by P. S. Lurie
I bow my head in pity for these people who will soon be disappointed as I am raised into the air and, at the top, exit from the other side on the Fence. I see Jack, Ruskin and Melissa, not waiting directly outside the shaft for me but some distance away, the whole width of the Fence between us. I remember it took quite a few seconds to pass through the concrete structure in the van when we were Rehoused. I was with Ruskin and Leda then. Now I am atop the structure that dominated our skyline from both sides. I can’t believe that I’m up here.
Of course my friends’ curiosity piqued at what the drowned world looks like and is, according to the glass panels, close to also flooding the Upperlands.
With their backs to me it’s impossible to make out their expressions. The setting sun adds extra strain by outlining their silhouettes but there is nothing happy about their stances. Melissa is sitting on the edge, her legs dangling over the side and her head in her hands, and Jack stands with his head buried into Ruskin’s shoulder. The apocalyptic flood and the loss of the Middlelands still have the power to devastate.
I walk towards them, bracing myself to see the world I once knew before it was submerged.
Selene
I run over to my mother who is spread out on the floor, bleeding out, one more victim to fall prey to Nathaniel. But my focus isn’t on Nathaniel’s part in her deadly wound. Instead I want to scream at her for being here. For being defiant and, after abandoning me for years, wanting to save me at the least opportune time.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “For all of it.”
“You should be onboard.”
“I wanted to save you. I made so many mistakes.”
It would be so much easier if my mother was the same woman she was in the Middlelands: thoughtless, aggressive, uncaring. The woman I knew would never have come after me. She’d be alive out of pigheadedness, safely on the Utopia, not here dying in front of me because she was desperate to be reunited.
“I never stopped looking for you. I never gave up believing you were alive.”
“He erased my mind. He made me forget you. I would have looked for you.” I know that’s not entirely true because at some point during Nathaniel’s reappearance and now I have remembered more. Shamefully, I wasn’t as much of a victim as I had hoped. Nathaniel wasn’t exactly lying because once I realised that Selene and Selma Gould couldn’t both be alive, colluding with his plan would be the safest way to keep my mother out of harm’s way. The rest was down to her to keep her distance. How would I know she’d search for me?
I gave myself to Nathaniel. I allowed his father to wipe my brain. I did it to protect my mother and me. Falling in love with him, I don’t know but...
“Where did you go that night?” My mother’s eyes flicker with the last remnants of life.
“I came to the house. I saw you asleep. I couldn’t enter.”
“Because you thought I’d kill you.”
“Because we both couldn’t be Rehoused. It doesn’t matter. I’m not angry at you.” I find myself crying, and for the first time it is not over my mother’s hatred towards me but her love. “You should be onboard.”
“We both should be.”
She splutters under the grave injury and it’s a wonder she is still alive and having this conversation. I turn to see Nathaniel watching on, with his helmet back over his head in case I take the gun and try to shoot him.
“I couldn’t lose you again. I’m sorry.” With those final words, my mother stops breathing. She dies on the apology I waited for all of my life, giving me no final chance to tell her I love her, no time for us to build a relationship, and no time to rectify all the wrongs that have been. And now I can refocus my attention: the person to blame is Nathaniel. I remember when my memories first returned at the announcement and all my thoughts pointed to wanting to kill him. Despite its purposelessness, I pick up the gun and walk towards him firing, knowing he won’t shoot back unless I try to run, his vile idea that we should die together, but the bullets do nothing to penetrate the uniform or helmet.
I advance, pulling the trigger but to no avail, screaming at him.
“Much better than the uniforms during the Great Cull,” he says, when I stop.
I can’t shoot him but we’re dead in a matter of minutes anyway. “I hate you,” I scream.
“We’ll die together. Bound forever.”
Nathaniel has taken everything from me: my mother, my memories, my choices, my freedom. No, not everything. I inspect the gun: there are two bullets left and I point the gun in his direction.
“You really can’t kill me, princess. I want us to die together. Side by side. It’s decided.”
“We always have a choice.” I turn the gun to my head.
“Selene,” he cries out, and in that moment I feel his despair.
“You really do love me, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I despise you,” I say, bitterly, and aim the gun past Nathaniel towards the bomb; since I’m going to die anyway I will have the dignity of doing it myself.
I shoot, and it’s a perfect hit as the device shatters into a thousand pieces. I brace for impact...
But nothing happens.
“Must be a dud,” Nathaniel says. “Plenty of others.”
He walks up to my side and looks towards the Fence. “Ready to die?”
“Fuck you,” I reply. The Fence is going to implode on us within the next few minutes anyway but I still get to dictate my final moments. I shoot again, but this time at the glass section of the Fence. The pane may be thick but I pray that the final bullet causes a crack; the pressure of the sea will do the rest.
Instead of the glass denting or shattering, the image of the water starts to flicker, being replaced with flashes of nothingness, until the whole section fades out, giving way to the truth that I’m standing in front of a gigantic static-filled vertical television screen, plastered onto the solid Fence.
With that I realise I may have been duped beyond belief.
Theia
It takes everything in me not to scream out in despair. For every cruel trick the Upperlanders have played on us, this is the worst.
I look out over the dry world.
There is no water in sight.
“It receded?” Melissa asks, but either she’s slow to realise or hasn’t figured out yet that the water never reached our streets.
“No,” I say, taking in the landscape as the sun loses itself to the horizon. Our houses in the Middlelands are pathetic in scope to the Upperlands’ architecture but they are all still standing, untouched by any water except for whatever harmless rainfall may have fallen over them since we left. I dizzily look straight down, tracking the side of the Fence, and gape in horror at piles of rotting corpses and skeletons that have decayed to the elements.
“There’s no flood,” Jack says.
“They lied to us. None of the Middlelands was touched by the sea.” The truth is gutting but I say it out loud to really accept it. “The flood stopped before the great cull. None of this needed to happen.”
“We were never in danger,” Ruskin says.
We stand in a line, watching the red sun cast its long shadows across our former homes, the sky glowing as if on fire, with no tide to extinguish it, before it disappears completely, welcoming in the night and signalling the end of the worst day of my life bar one other. We don’t even move despite the threat of bombs because, right now, none of us has the will to move on.
“My parents,” Ruskin says in horror, thinking of the people executed by being, as the Upperlanders pretended, drowned. Thrown to their deaths, with no sea to break their fall. It was why they were gagged: so they couldn’t shout the truth to us. They fell, with nothing but hard ground on impact.
“The glass panels?” Melissa asks.
“Fake,” I say. “All of it digital trickery. Pretending the tide was still rising.”
“But the Utopia?” Ruskin suddenly blurts out. “It’s not going anywhere.”
My mind hadn’t even processed that much. I understand the Upperlanders might have started building the Utopia when they thought the world was drowning but why carry on? And what is the purpose of packing the population onboard today? What can the Utopia do if the Fence is detonated and there’s no water to raise it?
What if the Upperlanders will be sent back to their houses and all that has changed is that many more of us are dead. Was it worth that much hassle?
Before I turn to inspect the ship and try to make sense of it, a voice comes from my side. I didn’t notice anyone approaching from the direction of the helicopter and it’s not a voice I recognise at first. It takes a moment to process the face that has taken on stern features. He is taller, more confident in his stance, a deeper voice. Not at all how I remember him.
“Hello Theia,” Ronan says to me.
5 P.M. – 6 P.M.
Selene
Nathaniel laughs in disbelief at the fakery, that the Fence is a ruse. “Sometimes they amaze even me.”
“There’s no flood?” I have to say it out loud for the truth to sink in.
“Doesn’t look that way, princess. Well, there might be water behind the Fence but why the screens?”
“Why would they lie about this?”
“Kept us in line, didn’t it?” He turns to where my mother is dead. “Most of us anyway.”
“Did you know?”
“Not a clue. Remember, lowly policeman. I couldn’t even get on the Utopia after the deadline. Not that it matters now.”
I hadn’t considered that part. “If there’s no water, what’s the purpose of the ship?”
“Beats me.” Nathaniel walks over to where the next bomb is planted on the Fence, this time on the concrete rather than the screen that I had until now thought was glass. “I have a question for you,” he shouts over. “We have a few minutes until this one is set to detonate. Do you want to live or die?”
It’s incredible that in such a short space of time, including trying to end my life by bursting the dam, I have a renewed desire to live. Even if it’s just out of curiosity, I don’t want to die here, not if there’s a chance to survive. Even more incredible is that the man who killed my mother and destroyed my life is now my sounding board. Although I still want him dead, I’m glad there’s someone else here to share my confusion.
“Live.” Sometimes I surprise myself. “You?”
Nathaniel must have put his death wish on hold, as curious as me. “Let’s get a move on. Just because this bomb was a dud doesn’t mean the rest won’t blow up. We have a few minutes to get away.”
“Why would they blow the Fence if there’s nothing on the other side?”
“How about we figure it out somewhere else?”
“No, this is where we part ways. I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Nathaniel waves the gun towards me. Mine’s empty, the last bullet used on the television screen, and I resign myself that unless I want to stay here, Nathaniel’s not going to let me out of his sight anywhere else.
“I think you’re done running from me for now. Selene, I’m sorry about your mother but she shouldn’t have followed us.” He leads me past her, as if I’m meant to forgive him and blame her instead.
I can’t look in her direction. “Sorry about your father.”
“I guess he’s still alive.”
“I know. That’s what I’m sorry about.”
Nathaniel laughs again at my insolence. “That’s the girl I fell in love with.”
Ruskin
“Ronan?”
I didn’t know Theia’s family well but I’m pretty sure if I ever saw her brother in the Middlelands he wasn’t wearing a uniform and armed with a gun. Jack gives me a quizzical look but there’s nothing I can do but look as confused back at him. Melissa stands up and steps away from the edge of the Fence.
Theia ignores her brother’s standoffish demeanour and goes to hug him but he resists, blocking her with the gun that is much larger than what he should be able to handle but seems to carry with ease. He’s completely apathetic to their reunion. What has happened to him this past year?
“Are you ok?” Theia asks, opening a barrage of questions. “What are you doing here? Have you seen Leda? Doctor Jefferson took her.” She speaks without any gaps for him to answer, not that he seems to be interested in a conversation with her.
“That’s her brother?” Jack asks Melissa.
“Yeah. At least, he was.”
Ronan glances at them and dismisses them just as quickly, with a look that demands they should be quiet. He’s only interested in Theia.
As night takes hold, I watch on as Theia attempts to make sense of his change of character. From what I remember he’s about seven years old, because he can’t be younger considering the cut-off for being Rehoused last year but he has the seriousness of someone much older, as if all the innocence of childhood has been sucked out of him. It’s amazing that, having just learnt about the receded ocean and the greatest lie the Upperlanders have fooled us with, all of our attention has been diverted to one boy’s arrival.
“You need to come with me,” Ronan says, and cocks the gun.
I look behind him and see a handful of people standing in front of the helicopter; they must have been waiting inside for us. I can just about make out who they are: two guards, one of which I guess is operating the helicopter. And then there’s President Callister herself, holding a small child. They’re here for Theia, not Jack, Melissa or me. How did they know Theia would survive? Why does she matter to them?
Theia notices the group. “Leda.”
So it is her sister and, for the first time in a year, all of the Silverdale siblings are in one place.
“Let’s go,” Ronan says, and checks his watch.
“The bombs?” Melissa asks.
“Soon.”
“Not if President Callister is here,” I reply.
Ronan ignores that point, and I guess the helicopter can take off and get a safe distance in a matter of seconds. “Only Theia,” Ronan says, and starts to turn around to head back to the helicopter.
“Wait.” Theia sounds exasperated and tries again, grabbing Ronan’s shoulders but he shrugs her off. “I’ve been looking for you. Where have you been?”
“Somewhere safe. You will see.”
“Why are you talking to me like that? Why are you being so cold? What have they done to you?”
“What you did was wrong. Smuggling Leda in. Changing my identity.” This is a boy who should be impassioned about finding his sister but Ronan speaks with as much emotion as the automated voice in the elevator, as if the words are rote and practiced. The Upperlanders have done something to his mind.
Theia crouches down to his height. “I did it for you. For us.”
“They are waiting.”
“What’s going on?” Melissa asks.
Ronan checks his watch again. “You’re to board the Utopia immediately. Only Theia has been requested.”
“No way,” I say. “We’re not going without her.”
“The bombs detonate in five minutes. You can stay here if you like.” Ronan lifts his gun towards Theia. “No one else. Let’s go.”
“There’s no flood,” Theia says, and each time I have to look over the Middlelands to really believe it. I can make out untouched neighbourhoods, just as we left them, but the streets merge into the Lowerlands and new areas of the world I don’t recognise that have been eroded by the sea and then spat back, as far as the eye can see. A dim smoky red lines the horizon. “Why are they blowing the Fence if the Utopia isn’t going anywhere?”
“Come with me,” Ronan says again with authority, and turns the gun towards Jack. “I have permission to shoot your friends if you don’t.”
I move in front of Jack but I don’t doubt that Ronan will kill us all if Theia doesn’t concede.
“I need to see my sister.”
“Go,” I tell her. “We’ll see you after.”
“Four min
utes.”
“I’m sorry,” Theia says.
I don’t like what’s happening but we’re helpless to do anything different and watch on as Ronan leads Theia towards the helicopter. I can’t imagine how she must feel, divided between leaving us behind and wanting to hold her sister but heading towards President Callister. The three of us start to cross the Fence and reach the bridge that leads over the arena and onto the Utopia in the distance. Jack and Melissa step onto it but I look down. The ground is a huge drop below, with no barriers to prevent us from falling should we stumble. There is no sign of life in the arena beneath us, and there is no sound coming from the Utopia but I can see where the walkway meets a narrow opening in the side of the ship where we are to enter. There is no one on the deck, either deciding they don’t want to brave the oncoming water, or being told to stay inside. I hesitate and watch as Theia is marched on towards the group at the helicopter.
“Come one, Rus,” Jack says, as Melissa travels farther across.
“Theia’s not coming, is she? We can’t leave her.”
“What other choice is there?”
“Look,” Melissa shouts to us, diverting my attention to movement beneath us that I couldn’t see from my vantage point before. Selene and Selma? No. Two people I don’t recognise run from the elevator, back across the arena and into the tunnel. They don’t know about the lack of water but they still need to get away from the Fence.
“They were too late,” Melissa says, as we catch up to her.
“From what?” Jack asks. “Boarding the Utopia?”
He’s right, because there isn’t any point in where we’re headed if there’s no flood, but it’s where the rest of the community is, and the only path for us to take away from the blasts.
Two minutes. We don’t have much time before this bridge will be reduced to debris.
“Let’s go,” I tell the others, but I keep looking back and retrain my eyes towards Theia as she and her brother approach the helicopter. Considering the deadline, Ronan doesn’t seem to be in a rush.