it was floating away from her body. There was a calmness, a serenity in this space. Lauren allowed her mind to float there, enjoying the peace.
CHAPTER 11
Roxal saw the Rep and the Force members behind him approaching and yelled out, “Edo, what do we do?”
Someone ran up beside her. Roxal looked and saw it was one of the Travelers who had been assembling the explosive.
“You all keep working. We will hold them off.” The Traveler grabbed her arm and pulled her forward.
She went with him, though she had no idea what they were going to do to “hold them off.” As Roxal and the man approached them, the Rep spoke.
“Do you really think any of you will succeed in what you are doing?”
The Traveler stopped moving forward and dropped her arm. The Rep and the Force members behind him stopped approaching as well.
“Whether we succeed or not, I can die knowing I tried to do something right,” the Traveler spoke. Roxal was unable to say anything or do anything other than watch.
“If you wanted to die so badly, we would have gladly killed you in Glorious Session. Then your death would have meant much more. Now, as it stands, you and everyone here with you will die in this forgotten corridor and no one will ever know why. And no one will ever ask why. Your deaths will be as meaningless as whatever it is that you are doing here.”
The Rep’s words seemed to melt her resolve, and Roxal crumpled to the floor. Her legs did not seem to want to work. Dying in this unknown corridor was not what she wanted, but it seemed inevitable now.
The Traveler who had stood beside her seemed to have felt the Rep’s words as a call to action, because he charged at the group. “Aaaaah!” he screamed as he ran.
It must have surprised everyone, because he managed to reach the group and dive on two of the eight Security Force members, taking them to the ground. The remaining six froze briefly before two of them grabbed the Traveler and began pulling him off the Force members under him.
They held the Traveler by the arms and pulled him. Somehow, though, he managed to yank his upper body back towards the two people still on the floor. This pulled the two Force members holding his arms off balance. One of them let the Traveler’s arm go and stumbled, trying to maintain his balance. The other member who had been holding the other arm dropped it and caught his fellow enforcer.
Then Roxal saw a blur of blue as it ran past her and engaged the remaining Force members who had not joined the fight up to this point. This Traveler, however, chose to stay on his feet as he fought. He kicked a Force member in the chest using the momentum from his run, knocking the member to the floor. He then squatted on the ground and pushed up, putting his entire body weight behind the elbow he threw into the throat of another Force member standing nearby. The member collapsed to the floor, clutching his throat. Roxal recognized the move as one they had been taught in physical conditioning. He continued using the close combat moves they had been taught on the Force members now trying to capture him.
The final two Force members ran around to engage the second Traveler; the first Traveler who had attacked was still managing to keep four Force members occupied, wrestling on the ground. Whenever it seemed that the first attacker was about to be subdued, he would manage to squirm out of their grasp and cause all of the members he was fighting to have to join in on keeping him from getting away.
As Roxal watched this scene, she noticed the Rep scurrying away from the fighting and moving towards her. He was looking over her head at what was happening behind her. She turned and saw Edo and the female Helper waving at her.
“Come this way!” it sounded like Edo shouted.
She figured this meant they were finished with the explosive and it was time to get out of the area. Roxal looked back towards the two Travelers, and they were still fighting. However, the first Traveler seemed to be struggling less now.
The Rep was walking closer to her. She tensed, expecting him to begin fighting her. Instead, he seemed to ignore her. He stared at Edo and the Helper with him. The Rep was now about to walk past her and go after Edo. The thought of Edo being captured spurred Roxal to action. When the Rep was within arm’s length, she jumped over, grabbed his legs, and held on.
“Let go of me, you vile, unclean creature,” he bellowed.
She instead gripped him tighter. She would not let him go. She was going to give Edo a chance to escape. The Rep began hitting her to break free from her grasp. He hit her arm and pain flared. That must be where I cut my arm, she thought, but continued to hold on.
She then figured out how to get her legs working and pushed off from the floor, knocking the Rep over and landing on top of him. They were now tussling on the floor. In the midst of her struggle, she felt hands seizing her arms and legs. She held onto the Rep for as long as she could, then the two sets of hands, each grasping an arm, lifted her from his body. The Rep scrambled away from her.
“Take her away, now,” the Rep shrieked at the Force members.
Roxal went limp. Struggling would no longer help her; their grip on her arms was too secure. But she could make it hard for them to move her. They dragged her sagging form away from the Rep putting distance between them and Edo. She was happy about that. Edo, who had risked everything to fight The Keepers, would have a chance to be free. He had earned it.
Then she thought of Lauren. And of Earth. And what she would not give to be living on Lauren’s planet at this moment. She focused her thoughts on Lauren. And then the dreamscape appeared. For some reason, it looked like Lauren was there. But that made no sense. Roxal knew she was not asleep. So how could she see Lauren if she, herself, were not asleep?
Also, the dreamscape around them was strange. Instead of reflecting whatever Lauren was dreaming about, it was a dark void. Puzzled by the oddness of what was happening, Roxal did not turn to look for the source of the thunder that rumbled in the distance.
Then she felt her body being lifted into the air. She slammed against something, hard. Next she felt multip
le solid and heavy objects as they fell down on top of her. She opened her eyes, but something got into them, making them water. She quickly closed them again. After that, she felt the heat. Coughing and choking, she let the blackness descend again and hoped Lauren would still be in the dreamscape when she went back.
CHAPTER 12
Lauren awoke screaming and disoriented.
Her sudden movement led to a fall onto a hard surface. Pain exploded in her head and she couldn’t think. She couldn’t see. She couldn’t hear. All she could do was hold her head as the pain engulfed her. Would it ever end? When had it begun? It was starting to seem like pain was all she would ever know.
Then her sense of smell returned as the scent of a disinfectant cleaning product, like bleach, filled her nose. And her sense of touch returned because she now felt the cold, solid surface against her arms and a section of her stomach. She was lying on the floor, she realized. And not a floor at home, but a floor at work.
That’s right, she began to remember as the pain waned. It was Saturday and she had gone to the office to get extra time on her project. Nausea rolled over her, finally able to stake some of the territory that had seceded from pain. She sat up. She kept her eyes closed and her hands on either side of her temple, applying a slight amount of pressure, as if she wanted to keep her head from literally splitting in two. She breathed in fresh air deeply. The nausea began to diminish. Now she needed a game plan.
First, she needed to make it back to her cubicle, where her purse and phone were stored. She opened her eyes to see where she was on the floor and new stabs of pain tore through her head. This time, instead of the explosion, it felt like ice picks were being jabbed through her ears and her nose into a spot in her brain behind her right eye. She pressed on her eyes with the padding at the base of her hands and hoped the pressure would alleviate some of the pain of this full-blown migraine. It did not.
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