by Rhea Rose
I looked over at Geebo, and he seemed to have forgotten the new kids and was completely absorbed with his tinkering. I waved over the kid that had volunteered, and he followed me to the exit.
“Except for Deemi, Geebo and I are the oldest at Daycare,” I explained to him. “Deemi’s eleven, the oldest and biggest kid Daycare’s ever had. He’d never been killed before I took over this unit, but I’ve killed him three times.” I looked him straight in the eye. “And I plan to kill him and whoever gets in the way of me and Christmas.” He just looked up at me with an innocent and shy expression. I told him how to et to Deemi’s unit, and said that he should follow my directions exactly. If he wandered dawdled there was a good chance he’d be killed by one of the many traps which both units had spent the rest of the year setting up. I watched him walk down the stairs to the sidewalk. He stopped and looked up at me.
“Bye.” He turned and never looked back. I really hoped he made it to Deemi’s, and I hoped Deemi liked him. At least this kid wasn’t a girl. One of the rules Deemi had decided on, while I was still with him, was no girls. Once, he was sent a girl, and he killed her himself. What a waste. He never even tried to use any of her abilities for Christmas. Every time Ceep restored her, Deemi’d just kill her again until after the fourth time Ceep never brought her back. No one came back to Daycare after the fourth death. I thought it was really a shame; I felt sorry for the girl. No one wants to leave Daycare. I’ve never traded a girl to Deemi’s unit, and I don’t think Ceep’s ever sent him another one.
When the new replacement was out of sight, I looked up at the light dome high overhead. It was the ceiling to the walls that enclosed the one and half square kilometres of Daycare. Ceep had the overcast filters up.
I went back to the activity room, and my knee started aching. I’d been killed three times, twice by Deemi, and my knee hadn’t been repaired properly. It usually started bothering me around this time, when I was worrying about Christmas. Ceep said there was nothing the matter with it, but I knew he had to be wrong.
When I walked into the activity room, I saw Geebo watching the remaining kid, who was standing on a stool and halfway inside Ceep. The vidscreen light was out and the screen was off and on the floor. Geebo gave me a worried look, but the kid kept working. “Ceep, are you still there?” It made me nervous, seeing him in pieces on the floor.
“I’m here, Chronos,” he answered. He sounded different. His voice was the same, but there was something different. By this time the blond kid was looking at me. He smiled.
“Geebo, what’s he doing? You know Ceep’s off limits. We all know that,” I said. Snuks sat in the corner, her face painted white. She was about to apply more colors. At least someone was getting ready for Christmas.
“I gave the new kid a name,” Snuks said, “Teb.”
“Ceep asked Teb to do this,” Geebo said.
“Do what?” I asked.
“Fixth him,” Snuks answered. She went back to coloring her face. Teb still worked on Ceep.
“Is that true, Ceep?” I asked, half expecting him not to answer.
“Yes, Chronos.”
“But why Teb? Why not Geebo? You know how he loves to do that kind of thing. And why now with only one hour until Christmas? We’ve got to be ready. Deemi will be ready.”
“Geebo wasn’t bred for this kind of job, Chronos. I couldn’t let him work on me.”
I recalled the onetime Geebo had attempted to tinker with Ceep. Geebo hadn’t been here too long, and Ceep had zapped him so badly that I thought he’d been killed for sure, but he hadn’t
“Geebo would have changed me. He would have made me something more – or less.”
“I wouldn’t,” Geebo protested.
“Yes, you would have. Don’t feel bad, Geebo. That is your specialty. It has become more and more obvious. Your creativity is greatly needed and desired.”
Ceep was absolutely right. Geebo’s genius had come in handy more than once and would be greatly desired in less than an hour.
“Besides,” Ceep continued, “Geebo’s hands are too large for this procedure. I could not be sure the Teb or the other replacement would survive this Christimas, and this adjustment could not wait much longer. Do not worry about being prepared for Christmas. You are prepared.”
By the time Ceep had finished explaining, Teb had completed what he was doing, and Geebo replaced the vidscreen and turned it back on. We always kept the vidscreen on. That way it felt like Ceep was really there.
“Teb, have you looked at Ceep’s Christmas catalogues and given him you list?” I asked. His blond head nodded. It was strange talking to him when I felt like I had just said goodbye to him a moment earlier. “Snuks will help outfit you. Geebo and I have to get ready, too. Remember, it’s only fifteen minutes to Christmas.” Snuks looked nervous. I was nervous. But Geebo didn’t look worried at all. “We’ve got fifteen blocks to cover by tomorrow, but then so does Deemi,” I said.
We gathered on the concrete stairs outside of our unit. We looked at each other, admiring the faces we had painted on ourselves. Geebo and I snickered at Teb. He’d allowed Snuks to apply his paint to him, and she’d given him a clown’s face, just like the ones she’d seen in Ceep’s catalogues. Teb’s nose and mouth were red, and his eyebrows arched into the blond bangs on his forehead. He looked like he’d been surprised by Deemi himself. He didn’t seem to mind us laughing at him. Snuks wore a tight, black, stretchy outfit. Her hair was tied back and fastened down with a thong that looped around her neck.
“Watch this,” Geebo said. He slipped off something that he had slung over his shoulder, and then moved down the stairs and away from us. It was a flat chrome disc tied to the end of a plastic string. He held it out to one side. With a few twists of his wrist he had the disc spinning, and then he released it. Slicing through the air, the silver disc cut two branches from nearby bush before it was stopped by a clump of twigs. Not until it had become lodged did we realize that the razor-disc was still attached to the string Geebo held. He flicked the string; the disc dislodged and spinning wildly, it came back to him, stopping just short of his hand. He grinned, looking delighted with himself.
Geebo had other gadgets hooked to his belt. I recognized his grease gun and a few other things. Snuks wore her pellet shooter around her neck like a necklace. She blew through it a couple of times then tucked it down the front of her top. A small pouch filled with pellets hung by her hip. When she was ready, she slipped her thumb into her mouth and sat on the top step.
I was ready too, but I wasn’t sure about Teb. I had no idea what his capabilities were. He probably wouldn’t make it all the way through Christmas, but I was going to make sure we got as much use out of him as possible, at least until Deemi or one of his gang got him.
“Message from Deemi,” Ceep’s voice came through the com by the door.
“I’ll come inside to take it.” I didn’t want to take Deemi’s message while the others were listening. It might disturb them.
I left Geebo bragging to Teb about some gadget he’d created and wlaked into the silent activity room. Ceep was quiet.
Ceep was quiet!
That was it. Teb had fixed Ceep so that he no longer made the hissing sound we’d named him after. I stood in the silence and wondered what Deemi could possibly have to say just before Christmas. I decided that it was probably some kind of trick and was ready to walk back outside when Ceep spoke.
“Shall I communicate Deemi’s message?” he asked.
“No.” I really didn’t want to hear it.”
“I would like to talk with you before you go.”
“There’s not much time, Ceep.” I felt uncomfortable.”
“I have always considered your development, and the others at Daycare, my most important task, but until now, the way your time has been spent here has never been completely under my control.”
“You’ve done everything for us,” I said, wondering what Ceep was getting at.
“No. The
dults neglected Daycare and were afraid of the children that were coming out of here because the children were violent. Conditions here demand that you be tough. I do what I can to ensure that you will survive once you leave here. The dults don’t know how to stop Daycare, and at one time hoped it would break down completely - until they saw how they could take advantage of the children. They need you to defend them from the Offworlders. The dults introduced Christmas to Daycare to ensure the violence would continue – a motivating agent. They’ve been preparing you, the others and many before you to fight for them, to die for them –“
“But you won’t let us die.”
“You will be beyond my range once you leave Daycare,” he said.
I felt cold.
“The dults who do not fight the Offworlders are not mine. They didn’t come from Daycare. But you and other are mine. Especially you, Chronos.”
“Me?”
“Yes. You love the other Daycare children, even those in the other unit. You even loved Deemi once but you especially care for Snuks –“
“I’ll be sorry to see her go,” I mumbled.
“She will be traded to the Offworlders. You may kill her one day, or she you.”
“Why does Snuks have to go there?”
“The Offworlders threaten to destroy the dults. They want the dults’ secret to immortality. Unfortunately the remaining dults don’t have that information. It was lost long before the first Offworlder skirmishes. The immorality gene was bred into you and the others – except for Snuks. Her offspring will be longlifers, and all females like her are traded to the Offworlders in order to keep the Offworlders from carrying out their threat. This trade appeases them for awhile.”
“Can you give the Offworlders the information they want”?
“No. I’ve lost large batches of information as a result of the degeneration that has taken place in Daycare and the outside world. Your immortality was already present in you gene pool.”
“You don’t think I’m going to survive this Christmas, do you, Ceep?”
“I did consider that possibility. I have reissued your genetic pool, Chronos, and have designed the two new replacements after you. Yet they are also significantly different from you.”
There was a long silence.
“Are you finished?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“I have to get back to the others.”
“Goodbye, Chronos.”
I stepped outside not wanting to think about why Ceep told me this. I just wanted to win Christmas.
“Let’s get Christmas,” I said, and we began.
We jogged the down the street on which our Daycare unit was stationed. Snuks and Teb followed me with Geebo bringing up the rear. We moved in single file towards the centre of Daycare.
Skirting potholes and debris from other Christmases, we travelled north. Daycare had been a small grassy park surrounded by many city blocks. The park was battered and worn from years of battle, but there were still patches of yellow grass to be found at the outskirts. The old tenement buildings that still stood were now empty shells. Some old street lamps will worked, and Ceep usually turned them on for Christmas.
We didn’t move straight down the middle of the park but drifted west where the park foliage was heavier. Here, some of the trees were still real and alive, but most were imitations. None of us were even sure which ones were real, though Ceep assured us that there were still originals. We had planted many of our own traps here and were able to move through the area in relative security.
The buildings on the outskirts were a kind of no-man’s land where both groups, Deemi’s and mine, tried not to become trapped. The roads there did not lead to Christmas, but the buildings could provide cover from an attack.
It was getting cooler out. My breath came out in cloudy bursts, but it seemed too early for Ceep to be lowering the temperature. We came to the treed area, and I jogged to the base of a tree with low branches. Linking my fingers together, I formed a cup with my hands. Snuks ran as hard as her legs could go, stepped briefly into my hands and leaped upward. With the momentum gained from the leap, she swung her body around the branch, straddled it and was able to reach the rest of the branches to clamber high into the tree.
In a moment she was rapidly climbing down the tree. As she came to the last branch, she leaped, confident that I would catch her.
“They’re coming, three of them. They’re just over the hill. Run!”
Our only chance was to head west towards the empty buildings and hide there. Snuks was ahead of me, her small legs pumping so fast that I couldn’t keep up with her. I couldn’t figure out why Deemi had deviated to drastically from the course that would take him to Christmas. Snuks headed for an old house. She took the steps two at a time and disappeared through a doorway. I followed her and, and in the distance, cold hear Deemi calling my name. I ran faster. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw his gang take cover behind a bush.
In the dim light, inside the house, I saw Snuks in a corner. From the window I saw the dome light fade. For a moment Daycare was dark. The street lamps that still worked came on. Ceep even brought out a few stars and a moon. Snuks came over to the window and stood beside me. The moonlight sparkled in her eyes.
“Are you afraid to leave Daycare?” she whispered. I looked down at her. She seemed very small. I nodded.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know what’s out there,” I said.
I scanned the street looking for some sign of Deemi. It seemed quiet, and I wondered why he’d called my name.
“Why do we need Christhmath?”
“Because.”
“Becauth why?”
“Because it’s important. What else is there? I mean don’t you like the idea of getting all those presents every year?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s why,” I said.
“But why don’t we share Chrithmath? Then we wouldn’t have to kill each other, and then we could alwayth be at Daycare.”
She had a point, but it wasn’t the time to explain that Deemi would never agree to a truce; besides, before now, Ceep always encouraged us to compete for Christmas.
“Are you afraid of Deemi?” she asked.
“No. Just the dults.”
“I’m afraid of Chrithmath. If Deemi killth you, you won’t be back. I don’t want you to go away, or Geebo.”
I didn’t know what to tell her, so I took her hand and held it.
Without warning, Deemi burst through the door. Snuks had time to pierce his cheek with one pellet. Then she jumped up onto the window ledge, somersaulted through it and landed safely outside. She ran towards the street. “Run!” I yelled after her. A member of Deemi’s gang stepped out from behind a lamp post and caught her.
“Why didn’t you answer my message?” Deemi said.
He was holding his left cheek, blood oozing through his fingers.
“You mean back at Daycare?” I watched him carefully. I was at a disadvantage. I couldn’t get to the door or window without fighting Deemi.
“That kid you sent to me never showed,” he said.
I glanced out the window. Snuks struggled with a captor, much bigger than herself. “Damn.”
“You should have got rid of her a long time ago.” Deemi walked over to the window. His back was to me. I should’ve tried to kill him then, but I saw something whiz out from one of the shelled houses across the street. It struck Snuk’s captor in the neck. He let her go and grabbed his own neck with both hands.
“Those replacements are missing. What’s going on with them?” he asked.
“What?”
“The replacement you sent over to my unit – it never showed. Those new kids – they’ve done something to Ceep.”
“How do you mean?” I tried to stall.
“Ceep’s making the weather cold sooner than last Christmas. The night’s come too soon, and I think it’s those new kids.”
Deemi was afraid. He leaned on one arm
against the window frame, blocking my exit. When I looked for Snuks, she was gone. Her captor was on his knees with a red glistening stream spurting from between his fingers.
“Where’s your new kid?” He glanced suspiciously around the room.
“He’s not here.”
Deemi was volatile and unpredictable. He gave me a violent shove against the wall and then grabbed me. “We’ve got to find them.” He was desperate.
“You find them,” I said and jammed two knuckle into his throat. He let go, and I jumped out the window and ran for the cover of the trees. I ran past the body of Snuks’ captor and saw someone hiding in the bush ahead of me. It was Geebo. He motioned for me to follow him, and led me to one of the traps we had set for Deemi’s unit. He pointed to the strip of laze-eyes he had placed along one side of the trunk of a tree.
The trap had been tampered with. It should have let anyone from my Daycare unit pass through it without harm, but no one from Deemi’s. It had been dismantled, and Geebo couldn’t figure out how it had been done.
“Did you see Snuks or Teb?” I asked him.
“Snuks got away.” Geebo patted his blood-stained razor-disc. “But I haven’t seen Teb since we left the unit.”
I was relieved to hear that Snuks had got away. We left the trap and decided to try to make our way to Christmas.
We moved cautiously, encountering no difficulties. This unnerved us even more than if we had been attacked or injured by Deemi’s gang or their traps. We walked through his territory as if he had never been expecting us. We found that Deemi’s traps were dismantled, too.
We weren’t far from Christmas when we heard a noise. I climbed a tree and ws barely up and hidden when two shadowy forms came from opposite directions to converge on Geebo. He decided to stay and fight it out. Besides he couldn’t follow me because he had too much junk strapped to himself. He had his grease gun out and sprayed the stuff all over, but they got him. He never made a sound. His body was heaped awkwardly on the ground, a dark silhouette against the soft green glow of the grease.