Utopia

by L. J. Higgins

  “I don't know. All I know is they killed her, and now they're hunting me down.”

  “Okay, okay. We'll come back to what happened. We need to tend to your side. Who knows how much blood you've lost? How did you manage to slice yourself open?” He reached down and touched the patch of blood seeping into the fabric of my white school shirt, which had begun to harden.

  “Window. Glass.” It was all I could say through my sobs.

  “Here,” he climbed over the bed and helped me stand. “Let me fix this while you tell me what's going on. I want to know every detail.”

  He disappeared for a moment, returning with a first aid kit. I slid my shirt over my head and lay on my good side so he could tend to my wound. It stung as he dabbed at it, and used tweezers to pull out small shards of glass.

  “Gee, Aurora. You made a mess of yourself.” His face was stern with concentration.

  “I had to get out, Fletch. You don't understand.” I flinched as he pulled out another piece of glass.

  “Well, make me understand.” He looked up and gave me a reassuring smile.

  I did my best to remember the events at my dwelling. My mum's strange interest in my birthday. How she'd wanted to tell me something important but said it was too late when Officer Banks knocked on the door. Relaying the events was helping me sort through it. But it only raised more questions. What was Mum going to tell me? What did it have to do with the Utopian Guard and the Elites?

  “Mum said she had something to tell me. Something to do with my dad and the end of the Earth. Officer Banks busted in and I hid. He told mum she knew why they were there. Why couldn't he wait another ten minutes? Then I would've known the whole story and maybe mum wouldn't have been shot.” I growled in frustration.

  “Don't worry. We'll work this out. I've patched up your side, and glued the skin together as best as I can. You must be exhausted. How about I get you a wet cloth to wash yourself off and you lay down and have a sleep? We can work all of this out in the morning.”

  “What if your dad comes back?”

  “I'll wake you and hide you again. But I'm sure he'll leave me alone. He usually does.”

  I nodded in agreement as he left the room for a moment before returning with a wet cloth as he'd promised. I used it to wash the blood from my body, hands and face.

  As I washed off, Fletcher rummaged through his tall wooden cupboard. “Here, chuck on one of my singlets, and I'm sure I have a pair of pants here that are too small for me. Ahh, here they are.” He turned and threw the clothing to me.

  I stood from the bed to pull on the cream pants. They fitted perfectly and I slid the singlet over my head. It was baggy under my arms but better than sleeping half naked in front of Fletcher. With my mind reeling from the events of the evening, I hadn't blinked at the idea at taking my shirt off while he was there, but now the memory made my cheeks warm. Dressed, I lay my head on his soft pillow. Allowing the exhaustion from crying, being injured, running and losing a parent to take me over.

  “Thanks Fletch,” I said before closing my eyes.

  “It's what I'm here for, Rora,” he replied.

  Chapter Three

  The boom of the gunshot that killed my mother reverberated through my head, waking me with a start. I was safe. I was with Fletcher in his bedroom. The revelation didn't stop my heart from trying to beat out of my chest.

  “You okay?” Fletcher looked over at me from his desk. His eyes bore dark circles, and crackles of red spread through the whites of them.

  “Yeah, sorry.” I took a deep breath and combed my long hair with my fingers. “Have you had any sleep?”

  “Nah, but I'll be okay. I've been trying to work out what our next move is.” He rubbed his eyes with the balls of his fists.

  “What am I going to do Fletch? I can't live in your bedroom for the rest of my life.”

  “Why not? You could be my slave. Make my bed, fold my clothes…” He gave me a cheeky grin.

  “Your dad pays maids to do your chores. And he'd get pretty suspicious if you decided you didn't need one anymore. You're not exactly the homemaker type.”

  “Okay, so plan B. I'm going to take you to meet someone. Someone who might know what all of this is about.” He was reluctant to carry on.

  “Who is it? How do you know you can trust them?” I sat up in my bed, impressed my side was much better than it had been before I'd fallen asleep.

  “Don't freak out.” He cringed.

  It frustrated me that he thought I couldn't handle whatever his idea was. My mother had been murdered in front of me and I was being hunted by the Utopian Guard. I was pretty sure I could handle pretty much anything after what I'd been through. “Fletch, if they can help me, tell me.”

  “Okay, but before you kill me, hear me out.” He stood and walked over to me.

  “Fletch!”

  “My sister.” His eyes searched mine for a reaction.

  Did he say sister? I'd known Fletcher for the past eleven years and never once had he mentioned having a sister.

  “You're freaking out on me, aren't you?” He wasn't joking. I could tell by the serious look in his tired eyes.

  “You have a sister? Are you kidding? Since when do you have a sister?” My thoughts found their way to my mouth.

  “Since I was born.”

  I glared at him.

  He sat beside me on the bed. “You asked. She's ten years older than us. Dad had her with a girl he'd been with in high school before he met Mum. He pretty much saved her life and brought her up to Utopia, but when she was sixteen she fell in with a weird crowd and shunned the family. She disappeared under the city with her new friends. She played with us a few times when we were younger, but you I'm sure you don't remember. Dad always seemed to resent he'd brought her here. After she left he pretended she never existed, and you know what people are like here. They did what they were told. Forgot she existed. But I didn't. I visit her sometimes. I think she can help us.”

  “Us? You mean me. I'm the one they want dead. I don't want you putting yourself at risk any more than you already have.” My mind was reeling from the revelation, but it wasn't the time to freak out.

  “I'm your best friend. And I want to know the truth as much as you do. My father runs this damned floating city. I need to find out what's going on.” His eyes narrowed as he stared at his desk across the room.

  “Can he help us? Do you think your dad will know what's happening?” I asked.

  “I'm not sure. And I'm not sure if we can trust him, but I'll explain later. I'll get a bag together and we can take off. It's still not light out, so we will be able to use the darkness to sneak to the orchards. The entry is there.”

  “The entry?” I asked.

  “To the Undercity.” Fletcher snatched up a backpack from his bedroom floor and disappeared through the doorway.

  The Undercity? I'd heard about the Undercity. People lived there out of the sight of the general population. But I'd thought it was only a rumor, like the stories of ghosts and poltergeists they'd had on Earth. Now I was going to see it for myself. I'd heard they were the deformed and the outcasts living beneath us. People who couldn't help our city but our leaders had decided to look after them out of the kindness of their hearts. I hoped the tales of freaks were in fact stories, and hoped Fletcher's sister could help me.

  Fletcher returned, his backpack looking much fuller than before. “I've got food and a first aid kit. I'm hoping Maya has whatever we might need.”

  “Maya?” I asked.

  “My sister.” He turned to face me. “I'm sorry I never told you. Its sensitive information, and I didn't want to put you in danger. Although, apparently you can find danger all on your own.”

  “Apparently. I still can't believe you kept it from me,” I sighed.

  He gave me an apologetic glance. “You ready?”

  “As I'll ever be.”

  We snuck out of his room and made our way down the two flights of stairs to the maids' exit. A few h
ad already begun their work for the day but were happy to ignore mine and Fletcher's existence. Their eyes stayed glued to the job at hand. At the far side of the room, Fletcher opened the door and looked around the expansive backyard of the house.

  “I'm pretty sure there's men stationed out front, but there don't seem to be any out this way,” he said.

  “There were a couple last night with torches. But I'm sure they're over looking for me by now,” I said hopefully.

  My heart rate kicked up a notch, and my stomach twisted at the thought of being on the run again. I'd felt somewhat safe being in Fletcher's room, but now reality was about to come rushing in at me.

  We made our way towards the fence line at the back of the property at a quickened pace. We strode over the synthetic grass and down the stone pathway around a magnificent three-tiered water fountain. Past the fountain. We continued through raised garden beds of fresh flowers until we arrived at the golden fence surrounding the property.

  I'd spent many hours running around Fletcher's yard. We'd play hide and seek while my father had meetings with his. I'd hated hiding, waiting to be found. The anticipation made me feel anxious and sick to my stomach. I always preferred being the seeker. Running across the yard again confirmed my distaste for hiding as the familiar queasiness settled in my belly.

  Fletcher fished a small key from the back pocket of his long cream pants and held it up to me.

  “The gate looks like it'll be easier than what I did last night,” I admitted.

  “How did you get into the yard?” He turned to slide the key into the lock.

  “The tree overhanging the property like I use to when we were younger.”

  “Now you hanging out of a tree would've been a sight.” The lock clicked and he pushed the gate open.

  “Especially when I fell out of it and landed in a heap on the ground.”

  He laughed at the thought before leading through the gateway. We soon found ourselves facing the trees of the forest which marked the edge of Utopia. I'd never been to the edge before. It was forbidden, and being caught carried harsh penalties. Including being jailed or worse, being exiled to Earth.

  Every Utopian knew being exiled meant certain death. According to scientists, the Earth was as volatile as the day we'd evacuated and survival would be impossible. The idea of being exiled had always scared me enough to keep me from the edge. But I'd always been curious why seeing it carried such harsh penalties. What could happen? Could you fall off the edge and plummet towards the old world?

  As we made our way through the trees. The shimmer of a thick glass pane came into view, and I quickened my pace towards it. It reached up, curling over us for about ten meters, and I ran my hand tentatively over its smooth cold surface.

  “Cool, isn't it?” asked Fletcher arriving behind me.

  “You've been to the edge before?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the view through the glass.

  “I may have snuck out here a few times. But Dad would've killed me if he found out.”

  “I didn't know you were full of so many secrets, Mr. Saxby.”

  He grimaced, “Don't call me that. And I wish you believed me that I couldn't tell you about Maya.”

  “I know.” Didn't stop it from hurting.

  Growing some courage, I took a step closer to the glass. Placing my palms on either side of my face I peered down towards the Earth below us. Cloud cover hid most of my view, but as the suns light broke through I could make out hints of green through the cloud.

  “Wow,” I breathed out.

  “You should see it on a clear day. It's pretty amazing.” Fletcher joined me looking through the glass.

  “Hard to imagine it's so dangerous down there, isn't it?”

  “I know, it's so beautiful.”

  “Naw, did you call the Earth beautiful?” I teased.

  “Shut up, it's prettier than anything I've ever seen.”

  “Prettier than Angel? She'll be so upset…”

  The sound of heavy footsteps stole us from our banter. We each turned from the edge and stood rigid and quiet. The steps sounded as though they were walking away from us, but we gave them a moment longer until we couldn't hear them anymore.

  “This way,” said Fletcher, disturbing the silence before taking off along the glass wall.

  I followed him, hoping we wouldn't be seen. We'd been stupid to think we could linger in one place for so long.

  “How far is it?” My eyes darted around, looking for any sign of the Utopian Guard.

  “If we run, it won't take too long,” he puffed.

  We each kept one hand running along the glass of the city's edge as we jogged along it towards the orchards. The trees soon thinned out, and I spotted the herb and vegetable patches up ahead of us.

  Fletcher came to a stop at the last tree and I pulled up behind him, my breath heavy.

  “It looks clear. Only a few farmers,” he whispered with a pant. “We need to get across and through the orchards to the warehouse.”

  Across the herb and veggie patches lines of fruit trees ran parallel to each other. A few rows along stood a massive warehouse where all of the produce was kept, sorted, divided and dispersed to Utopia and the other floating cities.

  “Ready?” Fletcher asked.

  “Ready,” I confirmed.

  He took off at a fast walk between two garden beds with me keeping pace behind him. Attracting a few sideways glances, the few farmers who noticed us kept their thoughts to themselves and continued working.

  We were almost to the first row of mango trees when a deep voice boomed from behind us. “Aurora Adams, halt!”

  It was Officer Banks. He was too close. “He's going to catch us,” I called out in panic to Fletcher as he broke into full stride, ducking between two mango trees.

  “Nearly there, keep running,” he called, darting across a lane and through more trees.

  Behind us, members of the Utopian Guard crashed through the orchard and I did my best to duck and weave as Fletcher ran as fast as he could towards the warehouse.

  Bang!

  The sound came from behind us before a bullet whipped past my ear. I squealed in response, picking up my pace overtaking Fletcher. My thighs burned, but I willed them to keep moving, to go faster.

  “Fletch!”

  “Keep running! We're nearly there but we have to ditch those guys first!” He was struggling to keep up.

  As we drew closer to the large wooden warehouse, we spotted workers walking up the laneways and spilling out between the trees to begin their day's work.

  “Turn right!” yelled Fletcher. I did as he directed.

  I ran up a laneway towards my right where a group of ten or so farmers stood together. As I approached the crowed, I slowed my pace to a quick walk.

  “Can we help you, sweetheart?” A tall, broad man asked, bending down to my height with a grin that creased the corners of his bright blue eyes.

  “They're trying to kill us. Please help us,” I begged him, tears threatening to run down my cheeks.

  His expression dropped. “That way.” He pointed to a small pathway between the trees. I nodded in thanks before leading Fletcher the way he'd sent us.

  “Do you think he'll tell them?” I whispered to Fletcher.

  “These people? No way. They hate the Utopian Guard.”

  I nodded, feeling a little less anxious. Letting Fletcher take the lead, he ducked behind a large mandarin tree before leading me through the orchard and backtracking towards the barn again.

  “In here.” We ran towards the building and pushed our way through a small door at its rear.

  Inside the building, the smell of damp dirt and sickly sweet fruit clung to the air, and Fletcher ran to the other side of the small room.

  “Here, help me.”

  I helped him lift a crate from the floor. Beneath it was a hidden trap door.

  “Leave him alone, he didn't do anything wrong.” A female's voice cried from outside the door.

 
; Leaving Fletcher to open the trap door, I walked towards the doorway of the warehouse and peered outside. The two guards were leading the man who'd helped us away in handcuffs while a lady followed them begging for them to let him go.

  “We didn't see a girl. Please, let him go,” she pleaded, tears streaming down her cheeks.

  Without a word, one of the guards punched her in the stomach. She fell to her knees, clutching herself, and a few other farmers ran to her aid. Those poor people had been doing their job, if we hadn't run towards them…

  “Aurora, we can't help them. We need to move.” Fletcher placed his hand on my shoulder, bringing me back to reality. I wished I could've done more to save the man who'd saved me.

  “He saved us, Fletch,” I said.

  “And it will have been all for nothing if you get caught too. We can't help him if we're dead, can we?” His eyes begged for me to do as he asked.

  I shook my head and wiped at my wet eyes before following Fletcher over to the open trap door. Fletcher ushered me inside. It was a tight fit, and pitch dark, but I found my footing on the rungs of the metal ladder and began my descent with Fletcher climbing above me.

  The darkness closed in around us until my own hands were no longer visible in front of my face. The only noise was the echo of our feet on the rungs and Fletcher's backpack scraping along the wall behind him. We continued climbing without a word, into the depths of Utopia's Undercity. All the while I hoped no one had been hurt in the orchard and the man who'd saved my life would be okay.

  Soon a small glow appeared, shining off the metallic surface of the tunnel, and it grew brighter as we descended towards the Undercity. At the bottom I dropped to my feet and stood, shielding my eyes from the fluorescent lights lining the metal beamed ceiling high above us. The people around me didn't notice my sudden appearance, and they continued with whatever they were doing before I'd arrived. Fletcher landed beside me with a thud, and a smile spread across his face.

  “Welcome to the Undercity. It's pretty cool, isn't it?” he beamed.

  I'd never imagined so many people could've lived below us without anyone ever noticing. And not one of them deformed or a freak from what I could tell.