by JN Chaney
“So?” Asked Sarah. “It’s probably doing it so we can navigate better.”
“That’s not all,” said Terry. “The details are changing, too.” He pointed to a blank area near their current location. “See this? There used to be a building here. Now there’s nothing.”
“What’s it mean?” asked Alex.
“I think the map’s updating itself.”
“How’s such a thing possible?” said Roland. “I thought everything on here was supposed to be completely up-to-date? Isn’t that the whole point of the radar tower?”
“Normally yes,” said Mei. “But we’re outside the towers’ reach. Our pads have been going on old data.” She flicked the screen of her pad, zooming back out. “Look here. See those buildings in the city? They’re obviously gone now, collapsed or whatever, but if you look on the map, they’re still here. The reason’s because we have outdated maps of this area from before the Jolt.”
Sarah scratched behind her ear. “So why is it updating? Shouldn’t we still see the outdated map?”
“Maybe the towers really are doing it,” said Roland. “Central could have increased the range on them or sent an update. They know we’re going this way, right? So maybe they didn’t have much of a reason to do it until now.”
“I don’t think so,” said Mei. “Don’t you remember the diagram they showed us when we went over weather patterns?”
“Not meteorology again,” said John, moaning.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, meteorology. Mr. Nuber showed us a map of the area covered by the towers. We’re outside of it. Ever since we went beyond the towers’ reach, we’ve been going based on a two-hundred-year-old map. A lot can happen in a few centuries, so of course the land’s changed.”
“But we still have maps,” said John. “If we can’t get anything from the towers, where’d they come from?”
“Could be saved data files on the hard drives. They’re probably meant to be a backup in case the towers went down or we got out of range. They’re not a hundred percent accurate, but better than nothing.”
“The teachers most likely thought the same thing,” said Terry.
“What about the updates we’re getting?” asked Roland. “Where are they coming from?”
Terry thought for a moment. “It’s the pads. It has to be.”
John looked at him. “Huh?”
“Think about it. What else could be doing it?”
Mei smiled. “You might be right.”
“How?” asked Sarah. “Don’t you need to be pretty far up in order to do that? It’s the whole point of the towers, right?”
“It’s not updating very far,” said Terry. “There seems to be a limit. Maybe a hundred yards.”
Mei nodded. “I’m thinking these pads are operating by line of sight, and since we’re so close to the ground, they can’t see very far. Like you said, a hundred yards, maybe less.”
“So it’s hardly useful,” said Alex.
Mei shook her head. “If we can get to a high enough area, it might be very useful.”
“What? You mean like a tall building?” asked Roland. “I don’t see any of those around here.”
“There might be up ahead,” said Terry. “And if not, at least we’re getting something out of it, even if it’s not much.”
Sarah nodded. “You’re right, Terry. It’s better than nothing.”
“Wait a second,” said John, furrowing his brow. “If the maps are updating and we’re out of range from the towers, how’s Cole’s signal reaching us?”
Roland spoke up. “It’s not a steady signal, for starters.”
“Still, how can the towers reach it at all?” John asked.
Everyone paused at the question, seemingly clueless.
Mei suddenly clapped her hands. “I know!” she squealed. “The chips are transmitting. Don’t you guys see? Cole’s chip is sending intermittent signals to the nearest tower. It’s the only thing making any sense.”
“Doesn’t it mean he could’ve moved by now?” asked Terry.
“He’s probably still there. The biggest issue for us is we might have to deal with some unforeseen terrain changes.”
“Could be bad,” said Sarah. “We’ll be walking in blind.”
“The pads give us a hundred yards, right?” asked Terry.
Mei shrugged. “Maybe. It could be less.”
“Still, it’s something,” said Terry.
Roland started walking. “As long as we’re careful, we’ll be fine. Remember, we’re armed and trained. We can handle whatever comes our way.”
*******
After spending most of the day on the road, Terry’s group finally stopped in a clearing beneath a large hill. The highway they were following merged effortlessly into the hillside, where the grass took hold and covered everything. “It’s like a carpet,” said Terry.
“Pretty annoying if you ask me,” said John. “I’d rather have the road.”
“Listen up,” said Roland. He tapped the pad in his hand and pulled up the local map. The red and blue dots each appeared. They were very close now. “It’s less than three miles before we get to where we need to be. This incline might slow us a little, but we should be fine. Everyone grab something quick to eat, but don’t take too long. We’re pushing forward in fifteen minutes. Hopefully, when we reach the top, our pads will pick up more info about what’s ahead. If not, we’ll still have our eyes.” He unslung his pack.
“Sounds good to me,” said Mei. She immediately sat down. “Terry, toss me a bag, please.”
“Sure thing,” said Terry. He knelt and started unpacking. “Bags of slop for everyone.”
“Slop?” asked Alex.
“Best you’ve ever had,” said John.
“He lies,” said Sarah. “But it’s not as bad as chewing dirt, I guess.”
“Or grass,” said Mei. “Can you imagine trying to survive up here without the food we brought?”
“Hey, yeah,” said John. “Say, Alex, what were you planning to live on when you got up here, anyway?”
“We brought food,” he said.
“Like what?” asked Mei. “You didn’t have any supplies when we found you.”
“We used some. The rest got destroyed during the attack.”
“So what were you gonna do afterward?” asked John. “Eat the grass? Because there’s nothing else around here.”
“I had a plan.”
“Which was?”
Terry handed a bag of food to Sarah, but Alex snatched it away.
“Hey,” snapped Terry
“It doesn’t matter anymore, does it?” barked Alex. “It’s not like we had time to do anything.” He tore into the bag, spilling bits of wet cabbage all over his jacket. He swore, but started eating anyway.
“Sorry for asking,” said John.
Terry handed out the rest of the food. “Let’s just eat. We have to get going pretty soon.”
They hurried and ate, barely speaking. Terry packed the remaining food and hoisted the pack over his shoulder. The weight of it was hardly noticeable—nothing like it used to be, back before all of this.
So much had changed for him, but even more since he arrived on the surface. He was never tired anymore, not at all, and every day he felt stronger. But where was it all going? Tomorrow, when he awoke, would he feel better than he did today, or would it finally level out? How strong could a person become before the body reached its limit and collapsed in on itself?
A chill ran down his back. Oh, well, he thought, buckling the strap around his chest. I guess it could be worse. But when he tried to think of how, nothing came to him.
They marched along the hill, leaving a trail of flattened grass behind them. The blue weeds waved back and forth, reflective in the light, and they danced as though they’d been waiting their whole lives for someone to find them. “It’s so beautiful,” said Sarah. “Why can’t everything be so wonderful?”
They climbed the hill for nearly two hours. After a while, John turned around, asking how long everyone thought it would take for him to reach the bottom if he fell.
“It won’t matter, since you’ll break your neck,” said Mei.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” he said.
“Of course,” she smiled.
As they grew closer to the peak, Sarah started running. “We’re almost there,” she shouted. “Finally!” It didn’t take long for her to reach the top. When she did, she didn’t say a word. She only stared, her mouth agape.
“What do you see?” called Roland.
“Probably nothing, same as everything else,” said Mei.
Sarah didn’t answer right away, but when Roland called to her again, she flinched, like she hadn’t heard him until now. “Sorry. It’s…definitely something.”
“What is it?” asked Roland.
“Come and see,” she said, refusing to look away.
As Terry approached the crest, the sky beyond the hill peeled back. In the distance, a building appeared. With each step it grew larger, and around it several others showed themselves. Before long, a slew of broken structures larger than anything else he’d ever seen filled the distant sky. “It’s a city,” muttered Terry.
“Not anymore,” said Sarah.
She was right. Nearly a fourth of it had been obliterated, broken apart into nothing more than a massive pile of debris. The remaining towers, while still standing, were jagged remnants of their former states. They looked like giant knives coming out of the earth, trying to pierce the sky.
Much like the rest of the planet, everything about this place had come undone.
Standing high atop the hill, Terry stared intently at the pad in his hand. The map was filling itself with details faster than it ever had before. He and Mei were right to expect as much. The elevation allowed for a far greater line of sight. “Check it out,” he said.
“What’s the damage?” asked John.
Mei frowned. “Uh, oh.”
“Something wrong?” asked Terry.
“The map changed more than I expected.”
“So what?” asked Sarah.
“So there’s a problem now. Look at Cole’s signal. See how different the area looks.”
Terry pulled up the map and zoomed in on it. The landscape had changed drastically. The signal now came from beneath what appeared to be several layers of stone at the edge of the city. “Not good.”
“No, it’s not,” said Mei. “It looks like he’s been buried. Or he’s in a cave now.”
“Could be anything,” said Sarah.
“Awesome,” said John. “Because things weren’t hard enough before, right?”
It took less time to reach the bottom of the hill than to climb it. The road reappeared near the base and continued unhindered for as far as they could see. “The map says it’s this way,” said Roland. He pointed down the road toward the city. “Not much farther now.”
As they drew closer to the city, the collapsed walls and highway roads became more apparent. A dried up river basin stretched from within the confines of the desolate metropolis, twisting and bending out along the stone and into the endless expanse of desert sand.
Beyond the once-river, the tattered concrete jungle remained.
The city’s towers looked as though they might collapse at any moment—a shattered visage of accomplishments, slowly breaking apart like dust from a dry stone.
The tallest of these monuments lay near the center, its steel frame the only evidence of its once mighty legacy. After two hundred years, it had become nothing more than a skeleton, its concrete guts eroded by rain and wind and natural decay. Someday, possibly soon, this antique goliath would wither completely, joining its fallen brethren in the sand. It might not take much—a gust of wind, perhaps, or a tremor, or simply time—but in the end it would dissolve and die, absorbed back into the earth that birthed it, the same mud that had given life so generously to both men and beast, tree and insect.
For now, though, it continued to sleep, the same as it had for so many years, ever since the Jolt came and wiped out all the spectators—no more eyes to marvel with, no more necks bent back with gaping mouths to awe.
Until a group of mutant offspring from below the crust of the deep, dark earth came up for some decidedly fresh air. “What wonders would befall us, children?” Dr. Byrne had said so long ago. “A whole new world of stories.”
In that moment, staring out across the wasteland sea, Terry imagined what the good doctor—what all of the teachers—would say if they could see what their new world had wrought.
*******
January 06, 2347
Virgil’s Diner, Pepper Plaza
Avery Ross sat with her hands on her lap, waiting in a booth inside Virgil’s Diner for Henry to arrive. The two of them had often come here for lunch once or twice a week in their earlier years. It had become quite routine, but after Ross received her promotion and Henry started teaching, they met less and less frequently. They tried to maintain the tradition for as long as they could, but after a while they simply stopped going.
Still, Ross considered Henry to be a friend, no matter how far apart they had grown in recent years. Part of the reason had come from the fact that Henry frequently disagreed with the colonel, while Ross’s job required her to defend every decision her leadership made. She couldn’t blame this single factor entirely for the growing divide between them, but it certainly hadn’t helped.
Now, here she sat again. When she watched him enter the swinging glass door at the front of the diner, it felt for a moment as if nothing had changed.
“Sorry it took me so long,” said Nuber.
“It’s okay. You’re always late. I don’t mind.”
He chuckled. “You order yet?”
“Coffee for me. I ordered you a beer.”
“The cheap stuff, I hope.”
“Nothing but,” she said.
A second later, the waitress approached and set their drinks on the table. Henry took a swig from his glass. “Ah.”
“Can I get you two anything else?” asked the waitress.
“Not yet,” said Ross.
“Let me know when you’re ready,” said the woman. She returned to the counter, leaving them alone.
Nuber took another swig. “Is this where you tell me why we’re here? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, but we haven’t done this in years.”
“I know…and I’m sorry for it. We’ve both been so busy with the program and our jobs. But I needed to talk to you outside the office.”
“Sure. It’s a tough job.”
“There’s more to it.”
He nodded. “I figured as much, judging from the call you made to me last night.” He set the glass down. “So tell me, since we’re away from work, what’s got you so worked up? Ready to spill?”
“It’s like I said on the phone. There are things happening in this city I’ve never seen before. Things threatening to destroy everything our government represents.”
“You’re talking about Bishop.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know, Henry, and I won’t presume to get you more involved than you already are, but…”
“Hey,” he said, leaning in. “It’s okay. I’m here, Ross. You can tell me.”
Ross hesitated, though she didn’t know why. She had asked Henry here for this exact reason. Why was she second guessing herself? He wasn’t like the rest of them. “How long have you known me, Henry?” she asked, finally.
“Twelve years, give or take. Why?”
“After all this time, do you trust me?”
“More than most.”
“In a moment, I’m going to walk through the back door. You can follow me if you want,” she said, staring him in the eyes. “But if you aren’t completely certain…if you’d rather stay out of the coming storm…by all means, walk out the other door an
d return to your life. I won’t think any less of you. We’ll never talk about this again.”
“And if I follow you?” he asked.
“Then you’ll have your chance to make a difference, not only in the lives of those children, but for everyone in this city.”
*******
January 06, 2347
The Slums
Mara sat in a tiny room with no windows, sipping a glass of wine, playing solitaire on her pad. She wasn’t alone, but she might as well have been. Poor Ava lay in the corner, hugging the sofa. She was fast asleep.
Mara sighed, then set the pad on the table. Pretending to be dead was so incredibly boring, especially when it meant being stuck in this closet of a room, unable to show her face. She had absolutely no control over what was happening out there. The wait was killing her.
Not to mention the pain in her from wearing that vest all day, constraining her and weighing her down. Thankfully, she was still alive and breathing. The whole scene could’ve gone much worse.
When Ross came to her with news of an assassination, she was speechless. Part of her couldn’t believe Bishop would actually do it. Had he truly strayed so far? What could provoke a once honorable man into becoming such a sadist?
But when she actually took the time to think about it, she could see it. Bishop’s determination for the end result, for the ultimate prize, was without equal in his life. This obsession of his had become a crusade with no end in sight. It didn’t matter if someone had to die in order to make his dream come true. He was saving humanity, after all. It was the only thing he cared about. He sacrificed those children in the chamber and again on the surface. He didn’t care whether or not they lived, because the data from their deaths could help him find a faster solution. If Mara or anyone else should stand in his way, Bishop would do what he had to. Nothing but the prize mattered.
Upon learning of the plot, Mara’s immediate reaction had been to go into hiding, to run and slip away like some poor, diseased rat. But like Ross had told her, canceling the venue and locking herself away wouldn’t stop the threat of violence. At best, she could only postpone it. Even if she came forward and openly accused Bishop of conspiring against her, she had no evidence. While Ross could have gone on record, testifying against him, the plot she overheard that night hadn’t been recorded. It would only be her word against his. And who was Ross compared to Bishop? An insubordinate girl plotting against her superior, trying to seize the throne for herself. They’d laugh her out of the room.