by Edge, T. C.
“The lights will be going out in one hour. First, follow me towards the mess hall in town where we're kindly being treated to a local dinner. I believe they catch a lot of deer here.”
The next hour drags along like a dead weight behind us all. No one is in any mood to speak to each other much or socialise. Really, what would be the point when we're all going to be in separate places by tomorrow? I choose not to share my final destination with anyone for want of getting more jealous stares. Everyone here is to be a local Planter or Chopper or perhaps something in a nearby region. They won't look kindly on someone bound for Eden.
I notice the young looking girl down the table saying nothing at all. She just sits with her head low and eyes peering up every so often. This is her home town, and her mother and father probably live just around the corner. How she must want to run back to them rather than being here with us. But she, like all of us, needs to let go of that now.
When we return to the bus, I'm happy to crawl into my bunk. There's plenty of space, so no one sleeps above me. Just like it's been for the last few years since Cassie left home.
I fall into uneasy dreams and find myself waking often. When I do I don't know where I am in the pitch dark of the bus. In my hand I clutch my mother's watch, feeling my fingers along the cracked glass, and a tear rolls down my cheek.
But I'm not the only one crying. In the silence of the night I hear a whimper across from me. Light sobs in the darkness. The tears of the young looking girl, about to be torn from her home.
7 - The Graveyard
The next morning we're awoken early by Leeta's orders to get off the bus. Outside we gather, a host of confused 16 year olds with blurry eyes and funny hair, watching as the strange vehicle transforms into its previous form.
As we get back on I can't help but notice the young looking girl with brown hair, her eyes red and puffy, staring out towards a patch of wood. It's probably where her mother works.
Leeta's calls force her eyes around and she climbs back on, head down, and creeps into her seat at the back. For the next couple of hours I don't see her turn her gaze from the window. Periodically, I see her reflection, though, and know that those green eyes are once more filled with tears.
The day moves on as before as we hover through the hills and mountains. Lunchtime quickly comes and goes, Leeta passing out our rations to eat as we travel. By early afternoon we've left the mountains and are returning to flatter lands, passing through old towns and settlements that no longer look to be occupied. Some show signs of battle: crumbled walls, bullet holes, craters in the ground. There are old vehicles, rusted and beyond repair, lying everywhere.
The further we go, the worse it gets. Old unoccupied towns become rubble. Unused cars become metal shells. A grey mist seems to hang over the land. No trees or bushes grow. No signs of life exist. It must be the place known as the Graveyard. It's a place that every kid knows about.
It happened during the civil war a long time ago at the height of the fighting. The rebels managed to steal a nuclear weapon and dropped it here, close to the coast, on what used to be a highly populated region. Thousands died in the blast, and many more followed in the months and years that followed. Ever since that day the land has become toxic, unused by Eden and left as a memorial for the victims.
It's a large barren blip on the mainland of Arcadia, and a reminder for everyone of what the rebels were capable of. At a time when people were divided, questioning the morals of fighting their own countrymen, it brought people together under a united goal. The war didn't last much longer after that, and the world came together to sanction the decommissioning of all nuclear weapons. Just so nothing like that could ever happen again.
Leeta begins sermonising once more as we pass through the old ruins, standing up at the front and dragging our attention to any particular points of interest. I wonder if she does this every year, educating her latest troop of school leavers as they pass through to their final destinations.
It takes a while before the earth begins to show signs of life again. Trees spring up in the distance, buildings appear on the horizon. The further we go, the grander they get. Soon Leeta is excitedly telling us that we're approaching the coast.
“Has anyone seen the sea before?” she asks, an uncharacteristically genuine smile on her face.
I see a series of heads shake ahead of me.
“Well, it's magnificent....no, no I won't spoil it for you, I'll let you see it for yourself. We'll be coming into the fishing city of Piscator soon. Um, Mr Hansen, Mr Dawler and erm,” she says, looking down at her tablet, “Miss Kepple, you're all disembarking here.”
She looks up towards the back of the bus. “Cyra and Ellie, you'll be coming with me.”
I look to my left to see the green eyed girl gingerly turn her head in my direction. A nervous smile arches at the corners of her mouth. “Hi. My name's Ellie, like she said.”
“I'm Cyra, like she said,” I say, smiling wide to make her feel at ease. “So, you're leaving the mainland as well?”
She nods her head quickly. “Yeah, I don't know why. They're taking me to Eden.” She seems embarrassed as she says it. I know the feeling.
“Wow, really? Me too. I guess we'll be travelling together.”
Her smile loses its cloak of nerves and suddenly brightens. “Oh...that's great! I thought it would be just me.”
“There's a lot of that going around,” I say, laughing. “I didn't think anyone went to Eden from the mainland.”
“No, neither did I. No one from my town has ever been picked.”
I reach forward and extend my hand. “Well, Ellie, I guess we're the special ones,” I say, half mocking, half genuine.
She slips her small hand into my own and I shake it lightly. Her skin is as soft as her features, which are pretty and almost childlike. She's got this sweet smile and button nose. There's an innocence there that makes her seem younger than she is.
“So, did you get your duty yet?” she asks. The way she says it suggests she hasn't been given hers either.
“No, they just said I was going to Eden. Nothing else. I guess maybe they need some people to do manual tasks there. I'm no scientist or engineer.”
“Me neither. I was never very good in school.”
“Well there's gotta be a reason. I don't think Leeta even knows.”
“Oh, is that the woman at the front?” she asks.
“Yeah, her name's Leeta. She took my testing. She's odd, but actually OK when you talk to her a bit.”
“They're all like that I think. All the people from the testing board. They all look the same too.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. It's all grey and black. Not the friendliest colours are they!”
“I like your colouring,” she says, nodding her head at me. “I'd love to have skin your colour. And your hair's so bright. I look more like them really.”
“No, your hair's lovely. And...is that green in your eyes?”
She nods. “I guess. I haven't really seen my reflection much. We don't have many mirrors where I'm from.”
“Well take it from me. They're beautiful. Much nicer than Leeta's, although don't tell her I said that.”
She giggles as we both look up to see Leeta talking to the remaining people on the bus. Just the two boys and one girl left other than us. I'm glad to have a companion for my onward journey to Eden, though. Maybe we'll have the same duty? Just knowing that there will be someone else from the mainland there makes everything just that little less intimidating.
“OK, we're nearing the city of Piscator now,” Leeta announces from the front. “Everyone, please prepare yourselves to disembark.”
The bus begins to slow as I stand and remove my small backpack from the storage compartment above my head. I slip my mother's watch inside a secure pocket and tighten the zip, before sitting back down and waiting for the bus to stop.
We seem to be entering the residential part of the city. The buildings here are long and narrow, yet
tall. They look like the Block back in Arbor, only with several of them piled on top of each other. Floor upon floor of small living quarters for those working in the city and down at the port.
The bus pulls to a stop in a square surrounded by these tall, narrow buildings. The two boys and girl disembark first and are greeted by their waiting Leaders. One meets with the boys, and the other with the single girl, before guiding them away out of the square.
“Right ladies, are you ready?” asks Leeta from the front.
Ellie and I share a quick look before nodding and standing with our bags. When we step off, a smell that I've never experienced before quickly fills the air. It's salty and pungent and stings the inside of my nostrils. I raise my fingers to my nose and start rubbing, and look over to see that Ellie is doing the same.
“Yes, the smell is a bit unpleasant isn't it?” says Leeta, who doesn't seem to be having the same trouble as us. “It's the same whenever I pass through.”
“And what is it?” I ask, searching with my eyes for the source of the stink.
“Fish, mainly. And the smell of the ocean. Come now girls, you'll get used to it in a few minutes.”
Leeta begins marching off through the city and we follow. The sun shines bright in the late afternoon sky, yet there's a greyness to the buildings, similar to the industrial region of Arma that we passed through. Strangely, however, there are no people around, and we walk for several minutes without seeing a single soul. When I ask Leeta why, she tells me they're all either down working in the docks or out at sea on fishing trawlers.
Gradually we move through and away from the maze of tall, narrow, buildings and into an area of warehouses and factories. A tremendous cacophony of noise sounds from inside each one, making it hard for us to hear as Leeta explains where we are. I just about hear that this is where all of the fish are packed and processed. It's basically a much larger version of the sorting and processing warehouses we have in Arbor.
Inside one I hear hundreds of voices, singing together in unison. I reminds me of the productivity songs they sing out in the orchards, although on a grander scale. From outside I can't make out any of the words, but once again Leeta is on hand to tell us that it's an old fisherman's song from centuries ago. It has a strange, haunting quality that is in contrast to the sweeter melodies we'd sing out under the morning sun in the picking fields.
Beyond the warehouses and factories lies a sprawling series of ports. Huge ships lie stationed on docks, with others either embarking out to sea or returning from a voyage. For the first time in my life I see the ocean beyond. An endless blue blanket stretching all the way to the horizon.
“Beautiful, isn't it,” says Leeta, her eyes dancing at the sight of the sea.
I nod in agreement, but feel I must be missing something. To me, it's terrifying. An unending expanse of water towards a completely unknown world beyond. It's the opposite of my safe haven back home. Of the golden fields and green woods. Here it's all grey and blue and sickly tones. It doesn't smell of the harvest, or of the sweet apple and orange trees, but of death and decay. Standing there, looking out over the enormous ships and the tens of thousands of people in their grey overalls and heavy boots, I feel more lost than I ever have.
When I turn to Ellie, I see that she's thinking the same. She's used to woods and mountains and beautiful, earthy colours. She scans the landscape ahead and her brows begin to furrow more deeply. Then she mutters something under her breath, something I can't make out over the din and rumble of giant ships and busy factories.
Leeta looks to have misconstrued the looks on our faces as those of wonder and amazement. In truth, there's an element of that in there. It would be impossible not to marvel at the sight ahead of us. At everything I've seen so far on this journey across the mainland. Yet all that is secondary to the feeling of homesickness, of loneliness. Having never left my little town, all of this is more than a bit overwhelming.
By the looks of things, Leeta brought us through this part of town purely so that we could see the bustling port and noisy industrial sector, because it's not where our boat is. She tells us that it's further down the coastline through the city in the merchant sector.
“This is the busiest harbour city in all of Arcadia,” she says. “This is the fishing sector, but merchant trade is brought in at another port. There's also a military port in the other direction that I'd just love to show you, but time is pressing I'm afraid.”
“That's a shame,” I say, hardly attempting to hide my sarcastic tone. She takes it as genuine though, making me think that perhaps sarcasm isn't used much among Edenites.
The merchant sector feels more familiar to me, and looks just like a huge version of our trading area in Arbor. All sorts of items appear to be changing hands, from cloth and fine materials to food delicacies and luxury items like cigarettes and alcohol. Away along the docks are massive container ships being loaded with crates to be delivered to the sea cities. From what I can see, the vast majority of trade is going out, with little coming in. Food, fuel, clothing, and a huge number of products produced in the industrial region of Arma are continually manufactured, packed, brought to the harbour, and sent out to sea. And all the mainland regions get in return is food and protection against the threat of rebels beyond the Divide. I wouldn't call that a fair deal.
Leeta continues to educate us as we go, explaining the history of Piscator and it's geographical importance. Hundreds of years ago, all of this would have been land, she tells us. That beneath the waves lie old towns and cities stretching for miles out to sea, submerged when the water began to move inland, drowning much of the coastline in the East.
“This city has seen continual growth ever since it was founded,” she says. “It's now the most important port along the coastline and is a gateway to all the sea cities, Eden included.”
She opens her arms out as she speaks, and gestures towards a huge ship stationed on the dock. “And this, girls, is the vessel that will take us there.”
Our eyes follow her hands as they point at the juggernaut of a ship docked against the harbour. Under the sun it gleams white, its front end pointed like the tip of a knife to cut through the ocean. The body grows wider as it extends back, the rear of the ship flat and covered in a series of massive circular turbines that glow blue. On the top, massive solar sails extend from the upper deck, capturing the sun's rays to power the huge machine, and all down the sides are hundreds of smaller panels, sparkling in the sunlight.
When we move closer, the ship looms ever larger, standing dozens of stories high above the water. Inside I see people at the windows, looking out over the docks and the city beyond. At the bottom, thousands of people continue to board, with vehicles and various other items of luggage being fitted into massive container areas in the belly of the ship.
“Who are all these people?” I ask Leeta as we approach. I can tell from the various ages that they're not all school leavers assigned to Eden.
“All sorts,” she says. “Many will be Supervisors from the various towns and cities throughout the mainland regions. They're required each year after the Duty Call to report to Eden for a debrief.”
“A debrief?” asks Ellie, finally finding her voice. It's the first question she's asked of Leeta all day.
“Yes, Ellie. It basically means they're required to update Eden on their town, its progress, where their school leavers have been assigned, and to get new orders for the coming year. It's all just part of the system.”
“And everyone else?” I ask.
“Well, there will be a lot of Testers, like myself, as well as some assigned to Eden, like yourselves. And other diplomats and political figures and military personnel going back and forward. A lot of them will just be those on vacation as well.”
“Vacation?” asks Ellie again. “What's that?”
“It's basically like a long Sunday,” I tell her before Leeta can speak. “You have Sundays off, right?”
Ellie nods. As far as I know, Sunda
y is the one day people have off across the regions. It certainly is where I'm from.
“Well, vacation is maybe a whole week off, maybe even two.” I look over to Leeta, who nods.
“Yes,” she says, “one or two weeks is the norm. People from Eden like to see the mainland when they can, or perhaps visit relatives on other sea cities or....elsewhere.” She trails off, and I know she's thinking of her son back in Arma.
“So will we get vacation?” asks Ellie excitedly.
“I'm not sure,” says Leeta, her voice now more withdrawn. “It depends on your duty.”
“Which we'll hear about when?” I ask a little curtly.
“When you reach Eden. I've already told you that, Cyra,” she bites.
She falls silent for a second before leading us towards the queue outside the ship. We join the back and wait, a slight awkwardness hanging in the air. Ellie seems to have moved on from the slump she was in for much of the morning, her eyes no longer red or blotchy, but wide and bright. I think it's the thought that she'll be able to visit her family, her home, if she gets vacation.
I find myself reaching into the pocket of my bag containing my mother's watch, and sliding my fingers over the cracked glass. There's no going back to Arbor for me. Not any more. There's nothing there for me now. Not my mother. Not Jackson. Not any of the other friends I had in school, limited in number as they were. If I returned now it would be to a ghost town, full of memories and pain. It's the last place I'd think of visiting.
It takes us no time to get to the front of the queue. When we get there we are asked to roll up our sleeves for our barcodes to be scanned. When it's my turn, I see a brief screen flash up with my information in front of a guard. I see an image of myself, my vital statistics, and various other pieces of information I can't decipher.
I'm ushered through additional security as Ellie has her own code scanned. There's some sort of x-ray machine that deciphers the contents of my bag without me needing to open it, and my own body is also scanned to make sure I've got nothing dangerous on me. I get through without a problem, and Ellie follows after me.