by Kyle Andrews
Doubt crept around the corners of his mind. Did his words mean anything? Would anyone listen? Would anyone care? Perhaps running would have been the better way to go, but how far could he have gotten before he was caught? And what would that story look like on the nightly news?
Whatever the outcome, this was his story now. The people watching could see him clearly. They knew that he wasn't armed. If they listened to his words, even a little bit, maybe they would begin to question what they had been told about Collin Powers, the killer.
A minute passed in silence. He didn't say anything else, because there was nothing else that he could think of to say or do that would make anyone believe him. Now, they needed to see.
After that minute of silence, Collin heard the faint sound of a siren in the distance. It grew louder as it drew nearer, and was soon joined by another siren. Then another. And another.
HAND vehicles arrived on the scene moments later and Collin closed his eyes. He kept them closed and his hands in the air as HAND officers rushed toward him.
A hand snatched Collin by the back of the neck and forced him to the ground. His head struck the pavement and a flash of color cut through the darkness of his tightly closed eyes.
He turned his head and blood began to drip down the side of his face, across his nose and onto the ground.
His arms were pulled behind his back so forcefully that one of his shoulders popped. His wrists were cuffed. Opening his eyes, he could see more officers moving toward him. There were so many of them, it was almost funny. He wasn't fighting or threatening anyone in any way, yet they were converging on him like ants on a fallen cracker.
His eyes moved past the officers, to the windows above, where people were standing and watching. Old men. Young children. They saw him, unfiltered and undistorted. What they saw now was the truth, possibly for the first time in their lives. That was what mattered.
Collin refused to look in the direction of Sophia's window. He hoped that she wasn't watching. He wanted to imagine her, sitting safely in her kitchen, drinking a hot cup of Coffite, as he took his final deep breaths of fresh air.
Finally, Collin was thrown into the back of a HAND van and the door was shut behind him. There were no windows for him to look through. The world was darkness to him now. At long last, citizens would sleep soundly. The threat to their city had been neutralized.
42
Rose dropped Libby, Justin and Ammo off on a street corner before speeding off. She left them in a rundown, largely abandoned part of town. Across the street were the ruins of an old church, ancient food shelters and used clothing stores. None of them had been operational for years. Even the pawn shops and a lawyer's office were abandoned. Their signs still hung above broken windows, on crumbling walls.
Rose was going to drive the HAND vehicle to the other side of town and abandon it. She'd get a ride home later, once the coast was clear. As for Libby and Justin... well, apparently they were left to fend for themselves in a place where muggers would be scared to venture.
Was this it? Was this the great Freedom base of operations? Was this where she was supposed to be safe at last? Because if so, she might prefer to take her chances in prison.
“This way,” Justin said, navigating through the streets effortlessly. He'd obviously done it a thousand times before.
He wiped his nose on his sleeve as they went and cleared his throat. He was getting more pale by the second.
“Are you okay?” Libby asked him as they crossed the street and made their way up the sidewalk.
“I've had a sore throat for a while now. It's just catching up with me.” he assured her. “The smoke didn't help, but I'll be fine.”
There were men sleeping on the street, who Justin passed without concern. Libby had to keep reminding herself that nobody knew who she was. The only picture released to the press didn't even look like her. Even if it felt like the world was coming down on her, most of the world didn't even know it.
Justin walked into a building that looked as though it had been burned at some point. It was hollowed out, and only its brick outer walls remained. He led her through the rubble and ash, walking so quickly that Libby struggled to keep up.
“Where are we going?” she asked him, nearly tripping over a fallen beam as she did so.
“The Garden,” he replied, as though she should know what that meant.
Somehow, Libby doubted that the Garden was a place where Freedom members grew their own fruits and vegetables. It had to be some sort of code name. Maybe it was a rebel base, where they planned attacks and spy missions. The longer they walked, the more elaborate this theory became in Libby's imagination. But the truth was that she didn't know what she was walking into. All she knew was that Justin was leading the way and she would follow him wherever he decided to go. It wasn't trust. She simply had no other options.
They walked out the back of that burned out building and onto another street that looked the same as the last. More buildings, empty or destroyed. On this street, there was an apartment building or two that might still be inhabitable, but she doubted that anyone had been assigned to live in the area.
Justin didn't slow down. He walked across that street and into an abandoned bank. Inside, there were still counters with ancient pens dangling from chains. There were still teller windows and banker desks. Libby didn't quite know how it all worked, but she'd seen banks before, on old TV reruns. Back when people used paper money and stored it in vaults.
She was led to the back of the building and down a flight of stairs. At the base of the stairs, she saw one of those vaults. It was less impressive than the one she'd seen on TV, but it was big enough to hold a good amount of money. Was this where he was taking her? Was the Garden a bank vault?
Apparently not. Justin walked past the vault and into a room that had half of a brass plate attached to the door. The plate said 'URITY' on it, leading Libby to believe that this had been a security office at some point.
Once she was through the door, Justin closed it behind her. Libby looked at a wall of old, broken monitors that would have once been used to keep an eye on the bank, just in case someone tried to rob the place.
On the far wall, there was a cabinet which Justin walked to and opened. The cabinet was empty and completely unremarkable, as far as Libby could tell. Yet Justin placed one foot inside and banged on the back of the cabinet.
“What are you doing?” she asked him.
He didn't have time to answer before there was a knock from the other side, which startled Libby more than she'd care to admit. Then it clicked in her mind. Obviously this was a hidden passage, leading to the great Garden that Justin had spoken of. Freedom couldn't very well set up in a normal building and put a sign in their window, could they? In order to survive, they had to be clever.
Justin banged on the wall three times quickly, then two slowly, then four quickly. Seconds later, the back of the cabinet opened, revealing a small room behind it. There was a short, chubby man sitting in that room, flipping through an old magazine.
Libby was waved through first, and Ammo and Justin followed her. Once inside, she saw a hatch on the floor. Justin opened it, revealing a staircase that led downward.
“This is very elaborate,” she said in a whisper, as though the other man wouldn't hear what she was saying.
“We've had a while to work on it,” the man replied, flipping to the next page of his magazine. He closed the secret door into the room and slid a metal rod into place, to make sure that nobody would be able to open it from the other end.
She followed Justin down the stairs and through a maze of cold, damp tunnels. They looked more like a mine shaft than anything that she would expect to find in the middle of a city. Along the way, Libby saw men, women and children who all shared a belief in Freedom. For the first time, she began to understand the scale of this group, and it was much larger than the government had ever allowed the citizens to realize.
Some stared at her as she passed th
em. She was a stranger in this world. There was a natural curiosity and distrust, but in some of those eyes she found anger. She didn't understand why they would be angry at first, but then it came to her. Rose has mentioned the group's inability to rescue both her and Collin Powers. They chose her. Obviously, that decision was as much a mystery to some of those Freedom members as it was to Libby herself.
As she continued to walk, Libby kept her eyes on Justin's back, trying to avoid looking at any those other people. At the end of the tunnel, she was led through another doorway. As soon as she crossed its threshold, the coolness of the tunnels was replaced by warm humidity. The air smelled unlike anything she had ever experienced before; sweet and earthy.
She was in another tunnel now, but the look of it was entirely different. The construction was cleaner and the walls were covered in old porcelain tiles. It was about ten feet wide, with potted plants lining either side and bright lights overhead.
Justin turned left and led Libby down this tunnel, passing elevator doors and stairwell entrances along the way. The tunnel was gradually angling upward, toward the surface. She wanted to ask him what the tunnel was and who had built it, but there were other people around. She didn't want to do anything that would draw attention to herself, so she kept silent.
As she walked, Libby glanced over her shoulder, wondering what was down the other side of the tunnel, but she could see nothing. The angle of the floor prevented her from seeing the other side at all.
Libby was starting to wonder if this tunnel was it. Was this the Garden? Were these people all that there were? Were they all that stood between her and a HAND prison?
At the end of the tunnel, there was another doorway, with two heavy metal doors standing before them. Justin stopped in front of these doors. Libby watched as he took a deep breath and straightened his back. He was preparing himself, which didn't make Libby feel very confident at all.
When he finally pushed the doors open and walked through them, Libby entered the Garden. There was no mistaking it this time. The place was huge, with marble pillars—fifteen feet high—holding up the ceiling. The pillars had thin vines crisscrossing around them, making them look like ancient ruins. But these vines weren't the result of nature taking its course. They were very deliberately placed. This was made clear by the fact that there were lush green plants everywhere Libby turned.
Fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers—all growing within a building that was unlike anything Libby had ever seen before. There were beautiful archways, and a grand staircase, all trimmed in dark wood. The floor was tiled, though heavily worn. The paint on the walls was faded and dirty in areas, but none of this could take away the beauty of the building's design.
There were boxes sitting along one of the walls near the entrance, filled with different types of fruits and vegetables, waiting to be sent out for delivery.
When Libby saw these, a memory flashed through her mind. It was the memory of those hard days in the past when she and Amanda had missed their shopping day. Somehow, food still found them. Did that food come from Uly? From this place?
As she tried to shake off that memory, Libby looked at the ground and saw the shadow of a potted tree by her feet. The light was warm and bright. If she didn't look up again, she could have convinced herself that she was standing outside, in the sun. But this couldn't have been the sun, because Libby saw no windows.
The light was coming from bright domes overhead. To her left, Libby saw one of the walls which didn't have any of the paint or trim work that the rest of the building had. This wall was boarded over from floor to ceiling. When Libby saw that wall, the pieces of the puzzle started to fit into place in her mind. She realized that she was standing in the lobby of some very old building. She searched her memory of that part of town, but couldn't figure out where she was.
The lack of windows was obviously meant to keep the people outside from seeing in. But even without anyone seeing lights or hearing sounds from within the building, Libby couldn't understand how this place had managed to survive. How long had the Garden been there? Who built it?
Justin led her through the lobby, past a faded sign on the wall which read, 'EMERGENCY ADMITTING', and had an arrow pointing left. It was an old sign. The emergency room had probably been closed for a very long time, but when she saw that sign, Libby finally realized where they were.
In that rundown part of town, where buildings had been left to crumble and citizens rarely visited, there was an old hospital which stood behind layers of tall fences. It was plastered with signs which warned citizens to stay out under penalty of law. It was a religious hospital of some sort.
Its main building had been constructed a century and a half earlier, with more modern additions built around it from time to time, until the place had finally been shut down.
Libby had only heard stories about religious hospitals that operated before the newer, stricter healthcare regulations. Apparently, people used to have their blood sucked out by leeches, and their version of a mental ward involved burning sage and casting out evil spirits. It was laughable by modern standards.
The hospital was the focus of jokes and legends when she was growing up. People were scared to go near it. The top three floors on one of the additions had caved in completely, and most of the windows had been shattered. There was evidence of a fire at some point, turning the front of the building black in spots. Anyone who ventured inside would have been putting their life on the line. At least, that's what everyone believed.
Libby never would have imagined that Freedom lived beneath that broken down surface, kept safe by the government's own security measures.
It was almost funny, except that there wasn't much humor in Libby's heart at the moment. She was surrounded by people that she didn't know. And, judging by the way they were looking at her, some of those people didn't like her very much. She was following Justin, but she didn't know where. She didn't know what came next. She didn't know anything anymore.
They moved into an area where fewer plants were growing and more computer stations were scattered. On the walls, there were TV monitors, displaying every channel that was broadcasting within their city. It didn't take Libby long to realize that this was the center of operations for the Garden.
“What the hell were you thinking?” came a voice from behind them. Justin stopped walking when he heard the voice and turned around at once.
Up until this point, Justin had been walking tall, showing nothing but confidence as he led Libby through the Garden. As soon as he turned around, that changed. He lowered his head just slightly, and shifted his weight as though he wanted to take a step back, but couldn't. He was intimidated and confused as he stood there, looking at a middle-aged man that Libby didn't recognize. Justin didn't say a word in response to the man's question.
“When Rose and Walker left here, I assumed they'd gone to bring Powers in. But this... I don't even know what I'm supposed to do with this,” the man said, putting a hand on his chin and shaking his head. “Did she see the way in?”
Justin nodded.
“Damnit,” the man groaned. He then turned his eyes to Libby and studied her for a moment before asking, “What do they want with you?”
Libby didn't have an answer. It took every ounce of strength that she had left to keep herself from hiding behind Justin. So when the man asked her that question, all she could think to do in response was shrug and shake her head sheepishly. It was pathetic and she knew it.
“That's great. That is just great. The world is falling apart around us and we don't even know why,” the man told her.
“Rose didn't have permission to rescue us?” Justin asked.
The man nearly broke into a fit of laughter at the idea. He looked at Justin and said, “We have no idea what this is about. She risked bringing HAND down on us. She brought an unknown right to our doorstep. All because of a stupid theory that's been going around.”
Justin shook his head, puzzled. “What theory?”
Libby had no idea what that meant. Her confusion must have been written all over her face, because the man seemed to grow more frustrated by her inability to follow.
The man gestured toward the wall where TV monitors were displaying different stations. All of them were news reports, showing chaos in the city. They were discussing six victims of the explosions that rocked the street outside of Marti's apartment. It made no sense, because Rose had only used smoke bombs. There weren't even any people where they went off.
Another TV was showing several HAND vehicles with lights flashing and the headline, 'COLLIN POWERS TAKEN INTO HAND CUSTODY', written across the screen. Libby watched text scroll across the bottom of the screen, waiting for more details about his capture, but there were none. They didn't even show him being loaded into a vehicle and driven away.
Another TV showed reports of people being hauled out of their homes in handcuffs, after HAND discovered evidence of Hate connections in their apartments during the search for Collin Powers—the search for Libby.
Those searches were still continuing. Collin Powers was locked up, but HAND officers were still going through apartments. People were still being taken.
As Libby watched those news reports, she couldn't understand why this was happening. It made her mad to see people ripped from their homes like that. To see children thrown around by uncaring officials. To see the world thrown into chaos and to know that it was her fault.
“Some people think HAND wants you because you know something. They think you're a threat to the system, which makes you a weapon for us. They risked their lives and chose you over Collin Powers because they think that if the authorities are this scared of you, there has to be a good reason for it,” the man told Libby, though she didn't understand any of it. She didn't know what she was supposed to contribute to this cause. She didn't know why they would choose her over Collin Powers. It was the wrong decision.