Welcome to the apocalypse

by Lee Kerr

  I want to say yes. I want to argue that in their own way they have reached for the moon and more, but their reach was as limited as most people’s; they could only stretch a little considering the background: a dying planet full of clueless caretakers who never took their jobs seriously. I look into his eyes and shake my head, rubbing the burnt area on my neck against his tight grip. I want to tell him that he’s right, or is at least as close to it as anyone I have met. We need to do something different and his is the best option I’ve heard yet.

  He releases his hold on my neck and embraces me lightly, pulling me closer to the window. ‘Just imagine what we can achieve with all these likeminded individuals working as part of a bigger team in a small and co-operative town. And, yes, they need the money to pay for it, but doesn’t the fact that they have acquired wealth indicate that they are more successful, better educated and more equipped to cope than most people? It will not be perfect and it will be hard and that is the reason why we must have the right people, people who can work together to achieve this vision of our new world.’

  I don’t answer. Instead, I look down, distracted by a cockroach scuttling along the floor, finding free passage into areas that would normally have been off limits to its kind. It worries me how quickly their numbers have grown. Pest control became a thing of the past when the army of gardeners deserted this place. The thing is large and seems adventurous; no longer caring about what humans will do to it. I’ve always hated them and as it comes closer to my shoes I instinctively pull away. I feel sweat dripping off me now, caused both by the heat of Lawrence’s body coupled and the mid-afternoon sun beating through the windows, now that we can no longer afford air conditioning.

  It’s just about to reach my foot when Lawrence finally sees what has distracted me from his latest sermon. He doesn’t hesitate for a moment and stands on it; the crushing sound echoes in my ears and I see its guts spreading out across the floor. He looks down at me, his face expressionless. ‘We don’t have time to clear piles of ironing; we can’t promise that the next job will earn enough to pay back a debt that never seems to end. This isn’t about families or feuds. This isn’t even about me, this is about our collective legacy.’

  I nod, trying to prise my way out of his hold, knowing all too well what is coming next. He will explain in much detail the failures of my side of the family. This will be followed by threats that I will be sent back to experience the last days with my parents, which would be something I would cherish if it wasn’t for the fact they have sacrificed everything to put me here. I imagine turning up at home, desperately trying to find my abandoned parents. Their faces would be a mixture of relief and disappointment. And then there is Destiny – how can I leave her?

  ‘My company and my creation will live on long after I am gone. The new world will remember what happened here. An organisation that operates correctly must never think about just one individual. We are all just small cogs that allow the whole unit to survive.’

  Another cockroach crawls along the floor. It continues over the grey tiles until it finds the other cockroach’s remains. We both look down at it, both watching where it goes, knowing there will be another thousand where this one has come from. It sees its friend, or perhaps its brother, up close; it must somehow know that it’s dead. The insides are spread all around for what would seem like a battleground measured in many metres if they were human beings.

  Lawrence’s foot moves, ready to strike another blow to the crawling kind, but instead he kicks it away and looks at me. ‘Henry, never forget that both corporations and cockroaches are able to endure. Both can adapt and both can grow rapidly, and both think about the whole, rather than just one or two or ten. Humans will always think about themselves as individuals but bring them together under a religion, a dictatorship or in a corporation, and then suddenly they find they have a collective purpose. If your parents do not make the final list then you must find a way to appreciate the bigger picture, to understand that space is limited. You need to take an objective view of these strange times we now live in.’

  I take a deep breath and nod, knowing there isn’t much else I can do. ‘I hear what you’re saying, Lawrence, I really do. So I assume that feeling includes Destiny, as well?’

  He stares out of the window, not dignifying my question with a look. ‘Don’t test me by talking about the thing most precious to me, Henry. Not today.’

  *****

  ‘The helicopters are about to land,’ Tyrell says to Lawrence.

  He nods in return, then grabs Tyrell’s shoulder, shaking his hand and looking down at him like he does with most people. He squeezes it tight, as though he wants to force his thoughts into the mind of his poor subject. ‘This is the moment we have been waiting for, my dear friend. The time is fast approaching when everything will come together, with my technology and the ability of the Chinese to build anything quickly and efficiently.’

  Tyrell nods. ‘This will be a special moment in the history of man, of that I am sure.’

  ‘It will indeed,’ Lawrence says, then pulls away, all too soon for my liking. He never gives Tyrell the time that he needs, or the respect he really deserves.

  But this time Tyrell seems to see this lack of attention and continues to shake his hand, his firm grip keeping Lawrence in the same spot. ‘You won’t be forgetting my little island in all of this, will you?’

  Lawrence laughs out loud, looking first at me and then settling his eyes on Tyrell. He gazes at him with some sort of a hypnotic stare. It has been very clear that he is trying to keep control of what has been a delicate situation since the moment we landed here. ‘Now, why would I do that? We need each other and all of us will be inter-dependent forever. Just think about how impossible it would be to launch the new cities without your island.’

  ‘And my people?’ Tyrell asks.

  ‘Must we do this now?’ Lawrence says, looking to the open sky, making it clear where his energy is focused. ‘You will get the fair percentage, just as we talked about. There isn’t room for everyone and you know that.’

  Tyrell nods, knowing what we all know, having been given the same speech I have heard many times before. ‘There had better be a balance, black and white, that’s all I’m saying.’

  Lawrence gives a slow and pronounced nod in return. ‘There will be fairness, as I have always assured you.’

  ‘I do not think that this is the same thing, not in the eyes of different men.’

  ‘It will be in my eyes,’ Lawrence says, pulling Tyrell forward. ‘Now come on, they will arrive in a moment. We are going to build this new world, cloud by cloud. Look around you and think about what we are going to create in just a few weeks.’

  I watch them, my eyes following them both as I look at what is already here. It’s easy to take the hotel for granted, but I never do. I have never stayed anywhere like this place and even though half of the five-star resort is closed off this place still amazes me. It has more pools than I have owned swimming trunks in my short life, but it’s when we turn 180 degrees and see what is behind us – what has replaced the acres of gardens – that I really feel my heart set on fire. A concrete platform stretches across the complex, white and solid with long steel slats running through it. It’s like a patchwork design: more a piece of art than engineering. These slats all join together, woven into a complex pattern that houses the bolts drilled deep into the ground, all part of the plan to keep everything in the sky attached to the earth. To the left is the launch centre – a hastily constructed platform of scaffolding without any luxuries, not even windows. In this heat they aren’t needed but when I see the rows of desks with computers sitting on them, all exposed to sun and sand, I wonder if the Chinese will think of us as a little amateurish.

  We all step onto the concrete structure and start to walk along the red carpet that leads to the central building. The carpet feels soft under my shoes – one of the few luxuries still allowed. They walk a few more paces and then stop, both looking up at
what has been named ‘Cloud Reach’. It’s one of the few prototypes that have already journeyed to the clouds and back, proving that Lawrence’s vision can be realised. Measuring thirty feet in diameter, it isn’t ever going to be big enough for no more than a lucky handful to fit inside, but it proves that this wild concept can work. Inside is a small control room, the engine area and a boardroom – the place where Lawrence has sold dreams to so many of those who are desperate to be permanent survivors.

  Each group of hopeful delegates is treated to these luxury surroundings, with all the best the Caribbean can offer, furnished by top designers who already have a promised ticket. The first time I went up into the clouds, I have to admit that I felt a rush at knowing I was part of this, as well as knowing that humanity can achieve anything it wants when working together. The smiles of the sometimes skilled, usually creative, often super-rich people would always give me a warm feeling knowing that we were building something big.

  I often look at the clouds and imagine 100 silver mushrooms in the light blue sky, all glistening from the solar panels running along their dome-shaped roofs. The finished structures will be bigger than Cloud Reach and will stretch for quarter of a mile in length, with the bottom half of the structure holding the engines for the on-board motors and living quarters. Imagine a giant hamburger: the bottom part attached to steel tethers and various power cables, while the top bun contains the balloon control area and individually maintained super-helium feeds that can lift the immense structure up into the sky.

  People would often laugh at Lawrence, pointing out to him just how expensive helium is. This is so obviously true but imagine what you can get your hands on when it’s not being protected, and besides he would just show them the next steel tether, which runs even further up into the clouds, far above us. This next structure reaches up towards the stars and houses the hydrogen generators and more giant balloon casings. At this height, with our precious citizens no longer at risk from explosions, this final dome holds the floating city in place, keeping us up high, safe from whatever lurks on the ground.

  It took me time to accept the idea that something so big could be kept afloat by just a couple of different kinds of powerful gases and some giant engines. He proved it could work with Cloud Reach and he showed that air density, temperature and pressure aren’t capable of stopping us. You just need a big enough balloon, as Lawrence often says. His team of geeks have even managed to find a home for water storage tanks and heating, insulation and waste removal, which does have a nasty habit of dropping on those left below.

  When our visitors arrive we don’t discuss this detail. Instead we let them look out of their hotel windows to marvel at the view; for most of them the experience seems to rapidly change from post-apocalyptic escape to simply viewing a new holiday home or a second apartment. They quickly forget the hell that will be inevitably unfolding in some other place, but I wonder if they will realise what awaits them in this new life. The opulent surroundings of Cloud Reach give a real view of the height of the project, but the sheer scale of what Lawrence plans means that most of the lucky ones will be in box rooms with no windows and only shared facilities, at least for the first launch. Although I always see shock on their faces at the end of each tour, I am invariably left amazed by Lawrence’s ability to turn this around and to sell his vision of the future despite the probable harshness of the first year or two.

  I think about this new vision for the future, and the Chinese who have come to hear this story and the ultimate selling job Lawrence has done on Tyrell, who must remain dedicated to the plan. As they walk forward I stay close to both of them, desperate to hear Lawrence’s new twist. Once again, he wins over the simple man in front of him who will forever remain doubtful. He isn’t a clever man but he is a powerful one, at least on this island.

  Tyrell examines him. Questions and demands seem to be on the tip of his tongue, but they never quite surface. He doesn’t really have any choice now: he has murdered most of the small parliament; the remaining people are on his side by brutal default. The police gave up their title the moment the world started slipping into chaos and this man now rules the island and everything on it. He doesn’t really have a clue; he just happened to be the police chief at the time and was offered a way out by some guy in a posh suit and with a far bigger vocabulary. If world power still existed then the army, an army of some nation, would have landed on these shores and liberated the people and removed these madmen long before it was turned into a launch pad. But there are no armies within a few hundred miles and any organisation that is left in power has other things to worry about. Other problems have paled into insignificance compared to the dramas now facing each individual nation.

  And then came along Lawrence, an egotistical but determined man who seemed to have an idea to save some of humanity. He’s carving out a path to the future and bringing a select few with him. Tyrell will make the final cut – after all, we need him. We need his land and we need his people. But most of all we need them not to join us in the clouds and to keep their place firmly on land, to protect our roots and sacrifice themselves for our greater good.

  Despite all Lawrence’s outstanding sales pitches, this is one I’m still waiting to hear.

  *****

  ‘Launch sequence commencing,’ a voice announces from the command centre.

  It’s the standard drill, a slightly over-the-top take-off procedure for something so slow and which will be travelling vertically upwards, with only the odd wind turbulence to disturb us. There’s little to see at this stage but I still remember how blown away I was during my first few trips. Maybe I’m too used to the standard sequence now but one thing that strikes me as we’re being served drinks, is that the Chinese delegation aren’t smiling, unlike all the other guests we’ve had in here previously.

  Lawrence talks as champagne is offered and declined by everyone but me. I encourage Roddy, our usual servant on these missions, to fill my glass to the top. Today of all days I believe it will be needed. I watch our new delegates but listen to the usual noises, hoping they will spark some interest. Below us I feel the roar of the engines, powering the motorised fans that will growl below us and carry us upwards. Above us, I hear the hiss of the pressure valves, doing their bit to regulate the helium flow, and above that the hydrogen generators are coming to life. When you put all these bits together I think it’s the sound of hope – we engineered this creation and together we stand a chance of survival. When I say ‘we’, I include myself, but I don’t know what my role is apart from following Lawrence around and accepting whatever abuse is required of me.

  ‘The entire system regulates itself through a central computer system,’ Lawrence says, leaning back in his oversized, leather chair and smiling as he spins his well-rehearsed and perhaps overused story. ‘It might be a little clunky to start but once we’re safely anchored in position the system really comes into its own. It can make up to 20 adjustments per second which, when you consider it is battling against weather, pressure and gravity, is something quite remarkable.’

  ‘You really don’t hear a thing once we’re at target altitude,’ I say, leaning forward, desperate to be noticed but even more determined for our guests to feel what we feel.

  All three of the Chinese delegates turn my way, all of them staring at me through dark eyes, their mouths unmoving, unwilling to offer the slightest acknowledgement. I catch Lawrence from the corner of my eye; his scowling look tells me I’ve gone too far by daring to be heard.

  The only sound comes from Tyrell, who is sitting to my left; he calls up a deep laugh from the pit of his stomach. ‘Best be quiet from now on, little man,’ he says, grinning and flashing all the gold he could afford. His eyes are on mine as I look to the floor, obviously defeated.

  ‘We have set our target altitude to 8,000 feet,’ Lawrence says, making turn back to him. ‘At this altitude we stop moving upwards, although we may sometimes move up to 10,000 feet, depending on pressure and weather fluctuat
ions.’

  The lead Chinese guy, who goes by the name of Jin, leans forward, looking slightly out of place sitting in the fine leather luxury at a time of obvious austerity. ‘At this altitude there will be some need for human acclimatisation, so how do you plan to overcome this with such a large number of people?’

  Lawrence smiles, having heard this amateur question a hundred times. ‘Actually, there are about 140,000,000 people who already live at this altitude all year round. We reach our optimum altitude slowly and in the main super-structures this will take even longer, so it should give everyone the chance to adjust.’

  Jin nods back, his eyes narrow; he has been gazing almost exclusively at Lawrence. ‘I appreciate the engineering triumph that launching this small object into the lower atmosphere represents, but how exactly will you launch and keep a giant platform afloat in the sky?’

  ‘And keep it there for hundreds of years?’ one of his men says.

  His leader looks at him and gives a nod. It’s a small gesture, but it shows that he agrees – indeed, that he almost appreciates the opinion. It’s simple yet I realise it’s everything that I don’t get from Lawrence.

  ‘I’m glad you’ve asked, gentlemen,’ Lawrence says, as his glass is refilled. ‘We have the technology and the idea, but what we are lacking is the labour and building expertise. That’s what I hope you can bring to this project. I’m going to explain our remarkable story so far, so may I ask again if you would please join me with a drink?’ He grins, adjusting his glasses and crossing his legs, getting himself comfortable.

  I feel it’s a little short-lived celebration as the Chinese delegation shake their heads in unison. ‘Just the facts will do, Mr Lawrence,’ Jin says. ‘We will not waste the luxury of time when all we need is knowledge.’