Vending Machine Lunch

by Roadbloc

  "He said it," said Jessica, staring the bald Enforcer in the eye, "He said his... thing."

  "His thing?" asked the bald Enforcer, "And I'm sorry, but you are?"

  "This is Miss Jessica, a fellow Speaker, who very rarely agrees with what I've got to say in our little- 'circle jerks'," sneered Jordan.

  "And his thing is?"

  A shift looking Enforcer with a moustache and wearing square spectacles spoke up, "Ahem, if I may chief Enforcer Jared?"

  "Go ahead Enforcer Jonathan."

  "J's 'thing' is to say the words, 'I don't think you want to be doing that,'" said Jonathan, "According to rumour and well known sources, when he says that the following threat off his is always a reality. I've interrogated criminals in these cells that have previously fallen foul of them words. Naturally, I've always questioned his existence... until now."

  Chief Enforcer Jared scratched his chin, "And he said that?" he asked, looking up at Jessica.

  "Words to them effect, yes," she replied.

  "Words to them effect? Care to tell us all what in the land that means?"

  "He changed the phrase to suit the present tense," said Jessica, feeling slightly foolish and looking down, "That's all."

  "Times a ticking gentlemen, we need to do something," said Jordan, clearly frustrated, a beady eye on the clock on the wall.

  "Okay," said Jared, breathing deep, "Since giving him power is clearly out of the question, we need to prepare for emergency evacuation of the areas at risk to floodi-"

  "I can't let you do that," growled Jordan, "This needs to stay away from the press. No-one can know."

  "Hey. Just you listen to me," Jared growled back, "I'm chief Enforcer of this land. Now, you guys can influence, very slightly, what goes on politically, but my boys and my resources are under my control. Believe it or not, despite the red tape and all the sucking up we have to do to you guys, we are still here to protect the public. He refused us access to Deimos from the start, and I doubt we'll be getting access to Phobos or the new facilities whatever they're called any time soon. But this I do have access to, and my job is to do my damn best to protect the public. So we will be evacuating the areas at risk."

  Jordan smacked his hands on the desk in front of him and leant on it, "If you do that, you will make this land more politically unstable than it has ever been."

  "Tell me something new Speaker Jordan," said Jared, "This land is already going down the pan politically, but that is not my problem. My problem, is that some nut job may just blow up some flood defences and kill a hell of a lot of people. And it's probably thanks to our damn leader and you guys that this 'J' guy is doing this."

  "Listen to me," argued Jessica, "Evacuating people would be this land's suicide. People will no longer respect the leader as the most powerful person in the land, not that they did much in the first place. What people will see is that anyone can make a difference, and take it even more into their own hands. Evacuating people will ensure the safety of people, but inspire them that anyone can make a difference. The public protests and riots will simply escalate. More people will end up getting hurt in the long run, and any chance to solve this land's current crisis will be annihilated. The public will eventually be reduced to cannibals. Hope will be lost which is the only thing the public have at the moment. I urge you, to instead, pump your resources into keeping this quiet and actually preventing the explosives from blowing, which I'm assuming, are on the Ares Defences somewhere."

  Jared started at Jessica for a while. You could see that cogs were whirring in his head.

  "You know what," he began, after a moment, "It's rather odd seeing a Speaker actually acknowledge that this land has a greater problem and that the public are unhappy," he turned to Jordan, "You should listen to her more you know. And I can also see why you are both working together with this for once."

  He breathed heavily, deep in thought.

  "You know what. Okay then," he said," But on your head be it. If the flame hits the dynamite, I'm going to point my finger at you guys. If you guys think you can hush this all up, then I wish you the best of luck. Jake," he turned to the last Enforcer in the room who had yet to speak, "Get a disposal unit ready and sweep the entire defence area. I want every microbe on the structure inspected. You understand?"

  Jake nodded.

  "And you do not stop. And I want updated every one, understand?"

  Jake nodded and left the room. Jared glanced at the clock. Another eight until six.

  "I hope you're right," Jared glared at Jessica, "And you'd best be too. Enforcer Jonathan, I'd like you to go an interrogate our power hungry guest."

  "Yes chief Enforcer Jared," said Jonathan, he made for the door.

  "We'll come with you," said Jordan, "I want to make that nutter squirm."

  Jonathan paused and glanced at Jared. Jared gave the nod of approval.

  "Come on then, I'll show you to his holding cell," muttered Jonathan.

  They marched out of the office, and down several small corridors. Jessica was struck on how much a small affair this vastly important building was. She'd expected it to somehow contain more than what it advertised on the outside, maybe several underground floors or something similar. But Highfields, the main artery of the Enforcer unit, really was just like any other Enforcer station. A few offices, a few holding cells. She had somehow expected more of such a highly spoken of building.

  The corridor twisted left and they were suddenly faced with a small hall of four holding cells. The large bunker-like doors of the cells gave a nuclear-war-zone-fallout feel to the place, and the air was suddenly cold again, as the heaters of the offices had reached their limit.

  Jonathan pulled out a ring of clunky metal keys and stopped in front of a cell door. Jessica noticed it had the number '99' etched onto the top of the door, just above the small window.

  "You have five," said Jonathan, turning around to face Jordan and Jessica.

  "I think you'll find that we have eight," said Jordan, smiling slightly.

  Jonathan snorted with slight amusement, "Good luck."

  He shoved a key through the lock and twisted. The lock clunked and squeaked. The door creaked open. Jonathan swung the door open and they entered.

  Inside, was J, handcuffed to a chair behind a table. In front of the table, if luck would have it, were two wooden chairs for Jessica and Jordan. On the wall was a clock, ticking it's mechanical tick loudly, echoing off the hard stone walls of the cell. On the table was a discarded bit of paper, slightly crinkled and a battered black tape recorder that lacked both a cassette and power cells.

  Jessica and Jordan sat down, J's eyes burning holes into both of them. He smiled.

  "Let me guess," J smiled, "Good Enforcer, bad Enforcer? Or in this case, Speaker?"

  Jordan began. "You are without any sort of detonation device or any device that can trigger or stop a detonation. How do you plan to blow up the Ares Flood Defences?"

  "Hurr- how do you plan to evacuate the areas at risk in time?" was the reply.

  "We don't," said Jordan, frowning slightly at J, "Now answer my question."

  "You don't!?" said J, acting shocked. Whether he genuinely was or not was another matter, "So I'm guessing I'm getting full leadership in the next five or so. Because if that hand reaches the six and I'm not in power, God forbid."

  "Let me ask you a question," said Jessica, "Do you really hope to get away with this? I mean, there is an explosives specialist Enforcer unit searching the Areas Defences as we speak. Those men are very efficient and well trained. You may as well consider your explosives disarmed. Do you really think you can do this without any sort of 'fight'?"

  "Let me ask you a question," replied J, "Do you really hope to get away with this? I mean, it's either I get full power or I swamp the place with water. Do you really think you can hide something as huge as this from the public?"

  "Listen to me J," said Jordan, "We can make this very easy for you, or alternatively, we can go the difficult route
. You claim you're fighting for the public and yet at this rate you're gonna kill a hell of a lot of them. Why don't you just tell us how to stop this from happening?"

  "Ha! You already know," said J, smiling insanely, leaning forward from his chair, "This all stops if I become leader."

  "You already know we can't do that," grunted Jordan.

  "Has anyone ever told you that you have an abnormally large nose?" asked J, staring at Jordan inquisitively.

  Jordan sighed, and put his face into his hands. There was a moment of silence apart from the loud ticking of the clock. He pulled his face up from his hands and turned to Jessica.

  "This is useless," he muttered, he's not going to tell us anything. We may as well just let the explosive unit just do their job and bang this God damn son-of-a-bishop in prison."

  "The Enforcer explosive unit will not be successful," said J, still smiling, "Trust me when I tell you this."

  "Well then you must know that you're going to die along with a lot of the public then? This station is well within the flood risk boundaries," said Jessica.

  "Hurr- yeah."

  Jessica raised her palms in confusion, "Um... so you want to die then?"

  "I'm not that fussed if I'm quite honest. Do you think I won't have thought this through?" said J, "Believe me when I say this my dearest Jess, I have planned this to the finest detail, to every eventuality possible. And I gotta say, you guys are not disappointing me. You're not even bothering evacuating. Ha! Unbelievable."

  "Don't call me Jess. You're doing this for the entertainment?"

  "Ha! Partly," grinned J, "I mean, what would I do without you guys? I'd have to go back to watching casuals on the CRT display all day. No...thankyouverymuch."

  "So you're happy going down in history as the mass neo-terrorist who killed a large population of this land, are you?" asked Jessica, leaning into J's face.

  "Hurr- do you really think that is what the public are going to see after this?" said J, showing off his yellow teeth in Jessica's face, "Or do you think they'll see a government which didn't bother informing the public about the danger and just let everyone in the flood danger area die a watery death? Do you think they're going to give one toss about the guy who did it? Or are they going care more about the fact that the government and the Enforcers knew about it, but did nothing in order to protect the public. But instead, wasted futile resources on trying to quieten the whole thing up? Unbelievable, as I said. You guys never fail to disappoint."

  Jessica pulled herself back. She looked at the clock. There was three to go.

  "That's a nice necklace you've got there Jessica," said J smugly, "It suits you brilliantly. You are very beautiful if you don't mind me saying. Does it have a locket?"

  "Yes," replied Jessica, as Jordan picked himself up and left the cell.

  "Where's he off to?" asked J, after Jordan had closed the door.

  "Probably to check on the status of the explosives unit," said Jessica, narrowing her eyes, "You know, the ones probably disarming your terrible plot as we speak."

  "You think I'm calling your bluff?" chucked J, "Well, never mind that for now. Might I possibly take a look at the locket."

  "You can look, but not touch," said Jessica coldly, pulling the locket out of her cleavage.

  J leant forward, scrutinising it, "I can't touch anything Jessica but the back of this chair and these handcuffs. And just as I thought, K.B.O. Do you know what it means?"

  "As far as I'm aware, it's an old war saying. Keep Bouncing On."

  "Ha! Bouncing?" said J, looking at Jessica in disbelief, "It's bumbling you fool! Keep Bumbling On! Why would anyone want to bounce in a war? Why would anyone bounce in the first place, unless they had the mental age of a three year old?"

  "Shut up," snapped Jessica, "I know for a fact that the word is 'bouncing.'"

  The door opened behind Jessica, it was both Jordan and Jonathan.

  "We have received news from the explosive unit that there are no explosives on the defences," said Jonathan, "It seems our friend here was lying."

  Jessica breathed a sigh of relief, J's grin grew.

  "Why did you even try this?" said Jessica, almost laughing with relief, "It was a stupid plan really wasn't it?"

  "Hurr- I don't care about that at the moment," grinned J, "The word is bumbling! Not bouncing."

  "What is he on about?" asked Jordan.

  "The phrase K.B.O," said Jessica, quickly putting the necklace down her top again and then turning to face Jordan and Jonathan, "The B stands for 'bouncing' does it not?"

  "No," replied Jordan, "It stands for 'beating'. Keep Beating On."

  "What?" said Jessica in almost disbelief.

  "Well I thought it meant 'booming,'" said Jonathan, his shadowy face looking at them all rather seriously.

  "Booming?" J laughed, "Now that's an interesting one. I'm telling you guys, it's bumbling."

  "Hardly matters," said Jessica, standing up and leaving the cell. She turned around in the doorway with Jordan and Jonathan, "This nutter is a waste of space. Does he even deserve a trial?"

  Jordan turned to Jessica, "Whoa, that's a bit extreme for you isn't it? Naturally I concur with you, however, don't you stand up for fair trials for everyone."

  "This is an exception," snarled Jessica, furious at the games J had played, "He's a waste of God-damn time."

  "Have you anything to say before we charge you with conspiracy for genocide and the many acts of destruction and death you have done before?" asked Jonathan, looking upon J disapprovingly as though the whole ordeal had been disappointing for him.

  "Hurr- why don't you wait until it's six, just to be sure?" was the reply.

  They glanced at the ticking clock in the cell.

  "There is one left until six," said J, smiling again, "We might see some fireworks yet."

  "How?" asked Jonathan, "We had our entire explosives unit search the flood defences. They searched every possible area in and around it. They found nothing. To blow up a structure as huge as that, you'd need more than a firework. You'd need a hell of a lot of explosive actually."

  J's smile widened sickeningly, "Ha! This is why I pity you guys so much. What on earth made you think I strapped explosives to the Ares Flood Defences?"

  "How else would you flood the place?" asked Jordan, confused.

  "Since there is only one left until six, I will keep this brief," grinned J, close to laughing, "As you will probably know now, for years, independent scientists have been warning about something called 'profanation of the local environment.' Even some government scientists confirmed it, not that you guys or our great leader took any noticed. It was all hushed up and dismissed as a myth. However, this is just yet another example of something that our leader and his government tried to hush up, which is true.

  "This means, basically, water levels have been rising. And it was said by many land scientists that a sudden release of energy from our land's... land, and we would more than likely have a scenario where an overflow would take place.

  "Now, as I tried to explain to you in the house of speakers, I'm a man of simple ideas. After all, what is an explosive, than a sudden release of energy? Why would I even want to wire up the defences when all I need to do is blow up some water?"

  Jordan's face had gone pale with fear. So had Jessica's. Jonathan's eyes had widened.

  The clock clunked. The hand had reached the six.

  "So basically, I'd advise you to run," chuckled J, "And when the water hits you, keep bouncing, bumbling, beating, booming on. And with a bit of luck you'll have enough air in your lungs for you to reach the surface, because this is gonna be big. Bigger than Copland."

  There was a disturbing rumbling in the distance. It was a nasty rumble. It rumbled their insides. The walls shuddered, the ground growled.

  "RUN!" yelled Jordan, running down the trembling corridor. Jonathan and Jessica followed, leaving the laughing neo-terrorist behind in the cell.

  They were at the end of the corrido
r and Jessica was already out of breath. She glanced out the window briefly, to see masses and masses of water pouring over the top of the defences, miles away.

  They burst out of the building, many people doing similar in other buildings. In an instant, the wall of water hit them, swamping everything out of sight, tearing down buildings, the impact alone killing the majority of people immediately.

  Those who were lucky enough to survive the horrifying impact of the wall of water, had no choice but to keep bouncing, bumbling, beating, booming on. Not that it would help at all, but bodily survival functions considered it marginally better than doing nothing.

  I’m Sorry For This Mess.

  Little James wasn’t really impressed with the outdoor land. His father had led him to a balcony, positioned on the roof. It provided the best view of the land outside. Or at least it would have, if that view had been any good. It startled James. He had seen glimpses before, but never expected what hit his retinas.

  The books that his father had provided envisioned a land of green, fields stretching for miles, cities slowly climbing higher into the beautiful horizon of a setting day as time went on, seasons of snow, sun and water. He hadn’t expected it to be actually like that, the small gap in the boarded up window had long shattered his dreams. However, deep down inside him, he had hoped that the land was a beautiful place, as described in now what seemed like the obviously fictional books that had been there to propagate over his life.

  As James had expected, the sky was an ugly mess, angry clouds constantly rumbling their fury to the land below. But the land below didn’t look all that good either. A dark and dingy mass of buildings, that were either half built or half destroyed. Row upon row of tall, cramped buildings filled the horizon, constantly continuing for what seemed like forever. But far far away in the distance, James could see the sea of broken, ugly, industrial, dormant buildings come to a halt. He couldn’t quite make out what came after that, it just looked like a massive patch of- nothingness. One rather large area of the land looked to be submerged in water, running across one side of the perimeter of the flooded area was a large structure, which just looked like a large metallic curved wall. His eyes brushed over the other side of the horizon, where there looked to be a large crater, as though some explosion had happened.